Main Floor Bathroom

Before

I've always wanted to paint a room a really vibrant color so I figured I might as well experiment on the little half bathroom we have on our main floor. This color is Behr brand "Beach Towell." When it started to dry it looked forest green and I was getting really upset. I'm really happy with the way it turned out though. Bathrooms are a HUGE pain to paint. All the cutting in is not very fun. The orange towell and rug were almost impossible to find. I saw a similar color combo is Pottery barn but I'm not going to pay pottery barn prices. After going to 4 stores I ended up checking the halloween section and buying some stuff from that aisle. Oh well- at least they don't have pumpkins or something on them. The pictures on the walls are one of my brother M's and a series I did in my photo class in college.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!
This is amazing.

Lil' Stinker

We went to a church Halloween party tonight and Red Fish got to show off her costume. Isn't she adoreable? Plus it's a fitting tribute to all of my nieces and nephews who somehow decided it is hilarious to call Two Fish "Uncle Skunk." I'm not sure where that came from but they get a big kick out of it.Little model

Playing with the dogs- Blue Fish and my Mom's dog who is visiting.

Living and Dining Rooms

Living RoomBefore

This little strip of red fabric is a part of that one set of curtains I bought and ended up making into three sets including the ones on either side of my front door. I may be getting a little out of control with the red in my house. It's overtaking the main floor. Eventually I want to get some kind of really cool blue print chair to fill in a blank wall in this room.
I hung the outside pictures up first before the violins and now it looks funny hung so far apart. I will have to fix that eventually. The lamp was the one thing I got for the room. After we moved in I realized there were no ceiling lights in the living room- extremely annoying. Luckily some sort of welcoming committee for the city stopped by the other night with a gift certificate to a local store. When the lady first came over and started handing me gift certificates and coupons and free stuff I thought for sure it had to be a scam. It was too hard to believe someone actually came to the door with free stuff. Happily for me she actually gave me some great stuff and I was able to buy this floor lamp.
This is the one bookshelf that I have (besides a junky one that is going in our office.) The nativity set on top was a gift Two Fish got me to celebrate me becoming a Mom. I had always wanted a really nice nativity set since I was a little kid so it was a really great surprise. He had it waiting for me when I finally got to come home with Red Fish.
My grandma made this as a wedding gift for me. It's my maternal heritage- 5 generations including me. I have a book that goes with it with all of their personal histories in it. I get a lot of compliments on it. I have it hanging in the living room by the front door.

Dining RoomBefore

We really have no furniture or use for a dining room so we are going to use the room as a music and library room. At some point I will buy more shelves.
This is the final parts to the set of curtains I am stretching across my main floor. This is the window I purchased them for because it doesn't have any blinds like the rest of the windows. I have piles of books in the room because I am in bad need of more bookshelves. My poor art books. I'm really going to miss all the built in shelves in our old house.
This piano was one of our first piece of furniture we ever purchased.

Dilemnas of a 1st time Mom

So today I was just having one of those mornings during which I felt no need to get dressed for the day. My Mom's dog is here visiting and I had the dogs playing in the backyard while Red Fish and I had a leisurely morning. Next thing I know the dogs have figured out how to escape from my newly fenced yard and I have to chase them down the street in my rather embarrassing pajamas at 10 am. Hello new neighbors- here I am in all my glory! The day has only gotten better from there. They attacked my realtor who came over to say hello (now I am wearing my high school volleyball sweatshirt and jeans - no hair or makeup today) and the stupid barker breaker I've been using (it makes a very loud and annoying noise meant to scare the dogs) went berserk and wouldn't shutup. Red Fish started crying because she got knocked over during the hullaballoo. It was a regular circus around here. Sigh...

I've been reading "What To Expect The First Year" a chapter a month for the past year. I mostly skim for relevant issues to my parenting style but I like that it sort of prepares me for each stage of Red Fish's life so far. It also gives me a bit of a reality check because most of the time I assume she is much too little for things. Actually I just have a hard time letting her grow up even in tiny steps. The book reminds me to allow her new experiences. So here enters my dilemna. I have been giving her a sippy cup for a long time now but until the last week or so she mostly used it as an accessory rather than an actual instrument for aquiring liquid sustenance. I read last week in WTETFY that babies should begin to rely mostly on a sippy cup somewhere around the first year. This was shocking information to me because the thought hadn't even occured to me. When I first read it I figured it was a personal choice and Red Fish just wasn't ready because she doesn't drink much out of the sippy. Then in the last week she has gone crazy with the sippy cup and elected to get rid of her afternoon bottle unless it is in a cup. I think she is trying to tell me something. Perhaps it's a sign that I'm the one who isn't ready.

