What should I get my sister?

[lifesaver]

my sister (who I am very close to) is about 21 weeks pregnant with her first child. Her and her husband (A brother of mine - I introduced them) had a really hard time geting pregnant (my sister did the whole lupron shots thing, and had/s endo). We never really thought she'd be able to get pregnant. She miscarried once, butr is doing great now. I want to do something REALLY cool for her to commemorate her pregnancy. Maybe do something for the baby, write it a short book about its parents, or make something that I can give my sister that the baby can have when it is older so it will know how much it was wanted and loved. I am stumped for ideas. my sister is always giving me smack about how creative I am, but I am stumped on this one. Have ya'll ever heard of anything cool?

[AXO Alum]

Hi Lifesaver -
Congrats on being an Uncle -- I have 3 nieces now (my sister went through a lot of trouble getting the first, and they didn't think she'd have anymore, so now we're all excited!) I love being an aunt (but I'm an "ant" not an "aahn-t). Anyway...here's some of the things I did in preparation for Emma. I got a very pretty (I used Precious Moments since we knew she was a girl) card from Hallmark, and wrote all my thoughts and feelings for her while my sister was still pregnant. Then, when she was born, I gave it to my sister (sealed of course) to keep for her when she got older. I also got her a very special stuffed animal -- one of the nicer Gund types -- that she will always keep. For every birthday, each niece gets one toy and one book from me (I love to read and want to pass that on). The books usually are significant to me, or they are new favorites that fit for them (I call my middle niece, Katie-Bear, so I have started her on the Paddington Bear collection). Each book has a special inscription for them -- for instance, in the first Paddington book, I wrote that I would hope she would have many wonderful adventures in life, and that she would always come home to her family that loves her. I think these would be things I would have wanted to read growing up in life from my aunts and uncles. I am so cheesy that I just cannot wait for Emma to grow up enough to read Charlotte's Web -- I'm going to write in that one that I would hope she would have wonderful friends to guide her path, and that in the end, she would be a wonderful friend and guide others. (I am so da^% sappy sometimes!)

Plus, each one has their own special nickname that I call them -- for Emma its "Angel" -- and if I call her Emma she'll say "no no no - I'm your Angel, remember?" (too cute!!) -- for Katie of course its Katie-Bear of 'lil Bear; and for Aly, its Aly-phant -- and of course she gets all kinds of elephant stuff from me. I just think that when they're in college and their roommate says, hey Katie, someone calling you "Little Bear" is on the phone -- that they will just smile and laugh about it.

Oh yeah -- I also bought my parents books to fill out for each one -- for my mom, I got "Grandma Remembers" and I can't remember the exact one for pop, but its something like that.

For my sister - I bought her a lovely maternity dress, and some of the Bath & Body works mint foot massage lotion. I think she'll do well enough remembering her pregnancy -- I figured it was better to pamper her.

Sorry this is so long -- can't you tell that I'm excited for you!!!

[Allie_XO]

Many Congrats! How exciting!

My family has this tradition that I just think is the sweetest thing in the world. Whenever a child is on the way, someone close to the mother gets a needle-point kit and makes a real Christmas stocking. You can get them at Micheal's and places like that. I don't know that you would want to do something like that but of you do, get a yarn kit rather than one that uses thread. The yarn kit takes a shorter amount of time and is usually easier for a beginner. I love that tradition - our cats have stockings even!

Allie

[This message has been edited by Allie_XO (edited January 30, 2001).]