Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Always learning from Daddy (and Vera update!!)

John Ryman has definitely turned into Daddy's little buddy over the past few months and it has been precious to watch.  From loud truck noises to tricks on the slide... carpet square surfing in the kitchen to wrestling on the couch... JR sure has one fun daddy to learn from!  I caught these pictures on Saturday morning- both boys so intrigued while making espresso.  I'm thankful to know that John Ryman is learning far greater things from his daddy than how to make espresso, but its always a good thing to know how to make a perfect cup of coffee :)

A little update:
I'm just past 38 weeks and Vera is ready to come any minute!  The doctor has been surprised each week as I've continued to progress without actually going into labor.  I didn't think baby girl could sit any lower, but of course in the past two days she has dropped even more!  Funny how different each pregnancy is!  I was running around, sprinting steps and shopping, until at the hospital in labor with JR... little Miss Vera is lower than JR ever was and I'm feeling every little movement.  While I don't think I'm as big with her- I've officially been doing the pregnancy waddle this past week :)   Anyways, for lots of different reasons, my doctor and I have decided to induce this Thursday!!!!!  If she doesn't come tonight or tomorrow, we will be heading to the hospital bright and early on the 27th to meet Vera!  I was already eating spicy food and eggplant at this point hoping to go into labor with JR (he was only one day late) and now I'm trying everything not to go into labor.  
So, we are having a baby this week!  (And most likely she will be born on our 5th wedding anniversary- what a way to celebrate!)

Monday, June 24, 2013

JR is 18 months old!

My sweet baby boy,
Your momma cannot believe that you are a year and a half today.  There are moments when I wish time would stand still, but honestly I am enjoying watching you grow and learn every day.  Today you learned how to click a pen open and close.  You were able to hear your sister's heartbeat and you mimicked the "thud thud" and said "baby".  And just the other day you learned to flex your muscles which you think is hilarious.  Each day I pick up on a new phrase that you say or new words you string together.  I try to wait a minute before helping you when you are stuck or trying to figure something out and there is nothing sweeter than the proud look on your face when you master something on your own!  I love the smile you get as you clap for yourself. 

You sure are vocal!  You can say all kinds of words, with some interpretation from me or daddy. 
(momma, daddy, vali- "alliii", puppy, ball, seat, hop, bunny, jump, up, off, on, banana, melon, lemonade- which is the funniest!, water, tea- for anything other than milk, bottle "baba", cat, horse- "seee", bike, raining, moon, airplane- sounds like "money"?, truck, tractor, no- of course!, all done, oatmeal, crunchies, turkey, berry, owl, tree... I'm sure I'm missing tons but these are just the ones that first came to mind.)  Your favorite phrases to say are: "Vali, Reagan, Outside, Shoes"- when you want to go outside with the dogs, but you know you need your shoes on first, "Bunny Bunny Hop Hop"- after daddy takes you to look at the bunnies in the neighbor's yard, "Go Dog Go Dog Go"- when you want to read that book, "Hiding..." then you scream "there he is!" before I can even look for you :)
You can say most of your family & friends names.  Just this morning I found you sitting on the floor by two picture frames of all your cousins saying "Lily" and pointing to her picture!  You understand everything we say and even can search and find an item for us!  Nana B was in town a few weeks ago while mommy wasn't home and she asked you where the vacuum was... you took her straight to the closet!  You did the same thing when she asked you where you keep your chalk.  Mommy has even been trying to have you go and get your diapers for her and it sometimes works!  haha if you don't get distracted along the way.  That could be a huge help when Vera comes along.  Nana B lets you play with her phone a lot and probably calls the most, so every time you hear a phone ring you say "Nana! Nana! Papa D!" 

