Spring Cleaning and Sleeting

The calendar says "spring," yet it is sleeting.  I suppose March is one of those months that can go either way weather-wise, but it seems that this winter simply won't call it quits.  The past few days, though, have been good for getting work done around the house.  Maybe it's the nesting, but, man,we've done a lot.

Chris is great about doing yard work.  He never complains and is rather proactive.  I always tell him that it can wait, but he does it anyway.  Our shed has a pergola, which looks nice, but it also had all of this... plant? ... growing on it.  In fact, the vine or whatever had gotten so out of control that it rotted the roof of our shed!  We knew when we moved in that we'd need to tackle it our first year here.  Over the past couple of weeks, Chris has been hacking at it by himself.  Then this weekend, my dad gave him an extra hand and got alllll of the growth down in less than an hour!  And next comes repairing the shed....  Oh man....

I've been trying to get the boys' rooms more personalized.  The rooms have been "together" for some time, but they didn't have any pictures on the walls.  To me, pictures are really what adds the final touch to a room.  I had Chris help me find the frames I needed for both Eliot's room and Jack's room.  Then began the fun game of measuring and leveling.  I'm not the best at hanging pictures in a line, but it sure drives me crazy when they're crooked.

I also hung these two pictures above Jack's crib.  I know it looks slanted on the left, but it's just because I didn't take the photo straight.  I have a couple more pictures to hang in Jack's room and then his room will be mostly complete.  We just need to order a cushion for the rocking chair (never got one with Eliot and reallyyyyy regretted it), find a place for Chris's surf board, and eventually buy the bedding for Jack.  Clothes are another story.

Then came the room I have been dreading.  I love to clean, but I am so bad at organizing.  I hate going through boxes of "stuff" that I don't know what to do with.  Chris has been encouraging me, though, that we should just tackle the room over the garage.  It's another "play room" of sorts for Eliot and guest bedroom when we have company (even though we don't have a bed for it...), so it has been easy to ignore over the past three months.  However, we finally did it!  I know this picture is dark (darn sleet) and non-descriptive, but that room used to be full of boxes.  Eventually I'd like to bring more life and function to it, but for now it just rather empty.  I'd like to get a couch of some kind or maybe a daybed for guests; at this point, we're just not looking to spend money on furniture that isn't really necessary.  I know some day it will be Eliot and Jack's video game room.

We recently bought ourselves some new sheets too.  All of our sheets had holes in them thanks to Dexter's puppy gnawing habit when we got him and were discolored.  I guess letting dogs sleep in bed with you kind of wears sheets down faster.  I think we last bought sheets around the time Eliot was born, so we were due.  These sheets were just $20, cheap ones from Target, and although they aren't the most comfortable ever, it really makes a difference to have new sheets.

 

 So, it has been gloomy outside, but we've been making the inside of our home pretty.  My heart is hoping for warmer days so much, in fact, that I bought that summer hammock I've been telling everyone about.  It was on sale half price, so I told Chris it could be my Easter present (not that we exchange Easter presents).  I have to justify everything that I buy for myself.  I will sit in that hammock forever--we're going to hang it under the shed's pergola by pool.  Yessss.

Shifting Gears: Getting Ready for Boy #2 Instead of a Girl

When we had our ultrasound and I saw that it was a boy, my immediate thought was, "It's a boy!  It's not a girl."

I don't mean to sound disappointed--I'm not.  I told Chris that I was thinking like a Structuralist.  I was creating a definition with binaries.  The opposite defines the other.  Black aids the definition of white.  Nothing defines everything.  Cold defines hot.  Post-structuralists would go on to say that truth is inaccessible through binaries because while there is black and white, there is also grey.

I miss literary theory....

Moving on...

Ultrasounds are great for daddies because they get to see the reality of the baby.  Chris has been excited about our baby, of course, but our 12-week ultrasound made it more real since he hasn't felt the morning sickness or strange, violent hunger.  A few weeks later when I felt flutters, Chris couldn't feel that reality, just hear reports of it.  But, when he saw the 18-week ultrasound and learned that he'd be having a son, I think it helped him see the baby even more as an individual--we can say "he" instead of "it".  And now we refer to Baby by his name (which I will reveal later when we have a middle name nailed down).

For me, I've been able to feel the changes in my body all along as an indication of the changes that will come to our family, but what helps me to comprehend our new baby boy's gender is getting ready.  Or nesting.  Or organizing.  Whatever you want to call it, preparing our home, assembling baby gear, and starting a registry (even though we need very little) is how I sit back and say, "Wow.  Our baby BOY will be here in the summer."

 
Last weekend, I steam cleaned our boy's carpets.  It still smells a little when the sun is shining through the windows (I guess I didn't use enough soap?), so I'm going to try the baking soda trick.  This weekend, I went through Eliot's old clothes to find that we have about four newborn short-sleeved onesies (that Eliot grew out of in a week...) and two 0-3 month short-sleeved onesies.  The rest are sleepers since Eliot was born in the winter.  Chris said I could order a few summer outfits and then I'll pick up a couple packs of onesies, and we should be set.  I know this seems early, and Chris prefers to wait to buy things when we still have five months left, but it really helps me "get it".  And I'm glad Chris has just shrugged and been like, "sure," when I point out the summer-y rompers that I've picked out for our boy despite his nature to wait wait wait and be sure that is what we want and the right deal.  By the way, I'm resisting the urge to make a day trip to Williamsburg for the Carter's outlet.  Maybe in the spring.  I mean, Chris has been saying he wanted to go to Williamsburg since the fall. And the good news is that Babe should be OK for fall and the following spring since he will just wear Eliot's spring clothes in the fall and then Eliot's fall clothes in the spring (if that makes sense).  Opposite seasons line up about half-way if you aren't too picky about seasonal colors.