This also applies to her food. Red Fish is still mostly a toothless wonder (she has two bottom teeth and couple on the top, side of her mouth.) I'm a big fan of baby food. Nice, organic, easy, nutritious baby food. I've been adding alot of finger foods like string cheese, steamed veggies, chopped fruit, cheerios etc. trying to allow her to self feed but if I go just with the finger food she won't get nearly the variety she had in the jars- I'm just not a great grocerry shopper or cook.

So here is my question... What are you guys feeding your toddlers and when did you wean from the bottle? I need some ideas for nutritious food. Am I holding her back by clinging to the baby things? The advice of my wonderful mama friends would be greatly appreciated.

I love you!

First sentence. Yay!

Beginning To Unpack and Decorate

I'm finally starting to get the house in order a bit (and by bit I mean the tip of the ice berg.) Between going to Florida and trying to get caught up on my design work ahead of time I haven't really had time to work on the house. So here is the entryway.BeforeAfter

This stuff was on a shelf in my kitchen and I loved it. I was so excited there was a place in the new house that it all fit on.
The floor mat is from Linnens N' Things. They are having a going out of business sale across the US. I got some awesome curtain rods for several rooms as well on clearance. The curtains are leftover parts of a set I got on clearance for another room. I was planning on making some but it was easier to make them out of the other curtains. The curtains are a little fluffier than I planned but I like the overall effect.

Good Surprises

1- I was on the phone with my Mom having her proof some of my artwork and Two Fish brought Red Fish in to say good night. I held the phone up for Red Fish and told her to say "Night night" to gammie and she did! Then she spent the next ten minutes saying "night night night night night." So cute!
2- I had mentioned that I was hungry last night at ten and twenty minutes later Two Fish surprised me with a plate of mac n cheese. Happy day!

Florida

The seasoned traveler

On Sunday my Mom, Redfish, and I flew to Northern Florida to visit my great uncle L for four days. I was apprehensive about taking Red Fish on another flight after our less than fun flight to California last month but I was pleasantly surprised. She did really well. I've decided the key is to have a large variety of snacks in her bag- cheerios, sweet potato puffs, dried fruit, smiley snacks etc. I also made sure I took her two favorite (and very bulky) books on the plane with me. We did have alot of delays and sat on the runway for an extra hour and a half total waiting for our planes to take off. It makes for a long day.
Red Fish is very attracted to the color red. When she saw this wall paper in Uncle L's house she just couldn't stop herself from hugging and kissing it daily.

Red Fish took a liking to my Uncle L and kept trying to steal his cane the whole time we were there. Uncle L collects antiques so you can imagine my stress level spending hours on end in a room full of breakable items with a toddler who was feeling especially curious and frisky. By the end of the day Red Fish would become a complete maniac and just run around the room screaming and waving her arms. I think she enjoyed having all of the adult attention focused on her for a few days.

Red Fish also enjoyed being especially silly with her gammie. Red Fish got so worked up everyday that she refused to sleep in the pack n play at the hotel. She insisted on sleeping with me in the bed and thrashing around and kicking her legs all night. I don't think she ever settled down the whole time we were in Florida. At least she enjoyed herself! Uncle L tried his best to initiate Red Fish into the world of table linnens and stemware. Red Fish tried her best to introduce Uncle L to the world of spitting your food on the floor and finger painting the table cloth. Of course she kept her napkin in her lap like a perfect little lady. We also spent some time looking books. Red Fish showed her collection of mini masters art books to Uncle L.

Red Fish enjoying the sea shore

Bomb

Last night I had a dream that I needed to dismantle a bomb and hide it. This morning I couldn't find my cell phone anywhere. Apparently I dismantled my cell phone and put it in my pillow case in my sleep. Don't worry- we're all safe now.