You are a great little sleeper- usually 8:30pm to 8am, but can stay up way later and still be happy if there are friends around.  You fall right to sleep for your naps after playing in the sun and water.  Although a few weeks ago you started waking up in the night scratching your eyes and nose and asking for a bottle.  You aren't the biggest eater, so I thought you might be hungry and we tried to feed you as much as we could throughout the day.  When that didn't help we realized it might just be your allergies, since we were feeling the same way throughout the night.  We started giving you a little allergy medicine at dinner and you are back to sleeping 11-12 hours and no sneezing & itchy eyes!  You are down to one long nap a day, usually 3 hours in the afternoon.
(when I'm holding you like the picture above and I say "Where is my baby?" You lay your head on my shoulder and pat my back.  I love that you're still my cuddly baby, if only for a few seconds!)

Well, skinny boy, you are always on the move and have no time for food.  We make you sit with us at the table for every meal and give you whatever we are eating.  You usually eat that just fine and will try anything we give you, but you are done after a few bites.  It's hard to tell when you are done or if you are just bored, so we try our best to distract you while eating and catch you before you're "all done".  If we aren't paying attention, your food quickly becomes a ball and boy do you have an arm!!  It is pretty hard to discipline you with a straight face because you tell yourself "no" and have even been known to swat your own hand after throwing your food.  Too smart for your own good!  You definitely have a strong will but you hide it with a smile to look innocent.  Your Nana b. said she knew a baby like that :)  What works best for you is just turning your high chair around and removing all food from your plate.  I've found you really just want the attention more than anything so a little time away from the table but not letting you get down has been the best technique so far.  I think your favorite treat this summer has been eating fruit outside while you run around in the water! 

John Ryman, you are ALL boy!  You want to spend every waking hour outside searching for rocks, bunnies, and puppies.  Your baby pool has been so much fun although you never actually sit in it.  You just fill up cups and run them around the yard... chasing Vali, watering my flowers, cooling off mommy's feet or pouring it on the slide.  You run so fast with your red cup that most of the water has fallen out before you get to where you're going!  And when I turn on the hose- you get so excited and just stand there letting it run over your head and face.  Then you drink out of it like Vali!  We are so thankful for the swing set that the previous owners left because it keeps you busy.  You are quite the climber and can climb that ladder so fast to get to your slide.  I'm sure I look hilarious- huge and pregnant- sprinting back to the swing set to make it before you reach the top!  You love searching for the moon or an airplane in the sky while standing at the top of the slide.  Your hearing is incredible and your eyes notice the tiniest details! You can hear an airplane, truck or siren faint in the distance and you say "shhhh" and point to your ear so we all know to listen.  Or you will see the smallest airplane flying and you follow it across the sky with you eyes, most of the time spotting them before we can see them!

It's amazing, scary and humbling the little details that you pick up on!  You have started to repeat what we say or imitate us which can be hilarious at times.  My favorite was when you mimicked me killing a spider- complete with a scream and smacking motion with a piece of paper.  Daddy sure loves to be loud, dance and make silly movements so you both are quite the entertainment when you start imitating each other!  You know you are funny so at the end of your little show you start laughing at yourself :)

We are glad its summer since shorts fit you a lot better than pants.  It was so hard to find you pants long enough they weren't high waters but fit around your little bottom.  You are in mainly 18 month clothes, but 24 shirts seem to fit fine as well.  Your little legs always have a bruise or bump from all your activities, but nothing seems to stop you!  It is rare that you even cry when you have a good fall- usually you stand up and keep running or you hit whatever you fell on and say "silly".  Its pretty funny to see you run into a wall, fall down and then run back at it saying "silly wall!"
Your precious curls get crazier by the day and I can't tell you how many times we have trimmed them.  It is weird to think you had such dark hair until you were about 6 months and now the sun keeps turning it blonder.  You sure turn all the ladies' heads in the grocery store with your smile and curls. (and loud squeals when you spot a puppy or baby on a package)      
I am so excited for you to meet your baby sister!  I'm sure you have no idea what is coming, but I already know you will be the sweetest big brother to Vera.  What a blessed girl she is to have a protector and friend like you.  These next few months will be quite an adjustment and you may have to be extra patient with us, but we will make it through just fine and hopefully have some fun memories along the way! Mommy loves you baby boy and I'm so thankful for the past 18 months.


