SWW

This week I'm saying SO What if:

 

-I increased the amount of money I spent on the gift cards for Hunters daycare teachers after the school shooting tragedy. These women not only watch my child for 40 hours a week but I know without a doubt in my mind they would risk their lives to protect his. I just wish I could have given them more.

 

-I was a little bummed when I got my first post pregnancy period this weekend. Not getting my period was definitely one of the benefits of breastfeeding and I was not looking forward to it's return after almost two years. The cramps were definitely worse than I remembered.

 

-The So What I just posted was TMI.

 

-I haven't wrapped any Christmas gifts yet. I plan to do that all on Monday while Hunter is at daycare.

 

-I kinda want to stay home with Hunter and Kristian on Friday just in case the world does actually end I would rather be with them than at work.

 

-I'm disappointed we haven't gotten more Christmas cards this year. I love getting fun mail instead of bills.

 

-I can't wait for Hunter to start walking (he's SO close) just so that I don't have to carry him all the time. He's freaking heavy. 

Savoring the moments

This past weekend was an emotional one for sure, after news came out Friday about the school shooting I just sat at my desk in tears. I've never wanted to leave work so badly to see Hunter and just hug and kiss him. Now that I'm a parent these kind of tragedies hit so much harder. The thought of something horrific like that happening to my child is absolutely terrifying. It's heartbreaking that he has to grow up in a world where something as simple as going to school isn't even safe. It really made me so grateful for every little moment I spent with him this weekend.

I wanted to do something happy and Christmasy so we took Hunter to see Santa for the first time. When we got there our neighbor who has a 20 month old son wound up in line right behind us so that made things more fun. Hunter did great, he looked at Santa a bit (more specifically his beard) probably wondering who the hell this hairy guy was but then just went with it. We didn't get any big smiles out of him but at least he's not crying or looking terrified so that's a win. Next year we may not get so lucky. Our neighbors son Fa-Reaked out which I must admit was a bit funny to watch.

Hunter has been a VERY good boy this year.

 

Afterwards we just walked around the mall a bit, only buying a few gag gifts for Kristian's dad and uncle.

 

That night my mother-in-law came over to watch Hunter so that Kristian and I could have a much needed date night. We haven't gone out alone on a Saturday night in months because Kristian has been out hunting every Saturday for the past 3 months. We had a very nice dinner and actually got to relax and have an adult conversation which shockingly did not revolve around our son. We then drove around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music. Nothing exciting but just a nice evening with my husband.

 

After what happened on Friday spending Saturday doing fun things with my little family was a much needed distraction and something that I savored every minute of.

Kitchen Renovation- Before and After photos

After month and MONTHS of talking about and planning and then finally doing the kitchen renovation I'm finally posting pictures.

Just as a reminder this was a total gut job. Pretty much everything was torn out and replaced during the renovation. Also, we didn't do any of it ourselves. I'm sure that Kristian could have done parts of it but neither of us had the desire to try to tackle any part of this ourselves. Fortunately Kristian is friends with a contractor and he was able to cut us a great deal. I'm not one to discuss money but I know there will be people that are curious of the cost. I don't have it broken down to the penny but I can tell you it was in the $13K range. That includes everything from appliances (which we got a fantastic deal on), tile, granite, fixtures, cabinets, electrical, paint and of course labor. When it comes to the cost of most kitchen renovations I think we got a helluva deal and it was worth every. single. penny.

As for the time frame, we were originally told two weeks, which I never believed would actually happen. And it didn't. Took almost exactly a month. Part of the delay was due to having two of the cabinets ordered in the wrong size and needing to wait for the new ones to deliver. Needing to wait for the tiles to set and grout to dry and then just other typical unforeseen delays. It was quite annoying but again totally worth it.

I've posted this photo before but here is the inspiration photo that Kristian found online (I apologize but I don't know the site it was pulled from. He google imaged townhouse kitchens). We basically wanted our kitchen to look exactly like this and as you can see from our After photos we got pretty damn close. To be honest I like ours better :)

Inspiration Photo

 

Now here are the before photos of our super small, no counter space, circa early 90's kitchen that we both hated.

