Ta-Da!

What a day! Scott and I both worked hard on our "without Allison for the weekend" projects. First thing this morning Scott's buddy Jeff came over to assist with the preparation and installation of the molding and trim for Aaron's room. I spent the morning working on organizing an area in our basement to be used for scrapbooking- pictures of that to come tomorrow.

Did you know that thousands of dollars worth of equipment are necessary for this kind of project? Neither did I! Thankfully, between a few buddies, we only had to buy a few things in order to get the job done. The guys worked SO hard and were finished before lunch. WOW! We still have some touch up painting to do, but I'm feeling really good about what got done today.

SO, how do you like the bedding? It might not be everyone's style, but I think it looks pretty sharp. I wanted something different- not just baby boy blue, and I was thrilled to find this bedding online last month. I plan on buying a few accent pieces to compliment the colors and possibly a few Asian-inspired prints. What you see in the picture is the quilt and the dust ruffle for the crib. We also have a valance (thanks, Mom!) to hang later. I won't be buying any more of the bedding because I don't want it to be FILLED with the theme- I like the subtle look much more.

Okay, I'm off to rest a bit and then work on my scrapbook area. FYI- our baby girl is having a ball in KC, keeping busy doing fun things with her Nana and Papaw. I can't believe I have to go THREE more sleeps without her. I miss her SO much, but thankfully the ichat is making me feel like we're closer. I guess this morning she woke up and said, "I wish Mommy was on the computer". YEAH!! So this morning we read books to each other and gave virtual hugs and kisses. That really helped me get through my day. I look forward to our goodnight books and kisses tonight too! :) I miss you, sweetie!!




Last night Scott finishes painting the crown and chair rail



The first of the crown molding is going up!



Silly boys!



The project is now in full swing!



Crown is finished- time for chair rail



The "finished" look!



A close up of the quilt!

Painting 101

Today I painted a room- all by myself. Now, this may not be a big deal to most of you, but me and manual labor- we don't really work well together. So this was kind of a big deal for me. :) I've painted rooms before, but I've always worked alongside someone. Today I was all alone. Scott was in the garage most of the day, preparing the moldings that will go up in the room tomorrow. We are both VERY tired, but I wanted to show you some pictures of my progress today.

First, though, let me share some lessons about painting. You might even learn something you didn't know before!

1. If you think the paint is too dark when you first put it on, it IS. It will only get darker with time. Take it back and get the color you really want.

2. If you're lucky, your husband will do this for you and you'll use the too dark color on the bottom instead of the top of the walls. Perfect!

3. Pay attention to what step of the ladder you are on when painting. Otherwise you're likely to take one step down when you really should take two steps down, and you might fall. Not that this has happened to ME, mind you, but it's a good lesson. :)

4. It might be a pain to do, but install crown molding when you paint a room. That way you don't have to be careful when doing the top edging!

5. When using brown paint over yellow, it will look purple. Don't panic. It really will look like brown when you're done.

6. Don't shy away from a color just because of its name. I HATE mushrooms, but this mushroom color is pretty nice.

7. Don't plan on doing too much typing after you paint. Your fingers will be so tired and sore. You'll make a LOT of mistakes if you try to blog right after painting!

8. And lastly, although you'll miss her like crazy, it's MUCH easier to paint a room in a day when you do not have your 3 year old in the house with you. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Check back tomorrow (if home decorating is interesting to you) to see the finished room, complete with a couple pieces of furniture and bedding for our new little boy!




Scott measures where the chair rail will go



Prepped and ready to paint!



Hmmm, that color looks too dark for our top color. Scott runs back to Lowe's



I begin to paint the too dark color on the bottom instead. It works!



It's getting there....



I LOVE taking the tape off! I like how this is turning out!



LAST WALL!! Goodbye yellow playroom, hello Aaron's bedroom!



It was wonderful to not worry about mistakes by the ceiling. I can't wait to have crown molding tomorrow!



My job here is done! The paint is still wet, but I was excited to take an "all done" picture. I can't remember the last time I did physical labor from sun up to sundown. I really don't enjoy painting, but I sure do enjoy the end result, and when you're doing it for someone you love and cannot wait to meet, it really isn't so bad! :) Tomorrow Scott will work with his friend on the moldings while I work on setting up my scrapbook area- I'll post some before and after pictures of that too! Goodnight!

