Baby!

My friend gave birth to her first baby boy on the 23rd!
Congratulations!
Some traits resemble my friend, the mother of the baby, like the picture below.
But he also looks alot like his father too.
I can't wait to meet him in person!

first bite

yummy chocolate!

....
don't you worry it's only a toy. :-)

I wish it was real!

Our treasure

She was born at 20:51, January 26th. She was 3080g, 47.8cm.
My husband and I named her after our wedding anniversary, July 7th.
Also we wanted her to be kind and giving, to help others.

She is a treasure to us. Every day is a change, and she brought peace to our lives.

early Valentine's cake

Since I am going to live with my parents for a month after my baby's birth, I decided to make a surprise early Valentine's cake for my husband.

In Japan Valentine's day is a day the ladies give chocolates to men.
So I baked a chocolate cake :-)

This cake is baked without using eggs, something I wanted to do since I won't be able to each that much eggs a year from now. Since I am thinking of breast feeding, it is known that eating too much eggs can make your baby allergic to eggs. So I am collecting allergic free receipes bit by bit.

It tasted pretty good, I think it was better to put in nuts or oat meal or something of that sort to add a little crunch to it. Maybe next time!

fake?

above: picture of my belly a little while ago :-)

I thought I had labor pain last night -- it was scary but very exciting!

My husband and I were so excited we were too hyper to sleep :-)

So we talked until 3 am last night till we fell into sleep.

And this morning, there is nothing -- maybe it was fake?

I heard from my doctor that there are fake labor pains -- they aren't really "fake", it's sort of like pain for practicing before the actual labor pain starts.

It was a weird but exciting experience!

many gifts from family and friends

I want to share some photos I've taken of many gifts I have received(my baby has received :-) ) from friends and family members.

They are all so cute and so tiny!
I can't wait to see them actually on my baby and that would be definately cuter :-)

My daughter(hopefully will be a daughter definately -- or else it would be a very big shock :-P ) will have enough clothes already that she can change clothes every day of the month. Head to toe! How lucky she is. I had to shrink down my own collection of clothings to fit hers in :-)

I want to thank all my friends and family members who kindly shared their time and thought in giving these gifts :-) The time for labor is coming soon -- maybe as soon as next week?!

holiday cards and handmade gift

Last holiday I made my greeting cards using my recent tool, illustrator.
I've been going to a design school to learn the skills needed to use the tool, but I haven't been able to go since my pregnancy.
So I took out my text book and did some review. It took me too long to make these cards, but the attempt didn't turn out that badly, don't you think?

here is attempt one: Christmas card,
attempt two: New year card

I also did worked on a hand making project -- a gift for my coworker who is working in place for me while I'm taking my break to give birth and raise my child.
She wanted a new shoulder bag for holding her cell phones she uses for work. So I made a shoulder bag with hand made felt, which I made from zero. I attached three buttons on each side, and attached a leather strap which you can adjust the length by moving the button hole.
I hope she likes it! :-)