This was taken after we had emptied everything out prior to demolition. We did have new appliances that we gave to our contractor to use in one of his flips and he used that towards some of our labor costs.

You can see the doorway that lead into our dining room. We closed off this doorway and added a pass through instead. This was the best way for us to get extra counter space.

The one good feature of our kitchen, the large window.

Here is the other doorway that leads to our entryway. This doorway stayed.

Here is a photo after the demo took place. They left the refrigerator for us to put in the dining room so we could have that during the reno.

Here's another view. The cat loved to photobomb all my pictures.

The pot rack was pretty much the only thing that stayed.

 

 

I decided not to post all of the progress pictures because that's probably very boring to look at but I did take them and did post many of them on Instagram during the process. If you want to see them you can follow me on IG (SEP0522)

 

And here are the AFTER photos. It really is hard to believe it's the same room.

 

This is the view from the doorway which is to the right after you walk in our front door. We got brand new stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, travertine tiles and espresso colored cabinets.

This is the view from the wall with the window. As you can see the second doorway is now closed up and we have the pass through which I love. You can now see into the dining and living room while cooking which is good for keeping an eye on Hunter and you can also see the t.v. from here. We made the counter part of the pass through large enough so that we can sit food and drinks on there when entertaining. As you can see we now have so much more useable counterspace than before. We also have a much larger refrigerator which the freezer on the bottom (I'm still trying to get used to that).

We added cabinets and a counter underneath the potrack. This is where we store a lot of our food since we don't have a pantry (one thing I wish we had but there was no room for). This also gives us additional counter space.

We added under the cabinet lighting on a dimmer switch which we both love. This is a photo taken at night. Halpert loves the new countertops as well.

 

Now for some close ups.

 

Here's a better shot of the granite and the tile design.

Here is our new larger, deeper sink and our "sexy" faucet. Kristian insisted on this $250 faucet because he said it looked "sexy". He's weird. But it is a nice faucet.

This is a better shot of the top of the cabinets as well as the new recessed lighting in the ceilings. This lighting is also on a dimmer switch. We're basically obsessed with having dimmer switches and most of our lights have one. I should point out that our cabinets are really high up which is hard for me being vertically challenged and all. Fortunately Kristian does most of the cooking and it gets me out of putting away the dishes :)

 

Here is our new tiled floor with a Moxie photo bomb.

 

We added a glass front cabinet for all of our glasses and to break things up a bit.

We also spray painted a glass frame to create a chalkboard so we can start keeping a weekly menu or grocery list.

 

You'll notice I didn't post a photo of the wall with the window and that's because we are still deciding what to do with that wall. We've talked about adding some sort of bench under the window so there is a place for Hunter and I to sit and watch Kristian cook. We also need to get new blinds and maybe some artwork. So no big changes on that wall yet.

 

I think we did pretty well with recreating our inspiration photo. We are thrilled with our new kitchen and love cooking in it now.

SWW

 

Here we are again. Another Wednesday which means it's time for another round of SWW.

 

This week I'm saying So What if?

 

-The billion (okay maybe four) pregnancy announcements (including Mrs. Dew herself!) that I read yesterday made my uterus ache a bit. #donttellmyhusband

 

-My companys holiday party isn't until January. Everyone is so busy in December it's better to have AFTER the actual holidays.

 

-I'm counting the minutes until my week long vacation from work over Christmas.

 

-I'm not actually going anywhere for my vacation. I plan to send Hunter to daycare everyday (except Christmas of course) so I can actually, finally get some shit done around the house and maybe take a nap or ten.

 

-I haven't wrapped one Christmas gift yet and probably won't until next weekend.

 

-I ordered a second set of Christmas cards after I realized that I didn't like the design of the first ones as much once they arrived. The second set are so much better and my MIL even called me last night to compliment them. (I'll post a picture later this week once they've all delivered).

 

 

Our days

I'm always interested in reading about other people's daily schedules, especially if they have one or more kids. I know those type of posts can bore some people but I find them interesting and will often get ideas on how to better manage our schedule. I also like getting a peek into how some of these super busy mamas fit everything into their days. So in an effort to maybe help out another mama and just for my own memory sake here is a basic weekday schedule.

