Let's get packing!

Start the countdown... We leave on October 8th for Taiwan!

We still don't have an exact AIT date yet due to the governmental offices in Taiwan being shut down for the Typhoon there, but have gone ahead and booked our flights. We put some cushion on the back end, so hopefully we won't have to move the flight, but I suppose we'll figure that out tomorrow.

In the meantime, this is what I've transformed Elli's nursery to:

There's actually a whole other pile to the left that you can't see in the picture that's full of paperwork and magazines that we'll want in our carry-on luggage. (An obsessive but slightly messy packer? Who, me??)

On Friday we went to Fella Bella, the local children's store that sells my hats and whose owners we've become friends with. They told us a few months ago that they wanted to give us an outfit for us to bring Elli home when the time got closer. So Friday we went shopping, and when they said "whole outfit," they meant it! We got an adorable dress and tights and shoes and blanket for Elli's big debut at home! You can't quite tell from the picture, but the blanket is a cherry blossom / pagoda / lantern theme, and there are cherry blossoms on the dress, too.

I mentioned in a previous post about the blanket I was making. This is not getting packed, as it's less than practical (Question: What mother in her right mind makes a baby blanket that requires hand washing only? Answer 1: If you are asking this question, you obviously do not knit enough! Answer 2: Because the yarn was a bamboo yarn, and it is so soft it just melts in your hand and I can put up with the hand washing for something that feels so wonderful.) I found this pattern in a new book I bought on a whim -- it's the first of quite a few patterns from there I'm planning on knitting up!