Friday, June 14, 2013

A time to RELAX

So this past week was wonderful.  Patrick had a retreat planned with Bob Russell and several other preachers at Country Lake Retreat and I had planned to drive with him to Louisville for the week.  Well, my doctor said I'm already progressing and advised against the trip just in case I went into labor or my water broke.  I didn't want to spend the week worried so I decided not to go.  My sweet mom still wanted time with John Ryman so she had Patrick bring him when he drove in on Sunday and she brought JR back to me on Wednesday afternoon.  Yes, that meant that I had 4 days alone to clean, decorate, organize, paint, relax, relax relax relax!  I am so thankful for the refreshing time I had alone to spend preparing our home & myself for Vera's arrival, lunch time with new & old friends, and tons of errands that I had been putting off because it takes so much longer to bring JR in and out with me.  I cleaned the house Sunday night and guess what? It stayed clean until Wednesday!!  I painted my nails and actually had time to let them dry in between coats.  Patrick was so sweet and scheduled a pregnancy massage for me- my hips and back are still feeling great days later!  As sad as I was at the decision to not go into Louisville, the week ended up being just what I needed.  Huge thanks to the best Nana spoiling JR for a few days.  He played with so many other kids and went on lots of adventures- I'm sure he did not want to come home!   Here are some pictures of my mom, sister, cousin Sarah & our sweet friend Issi.  They all made the drive to bring the little man home on Wednesday and stayed to play for the afternoon... Wish I could hire Sarah & Issi full time :)

 My plan for the summer with an 18mo & a newborn is to sit in the shade and give JR the hose and a cup.  He will spend an hour walking around the yard watering flowers, Vali and himself.  Then he will spend the next hour taking tiny cups of water from the baby pool across the yard to pour on Vali.  He thinks it is hilarious, but by the time he reaches her most of the water has spilled :)  She sure puts up with a lot! 


 JR loved to throw the ball hard into the water so it would splash the girls :)



 Sarah and Issi were so sweet with John Ryman.
  He sure was spoiled having them laugh at his every move!




 Wow!  Getting large... just over 3 weeks til due date!!







Thursday, June 6, 2013

Vera's Nursery- Part 1

This is Vera's Nursery :)  The simple cream wallpaper was a little deceiving because we thought, "oh, it's not that bad we can easily remove that and use that room for the nursery..." Little did we know how crazy things looked underneath the first layer!  We started to remove the wallpaper to find another layer of horrible vintage paper that would not come off without taking some drywall!  We used a clothes steamer and warm water mixed with fabric softener to remove the wallpaper- worked great, just the bottom layer was so old and attached to the wall that it took the drywall with it no matter how delicately we worked. 

After talking with our painter here (great guy who painted all the ugly trim on the first floor before we moved in!) He said there wasn't much we could do other than remove the wallpaper as best as possible and then he would come over and try to cover and sand the walls before we painted.  It was a mess! and we tracked wallpaper all around the house :)

In the meantime, I found this fabric (above) that was my inspiration for the nursery!  The paint color next to it is called Sea Salt, but after doing some more fabric shopping and getting some professional help from a friend Sea Salt was a little too blue.  So we went with "Falling Star"- Porter Paint.  A little more of a light mint green with hints of blue.... We will see- I'm picking up the paint today! (Sherwin Williams is color matching it for me)  The bedding is in the process of being made & I love my coordinating fabrics just as much as the main fabric above! 

