Those are just picture books. They're the only ones Tim can "read." He keeps the cats close because they help him when he gets stuck. (Just kidding - those books are super long and I have lost all patience with them, so Elizabeth knows she'll have better luck if she asks her daddy.)
Two full months (and a few days) after we started demo, we are finished with our kitchen remodel. Glen and Arnie were here until late on Tuesday night, and Gary was out yesterday finishing up in the garage, and so, we are done. Signed, sealed, delivered.
I know, you are thinking that these look awfully similar to the last photos before Christmas. That's because they are.
The only real difference is here:
Now we have our trash/recycling drawer on the left, and there are new doors on the lazy Susan that so that the gap is smaller. It's interesting to see how the new doors compare to the ones that are six weeks old - the cherry is definitely darkening and changing. The cabinets are probably my favorite part of the kitchen.
The other new piece since Christmas is the laundry sink in the garage
I wish I had a before picture, but I don't (because this was not in our original plan.) Our previous laundry sink was this movable plastic piece of crap that was barely connected to the wall. Also, once Gary started working the plumbing, he found several places where it was done incorrectly (I think his exact term was "bootlegged.") So now all of the ins and outs and drains are done correctly. And com'n, granite countertop in the garage? I feel like I need to get fancier appliances. Glen kept talking about finding me a "scrap" piece for the top of the cabinet, and I thought by scrap he meant formica, or wood, or tile. I was not thinking granite. My garage is so classy now! I look forward to rinsing out some stains.
It seems so weird to be done. Part of me is sort of terrified that something's going to go wrong now, because everyone's finished and paid off, so it'll be my problem (and not just something to add to my punch list to finish later.) Plus now I actually have to keep things clean. In the last few weeks before the demo, and during the whole thing, I got into a pretty good groove of ignoring dust and dirt because "eh, it's going to get worse before it gets better." Now I have to actually clean up after myself when I'm done cooking. I have the hardest life ever, obviously.
Both Glen and Gary joked about when we're going to redo the bathrooms. When the cabinets and countertops went in, they looked so pretty that I found myself trying to figure out if we could gut the bathrooms before the baby arrived. Now that it's nearly February, I can say that I have no desire to deal with any sort of renovation until late 2014. Plus we still have work to do to get all of the bedrooms ready to go. Oh, and a new baby to welcome and raise. UGH. Hardest life EVER.
Last night we had to say goodbye to Grandma Rosie and Grandpa Charlie before their trip back to Wisconsin. This meant that it was time to snap a few four generation pictures, which I was excited about/dreading, because Ellie has been an absolute MONSTER about having her picture taken for the past few months. Sometimes we get lucky and she just makes her "big smile face" which involves her chin being stuck straight up in the air, but more often than not, she screams and cries and insists on sticking her fingers in her mouth. THE WORST.
Yesterday however, she was an angel about it, saying cheese, smiling nicely, and waiting patiently for the additional craisins we were holding out as a bribe. And I'm glad, because we don't often get to take these sort of pictures.
Lots of Millers
Lots of Thiels
Grandpa was surprised by how hefty she is - she's not for those with bad backs to carry around, that's for sure.
I am especially in love with this picture. These two are completely in cahoots
Today Ellie was sad that it was just Gigi and Grizz at their house (Sara was at work when we stopped by.) But it won't be too long before we're in Wisconsin, doing some visit and vacationing of our own.
Today was our final swim lesson at our current facility. I've been considering quitting for awhile, selfishly because I find all of the prep and then clean up for a 20 minute lesson exhausting. Being pregnant makes it even worse to sit in an incredibly chlorinated pool that's heated to 90 degrees, and the facility itself is about 85 degrees and reeks of chlorine, so putting her in private lessons and staying out of the pool isn't any more attractive to me. The kicker is that the facility is under new management, and our swim instructor, who's been working with Ellie since she was four months old, has left. It just seemed like the right time.
Gigi, Grandma Rosie and Auntie Sara came by today to see the last lesson, and snapped a few pictures for me. Even though I know this is the right move for us, I'm feeling a little nostalgic. We've been going to swim Tuesdays at noon for two years now, every week! I'm not quite sure what we'll do with ourselves next week.
Being forced to back float at her second lesson
On the raft, using her chunky legs as a personal floatation device
And today! Please notice that my hands are not touching her. She can float all on her own!
Thanks for splashing both of us in the eyes, kiddo
Going to get a raft
One last remembrance of our teensy weensy fishy baby
We have been having a great time with Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Rosie, and I'd like to think that they have been pretty entertained by the crazy antics of their great granddaughter. Tim spent the weekend in Las Vegas on a work trip (not a business trip - a celebratory trip since their last few games have been so successful) and we managed pretty okay without him, even though every day I am slightly more uncomfortable, being all old and pregnant. Sometimes the baby just makes my SKIN hurt with the punching and the kicking and the rolling.
