PBA - Pre Babies Adventures

In her 8th month, a pregnant woman is rubbed with oils, ornamented with henna and given gifts in a ceremony.

- SKhenna.com

It's the final countdown. The babies will be considered full-term (37 weeks) in just ten days. While I remain busy with sleeping, eating and preparing for the babies, I wanted to share a few recent adventures.

Happy Glider

We bought this glider chair at a yard sale for $20. It was white with powder blue cushions and stains from use. I think it's a lot more fun now.


Dyeing and Painting Baby Clothes

Layette for the babies. These clothes were purchased in bulk from Dharma Trading. My second round of experiments with with dyeing. I'm pretty happy with the results. Now I need to add designs.

The hat/onesie combo and the t shirt were custom designed for friends. It has been nice to work with people to get a better sense of what people like.


An Old Burlington, VT Friend Visits
A friend of ours, Marie - one of Steve's old Burlington roommates - took a crosscountry jaunt from Northampton, MA to the West Coast and stopped in for a couple of days on the journey home.

Marie had custody of our camera while hers was charging. She took this photo of the Flat Irons from Davidson Mesa in Louisville.


Henna Belly
In North Africa, in the eighth month of pregnancy, women are adorned with henna in celebration. This really is a wonderful tradition and I completely understand its power after experiencing it.

I got to pick an image that had significance for me - a wren and a raven - the two birdies in my babies' names. The artist, SarahKate Butterworth, then had me sit while she painted my belly, which is every bit as relaxing as a massage or some other form of pampering. I sat/layed back in a reclining chair for four hours to let the henna paste set, sleeping for most of it and realizing that I couldn't take care of any business and that was just OK.

Three days later, when the henna was at its peak, I went to SarahKate's for the photo shoot. I dressed up in satiny fabrics, tulle, and a beautiful skirts. I felt like a little girl playing dress up. Then I was photographed while being told the whole time how beautiful I am. What a wonderful way to finish out the final weeks of pregnancy!

By the way, I got my belly hennaed through SarahKate Butterworth's Blessed Belly art project, which you can read more about by clicking on the link.

Baby Shower for the Birds

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

~C.S. Lewis

Last weekend our awesome, stupendous, amazing friends Andy and Andrea threw a fun (read: awesome, stupendous, amazing) shower for the babies. The shower was bird-themed. Some of you may be wondering, "why bird-themed?" Answer: each of the babies has a bird name.

Anyway, the shower was complete with bird-themed music (Rockin' Robin, Blackbird, Yellow Bird, etc), bird's nest cupcakes, gummy worms for the birds, rubber ducks, the old Nintendo (?) game Duck Hunt, and so on. The backyard where the shower was held, in an historic Denver neighborhood, was lush and green with three coy fish ponds with coy easily measuring up to 20lbs. The food was potluck style - all tasty dishes. And the shower games were actually (can you believe it?) fun.

Thanks so much for the fun shower, Andrea and Andy, and to all of our friends who made it. It was great to see everyone and celebrate the little birds together!



Large coy - we all kept saying that we wish we had something that would show scale.

Ceremonial cupcake eating

Guess the baby food w/out the label game. I think Storey has a bit of an advantage. I guessed that one was pate and Steve guessed that another was cotton candy. Guess we have some learning to do.

Kara playing Duck Hunt. Kara, I won't judge your performance since I didn't even dare to play.

Beau gave away the sighting near your face trick to Karen, who then went on to rock the Duck Hunt world. Don't you love the angel fountain in the background? It adds a certain . . . je ne sais quoi to the scene.

Beau the Duck Hunt master in the foreground (background L to R: Dylan, Storey, Andy, Andrea, Tamtam, half of Karen, and Steve's elbow). Beau just eventually stopped, having never missed a duck. We actually did other things than play Duck Hunt, but these are just great pictures.

Chatfield Resevoir

Float your boat in the lake, bicycle or hike on a trail that provides scenic views of the neighboring foothills and Platte River valley, camp, ride a horse and even fly a model airplane - all at Chatfield State Park, nestled next to the foothills southwest of Denver.

~from the Chatfield State Park website

Reasons We Like Chatfield State Park

1. It's a big body of water (not a lot of those around here).
2. The off leash dog training area is huge, incorporating several ponds that Peanut Butter can swim in.
3. The South Platte River flows into the reservoir - great for cooling off.
4. It's only about 1 hour away from home.
5. It's a relaxing, fun place to hang out.


Dog training area

My view of the reservoir

Grilling by the water


A pelican - they're huge, huh?

Looking at the water with Peanut Butter (32 weeks pregnant)

Ready to leave


While looking for an ice cream cone, Yelp helped us find this semi-abandoned, dilapidated amusement park in Golden on our way home.

Steve's Long Weekend

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

~J. Lubbock

Sometimes you just need a little time off. Steve who has been diligently saving days off for when the babies arrive and who has, at work, been on a team that has been down one person for some time, was a little fried and decided to take an extra day off last week and play with me. I have to admit, it was good for me to - to get in some play time with Steve before the babies arrive.

Our adventures aren't epic these days - we look for mellow fun close to home since I'm so slow and, well, pregnant - but sometimes silly adventures are the best. On Steve's Friday off, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Broomfield, which we jokingly (nerdily?) call the Papillon (French for butterfly, pronounced pap-E-on) Pavilion (pav-E-on) whenever we drive by. Us and droves of preschoolers, oh, and butterflies. Later that day Steve indulged my desire to do a paddle boat ride on Lake Waneka in neighboring Lafayette. I couldn't even paddle because of my big belly. Poor Steve: my workhorse. The last two pictures in this blog were taken on a trail in the town to our west, Superior.

Butterfly Pavilion, Broomfield







Lake Waneka, Lafayette

Captain Steve

(Steve wanted to paddle the pirate ship and I wanted to ride in the pink flamingo, but we got the dragon instead. Still fun!)

Single Tree Trail, Superior

A Little Boy for Peanut Butter

The fundamental job of a toddler is to rule the universe.

~Alice Kutner

Jade Star, my brother, and his two and a half year old son Finn just spent a long weekend with us, and this morning Peanut Butter was giving me the cold shoulder. It took a few chunks of hamburger to win her back over again. I'm pretty sure she was mad at me because the little boy was gone. She loves little kids and LOVED Finn. She lick, lick, licked Finn's little hands and face forcing him into eruptions of laughter that only encouraged Peanut Butter further.

Steve loves little kids, too, and had a great time with Finn as well. On our last night together, Steve and Finn played a belly laughing game of I'm eating your ear/finger/nose.

Finn is a smart, imaginative, incredibly verbal little boy. Jade Star is an awesome dad. This was a special weekend for me to observe my brother as a dad in anticipation of the arrival of my own babies.

Finn and Peanut Butter, looking for prairie dogs

Father and son

Jade Star and Finn looking for fat bullfrog polliwogs

Finn in a "spinning tea cup" at Community Park in Louisville

Train Conductor Finn and passenger Jade Star

Finn in the sprayground



Steve and Finn in Downtown Boulder

A man-tree (Ent?) on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder

Finn splashes about in the children's swimming area on Boulder Creek. (That's my week 28 belly!)