Movin' on up

to the attic!  And the big bed...sort of.  We'll discuss the latter first.
We've been trying to get Owen to sleep in the "big bed" for the last week and a half.  We got a thin/low little mattress for our old bed and rearranged our old room so the bed was next to wall.  We have succeeded in getting him to nap in it twice and sleep in it once.  Oddly enough these were the first times we tried.  Since then he has laid down and "read" stories to his stuffed friends for anywhere from 30min to 1.5 hours before asking us if he can go back and sleep in the crib.  So, crib it has been.
But here was our first successful nap:

and some reading in bed

And now you will be subjected to a cavalcade of photos of the attic makeover.  This started back in January by clearing out the copious amounts of furniture and random storage things that had accumulated up there over the years  - it was seriously a lot (2 double beds, a full couch, at least 6 bookcases, a kitchen table and chairs, 2 desks, side tables, random boxes/tupperwares of gear, and the list goes on).  It’s a big space – 420sq ft, so it held a lot of junk!  Then came the carpet tear out.  The old, stained, brown berber carpet had to go.  Luckily it pulled up easily (except on the stairs – seriously, how many carpet staples does it take for one tread!?!?  Apparently over 2 dozen), and the asbestos sample I sent out for the underlay came back negative, so it was smooth sailing for easy tear out!

The only two things I didn’t do myself were installing the closet wall and installing electric, because a) I can’t lift whole sheets of sheet rock myself and Dave didn’t have time really to help and b) I don’t mess with electric.  Power tools, yes. Wiring, no…I just don’t know enough.  So in went the closet wall!  And now we have a kick ass, giant walk in closet! 

Then I painted…and painted…and painted.  To his credit, Dave did paint the ceiling for me.  I find ceiling painting hard.  Plus the first day of ceiling painting I managed to break our roller pole and have the entire roller of paint go flying off conveniently landing on my head.  Dave also painted the highest portions of the wall in the stairwell, as I was a bit too big at this point to be climbing up and down the ladder with any sort of grace and agility.

Then cork underlay and in-floor heating installation.  The rest of our house is radiator heat, but it was never run up to the attic, so the attic had old floorboard heaters (you can see them in the carpet tear out pic) that were a total energy suck and didn’t actually warm the space.  It was far too expensive to tie into the radiator system, so this was the best option (at least from what my *vast* research on various heating options came up with)…plus this will feel so nice come winter again!

Then, flooring, and quarter round installation!  I put in an engineered bamboo floating floor.  I gotta say, I felt pretty bad ass at 7 months pregnant* up there with the miter saw and nail gun installing a new floor! It took me somewhere in the 8-10 hours range…spread out in 1-2 hour increments over the course of a week when I could squeeze in the time.  I’m pretty darn proud of how it came out!  And to give Dave some credit, he did help me rip a couple of the floor boards when needed – it was far easier with 2 people than just one for that job.

This was my saw room - its the unifinished space through that door at the top of the stairs.  a.k.a. temporary home of transient bats, mice, squirrels, and pigeons over the years (thankfully none joined me while I was working). a.k.a. home of our future master bath...one day...a girl can dream!

Those are the original roof boards you can see - you use to be able to touch roof shingles through the gaps in the boards before we had the house re-roofed...it was a chilly work space!

*That being said, this is me at 7 months pregnant…I don’t exactly cut a gigantic pregnant figure – despite the copious amounts of ice cream I have been consuming.  But as you’ll recall, I make tiny babies.  Seriously, when I was pregnant with Owen, I went in for an ultrasound at 34 weeks and the nurse who takes your weight and blood pressure before you see the doctor asked if I was carrying twins because she thought I was there for my 20 week appointment and just slightly big for that, but not nearly big enough to be 34 weeks.  You would think seeing as she works at an OBs office she would a)learn what not to say to pregnant ladies and b)learn to read a chart before she opens her mouth…but I digress.

nothing screams "take a mirror selfie in front of me" like the bathroom at work!

And now, we are up in the attic!  There are still a couple things to finish (as evidenced by the ladder and my array of tools still hanging out on the stairwell ledge), like installing new stair treads, new lighting/ceiling fan, making a headboard for the bed, and reglazing a couple windows (ah, old house, how leaky you are!), but overall, it. Is. Awesome!  I love how bright it is up there! It has always been my favourite space in our house, and I’m happy it is finally being used for something other than storage!

And I apologize wholeheartedly to anyone who visited us who ever stayed up there…it was truly disgusting before…and I didn’t quite realize how gross until I started pulling everything out!

I also refinished that old trunk and the coffee table - they tie in so well with the new space!  Bed still needs the headboard...I'm hoping I will get it done over the weekend.

our sitting area

my sewing nook!!  I'm so excited to have all my material organized where I can find it for a change!

