Last pictures for today! :) I downloaded picasa and it makes it soooo easy to blog pictures! (Too easy maybe). This is the cassis didymos. I love this color. I also love the didymos wrap, it is very comfortable. She's been snoozing in it for about 2 hours now. I've tossed in a load of clothes, did a word search with James, blogged (!), read a bit, and even did some crochet. She's still sleeping and is very very content. This carry I'm using is called the front cross carry and is easy to learn.

Not quite "baby" wearing

Charli managed to wrap up Noah solo. He thought it was hilarious. I can't see her hiking miles with him, but he was securely in there. For those who may be curious.. this is an amethyst indio blend Didymos wrap. www.birdiesroom.com is where I picked up my wrap, her wrap I found much cheaper through www.thebabywearer.com 's used boards.

Peppermint

This picture was taken by Charli of Bethany's cat, Peppermint. It was too cute to NOT blog.

Zabrina

This picture was taken by Bethany of her pet, Zabrina. She is a mali uromastyx and kinda blends in with this picture. She's sitting in a regular sized pie pan full of bird seed, so that gives you an idea of her size. She will grow much larger and wider. Thankfully she doesn't eat gross items, just flowers, veggies, and bird seed. She's incredibly tame and easy to handle. She looks a bit like a toad, not at all snakelike or slimy in appearance.

Another page..

Here is my 2nd page for Jan '07. Celebrating Bethany turning 9! I know it should be the traditional 'blowing out the birthday candles' picture, but this one truly sums her up. She is the girly girl that loves kitties and flowers.. plus a quiet thoughtful child. The kitten, on the other hand, is a beast that likes to bite when you least expect it! hehehe

My scrapbook page

Again, click on the picture to see a larger copy of it. The last album I did for a year was in 2004, so I have a bit of catching up to do! I'm starting with 2007 and once I get up to current I plan to go back to the other years. This just happens to be the first pics I have from January 07! We're not playing favorites and only showing Noah. hehehe.

This page was done by me (Mommy/Bridget) and used a free kit I found online.

Charli's first scrapbook page

We're both working on learning the new version of Paint Shop Pro XI. It is available for a free trial from www.corel.com PSP has a high learning curve, but it can do a LOT of great stuff. We found this free kit from www.scrapbook-bytes.com and others at www.shabbyprincess.com

The page still isn't 100% done, but getting closer. Click on the picture to see a full size. When completed it will be 8x10 since that is easier to print than finding the 12x12 printers.

Noah

Babywearing

This is where Bethany has been living for the past few days. (Don't ask me what's going on with her hair - I have no idea). She's finishing up a series that has her majorly addicted. At one point, when she thought it'd be a few weeks til we'd get the next book, she was limiting herself to 3 pages a day. I decided it was time to brush the dust off the library card because the bookstore was getting a pretty nice chunk of change from us! hehe. So, she's having a gluttony of a good time going through the rest of the books.. well, not ALL of them.. now she gets to wait on the author to release more.

Charlotte and Naomi
(This is why every newborn baby should come with a big sister)

This is the Ellaroo wrap. I'm really bad at remembering the names of the different styles of wrappings. www.gypsymama.com has a great booklet in .pdf format. http://www.gypsymama.com/colorbooklet.pdf I have her Bali Baby Breeze wrap and love it because it is gorgeous, but admit I think the woven wraps breath a bit nicer. Both the Ellaroo and BBB fold up compactly. My other wrap is a www.storchenwiege.com and it does NOT fold up as nice. I have washed and knotted it to get it to be easier to tie. Now, I think the storchenweige will be nicer when she's bigger and cool fall weather returns. I plan to take it on our camping trip to the WV mountains. Charlotte is around 5'2". The wrap is a size "L" for Ellaroo so there is plenty of tail leftover, which I think just looks cute. The Ellaroos are a woven wrap with fringe on the ends. She could obviously use a smaller wrap. For some carries the tail would be waaaaay too long.

This is a different carry from the one above. Its wrap front carry. Naomi is actually in a little pouch and then both pieces cross along her back and then under her legs to keep her snug.
This is the wrap cross carry again. We tied the tails on the side instead of the back. It's a little more exotic and fun to wear when you're 11 :)

Here is the back of the wrap cross carry. It can be tricky to wrap someone else, but overall I think we did a good job together! We finished about 35 minutes ago and Naomi is still snug as a bug in the wrap.. Charli is merrily answering email while wearing her. I've offered a couple of times to take her if necessary... I was quickly assured it was NOT necessary ;-)

Btw, she was smiling in some of the pics, but wanted some more 'serious' pictures to put up. These ones are lovely. It's hard to believe that's the oldest wearing the youngest! All the ones 'in the middle' were busy scarfing down brownies while this was going on.. Bethany has finished her book and is now wishing we lived within walking distance of the library.

4 Weeks!

Naomi celebrates 4 weeks :)

Colonial Outfit "How To"

I had quite a few folks ask me about the colonial outfit.

Here is my friend's blog, complete with step-by-step pictures. :)

Naomi's Colonial Outfit

Diana, my ultra-craft friend, hand-stitched the layette below for Naomi. She is working on a blue set for her darling boy for Colonial Times. It has the undershirt (day shirt), gown, bonnet (complete with ruffles for the girl set) and sash. The little slippers are not handmade or historically accurate, they were just too cute to resist putting on the baby!

Naomi was relatively patient with us. I'm going to need to get a better picture to show the length and bottom of the gown. I lifted up part of the ruffle to try to show it in the picture since it was hanging down. It is very very pretty.

This gives you an idea of the length, tho the lighting is off and doesn't show as much detail.

Here is the gown with the sash. She was starting to run out of patience, so not a lot of pics with it tied.

This pic shows the ruffles on the bonnet. I need to get a picture from behind. The bonnet has a drawstring in back that can be let out to accomodate baby's head growth. Doesn't she look sweet? :)

Naomi's visit

Naomi had her 1st Ped visit today. She's up to 8lbs4oz from 7lbs10oz at birth. She's 20.5" long, 18" at birth, and her head grew too. hehe. For height and weight she's exactly 50th%, so neither short nor tall.

The concerns we had turned out to be okay. Her right ear had some swelling in it, but has been going down. He said it was probably due to her position in the womb. The little dimple by her bottom is also normal, it's abnormal if you CAN'T see the bottom. Hers is deep, but easy to see the skin at the bottom. (basically a deep dimple on her hiney by her bottom).

Her little toes (right & left feet) do curve under the others. He said we'll keep an eye on it and deal with it later if necessary. Obviously it isn't bothering her right now.

We will be getting a referral for her hearing test since that wasn't done in the hospital. We'd prefer to catch any issues early rather than wait. It's a very simple procedure and doesn't take very long.

Tonight Naomi gets to go to her first Mom's Night Out. She'll be allowed to do that until she figures out her sippy! Lucky girl and lucky mom to have such a portable baby! hehe. I have really missed the MNO gatherings!