Archive | Baby Numero Due

making a car seat swaddle blanket

October 8, 2012 at 1:00 pm

Although you may not believe it, Sicily gets cold. No snow, granted, but it’s still in the 40s-50s F all winter long, and winter lasts from late November to late March. I’m concerned about keeping our newborn baby boy warm and cozy this winter. During our time here in the States, I have been buying up warm winter things, such as this darling little fleece bunting (found it for $10… perfect indoor lounge wear!) and have finally begun making a couple things for him, too.

Just the other day my mom and I made a hooded car seat blankie by following the instructions on one of my favorite blogs: The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. (I’ll be guest posting there in November!) The steps in Kelly’s hooded blanket tutorial are easy to follow and the results are so cozy for my little babe. Follow along while I show you what we did…

I chose navy blue flannel for the inside of the blanket and a blue-and-red plaid for the outside. We began by drawing a curved shape on a folded square meter of flannel. I then cut along the shape I’d drawn.

Proof that we followed the tutorial every step of the way! The fabric now has the shape that my final product will take.

We laid the flannel pieces out on top of some cotton batting and then flattened the flannel onto the batting.

Note: We might have seriously damaged the ping pong table as we ironed on it. Be a little smarter than we felt at 10pm that night and use your ironing board instead!

A break to admire the kitty cat, Luna.

After we finished smoothing, ironing, and ruining the ping pong table, we pinned the flannel to the batting and then I sewed around the entire blanket. We then flipped it inside out and…

… sewed a straight line across the top of one of the corners. This, when trimmed and flipped around, made a hood!

So cute. We’re almost done. I top-stitched around the entire blanket to give it a beautiful finished edge.

Meanwhile my mom measured the distance between the straps in the car seat so that we could make holes in the blanket for the straps to fit through. More tracing and measuring. I then sewed around the markings.

My mom used a rotatory board and cutter to slice along the marking lines we’d made. And that’s it!

We put it into the car seat and the straps all fit through the openings we’d just cut in the blanket. The blanket will wrap around my little boy so nicely and keep him snug and warm in trips in the car all winter. Plus he’ll look so handsome in warm plaid flannel!

Now all I need is a baby to wrap up in it. Baby boy, whenever you decide you’re ready around January 30, I’m so excited to meet you!

10 :: in arts and crafts, Baby Numero Due

on babies, itty bitty clothes, and getting bigger

October 2, 2012 at 11:30 am

How cute is this?! I accidentally hit the “Last 12 Months” tab on iPhoto and this picture popped up. I don’t even remember taking it, and then discovered that was because I didn’t. (Thanks, sister Jess!) The photo is from last year around Thanksgiving when we were home in Virginia at Elliott’s parents’ house. Lena was about 7 months old then and she’s even cuter than I remembered. Doll baby!

Makes me so excited to cuddle another little baby of mine in just a few months. Back here in the States I’ve been stocking up on baby boy clothing, as the pickin’s are slim back in Sicily, unless you want to spend a small fortune on European fashions. (Which, of course, I do! But practicality and thrift prevail within me.) I’m excited about the tiny striped outfits and little button down shirts I’ve found here, though, and it makes our little baby boy seem all the more real. I’m looking for some suspenders next.

Somewhat begrudgingly, I’ve begun pulling out my maternity clothes. That time has come. I’m 23 weeks on Wednesday (nearing 6 months), which is about the time I can no longer sleep on my stomach at night. Last week someone I didn’t know asked me for the first time, “Oh, when are you due?!” So I’ve crossed the line into Obviously Pregnant. While I don’t welcome the growing feeling of rotundity, I do love being pregnant, and so… bring it on. It is such a miraculous privilege to carry a baby within you, to wholly sustain another life as you also sustain your own, to nurture that little person long before you actually hold him in your arms. I wonder what he will look like? And what his name will be? I can tell you one thing about names… we have no idea. We’re brainstorming a lot these days, though. My favorite place to try out names for size is Nameberry’s Vintage Baby Boy Names.

How about Archibald?

(jk)

11 :: in Baby Numero Due, Lena, thoughts

a baby shower for a baby boy

September 24, 2012 at 11:30 am

From the moment my friend Sarah learned I was pregnant with my second baby, she wanted to throw me a baby shower. During the course of planning the shower, I sent her a few ideas (“This invitation is cute!” or “Can I bring something Italian-themed for the food?”) and she turned them into something more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. The invitations were adorable, the food was a vibrantly fresh and deliciously cheesy Italian spread, and the cupcakes and strawberry gelato (!) were to die for. And we did a book theme! Children’s books, friends, and Italian food… could it be more wonderful?

Sarah also planned the sweetest craft. She printed off pages that each had one letter of the alphabet. Each guest took a page and drew an object that started with the letter on their page. They would then write the name of the object and sign their name. When we had all 26 letters, we put them into a scrapbook and I took home an ABC book for my baby boy. I discovered we have some amazing artists in our midst (I am not one of them… my watermelon is lopsided and has purple seeds) and completely love this darling little book!

