Baby Swag

I got some amazing stuff for baby Cohen from all my friends and family in LA this weekend as well as some our friend Vicki (loads of furniture and some clothes) and some from a super sweet sample sale! I figured I'd post a few pics so ya'll can see what we have already (in case the stores messed up on updating the registries as usual hee hee)...
Sample Sale: Only spent $100!!!

Cocalo Alphabet Soup Set: Growth Chart, 2 photo frames, 2 sets of wall hangings, Matching blocks, Switch plate cover, Night Light, & Wall Border Decals; 2 blankets, Baby timer, Nursing cover by Hooter Hiders, A box of 6 pairs of socks, Booties, 2 Swaddling blankets, A Sun shade for the back window, and some chewable jewlery...

...But wait there's more... A comforter that coordinates with the one we have in case it gets baby puke on it :), Teresa got one for her crib too (at $10 a pop you can't beat it)

...And even more! Diaperbag by gr8x with changing pad and pacifier holder (the side pocket is insulated for a bottle)... and a coodrinating Diaper "wallet" by Skip*hop that is mostly a changing pad that has pockets for the included refillable wipes case and a couple of diapers... I like it, very grab-and-go... But everything in the last three pics was included in the $100!!! We even got Gracie a Diaper bag as well!
Baby Shower:

Crib from Vicki, Moremi by Cocalo Crib set from mi Mama

Matching Mobile from Auntie Marcie "Boo Boo"

Daddy Diaper Bag from Uncle Larry, Aunt Sandy, and the girls, Felice and Marisa

Froggy Bath Tub Kit from "Tia" Aimie

High Chair from Sadie (she made Cohen a "Sadie Blanket" too, my fave baby blanket I had was made by her, super special lady, and one of my Nana's dear friends)

Swing that turns into a Toddler Rocking chair, also from Auntie Marcie "Boo Boo" :)

Pack and Play Yard from Liz and the Girls, Mandy, Allison, Angela, and Sasha

The start to a great wardrobe :) Many people contributed to this :)

Lots of Bibs, a couple hats, and a couple pairs of shoes

Bath and Safety Stuff

In The Dresser: Drawer #1 - Sleepers and some socks

In The Dresser: Drawer #2 - Lots of Onesies, Some Rompers, Shirts, Pants, A cool Harley Davidson outfit (thanks Amy), a cute brown sweater, and a cute "church shirt"

In The Dresser: Drawer #3 - Lots of toys, which I know will quickly outgrow the drawer and soon be on the floor :) We should look for a toy box or something on CraigsList, Joanne gave me the cute Giraffe Band and the Monkey Harness!

In The Dresser: Drawer #4 - Diapers and Wipes of the Earth Friendly Variety, My little way of "consuming less and creating more" I guess... We will be cloth diapering at home, but sometimes when you are out and about, you just really need a couple disposables...

Okay I know these shelves need some organization, but I was starting to lose steam... I just wanted stuff off the floor... Up here is A car organizer, a travel blanket, and sunshades for my car from Joe and Vivian, a nursing cover by Bebe Au Lait, A Baby Ka'tan wrap that Teresa got me at Goore's, and a whole bunch of the other stuff listed in the first picture from the sample sale...

So many beautiful balnkets, from so many beautiful people (the yellow knit one is Nana-made and the white one is Sadie made)

More Diapers and Wipes and blankets :)

Lots of receiving blankets and a couple burp cloths

Cohen's first Buddies :) Giraffe from Grandma Terri and Elephant from Auntie Marcie "Boo Boo"

Musical "Buddies" Giraffe from Liz and girls, Elephant from Auntie Polly and Rachel

Chillin'

All the Buddies (including March of Dimes "Auggie Doggie" from Julie and Ashley)

Feathering the Nest

I know I haven't written in a while, but I have been quite busy nesting... I know, right? LenaLoo? Nesting? Lol... But seriously, with a little help from my friends, this apartment that looked like a tornado had hit after my first 5 months or so of pregnancy is now starting to look pretty darn good! Okay, so the dishes may not be clean all the time,

but I have organized Cohen's bedroom and gotten all (well, most) non-baby stuff out,

Gotten the cats used to doing their business out on the porch by making them a kitty paradise,

Organized our electronics and some books we had in baby room onto a new unit,

Re-purposed the old unit we had our TV and stuff on as a coffee table with storage to further organize the electronics, Got most of the extra stuff out of our bedroom (still working on this), Had the back bath tub re-caulked (thanks Dad and Hubby for the joint effort) so we could finally use it again (have to do the front still before baby gets here),

Brought my baby dresser up from LA and organized all the gifts from LA baby shower immediately (like didn't even sit down and take a break after the car ride, I got right to work),

and Put Cohen's bedding and mobile up in his crib (I know I have to take it off again and wash it before he gets here, I was just really anxious to see how it looked on the crib)

Finding My Inner Pretty...

Note: This is a ramble I added in a Post Script of an e-mail to my friend Becky, so if some stuff seems like inside jokes, it might be, but I am to tired to realize it and I apologize... I just thought it was too funny to not blog about it, and since I had already written it, and since I am LAZY, I copied and pasted lol...

Background: I came home from church and fellowship tonight inspired to keep creating (our new church used art as a form of worship and I LOVE it) to add to the piece we were making this evening (it is called "hope... for a tree cut down" and it is part of our commitment to consume less and create more as a community, it is the word hope cut from old cardboard boxes decorated with "trash" or stuff people didn't want anymore and recyclables) and I was digging through a box of old magazines and papers that have been sitting in the closet on my porch for TWO YEARS when I found a purse I used to love and there was something in it... A makeup bag with over $200 worth of Bare Minerals makeup that I had thought I lost TWO YEARS ago almost to the day... Now mineral makeup does not go off because it is just powder and you use brushes in it that can be cleaned, so none of it is bad... I have since spent about $150 rebuilding my collection, and gotten some as gifts, but I have not been using makeup much at all lately... So here is a picture of what I found (this does not include all the other stuff I have though, that is 3 more bags worth) and the ramble I sent to Becky...



I realized something kinda cool about myself while I was looking at it all... I used to NEED that stuff to make me feel pretty, like I seriously thought that and used it to justify spending whole paychecks on the stuff... But I don't anymore... I have found my inner beauty in Christ! I'm not saying that there aren't days that I don't look in the mirror and say "Girl, you need to do something with that bird's nest on your head and put on some makeup cuz you look tore up" (I totally thought that tonight before church but I was running late already, and yes, my inner monologue sometimes involves ebonics) but those days are farther and fewer between than they ever have been! Praise God! I also realized that even though I am pretty disgusted with how materialistic I used to be, I have grown from it, and rather than toss out all this makeup I may not use very often anymore (don't judge me if I do this week though, it is pretty and sparkly, and I have it already lol) I can maybe use it to bless some people... I seriously now have enough makeup and professional brushes to be a semi pro makeup artist... And I have two good sized wedding parties under my belt already (one of which I was a bridesmaid in lol)... There are a lot of gals out there who can't afford a whole lot for a makeup pro to come out, so if you hear a need, let me know...

If you are in Sacramento area and need your makeup done for something, let me know... I am totally comfortable bartering services for goods (home grown veggies, art, hand made baby stuff, hand made jewelry, etc), in fact, unless you want a color that I don't have, I probably would only accept bartering as payment :) I have mostly Browns, Pearly base colors, Purples, and Green/Blues and a few pinks for eyeshadow and I use Medium Beige foundation but I have access to lighter colors because my friends are two different shades of pale (lol), and I have two sets of Medium foundation as well...I also have a ton and a half blushes and bronzers that would work for most colors and a ton of different lip colors, most never used or only used with a clean brush... and EVERYTHING except the lip stuff is Bare Minerals brand makeup... I insist on a trial run at least a couple days in advance though because I am not a professional, I just have a bit of experience, and I tried to do the last wedding without doing one and let me tell you I nearly had a panic attack trying to get the bride, five other bridesmaids of differing hues and myself all done in time for pictures... So send me an email, or leave me a comment with your email if you are interested :)

Nesting?

Is it supposed to start this early? I "dropped into" a baby store (Goore's, for people in Sacramento) yesterday and 3 hours later came out shell shocked but giddy... I got to see the crib set we picked out before we knew it was available online only, Talked to reps about cloth diapering, baby wearing (she talked me into buying a sling), and diaper bags...

I also found a humongo giraffe that I really really want to put in baby's room, I even have the perfect corner for it, alas it is $99... I also got talked into registering there because they are the only store around that has the cloth diapers that we think we are going to go with (Bambino Mio, anyone heard of it or used it? It is a prefold system with cover just like Tidee Didee uses), and I signed us up for a cloth diapering class sponsored by the company later this month... Like Becky said, "It's like all of a sudden you are really pregnant" lol... She was referring to the fact that I can actually eat for two now (I proved that at Ikea the other day, eating in a sitting what Toby and I normally share)...