A First

Tonight Allison is at her Nana and Papaw's (my parents) house while I am in St. Louis. We drove to KC together on Wednesday and I came back to St. Louis today, leaving her there to spend an extended weekend with her grandparents. I have only been away from Allison on 2 separate overnights, so this is a HUGE thing for me. Not so much for her, she'll be fine. But for me- HUGE! My mom has always wanted to spend some extended time with Allison, and we thought this was a good time to do it- kind of a trial run for what it will be like to be apart for 2 weeks when we travel to China this winter.

I made sure I said my goodbyes with a smile on, but I was bawling before I got to the car. I kept looking in the back seat on the way home, so sad to see it empty. This tells me a couple of things. First of all, I really, really love my child and enjoy spending every day with her. And secondly, I really need to work on my OWN separation anxiety. It really should be okay, and is actually pretty healthy, to have time away from your children every now and then. Or so I keep telling myself. Scott and I have LOTS of little projects to do around the house this weekend- a major one is to paint Aaron's room and to put up crown molding and a chair rail. I'll post some pictures of the progress. We received his bedding this week, so I can show you what it looks like with the paint and the completed furniture in a couple of days. Fun times!

What's making this time away a bit more do-able is ichat. What a GREAT function of the Apple computer. We tested it out with Daddy when he was back here and we were in KC. Thank goodness we converted my parents to Apple a couple years ago! At first Allison was sad to see Daddy because he wasn't "in person", but once she talked to him a bit and he read her a book, she was ALL OVER IT! Tonight we both talked to her and read to her, and she was so happy! I know she'll have a fun weekend with Nana and Papaw, but man, I miss her already. I did wait until the computer turned off before I started crying again. I was strong! :)






Mommy and Allison take a break on the road to have a little fun at McDonalds!



Allison and Papaw cross the road to enter Barnes and Noble, where she quickly suckered Nana into buying her FIVE new books!



Allison reads Daddy a book via ichat



I was SO happy to see my baby tonight, even if it was just through the computer. I LOVE technology!

Allison, are you cleaning your room?

My child no longer wants/needs her normal nap. For the past few months I have watched those most wonderful 1-3 PM naps slip away from me. If you have a preschooler in the house you may be going through the same transition, and I'm guessing you are as sad about it as I am. Oh sure, I can now take her anywhere, at anytime and not worry about when she needs to take a nap. Sure, it means two more lovely, wonderful hours with my child that I didn't used to have. But let's face it- I NEEDED THAT NAP TIME MORE THAN SHE DID! :) We usually shoot for a rest time of some sort in the afternoon, but even that gets cut much shorter than I'd like with her proclaiming, " I just needed a short rest. I'm ready to play again!"

What happens if she doesn't sleep at all? Last night was a great example. At about 5:30 I asked her to pick up her room before dinner. I checked on her a couple of times and she was just laying in there, reading a book. I reminded her that she needed to clean her room (check out how messy it was- oh my!) before dinner. About 5 minutes later I looked at Scott and said, "It's way too quiet in there." He checked on her and then told me to bring my camera. As expected, she was O U T! I woke her up after 5 minutes because I did NOT want her up until 10:00 AGAIN!

My baby is growing up. :(

Tree "climbing"

For quite some time now Allison has been wanting to climb a tree. I can't remember off hand what character in what book climbs a tree, but it's been on her mind. Yesterday we took a little day trip to a small town about 1/2 hour from us. It didn't have as much to offer as we'd hoped (most stores closed on Sunday), but we did find a nice park, so Allison was in heaven! They had the coolest play area, but of course she was more content picking "wildflowers", or clover to the rest of us. That clover in her hands actually made it all the way home and into a cup filled with water. The kid is serious about her flowers! :)

While playing in "the forest" she decided she wanted to climb this huge tree. The closest branch was about 10 feet high, but that didn't stop her from trying. Daddy offered to help her climb a more manageable tree, and Mommy stood back to get pictures of her first tree "climb". Simple pleasures. They are wonderful, aren't they?

On an unrelated but really important note, Scott and I met with a cranial facial specialist this morning. Until a few weeks ago I never knew such a specialty existed. Now I feel like an expert. Well, I at least got all of my 13 questions answered. :) It felt very strange to schedule a surgery for a child you've never met, but we did. This way it's on the books and if we want to change it we can. The doctors and nurses we talked to were all wonderful, and we both felt very comfortable turning the care of our little boy over to their capable hands. An hour and a half later we picked up Allison from Katie's house (thanks Beth!) and went out to lunch. I will most likely spend the next few days processing all the information we received and wishing, praying, and hoping that we'll learn soon when we can get to China and bring him HOME!




LOVING her clover hunt



"But there's no way to climb it!"



Thanks, Daddy!



Up, up I go!



