Thank you Jeanne and Chris!

Chris and Jeanne sent a very nice and sneaky gift!


The little lamb toy is a rattle
Esme says: Wow! (ok this is a yawn, but she likes it!)

A STACK of bibs, interesting tea and groovy baby tunes on mixed CDs.

Thank you, both of you! :) Such a wonderful gift!!

Busy week here - dentist today and doctor tomorrow!
Over the weekend Mark found the game EVE Online and has been running little trading missions in his spaceship. It is a very well cosntructed game with a market trading system I'm enjoying tinkering with as well.

I called my brother last night (which is difficult, as he is hearing-impaired) and his wife said Elizabeth is 4 lbs, 5 oz. and they hope to take her home somewhere near the end of January. She should have been born at the end of January, so wow - she was very young and is still very tiny! They give her half of her food by bottle now, but then she gets too tired and they have to give her the rest through a tube. My brother says they get to hold her some now, but she is stil having trouble keeping her heat up for long periods of time.

Caturday Games

Before neck-fuzz smooshing

After neck-fuzz smooshing

That's a lot of neck fuzz!
We told her she looked like Jabba the Hut.
DISCLAIMER: No cats were hurt during this photo session. The worst part was we were laughing hysterically at her and she didn't think it was funny. She stalked off to the corner to flop down and stare at us balefully.

A Few Developments

We've had a few developments around here, but not much.


Goofy, one of the girl puppies, went to a home.
We hope it is a good one.


Another picture of Esme, looking mischevious
she has begun to make the cutest noises and gurgles
9 lbs, 14.5 oz

We received some more assorted used inventory for our store in, and I'm going through the actions of getting pictures taken, descriptions written etc... I'm also throwing a few random items in my Etsy store every once in a while. We are trying to sell off some scrap metal that has been lying around the yard for years. We've been looking at parcels of land via internet around the areas we were interested in - but nothing to make us jump yet. The main problem is most of the places to rent don't allow smoking or pets, and we don't want to leave any of the dogs behind if we don't have to.

Elizabeth is doing well - and they have moved her up from an eyedropper to a bottle. Wow, to be so tiny you can't drink out of a bottle! Modern medicine really has done a lot to help premature babies who would never have survived before due to problems as simple as getting enough to eat.

We're not planning anything major for Christmas, as this is really our time to start organizing for whatever we are going to do early next year. It will be Esme's first Christmas but I think she is very happy with all of the love and care she gets and wouldn't know what to do with even the wrapping paper ;) She does enjoy looking at colored lights though, and Mark's parents gave him a little red/blue/green LED 'lava lamp' that she has enjoyed staring at several times.

Mark did splurge and got the latest Harry Potter movie 'Order of the Phoenix', which we will probably get to this weekend.

//off to describe modems, adapters and connectors. Have a great weekend!

Esme and her carrier

One of the things we knew we wanted/needed for Esme was a baby carrier, so I could take her around with me while I worked. A lot of things can be done one-handed, but not everything.


Esme in the carrier

Mark's parents gave us this baby 'Snugli' carrier before she was born and I have been using it off and on. There was a point there where Esme's legs didn't fold up nicely underneath her in it anymore and yet she wasn't big enough for her legs to go through the slots. But now she can ride in it more comfortably again and I'm using it to do dishes, laundry, type Ebay listings etc... things I used to do one-handed or while she was in a deep nap.


Daddy took this picture of us on the porch
Esme woke up for a minute then dozed back off.

When she gets a little bigger a carrier like this (instead of in arms) is going to be even more important just because of the weight! Sometimes carrying her around one of my arms goes 'to sleep' and I have to set her down or shift weight and get feeling back into it!

Art

A small piece from my 6 x 9 mixed media card 'Travel' made today.

Other Art I liked today:
Panda bear with balloon by NoosedKitty and
her It could be Bunnies card made me laugh
A new Friend by red clay art
Bliss by Yellena

Cute cat chases fish: Lalou's blog (in French)

Baby things & crafts revisited

Rhiannon asked if I'd used any of the cloth diapers I made before Esme was born. I thought this would be a good time to recap the baby things I found most useful, both handmade and store-bought.

First, on the diapers, yes I've used every one that I've made. I wish I had made more than three or four, because I definitely don't have time to make many more ;) We mostly use disposable diapers, but the cloth ones are good to have around in case I'm certain Esme has 'more coming' but also want to get her cleaned up quick. The generic diapers are just as good as all the rest, especially when the baby is young (less quantity more frequently) I use the burp cloths to put under Esme while I'm changing her because they're small, thick and can easily be tossed in the hamper if they get dirty (without the bassinet blankets or Esme's clothing getting dirty).

Out of the handmade things the burp cloths and bassinet quilts get used every single day. The little shoes didn't fit very well because Esme was so big - but I did get some use out of the red pair. Ditto with the blue pants and hats I made - they were all just barely fitting when Esme was born and don't fit her well now.

The star of our store-bought items was the co-sleeper bassinet. It has all those pockets in the side, and is very easy to grab Esme out of during the night and put her back in. I can drag it around the room really easily. I keep diapers in one side, and a wipes container in the other, and can get Esme changed without getting out of bed. The diaper genie we bought was actually a really good buy. It did take a bit of practice to learn to use it correctly. Baby washcloths and receiving blankets are washed at a frightening rate. You can get by on fewer clothes that fit at each stage if you have easy access to a washer and dryer.

I think breastfeeding is much more simple than formula and bottles. The first couple of days were torture before there was any milk, and breast shields are necessary to get anything done. However, when Esme is hungry I can feed her without going through a huge process to go to the kitchen and get something ready for her. We did try to do the whole bottle sterilization thing a few times and save some breastmilk for later feeding - but I found it much more difficult than just taking out the time to feed Esme every few hours (which is possible because we work from home).