Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Goodbye, House

Since finding out about new baby, we have been on a search for a new house, knowing that our current 700 sq foot box of a house would no longer fit the bill for the needs of our family. We have been so lucky to find a house, literally right around the corner, 3 doors down from this house. We are so thankful to stay close to our street of friends, and of course, the beach. We love being in the most northern part of Virginia Beach, and our breath still catches every time we walk up our beach access. We didn't want to have to leave! We hope to move March 1. I snapped these pictures the other day before we had a showing for prospective renters. I wanted to remember this house at the best that it has ever looked.



Painting over the wood paneling was probably the hardest paint job any of us had attempted, but boy, was it worth it. I cleaned and refinished the fireplace, which made a huge difference. 






Staining these cabinets was my project. So worth it, I think the stain totally revitalized them.




It looks so different than when we moved in!




Escher's room. He loves to play in his room now. He'll call "Mommee! Daddee! Come in Dude room! And PLAY!" In our new house, the crib will be packed away for new baby to use, and Escher will get a new big boy bed! 




Our one lonely bathroom, which I painted.




And our tiny bedroom, which we painted last out of the whole house. Nope, no room for a crib in there!

Our new house has 3 floors and probably 3 times as much space as this house. It has a fenced in backyard for Truman, and space for all of Escher's outside toys. We also have a few balconies, which is great too. I'm so thankful to be moving before baby comes, before I get so huge that I couldn't fit in this tiny house, and before my nesting kicks in so that I can nest in our new house. By the time we are settled, spring will be here and we can enjoy the warm afternoons outside. Yay!
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Wintertime is Slow...



Since new baby has been on my mind a lot, every time I look at Escher I realize how big he is. He's such a talker these days. And he is so strong! 




Even though its winter, we still make trips down to the beach on warm(ish) days. It does us all good to get some fresh air and see the ocean.




That boy loves him some lollipops.




Escher got a bird feeder for Christmas (thanks Grandma!). He loves to stand in the window and watch all the  neighborhood birdees come have their lunch. Or breakfast. Or dinner. Whichever.




However, it didn't take long for squirrels to find out about it. We watch them take a flying jump from the branch above then hang down eating the seed. These squirrels worked as a team, one above eating and shaking seed down to the waiting squirrel below. Escher likes to bang on the window until they leave, screaming "NO squirrel, you no eat birdee food!"




Escher also likes it when daddy crawls in the crib with him. It has become an after work tradition. I think everyone will be glad when Escher gets his new big boy bed. I can hardly get in him the crib anymore, my belly is starting to get in the way :-)
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Monday, February 6, 2012

Escherisms

Our little man has been cracking us up lately, so much has gone by in the past month! I didn't get around to writing a Christmas post but I will include a few of our favorite memories here.