When Chris and I talked of having Eliot, I always imagined we'd have a boy and we did.  When we talked of a second, I imagined we'd have another boy--I always saw us with two boys--but figured it might have been because I didn't know what it was like to have a girl.  Then when I got pregnant with our second (well, third if you count our miscarriage), I tried to prepare myself for the possibility of having a girl and everyone said girl and my symptoms said girl and my mind thought girl so much that I thought it had to be.  I think maybe I wanted to know which this baby was so badly that I clung to it.  So when I saw a boy inside of me, I was surprised and thrilled.  (As a side note, I accidentally said "he" during our 12-week ultrasound and felt guilty for WEEKS since we didn't know.  I think I'm extra sensitive to this whole not offending when it comes to gender).  Anyway, after saying, "I can't stop puking so it's gotta be a girl!" for months, it took a moment to shift gears.  And I gotta say, I think Eliot and his brother will have so much fun together.  And I'm looking forward to not arguing over whether we'll watch Cars or a princess movie--instead it'll probably be arguing about Cars or Thomas, but at least they're more similar.

Re-purposing for the Mantel

The other day, I decided to do away with the remaining Christmas decorations.  Really, Katie?  Still?  Yeah, yeah.  The stockings were still up.  After I pulled everything down, I went to put up the old decorations on the mantel.  But I couldn't find them.  What?  I hate to sound incredibly old, but I am becoming more forgetful.  I couldn't find them anywhere.  They were these little boxes of fake grass, which sounds silly, but they worked well to hide where our tv plugged in.

With the mantel looking plenty messy with cords showing, I was a little frantic.  I searched everywhere I could think of, even weird places.  Nothing.  And I didn't want to go buy new ones.  Instead, I decided to "re-purpose" a few things from around the house.  Here is what I came up with.

This is what our mantel used to look like.  Clean.  Simple.  Green.

And here it is now.  In the photo, it looks like a little less simple and "clean," but certainly more interesting and a nice change.

On the left side, I have a terrecata pot (that will eventually hold a mint plant), a jar of corks topped with a bird, an old envelope with a Christmas letter from Christopher's great-grandfather, three Faulkner novels tied together with twine and a little rosemary, and a teacup.

On the right side, I have a teacup, two books (The City of God and Wuthering Heights) topped with an incense burner and a necklace (that will certainly be moved), and an old camera.

Today I did something a little bit daring for me.  Just a little bit.  My friend Stephanie (who is expecting her first babe at the end of June) invited me to go along with her to this mom's cafe thing.  It sounded cool enough and I had been hoping to find some playdate groups for Eliot.  He is such a sweet and social boy.  When he sees babies or kids, he stares and stares.  Poor baby needs some friends!  So, I went along and it was really great to meet new people (all of them moms) and hopefully get connected for a play group.  I knew there were a lot of like-minded, young moms in Lynchburg.  It was just a matter of finding them.

New Freedom

Yesterday was one of my most productive days yet.  Maybe ever.  Eliot and I...
-bathed first thing
-watched an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba in bed while I made sure Eliot was plenty dry and warm
-made pizza dough in the bread machine
-installed the hook and hung up the hiking backpack in Eliot's playroom
-cleaned up and organized some toys
-took down the baby gates
-Eliot napped and I did my hair and make-up
-paid all of the bills
-ate lunch
-took down the Christmas tree
-swept and swept and swept

Sometimes it is hard for me to simply shower and do my make-up when it's just the two of us, so I was feeling pretty good yesterday.

Eliot has been loving his new freedom.  I took down the baby gates....  While he used to be limited to the den and dining room, he has free run of the house now.  He is only cut off from the stairs going down to the basement and the downstairs bathroom.  He went nuts about it.  He crawls between all the rooms laughing and shrieking and screaming and then climbs up the stairs.  Part of me doesn't know why I didn't do this sooner.  Oh yeah.  Because the downstairs bedroom needed to be fixed and the kitchen seemed dangerous.  I am thinking of maybe blocking the stairs off.  He climbs great and keeps getting better.  He has never fallen (but I am always right behind him), but he doesn't know how to get down.

Here is the little guy playing in the kitchen.  He was having so much fun.

When Chris got home, he said, "Oh wow!"  And I agree.  He mentioned that everything feels much more open without the baby gates.  I think there is something to the flow of a house.  Plus, the dining room was feeling really crowded with the Christmas tree.  Is it bad to be kind of glad that it is gone?

Here is a video I took this morning of Eliot exploring. Don't you love how I tell him to go after the cat and he just takes off in the other direction?  He loves the cat; he's nuts about her.  For him to ignore her for the sake of exploring...  You know he has to be way into it.

Order and Babyproofing

I hate to seem materialistic.  Whenever I get excited about buying something, I always feel a little disappointed in myself.  I don't want to be the kind of person who needs "things"--because so many things we don't need.  When our media center/tv cabinet/whatever you want to call it came today, I was thrilled.  I immediately reprimanded myself for being such a consumer.  Then I realized that it wasn't the thing that I was happy about--it was finding order, organization, and taking another step to babyproof.

Eliot in front of the old cabinet.

Our old piece of furniture was open, clutter, messy, and dangerous for Eliot.  The cords were such a mess in the back that I'm not sure how we didn't have some crazy electrical fire.  I had taken the doors off (because they were broken) so the edges were more sharp.  Eliot hurt himself on it multiple times no matter how well I watched him.  We almost had a serious situation last night, but I grabbed Eliot by his cheeks just as he came tumbling down.  He was trying to climb over his walker because he recently discovered that he can knock it over to play with the wheels.

Now we have a more clean set up.  It is safer.  The record player sits nicely in the center space.  And I don't feel guilty about being excited for that.

Eliot and Neko approve