Enjoy the eye candy of a gorgeous baby shower. I love these photographs, the memories, and the joy captured here. Thank you, sweet friends!

Heather gave me Peek-a Who and thoroughly enjoyed it when I read it aloud to the group!

Can you tell someone is a fabulous 1st Grade teacher?

Just in case you book lovers are curious, these are the books my guests gave my baby boy. See any favorites of yours? I can’t wait to share them with our little bambino… and our little bambina Lena, too!

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (someone was reading my blog this week)
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (make that two people!)
Harold and the Purple Crayon and Harold’s Trip to the Sky by Crockett Johnson
Blue Hat, Green Hat and Doggies by Sandra Boynton
The Elephant’s Pillow by Diana Reynolds Roome
Peek-a Who by Nina Laden
Only One Woof by James Herriot
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Go Dog Go by P.D. Eastman
Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young by Jack Prelutsky

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Check back later today for Making Room’s first blog giveaway!!!

12 :: in Baby Numero Due, friends, motherhood, Virginia

classic literature for my little one(s)

September 19, 2012 at 6:23 pm

Aren’t they beautiful? Can’t you just smell them? The well-loved covers and beloved pages of some of the best children’s books ever written. Ahhh… I could just stare at this photo and admire them for a good long time. In fact, I have.

The story behind these photos is the little shopping spree I went on before meeting Eden on Capitol Hill last Saturday. Don’t get too worried, sweet husband, because my shopping spree cost me a grand total of $9.50, and that was only because I went to the wrong place and spent too much at a yard sale ($7.50) before I headed to the library sale and wised up over a stack of books that cost me $2.

Here’s what I scored at the yard sale:

All those Madeline books (we already have the original) make me giddy! As does that lovely old volume of Shel Silverstein’s poetry. I’m still looking for a good copy of The Giving Tree, my favorite Silverstein story.

Here’s what I scored at the library sale:

The Story of Ferdinand, A Coat for Anna, Blueberries for Sal, and Lena’s first James Herriot book (she will have many, her dad’s a veterinarian) made me do a happy dance. These were some of my favorite books as a child! Do you see favorites of yours in there? I’m not familiar with all of them, but they looked good enough to snag.

Anyway, I thought the “scoring” was done and couldn’t wait to box these goodies up and ship them back to Sicily via media mail. But then I went to my brother-in-law David‘s popup library to benefit the return of librarians to D.C. schools. David had collaborated with a restaurant on H Street and filled the restaurant with donated books… all for free! I browsed the adult titles and then my eyes landed on the kids’ section. There were so so so many board books! I couldn’t believe it!

I made this stack, staring in disbelief at all the new Eric Carle, Sandra Boynton, DK, and Dr Seuss books. And that random, darling Melissa and Doug wooden puzzle, which Lena will undoubtedly enjoy and our little boy will undoubtedly love. Then I turned to David and said, “Are these really free? Should I leave some for other people?”

David said, “No! We want to leave here with less books than we brought. They will all be donated anyway. Please take them all!”

And so I did. And Lena and I have been loving them! We’ve spent hours (literally) since Saturday lying on my bed reading them all, some of them over and over and over. Her favorite yesterday was The Very Quiet Cricket; her favorite so far today is I Spy. Just like at home, we read when she wakes up in the morning and Mama is too tired to get out of bed, we read before her morning nap, we read before her afternoon “nap,” and we read before bed. We read when we need a break or have a bad attitude. We read when Lena needs snuggle time. We read when Mama needs snuggle time. We read because we love it.

I am always looking for good recommendations of good books, and now I can add “books for my kids” to that list along with “books for moi.” Which are your favorites in this post? Or that are not in this post? I’m currently on a hunt for books that have been awarded the Caldecott Medal… do you have any favorite winners?

15 :: in Baby Numero Due, good reads, Lena, motherhood

making cupcakes for our little boy

September 10, 2012 at 8:58 pm

I did absolutely nothing to commemorate the revealing of Lena’s gender, so I’m not sure why I decided to make it a big deal this time. Maybe it was because we really were hoping it was a boy and maybe it was because Elliott said if we end up with three girls then we’re adopting a boy. I know, I know, we only have one girl so far, but I was already feelin’ the pressure.

My friend Mary here in Sicily made cupcakes to announce the gender of her baby girl. I looked for other fun ideas (piñatas filled with blue confetti, opening a box full of blue helium balloons) and finally decided, “Who am I kidding? I love cake and frosting. Let’s make cupcakes.” Also, our beloved Arthur family was going to come over for playtime, dinner, and dessert that night, and I knew the kids would enjoy eating through sugar to find out if they will have a new boy or girl for a companion sometime next year.

Oh, and one more thing. Making cupcakes with a 1-year-old is no joke, folks. There were tantrums, time outs, and more sugar consumed by both of us than I care to mention. Don’t try this at home.