Meet Oliver. Until we can get a proper photo shoot in, here are some snapshots from today’s Houston Zoo trip.

I love seeing the differences between my siblings children and Daphne. Daphne was a skinny, wrinkly, hairy monkey baby. Oliver is the perfect little chubby cherub, who at 4 months weighs as much as Daphne did at 18 months! We’ve had so much fun with him over the last few days.

Here’s the big project I worked on for my sister’s baby shower. A rag quilt made with some of Heather Ross’s fish fabric from her Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries line. I loved that fabric line. Still can’t believe some of the fish prints are selling for $30/yd now. Ahhhh!!

Awesome pic, huh? LOL! I had my entire suitcase packed when I realized I hadn’t taken a picture of the quilt. So, of course, I had to completely unpack. I just threw the quilt over the gate and snapped away.

And a close-up on one of the fish squares. I love their names.. Swimmy, Splashy, Robert, Bjorn. I need a goldfish named Bjorn.

And another shot.

And the back.

I’ve had this fabric in my stash for quite some time, just waiting to be made into a quilt for a baby boy. I almost tried to make a traditional quilt, with batting and all that, but decided I didn’t have time to try something new. Maybe next time.

Little Oliver Bennett T., I hope you enjoy your quilt and we can’t wait to meet you. Love, Aunt Jenny.

We found out yesterday that my sister and her husband will be welcoming a baby boy in November. I think everyone in the family is pretty excited to meet the first grandson/nephew. And of course, my baby crafting/shopping urges are kicking into high gear. But, what do you make for a boy?

So, my crafty readers, point me in the direction of good baby boy crafts… clothing, toys, etc. I could only think of one crafty blogger (Homemade by Jill) with baby boy items. And did you see the tie and vest onesies from Jessie Rivers featured in one of her posts. Ahhhhh, the cuteness!!:

And since my sister will be registering soon, what are your must-have baby items? Here are some of mine:

– Changing table. I know this is always at the top of everyone’s “Do Not Buy” list, but I love my changing table. We still use it.
– Babywearing stuff. I have two pouch slings, two ring slings, a mei tai and an Ergo. I think if I had to do it over again, I’d have a Moby wrap for when the baby is little, and the Ergo. I LOVED being able to put Daphne in the BabyHawk or Ergo and have my hands free to do other things.
– Miracle Blanket. Daphne was a little baby Houdini and could bust out of just about any swaddle. And she didn’t like her arms tucked in. But, I still preferred the Miracle Blanket over the SwaddleMe or just using a receiving blanket. Here’s Daphers at 3 weeks old in her Miracle Blanket:

– Kirkland wipes (Costco). This isn’t helpful for my sister, since she’s planning on cloth diapering, but Daphne never had a problem with these irritating her skin.
– Pedipeds. Don’t know about the boys shoes, but I loved these on Daphne. I absolutely hated Robeez.
– The Children’s Place stretchies (zip up PJs). Love these. I’ve heard great things about Hanna Andersson pajamas too and might try those for Daphne this year.
– IKEA Antilop high chair and long sleeved bibs. Both awesome and cheap, cheap.

And here are a few things I hated, or Daphne hated:

– Bumbo seat. I’m glad I got this at a garage sale for $5 because Daphne HATED IT!
– Medela Pump in Style. This is another weird one for me to hate, since everyone loves it. I had better luck with the Avent Isis manual pump. Not that Daphne ever took a bottle. I’m sure if I was working full time and needed an electric pump I would have learned to love the Medela.
– Those weird baby gown pajama things. I had a family member get Daphne at least 10. Totally hated those.

Please comment and let us know what worked, or didn’t work, for you.

Chris & I spent some time tonight post-processing one of his photos of Daphne. He uses Lightroom primarily to process his photos, and I use Photoshop CS4. Chris asked me to show him how to use some of the Photoshop actions and textures we have, and how to fake selective focus. I think we threw everything but the kitchen sink at this one. Here’s the before:

Just a really basic picture of Daphne in front of my car door. And here’s the after:

It’s amazing what you can do in Photoshop, isn’t it? I Gaussian blurred the heck out of her reflection in the door, then added a Nichole Van texture to the entire image. I guess I could go back and take the pink cast out of the reflection, but I think it adds to the Holga color/cross processed vibe.

I think we might have to do a Daddy/Daughter photo shoot tomorrow.

Even though we are only a few blocks from the neighborhood pool, we decided to get Daphne a plastic pool for the backyard. Today, she got to test it out. She loves playing in the water and I expect we will be spending lots of time in the pool this summer.

So, I have a question for you cloth diapering mamas out there… What kind of swim diaper do you use? Luckily, Daphne still fits in her Bummis Swimmi from last year, but it’s a size Medium (15-22 lbs) and I expect she will grow out of it before the summer is up. I think (maybe?) that I prefer a snap or velcro closure, as opposed to a pull on style. And before I go get lost in the confusing world of cloth diapering forums I thought I’d see if anyone had one they could recommend.

And here’s the little bathing beauty now, having so much fun.

Since my sister is pregnant, I’ve spent some time looking at baby stuff. There is so much more out there than there was just two short years ago. Figures. Even Target and Babies R Us carry cute modern crib bedding sets. So, if I had to do a new nursery, this is what I would choose. First up, Girls-

I fell in love with Amanda Peet’s nursery that was featured in Domino magazine.

