The Last Supper and a Moment of Silence - Please

Tonight Sam and I had a moment of silence for our dear dishwasher and oven. You see, we still have original 1971 appliances in our kitchen. We are long overdue for some updates both due to decor and function. All of our original appliances are yellow to match our yellow counter tops. Luckily it is a softer yellow than most that were used in the 70's but still, I have been wanting to replace them. And tomorrow we will! We are currently redoing our master bath, not our kitchen, so how is it that we are replacing these appliances? Well, my parents are wrapping up an even larger remodel of their kitchen, breakfast room and den (when then has added the exterior of their house and soon the office). When they gutted their kitchen they happened to have a dishwasher that was about 2 years old and an oven that was less than a year old which were given to us (along with stove, sink and fridge which we are not installing quite yet). So, tomorrow while the contractors are here (who happen to be the same ones my parents are using) they are going to install the oven and the dishwasher (along with a long list of "honey do" items from Sam's list.
So, tonight I actually took a photo of our "Last Supper" cooked in our oven and the last load of dishes to be washed to commemorate the event. We had a moment of silence. Sam even suggested that the workers could probably remove the yellow front to the dishwasher and put it on the new one if I so desired. I declined his kind offer. I will show the "after" photos tomorrow.

As far as the bathroom, if all goes as planned, it will be finished tomorrow. We got a little behind schedule due to the rain which produced so much humidity that the texture was taking too long to dry. That set us back a little. Be on the lookout for some "after" photos of the bathroom as well.

Aspiring photographer

Katherine is always interested in my camera. She tries to carry around my big digital SLR and that makes me so nervous. I do often allow her to carry around my small "diaper bag camera". She has figured out which button to push to turn it on and which button to push to take pictures. The problem is that the camera is pretty small and for her to hold it her fingers are usually over the lens.

This first set of pictures is from a play date with Jen and Evie at the mall playground.

Jen's legs, her head is covered by the finger.

A playmate at the play area, again, covered by the finger.

The second set of photos is from an evening at home with dad in the den. Note the beautiful wood paneling, artistic angles of the photos and again, the finger in the third picture. She did do much better with a few by having the entire photo fingerless.

The wall of our den

Dad's foot and knee along with toys

Daddy is using the remote.

The third set of photos was in the back yard. Most photos taken this day only showed the finger with no grass, slide, dogs, etc. These were the best two shots.

Mom's shoe on the grass.

This last photo is my favorite. It actually would be pretty good except that the entire photo was upside down.

I thought about getting Katherine her own camera for her birthday. Her cousin Ty has the Fisher Price Toddler Camera which takes actual digital pictures that can be downloaded and printed off though they are pretty low resolution. It is easier for her to hold but it was not cheap.

Her friend Penelope also likes to take photos and you can see them on her blog. I am pretty impressed with Penelope's ability to keep her fingers out of the picture. These toddlers love to imitate their parents don't they.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a little last minute this year. We had planned to eat lunch with my parents after church but my dad was in the hospital after a surgery on Friday waiting for a test that could not be run until Monday. So, no lunch with Nana and Pops. We had a great day with the three of us though. After church we went to lunch at Corner Bakery. Katherine was a big fan of mommy's french toast or cake as she called it.

After church we spent a little time in the back yard. We did not get a good picture before church, at church or at Corner Bakery and Katherine was not really interested in taking a Mother's Day picture with her mommy once at home. She just wanted to play. Her new favorite toy is her bug catcher. She loves to catch "roly poly polies" to look at later. We even tried to catch a lizard but it was too fast and got away. She took a nap and I went up to hang with dad at the hospital so mom could go home for a little bit.

I met back up with Katherine and Sam for dinner at Bubba's - mmmmmm, I love Bubbas! Then we grabbed a cookie and ice cream from Pokey O's and headed to the playground. It was a fun evening with my family.

