Lemonade Stand

I'd been wanting to make Bella a village of house pillows for her room, so today I made the first one. It still needs the stuffing, but Bella is asleep in my bed and I don't want to wake her. There's a little pocket in the lemonade stand so that a clothes pin doll can man the booth. The next houses I make will certainly be more colorful! (The color of this picture came out a little dark--the house is more of a medium gray color, not a navy blue.) I wasn't thrilled with how "rough" it came out, but when the whole village is put together (all a little rough), then it'll be cute.

Cute Outfits In Need of Baby

Are you getting sick of hearing about baby Noah yet? There's still 21 weeks before he's even here!!



I told Abel I was pregnant by giving him two gifts. This one was from me...



And Bella picked this one out (not surprisingly, since she loves puppies so much).



A girl from work bought me these last three outfits because she wanted to be the first person from work to get me something (she did the same for Bella). This is the back of the outfit--I just HAD to show you the tiger on the bum.




I'm going to have to buy (or make) Bella a coordinating "Big Sister" shirt. Too cute!

Buying fabric has always been a weakness

I purchased this fabric to make curtains for Bella's bed/playhouse (whenever it's finished). Since the playhouse will have a little kitchen, then this will make the perfect curtains and perhaps even a little tablecloth.




I bought these two fabrics when I first found out I was pregnant. I just knew I was having a boy and even though I had no clue what I'd do with these, I snatched them up. The dark blue "Atomic Space Cadet" fabric will be great for the backing of a quilt. The lighter blue alien one will make cute pants/shorts (well...maybe 10 pairs of shorts/pants since I have several yards of it!)--I just may embroider a onsie to match.

Imagine Abel's surprise when I brought these boy fabrics home. It went something like this: "What did you get that for?" "For the baby," I said. "Shouldn't we wait until we find out what we're having before you start stocking up?" Abel's so practical.

Baby Names and Nursery Ideas

We both agree that the baby's name will be Noah, which I think is perfect. Noah means "peacemaker" which is exactly what he'll need to be with his hotheaded redheaded sister.

The middle name is a little tougher. I originally really liked "Jacob", but Abel's not a fan. As an alternative, I've become attached to "Gabriel" and Abel isn't opposed (which is a step up). I like the ties between Gabriel being the angel who told Mary she was pregnant with baby Jesus and Isabella being born on Christmas. "Gabriel" means "Man of God" or "God's able-bodied one".

Any other ideas?

I've been trying to figure out a nursery theme and the more pictures I look at, the more I like just a simple, vintage nursery. Filled with old-timey toys and blocks--I especially like the bedding set with the ABCs/animals (of course I would, it's by Pottery Barn!). It'll be something I'll piece together over the next few months with a lot of trips to Good Will and the local thrift stores...maybe even some ebaying.

And isn't it only natural that baby Noah would be surrounded by animals? :o)

Here are some ideas I was thinking of. I like that it's not to theme-ish and is something that'll grow from infant to toddler.





Your thoughts?

And the saga continues...

I was hoping we'd start this weekend with some news on the house (followed by some thrifting and garage saleing), however, the old offer on the house has come back to haunt us. Countrywide has attempted to reach the people who submitted the prior offer (back in early December) and has given them until the end of this week to respond. So far, they haven't heard back from them and we hope they never do! :o)

Countrywide has postponed the foreclosure sale to April 15th to allow time for the property to close--which is a great sign! It sounds like they are prepared to move forward with our offer. I was hoping to move-in by Easter so we could do an Easter Egg hunt in the house, but we'll see!

Any day now...

Still no word on whether the bank accepted our offer on the house. We've been told by the buyer's agent that Countrywide promised an answer by Friday. If they don't accept it, the house is going to foreclosure sale on the 19th--they are postponing the sale just long enough to evaluate our offer. We're certainly counting down the days. This baby (and Bella, too) needs a home!!

It's a BOY!!

I was RIGHT! I knew we were having a boy. I was so certain, when the ultrasound tech initially told us she couldn't tell, it didn't bother me (too much). But we were able to get some good pictures...and it's definitely a boy!

The baby is just over 18 weeks, so we are almost half way. My due date is August 8th and the baby is measuring right on time--based on the baby's measurements, he is due on August 7th.

It's much easier to see the ultrasound photos when someone is sitting there explaining them to you, so I'll try to walk you through them as best as I can.



This is the baby's spine. He's nice and limber now--kind of like the spine of a lizard. You can see how he can curl up so easily! Can you see his legs straight out pushing against my tummy?



Here the baby is facing away from the photo. The head is on the left and body on the right. You can see he has his right arm on his face.



This is a nice profile shot. You can see his mouth is open and his hand is on its way in. Who do you think he looks like? Any guesses on hair color?



Here you can see the head on the right. The baby is curled up and you are looking down on top of the head, with the legs on the left.



High five from the little baby. He spent a lot of time sucking his thumb and with his hands on his face (which is why we didn't get a very good frontal photo of the face), but here you can clearly see the hand. And yes, he has 10 fingers and 10 toes.



Here's the money shot. It's a boy!



Abel was much more interested in the heart rate than anything else. So I posted this one especially for him. The heart rate was 144 beats per minute--within the normal range.



Here's a picture of the feet. It's a little hard to tell because he was so active and wouldn't leave his feet in one spot. The feet are upside down in the photo.