Blanketed By Love

15 minutes to post, and I have so much to say!  One of the gifts we received lots of was blankets, but each one is so unique to the person who sent it and his/her relationship to Julia.  We also received some stuffed animals, which I'm including in this photographic montage.  The first one I wanted to show you all is this lovely blanket knitted (or is it crocheted?) by Dianne Lynch, Ben's great-aunt:

OK, no time to play with the diameters, and I'm not sure you can see the colors, but these are my absolute favorite colors:  light green, with a hint of yellow.  Beautiful.  

Julia also received a beautiful crocheted blanket from my sister-in-law's mother, Malory Presley:

 This goes along so beautifully with her crib's "under the sea" theme and is generally a beautiful color (sorry about the bad lighting on the photo, photographer friends!).  Malory lives in Asheville, a wonderful crafting community, and this blanket is so representative of all the talent found there.

Our good friend Sabrina Powell (and her family Brad, Jefferson, and Oliver) sent this magnificent quilt that Sabrina made.  The stars are amazing, as are the colors, which Sabrina rightly guessed that Ben and I would love.  And I don't know if you can tell, but there's also a musical theme throughout, which is so apt.  Julia loves music.  I've actually made a little playlist for her, and her favorites are "If I Only Had a Brain" from Wizard of Oz, "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid, and any of the Hungarian songs that my mom sang to her, especially the "Domotor" song!  (Mom, you know which one).  So here is the quilt:

OK, so she doesn't look super-happy here, but she's actually looking at the bright colors!  Here's a better shot:

While we're on the subject of quilts, Julia received a very different, but no less precious, quilt from my mother-in-law Patty's friend, Anne Colavita.  The colors are more traditional, the workmanship (or womanship?) is exquisite, and the pastel goes so well with Julia's skin:

You can see here just how much our little girl has grown!  She is getting long and lean, like her Daddy.  

And here she is admiring all of the bright colors!  Thank you so much, Anne.  I myself embroider, and I know how much work is involved in these things.  We will keep them and treasure them forever.

Ben's colleagues also gave us some blankets--please let me know on "comments" who they are from, because I have sleep-deprived post-partum brain!  

These are so wonderful, namely because they are Carter's (our favorite!) and match all of her clothes, as you can see.  And anyone who knows me knows that I'm into matching, almost to a fault.  If I had been thinking about it, I would have put her in her ladybug pj's for the "cute as a bug" picture.  I'll do that next time!  This next one isn't a blanket, but it's definitely a symbol of love given to Julia by her uncle Lee.  She snuggles right up to it and loves the bright colors.  And it makes me think of that children's book that she'll soon have memorized:  but NOT the hippopotamus!

On the theme of cuddly animals, my good friend Cara gave us this little bunny, which has been super-useful for feeding as well as cuddling purposes.  I don't know what we'd do without it:

And more bunnies, this time an Easter bunny that rattles, given to Julia by her grandma Patty!

So we have bunnies and a hippo, but how many newborns get a panda bear?  Yet this makes perfect sense, as babies love contrast.  Julia loves the black and white:

I especially like the pic on the right side!!
And last but not least, I have a sweet story to tell.  When Julia was a newborn and had just come home, I was taking a nap when I heard the doorbell ring.  It was the girls from next door, 8-year-old Ryann and 11 (?)-year-old Addie, and they had a gift for Julia, who they had been very excited to meet.  They had gone through their toy chests and picked out their cuddliest, softest teddy bears, and they were gifting them to my little girl!  It still brings tears to my eyes, and I know Julia will appreciate these two teddy bears when she gets older.  Even now, she looks so comfortable sleeping with them:

See how she has a hand on each bear?  That wasn't me posing her!  Here are some more closeups for good measure:

That last one is one of my favorites, too.  This girl is just photogenic!  Thank you again, Ryann and Addie, and parents David and Shannon.

I still have one more blanket to post, but the girl is fast asleep, so later.  Thank you all for blanketing our precious jewel with so much love.