Paint and a Bad Omen

First, the good news! Mollie has been here and left behind some very cute things:

Here is her sketch of Eeyore on the wall immediately inside the nursery, ready to be painted tomorrow (or sometime)...

Here is the "first layer" of Piglet...Mollie will come back and add detail tomorrow...or...whenever. See the grass on the bottom? I painted that! :)
This may be hard to see, but this is Owl's tree painted, with a stack of books that now looks like one floating red book, but if you look closely you can see the others sketched. Owl is also sketched and ready to be painted...eventually.
I'm so excited that this is actually happening!...slowly.

Now for the bad...I finished up at my school today, turning in my final grades. As I walked out of my building for the last time, taking my keys across the quad to turn into the school receptionist, three huge crows took flight away from me, across the quad, and all landed on a branch in a tree near the building I was walking toward. The effect of them taking flight just as I exited my building, and there being three of them, and them flying away from me so dramatically, left me breathless and worried. I immediately felt it was a bad omen of something. I've never seen crows in the quad before, let alone three of them! What does this mean? I asked a couple of people in the other building and one mentioned that there is birdseed in the quad. I can only imagine this means there was a wedding there on Saturday. But, still, I'm pensive. At least they weren't ravens. :)

A Name

I have removed the poll that has been on the left-hand side of the blog for the past couple of months because I *think* we have decided on a name. At least, we are 95% sure and will have to wait until she's born to be 100% that it fits:

Lucy Beatrix

Lucy means "light," Beatrix means "bringer of joy" and we like how they flow together.

Please, if you don't like it, keep your opinion to yourself, even if your opinion is singing drinking songs in your head (Jen!). :)

In the end, these names just ended up our favorites after many dinnertime conversations about naming Clio. I guess it's a little silly that we didn't end up using any of the names that were in the poll, but here is why:

Olivia and Isabella were eliminated for being too popular (Lucy is around #87 on the top 100 list, as opposed to Olivia and Isabella in the top 10).

Sophie was eliminated because the birthparents (M and T) both hate it and even though we aren't letting them name her, we also don't want them to hate her name! They are just OK with Lucy, but that's good enough for me.

Anna/Ana/Anastasia was eliminated because of pronunciation controversy and because the overall sound of the name Anna, combined with our extremely common last name, is a little too bland and underwhelming. The pronunciation Ana combined with our last name clashes a bit.

And finally, after having many people encourage me to name her Clio, we decided against it as a given name. First, we have noticed that when we tell people the name they automatically assume it is spelled Cleo, and so she would have to go around spelling her name...forever. That would drive me crazy. Second, the advertising industry's awards ceremony is called the "Clios." Yuck.

Right now we are in a transition period, calling her Clio and Lucy about equally, but I'm planning to keep Clio as a term of endearment for her.

Clio in 3D!

Surprise! M and I went in today for an elective 3D/4D ultrasound and here are my personal favorites of the many pics I brought home with me:

A pic of her chubby chipmunk cheeks (she is measuring at 5 lbs. 6 oz. already and she's only 33 weeks, 3 days!): This one shows how she was draping her hands over her face while she slept. I hope I can get a picture of her doing this after she's born and then scrapbook the two pics together...how adorable.

Here's another one that I just think is adorable and I can't explain why...except that it's Clio in 3D. :)

This one shows her round belly and umbilical cord at the bottom, and it looks like she's smiling a bit. (I know, I know, babies don't do that until they are a couple of weeks old, but I still think she looks like she's smirking at us.)

And here's a 3D shot of those gorgeous big feet she has:

Stuff

I had a request from my best friend to post "real" pics instead of the Target.com pics I put up for the previous post. So, let's call this post "Confessions of a Shopaholic:"

First, my "newborn stash" of cloth diapers. The basket in the back left is full of covers and a couple of "all-in-one" diapers. The basket in the back middle has dyed/embellished prefold diapers folded into it, like the pink and brown polka dot one in the right front. The basket on the far right has cloth wipes and the basket in the front center has Green Mountain Diapers "orange edge" newborn prefolds. In the front left (basketless) are a couple of wool covers (they aren't itchy and hot like they sound) and a beatiful Sun Seedlings fitted diaper.
This next pic is of my size small cloth diaper stash, consisting of doublers (for extra absorbency) in the top right drawer, covers and all-in-one diapers in the left drawer and fitted diapers in the right drawer. My small prefolds are in the closet and I didn't get a pic of them.
Here is a rocker chair that I picked up at a yard sale about 3 years ago that I recently took apart to wash the cover. I plan to keep this in the kitchen as a place to rest Clio when I'm cooking/eating (hypothetically). Behind it you can barely see the box for the "space saver" high chair we got cheap on ebay. It straps onto a regular dining room chair so that it doesn't eat up all of our valuable kitchen/dining room space.

