Teresa's handprint plate

This is the plate I painted with Teresa's handprints and thumbprints (made into the little creatures). I couldn't have done it without David's assistance - he brought Teresa in when it was time for her to make her contributions and took her away when she was done so I could paint in peace (and she wouldn't destroy all the precious pottery in the place). I also couldn't have done it without American Express's Small Business Saturday promotion, which offered a $25 credit for any $25+ purchase made at a small business on November 27th (I bought a $25 gift certificate that day and went back later to paint the plate).

This plate would have cost $25+ to make, but I got it all for free and Art Space Studio was still paid. Sweet! My only complaint is that the custom lettering lady did not center the bottom text properly. Oh well.

I'm not big on fru fru wall decor or dust-collecting knickknacks, so I'll probably store the plate in my cupboards and use it to serve food on special occasions as Teresa grows.

Baby Boy Clothes

Have you heard the news? We're having a boy. *squee!*

Way back when Teresa was a newborn, a nice lady in my parish offered me all her baby clothes. Sadly, she said she was done having babies and wanted to clear out storage space. Whatever her reasons, I gladly accepted the offer of clothes: 2 large bins of mostly boy clothes, sizes 0-9 months. Even though we couldn't use the majority of them for our beautiful little girl, it felt right to receive them. And lo and behold, my friend had a baby boy a few weeks after Teresa and needed clothes; I let her borrow both bins! A year later my sister-in-law was expecting a baby boy, and I made the transfer of clothes from friend to sister-in-law. Now our nephew is outgrowing some of the clothes and his mommy sent a binful back to me on Christmas day.

I love to inventory things! So today I laid out all the 0-3 months clothes and the 3-6 months clothes from the bin. Then I went up in our attic and pulled all the gender neutral clothes out of our 0-3 and 3-6 months bins. Here's a picture of the results:


Amazing! I'm still 4+ months away from welcoming our son (God-willing), and I already have most everything he'll need to be comfortable for the first 6 months. For example: in 0-3 months I have 26 short sleeve onesies, 15 footed sleepers, and 8 hats. 9 sleepers and 7 sleep gowns in 3-6 months. At least 6 cotton blankets. Ha ha!

There are just a few gaps/needs to fill, at my current estimation:

0-3 months

• long sleeve onesies
• soft shorts

3-6 months

• long sleeve onesies
• short sleeve onesies
• tshirts
  
• soft shorts
• top/bottom outfits

layette "other"

• thick fuzzy boy blanket (microfleece?)
• boy Boppy cover

I know I will be constantly seeking nice/dressy clothes for our little guy to wear to church as he grows. But we can keep him in comfy sleepers until he's 3 months or older, right?

Christmas 2010 picture

Kinlee drooled

Just sharing because my littlest niece is so cute...

There she is again, on the sidelines of a "ladies' breakfast" picture I took with my mom and sisters:

Siwwy gooses

Teresa has been calling people and things a "silly goose" (although it comes out more like "siwwy goose") often in the past 3 weeks - she picked the phrase up from her nana and we encouraged her in its use. When we spent a week in Spokane with my family recently, Teresa called her uncle Jimmy a silly goose almost every time she saw him. He is a fun and funny guy. :)

A few days ago we were in the car and Teresa named us out loud: "Papa." "Mama." David questioned, "are we silly?"

"Siwwy gooses," she responded, pluralizing her phrase. We'll work on special plurals (e.g., geese) later...for now, I just think that's darn cute.

Here's the little goose herself, looking out at the Spokane snow: