It occurred to me around 4am that...

It's pretty amazing how much you can love a person you know nearly nothing about, when this person has been given to you.

Better pictures

Here are some better pictures taken in daylight.  This first one is a blockprint of M.C. Escher's done with iron-on copy transfer paper.  Do you remember the scene in Office Space when they take the copy machine out into a remote field and it shows in slow motion the group of guys brutally "killing" the machine.  This was almost me earlier today, but three different printers/copy machines later I was finally able to make it work. I think it's pretty cute.

This one is a butterfly applique cut out from an old sheet, along with black fabric paint:

This is a fabric applique from old fabric I had, along with black fabric paint:
I've got 3 blank onesies left, but I think I'm done for this weekend.  Hope you all had a nice weekend, too!

What I did today:

Today I woke up and decided to fix up some of the plain white onesies I had on hand.  I've had these old sheets for quite awhile (purchased from Unique Thrift Store months and months ago).  I really like how they turned out!

Step 1:  Have your apprentice cut out the part of the sheet you want to use as an applique.

Step 2: Iron pieces (unless they've never been washed, then you've got to wash and dry them first.)

Step 3: Cut iron-on fusable webbing to match your fabric shapes and iron onto the back.

Step 4: Iron onto onesie (or whatever it is your applique-ing).
I'll post some more pictures tomorrow.  Our champion camera can't take a decent picture without natural sunlight.  It's too dark out now.

Three things:

1. Yesterday it snowed here ALL day.  It was perhaps the fluffiest, most fake looking real snow I've ever seen--in my entire life.  It was beautiful.

2. It's kind of a long story, but a couple weeks ago I heard our school's band playing and recognized the music as  "you know, that song that goes: When we've been here ten thousand years..."  Gabe was quick to point out that I was in fact talking about Amazing Grace.  Maybe you've heard of it.  Still hoping this is caused by pregnancy.

3.  Today I hadn't felt much of our little miss moving around, so after lunch I began talking to her.  It occurred to me that it was probably too quiet to make her stir.  I really wanted her to stir.  So I rolled up some paper and put one end of the tube on my belly and spoke into the other end.  I urged her to wake up and move around for probably 5 minutes...and it worked! She moved all around for a good five minutes after that.  After that I felt a little guilty for waking her, but it was also a great feeling to --in a way-- interact with her. 

Merry Christmas!

The latest

Exciting development (at least for hubby and I):  Gabe finally felt the babe move last night. Everyday for the last week or two I've called Gabe over to quickly put his hand  on my belly, only to have the little miss decide to stop moving at that exact moment.  Well last night we finally outsmarted her and Gabe was kicked by his little girl for the first time in his life.  So fun.

I've been noticing that photo coverage of day to day life on this blog has been dwindling.  Largely this is because of our sorry excuse for a camera.  Just know that money is being saved and sales are being watched, so with any luck we'll have a new wonderfully capable camera no later than April (but hopefully sooner).

Hope you all had a nice Turkey Day!

For the dog lovers, or snow lovers, or Harry Connick Jr. lovers, or anyone interested in clicking on the link below...

I hope you all enjoy your holidays with as much gusto as THIS.  

Pregnancy = TBI ?

(I took this picture with our computer.  It's 8:00 at night and I am back to being pretty tired most of the day, hence the overdone "AWAKE" expression on my face.  Surry.)

Not to make light of serious traumatic brain injury, but I'll be honest, I'm behaving more and more as if my brain has been permanently injured.  I may just update my blog with the multitude of things I do that I will forever insist are all due to pregnancy.  Should these types of things continue to happen after I'm done being pregnant, I will insist to the end that being pregnant permanently altered my abilities---mental and physical.

Today I reached my arm out to open a door and hit my head on the door frame simultaneously.  I wasn't even mobile.  My feet were firmly planted.  A person would almost have to intentionally move the top half of their body forward too quickly before even moving their legs in order to hit their head in the way I did.  I'm certain it's worth it, though.

It's a...

Girl!  Or, at least we're 90% sure it's a girl.  She was being a little modest during the ultrasound. The sonographer had me lie on my right side, "empty my bladder", lie on my left side, and finally walk around for a few minutes.  Apparently the walk helped enough for her to give us a 90% (the highest she's allowed to give).  So she could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's a girl.  

My favorite part was seeing her little mouth and cheeks move as if she was chewing.  It was so cute and babyish.  She had her right arm over her head for the majority of the ultrasound, which was also endearing somehow.  It was really comforting to see that she was moving even though I couldn't always feel her.

Anyhoo, it's time for dinner!  Later skaters.

I might need to start wearing one of those id bracelets for when i inevitably get lost and can't remember my name, let alone how to get home.

If the whole idea of pregnancy causing mild (and hopefully temporary) stupidity is a myth, than I could be in trouble.  This morning I put my cereal bowl in the dishwasher.  I then turned and began walking toward the trash can.  I stopped a couple of steps short of it, turned around, walked back to the dishwasher and put my spoon in it.  For some reason I was originally planning on throwing it away.  

Boy or Girl?

We have our ultrasound at 10:45 this morning.  We HOPE to find out if it's a boy or a girl, and of course that everything is coming along normally.  Since I can't use my overabundance of sick days for my maternity leave, I decided to take off the whole day today.  Yesterday I told my students why I wouldn't be there today.  My second period wanted to guess whether I was having a boy or girl, so I passed around a voting sheet.  They were split right down the middle, fifty-fifty.  The rest of my classes were all slanted to boy.  Or maybe all but one, I can't remember.  The winners get candy tomorrow.  So, I probably won't send out any candy to you reading, but if anyone would like to venture a guess, have at it.  Now is the time because hopefully it will no longer be a mystery by this afternoon...Stay tuned : )