I love being a mom. Sure there are hard days, especially with a 2 year old. But, it is so rewarding and I love my little girl so much. I can't wait to welcome another little one before long. Being a mom also really makes me appreciate my own mom. I am so glad that we are close not only geographically but in our relationship as well. Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there!

31 week Squeak update

I had my 31 week appointment on Tuesday. Everything looks great. My antibodies test came back good meaning that Katherine's blood and my blood did not mix during the c-section and my 0-neg blood is not trying to reject this baby (or something like that). So, I got my rhogam shot and a nifty wallet cart to carry with me until I deliver in case I am in car accident or something - comforting. I had not seen my normal midwife in 6 weeks because I saw the other one last time so she was excited to feel that Squeak was head down. I was also excited to hear that she still is in that position.

Surprisingly I did not gain any weight in the last 2 weeks. Total gain is still 13 pounds with 9 weeks to go. I say surprisingly because to me I feel and look a lot more pregnant each week. Strangers actually ask me when I am due and what I am having which had not happened until recently. On the other hand, my neighbor asked me how the baby was doing because he thought I had already had her since I did not look pregnant. I certainly don't feel like I am watching what I eat and I regretfully admit that I have at least one Dr. Pepper and dessert a day which proves that I am not trying to not gain weight. If the trend continues though I will be actually trying to gain weight toward the end since Katherine was so small. So, if you know of a healthy high protein diet, let me know.

Honestly, this is an area of struggle for me. In my non-pregnant life I struggle to keep my weight down. I constantly have to watch my diet and exercise or it creeps up slowly. For some reason when I am pregnant, the struggle with gaining weight changes from unintentionally gaining too much to not gaining much for no apparent reason. Sure as a girl I enjoy the comments about how small I look since it is the only time I experience those comments. Almost daily someone is amazed that I am starting my 8th month of pregnancy and don't look that big. Of course no one wants to have extra weight to lose but my ultimate goal is to have a healthy baby, even if that means I need to try to gain more weight. Katherine was small (5lb 15.9 oz) and she was past term. I did not gain anything the last 5 weeks which is when the baby is usually packing on the pounds. For the past two years Katherine's tiny size has been a struggle for me as a mom. She is always in the 3-5% for weight so I always stress that she is not healthy even though I can see that she is thriving (all mom's have to worry about something I guess). I do not want that again. So, I guess you can pray for me - both that I would be healthy and gain the right amount of weight and that I would not worry about it.

As far as other pregnancy stuff. My heartburn still bothers me. I finally gave in and started taking Prilosec OTC. The digestive enzyme and apple cider vinegar were just not cutting it. I really gave an honest effort at treating the heartburn more naturally but I was miserable every night and only able to sleep sitting up. Then I was not well rested. The Prilosec helps. Friday I have to admit this defeat to my chiropractor. I am being careful though to take my vitamins as far from my Prilosec as possible so I don't mess up the balance and absorption of the vitamins so that Squeak can get everything she needs. It has helped a lot and this week I have been able to sleep laying down. Now if only I could get to bed at a more reasonable hour.

I never once experienced hiccups with Katherine. This week I have felt Squeak hiccup every night. It is not annoying, just fun right now. So far all of her kicks and movement are fun as well. Even though she is head down she is being polite in her kicks for now. I hope it stays that way but she has a long way to go and will run out of room at some point.

I am getting more tired each week. It is getting harder to deal with Katherine and some days we have a vicious cycle where she tries my patience and I am tired and don't deal with it well and she sees a weakness and tries to get away with more. There have been more than one occasion where she has worn her pajamas for the day because I don't feel like dealing with a power struggle. Today she wore them to school. I at least try to choose cute pajamas if I think that might happen.

Katherine is sooooo excited about baby Squeak. It is really cute. Yesterday at playgroup she was around a 9 week old and she was so sweet. Every time Gabe would cry she would go over to rock him. She is going to be a great big sister.

We still don't have a name so don't ask. We won't tell anyway. We had a name that we tried out last week to see if we attached to it. Sam still really likes it. I like it as a name but am not sure that it is Squeak's name. So, this week we are trying out another name to see how we like it. It was so easy with Katherine because she was named after family members. It has been harder this time. If you have a great suggestion, feel free to leave it in the comments.

