Renovating or Remodeling or Redecorating?

Since I often find myself in the middle of doing something for either Junior or this house, the house is beginning to feel like just another of my children. It is needier than Junior, however, and much more expensive. Currently, if I was given a lump sum of money that would either make over our backyard or finish our master bedroom...my brain would go in circles trying to make a decision. Our bedroom has only received some paint and a new chest of drawers. I'd like to add curtains, shades, rugs, bedding, a dresser, two nightstands, a bed and a vanity table. However, you must walk through our back deck area to enter our house (if you're on a first-name basis with Mr. Wonderful or me) and therefore, lately I find myself 51/49 in favor of finishing the back yard and deck as soon as possible. Here are some minor improvements we made over the wonderful holiday weekend we just had:

                            Trailing petunias...5 of them hanging on hooks around the deck's perimeter

                                Mr. Wonderful seeded our back lawn

                                       Fenced off these beautiful hydrangeas to keep the dog from destroying them

                                     Mr. Wonderful pressure-washed the deck and fence in preparation for painting

                            This arrangement is in the rain room, over the area where the outdoor sofa will be.

                                                     The interior of the rain room roof--love this ceiling fan!

Not everything was work this weekend, however. On the same day Junior decided to pull himself up to a standing position for the first time, he also had his first experience splashing swimming.

Junior is an excellent reminder to his parents not to work too hard, to take the time to have some fun and to just enjoy being a family.

Junior: Growing at Breakneck Speed

The past couple of months have been some of the most wonderful, albeit most exhausting of my life. Getting moved into our new home was only the beginning. I have now painted 3 rooms in our house (they all desperately need it--had help from my Dad on our bedroom). I had to take a break from painting because it was putting me somewhere in the realm where a nervous breakdown was a possibility--ha! I am not a painter, don't enjoy it, and I usually approach it with guns blazing, just wanting to get it over with. The interesting thing I've found is that, looney-tunes as the previous owner may have been, her interior paint colors were pretty much what I'm choosing as well. The exterior is an entirely different story, and we'll tackle that next summer by letting the professionals do it. So now that I'm finished with the living room, I stand back and see that although she'd done a faux finish on the living room walls that involved several different colors, the overall effect from a distance looked very much the same, color-wise, as what I've done. However, the main reason for painting is that the paint in every room looks as though it were just slapped up on the walls. Can't stand it!

So much has changed with Junior I hardly know how to process it sometimes. He sits up, he crawls, he stands on his hands and feet and he's getting his first tooth. He now has an outdoor swing:

And a swimming pool, which he will get to use for the first time tomorrow. He also has had his first illness, this past week. That was an experience I'm not anxious to repeat again any time soon. He had a lowgrade fever and a horribly painful sore throat--pharyngitis, the doctor said. He was miserable, poor guy, and like his mother when she's under the weather, had no qualms about letting everyone know how miserable he was.

Junior can also now feed himself--crackers, cheerios, etc.

And no more do I have to make minimal little shopping trips because I have to stuff everything in the bottom of his stroller. Junior sits up in shopping carts now, happily kicking me as I stroll through the grocery store or these days, my second home--Home Depot. 

We've just purchased a "Friends of the Zoo" membership, a family premium pass for the year. We were so late in getting to the zoo the day we bought it that we were only able to spend about an hour (there was a torrential downpour anyway) but Junior did get a kick out of watching the flamingoes with Mr. Wonderful.

Lastly, I've been pretty excited for Junior to meet someone that meant an awful lot to me when I was a child (although much older than Junior is now). They certainly hit it off, and a fast friendship has been formed. Every day now these two get together and roll around in the floor, alternately wrestling and snuggling.

It isn't exactly the best picture of Junior's new friend, but it's Barney, a huge stuffed bear (much larger than Junior) my Gran had made for me when I was a kid. My own little one has completely claimed Barney as his own, and it makes me pleased as punch to see it. So far his only complaint with Barney is that when he chews his nose (hard plastic) it doesn't have any "give" to it. 

It was necessary that this post focus largely on Junior, as so much about him has changed developmentally in a short amount of time that it's mind-boggling. My next post, which should be very soon, will include home improvement pictures as well as our current backyard/deck makeover.

