Our summer so far

Our summer has been very fun, very hot and very busy. I'm going to mostly let the pictures speak for themselves but I'll throw my two cents in here and there.

These first two pictures were taken on Independence Day. It was the second time Liam swam with floaties on his arms and he absolutely loves them. It used to be that every time we would swim Liam would get so mad at us for holding him and he would be fighting us off the entire time. We found some floaties at the dollar store and thought we would give it try. We really thought that he would hate having them on his arms and that he wouldn't be able to use them anyway but we were wrong. As soon as he realized they were meant to help him swim alone he was all for it. He swims like a fish with them on.

Our Fourth of July was so much fun. Paul actually had it off and we spent it with his side of the family. We swam, ate delicious food, talked and laughed and played ring around the rosie with a stuffed Uncle Sam.

Then we watched a few fireworks that Liam still wasn't very fond of. He wasn't crying like he was last year but he was a little scared and covering his ears. He kept talking about how he wanted to go inside and watch TV. To give him credit, it was a very long day and he was pretty tired.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but Liam has been LOVING playing in the sink. He does it at least twice a day most days. I give him a few mixing bowls and he goes to town. Lucky for him (and us) he's getting a water table for his birthday.

He is also loving riding his bike in the cool evenings since he now knows how to pedal by himself. He doesn't know how to steer yet though so he mostly pedals down the driveway until he crashes into the grass then he gets off, pulls his bike back up the driveway and starts again.

We took him back to the zoo a couple of weeks ago just for a couple of hours and it was way crowded and way hot. We went to his favorite exhibits then made a bee line for the exit with screaming toddler in tow. (Oh yeah, Liam doesn't like leaving... anywhere. The mall, the park, the restaurant, the zoo. He throws a fit every time. We went to lunch the other day and when we were done eating we asked him if he was ready to go. He said no, of course, so Paul said, "Well, what do you want to do here?" He said, "Just sit." So we sat. Only for about 2 minutes then he was good to go. I guess he's just never in a rush.)

Liam has rediscovered his Halloween costume from last year and he makes me put it on him occassionally.

He enjoys counting his claws.

We had our first doctor's appointment about a week and a half ago. I was about 8 weeks along and we were both so relieved to see that everything is going smoothly so far. It was also a wake up call that there is actually a tiny, grape sized, person growing inside me who will be coming out in just a few short months. Both times that I've found out I was pregnant, it felt very surreal until that first ultrasound. Like I'm not reallly pregnant or it's not really happening until I can see it actually is. And sure enough, yep, it's happening. We are so excited and so super nervous to be parents of two. So far, I have been very encouraged by the way this pregnancy has started out. I was deathly ill with Liam and pretty much in bed whenever I wasn't at work throwing up in the bathroom. This time, I'm feeling so much better. It's seriously a miracle. I feel like it's all working out the way it's supposed to so that I can care for Liam while caring for myself. It's still hard and exhausting but it's working. I hope I can repeat those words when the baby arrives.

And one last picture. I'm weaning Liam from nursing. It's only been a week but it's going very well so far. Except for this little disturbing aspect. The other day Liam showed me his art and told me that it was "booby." (That's what he calls nursing). Can you see it in the picture? It really is! I laughed at first but I can't help but feel I'm traumatizing my little guy. Poor baby is working his frustrations out through art. Maybe that's how great artists are created, I don't know.

Home projects #3 and #4

We have a front lawn, people! It was a lot of work but it's finished and we are loving it! It took us week after week of spending an hour or so at a time pulling out the plants, ground cover and weeds. Then it was finally time to lay the sod! It just so happened to be the first piping hot day of summer and everyone was completely exhausted and fried (especially Paul and his brother) by the time they were finished. We really have the most amazing, generous family who drove up to work their butts off without payment except for pizza. My nephew and niece both worked so hard and I must say that when I was their age I would have been sneaking off into the air conditioning every chance I got. They were amazing. At one point my sun-kissed niece looked up from her filthy shoes, wiped her brow and started giggling. She said, "I feel like a slave!" and I don't think she was that off. I'm sure there are child labor laws that should have prohibitted her from doing such hard work. I knew it was worth it though when half way through Paul pointed at the middle of the yard and said, "This is where the Slip N Slide will go!" He brought our goal back into view: a safe, clean, pretty place for Liam to play free of thorns and bee infested Rosemary. But still, for the back yard, we are hiring workers!