Flax "helped" me make curtains for Owen's new big bed room in the sewing nook's inaugural use

I promise the next post will both be soon, and have more pics of Owen!

Big Changes!

There have been 2 major changes in the past 2 weeks around here - one of them will wait for the next post when hopefully I will have some updated pics to go along with it (the attic is now a livable space!), and the other involves the passing of the paci.  It's the end of an era folks!

We noticed over the past month or so that Owen was developing these red marks on his upper lip which I thought might be related to his incessant nighttime paci practice...but he just seemed so reliant on it that with all the other changes about to rain down on him (moving to a real bed, the imminent arrival of a baby brother) I was loathe to take away what he seemingly relied upon to sleep.  We have friends and family both who got rid of the pacis by telling their kids various stories along the lines of giving them  up to the "paci fairy" or giving them to Santa for the baby reindeer, or some such similar.  So we thought we could plant the seeds of O choosing to give his paci up to somebody and came up with a story about the "Chupon Pirates" (chupon = paci in spanish, and O has been super into pirates lately) and how they needed chupons for their boats and they leave behind treasure when they collect their chupon booty.  He didn't buy into it.  Anytime pirates came up over the next couple days (in books, at the park, etc) he would exclaim "no chupon pirate!"  We figured he just wasn't ready to give up the chupon.  Until a week later when we found out that his chupon had been cut out at daycare for nap times for the past several months and he was doing just fine with his naps. He kept insisting on them at home...the little stinker!  So, two Saturdays ago we cut out the paci cold turkey.  He asked for them at bedtime that night, but hasn't asked for them since.  It takes him a little longer to fall asleep than it used to...understandable.  Plus I think we managed to coincide all of this with him cutting his second molars...yay us.  I discovered he has one of them in on the top just this morning...I imagine the other 3 are not all that far behind.

I don't have many pictures from the past couple weeks.  I've been trying to get more video, which is hard seeing as he runs over to watch as soon as he realizes he is being taped...it makes for very short video clips.
But here is a rather longish one of him hanging out playing at the kitchen counter as I made dinner earlier this week.  This is pretty typical for pre dinner time around here!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!  We've had a busy week here with a trip to the library last weekend, Good Friday spent baking muffins and painting, a big Easter egg hunt this morning and then a walk over to Lake Calhoun with a stop at the park and then Tin Fish for lunch...yum!  And some other things thrown in there too...

this boy will sit and read a book anywhere!

Builder Goose is a library book
favourite - we've had to check it out twice now!

Baking muffins with a two year old is not the cleanest task ever...he insisted on doing ALL of the stirring which meant a lot of batter randomly splattered around the kitchen!

"Owen mix!"

"I paint un arbol"  or at least his modern art version of a tree...

 Owen is big into wearing his glasses. I think because Dave and I both wear them...little does he know he's destined to have to wear them soon enough!  He insisted that Panda Bear and Puppy both have glasses, so I made a pair of paper ones for puppy and Panda Bear got to wear mine for the photo op.

"I'm an airplane!"

this was the best pic I could get at the park...he just wouldn't stay still long enough!

Owen's imagination play has really grown in the last month or so.  He makes up all sorts of little games and attributes random emotions to inanimate objects.  For example:

Owen: (eating peas at dinner) he's shy

Me: your pea is shy?

Owen: yah...and this one is scared.

Me: your pea is scared?  

Owen: yah

Also at dinner:

Owen: (with spoon in mouth) I'm a crocodile!

Me: oh, because you are biting your spoon?

O: yah, snap! snap!  (still biting the spoon) Now I'm a tiger!  Roar!

Me: whoa! you're a scary tiger!

O: (spoon held up to poke out the top of his head) Now I"m a parrot! 

Me: (no idea why a horn made of a spoon indicates a parrot, but understanding he is being all the animals from his peekaboo jungle book and blocks set we were playing with before dinner) Are you going to be an elephant next?

O: yah!  I'm an elephant! (spoon held against his nose like a trunk)

And a little story from 2 weekends ago when Dave was out of town:

 I swear 75% of the time Dave is out of town I have to deal with some sort of animal (usually a bat) in the house.  And it never happens when he is home.  O and I got up to have breakfast Sun morning, and O was sitting at the dining room table eating a pancake, I was in the kitchen making toast with my back to him, and he calls out "bird!"  I thought he was looking out the window and said something over my shoulder to him like "oh, that's nice, do you see a bird outside?"  and he just kept repeating "bird" and then kind of started to whimper.  I finally turned around and looked at him and said "is the bird outside or inside?"

  "bird" 

 "right, is it outside or inside?"  

