We Survived!

Last week was my first week on my own. I decided that we needed to just jump right in and keep up the same pace as we did before anna was born. Here's what we did...

On Monday, we were headed to the lollipop concert. I decided that I needed to walk because its only 1 mile one way and...well...lets face it...I have a few pounds to lose. So we walked there only to find out that it was postponed due to weather. I contemplated heading back to the house but I decided to throw anna in the sling so jake and I could dive head first into the splash pad. That afternoon, we headed to the grocery store....in the rain! Luckily it was only a light rain.

On Tuesday, jake headed to Melissa's in the morning for a make up day. anna and I headed to brunch with a friend :). That afternoon we stayed home and played in the playroom. I sat anna down on the play mat. jake did a very good job at sharing his toys. Notice all the toys he shared around her head.



He loves to say "hi, baby anna!"



I do put pants on the kid. This was just right after nap time. He sleeps in his diaper during naps because he gets so hot.



Hi pretty girl!



On Wednesday, we headed to the pool! I contemplated how I was going to handle the pool with jake and anna for months. Once she's old enough, I'm going to put her in the Kid's Zone so jake and I can spend an hour or so just the two of us swimming. Until then, its the three of us. It actually worked out really well. jake wanted to head to the baby pool first so I just parked her and the stroller in the shade....then he wanted to head to the big boy pool and I just parked her and the stroller in the shade. She slept the whole time. When she started to stir, I plopped her in the sling. I went in the morning hoping the sling wouldn't be too hot for her or me. That afternoon, I think we headed to Walmart for some odds and ends....

On Thursday, jake headed back to Melissa's. I got to go to the mall and do some browsing. I haven't done that in so long! It was fun. That afternoon, we headed to the ice cream shop for an ice cream cone...that jake was asking for all day...that he ended up not wanting.

On Friday, we got a visit from my friend Erin and her 3 kids. It was fun! Thankfully, Trev got home a little early from work and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief that I survived.

In the end it was hard but, definitely doable. I thought about bringing the camera along on our adventures, but I thought that would put me over the edge.

Laundry

I'm psyched about having a laundry room. Its kind of dorky, but I am. I just love the smell of fresh clean laundry and the feeling of pulling out warm clean clothes from the dryer.

Here's where our laundry room started...







Here's where we are today...







Its coming along! Here's an idea of where I want it to be....

I love the color, the open shelving, and the baskets....



I also like the wire baskets and the glass containers to story detergent.



*images from hgtv

I'm not going to lie. Its hard to find inspiration photos for a laundry room. Basically, we're going to add a built in table and a rod to hang laundry on. In the open shelving, I plan to mix up the storage between woven and wire baskets and glass jars. The furniture pieces will be white and the walls will be the blue you see in the pic with the washer and dryer.

I plan on adding a jute rug.



*from ikea

I'm still undecided on how to store the sorted dirty laundry. Probably a bunch of laundry bags like this...



*from ikea

Is it crazy to put so much decorating thought into a laundry room. Maybe....but, I tell you what, now that we have two kids, I find myself in there a lot more.

2 and a Big Brother

The day after anna was born, my dr came to check on me. He said I was doing great and could go home early if I wanted...which I did...and had no restrictions. I asked if I could pick up my 2 year old son. He said yes and that he'll definitely want to be picked up. He said to watch out because he'll regress and the first month will be hard but, he should go back to his normal self the following month. Sigh. There are definitely moments when I wonder if having two kids so close together was such a good idea.

jake is outstanding with anna. He asks to hold her two or three times a day and will sit there for about five minutes...an eternity for a two year old...and just hold her, hold her hand, kiss her hand, kiss her forehead and gently rub her head. Thankfully, he hasn't lashed out against her at all. Even his tone of voice changes when he talks about her or two her. His voice gets a little higher and he speaks so softly. Its too cute.

He's saved all his lashing out for me. Grreeaatt. I knew it was coming. He's such a momma's boy that you'd have to be an idiot to think he wasn't going to be affected in some way or another when my attention needs to be someplace else. I'd say about 70% of the time he's his normal self. The other 30% can be very hard and exhausting for me. There are quite a few times in the day when all he'll let me do is just stand there and hold him. He'll tuck his arms into his chest and put his head on my shoulder and just want to be. He wants to be held a lot. A LOT. He's throwing a bunch of fits but, its hard to tell if that's because he's got to share his attention with a new sister or if its because he's two. I'm thinking the fits are more because he's two and the wanting to be held is because he needs the reassurance.

Overall, things are going well....so far. Tomorrow I'm on my own for the first time. I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit sad to see all the help go. On the bright side, I'm doing a ton better both mentally and physically then when I had jake. This delivery was great. My physical recovery is about 1000 times better and easier. Mentally I'm in a much better place, too. Sometimes I can feel myself going into a funk but, its few and far between in comparison to where I was 2 weeks after having jake. I attribute most of that to the fact that I don't have as many life changing moments going on - not a new mom, not quitting a job to stay at home, not selling a house, not buying a house, not packing and moving...