Blue Fish

Pumpkin Patch

Home

Girly

Well little Red Fish has already jumped head first into the opinionated toddler phase. Whatever you are eating, she wants a bite. If you take a drink out of a glass she needs a sip. She has finally learned to go down the stairs after months of going up. She would never allow me to show her how to go down, she wants to do everything herself. Yesterday she picked out a very warm pink dress with fur trim that I thought was much too hot but she was insistent on wearing it. She even wanted to wear the furry hood up for most of the day so she looked like a little snow princess. Then when I was trying to get dressed, actually put on makeup and fix my hair (I wanted to look human for once- I'm going through a major frump phase) Red Fish wanted in on all the action. For each stroke of the brush in my hair she needed me to comb her hair. When I put on makeup she hollered until I took my blush brush and stroked it on her face. I also had to pretend to put mascara on her. When I curled my hair she had a fit until I got out another curling iron that wasn't hot and pretended to curl her hair. She wanted to do everything I did. Afterward I told her how pretty she is and she kept making the cutest faces in the mirror. She can even point at herself in the mirror and say her own name now. It's so cute! She is just as girly as I was when I was little. I need to dig up this picture from my childhood that totally describes me as a little girl. I'm standing on a chair digging through my dresser, wearing ruffled tights, a fluorescent orange trucker hat, and nothing else. I forsee pictures like that in Red Fish's future perhaps without the eighties trucker hat but who knows?

The Brink

No sleep last night. I think we are teething again. That means hours of crying and nothing will console her. Then a rough day where nothing makes her happy. Trying to get locks changed, banking info updated, water rights transferred, and schedule a few repairs. Packing boxes and the kitchen trash (which they both stopped to try tasting) are overturned as baby and dog engage in a romp around the room and I respond to emails about the pile of work I haven't gotten to yet. I allow her to eat one potato chip (lol- this is a very big deal for me) we sit on the couch for a few minutes and watch tv (double gasp.) My sanity teeters on the brink and then... she takes a nice long nap. I get to work in relative peace and when she wakes up we both smile at each other and sanity returns. She didn't die from the potato chip or the tv either. We were saved yet again by a nap.

Note: As I am writing this (on my laptop while blocking the stairs) Red Fish came up behind me and gave me a big hug and a snuggle and then went back to ransacking the house. It's all worth it.

We've Survived- Barely

We are mostly moved in - although our house looks a bit like we have survived a bombing of epic proportions. I'm trying to concentrate on getting one room functional at a time. Red Fish's room is pretty much set up and unpacked so that she will feel somewhat at home. The rest of the house is in total disarray as we deal with having things installed etc. I had kind of forgotten what an ordeal it is to move. There is a never ending to do list and we still need to work on the old house. The really best part of this move has been the incredible willingness of our family to help us out. I am overwhelmed by how kind everyone has been cleaning, moving us, babysitting etc. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family. THANK YOU!Red Fish is having alot of fun exploring the new house. She is pretty thrilled to see her room coming together. I will post pictures of the house as I get things pulled together. It may be a week or so before I get a room really finished off. (At least that's what I am hoping for.)

Red Fish also enjoys "helping" with the unpacking.Her "angelic" behavior isn't always appreciated.

Dug Dug

Well our Dog Blue Fish has now been dubbed "dug dug" by Red Fish. She has been following him around for the past couple days (narrowly missing paint trays and moving boxes) and snuggling her "dug dug". They spend an hour a day chasing eachother around the kitchen table. It's wonderful. I think Red Fish is feeling a little sad that there is so much stress in the house and that Mommy has been so busy so it's nice to know we can count on Blue Fish to give her some undivided attention.

Also in the quick news before I lose my internet for the move- Red Fish officially took her first steps. 2 of them. Two Fish was so excited that he was home from work to see her. We can't coax her into trying it again with nothing to hang on to but it's only a matter of time. I'm kind of looking forward to letting her touch the floor in a public place and not worrying about her crawling around in the dirt and grime.

Other than that it's just stress stress stress. We are trying to move in two days and also keep our house clean enough for potential buyers to take a look. It's pretty much impossible. Who knew we had so much stuff?