5:30am- Kristian's alarm goes off. Sometimes he hits snooze several times before getting out of bed (which annoys me greatly) other times he's up and out the door in 10 minutes (men have it so easy).

6:00am- my alarm goes off. Since Hunter has a tendency to wake up anywhere between 6-6:45am I try to quickly get my shower in before he wakes up. I take the baby monitor in with me so I can hear him if he wakes up and then I know to hurry it up. If he's already awake when I shower I've started letting him crawl around the bathroom and entertain himself with my hairbrush. Super mom right over here.

6-6:45am- shower and get dressed, on a good day Hunter will still be asleep so I can do this in peace. Otherwise I have to keep one eye on him crawling around and getting into EVERYTHING and one eye on my makeup/hair.

6:45-7am- if he's not already awake I will go wake up Hunter and nurse him in my bed then go change his diaper and get him dressed for daycare.

7-7:30am- head downstairs and put Hunter in his pak n play while I get my purse, pump and his bottles all together. I also load the car with everything first since I can't carry him and everything else at the same time. If I'm ahead of schedule I will play with him for a few minutes before heading out.

7:30-8am- drive to and drop Hunter off at daycare. He LOVES daycare and all the teachers there love him and will often fight over who gets to hold him first.

8-9am- drive to work, if there's little traffic and I have time I'll run through the Starbucks drive-thru

9am-5pm- Earn the big bucks (ha)
**I typically pump around 10:30am and 3:30pm. After Hunter turns one I plan to stop pumping since he'll be able to drink whole milk.

3:30-5pm- Kristian picks Hunter up from daycare sometime in this range depending on when he gets off work and they hang out and play until I get home. Depending on the schedule and what we plan to eat sometimes Kristian will start cooking dinner early.

5-6pm- I drive home

6-6:30- get home, go through the mail, go through Hunter's daycare stuff (any dirty clothes, read his report of the day) and I will usually take Hunter upstairs with me while I change out of my work clothes. Kristian will start dinner if he hasn't already and I will play with Hunter.

6:30-7pm- Dinner. We always eat together at the dining room table and lately we do it while listening to Christmas music. Hunter now eats what we eat and I spend most of dinner giving him more food because he eats it all so quickly.

7pm- Clean up. We try to do this together but if Hunter is being extra fussy I'll take him and go play and Kristian will clean up. Yes he will often cook and clean so I can spend time with Hunter. Yes I'm very lucky.

7-7:30- Every other night I give Hunter a bath. I don't do it every night because his skin will get dried out and irritated, unless of course he's really dirty and then he'll get one regardless. On non-bath nights we just play in the living room. While I do this Kristian finally gets to relax a bit. After the bath, it's PJ's and I try to read a book to Hunter but he spends most of the time trying to eat it. So sometimes we'll just play.

7:30-8pm- brush his teeth and give him his bottle and put him to bed. He usually sleeps straight from 8pm - 6am or later.

8-8:30pm- clean up the toys and start catching up on DVR

8:30-9pm- pump while watching t.v. and internetting on my iPhone. Then clean and prepare Hunters daycare bottles

9-10pm- watch t.v. for a bit then start getting ready for bed

10pm- In bed.

Yes we go to bed at 10pm which probably seems early to most but by that point we are both exhausted and even if I'm still not tired I like to try to go to bed when Kristian does.

Our weekdays are pretty much the same from day to day but routine seems to help us all much better. You will notice that chores like laundry and major house cleaning don't really take place during the week, I typically will do that kind of stuff on the weekend. You will also notice a lack of the word "exercise" and that's because I really don't do any, other than carry around my 26 pound monster baby. I would have to work out either at 5am or 8pm and that's just not gonna happen right now.

Parenting Solo

This past weekend was my first solo night with Hunter since he was born.  In close to a year neither myself nor Kristian had spent a night away from him since bringing him home. The main reasons for this are that to be honest, I'm not ready to spend a night away from him (especially since I still nurse him first thing in the morning) and I haven't really wanted Kristian to spend the night away either. The fact is I don't sleep well in general when he's not home, every little sound freaks me out and now with Hunter it's just harder to do everything on my own.

