Owen's Monkey Business

On Saturday, Derek, Joe and I drove down to Orange County. They dropped me off at my friend Beth's baby shower in Ladera Ranch (she is due with a boy on June 17, and also teaches kinder!) Then they headed over to Joe's cousin Mary Ann's to hang out. After the shower, Derek picked me up and we went back to San Clemente for the afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I got to the shower and I was pretty much Beth's twin: Imagine our surprise when Darren (her hubs) and Derek got there and were also twin-ish! Here are the four of us: TOTAL COINCIDENCE! After delightful catching up and conversation and Mary Ann's home, we headed down to the pier for the sunset. It felt very California-ish! Orange County has a much different feel than LA. We loved it. Wonder if our little guy will be a surfer too?

Here are the photos I promised from when I opened the virtual shower scrapbook!

My Kindergarten grade level team threw me a fantastic "Earth Day" themed shower a few weeks ago. The cake: Live potted flowers on all the tables: Here@last.yay: Om: Diaper wreath by Carmen: Derek and I by the cake: My parents had arrived the night before from Florida: My amazing team: (from L to R: Julie, Ashley, me, April, Terri, Sian in front)

Yesterday I woke up at 2:15 with a need to finish making the nurse's gift bags I plan to take to the hospital. I will probably have at least 2 nurses in labor and delivery and 2 in post-partum (possibly more, depending on how many shifts I am there for) so I decided to make 8 bags. It was a fun project and something I really wanted to do after seeing it on Kelly's Korner blog several months ago. I got small reusable totes and filled them with big Ghiardelli chocolate bars, popcorn, tea, notepads, and candles wrapped with ribbon. I used the same ribbon on the tote handles, in aqua, lime and "cute"! I am happy with how they turned out!

I received another handmade blessing late yesterday made by many many hands of family, friends, and loved ones! Kindred spirit Kim coordinated a virtual shower scrapbook of baby blessings which was presented to me yesterday for Mother's (to be) Day by my husband. I was floored. I must've read through it four times in a row. Each page or set of pages is an individual treasure and put together it is just something else. I will probably share some pages here on the blog eventually; I know some people are still finishing up pages too. Here is the cover and introductory page: As you might be able to see, the title is Blessings. Derek took me up to a local park with views overlooking our valley in order to give it to me. It was a gorgeous afternoon. We did take some pictures and I will add them to this post soon!

Can you tell my camera is finally fixed? Luna communing with Peter Rabbit: Two views of nursery right now. It is functioning as a guest space too so crib is pushed down by window but it will not be there when baby moves in. Baby will sleep in a bassinet in our room at first.

We have been blessed with so many lovely and thoughtful gifts in the past weeks as we get closer to the arrival of little one! Thank you to everyone we are very grateful for everything! Here are some of the handmade items we have received for little guy: diaper cake made by Marina diaper wreath made by Carmen (in swing seat) "Los Pollitos" made by Clara: Baby afghan made by Marianna: baby blanket made by Dana: quilt made by Jodi: In addition I know of one more handmade gift coming soon: My Aunt Susie is making a wall hanging with all of baby's info once he's born!

This one isn't mine, but it is an example of the one I am in the middle of making. (same pattern) I have 8 birds sewn in fabrics of orange and brown. I have 3 branches picked out. Just need to put it all together and hang it! In the meantime, enjoy this one:

We had fun picking out our carseat today! Here is what we got: It is the Graco Snugride32 in Lemongrass. We opted for the Graco stroller frame instead of the travel system as it is light and easy to fold up. Here is a close-up view from somebody's blog: We also got this bouncer from a group of D's colleagues:

We are nearly to the one month countdown! I keep running into people who say they had their babies at 34 or 35 weeks and that throws me into "finish it" mode since we still have a lot to do. Everyone who sees me at work can't believe I still have 3 weeks at work and truth be told it is getting exhausting being on my feet in a kinder class. Luckily the little ones are very compassionate and helpful and I have a new microphone audio set so I can be very easily heard around the room! Last week we had a lovely visit from my parents and three showers: two work showers and a sweet garden party shower given by a friend from my book club. All were so special and I hope to post some pictures soon. Today we are dedicating to some shopping (carseat!) and a movie date (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past-my chick flick special request). It was so sweet because I mentioned wanting to see it 3-4 weeks ago and then forgot (well, the forgetting part is no surprise!) Then, last night Derek aske...