  • Escher's favorite Christmas songs were Jingle Bells and Christmas Monkey from the Curious George Christmas movie. In fact, we've only just stopped singing them lately!
  • He loved Christmas lights. Anytime he saw them he would yell "CHE-MAS WIGHS, YAY!"
  • We told him about Santa, and on Christmas day he told us "Santa brought Red Pepe (panda), and water buffalo and sea wion!"
  • When we pass the Sprout consignment store at the beach, he sees all the giant stuffed animals in the window, he says "Santa bring dude... giraffe and cheeta and tiger?" 
  • We have been watching a lot of Curious George, and Escher has been picking up some funny stuff. The other night, Escher asked Matt for his bottle of water. Matt said no, and Escher started to throw a fit so Matt drank almost all of it and handed the bottle to Escher with just a inch or so in it. Escher takes the back of his hand, draws it across his forhead and says "sheeew!" Like, be glad you gave that to me before I had a fit!
  • We left Escher's favorite animal, Baby Elley, and the library. We go back inside and Escher runs back and finds it abandoned in a play boat they have there. As we are leaving, the library asks him if he found his animal. He stops, looks at her,  and tells her "Found Baby Elley in boat! SHEEEW!" and does the hand thing again. I'm pretty sure that made her week, she was laughing so hard.
  • When we are throwing the football, Escher is such a good cheerleader. "Good Catch, Mommeee! Good throw Daddee!, Oh, almost!"
  • He has started saying "awesome". its awesome :-)
  • He'll ask for something, and then say, "Yeah, LOTS of bubbles (or fries,  or candy, etc)
  • He tries so hard to count to ten. Most of the time he does really well, although for some reason he doesn't like five and six.
  • We got a new book at the library, "Baby Bear, Baby Bear What Do You See?" He made me read it 3 times before nap that day and he had memorized all the animals by the time we were done.
  • He dropped his bowl of cheerios and said "Oh, what a mess!"
  • He says "Dude made a MESS!"
  • Then he says "Mom, clean up!"
  • We are working on cleaning up our messes.
  • We passed by a house that had a lot of palm trees in the front, and he tells me "Whoa, jungle in there!"
  • We were listening to Zac Brown Band, "Chicken Fried" and Escher yells "I WANT CHICKEN FRIES!"
  • We were driving when it was really cloudy out the other day, and I noticed a little blue sky. I told Escher, "It looks like the sun might come out" and he looks around at the grey clouds and tells me "No, the sun not workin today"
  • When we were at Grace last week, it was getting to be snack time, and Escher had what we like to call "Low Blood Sugar Cranky Butt Disorder" (taken from Pioneer Woman) Anyways, he was falling apart when it came to getting that precious little cup of goldfish and animal crackers. All of his other friends were sitting at the table waiting patiently and he is standing by his chair, moaning "Ms Twaceee, dude hungry... pwease has snack for dude? Ms Twacee pwsease!" Ms. Tracey is trying her hardest to hide her giggles as she gives everyone else at his table their snack. Finally he gets his cup of snacks and everything is right with the world. 

Week 16-17

So I'm technically 17 weeks today, but I will do a review of last week too.

Baby is the size of a: Turnip!
I feel like : I feel like I am starting to feel better. We had a rough cold go through the house so if I could kick the last of that, I think I could get some energy back. I've had 3 whole days of not puking this past week, and I hope it only gets better.
I want: Blueberry anything. Bagels, jam, the fruit. Oh, and popsicles, the breyers all fruit kind. We somehow ended up with 2 full boxes a few days ago, but they are almost all gone. I can sit and eat 3 of those a night. So can Escher! Ha!
Please don't give me: Seafood!
Funny Moment: I was trying to ask Matt if he wanted Rice Krispie Treats for SuperBowl, but I couldn't think of the name of the cereal. "You know, those things you eat with the marshmallows and the cereal and its all melted with butter?" Great description, right?

Weeks 11-15

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted. I've been busy. I met a new friend! He lives in my bathroom and we call him toilet. We hang out every morning! Sometimes in the afternoon too, like if I eat Arbys or something else my body simultaneously craves and hates at the same time. So here, we go, on with the catch up.

Baby is the size of a: I think it grew to be a lemon?
I feel like: you don't want to know.
I want: Chicken Salad. and blueberry bagels. Chicken Salad on blueberry bagels. And mango. Please give me lots of mango. I actually had a dream about mango the other night. It was awesome. I also dreamt about this guy:



Surpisingly, even though beef has been on my "not want" list, I couldn't stop thinking about this bacon cheeseburger from Outback. Luckily Matt scored some giftcards at Christmas so he was sweet enough to take me and let me stuff my face. Looking at it now, I want one again... But we are out of giftcards :-(
Please do not give me: Slowly my food aversions have diminished. I still really have no desire to eat most red meats, but I have had ground beef tacos that are pretty yummy.
Silly Moment: I forgot where I parked. In the tiny Bloom parking lot. (in my defense there was a big van blocking the view of the car!). I forgot my phone number at the eye dr. I couldn't even pull myself together enough to tell her that I'm pregnant and have lost my brain. I'm sure she thought I needed help. And I've pretty much forgotten how to cook. Its been a slow process trying to cook dinner some nights a week. I have to stop and think through how I cook things, it doesn't come as naturally as it did before.