I took one look at the Funny Girl movie poster and thought, “Brilliant!!” I love Funny Girl. Barbra Streisand was perfect and Omar Sharif was so dreamy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that movie. So, I’d balance the picture with other artwork that was meaningful to us, and various pink fabrics, pillows, etc. Eclectic and girly. Or if I wanted to stick with primary colors, an Amelie movie poster. I adore Amelie.

And for a boy? Well, boys are harder. I’m not a fan of “precious” for nurseries, so no teddy bears, animals or cute boats or planes. We had considered doing a space/robot theme if Daphne had been a boy, complete with Blik space invader wall decals. And I guess I’d stick with that. There are so many cute robots prints on Etsy, from sellers like John W Golden. This little guy is cute:

And this fabric from luckx4 is great-

And Keri Beyer’s Rocket Scientist fabric line is pretty cute too-

And since it would be a nursery, how about some cute spaceman and robot stuffies from Wee Wonderfuls?

Or a few other options for wall decals from Etsy seller, thoughtsthatstick

Too much cute stuff out there!

Daphne has had this silk Janie & Jack shirt hanging in her closet since she was a few months old. It was one of my end of season clearance sale purchases and I intended for her to wear it last fall/winter. I even bought an adorable wool skirt that coordinated. Well, there was no way in hell my peanut child would have worn an 18-24 mo size until just recently. In fact, the coordinating skirt still falls right to the floor when I put it on her (she’s still wearing her 6-12 mo pants from last year). So I needed to come up with something else for her to wear with the shirt, before she grows too much and the length is too short. I thought about a skirt, then settled on Matilda Jane-like ruffled capris. I used a basic two pattern piece, elastic waist toddler pant pattern, cut it to capri length and just added the ruffle. Here’s the completed project, ready for a weekend Easter egg hunt:

And here she is rubbing the silk shirt all over the possibly dirty patio table to get the bubbles. Awesome. She’s obsessed with bubbles.

Here’s the closeup. This is an Anna Griffin Lulu print (about the color of Restoration Hardware’s Silver Sage paint) that I picked up at a local quilt shop. I only used a little over a half yard, so it was a super cheap project. I’d say around $6, as compared to $34 Matilda Jane pants. Suck it, MJ.

I haven’t sewed pants or shorts since I was a kid and helped my mom make me some Hawaiian print “jams”, which I’m pretty sure I wore with an OP shirt. Anyway, I totally screwed up this simple pattern 3 times before finally figuring out my mistake. I kept coming up with bowlegged crotch capris with a 3 inch rise. No diapered butt in the world would fit in them. And it would have been a pretty fast project, but I chose to hem them in the most wonky ass way. Oh, well. I won’t bore you with the details. Now that I finally got it right, I envision more cotton capris and pants in Daphne’s future.

Now I just have to figure out accessories.

My sister, Lauren, came into town this weekend and we spent today shopping, sewing baby blankets and eating way too much at Saltgrass. We are doing several different blankets, since she won’t find out the sex of her baby until later this summer. Can I just say how excited I am about crafting/sewing for a newborn? My job and the 100+ degree heat sucked out all my creative energy when I was pregnant with Daphne and I only managed to make her a few car seat afghans before she was born. Sad. Anyway, here’s my mom putting the final touches on the owl blanket. One side is a waffle knit owl print, the other a window pane check chenille. So cute!

We also completed a sage green minky blanket, which reverses to an Anna Griffin flower print. Tomorrow is a chocolate brown minky blanket with a pink Zazu print. Maybe we will even get Lauren behind the sewing machine!

These might possibly be the cutest baby shoes in existence. From Etsy seller MiaJoie.

Josie Baby-

Marianna

Peep toed shoes for infants? I’m about to die from the cuteness.

Have you seen the Johnson & Johnson commercial with the tag line, “Having a baby changes everything”? I was reminded of that tonight as I sat in a room with two other couples, both without kids. Dogs, homes, vacations and jobs were all topics of discussion. I nodded and smiled and threw in a few comments here and there. Mainly things like, “Yes, we used to have a dog (before Daphne).” I also found myself doing a lot of mental editing. I tried not to bring up Daphne too much, because I didn’t want to be “that woman” who always talks about her kid. At least until I got to know everyone better, haha!

I really had no idea what to expect when Daphne was born. It’s interesting to me how completely my life has changed. Two years ago, I would have been all over an evening out with other childless adults. Because, let’s face it, the older you get the harder it is to find other married, childless couples to hang out with. Not that we wouldn’t have wanted to hang out with people with kids, we were just more mobile and had different interests, usually. Of course, now that life is completely Daphne-centric, it’s just weird to think about what we were like before she arrived. When we could travel, and see movies, and when I worked full time. When I could eat a meal without interruption, you know.

I’m not saying I miss the old us. Not at all. (Well, I miss the traveling part just a little.) I’ve discovered that love parents have for their kids. Like when you feel your heart will just burst, you love them so much. I’m glad I didn’t miss out on having children.

I guess I was just surprised tonight that I felt so out of touch. I need to get out more, maybe. Or maybe it will get easier to find that balance between being “Jenny” and just “Daphne’s Mom” as she gets older and more independent. Because, for the last 18 months I’ve felt like just “Daphne’s Mom”, which I suppose is normal. And now I’m just rambling on… Anyway, Daphne’s Mom is going to sleep now, since Daph has been waking up super early this week. I would like to just be “Jenny” for a morning and sleep in ’til 10. Wouldn’t that be lovely.