We also toured a preschool this morning that I think will be a good fit for Ellie, and us as a family, so that's exciting. And Ricardo came by and continued fixing up our ugly front yard. After a few weeks of feeling like the wheels were coming off, I feel like my life is starting to come together.
Here Ellie is working in the garden with Gigi, using her watering can to plant a new tree. That is her infamous tutu skirt.
Ellie's big girl bed arrived last week, and we have all of the linens we need for it. The new blinds are up in both of the kids rooms, so we can move her whenever we're ready. And this weekend Grandma and I bought some fabric to make a little closet door, and she sewed it all up beautifully.
Here she is asking Grandma Rosie if she can eat some of those pins.
I think we're going to make the move to her new room over the weekend. I still have to sort through and put away the little boy clothes we were generously gifted, and I have to move all of Ellie's clothes into her new dresser and closet. Plus she has a gazillion stuffed animals to sort through and store to make her new room less of a mess. I thought we'd never get here! But we might be ready for a second baby after all. Pictures once we get everything finished.
All is mostly quiet on our front, though moving along nicely. The kitchen is still not completely finished, but we've been enjoying it a lot. We're really working on having home cooked dinner as a family, which ends up with a lot of table manner lessons. Ellie does pretty okay sitting with us and eating what we give her, but she gets crabby when she isn't allowed to get down, or when she IS allowed to get down but neither of us move to immediately start playing with her. We're also working on having her clear her place and throw away her napkin. So many lessons to learn!
Thor is fattening himself right back up, and continues to be a very good boy about getting his shots. Tim showed Ellie how to make a "kitty tower" by putting blocks on Lulu, and that has resulted in a lot of biting. She prefers tea party, if she must interact with the people-kitten.
I am officially 30 weeks pregnant. Please to gaze upon my glorious belly (and my ham bone child. She cries if I ask to take a picture of her, but scrambles in the second we try to get a picture of me.)
I continue to feel really great. Walking every morning, going to the gym on weekends, keeping up with Ellie, for the most part. I do get winded at the end of the night, and picking up all 30 pounds of toddler and carrying her around nearly makes me keel over. I am also all full of hormones and all out of patience, but physically doing great, ha!
When I first started feeling the baby move, he was really low in my pelvis, and I thought that there might be something to the whole "you carry lower with a boy" wives tale. But since he's gotten bigger, he's spent most of his time up near my ribs, just like his sister did. But he's more on the right side of my body, and spends more time rolling, whereas Ellie was a kicker and a puncher and was solidly on the left. Perhaps this one will learn to roll over before he's a year old, instead of being the world's laziest baby.
Here is a video of him up to no good in my insides. This usually goes on nonstop for an hour around 10pm.
The rhythmic movement is me breathing, obviously. The sudden antics are all him.
Tomorrow I have a routine check up with my doctor, and then I have to start going every two weeks, eek! He's going to be here sooner than I realize.
This weekend we went and ordered Ellie's big girl bed for her new room. She's getting a trundle bed, twin sized. She was very excited about the whole production, especially when they brought out some Legos for her to play with. Let the sleepovers begin! That's getting delivered this week, and they're installing our new window treatments on Friday. Plus Grandma Rosie will be here later this week and promised to help me with curtains for Ellie's closet space, so we're right on track with my goal of having Ellie in her new room in early February.
We're also looking at preschools for her, so she can do two half days a week of fun time with some new friends, and so I get a sanity break when I transition to being a mom of two. We've toured a couple of facilities, and Ellie loves it - at the first place she ran in, sat down at a desk and started coloring. Every morning she asks to watch the episode of Daniel Tiger where he visits school, and asks when she gets to go again. Hopefully she'll continue to have a positive reaction when she's actually there for more than fifteen minutes, and when she's there without her mommy two steps behind. I've told the preschool directors that Ellie is a lucky girl in that I'm home with her, we do a lot of play dates with other kids, and she gets a lot of attention from all of her grandparents. Frankly, I'm looking for someplace where Ellie will NOT get one on one attention all the time. She needs to learn a lot about sharing and turn waiting!
She dressed herself. Her favorite tutu skirt (worn two days in a row) plus her kitty cat robe (made for 0-9 month olds) her purse around her neck (filled with Sesame Street friends) and her sweet sunglasses and an old binky she dug up. She had a good time cleaning out her toy bin tonight.
Tim and Meg met in 2003 at UCLA, only three weeks before Meg graduated, and only three months before she moved to Canada for graduate school. They dated long distance for a year, got engaged in 2004 and married in 2005. Tim makes video games as an actual job. After five years in LA, in a 500 square foot apartment, we moved back behind the Orange Curtain and bought our first house in October 2009. We followed up that fun by having our first daughter, Elizabeth Rosemarie in October 2010.
Tim is 6'6" and Meg is 5'3". Yes, we know we look mismatched in pictures. Yes, Meg tries to stand on things to be taller whenever she can.