Cool Thursdays

OK, there are many of you out there still lurking (Do I need to start mentioning names of those I know:). Make sure if you are reading this blog that you go to this post and leave a comment. I want to know who all is out there. Many of my faithful readers have not even left a comment yet and a few others sent me an email instead of commenting. No need to be shy guys.

Anyway, I digress . . . One thing I love about the Arboretum is their Cool Thursdays concert series in the summer, though at times summer in Texas is anything but cool. Madi, Andy and Ben invited us at the last minute to join them for the weekly concert. This week it was Motown. Honestly, I was not sure what all was included in that category but I recognized most of the songs and it was great fun.

We got there early enough to get a good location on the lawn, set up our picnic and eat before the music started. Last year it was a challenge with Katherine because she was a new walker who wanted to wander but would fall down the hill. This year she and Ben entertained all of those around us with their silly antics. Katherine was running all over the place with my camera and saying "Hi" to all the other kids. Ben was busy playing his own guitar. He is such the rock star. I love that the Arboretum is close and that with our membership tickets are cheap. Even with leaving at intermission (for the kids to get to bed) I felt it was worth it. We hope to go to several more concerts before Squeak arrives in July.

De-lurk all of you, de-lurk

Katherine says, "Please Comment"

I just finished looking at my blog stats and wonder who all of you out there are reading my blog. I had 437 unique visitors to my blog this month. Yikes, I know a lot of people but I think that even I do not know that many people. I would have guessed that I had maybe 50 regular readers and 50 casual readers.

So, I would like to make a request. Whether you are a regular reader, someone who stops by occasionally, or a lurker, would you please leave me a comment on this post so I know you are a reader. I find it so funny when I run into someone and they tell me that they have been reading my blog for the last year and I had no idea. Usually they tell me that they never comment because they don't want me to think they are weird for reading my blog when they don't know me well. Let me assure you, I do not think you are weird. I read many a blog of people that I do not know well and many that I do not know at all! If I don't know me, let me know how you found my blog (if you remember).

When you leave your comment I have a survey question for you. I am in the process of writing a long blog post for later this week and in doing my research, I am curious how you get to my blog when you read my posts. Here are the main options that I can think of but feel free to select another.

• I receive an email with the entire post in it and I do not click on your actual website.
• I receive an email and then I go to your website to read the post.
• I have a reader or feed service through which I read my blogs. If so, tell me which one you use.
• I have a link to your blog on my own blog.
• I click a link to your blog on someone else's blog.
• I have you saved in my favorites.
• I type your web address every time.

Also, I have changed my blog comment settings so that you do not have to have a google account to make a comment. I know that has deterred some people in the past. I still do not allow anonymous comments though. Thanks for your comments!

That's funny mommy, that's funny

Katherine says this a lot. She things everything is funny or silly. Usually I think she is the one that is being funny. She does do the craziest things.

Today in the car she sat in the backseat talking to her feet. She was actually scolding her toes for getting out of the shoes. She said, "toes not stay out or spanking (then she spanked her feet). Obey Katherine". I think she understands the choice we give her of to obey or to be punished.

A few nights ago when we were in her room she decided to run around in a circle from her room, her bathroom, Squeak's room and the hall. She thought it was so funny and kept saying, "I running, I running fast!"

She loves to climb in our front yard tree. She is not quite big enough to really get up there because of they way the tree branches out but she has fun playing in it. In this photo she is silly because she is wearing her pajama tops with normal pants - she wore it all day long.


Katherine had a few days where she insisted on carrying a specific pile of stuff everywhere she went. She would circle her hands over the pile and say, "my stuff mommy". In this pile of stuff was her small blanket, little lamb, baby, her baby's patapum (carrier), baby's blanket, "dada" (doll), "dada's" blanket, her pillow and what she calls her napmat but is actually an waterproof pad that we have her sit on when she is on the couch in case she has an accident. As you can imagine, this is a lot of stuff to carry and she gets quite frustrated when she can't carry it all. If I offer, she says, "no mommy, my byself" - her version of "by myself".