And that brings me to our next and final home project which is a fairly recent one. I get to design another nursery for another little one! We are expecting baby #2 at the end of February 2012! The day we found out was the first day we actually played on our new lawn and I snapped a few pictures to document our excitement and anticipation! Ok, well really, the sun was just setting and the light was too good to pass up so I used the excuse to whip out the camera.

Home project #2

I left off the last post talking about my love of the color orange. That leads me right up to my loft/ playroom project where my accent wall is no longer orange. :( let me explain a tiny bit. When we lived in San bernardino we painted our bathroom a bright orange. It was fun and different but also a bit much. When we moved we toned it down a bit with a deeper orange color only on the back wall of the loft. I loved it and it went really well with our pool table/ future game room ideas. When we began work on the playroom we quickly realized that it was clashing with all of our ideas and our "primary colors" cholor scheme so we no longer have that orange wall. It's blue! We used a dark blue we had left over from Liams room and it is bringing the room together nicely. The pool table is down, the blue paint is up, book and toy storage is in, some wall art is hung, and I think we are in the home stretch. We need to hang the curtains that we bought from Ikea along with some decals we purchased from Babies R US, we need more wall art, and I really want to paint the blinds white but that seems like a big job so I'm going to wait to see if the curtains help at all or if they make it worse. Here are some pictures of our work in progress.

These are the curtains that aren't yet hung on the blue wall below.

I love these Disney prints mainly because Paul made them but also because he made them with Liam in mind. Liam loves Mickey Mouse and Paul knew that he would enjoy looking at them and he really does! He always points to them and names off all the characters. I'm not sure we will leave them by the window once curtains are up but we will see.

These are my ikea spice rack $4 book cases. I got the idea from pinterest.com and I knew I wanted to copy. Liam is loving books these days and having the books facing forward makes it so much easier for him to pick one out and to clean them up.

These are the new cubbies.

And here is the art corner complete with supplies and Liam's original works.

I want the room to feel organized and I think we are succeeding. One wall is the art wall, one is the reading wall, and the third is the play wall with lots of floor space in the middle for big messes. I'm so excited about how this room is coming together and how inexpensive it has been. But I'm especially excited about all the memories we will make in it!

Home Project #1

I haven't been blogging as much as I was before but I haven't yet given up on it. I'm still hanging in there and every now and then I feel inspired to write but I just don't get around to it. We have been pretty busy over here with some home projects that I'm so super excited about. Some things are even completed and I'm so happy I get to share some "after" pictures! But I'm going to have to break it up into a few posts for the sake of time and length.

Our first project is happening only in my brain. Well, I've done some shopping around but my home has not yet seen the fruits of my labor. And my labor has not been very involved. We are waiting on moola before we start this because we have been working on the other projects simultaneously and our bank account has been feeling it. But I'm still very excited for it. It's a... (drumroll)... mud room/ entry. This is what got my wheels turning. We always park in the garage and enter through that door, which is our laundry room. The laundry room then leads into the kitchen. All of our items then get dropped on the kitchen counter or table and they never move. The mail, my purse, diaper bag, trash from the car, keys, phone, you name it. Everything we happen to be carrying. Oh, and our shoes and jackets. I really don't mind it very much because I do a pretty good job at clearing the counter often. But one day I realized that most of those items don't have a home. Like, my purse and shoes are always in the kitchen and I don't move them unless company is coming over and then they get thrown into the coat closet. I remembered that at our old house we had a coat rack and some shelves when you first walked through the door that was our catch-all and it kept everything neat and orderly. We need that here. But we need it to be fancier, of course. This is what I'm dreaming of.

bhg.com

Thank you, Better Homes and Gardens! I love this so much that I seriously think I'm going to try to replicate it as close as possible. I love the setup, the colors, everything! This is what I'm thinking: The wood will have to be dark, not white, because the rest of my furniture in that room is dark. I think I'm going to buy this padded bench from Target that has cubbies underneath, and I just may buy the exact same Billy Bookshelves from Ikea, except that I may buy the wider ones. If I don't buy the Ikea ones then I will buy Target ones that are a bit shorter but way way cheaper. I think what really makes this mudroom incredible is the paneling in the back above the bench. I think it would look way different if the wall was showing there. We are talking about the possibility of putting fabric up instead of the paneling to save some money but I'm not sure how that would turn out. Of course, I want to top it off with a shelf and hooks and that green color that the accessories all match is beautiful.

ikea.com

I'm loving these green storage containers from ikea to hide all of our junk. They also have some in orange and I'm kind of a sucker for orange. More on that next post!

Random ipod post

We just dumped all of the photos from the ipod onto the computer and it's been fun for me to look back on what we have been doing for the past couple of months. I love that the ipod pictures were all taken at times when I didn't have my camera but I felt a picture needed to be taken. They aren't posed and they are unexpected. The best kind. So here are some random photos and stories.