I have to conclude with this: God is blessing us more every day, it seems like. I had occasion to hit my knees in the kitchen this morning (avoiding discarded Cheerios as I did so) and thank Him all over again for His tremendous blessings. They are flowing like water. 

Next Week: I begin teaching 4-year old Sunday School at church--may I not only survive the 13-week class but may I also help these little ones develop a further understanding of Jesus!

Closing, Closing, Gone...

Tomorrow's the big day! We close on our new home tomorrow morning, and we're making it a family event--Junior's coming along with us. So far I've packed up Junior's bathroom, half of our bathroom, most of my closet, and about 1/4 of our kitchen. Written out like this it doesn't seem like much. :(

In the past month our adorable little monster has started eating fruits and veggies (tolerates veggies, hates fruit and yogurt) and has developed a fake cry and a fake cough. The fake cry I understand has a manipulative purpose but I have yet to discover why he thinks he needs a fake cough. That being said, manipulative or not, he's pretty darn happy these days.

Happy and exhausting. He even wears himself out.

We are hosting Junior's Grandaddy and Nino in about a week and a half, and we're both quite positive that Granddad has no idea what he's getting himself into. This boy is constant energy, requires almost constant attention and fights his mama on every single nap I put him down for. But almost on a daily basis we take a walk (or stroll, I should say) and we love it. It's been great for both of us. I get him ready to go and he's all set for sight-seeing.

This past Sunday was his first time in the nursery at church. We dropped him off, lingered, pointed out his toys and diaper bag to the caregivers about 3 times, then started off to the sanctuary. Mr. Wonderful was fine and I was bawling smiling. Still sniffling once we were asked to turn and greet our neighbors during the service, a lady mistakenly thought I had allergies. When I said "No, I just dropped my little boy off at the nursery for the first time" she said she understood perfectly--she'd done it four times, with four girls! It did feel like I'd just taken him to his first day of school. The second they took the offering at the end of the service, the two of us cut out, skipping the last vocal performance and almost running to the children's section. We get there, peer anxiously in the doorway, and there was Junior--happily lying on his tummy, kicking and smiling and surrounded by girls. He was the only male baby in the room that day and was apparently quite popular with his classmates. He was sharing a toy and playing nicely with a cute little girl in a pink dress, began to fuss for a moment, then heard his daddy's voice and looked up and saw us. I ran an obstacle course of little girl babies to get to my boy, and as soon as I reached out for him he gave me a gigantic smile. That buddy of mine melts me every time.

In the next couple of weeks I hope to get a Junior-sized pool for our new backyard so he and I can make a big mess and soak everything around us practice our backstrokes. I'll be sure to keep you updated as we go along!

Other Than The New House...

     We close on our new home on April 5th--just about a month from now. And while I am extremely excited to get in and get settled and start decorating (thank goodness for www.pinterest.com!), there's something else that's occupying my thoughts and time these days as well.

Baby Weight.

I capitalized because I find this weight worthy of capitalization. It is, in fact, a very worthy opponent. I could say "Why didn't anyone tell me it was this hard?" but they did. Both my friend Stephanie and my sister-in-law were honest in letting me know upfront that it wasn't easy. After battling toe problems for months and months after Beau, I truly felt behind in losing the baby weight. I couldn't wear closed-toed shoes, so...no workouts for me. In the past 4 1/2 weeks however, I've lost 10 lbs. I am torn between celebrating and being a little sad, as this is only 1/3 of the way towards my goal weight.

This weight loss is happening in a very healthy way. (Read: very restrictive, very challenging). I am running every other day and using Noom, a really handy app my stepmother told me about. It keeps track of everything about you--your weight, your workouts, your meals, your waist size...and based on this info it comes up with a caloric intake limit per day for you. It does work. But it is very difficult. For instance--based on the above factors, today's calorie limit for me is 1230 calories. All day long. No exceptions. Period.
Tough stuff.

