Rivalry Week.

When Besties become Frenemies, for one day only.

We thought about making them fist fight, but ultimately decided against it.

GO BRUINS!

Sea of Holes.

The "business" side of the kitchen, where the stove and fridge are going to be located.

Sink area, now with all new piping, coming down from at the attic. Also, electrical for under cabinet lights

The "workspace" area of the kitchen, which will be all cabinets and counter space, plus more under cabinet lights. The plan is to build a soffit in this space as well so all of the cabinets will be the same space, rather than having some tall and some short like it used to be

The hole in the ceiling of my pretty room, from where the plumber tripped in the attic. Thankfully, he's okay. Less thankfully, now that ceiling will probably have to get patched, skimmed and painted

NOT ONLY THAT but he INTENTIONALLY cut a hole in my beautiful pretty room, to get to the manifold for the water. UGH.

The good news is that we're also getting a whole new laundry set up. Goodbye, janky and corroded plumbing!

Practically Perfect!

This morning, instead of being about the new ktichen, was about the new baby. Tim and I were there bright and early(ish) to see what Lambeau Field was up to. 

The answer is, a lot! He was all curled up with his hands and feet up by his face. He's currently head up, but he's so little right now that it doesn't even matter (and considering a c-section is inevitable with this pregnancy, it won't even matter as he gets bigger.) 

I'd sort of forgotten how much time they spend at the 20 week scan. The u/s at 8 and 16 weeks are just looking for a heart beat (and at 16 weeks, if they can see gendered parts) and at 12 weeks they're scanning for a few things, but it's still only a couple of minutes. Today we got to see his four ventricled heart pumping away, the curve of his spine (looking good!) and both sides of his brain. They could also see that his bladder was full, which means that he's starting to swallow fluid and digest it, and that his kidneys should be functioning normally. It's astounding to see all of this detail on a little baby who's no bigger than a banana, especially considering that 30 years ago, ultrasounds couldn't tell gender, and sometimes even missed if there was more than one baby present! And kudos to people who do it "the old fashioned way" but I love seeing every part of the baby, and knowing that he's a little boy. It also allows me to start shopping for non-ugly boys clothes (hard when you hate the color brown.)

All of my bloodwork came back normal, so we can fairly safely assume that this baby is your healthy, normal, average kid. Exactly what I was hoping for!

His head is on the left side, and that's his little nose sticking up in the air, along with part of his hand.

Same position, except now he's facing the camera and being a scary skull faced alien baby.

We continue to have no idea what we're going to name him, and I'm not just saying that because we're not planning on sharing the name even if we do decide on something. Boys names are hard, because they're not pretty (and because I might be a big hippie in some ways, but I'm not naming my kid River or Willow.) 

My blood pressure was amazingly low, so basically we are all perfect. In fact, I don't have to come back for another SIX WEEKS. By this point with Ellie, I was going every four weeks (and once I hit 24 weeks, they wanted to see me twice a week!) I've never gotten to go six weeks between appointments before! But next time I come we'll do the gestational diabetes test, and probably start talking delivery dates and decision. Hooray!

In the meanwhile, Ellie got to spend the morning with Mimi, which was about the thrill of her life. We had lunch together and then she got to have Mimi come to swim class, where she did some good back floating, some good crab walking along the walk, and then she spit a whole mouthful of water in Clare's face and cried like she'd been murdered when I reprimanded her (meanwhile, Clare was patting her on the back and saying it was okay.)

She's been a pretty good girl about the whole renovation (which looks like it's going to run about two weeks over, between the plumbing and the cabinets.) She says that our kitchen is messy and the guys are here to clean it up. Lulu is being the biggest problem, mostly because she's freaked out and frustrated. She went after my recliner with her claws (and please note, she's ignored it for the year we've had it) so that sort of makes me want to smother her. But such is life. She'll adjust, or I'll turn her into a piece of carpet. Or have her buried in the walls.

Home Stretch

Here we are, at the 20 week mark. Thus putting me officially halfway to being a mom of two, and the CEO/matriarch of a family of four. EXCITING! The pukiness and the exhaustion of the first trimester are a distant memory - my only problem is my complete lack of patience with all things (which is fairly par for the course for me, though at time exaggerated by crazy hormones.) I've been keeping up pretty well with working out, though probably one morning a week I think to myself that maybe it's time to start walking four miles instead of five.

