claire update

*additional update: just got news that mom, dad and baby are at home! hopefully jen will be able to rest a little bit now...*

last night i took over for josh on the night shift with jen, so new dad could get some sleep before mom and muffin (i've been calling her muffin) come home today. what a sweet little muffin she is! she was being a little bit of a fussypants last night (hence no photos from my time there) but she and i did get some quality snuggle time. i just cannot get over how precious she is! i also cannot get over how you go through this process and then suddenly there is a little human and he/she is yours. such an amazing miracle! i kept looking at claire last night and then turning to my sister and saying "um, this little one is yours, by the way." i can definitely see how becoming a new parent is WAY overwhelming. i think it was a really good idea to see some labor and a glimpse of the first few days before having children (yes, i still want kids after this).

she has lost a little weight, but i hear that's pretty typical for newborns. mom and dad are exhausted, but they're getting through it! jen is really looking forward to being in her own home today, so that will be nice. i'm excited to take pictures of the little muffin in her nursery (although she won't really be in there too much yet). last night we set a little routine of jen feeding her, then i'd burp her and soothe her and try and get her to sleep. we attempted to watch monsters, inc. (it was at least on in the background), and then after that we put on some nice soothing music (thank you kings of convenience, iron & wine, coldplay, and a few others!). i really enjoyed my sister/niece time, and i look forward to next visit with claire, when i can take some pictures!

happy birthday, claire elizabeth

happy birthday to my new niece, claire elizabeth! she entered the world at 1:24pm today--all 7lbs, 11oz and 21" of her! she is precious and beautiful and, most importantly, healthy. my sister was such a champ through labor (which luckily progressed quickly) and is doing very well. it was such an amazing, exciting day and now i'm exhausted, but rest assured that i will keep you posted with pictures! here are some of claire's first hours...

busy weekend

well, this weekend was a busy weekend at our household. well, i'm not sure about busy, but i did a lot. first i made a cushion for the cats to put on their window perch that they love (previously they had a blanket over some old pillows--it just didn't work well or look good). my creation isn't perfect, but it works and the cats have been using it. i got some brown fabric and, since i don't have a sewing machine, i temporarily used iron-on stitching, which has been holding up so far. i made it to be removable so that we can wash it, and then i embroidered a little something on it.

me attempting to measure my fabric (yes, i realize that i am not using a proper sewing measuring tool)

embroidering

stu hanging out

the punkin pad

also taking place this weekend? the blue angels. we decided to go on our roof to watch whatever of the show we could see, which turned out to be quite a bit. the planes flew directly over us, which was really LOUD as you could imagine. the precision of the planes was absolutely unbelievable--i just cannot imagine the training that goes into a feat like that. it was nice to sit up there on a sunny day and have a glass of wine.

[my] cats and water

so i know i have posted in the past about my cats and water, but i'd just like to mention that they are still hopping in the sink every time a faucet is turned on.

while on one hand it's cute, and good for novelty value, i have come to realize a few disadvantages.
1. it makes it difficult to cook if there is a cat trying to stick his paw in a pot of water while you are filling it up, or when you're fighting a cat for the faucet when you need to wash vegetables, etc.
2. it makes it near impossible to discipline them if they don't mind (or actually enjoy) being squirted with a squirt bottle
3. my newest revelation--they clog our shower drain. now, i will not try and fully blame them because i shed my fair share, but whenever i clean out our hair trap in our shower there is a significant amount of cat hair. maybe some of it washes off of brandon and i, but i know for a fact that the cats get in our bathtub when we're not home, because i've come home to an open shower door many times.

these two...they really are a couple of trouble-makers, but they really do know how to work their cuteness.

new york, here we come!

so for our first anniversary, i wanted to do something sort of special. i frequently say how awesome it would be to see bright eyes/conor oberst and ben kweller on the same bill, because i know that they do play together occasionally, but it's always in the new york area. on a whim, after seeing that they are indeed playing together in the beginning of november, i decided to take a look at airfare just to see. well, virgin america happens to have a fantastic price for the time we want to go so....we booked the trip! 5 days, 4 nights, 1 concert...i am so incredibly excited! i bought the airfare and concert tickets, so now we just need to find accomodations that won't TOTALLY break the bank. anybody have any suggestions???

lolabeans

also while finishing the nursery, i decided to take some pictures of jen and josh's border terrier, lola (aka beans). she was a good (maybe a little squirmy) model, but she does love to basque and nap in the sun...

photoshoot

this weekend, while working on the nursery, i took the opportunity to take some pictures of my sister at 9 months pregnant--after all, the next time i see her she'll most likely either be in labor or she'll already have had the baby! that is just crazy to me. as i was leaving it was like...um...okay...i'll see you...in the hospital i guess! i cannot get over how great she looks, and how nimble she is. while we were there she's like "oh, i'll get that" and "what can i do?" i kept saying just sit...I'LL get that...and asking her if she was in labor...haha. she was a good sport about the shoot (even when i made her laugh so hard i just knew she was either going to pee her pants or spontaneously go into labor--she did neither) and i think we got some nice shots. here are a few to share...

