Whooo's that Adorable Baby?

After years of knitting for other people's babies, I finally sewed the buttons onto a sweater for Sophie!  It's a little green cardigan with hidden owls around the yoke.  I think she likes it! 

Hello from Sophie

Our Growing Baby

Sophie is now 15 weeks old!  Here she is in the same chair, with the same soft friends, when we first brought her home from the hospital and then at 1, 2, and 3 months.

Red Dog is her favorite toy... they started out about the same size, but Sophie's got a few inches on him now! 

Sophie's First Camping Trip!

Last week we ventured out for two nights at Mauthe Lake in the Kettle Moraine National Forest.

We had reserved the tepee, which meant that we didn't have to bring a tent, and we stayed nice and dry when it rained the first night.  The tepee was super fun!  It even had cots inside.  

Our sweet little cherub liked it too.  

This is how the inside of a tepee looks when it's inhabited by a family with an infant:

 Papa Bear made Swedish pancakes for us in the morning.  He also snuggled our baby while she woke up.  I think they like each other! 

Where'd You Get That? Card Catalog Edition

One of the most commented-on items in our home is our card catalog, which currently serves as our baby's dresser.  Visitors often ask where we got it.  We were lucky to find it at SWAP (if you haven't been to SWAP, you must go; do yourself a favor and borrow a friend's truck because you're sure to find several items you never knew you needed).  

When we bought it, it was kind of in rough shape…  

It had been sandwiched between two other card catalogs for all its life, so the sides were unfinished.  

And the panel at the bottom of the catalog was totally gross.  

 Enter Rosewood & Brass Restorations.  Jenn came in with all kinds of tools, tape measures, stain, and reclaimed lumber, and in the blink of an eye she had the sides finished-- they're gorgeous-- and the bottom panel looking fabulous.  She created a custom stain (which I didn't even know was possible), and it matches perfectly.  Check out the photos of the finished product on her blog!

One extra bonus of having Jenn work on the catalog was giving everyone in our neighborhood the chance to see a woman- and a young, adorable woman at that- pull up in her minivan, unload all manner of power tools, and go to work.  

The labels on the drawers look like they're typed, but I'm really not that ambitious… I just created text boxes and used a typewriter-ish font in Word, then printed everything on cream-colored paper.  

The drawers are the perfect size for baby clothes.  Later on, I can only imagine what they'll hold… one friend suggested that the catalog could become a Barbie mausoleum.  Can't wait to type the text boxes for those drawers!  

As Good as It Gets

One Month Old!

Our Sophie turned one month old on the 14th!  We celebrated with a  trip to the zoo, complete with a ride on the carousel.  We also managed to fit in a trip to Bagels Forever!

 Breakfast sandwiches for Mommy and Daddy! 

 Of course we chose the badger for her first ride! 

Chilling out with the penguins… Sophie is really into it.

Hanging out at home with Red Dog and Purple Hippopotamus (we took this same picture when she was just a few days old)

We ended the day with a fashion show/dance party featuring the onesies made by Lia and Elsworth for the baby shower.  I also made up a joke: 

What song do they play at baby Halloween parties? 

Boo, Baby Baby!

Announcing Your Pregnancy, Library-Style

1.  Gather some basic materials: 

Plain notecards (the kind that don't open) and envelopes

Book pockets and date due slips (we ordered ours from Demco); do yourself a favor and order more book pockets than you think you'll need for this project.  You'll likely find lots of uses for them!  These are the same pockets we've used for Advent calendars.  

An ink pad and date stamp (also from Demco)

Heart-shaped printable stickers 

2.  Stick the book pockets to the notecards.  

 3.  Find a typewriter (you might have to get special permission to use one in the back room of a library where you worked 10 years ago) and complete the title and author fields on the date due slips.  Use the date stamp to add your baby's due date to the "Date Due" column.

 4.  Add a date due card to each book pocket, and put each notecard in an envelope.

5.  Print the call number for books about babies (there are several; just choose one and know that no one is going to correct you, at least not out loud) on the heart-shaped stickers, and seal the envelopes with the stickers.

6.  Pop the cards in the mail and wait for a delighted response from friends and family! 

Ten on Ten: "I Only Take Pictures of My Baby" Edition

More about Ten on Ten here! 

Best Baby Shower Ever!

Karl and I knew from the beginning that we wanted our baby shower to be fun.  As in, no awkward games involving measuring my belly.  And we wanted to invite everyone, not just ladies who happen to love finger sandwiches.  Nothing against finger sandwiches, of course.  And nothing against ladies, but we happen to also like hanging out with children and men.  So we decided on a barbecue picnic in a park.  Our families were gracious enough to indulge our request, and they went above and beyond to throw a picturesque shower that we absolutely loved.  

Elsworth and Lia did all of the decorations and centerpieces.  They could not have been more perfect!  The park shelter was pretty rustic/brown, so we wanted to jazz it up with some color.  Check out these gorgeous tissue paper pom-poms:

 Karl was a natural pom-pom fluffer.  You'll notice that I'm not actually helping in any of these pictures... that's because I was too busy eating cake.  True confession: I ordered a separate cake just to have at home that weekend.  We'll chalk that up to being pregnant, but honestly I probably would have done that no matter what the occasion was.  And it was so worth it.  

Hanna and Chad during a team-building exercise called "hanging up pom-poms." 

Here they are, all hung up!  This picture really doesn't do them justice.  Imagine the most beautiful decorations ever, and that's what these looked like.  

Centerpieces were little beach pails full of candy... and there were adorable striped paper bags for people to fill with treats to take home!  

Speaking of photos that don't do their subjects justice... Elsworth and Lia made these amazing embroidered onesies to hang up.  Here's a slightly better picture, taken at home later: 

 Who doesn't love to predict baby details?

Hanna coordinated this craft station for adults (kids were welcome to jump in, too, but hot glue was involved).  We ended up with a beautiful bouquet of fabric flowers for the baby! 

The set-up crew... Chad, Lia, Elsworth, and Hanna

 Karl's mom and dad grilled brats and did a great job keeping everyone fed!  Did I mention that we had 85 guests?  85 guests x 2 brats per person (hello, this is Wisconsin!) = a lot of work on the grill!

My mom (who took most of the pictures, which is why she's not in them... I think she does that on purpose!) rocked the desserts and drinks, as well as the paper goods, which were super cute but unfortunately went un-photographed.  Next time we have a baby shower I'll have to take many more pictures!  We had cake and ice cream (And ice cream cones!  Super fun.  Every baby shower should have ice cream cones.), lemonade, and beer.  Once again, this is Wisconsin, people.   

 One detail that I loved (and so did our little friend, K) were these sweet polka-dotted nut cups filled with nuts and chocolate.  I've always loved nut cups, but these were the cutest ones ever.

Many thanks to our families and friends for such a perfect shower!  Everyone was so generous and thoughtful, and of course we loved having a chance to see so many of the people we love the most.