one month young!

Lucie is one month old!! Happy birthday! Does this mean we get to have cake every month? I think so!

Beers and the beach

Last weekend we (I) wanted to get out of the house. It was such a nice weekend, that we decided to go to the beach. On the way, we thought it'd be fun to check out Lagunitas brewery. Funny thing is, the brewery is in Petaluma, not in Lagunitas at all! We drove up to Petaluma anyway to check it out. The brewery was pretty much just a restaurant with beer and a great outdoor patio, but not really worth going to if you're not in the area already. Anyway, we took the coast down to Stinson afterwards and spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. It was beautiful. I can't wait to spend more nice weather days there. And even though she was asleep the whole time, I'm sure Lucie loved the beach and ocean too!

so fresh and so clean!

Someone likes her bath! After a day in Dolores Park, I insisted that Lucie get her first bath. Her bellybutton is perfectly healed, so it was perfect timing. our big farmhouse sink made a perfect tub. Lucie started off all smiles, but the bath quickly ended with cries. Of course. Silly baby! I think she really liked it though, and she's overdue for another splash in the water.

springtime in the park

We spent a lovely Saturday afternoon in Dolores park last week. Lucie got to see Uncle Alain again and also meet Peter and Suen. We lazed around for hours in the sun (Lucie in the shade of course!) and people watched. there are some CRAZY people in the city. Somehow, Lucie ended up with a few sparkles of glitter on her face when we left...

Daddy's girl

Lucienne passed her test with Dad: she visited a plant nursery within the first week of her life! The three of us met Megan and the girls, my dad too, at the wholesale plant nursery in Petaluma. Lucie got a bunch of "bunny ear" grasses that Travis planted in our front yard. This was the first of many trips to the nursery with Dad.

Nursery

We are really pleased with how the nursery turned out. For such a small room, it stores all of Lucie's things really nicely. It is also a very nice place for nursing.
It started with the grandmas. They bought Lucie her crib and dresser/changing table from Pottery Barn Kids (of course). I looked at more modern cribs, but the Pottery Barn furniture felt more stable. The dresser alone weighs about 1,000 lbs. Ask my dad!
The bedding is also Pottery Barn. I think it's super cute.
My parents found the really soft 100% wool rug at Costco of all places. It was 1/3 of the price of the one we bought for the Living Room and, though I hate to admit it, way softer. Darn Costco; always coming up with good merchandise.
The chair is one we had in Berkeley, purchased from the Crate and Barrel outlet on 4th Street. We never sat in it in our old apartment, but it is a super comfy chair.
The bookshelf is that IKEA one everyone has, left over from our San Diego loft living. We bought a few baskets and my sister made the basket liners. Aren't they great? My mom and I found the fabric in Napa. It's Amy Butler "Midwest Modern." My sister gathered hundreds of books for Lucie all during my pregnancy. We read to Lucie every night. The books were the best present. Thanks Aunt Megan!
After a whole weekend of buying fabric and figuring out how to make the curtains ourselves, my mom purchased some plain canvas ones from Pottery Barn Kids instead. Way easier! My sister and mom embellished the curtains with the same Amy Butler fabric and a little ricrack. They are perfect!
The wallpaper is from Hyyge and West. I love it on the ceiling, though I am nervouse that it may be a bit distracting for Lucie when she's older and trying to fall asleep. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
My friend Camille got Lucie the ceramic birds over her changing table, also from Hygge and West. They are so precious, but I was told that they will need to move to a new location once Lucie can start grabbing objects. You live and learn...
The bunny mobile is a Flensted (Danish! woot!) from Giggle.
The wall art is from kitty genius via etsy. I love her work and it's really original looking for a nursery. I want to get more of her prints for our bedroom.
The final touch are the window boxed that Travis hung outside her window and planted with some sort of daisy. Since her view is of the side yard, the flowers make it much nicer. We also put translucent film on the upper portion of the windows to block the view to the house next door.
I think that's it. Don't you think it's a really cute room?

more renovations

Here are the before and after pictures of our Living Room. Yes, this is a little (a lot!) late, since the room has been done for several months, but look at the cute little addition we just added! hint: look at the bottom center of photo.