The Basement Den

So once a week I'm going to try and show a room in our house. Sort of a home tour. Every room in our house is in progress so I hope to post some inspirations to get an idea of where I want the room to eventually end up.

First up, our basement den.

Here's where we started with this room



Here's where we are now.









I love how it all turned out. Now we just need to put the finishing touches on everything. So what's the plan?

The trim needs to be finished. Who knew trim was so expensive! We decided to go middle of the road with the trim. You can kind of see it in the picture of the staircase below the railing. Its a little bulkier than the cheap version but not nearly as wide or ornate as you can get with the more expensive versions.

Trev is going to make shelves for under the stairs. Our hope is to fit all the toys in those shelves. Trev's hope is to have a mini fridge built into those shelves. Lots of hope going around.

We're going to purchase a white tv stand and add molding all around the bookcases. Our goal is to achieve a built in look but with some premade pieces. We bought the bookcases from ikea and are currently on the hunt for a tv stand. It may end up looking like something like this...



*image from The Hufford Furniture Group

I've decided that I'm going to fill the bookcases with things that have special meaning to us. So if its on the shelf, it will have a story that relates to us and our family and friends. I already have an idea of some of the things that will go on the shelves. Young House Love is a blog I have on my reader. They recently posted some great ideas of how to display items that have some real meaning. I especially love this idea...





*pictures are from their blog

I think I might get a larger map and put it at the bottom of the stairs. I'm thinking one color pin for the places Trev and I went before the kiddos and another color pin for the places we visit as a family.

I'm going to try my hand at photographing architecture. We plan to take a walk around our old neighborhood and downtown soon so that I can shoot some local sites. We'll enlarge them and place them around the room. At first I was thinking black and white but, I'm not dead set on that. I think its going to depend on how the shots turn out.

So the room is pretty neutral. I have some light blue pillows on the couches now. I can't for the life of me decide if that's what I want my accent color to be. I'm lovin' the colors that Crate and Barrel is showing in their catalog. I can never commit. I promised Trev that this room would read a bit more masculine. Its hard to decide if a color is truly masculine and still be fresh at the same time.

The tv is sitting on what will be the end tables. At first, I was thinking that we'd paint them white, but now I'm not so sure. I want to avoid matchy matchy furniture but I'm not sure if I have the talent to put together a bunch of different furniture finishes.

I love the idea of having a bulky coffee table. Something like this from Pottery Barn but a little wider. I might try and convince my husband that he can make it himself. :)



Last are curtains. I plan on getting full length curtains to cover the basement window. I'm thinking I'll go with whatever accent color I commit to but, I know when push comes to shove, I'll probably just do white curtains.

So that's where my head is at for the basement. We've come such a long way and I'm so excited to do the finishing touches.....we'll see if I actually get it done over the next year!

The last time...

Saturday, June 26, we decided to brave the hot hot weather and take jake to the local festival. Let me remind you that anna was born on the 27th! We didn't realize at the time that it was our last outing as a family of 3.

Before we left we took a quick pic. My last pregnant picture!



When we got there, the train was going by so the boys took a breather to watch it go by.



Then they waited for the tractor/train/hay ride.







It was crazy hot so we got some lemonade and italian ice.



jake liked that idea.



So I didn't get many pictures of much else because it was hot and I was uncomfortable. Little did I know that about 7 hours later I would start contracting. Crazy.

welcome

This is the sight that welcomes our visitors thanks to my nature lovin' son. Whenever we try to clean it up, he pitches a fit and just moves everything back so there it all stays to welcome our guests.



Welcome.

car wash

I was scheduled to be induced on Tuesday the 29th so we figured that we'd pack the weekend before with some fun activities for jake. Kind of a one last only child weekend hoorah. Nothing screams fun activity like washing the cars!!

It is fun, though, when it starts out with getting to drive the car.



I'm going to wait and see who makes a Britney Spears comment to me...

Seriously, he enjoyed washing the cars.



He talked about it for days.



He's pretty good at it.



Should probably add it to his future chore chart.



Nothing like putting the men to work.

Play Do

Towards the end of my pregnancy I was crazy uncomfortable. I tried to be active with jake but, ugh, it was hard. Thankfully Marisa and family gave jake some play do for his birthday. It provided me with some sit down time and occupied jake.



He really got into it.



He even tried making little balls out of it.



I started to think that the little brown balls looked like something Duke would leave behind so I decided to add the blue.



I was surprised by how much he enjoyed the little stamps.



I think Elmo was jealous that he wasn't getting to play.

Handy Manny

Did you know that Wilmer Valderrama from That 70's Show is the voice of Handy Manny? Trev and I thought that was funny.

Anyway, my husband has become pretty good at building and making things. Instead of buying jake a workbench, he decided to build him one. Its almost exactly like the one he built himself but, just a little more mini.

jake was psyched when we showed him his surprise.



Trev showed him all the fun little details.



Probably not the safest of workbenches for a two year old. Real screws and all...



jake loves it, though.

anna marie