It's funny to think of all the wives tales between girls and boys. One is that if you're pregnant with a girl, she will "steal your beauty." My skin's been equally bad with both pregnancies, but I will say that I've gained a lot less weight this time around. Partially because I have more time for exercise, but also, when I was pregnant with Ellie, I was starving ALL THE TIME. And not like, "oh, have a handful of almonds" hungry, but "if I don't get a full meal in the next twenty minutes, I will murder a friend or coworker with my bare hands" starving. Maybe that was Ellie's way of trying to ruin my naturally supermodel looks and figure. This time, not so much. I definitely eat more than before I was pregnant, but it's generally just a slightly bigger breakfast and a mid-afternoon snack. They also say that you carry higher with girls than with boys, and Ellie definitely lived up in my rib cage up until the moment I had her surgically removed. Thus far Lambeau Field is stuck right around my belly button. It'll be interesting to see if he migrates upwards as he gets bigger, or if he insists on hanging out in his current location.

He's also quieter than she was at this stage of development. Less kicking, and less vigorous in general (though the other night Tim had his hand on my stomach and Lambeau was banging around so hard that I asked Tim if he had flicked my stomach.) I am hoping that maybe this is because Lambeau is going to be more laid back and better behaved than his sister was as an infant. I have to hold out hope! Because if ANYONE suggests the word "colic" to me, I will probably punch them square in the throat.

Also, after discussing Ellie's apparent growth spurt, she woke up this morning having peed through her pajamas, which NEVER happens. Turns out, that brand new box of size 5 diapers is already too small. And she tried to fall asleep for a half hour today and couldn't, and had to have a bowl of cottage cheese before going back down for a nap (she'd just had a sandwich and some grapes before we tried to put her down the first time.) I hope I don't have to run out and get 3T clothing soon!

What Ellie is Up To.

The biggest thing is apparently a growth spurt. On Friday she asked for cottage cheese for breakfast, and some oatmeal, which is normal (though usually we substitute yogurt for cottage cheese, but hey, more protein.) Then she had a yogurt around 10, and at 11 she was whining for more food, so we had a banana. I thought for sure she was just bored or stir crazy, and not really hungry. Well, then we went out to lunch with Lexi and Kristen and at lunch she snacked on a bunch of goldfish and some dried fruit before the meal, stuffing it in rapid fire style. We'd ordered the girls a grilled ham and turkey sandwich to split, and Ellie ate all of hers and then half of Lexi's. She is an absolute bottomless pit! I don't know how much taller she is intending to get. I'd like to her to wear her 2T stuff before growing out of it!

Speaking of. So, her first two winters we kept her either swaddled, or in a sleep sack (which is basically a blanket with arm holes that you zip your baby into.) Here is a picture:

Cuddly, right? The baby can't roll out from under the blanket, nor can they pull it over their face and smother. I highly recommend. Last winter I bought Ellie the XL sleep sack, which she could actually walk in, despite the lack of feet. I have video of it somewhere that I should find - she is like a little Lisa Simpson. This year, she moved into the 2T-3T sack, which actually has little foot holes at the bottom. But unlike a pair of footed pajamas, there is still a ton of material at the bottom - it's definitely not fitted to the crotch. She looks hilarious in it, but thankfully, can still walk (and climb up into bed with us in the morning no less!) I'm glad I remembered it last night and pulled it out of the closet - this morning it was 65 degrees in the house. Which is colder when you remember that she doesn't currently sleep with a blanket, nor does she have a nice spouse to keep the bed warm, or even a kitten to lay on her head!

She is obsessed with her birthday presents, especially her tea party. It came in a little carrying case, which is great, because she likes to take it to other people's houses with her. And she loves her Sesame Street doll house. She calls all of the character figurines her "friends." As in "let's go see my fwiends!" as soon as she gets up in the morning. She likes to lay them all face down on the coffee table before she takes a nap, and then when she wakes up, she will run out and wake them all up too.

She likes to carry around a bag and pretend to go shopping. Usually she is also pushing a baby (or bunny) in the stroller, so she will tell me "goodbye mama, I'm going to buy some apples!" and then will come back, hand me a pretend apple and tell me "you taste it? It tastes good." She also is in to smelling things lately (will bring me a lotion to open up and let her smell, especially) but if you ask her if something smells good, she will ALWAYS say that it smells like "a peanut butter sandwich." My orange scented lotion? Peanut butter sandwich. The cats? Oh, they smell like sandwiches too.

And when she gets excited about something, especially something alive (such as a cat, or a rabbit) she starts exclaiming "oh, looka him! Looka him! He so cute!" which makes me laugh every time. Her delight is infectious.