doesn't she look amazing? i mean, honestly...she's almost 39 weeks pregnant and she looks incredible! she also is acting normal, except for maybe some of those nesting/organization urges that she's been getting (more than usual)...i'm so excited for this next chapter for her and josh (and me). i just can't wait to get that little patootie in my arms!

hardly strictly bluegrass

so today was the much-anticipated (for me) hardly strictly bluegrass festival in golden gate park--a free concert! in previous years i have not attended this event, but this year with ben kweller and iron & wine playing, i have been looking forward to this for a few months now.

my excitement (specifically for ben kweller) was so great this morning that i couldn't sleep this morning--literally i woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. i was like that kid in that disney commercial who says "i'm too excited to sleep!!!!" (i literally quoted him in bed this morning).

anyway, we got to see an amazing set by ben kweller. he was playing a few new songs, and then some classics, mostly songs with a blue-grassy twinge to them.

anyone who has attended a ben kweller concert with me can verify that this next statement is true: ben kweller turns me into a 14-year-old groupie teeny-bopper. it's not that i want him, it's just that he seems like a totally nice, down-to-earth guy, and he is just about the most adorable person i've ever seen--i'd love to grab a beer with him. he is a great act to watch, very enthusiastic, and everyone on stage looks like they are having a blast, and it's contagious. you can only imagine, then, how excited i was to hear him say "i'll be at the merchandise tent after the show." i, of course, dashed over there with my newly purchased ep, but once in line had second thoughts. thoughts such as "i am probably double the age of most of the people in this line." brenna, who came with me, was a true pal and reassured me that no, in fact there were multiple people my age and older in line, and it was perfectly acceptable to want to get my ep signed and that i just needed to own my enthusiasm. once we got to the front of the line they were trying to usher him off, so it all was very rushed but brenna got...the picture (right as the lady said "last picture! last picture!" so much excitement! i am sort of glad it was rushed because honestly, what would i say, besides something to make a complete fool of myself?

after my photo op, brenna and i decided that roasted corn on the cob and pomegranate lemonade was too much to resist, so we made a stop at the concession area. the rest of the group was still in the crowd, being nostalgic and watching elvis costello perform, but the amount of people had at LEAST quadrupled so there was no way we were making it back to our spot (i had insisted on being close for ben). after a phone meltdown (no one could get through), we FINALLY got in touch with the group again and made our way over for iron & wine. unfortunately a ton of other people had the same idea, and anyone who has ever listened to iron & wine knows their music is not exactly loud, so we could barely even get close enough to hear ANYTHING, let alone actually tell what song they were playing. at that point we were exhausted, sunburned and dehydrated and decided to call it a day. we headed back out of the park and headed home, completing a very satisfactory sunday.

i hope i do see you next year, hardly strictly bluegrass!
chris, this picture was taken for you...these two were literally caught red-handed...

now we are watching the angels vs. red sox game, waiting for that outcome...
happy sunday everyone!

nursery completed!

today brandon and i went over to my sister's place to put the finishing touches on the nursery since the new window is finally in, including the final piece--the installation of the mobile. i decided that it would be smartest to do a site installation, because i knew it would just be a headache attempting to transport it on bart.

jen picked us up in emeryville so she could return something at ikea, and then we headed out to concord. with a little fishing line (lovingly donated from josh's fishing pole), some felted birds, and some sticks found in tahoe, patootie's mobile was created. i have to admit, it turned out better than i had expected...i had felted the birds a while ago, but more recently gotten the idea for the twigs here. i think it definitely added exactly what i was looking for to the creation!

so now for the completed nursery...soon there will be a little baby to put in here!

[kitty] founder's day!

well, congratulations to the kitties. it is officially past their first birthday, and one year from the day they were rescued. what a year it has been! this troublesome pair has been the source of a lot of mischief, but even more happiness and fun. i didn't need to be worried about if the cats were going to like their toys--they loved them. i gave them to the cats one at a time, and stuart always pounced on the toy first, would play (and growl to keep ben away) until i put out a new toy, at which time ben would finally get to test drive the gift.

before i get to the pictures, i would like to show the pictures of the felted rattle toy i did--he turned out quite cute! i felted around a plastic bell so it has a rattle sound when the cats bat him around. well, and more specifically, i'd like to show the before....and after...of my little creature:

before

after

um, yeah. to say they loved this birdie would be an understatement. stu would not leave it alone for about 15 minutes straight, at which time ben got a hold of him...we didn't see either of the cats for a while and then brandon and i got up to check on them and found tufts of yellow wool scattered around. i actually re-felted him, gave him BACK to the cats, and now he is in pieces again. i'm sure this will be a cycle of felt-destroy-felt-destroy-felt-destroy. they couldn't get enough of him.

now onto the rest of the photos... (note: i was experimenting with different things in photoshop, so some of these look a little different than normal...something a little fun and peppy for the occasion)