The day after our routine ultrasound, we gathered a bunch of the family members and had a mini gender reveal party on Saturday afternoon, so that everyone could find out whether our second baby is a boy or a girl. (Some of my siblings had ongoing bets since the beginning of the pregnancy on what gender this baby would be, and they were eager to cash in!) We had some delicious cupcakes ordered from Georgetown Cupcake, filled with either blue or pink buttercream to show what the gender of the baby was! Mio was tasked with revealing the inside filling by biting into a cupcake.
Here’s a video of the gender reveal fun!
Delicious cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake!
Topped with fondant ducks, they were filled with butterecream colored either blue or pink to reveal the gender of the baby.
Pink filling, which means… It’s a girl! ♥
So there it is! We’re thrilled to announce that we’re having a girl! Mio will have a little sister, who she will grow up to (hopefully) be best friends with. I cherish my own relationship with my younger sister, and so I’ve always hoped that Mio would get to experience the same joys of sisterhood. I’m sure they won’t be without their moments of competition and occasional jealousy, but it will be so beautiful to watch them grow up together. As for me, I’m elated to be a mother of two sweet daughters — I’ve always imagined myself a mother of daughters, and I look forward to the bond we’ll share as the ladies in the family. 🙂 Dan is very happy, too; Mio has been more attached to Dan lately and is growing into a total Daddy’s girl, which melts his heart! He’s very doting and protective over his little girl, and I know he’ll be like that with our second baby girl, too. ♥
I’ve been on a roll with creating hair accessories for Mio, and since a few people have asked about the petal clips that she’s been wearing lately, I thought I’d write a blog post about them. I recently ordered a ZUZII petal clips DIY kit from Etsy, because the hair clips you can make with them are truly adorable, and I loved having the option to make them myself! I was particularly smitten by the colors that were provided, and the reasonable price — at $8 ($10 if you include the $2 shipping), you can create six hair clips. Hair accessories for girls can run pretty steep, and I could easily spend more than that if I were to buy all the materials myself, so I thought this was a pretty good deal.
Everything you need comes in this cute little pouch.
The materials and instructions included in the kit. So awesome that the petals are precut to their various sizes, as that would have been the most annoying and time-consuming part if you were to completely create these from scratch.
They come with the snap clips that the flowers attach to.
A couple of the petal clips in progress…
All six Zuzii petal clips, completed!
Again, I love the colors! A great mix of soft and vibrant colors — Mio will always have something to match her outfits.
I was really happy with the way they turned out! (They’re so cute that I just might sport them in my hair myself… is that allowed? :P) The instructions were really easy to follow, and because the petals were precut, it was very quick and easy to assemble and stitch the flowers and create the hair clips. The best part? When someone asks about the pretty hair clip in your little girl’s hair, you can proudly tell them, “I made it myself!”
I really recommend this kit if you have a little girl and want a fun and easy creative project, or if you want to gift it (either premade by you, or for the recipient to make themselves). The Etsy shop also has a DIY kit for barefoot sandals with the same petals, which would be precious on a newborn, for those with younger baby girls.
Last Sunday, we hosted a baby shower for our dear friends Megumi and John, who are expecting a baby girl around Christmas next month! It was my first time planning and preparing a shower, but it was a lot of fun to put together! (I did realize how much work goes into them, though, and awakened within me a deeper appreciation for all the effort friends have put into the brial shower and baby showers they threw for me in the past.) I’m glad that we had this opportunity to gather together as friends to celebrate this new life and welcome Megumi and John’s beautiful baby girl into our lives!
Setting up for the baby shower!
Megumi is a big fan of Studio Ghibli films, especially Totoro, so I created a Totoro-themed calendar for the guests to guess when the baby would arrive.
Guess when the baby will arrive!
Little umbrella favors for the guests to take home.
...complete with personalized tags.
And what is a shower without some delicious food? As baking is more of my forte than cooking, I made the desserts — cupcakes and sugar cookies!
Chrysanthemum cupcakes. The cream cheese frosting was a little runny, so it looks a little like the mum petals are melting.
This was my first time making sugar cookies with royal icing, but they turned out decent, thanks to some awesome tips from my dear friend and sugar cookie guru, Miss Megumi Kaminaga (different Megumi from the one we hosted this shower for). Thank you Mamagumi, and hope I’ve made you proud!
My first time making sugar cookies with royal icing.
Totoro, onesie, and baby carriage cookies
For the main course, we had a Korean platter, with bulgogi, japchae, and dumplings. Thank you for cooking everything, Kayo!