It just so happens that I received some additional motivation in the mail yesterday, in the form of a 16"x20" stretched canvas work of art:

This was a Groupon offer from months ago that I'd purchased and finally ordered. Taken on our wedding day, here I am, in a dress that was too big because my seamstress couldn't keep up with my weight loss (lots of cardio, very little carbs). Regardless, I weighed about 132 lbs. I'd like to get back there. Intended as a house-warming present for my husband (he has free reign to hang this anywhere in our new home that he chooses), I now see it sitting on the mantel in our townhouse here and it's a fantastic reminder not to exceed those 1230 calories. :) All of this weight loss needs to happen prior to this summer, when I may be called upon to wear something other than my daily uniform: old baggy tee-shirt (complete with spit-up and drool spots--not my own) and sweatpants.

Just thought I would share my current struggle. :) I know it is not wholly unfamiliar with some of you, so if you have any tips to help me along, send 'em my way!

Junior's BIG Day!

Today started out normally enough for our boy. He played on his activity mat, on his exersaucer, and finally in his Johnny Jump Up while I folded his laundry.

But today was also really huge for Junior. He's 5 months old today and today was his first day trying solid foods. As in:

Going into his first feeding, his mama was nervous. He was eyeing the bowl pretty suspiciously.

The first bite went in and I already genuinely began to feel that this wasn't going to be that difficult.

And the next bite wasn't too bad either.

Then things got a little out of control...my control.

Those little hands got busy and the next thing I knew, there was cereal in his eyebrows, all over his hands, his pants, on his bouncy seat, in his hair, in my hair...and I was unprepared.

Sensing my lack of preparedness, Junior went from skeptical to adamantly opposed. Quickly.

Little ones are just like horses. You can't let them sense your fear. My fear (and rightly so) after he made a huge mess was that I hadn't brought extra bibs (the one he had was saturated in an instant), extra burp cloths, wash cloths....anything to help me confront the disaster he'd managed to make in 2 minutes worth of eating a little harmless cereal. I thank my lucky stars that it's bath day anyway.

What do you do to handle this gigantic mess every time you feed your youngster??

No News Is....No News

...But this time...there's news!!!
We have a house. Not just any house, but the house I drooled over for so very, very long. A year, to be exact. I haven't even seen this house in a year and we got it--just like that! Thanks to my husband and his masterful, previously untried negotiating skills, our little boy has a great new home to live in, come the beginning of April. Here she is, folks:

Lastly here, is Junior's room. I have just enough Beatrix Potter items to make it look like Peter Rabbit threw up in this room by the time I'm done. Bottom half of the walls have white wainscoting, but I will be painting the top half blue. 

This house has all the little touches I adore--the glass doorknobs, the trim, original moldings...with a completely amazing, up-to-date kitchen and bath. What more could a girl want?
We're very, very excited to move out of The Campsite and into our brand new (but built in 1928) home. I'm especially happy for these guys:

                                                          The cat declined to be photographed

These are the moments in life, when these major, major positive things occur, that you hit your knees right where you are and thank God. Over and over and over...

What a wonderful past few months these have been. First our big healthy boy, and now a beautiful new home. I am one blessed, grateful lady.

Come April we are open for visitors! You know who you are...

The Campsite

     The Campsite. This is what we've named our temporary digs. We don't like the part of town we're in, we don't like the townhome itself. Storage in the kitchen is almost nonexistent. We've gone bare minimum on the furniture we moved in. We do, in fact, feel as though we're camping.
     I have no new pictures to show you (for one thing, because I have absolutely no clue where we put our camera). Our dog, never brilliant to begin with, has not adapted well to the move. What brain he had has officially flown the coop. So far he goes upstairs when we want him down, stands up when he's been told to lie down, and has destroyed the blinds in both the master bedroom and Junior's room, by locking himself in each of those rooms on occasions when we've left the house. Once trapped, I'm assuming he flips out. Something has to have happened, for those blinds to be in the shape they're in.
     Living in the conditions we are, we really, really miss our little house. You know--the one I couldn't wait to move out of because it was cramped. Ha! I never knew cramped until a little over a week ago. THIS is cramped. But--my mantra is, and will continue to be for 2 months: "It's temporary...it's temporary...it's temporary."
     Hope all of you enjoyed your New Year's! I'll touch base again soon with (hopefully!) an exciting update.