Elora's New Toy, and, Adrienne Takes 'Action'

Thanks to the "for sale" e-mail list that Jennifer brought to my attention, I was able to get this awesome bouncy saucer activity exercise seat for Elora. It's second hand, but in excellent condition, and Elora loves it! She's still not strong enough to do anything but lean against the front and bat at whatever is right there, but that's just fine for now. She'll grow, and it'll grow with her.

in other news, I've finally discovered actions for PSE. I downloaded several from this site, and I'm loving them. This one's called Attic Vintage (I didn't use a texture, haven't figured that part out yet):

And, this one is Lomo:

There are a bunch more, and I'm still learning how to really use some of them. If anyone knows of any other cool action sites, please pass them on to me!

Hen Party

Wednesday night, I met some of my friends at the Brauhaus Beirgarten to have a little bachelorette "hen party" for my friend Peguy. It was a great time! Bran kept Elora at home, and I got to go out with the girls. It was the first time that I have been tipsy since before I got pregnant, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. :)

European Country Living

Yesterday, I went with my friend Sarah (who is newly returned from Iraq) to this awesome furniture store in Landstuhl, called European Country Living. It's run by a German-American couple, and caters to Americans. It was awesome! The furniture and such comes from all over Europe, which I thought was pretty neat. Everyone there speaks English, and they happily take VAT forms. And, more importantly, everything there was gorgeous. It was all the large, sturdy type of furniture that you might expect to see in a rambling country home. And the home decor items that they had were wonderful too. I saw this dress form and thought immediately of Corinnea.
It absolutely just belongs in the shop!!! And then, I saw these and thought that they would be perfect for you, Jenny, to display your jewelry:

The shop is kinda pricey, though. (I think it was €16 each for the jewelry racks, which wasn't too bad, and €58 for the mannequin.) So I happily wandered around to look at what there was to see. I would totally recommend it to anyone with a day free, whether you are in the market for furniture or not. Sarah told me that their stock rotates, so what was there yesterday might not be available a month from now! She's planning to go back, now that she has some measurements, and has a better idea of what will work in her apartment (what they had was beautiful, but not really apartment-friendly) and I have every intention of going with her again. Fun times!

Part one of "The Elora Book"

Here are the first 11 pages of the official Elora Scrapbook:






When I get them all done, I'm going to print them at the shop, and bind them into a book. Oh, and I'll be posting the rest as a "part 2". :)

FINALLY!

I finally got Elora's birth announcements finished! Now, all I need to do is print them, and send them...

more fun with photos

I got some more of my photos from mom's visit uploaded... This one is from dinner at the Waldheim after going to the Porche Museum. I was wearing really dangly earrings, and Brandon kept trying to put them inside my ear, which tickled, and, well, you can see what happened. He'd been doing it all day, but instead of getting annoying, it just got funnier.


I've been trying to get a picture of this face for weeks... It's so precious!! But of course she only does it for a second at a time, and I can't just sit and let her cry while I spend forever taking pictures, so it took a while for me to finally capture it. She's so cute when she cries!

Today was her 2 month check up. That wasn't so bad. She's doing great, according to her doctor. She's gaining weight nicely--can you believe she's just over 11 lbs now? I knew she was getting heavier, but sheesh!! She's going to need to go to a new diaper size again soon. (Kara, I might have some more diapers to give you!) She's also grown a full inch in height, from 21" to 22", all in only a month and a half. So the check up was fine--it was the immunizations that were awful. She cried, I cried... But it's all over, and once we get through tonight (she's still kind of fussy, I think because the leg that got the tetanus shot is sore) it will all be just a bad memory. Until her 4 month check up, anyway.

Mom's Visit

Well, Mom and Wade are off exploring Rome now (they got to go to Mass, said by the Pope, at St. Peter's yesterday) and I'm trying to get used to having a quiet house again. I so was not ready for them to leave! But all good things must come to an end, and we really did have a fantastic time while they were here. I have the pictures to prove it! I'm still trying to get them all uploaded. (Feel free to have a look-see, they're all in May sub-albums.) Anyway, as much as I miss them, it does feel good to just...relax.