She still calls yogurt ohgirduh, which I love, and my other favorite Ellie-ism is when we're walking some place and she doesn't want to hold my hand, she will say "I walk to myself mama." She knows she has to hold my hand in parking lots, but on a side walk she will pull away "I walk to myself!" I use the phrase "to myself" now too because it just cracks me up. She does however, call hop hops rabbits (whabbits) or bunnies now, and she has starting calling agua water more than half the time. Finally, speaking some English around here.

We've discussed the whole baby brother situation with her often. She thinks he lives in my belly button, though the other day she thought he was gone (but from HER belly button. I assured her that he was still safe and sound in mine.) She knows that he will be nursing when he comes out, and depending on the day, she says we will either kick him, or hold him and rock him. I think she's going to do a pretty bang up job of big sistering. Maybe she will even share her Sophie - she dug it out of the toy box the other day and seemed mystified by the squeaky old gal, and I told her "oh, you used to love Sophie, you used to chew on her feet," and she stuck Sophie in her mouth again and announced that she tasted "bleah!"

Demolition Derby.

Well, I no longer have anything resembling a kitchen. I have an empty room that smells like an old basement!

We've hit our first little snafus of home renovation - the cabinets for the window side of the kitchen are measured to go to the ceiling, because he'd hoped we could take the soffit out. It's a load bearing beam, so no go on that (the good news is we can have the boxes for those cabinets made before the appliances go in, and then can wait on the doors. So at least I'll be able to unpack my dishes in a timely manner.)

This morning was plumbing time, and we are pulling all of the plumbing out of the slab and into the ceilings. That's going to be quite a bit of work, but it's worth the additional time and cost to avoid having a slab leak in five or ten years (or ever, really.) No point in redoing the kitchen so that we can someday rip up the floors to get to a leak.

But the new gas line is in!

And actually, the place is not as dusty as I thought it would be. The sliding glass door made a perfect entrance and exit for demo day, because they could just take all of the junk straight to the truck or the garage, without having to come through the house. Plus the main demo guy was "no dust George."

Ellie has been a trooper about it all so far. I put her down for a nap yesterday and five minutes later they started jack hammering the floor. She is the world's most "persnickety" sleeper, but she slept through it all! And then woke up 90 minutes later because of the garbage truck - what a fart! She is concerned about how it's messy and dirty, but understands that we are getting a new kitchen "just like Mimi!"

Before.

Tomorrow is the big day! KITCHEN DEMO DAY! I am of course, a little panicky. Not about the kitchen itself - I know it's going to be great, I trust our contractor (while also knowing that something will not go according to plan, so no dinner parties scheduled for the estimated completion date) and I know that this place is going to be a filthy mess for a few weeks. I mean, heck, I've done renovations while pregnant before. It's what I do!

I am mostly nervous about Ellie and the cats. I hope E and I will be able to get our daily walks in (which is selfishly more about me, probably) and I hope that she can get her naps in okay (knowing though, that if worse comes to worse, I can go and put her down at Gigi's house.) The cats are both lunatics already - Lulu has scratched her chin raw with anxiety over the boxes in the office, and Thor has been on a weird food strike for a few weeks following a brief food switch, so he's wandering around and yeowling. He will be REALLY pleased when there's strangers in the house and lots of banging noises (the cats don't get to escape to Gigi's though. They will get to live in our bedroom.)

So let's get into the Before pictures of our kitchen. Please note that this is true to life - unmopped floors, and cat food everywhere. I want to remember this little white dump the way it really looks.

Standing in the pretty room. Lots of appliances, lots of cheap white cabinets, total lack of counter space.

Crappy ovens and useless phone nook. A pantry with deep shelves that allow me to constantly lose things and rebuy four bags of sugar (but no extra flour for baking, of course.) Plus baby beginning to get into trouble.

Here are my favorite parts of the kitchen:

So well insulated! So wonderful and spacious! Perfect for using tiny cookies sheets and burning the heck out of your hands!

Plus we have great, high end counter tops.

Here's the first time I accidentally set down a hot pot and burned the counter top. I didn't know any better! We had cheap crap in our apartment, but it didn't burn.

Here's the second burn mark, from probably a month ago, because I am an idiot. I was making popcorn for dinner after a long night with the baby.

I will be so sad to see it all go. GO STRAIGHT INTO THE TRASH.

In other fix it news, I spent $25 in parts to fix our laundry sink, because first off, I was too stupid and thought the problem was the trap, when it was really the pipe above - you know, the part of the pipe that was fixed with TAPE. Then I bought the wrong pipe. Last night, I finally fixed it. Basically, I showed myself why there is no way that I could take on a renovation project on my own. Kudos to those who can, but I am happy to just write some checks and supervise the work. And the cats. And Elizabeth.