I drew up the shelf design, left for work, and by the time i got home, my dad had them built. They are made out of 1x8s, threaded rods with bolts, and aluminum sleeves. And, yes, I do arrange my books by color. I mean, who remembers the author or title anyway?
My mom saw the cardboard deer somewhere and Trav and I thought it was too good to pass up. We got it at http://www.popdeluxe.net/cardboard-deer-medium.html.
My mom got us custom made "top down-bottom up" curtains from Calico Corners. They are very nice because we can leave the top half down so that we can still see the pretty trees across the street while maintaining our privacy. our house was such a fishbowl without them.
Our couch is from Room and Board. We were too cheap to get arm chairs, so we used Travis's old IKEA bent plywood chair and got a fancy leather cushion for it (two actually since the first one melted when I put it too close to the heater. oops!).
The coffee table is the left over marble from my parent's bathroom remodel. My sister used the remnants first for her bathroom and we took the very last scrap of stone left over. talk about stretching out the material. A work acquaintance of Trav's cut the marble for us. We got the legs from an online store that I can't remember the name of.
Oh, and the rug is a really nice 100% wool shag we bought on sale at the Floor Store in San Rafael.
Our Living Room is pretty cozy now, though Trav is itching to get comfy armchairs soon. There's always something!

meet Lucie!

She's arrived!
After 10 months and a week of pregnancy (the nine months thing is a lie), Lucienne Reese arrived Wednesday, March 31. She weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. Not a bad size!The labor lasted a LONG time, but, thanks to my epidural, I was able to spend a relatively pleasant day in the hospital. Travis and I checked in at 7am on Wednesday morning, after a night of REALLY painfull contractions. I called Labor and Delivery 3 or 4 times that night, but they kept telling me they didn't have any room in San Francisco and I had to go to Vallejo. I really, really wanted to have my OB deliver Lucie, since we had become friends. So I put up with a night full of contractions and bugged Kaiser SF until they called in more nurses and told me I could come in.I got my epidural as soon as I could, to the dismay of the hippie admitting nurse (more about her later). Then Travis, my sister Megan, and I lounged around in the delivery room all day, napping, reading magazines, and becoming friends with our great L&D nurses Tina and Kristi. My "active labor" didn't start until Dr. Valentine (one of the residents I'd seen in prenatal) broke my water around 5pm! He "said" it accidentally happened when he was checking to see how much I was dialated, but I think he wanted to get things going. It ended up being perfect timing because my OB, Kate, was scheduled to come in at 6pm that day.
The nurses said I could start pushing whenever I wanted, so I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Trav and Megan and said, I guess I'll start now? They couldn't think why not, but for some reason, we were left on our own. It was almost like the 3 stooges deliver a baby. I didn't know what to do and Travis and Megan were really nervous. We all started laughing, which didn't make the pushing easier. Or did it? The hippie nurse came in at one point and tried to convince me to try a bunch of weird birthing positions. I amused her at first and then thought, what the heck? This is too weird. So I went about the delivery the old fashioned way.Finally, Kate came on duty and we got down to business. Really, the pushing was pretty easy. By then, my epidural had worn off and the pushing canceled out the pain of the contractions. So I was all about pushing. Then, about an hour later, Lucie came out!
She scored 9 out of 10 on her Apgar and was a good eating from the get go. She was amazing! Kate laid Lucie right on my chest and Travis cut the umbilical cord. We got to bond for a good while before Kate and the nurses cleaned her up and did all that other stuff.
We had a lot of family itching to see Lucie that night, and plenty of friends have come by too. She's really, really cute and we're enjoying her so much.Yeah Lucie!