The best age ever

I know there's always something fun about whatever age your child is, but I'm telling you what, three months is pretty fantastic.

The newborn fussiness has dissipated and sleep training is finally beginning to work. In fact, sleeping through the night comes (and then goes), but at least it's coming sometimes!

Once Anna Kimball's been fed and if she's not tired, she requires the minimum of work (in contrast to another young lady who rules the house these days. She shall remain nameless) It's marvelous, it's a like a "set it and forget it" recipe! She's not mobile yet, so I can just leave her on my bed, oohing and gooing over nothing in particular while I putz around the house. Sure, she'd be delighted if you stop and play with her, but no harm done if you can't. The smiles abound, as do the naps (hooray!), and if I could just overlook the fact that she's still driving me to the washing machine more times in a week than I'd prefer, I'd say this is just about the most perfect age ever.

Home makeover, part 2

The suspense has been killing you, right? As I mentioned earlier, I don't feel my pictures adequately showcase the transformation, in part because I'm not a gifted photographer and also because some things are just better seen in person ... so come visit!

Let me also say that this was all done on a tight budget and I'm truly astonished by the impact you can make on your house just by moving some things around, using pieces in new ways, leaning on Walmart and Lowes when necessary, etc. When I gagged a bit at the curtains we were perusing at Walmart, Jay reminded me that they look bad because they're in Walmart! Take them home, get them out of that context and you might feel differently.

With all that said, here are a few snapshots that might give you an idea of what took place:

The living room dilemma was solved by moving the desk across the room, making a cozy reading corner and "stair-stepping" some pictures. Other fun touches included propping a huge heavy mirror against that awful mirrored space above the mantle, spray painting the coffee table that I will soon attempt to re-tile myself, and hanging some curtains. We also switched rugs with the master bedroom rug, which has done wonders for both spaces.

We didn't do too much to the dining room, since we had already had it painted and the drapes made and hung. We did endeavor to show off the new sideboard by hanging some botanical prints above it instead of that big heavy, dark mirror that's now above the fireplace. Turns out the mirror wasn't doing the sideboard any favors - how were we to know?! Jay was very helpful in showing us where we needed to brighten things up a bit and where we needed to leave "negative space" (i.e. have nothing in some places), etc.

You can also see through to the breakfast nook in the last dining room shot, where we tried out this fabulous budget curtain fix - hang a fitted sheet over a tension rod, tie up with some fun ribbon, and voila, drapes on a dime!

Speaking of the breakfast nook, there it is, as well as my little helper who tried her best to keep up with me as I scurried around the house taking pictures.

This is one of my most favorite touches - after we moved the food painting to our bedroom we had quite a bit of white space to deal with. I wanted some type of chalkboard, but never thought I'd get something as cute as this for so little. It's a $5 window we found at the Habitat for Humanity store in town. We painted one pane with chalkboard paint and got a big poster of Paris at World Market to crop and tuck into the other pane. Then we painted the window the same bright green that's in our breakfast nook. (I say we - Matt's mom actually did all of the work!)

As you try to avert your eyes from the horrid ceiling we are not fixing right away unless a money tree begins to grow in our backyard, you might notice how Jay artfully arranged more botanical prints flanked by two beer growlers - a little bit of me, a little bit of Matt!

This shows the beginning stages of Emery's room, which still needs to be painted pale pink. Again, fitted sheet curtains saved the day. We also moved Matt's nightstand into the room, switched around some lamps ... you get the idea, just keep moving things around till you get the right effect!

And for the third time, fitted sheet curtains in the guest bath. 

I never would have picked this print myself, but it works!

And finally, here are a couple shots of our bedroom, which now has the luxury of the nicest rug in the house, a painting we originally thought belonged in the kitchen, $1 lamps shades for the wall sconces that we found at a thrift store, among other things. Jay also suggested that we not center the bed along the wall in order to create more space on Matt's side and keep the room from looking too crowded. It worked! (thought it's probably hard to tell from this picture)

Our work is far from done and there are many more pending projects to be done, including fixing up the nursery and the playroom, repainting ceiling fan blades, fixing and hanging an old light fixture, possibly painting some dressers, finding a chair, a few rugs ... oh my, I'm getting tired just thinking about it. But fortunately we're off to a great and astonishingly affordable start!

Home makeover, part 1

Where to begin? Within 48 hours I got a new house this week, thanks to Matt's mom, my mom and her friend Jay who's a decorator. I wish the pictures did justice to this astounding transformation, but you'll have to take my word for it. I didn't get too many "before" pictures because Jay works like a tornado, but here are a few for effect:

Emery's bedroom

I love this shot of Jay moving the painting we had dared to hang before she arrived since we just knew it belonged in the kitchen. It's a painting of food for crying out loud! 

What did we know?! Off it went to the master bedroom!

Living room

More living room 

And yes, more living room. This space was my biggest pain point prior to the transformation, since we had to have our TV in that wooden cabinet, but nothing seemed to work well around it. 

