On Friday I wasn’t really up to doing much with Isabelle. But with us being sick lately (which by the way I’m all better! No coughing for 2 days now) I wanted to spend some fun time with her. So I followed a link, from a Martha Stewart email, to make shadow puppets.

I didn’t follow the directions since as I said, I wasn’t really up to doing much. I did the minimal amount. I just printed it out and cut and stuck it on sticks. No laminating or even bothering to put it on proper black paper. Honestly I didn’t even print it properly but printed it as a rough draft. But Isabelle thought it was awesome.

Well, then on Saturday, at the last minute, we decided to go to the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco. I mean really last minute. With the traffic headed out there and parking, we must have had only an hour inside. We really should have woken up earlier or saved the trip until Sunday but it was a very last minute decision. It’s a shame. I didn’t really get to leisurely look at everything. We just blew threw and stopped at things that really grabbed my attention. So I know we missed lots of things. It didn’t help that Isabelle was dawdling.

Gawd, it takes forever to get anywhere with a monkey on your back…I mean on your feet.

And then of course it doesn’t help, with your time, when you insist on lining up for the free photo booth.

I thought this was so awesome (though obviously Isabelle didn’t). The photo booth was from Magnolia Photo Booth Co. I can imagine how fun it would be to have a booth at a wedding. I want one everywhere. At a birthday party for Isabelle. At a family get together. At dinner at a friend’s house. Ok I’m going crazy overboard but what a fun way to remember a day.

Here are some more pictures of some of the things that really caught my eye.

And here is what we left with.

An amigurumi doll for Isabelle by Roxycraft. Isabelle named her Blossom-Blossom. She’s been carrying her around all through the day. And at night she puts Blossom-Blossom in one of Alan’s hats and pretends it’s a sleeping bag and puts her next to her.

I got myself this beautiful necklace from Figs and Ginger.

I wish I had known she made a family one too with a mommy bird and a daddy bird. I found that out when I got home to look up her website. Oh well.

We also got something for the baby. It’s the first something we’ve bought him.

It’s from Jakc Designs. And look at the cute bag it came with.

And then, and then…we got a shadow puppet from Owly Shadow Puppets. What a happy surprise that she was there since I just put together that flimsy shadow puppet for Isabelle the day before.

This is much better than the paper one. It’s made out of mat board and is sturdy and not bendy like paper. I love love love it. I was really tempted to get an entire landscape. I was even tempted to get the kit to make your own puppets with a little stage and everything. But I thought Isabelle is too young. And now I’m kicking myself. I really loved her landscapes.

And, you know, that’s all we’ve really done the past few days. My belly’s been feeling all tight, I think they’re the braxton hicks contractions again. They’re worse after I’ve been walking all around.

Oh and before I forget, you know how I mentioned yesterday about being behind on pictures? I NEED to share this one.

Isabelle cut her own hair. She only did a little snip and luckily didn’t mangle it completely.

Ok. End recap.

Tonight we went on a prenatal tour.

My sister asked me why? Didn’t we have Isabelle at the hospital and already know all about it? Well no. This was the newer hospital. It opened after Isabelle was born so I don’t know anything about having a baby there. All I knew was that it’s closer to us than the old hospital.

It was cool. We learned that all the rooms are private so we wouldn’t have to worry that I’d be sharing a delivery room with someone or a recovery room.

And they have futon couches for the dad instead of a just a chair.

They also do a nice little celebratory dinner for mom and dad after the baby is born on linens all fancy with commemorative champagne glasses to take home.

Oh and most importantly we found out Isabelle could stay with us during the delivery as long as someone was watching her. So, I think it’s decided. The new hospital it is.

Chalk gun on flickr

Oh and what do these pictures have to do with the prenatal tour? Nothing. I just wanted to share them off my flickr stream because of the cute expressions on Isabelle’s face. One night we went out into the backyard to play with this chalk gun from her auntie Jo. They made it very smart. It doesn’t shoot unless it’s pointing down towards the ground. I like that, I don’t have to worry that Isabelle will shoot me with it.

Isabelle sleeps with us. She has since I can’t remember how old. Weeks old? Days? She has never spent a night in her crib. EVER.

When the baby gets here I expect him to sleep in the bed with us too. Alan thinks I’m delusional. He doesn’t think there’s room for all of us. He says Isabelle moves around too much. Sometimes she does move around, kicking Alan in the face or gut. Laying a foot over my neck or belly. But that’s only occasionally.

Alan thinks Isabelle needs to sleep in her own bed.

My sister sleeps with her 5 year old and her baby. I think we can manage. Am I kidding myself?

Ok, so I know we’re going to try sleeping all together. We have a king size bed and I plan to have the baby on one side of me and Isabelle on the other. I’m not too worried she’ll roll onto him or kick him because she never rolls so violently that she rolls right over me onto the other side.

And maybe one of those side car thingies will work. I can just tuck the baby in there so we have more room. Or we’ll get Isabelle a proper bed and put it in our bedroom and see how she likes it. Who knows, she might surprise us and want to sleep in her own little bed.

Now a different question, is it totally silly that I want to make a mobile for the crib knowing that the baby is NEVER ever going to sleep in it?

This is Japanese craft book ISBN-10 4262152707 or ISBN-13 9784262152707. I got it when I found out I was pregnant.

I really like this one:

And this one:

Well actually I quite like all of them. Well, who says I need to hang it just above the crib, right? I can hang it any old place that makes me happy.

And onto real delusional stuff. I keep thinking about doing a daily comic again.

I was going to draw Isabelle hanging off my arm but…well she distracted me. So yep. Totally delusional to do a daily comic again. Well a girl can dream.

Alan bet he could learn to crochet when we bought Isabelle her Blossom-Blossom doll. But he was joking. He really doesn’t have the time. And he didn’t understand why I couldn’t do it.

So, about a week ago, I tried to learn…again. This isn’t the first time I’ve tried. I’ve attempted it before but I got lost and confused. It’s not that I can’t make the stitches. That’s no problem. I just don’t know where to stick my hook. The stitches are foreign to me and I can’t tell them apart. I stick my hook anywhere and everywhere and then I get frustrated because it doesn’t seem to look right.

Ok, so I didn’t really hurl the crocheting across a room, pull my hair out, or curse crochet to the heavens. But I WAS very frustrated. I forgot that there is a learning curve with everything. For some reason, since I know how to knit, I expected my brain to just pick up crocheting and recognize the stitches and when it obviously wasn’t doing that, I was getting mad. But I kept trying a little here and a little there over the past week and something FINALLY clicked.

And I’ve finished a scarf! Now I’m working on a dolly with help from Bethany. She gave me the best tip after I had pulled my project apart like freaking five times. She told me when I make a mistake and am low a stitch on a row, I can just add an extra stitch on the next row. DUH! What a great tip! I should have asked Bethany for help after I pulled the project the first time, maybe the darn thing would be done by now.

Where are the pictures of the finished scarf though, you ask?

And my answer is, who has time to take pictures when they’re busy crocheting?? Bwa ha ha!

Just kidding. Maybe tomorrow.