Branch hanging is fun!



Sticking the landing! :)

Saturday- after the blood

Obviously our day improved after the bloody nose incident. :) After eating at Red Robin we came home for rest time. Allison actually took a nap, which was great since we just put her to bed at 10:15! After nap we headed to church, which is always awesome! Today Allison learned more about Jonah and the Whale, one of her favorite Bible stories. One of the teachers said, "Allison told us she has TWO Jonah books at home!" It makes me wonder what all she tells people when we aren't around. Hmmmm. She does have TWO Jonah books, so it's not like she's fibbing, but it still makes me wonder what stories she tells. One of the challenges put before us during the sermon was to pretend to cc Jesus on all your emails, pretend he's on the conference call line every time you make a phone call, and to basically invite Him into every area of your life in an attempt to be more like Him. Like I said, church is always awesome! :) So, Jesus, welcome to my blog! :)

After church we headed back out to the shopping area. We walked around quite a bit and then put our names in to eat dinner at the restaurant there. Yes, I know, we already went out to lunch. We need to cut back on eating out. But anyway, we had fun people watching, window shopping (we bought nothing!), and riding the train. Our name was not called until after 8:00, so we had a LATE dinner, but it was wonderful. Allison was a trooper the whole time, and like always, she charmed our wait staff and used her wonderful manners. The kid knew what she would order (cheese pizza and fruit) before we even got to the restaurant. Sure, she's ordered that the last 2 times we've been there, but still. She amazes me with her memory. She could probably order for me too, since I've gotten the same thing all 3 times I've been! :) I'm SO boring!!

We were also able to see the beautiful glow of the hot air balloons. VERY cool! Of course by then we were starving, so we just kind of looked, said wow, and checked AGAIN to see if our table was ready. While eating we heard the fireworks, but Allison said earlier she didn't want to see them, so we knew we weren't going to be watching them anyway. All in all it was a GREAT day. We look forward to shopping when there are fewer people there and the temperatures are in the 70's, not the 90's. :) Oh, AND when I have money to spend. :)




Dancing to some cool jazz in the center of the shopping area



Stylin'!



SO excited to meet a princess with a real crown. Okay, so it was just Miss Missouri, but to Allison, she was a princess! Awhile after meeting her she said, "I've been thinking. Maybe we could send her a present- you know, to thank her for meeting us. I could put stars and crowns on a card and send it to her." And I thought I had tomorrow planned. Now I'll be adding "make a card for Miss MO" to my list of things to do. Life is good. :)



The beautiful glow of the hot air balloons

Saturday- before the blood

No worries, the blood was minor. On to the post. :) This morning a big outdoor shopping area by our house had its grand opening. We've been really excited about this opening because, well, we like to shop! :) Our city (Lake St. Louis) is full of places to shop, but if you're looking for Talbots, Gymboree, and the like, you have to travel about 15-20 miles to get there. This new shopping area is about a mile from our house- YAHOO!! We strolled over there last month to see how it was coming along, and it took us less than 15 minutes. I was sooo excited!

Anyway, we headed over at about 10:00, and all the parking places were already filled. YEAH!! Seriously, I didn't even care because I want the stores to do well so other stores will come fill in the vacant spots and fun restaurants will want to set up shop on the 4 pads waiting for them. SO, bring on the customers! We had fun walking around, but it was HOT and HUMID- ick! While waiting in line to eat at the one restaurant there already, Allison started screaming. I'm like- OH MY!! Nothing was happening around her, so I had no idea why she was screaming. Then she turned and ran to me- bloody nose. Her 2nd in 2 days. Poor thing- it was all over her shirt (this upset her much more than it upset me) and she just looked so pitiful. Obviously we punted lunch at that place, but after going home to clean up we headed out to try again. Here's the funny part of the story (no, the bloody nose was NOT funny!)

If we're clueless about where we want to go eat and we don't really care, we'll ask Allison and take her lead. Here was the conversation today...

Scott: "Allison, what kind of food would you like to eat today?"

Allison: "Nothing"

Scott: "You don't want anything to eat?"

Allison: "Well, it's a SURPRISE!"

Scott: "Well, if it's a surprise, how will I know where to go?"

Allison: "I'll show you!"

Sure enough, the kid navigates us to Red Robin. At each turn she tells us right left, or straight, and we end up in front of Red Robin. Unbelievable! Of course I was the MOST impressed because the GPS is my best friend. Without it I am LOST. I guess I can throw it away now and just ask my 3 year old which way to go! And yes, we did eat at Red Robin- how could we NOT? :)

I will post again tonight after we've gone back to the shopping area for the evening festivities. Stay tuned!