Thankfully Jay made everything better and all is right with the world and in my living room ... stay tuned for part 2!

A day of firsts

Easter brought many firsts this year ... Anna Kimball made it to church for her first Easter, but then pooped through her dress before we could get a decent picture.

We pulled off the diaper cover, though, and gave it a go.

Emery had her first "Peep," thanks to dear Auntie Shannon. I sure do have a sweet tooth, but not for those atrocities! Turns out Emery might be a girl after my own heart, because she couldn't finish her Peep. She much prefers chocolate, a word she often proclaims with almost devilish excitement.

Emery also had her first Easter egg hunt! Though this is her third Easter, she wasn't yet walking for the past two, so we delayed this tradition until now. She got the hang of it pretty quickly, and wasn't even too disappointed when some of the eggs were empty and treatless (the tomb was empty, too, right?!)

Be a brave bunny

I often tell Emery to be a "brave bunny" (she has a bunny towel) when I'm rinsing her hair out during bath time, since of course she doesn't like getting water in her eyes.

Well, turns out she's not the only one who needs to be brave. Yesterday, we were in the backyard when I heard a rustling in the leaves. For some reason it caught my attention since it didn't sound like a squirrel or a bird. My curiosity got the best of me and I looked to see what the noise was and to my horror realized it was a SNAKE. Not just a green garter snake. A long, thick black one, slowly slowly slowly creeping through the leaves and against the concrete wall on the side of our property. The same wall we have to walk by to get back to the deck and into the safety of our kitchen. (or is our kitchen even safe??! this is my new concern)

I took a few deep breaths, whisked Emery away and made the trek along the other side of the house (is that even safe??!) without letting her in on my panic. If she needs to be a brave bunny, well, I guess I do, too. But it's not going to be easy. Especially since my neighbor now tells me he thinks there's a snake bed between our house and his. YIKES.

I'm doing many of you a favor and NOT posting the picture I managed to get of the snake from the safety of the deck (or is that even safe??!) and will instead leave you with a snapshot of the bravest bunny I know - Emery!

Emery is 2!

Emery made the big turn to 2 this week and with her, it's not just a number. She is actually acting 2, giving us her best complete sentences on a regular basis, running around, playing pretend, having independent thoughts and yes, even whining from time to time ... oh, let's be honest - more like on a regular basis.

But let's focus on the positive, shall we? The day started with a few small presents at breakfast - stickers, Elmo book, etc. I even arranged her morning "mina" (i.e. banana) in the shape of a face, since she regularly insists we draw her faces whenever the crayons come out. Alas, she didn't even notice the face and instead was completely absorbed by the dried cranberries I placed on top of the banana slices.

Anna Kimball dressed up for the occasion ... and promptly fell asleep.

Later, Emery opened her main present from us, a baby stroller and quickly got to work giving her dollies stroller rides. I'm also immensely proud of Emery for only trying to get in the stroller once.

We spent the rest of the morning on a Mommy/Emery day, which was a wonderful treat made possible by Grammie watching Anna Kimball. We got Emery all dolled up in an adorable birthday outfit from Henny and started with a Kindermusik class, then stopped by our bakery of choice for a blueberry muffin and finally swung by our favorite produce market where she (I!) was showered upon with loads of free fruit. 

After nap Emery set up camp on the deck and waited for her "party" to begin. (can you tell we still need patio furniture?)

We kept the party lowkey and just invited a few friends/neighbors to drop by. I have a hunch birthdays from here on out are going to be pretty exhausting and I'd say this one was one step below exhausting for me ... so better to ease myself into things here while Emery barely knows the difference, right?

Auntie Shannon was brazen kind enough to give Emery a practically real dog that barks, walks and whimpers, all with the push of a button ... that Emery insists everyone else push for her. Thank you Shannon!! :)

Grammie kept good care of Anna Kimball through all the festivities, who miraculously kept her birthday outfit relatively spit-up free the whole day.

And what would a birthday be without cake? I made our little cookie lover one big cookie ... and am terribly delighted that she has no idea about cake leftovers. That's a little secret we'll save for your 3rd .... or maybe 13th, birthday!

We love you, Emery! Here's to a terrific year of 2!

Sisters and smiles

Fortunately, Anna Kimball is growing out of her newborn fussiness and passing out infinitely more smiles than Emery ever did at this age, which of course is a fun surprise!

She even thought some tummy time on Emery's lamb blanket was a pretty good idea.

Now see Emery on the same blanket when she was a baby.

At first I thought this would be a clever side-by-side illustration of their different temperaments, but to give Emery credit, she wasn't even six weeks old in this picture and wasn't smiling at all. BUT, my hunch is that if she were in the same position at eight weeks, she'd have pretty much the same solemn expression.

In other news, Emery turned 2 this week! Birthday post and pics coming soon ....