I also was able to stomach (and enjoy) Dill Pickle and Cherry flavored shaved ice last weekend in front of Becky who tasted it and nearly gagged... I came home from the 3 hours of awe at Goore's to a room full of baby furniture that needed to be assembled, so I enlisted Tim's help... He took my crib apart and painted it for me, so he kinda knew better than the rest of us how to put it back together (we should have taken pictures before taking it apart, cuz he had even painted over the brand name and totally couldn't remember it to look online for instructions lol)...

When Toby got home, he helped Tim also put together the changing table my mother in law got us the other day...

And then I cleared all the posters and books that reflect Toby and I and put them up in the hallway (still need to find a home for the books though) so we could move the bookshelf around and figure out how we like the setup...

I think this is what we are going to go with...

Baby posts...

I was just going to use my main blog to ponder about baby stuff, but when I made a blog just for little Cohen, I decided to start blogging my baby thoughts there... Like "Hmmm... what kind of diapers should I use?" and "Should I get a 3D ultrasound, or is it a waste of time and money?" So if you want to read my baby rambles, pop on over to Counting Down to Cohen

Diapers Part Deux

So I have been doing a little research and I am thinking about hiring a diaper service, at least while we live in this apartment with no washer/dryer in unit... I think we will still use some disposables (the biodegradable kind) for when we are out and about and at church (no nursery worker wants to deal with clothies)... The service starts at about $19 a week and about $30 to start for the diaper hamper and diaper covers (less than a Diaper Genie)... and that is if we exclusively use clothies... I have to figure out if that is reasonable... The numbers show that disposables cost just a little bit more than using a diaper service... But $40 savings per year is better than no savings... And I won't have 6500 disposables sitting in a landfill for 500 years weighing on my conscience... I still have to talk to Faith and find out how many I might need per week if I am using some bio-disposables...

Diapers...

I have been thinking hard about what kind of diapers I would like to use... I hate the idea of loading truckloads of non-biodegradable diapers into a landfill, but we don't have a washer and dryer in our apartment, so cloth is out, and G-Diapers are stupid expensive... The next best eco-friendly option seems to be Earth's Best brand of biodegradable, disposable diapers... They are a bit more pricey than Huggies or other name brands, and we can pretty much only get them at Babies R Us, but I think the sacrifice may be worth it... A friend of mine uses them with his little one and says they work well... Now I just have to think of an eco-friendly option for disposing of the darn things since a Diaper Genie would make it pointless (biodegradable diapers would be useless if they were trapped in a plastic bag forever)... Any advice?

3D/4D Ultrasounds

I am thinking that maybe I'd like to get 3D/4D ultrasounds done like Faith's seen here, there is a place in town that does them for $125, the least expensive I have seen is around $99 and that was in the bay area (easily $25 in gas)... This is the site for the place that does them... What do you think guys?

Been Busy

The fam came up to visit this weekend and we crammed 8 people into my 2 bed 2 bath (well 1.5 bath when they got here, thanks dad for re-caulking the back tub) apartment like the Mexicans we are! We ate (a lot) and swam everyday and just had a good time! Thanks for making the trek guys, I know it wasn't easy for (or with) the kiddos! I also got to spend time with the extended fam and see my new little cousin Charlotte (I see playdates in our future Ana) and some friends who now live out of town (thanks for a fun night Marky and Julie)! I have been a bit of a busy bee :) I like it that way... keeps me out of trouble hee hee... I will post some pics when I get them from my mom (so maybe now lol)...

Feelin Crafty Again

Gender Ultrasound! Spoiler alert! :)

We found out on Friday what gender our baby may possibly be... The didn't want to say for sure... Do they ever? See for your self :)



Those are two legs facing to the left... Does it look like a boy to you?

Yummy...

Toby and I LOVE Joe's Crab Shack and we were planning to go for our anniversary next month, but when we saw King Crab Legs on sale for $8.99/lb we jumped on it :). We got 8 legs for about $20 and also got some corn on the cob and some red new potatoes (the little ones)... We like the BBQ seasoning at Joe's and I found an imitation recipe online here and I bought all the stuff for it the last time we found a good deal on crab... I am gonna post my modified recipe here for you guys...

3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon Accent brand seasoning (MSG lol)
1 & 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (I am a wimp so I cut it down)
1 stick melted butter

Mix all dry ingredients, pour melted butter over crab (reserve some for dipping), sprinkle BBQ seasoning on crab (recipe makes a generous amount, you may only use half, you can reserve the rest for next time)

Makes Toby a happy camper lol...