baby love

my dear friend weezermonkey is a mommy!

i was so excited when we were finally able to coordinate schedules so that i could stop in to meet her adorable baby girl. with our friend and OG SFAM trish free to come in on her lunch break, it turned into a really fun GTG. 

watching the monkey in action as she tackles the craziness of new motherhood was sweet and wonderful and awesome. plus, i totally got a kick out of seeing all of the baby paraphernalia around her fabulous home. we talked and laughed and ate lunch while baby monkey slept peacefully, and even got to hang out with mr. monkey for a bit. 

i had to get a shot with the canvas hung on the wall that i'd heard baby monkey was always captivated with:

a little closer - look at how beautiful this little doll is!

oh, how i miss that precious new baby smell. and it seemed like forever ago since the bean (and the teen) was that small. there is nothing like cradling a newborn in your arms, and i had to squelch the urge to just cover her little head with kisses.

i'm just so happy for my friends! they're going to be such awesome parents, and baby monkey is one lucky little girl. 

showering

well, i do that every day.  sometimes twice.

but in this case i'm talking, of course, about baby showers.  we celebrated two mommies-to-be over the last week or so, and we're all excited to meet their sweet little ones soon - both boys.  yay!

i was happy to be a part of the planning crew for amber's shower, for which lilcee graciously opened her home.  we were going to have right around a dozen people in attendance, and her living room was the perfect size for us to gather, eat, and chat.  because amber is a traditional kinda girl who's also a voracious reader, we chose the little golden books as our theme.  and because i'm me, you can guess as to what i contributed as our party favors.  right?

after "borrowing" bits and pieces from this awesome set of golden books printables, i took a full color printout of mini book covers to my favorite cake supply store to have it printed in edible ink.

i was pretty pleased with the quality of the printout - i've done this once before, but it was a really long time ago.  and this time, i was going to be cutting out the little covers and sticking them to cookies.  somehow, i thought the sheet would be super delicate - and it sort of is - but it was sturdy enough to withstand me pulling it off of the backing and using my pizza cutter to cut the shapes out.

the glaze i've been using on my cookies dries pretty quickly, so i had to work fast.

at lilcee's the next morning, we scrambled like mad to get everything in place.  we'd given ourselves two hours to prep, and with four pairs of hands to get it done, we were...golden.  haha, get it?  golden!  i kill me.

but seriously - look at how cute it all turned out!  do we know how to carry a theme through, or what?

amber's nursery colors are orange, aqua and lime - hence, the color-coordinated candy buffet and other stuff.

i think our guest of honor was pleased with how everything turned out.  she's a pro at throwing showers like this, so the partyzilla in me totally reared its ugly head. yeah. and look, we even had a blank little golden book to use as a guest/wish book:

lilcee's dogs were slightly less than impressed, though.

we managed to gather everyone for a quick group pic before the party came to an end.  i don't know how or why i ended up in the middle of the picture - that obviously should have been amber!

and then a week later, a bunch of us headed down to south orange county to celebrate the impending birth of our dear FGD's baby boy.  we spent most of our time gossiping, talking smack and eating - no time to waste taking pictures.  but we did manage to squeeze in a group picture here too.

and we found it utterly amusing to see that a bunch of us had busted out matching jackets for the evening.  just call us the denim brigade.

i love spending time with my friends.  i always end up with sore abs from laughing too much, but that's a good thing.  and it's wonderful to have such awesome reasons to gather and celebrate.  yay for babies!

parenthood rocks the house

the babies are here! the babies are here!

even though i was already scooped by the monkey, these two mini-bloggers are too adorable for just one post. i was so excited to hear that both of our lovely guests of honor at SFAMily baby shower, 2.0 delivered their bundles of joy this past weekend!

california girl, as i mentioned this weekend, went in for a c-section on saturday afternoon. i received this via picture-message on my phone:

i don't have any stats, but mommy and baby are doing a-okay.

then yesterday morning, i got an e-mail from my buddy willikat, who'd seen nanners post on twitter that she thought her water had broken and was headed to the hospital. now, if you read nanners' blog, you know that her due date wasn't for a couple more weeks. so i immediately grabbed my phone and sent her a text message.

"are you okay? is em dash here?"

and a few minutes later, i had my answer.

"yup! e-mail and pic coming soon!"

i was so shocked and thrilled, i didn't know what to do with myself. and yet, i couldn't do anything - it wasn't my news to tell, after all. i turned to the bean and said "can you believe it? they both had their babies this weekend! they were almost birthday twins!"

the look i got was similar to this:

ha!

and as we were strolling around the grocery store, shopping for dinner ingredients for the week, i checked my iPhone and found an e-mail from nanette's hubby, who'd hacked into her account to send out the happy news. i downloaded the attached picture and just about melted into a big ol' baby-lovin' pile of goo:

that is one cute little newborn. she came in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces, and was born late sunday night. amazing!

and you know what i said about newborns looking like someone's uncle monty last week? well, in most cases, i still believe that's true. but these two are beautiful. even the teen, upon seeing the pics, had to agree - and you know how blase and cynical she can be.

i have to admit - i'd had such a wonderful pregnancy and enjoyed the bean's newborn days and weeks so much - that i was absolutely green with envy. i miss the excitement and anticipation and feeling the bean inside my body. but as i expressed my feelings to the teen (who blanched at the thought of me giving into baby fever), we looked over at the bean and agreed that she's so much fun right now. she's walking, babbling, laughing, expressive - and it's just an awesome time in our lives as a family.

so, with the teen's help, i converted my feelings of jealousy into happiness for my friends, who are facing the most wondrous, amazing, life-changing journey in the days and weeks ahead. they're going to experience the joy of that first smile, first laugh, rolling over, crawling - all of those precious milestones that parents live for. there are no words to describe how it feels when you look at that gorgeous little life that you created together, and come to the incredible realization that all of a sudden, you aren't just a couple anymore.

you're a family.

congratulations, nanette & brent and california girl & hubby! welcome to the mommy & daddy club! i'm really looking forward to hearing your birth stories and watch you navigate through these precious days of your baby girls' lives. and, of course, you know where to turn if you need help. there's a whole lot of us who love you and are here for you.

yay for new babies!