This morning I could not find Allison. I went into her room and I could hear her, but I seriously could not find her. She was under her bed. This is a first. She was reading down there cause it was "a deep, dark cave"



Seriously, how cute is this?



Meeting a cute duck outside a shop called Puddle Ducks- a children's boutique



More smiles with the duck. After leaving she kept repeating, "He was just in a costume, right? Right?"

A Rainy Day

Yesterday was rainy, off and on, so we had an inside day. I really, really like playing with Allison, but I took the opportunity yesterday to catch up on my ironing, so she played alone most of the day. Every once in awhile I'd take her picture cause she was just so cute. And the video. Man, I love taking videos of her. Those of you out there who blog but don't do videos, please try it sometime. I think you can see so much more of a kid's personality when you see them on video tape, and the kids LOVE to see themselves in action too! We got a book from the library last month called On Top of Spaghetti, and it had a really silly song sung throughout the book. Allison is singing her favorite part. :)





Proud of her painting. She told me it's a piggy bank with two quarters and a penny going into it. :)



Posing with her bunny, CeCe, while both wearing princess t-shirts.



What better place to trace letters than in the middle of the hallway?



Putting together animal puzzles and giving me the sweetest look.



Reading before bedtime

Back with my friend Owen!

We finally got Allison a play date with her buddy Owen, and boy did they have fun! They played soooo nicely together the entire time. I didn't hear my name once- it was wonderful!! :) They talked most of the time, actually playing together, not just alongside one another. I told Owen's mommy that I want him to come over every day! :)





Ahhh, how cute is that? At one point Owen told a ghost story and Allison said, "Oh, that's scary! Owen, will you protect me?" He said, "Yes", and they hugged again. :)



Sharing a book



Just playing



Blurry picture, but look at my child's expression! Looks like a 16 year old expression to me. I am NOT ready for this!



One of Allison and Owen's first play date.Owen was practically running, and Allison had yet to show us a decent crawl. Ha!

The Magic House delivers- AGAIN!

The Magic House is a wonderful childrens' museum located in Kirkwood, MO, about 30 minutes from our house. We've been several times, and it never gets old- there is always something new to do and discover. Allison has her list of "must do's" that she rattles off when we first walk in. "I want to fish, work the puzzle, play in the sand, and paint" We took care of those things first, then headed outside to the BIG sand area, where she dug for buried treasure for about an hour. The last two times she's been, it's been just with Daddy, so it was fun to come along this time and see all the fun new things there were to do. The museum is expanding and will be bigger and better next year. I can't wait!

Before leaving the house, Scott finished painting Allison's changing table from white to black and a chair from green to black in order to match the decor we'll have in Aaron's bedroom. I LOVE the finished product. All that's left to paint is the crib- and the room, of course. :) Once I order the quilt for his room I'll give you a sneak peak at the new bedding next to the furniture. Things are coming along. Now all we really need is permission to travel to China.





Sleek, huh?



Daddy works hard to get Aaron's room ready



Daddy and Allison play in the circle of friends at the museum



Making a beautiful watercolor picture



Righty tight, lefty loose!



Allison's favorite activity at the Magic House- fishing! Look at that concentration!



Serving us drinks in the pretend pizza parlor. Oh waitress, oh waitress!



Sitting in the canoe in the Lewis and Clark exhibition



Prior to arriving at the museum, we ate at Taco Bell and met 2 families who were headed to the museum after lunch also. The 3 girls introduced themselves and chatted throughout lunch, so when they met up at the museum they acted like old friends. It was sooo cute!



Not a great picture of Allison, but we cracked up when she said, "Here fishy, eat some steak!"



This was the coolest exhibit!! The room from the Goodnight Moon book was displayed in such a fun, creative way. Allison was making the moon go into and out of the sky.



Finally, we hit the HUGE sand area. Allison kept saying, "We're at the beach! We're at the beach!" Once home, she said, "Mommy, why did they call it a beach if there wasn't any water?" I tried to explain that it wasn't really a beach- they just tried to make it look like one since we don't have an ocean where we live in Missouri. She thought about it awhile and then said, in a very excited voice, "But... we have a RIVER!!" We cross the MO river a few times a week, so she's very aware that we have a BIG river by us! :)



A display of all her buried treasures. I said we should bury them for other kids to find. Scott said we should take them home. We took them home. Today I've been cursing the floor every few minutes as my bare feet walk across sharp rocks and shells. I think we should have buried them! :)



Sure enough, all the fun tired her out.