Now that all this tacky wallpaper is GONE, the painter worked on the walls today to make them smooth and ready for paint.  Probably won't be perfect walls, but way better than where we started. 
 (no wallpaper, but before sanding...)
 And what I'm most excited about now- white trim!!  We couldn't afford to have the upstairs trim painted like the downstairs before we moved in, but we knew eventually we would get it done.  Well thanks to {John & Sherry} giving us the courage to try it ourselves... we purchased a paint sprayer!  This was the easiest room to practice with because we didn't have to worry about over-spray on the walls and all we had to cover were the hardwood floors.  Patrick loved it and the four layers of white were sprayed and dry super fast! (I promise I stayed clear of the fumes and bought him a mask after taking this picture!)  We will have to do a post on the paint sprayer soon once I can get some final pictures, but it sure makes us excited to start working our way down the hall and brightening the upstairs with white trim. 
Back soon with more nursery updates...  and hopefully not a baby in the nursery for a few more weeks- Doctor said today that I'm already progressing and doesn't think I'll make it past 39 weeks... Praying she stays put a little longer but her crazy movements make me think this feisty girl is ready to meet the world!  I'll be 36 weeks on Monday!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

DIY Drop Cloth Striped Rug

Here are the details on how I made the drop cloth rug from yesterday's closet redesign... SO easy and cheap!  I picked up some drop cloth at Home Depot (I think it was 5X5 for just under $7.)  My kitchen rug (from Sam's Club) was actually the size I needed, so I used it as my template for cutting the drop cloth.  Now the sides of the cloth are sewn under which means that where I cut it was unfinished, but since it is not out in view everyday and the fabric doesn't really fray, I didn't sew around my cut edges.  I guess if your rug was in a visible location you could even do an iron-on hem tape to create a finished edge. 
 Next, I taped off where I wanted to paint the stripes.  As much as I would have preferred some chevron, nap time only allows for so much :)  Stripes it is!

After alternating paints and letting them dry... it was time to pull up the tape and place the rug in the new closet!  (I used leftover white trim paint and the extra chalkboard paint from the closet door. The drop cloth ended up being almost the same color as the walls or else I would have painted that stripe as well.)


DIY Closet Organization & Redesign


This was the mess of our hall/kitchen closet under the steps shortly after we moved in.  It is a small size closet right off the eat-in kitchen area that leads to a living room and is next to the garage door.  We actually have a pantry and laundry area just to the left of this closet (in the kitchen) with tons of wall shelves, but not much floor space, so there was still a lot of stuff piled into this closet that needed organization.  Some of this stuff went to the yard sale pile, laundry area, or the garage if not used very often, but there was still some improvement that needed to be made!


After we emptied the closet, we decided to use the leftover paint from our master bedroom walls
 to freshen up the area.  The walls were pretty scuffed up and I also wanted to see how I liked the color downstairs because eventually we may paint all the walls!  It is called Agreeable Gray- Sherwin Williams.  (more on that when I post about our room- we LOVE it!)


 Although I have a chalkboard just outside the closet hanging on the wall, I thought I would make the visible one the "pretty" decorative chalkboard and paint a smaller one inside the door for list-making and notes.  I taped off a box on the door and painted 3 coats of chalkboard paint (Krylon indoor paint).

 Here is the finished room! 
I may still shuffle things around as we organize other closets and eventually add some storage with a hutch/dresser in dining room.  And a little confession... this is our first real ironing board!  We used my college dorm size board for the past 5 years and I thought it was time I got Patrick a real one :)  Seriously though, he is really the only one that irons- I'm not allowed to iron his dress shirts- and we usually use our clothes steamer for everything else.  But I do have to say, I may just have to try it out thanks to the cute cover from Target. 

 For the little chalkboard signs, I just painted some glossy junk mail with 2 coats of paint and it seems to work just fine!


The white shelves are from Target- one shoe shelving unit (two rows on top) sitting on top of another shelving unit that is actually meant to be upright, but I took the shelves out and it was the same width as the shoe shelves. I'll post about the DIY rug tomorrow!  Super easy and cheap (drop cloth & paint)

$$ Rundown:

$9: hooks for the ironing board and brooms
$25: new ironing board & cover
$13: shoe shelves- I already had the one shelf
$3: rug (bought a $6 drop cloth and used less than half)
I used extra paint for the walls, rug and chalkboard
$50 total!  For a room that I love! -and really half that $ , if you already have an ironing board :)