And a special thanks goes to Ann Helen for the delicious salad (not pictured) and the veggies, hummus, and homemade guacamole!
Mio took everything in as her Mama ran around preparing and setting up.
We also planned some fun games to play during the baby shower. The first was the Dirty Diaper game, in which we melted chocolates within these “diapers” and the guests had to guess what type of chocolate each diaper contained. (i.e. Butterfinger, Crunch, Mr. Goodbar, etc…)
The guests of honor, John and Megumi
Ann Helen and Aika take their guesses
A curious Mio watched as everyone played the game.
Aika and her adorable 5-month old son, Easton.
John got all of them right and was the winner!
The next game was the baby food guessing game. I soaked the labels off of baby food jars and the guests had to pass them around and guess what type of food each jar contained, from smell and (if they were brave enough) taste.
The last game we played was the classic “Guess the Mommy’s Belly Size” game, where we measured out tape to however length it was around Megumi’s baby bump.
John with the daunting task of taking the first guess.
Megumi still looks so petite for 8 months! She looks great!
Kayo measuring out Megumi's belly to get the actual measurement.
A few people came pretty close, but Kaz was the winner!
After the games, we went onto an activity of decorating onesies for Megumi and John’s baby! I’d seen variations of this where people used fabric paint, but I thought it would be a lot less messy and perhaps look nicer if we cut out fabric and attached them to the onesies with iron-on adhesive and peel-n-stick adhesive. Even the guys got into it and created some great custom clothing for baby!
Dan exercising his creativity.
Daddy-to-be John worked on making one, too!
Everyone hard at work.
Ironing on the letters.
The results were spectacular! Look at how cute everyone’s onesies turned out! I was so impressed! 😀
We had John and Megumi each pick their favorite designs out of all the great onesies everyone created. It was not an easy decision!
Having a hard time choosing...
John chose Kai and Koreana's collaborative onesie creation.
Megumi picked Ann Helen's lovely design!
Finally, it was time to open presents! There were such cute goodies for their baby girl…
Aika crocheted this adorable hat and mitten set for the baby!
Special thanks go Kayo, who cooked for the shower and MC-ed the games! I couldn’t have done it all without all the help from her, Kaz, and Ann Helen.
John and Megumi getting some practice entertaining a baby... and Mio just enjoying all the attention.
Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the baby shower — I think it was a great success! 🙂 Congratulations to Megumi and John — we can’t wait to meet your sweet baby girl!
I’m back home early from work today, since it was a half day for our studio. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner at Dan’s parents’ house tomorrow and the four-day weekend… a much-needed respite from staring at code all day. Back when I lived in Virginia, my mom put me in charge of cooking the turkey every year (since she didn’t know how), but since moving here, I’ve just been making pies for dessert to bring over, since Dan’s mom and sister handle the turkey and all the side dishes. I wonder how my mom has been managing cooking the turkey by herself the past couple years….
Dan and I are considering braving the shopping crowds on Black Friday to hit some of the baby stores for some nursery items. Some of our friends have asked us what our nursery theme is going to be — I’ve had my heart set (before I knew the gender… actually, before I even got pregnant) on decorating my future child’s nursery in Classic Pooh! I adore the lovely, hand-drawn style of the older Winnie the Pooh drawings (but not so much the modern Pooh you see everywhere). My nickname as a toddler was “Piglet” because of my button nose, so I think I’ve had an affinity to Pooh instilled in me from a young age.
Right now, we don’t have a whole room to dedicate to the nursery, so we’ll likely be converting half of our office into the “nursery.” Since we’re renting, we can’t really paint or wallpaper the room, but there are some cute Classic Pooh wall decals and prints out there that we’re thinking of decorating with. 🙂
Some of the Classic Pooh nurseries I found online for inspiration are so precious, though… if only we had more space!
I’m trying to resist the urge to go super princess-y and pink with the nursery decor, but it’s difficult once you know you’re having a girl! I just want to put ruffles and lace on everything… haha* I jumped the gun and bought this Classic Pooh crib bedding set as soon as we found out we were having a girl:
We got the matching dust ruffle crib skirt, too:
Our main objective on Friday is to find a good crib! We bought a bassinet (below) a couple months ago that we plan to use for the baby during the first few months (before it starts being able to crawl) so that we can have the baby next to our bed in the bedroom with us, but we’ll need a crib after that.
That said, since we have the bassinet, we still have time before finding the perfect crib, so if we can’t find any good deals, we may wait until later…. We shall see!