First off, let me explain the scrapes on Liam's face in the first few. We were playing at the park one day when I sat him at the top of the slide and told him not to go down until I was at the bottom to catch him. We do this all the time but we, apparently, were going through a phase where he wanted to do the opposite of everything I said. So, I'm running down the steps of the jungle gym when I hear him scream. I found him face down on the ground because he had gone down the slide, flew off at the end, landed on his face, and got all scraped up and bloody from the wood chips. It was a fun day, indeed. So, he had some scrapes on his face for a few days and he is all better now. I actually completely forgot about it until I saw these pictures.

Anyway, we spent a day trying out all of Target's patio furniture. Not because we wanted to but because Liam felt he absolutely needed to.

There were a few days at Disneyland thrown in, of course.

We have been trying, unsuccessfully, to keep a hat on Liam's head in the sun.

We even tried it "Chandler style" as Paul calls it but that only works for so long. (That's a Friends reference by the way in case you aren't familiar.)

Liam has overcome two big fears. More like two of his irrational fears have disappeared over night. One is carousels and the other is his rocking horse. He loves them both now. Next fear- newborn kittens.

Paul and I have had two amazing dates at Prospect Park in Redlands. We used to go there all the time when we lived in San Bernardino but we don't usually go to parks that don't have playgrounds anymore. Our "dates" usually include a meal, maybe a movie, and usually errands that involve Toys R Us. We have decided that we much more enjoy a picnic in the park followed by cuddling and conversation on a blanket in the shade. It has been incredible. Oh, and playing with ipod apps that take panoramic pictures.

To be on top of the game, Liam and I did some Father's Day shopping one day that turned into trying on fun hats and playing in the toy aisle.

We also play with chalk (and bubbles) pretty much daily.

And we took Liam to sushi with us and he ate all of the tofu out of both of our soups then slurped a bunch of it down. He must have very strange tastes for a kid because it was a Japanese soup with green onions and sea weed. Not your average mac and cheese.

He likes feeding his bubbles to the dogs. Boo is smart enough to walk away but Emilia will eat anything Liam gives her, including rocks. I'm serious.

I can't wait for our front yard to be finished in a couple of weeks because then I can start dropping hints about the back. Liam always wants to lay in the dirt with the dogs.

Aaaaand my new favorite app is Instagram. I love all the filters you can put on your pictures. Was this post random enough for you?

A day at the beach

Liam and I went to Newport Beach last week with a friend and I can honestly say that our day was like a dream come true. Seriously, it was heavenly. I almost didn't go because the beach is almost a two hour drive from us and I have never taken Liam on a car trip that long without Paul. In case you haven't heard, Liam used to despise the car when he was a baby. He would scream and cry the ENTIRE time. I tried everything and the only cure seems to have been time. I'm still so traumatized, though. Every time an opportunity like this comes along I turn it down because I'm so afraid of a meltdown while I'm driving and helpless. It's just a mild case of PTSD. Anyway, the day before we left, I changed my mind. It was such a beautiful day and we had no other plans so I thought, "What's one day of torture?" I'm so so very glad I changed my mind because it went so smooth that I almost feel invincible. Well, not completely, but I am feeling a lot more confident in our four hour drive to Fresno next month for my family reunion. So, this is how our day went. 

We were greeted downstairs by this adorable little drawing Paul left for us. Is my husband cute, or what?

Then, we hit the road. Luckily, we carpooled so I could sooth Liam if needed but he didn't even make a peep until we were well into Orange County. Then I climbed into the back seat to entertain him for the last stretch of the trip. We grabbed some lunch then headed to the beach. Now, let me tell you about the heavenly part. We found free parking a few feet away from the sand and nobody was there. We practically had the beach to ourselves on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. Divine, really.

The last time we took Liam to the beach he didn't really want much to do with the water. Of course, he couldn't even walk at the time. This time, he ran right in with his clothes on. His swim suit ended up being his outfit for the ride home. A couple of times he ran in without me and scared me half to death. He has no fear, apparently. The lifeguards were announcing rip tides and my baby was diving out to sea. Not to mention, the water was freezing. He loved it, though. He was splashing and laughing and running and falling in the mud. It was so much fun to watch. 

Every now and then he would come back up and play in the sand. He had sand in every crevice by the end of the day. In his mouth, ears, eye lashes, diaper, you name it.

The ride home went just as smooth and he slept like a rock that night. I can't wait to take him again.