Well after telling him no over and over I finally gave in when he asked if he could go on a last minute hunting/camping trip with his buddy and his buddy's son. He planned to leave Friday morning and come back late Saturday night. I figured I've handled getting Hunter from daycare, giving him dinner and putting him to bed on my own many times as well as spending all day Saturdays with him alone while Kristian is off hunting so this shouldn't be too hard. Plus Hunter has been sleeping through the night for months. Easy Peasy.

But of course my child decides when daddy is away he is going to turn into devil child and drive his mother UP THE WALL. Basically he said "easy peasy my ass". He decided rather than sleeping through the night he was going to wake up THREE times (he hasn't done that in months) and then wake up for good at 6:30am. Normally I can nurse him back to sleep for at least another hour on weekend mornings.

He also normally takes great naps on the weekend; 1-2 hours in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. Again, he said "naps? what's a nap?" I desperately tried to put him down for a nap in the morning only to have him break into screaming fits. He finally took a nap around noon for a whole 30 minutes. Oh and did I mention he was being a total fuss monster the whole morning? Because he was.

After lunch I decided we both needed a break and took him to the happiest place on Earth. Target! He did great at Target. He loves to just sit and people watch so that was a blessing and I took advantage of a little (read $150) retail therapy. He finally fell asleep in the car on the way home and I carried him in his carseat inside where he continued to sleep for an hour. I actually got to sit down, eat and read a magazine. It was bliss. After his nap he was finally in better spirits and the rest of the night was fine but when Kristian came home I was not in the greatest mood and just exhausted. Not sure I will be letting him leave overnight again anytime soon.

Of course he slept great Saturday night, took his normal naps and was all around a pleasant kid again on Sunday. I guess he was just upset that daddy was gone. I know the feeling.

The halls have been decked now we just need Santa to visit.

So here is the obligatory Christmas decoration post. I actually don't mind reading other peoples Christmas decorating posts because it will usually give me some really good ideas or just make me insanely jealous of their more Martha-like decorating abilities.

Here is the outside of the house. Since we live in a townhouse without any big trees or bushes out front we don't have much to decorate. But given that we're only one of two houses with lights on our street I think we're doing alright.

 

Our entry way with our advent calendar hanging on the door. Hopefully we'll get more than just two Christmas cards this year!

 

The pass-through from the dining room into the kitchen.

 

 

Our dining room.

 

We actually put our Christmas tree in our dining room because it's really the one place we have room for it. Plus it's easier to keep Hunter away from it if it's not in the living room.

 

Here's the tree with the lights off. Yes I realize our angel is crooked. Unfortunately our new fake tree doesn't have a good top for the angel to sit on so she keeps leaning to one side or the other.

Instead of doing a tree with just certain types or colors of ornaments we decorate using ornaments we've collected or had since childhood. I personally prefer having a tree with meaningful ornaments that bring back great memories than a department store looking tree.

 

This is what it looks like from our dining room looking into the living room.

 

Some of my favorite ornaments this year.

 

I ordered this ornament from Annie and just love how sparkly it is.

 

We got this one last year as a gift when I was pregnant. Our little snowman family.

 

We also got this as gift last year in honor of buying our first home together.

 

I ordered this one in honor of Hunters first Christmas. This is one of his newborn photos.

 

Here is one of our floating shelves decorated with the JOY letters we spray painted. Glitter spray paint may be my new favorite thing.

 

Here is the other floating shelf with my new favorite Hunter Christmas photo.

 

Our mantle.

I'm in love with the berry wreath we found at Michaels for 60% off. Kristian hung it using fishing line and a hook (of course) so it looks like it's floating.

 

We also spray painted the white NOEL letters with gold glitter spray paint. The angels on either side were my grandmothers.

 

The stocking on the right is the one I've had since I was a baby that my aunt made for me. When Kristian and I got married she made him the one on the left ( a camo boot) and then last year made the one for Hunter in the middle (in VA tech colors).

 

 

And here is the view from our kitchen. I just love all the lights. I always get sad when we take the decorations down and the house seems so dark again.

 

 

And here is my other FAVORITE Christmas photo of Hunter and Moxie inspecting the Christmas tree. Does it get much cuter than this??