The next pic is of a pink fabric box I picked up at Target as a newborn toy storage system. As you can see, it's not working out so great as she is not even born and it is already overflowing. Egads. One of my projects for June (after school is out) will be to research each of these toys to make sure they are lead-free. Groan.
Next is a pic of some of the recent additions to Clio's library. This looks pathetic for an English teacher's child, but I'll do better, I swear! Give me more time.
Here is a pic of Clio's closet. The clothes to the far left are 0-3 months, the clothes to the immediate left of the stacker are 3-6 months, and the clothes to the right of the stacker are 6-18 months. It looks nuts, but I must assure you that all of these clothes were either gifts, purchased extremely cheaply from yard sales/ebay/etc. or purchased during my infertility years when I would go out and buy cute baby clothes to make myself feel better during my period. I swear! The clothes at the top of the stacker are 3-12 month onesies and right below that is a stack of 3-12 month sleepers. Further down are towels, blankets, bibs and burp cloths. To the far right in a basket on the floor is my new bedding set, all washed and ready for the crib, whenever that gets set up.
This pic is more clothes. The top drawers hold shoes, socks and the ubiquitous "bloomer" which I somehow have 20 of...one for each little dress. Yikes. The lower left drawer holds newborn-3 month size onesies and sleepers. The lower right drawer holds newborn-12 month size pants.

Here is the room that all of this stuff will eventually fill. It has been a guest room (the couch shown is a hide-a-bed) and is painted blue-gray. This is a view from the door. Here is where my student, Mollie, will soon get to work painting! Soon, please, Mollie! It seems like every person I meet now asks me "do you have the nursery done yet?" and I'm getting tired of explaining why not. The couch is in the center of the room to accomodate painting, but will eventually be pushed back against the wall and remain in the nursery as a place for me to nurse/pass out.

Here is a view of the room from the back left corner. The wall shown here is where the crib will be, eventually.
Back to "stuff." Here is Clio's carseat, ready and waiting to be installed in a car and bring her home! I already have the newborn "insert" to support her little body and also the pink fairy blanket draped across it so that she won't be traumatized by the fact that her carseat is a blue and green plaid. Kidding! It's really to keep her warm in the late June/early July chill in Missouri. Yeah.
Here are her 1. sage green Pack'n'Play (far left), 2. pink "Jeep" umbrella stroller to keep in the back of the car, 3. larger stroller to keep in the garage and push her on walks to the park and 4. inside the bigger stroller, her Eddie Bauer backpack diaper bag, which is already packed with clothes, diapers, wipes, etc. I am ready at a moment's notice to rush to the hospital and...diaper her! Ok, I'm nuts.

Shower #1

*Edited to add pictures!*

On Thursday afternoon Clio and I had our first shower. My co-workers threw it for me; it was jointly hosted by the English department and the Theology department because I'm good friends with all of the theology teachers and have been a regular adult leader on the senior "Kairos" retreats. And, of course, I'm a member of the English department (I love these guys!):

And here's a pic of me with my friend Mimi (one of the theology teachers), who just told me/us today that her sonogram on Monday revealed she's having twin girls! :) They will get only the BEST Clio hand-me-downs.

It was a great party; the food was scrumptious and the gifts were perfect, but more importantly, the company was wonderful. I am still feeling sad about leaving, and it is fun to enjoy these last opportunities to hang out with my talented and caring co-workers.

The food: pear tart, fresh fruit, chocolate cake, brownies, banana chocolate chip muffins and punch. Here's a pic of me opening presents that shows the food table:

The "loot:" I got several things from my Target registry in the Classic Pooh theme that I'm using for the nursery, and also several books! Clio is going to have an impressive library; I can see it already. My gifts include:

And Clio's library has several new additions, including:

I hope Clio likes Pooh, because she's going to be surrounded by it. :)

My second, and final, shower will be on May 31st and will be friends and family, hosted by a friend from church. There will probably be a lot to say about that shower because M and her mother are invited and are attending.

Happy Mothers Day to all of you...mothers and mothers-to-be. This will be the first Mother's Day in a long time for me that doesn't sting a bit. To celebrate, my in-laws are in town and we are going to see Wicked! at the Kansas City Music Hall tomorrow evening. I can't wait!

Also, today J and his dad went to Nebraska Furniture Mart over on the Kansas side of the city and picked up our crib!