The day before we ripped out the bathroom, Katherine sat at my vanity table and combed her hair. She kept saying, "I pretty, hair pretty, so pretty".

Today when we were in the car I wrote down her commentary on the workers. I was pretty amazed both at what she was comprehending and at how many thoughts she was stringing together in a way that I understood.

"Nana workers come Nana's house, and Katherine's house. Come everybody's house"

"Workers make mess. Workers cleaning now."

"My workers, mommy workers, nana workers"

"Where workers go?"

"Workers fix mommy bathroom"

Bathroom Remodel #1

Well, the day to tear out our master bath finally arrived. We have been talking about what to do with this bathroom for almost 5 years since we moved in. As I mentioned before, we had grander plans that exceeded our budget so we had to scale back a bit. Today was demo day so last night I took some before pictures and today I took the post-demo, pre-reconstruction photos.

The bathroom vanity before.
Close up of the lovely wall paper
Bathroom vanity, after removal of the vanity, fur downs and flooring.
View of shower and door to hall, before. View of shower and door to hall after removing paneling and carpet. Ick, carpet in bathrooms produces very gross subfloors. We are most excited about the removal of the carpet and hope it helps some allergy problems.
Toilet area, before
Toilet area, before

Toilet area after removal of paneling, cabinet and fur down.
Bathroom vanity view #2 before
Bathroom vanity view #2 after.
Dressing room before
Dressing room after

Tomorrow we will have the electrician come out to remove the lights in the dressing room and bathroom as well as install new lights in both rooms and a exhaust fan/light in the bathroom. He was supposed to come today but ended up at my parents house to fix an AC problem that he caused during their remodel. It is a good thing he was not here anyway because our bathroom could not have fit the electrician along with the 3 plumbers. I think that is all that will be happening tomorrow. Monday they will tape and bed and texture the walls. Tuesday they will put in the tile. That night Sam and I will paint and on Wednesday they will install the vanity and faucets. After that I am not sure the schedule. Amazingly, it could all be done by the end of next week.

It is quite interesting doing this with a toddler. Last night Sam took off two of the cabinet drawers to save and use to practice painting since we may paint other similar cabinets in the house. This morning she was quite concerned that they were missing and wanted daddy to fix it. When the workers arrived she wanted to watch them. Luckily it was a MDO day and she was not around because they were in and out of the house all day, it was loud and she would have been in the way. The interesting thing about a bathroom remodel with a 7 month pregnant lady will be midle of the night bathroom trips.

I don't plan to post updates every day and may even wait until it is done for the big reveal.

Playgroup at the Zoo

Our playgroup met for a fun time at the zoo. It was a little crazy with 5 toddlers and 2 babies but it was a lot of fun.
The entire morning was a game of musical chairs. We had one "odd man out" of the stroller. This was Tess' first big outing since Gabriel was born and she did not think to switch what stroller was in the car so she did not have a double stroller. It truly was musical chairs. Every time we would load up the kids would just run for a spot and someone would be left out. Sometimes that person was fine with it and sometimes they were not. It was interesting.

Robert wants to be carried when "odd man out".

Katherine squeezes in with Laurie Jane when "odd man out".
Katherine thought the toad statue wanted some raisins.

After lunch we let the kids play in the water. Of course this was the highlight of the day at the zoo. Rather than messing with a swimsuit, I just let Katherine play in her panties and cover. Several times I caught her trying to take them off!

Ben and Madi

Louis was the fish of the group, literally going all the way in.
Ava is a new walker so she was a little hesitant.

Robert enjoyed the water.
Baby Gabe slept most of the morning. He is such a cutie.

I just noticed I did not post any pictures of animals. I did take a few but it was so much work keeping the kids corralled together that they were not really any good. The kids were animals enough though!