"inside"

"where?" (it was in the living room and I couldn't see it from the kitchen, and it wasn't a bird, it was a bat)  then it came flying around doing some laps of the dining room and kitchen - dive bombed me once (or so it seemed...it probably wasn't actually that close, but man those things are fast!) so I ducked down behind the island and swatted at it with my cell phone (which happened to be the nearest thing to my hand as I ducked...I'm sure I was quite the sight), Owen was still in his booster seat kind of whimpering and scared, poor little guy...the thing had been flying around him I think while I was in the kitchen making toast!  I went over and grabbed him and we went outside and left the back door open...after about a minute the bat found its way outside and was gone.  Meanwhile Flax got out (which is fine) but ran into a neighborhood male cat and got in a hissing fight, and then the tom cat kept tormenting Flax and Dribble once they were back inside - he would walk up to the front porch windows and stair at them while they went ballistic hissing and clawing through the windows at him.  I had to chase him off 3 times before he finally left...it was like wild kingdom here that morning!  And poor Owen was a bit traumatized by the whole bat thing I think.  He wouldn't leave my side all morning when we were in the house, and the first thing he said to me when he woke up from his afternoon nap was "I scared bat".  Poor thing.  He seemed to be over it by the next day...until the next time Dave is out of town and we get another one!

Last of the snow

Some pictures from this past week, which I had hoped would be the last of the snow, but I was clearly wrong as it is snowing again today!  Oh Sunday, how you teased me with your 60sF/teensC temps!  By the end of Sunday, what had been 1.5 feet of snow coverage in the backyard had melted away in all but the shadiest areas.

stick - best outdoor toy around!

Snow: arguably Owen's favourite snack. He'll take it clean, or with extra dirt flavouring.

his middle name is actually Shackleton

Saturday, while Dave nursed his bout of food poisoning, O and I headed for a little walk "around" the block (in actuality I think we made it about 8 houses away and back...which still took us half an hour).

stopping for a quick photo op on the neighbour's stairs

requisite stick in hand

if you can't beat winter, join it!
Snow castle smashing is equally as fun as sand castle smashing!

Family Friday

Dave is on spring break this week, and I don't teach Friday's this semester, so we had a little "Family Friday" today.  Starting off, of course, with some quality book time in Owen's favourite chair!

On a side note, so you understand O's love of books, he has taken to sleeping with a small assortment of books in his crib.  After our pre bed story time, he insists on bringing some books into bed with him (the selection changes every week or so) so he can "read" on his own before he falls asleep.  I think in some ways he views the books as toys, similar to having his stuffed animals in the crib with him.  It's pretty cute, and I love that we are fostering a love of reading in him!

Our day continued with a little trip to Home Depot to get some trim and new stair treads, plus a new table saw for the attic refinishing project (which, by the way, I got completely painted over my spring break last week...it's looking awesome, and I can't wait to move our bedroom up there!!  Pics to follow once completion is, well, complete!)

Our little helper!  O got a lot of smiles from other customers as he "helped" Daddy push the cart of wood around!

Our day was topped off by a little post dinner play with the Woodsey family - part of our 30+ year old toy collection!

Note the blanket and pillow fort in the background.
The Woodsey family were moved there to "sleep" for the night.

And while these last pics are not part of our day, they deserve to be included, simply because they are hilarious, and who doesn't need a good laugh?!?  What started out as O just sitting nicely in his favourite chair, turned into this when he realized I was taking his picture...a little toddler boudoir...what a ham!

Lazy Sunday

Wake up in the late afternoon...well, actually Dave and I did get to sleep in until a whopping 8am this morning!  It was awesome!!!  We celebrated our 7 year anniversary last night and our friends Brian and Tiffany graciously offered to watch Owen overnight at their house so we could go out to a fancy dinner and then sleep in and go out for breakfast.  It was the first time Owen had spent the night away from both of us, and he did amazing!  He apparently headed to their stairs  to go up to the pack'n'play as soon as he heard the words "time for bed", then slept through until 6:45 or so and got up to have a nice pancake breakfast - all without a fuss!  Apparently he didn't miss us at all  ;)

Anyway, here are some pics from the past several lazy Sundays

O's new thing is laying down on the couch pillows
 (either on the couch or the floor) and pretending to sleep

and here's the fake shut eye!  I love that little cheek dimple of his!

can't even bother to sit up...epitome of lazy Sunday!

yup, I live in a household of sweet-ass bed head

Lazy Sunday post Saturday library trip

"whoa!"

weekend up north

Last weekend we headed up north to a VRBO cabin near Grand Rapids for a little winter getaway with some friends. It was great!  Full of winter fun - some snow angels, ice fishing, and of course the start of the Olympics!

one day he'll figure out how to get his thumbs in the
 thumb holes, then mittens won't look
so catty-wampus on him!

a little chilly out, but it's sunny, so no complaints!

headed out to check on Ben's fishing progress

the pint sized shovel was a favourite toy of the weekend

"Hi Mama!"

Owen insisted on wearing MJ's headband - very pretty

taking a break with Greta in front of the fire