And now the reveal....

Today I finally finished William's room. Down to getting all the baseboards/door frames repainted. I realized yesterday that almost everything in there was done on the cheap, so I'll fill you all in on that as we go. The theme is Paddington Bear, whom I thought everyone had heard of. Apparently not. Paddington is a British storybook character and it was later made into a tv show on BBC. I've never seen the show, but I liked the books when I was a kid.

First is the crib. I managed to get this crib from Walmart on sale (more than $75 off) for $115 including shipping. For those of you who are pregnant and will have to buy a crib, Walmart by far has the best prices, and they have awesome sales.

The whole Paddington Bear theme came to be when I ran across this crib bumper at Goodwill for a whole dollar. I couldn't pass it up. I made the crib blanket and crib skirt to match, bought some sheets at Target, and whalla- crib bedding set.

Next is the mobile. This, I found on ebay. I could only find one anywhere on the internet. I think I paid $3.75 for it. They had a buy it now on there for about $15, but I bid on it instead, and got it WAY cheaper.

And here is the kite and clouds. The perspective is off in this picture, but you get the general idea. I made this to match the kites on the crib bumper. I spend about $2 at Michaels to make this. A couple of dowel rods, 4 sheets of styrofoam, some ribbon out of the discount bin, and some yarn that I found at Goodwill. Oh, and I used some paint to paint the long string onto the wall since I didn't want to use an actual string and cause a choking hazard. It's harder than you would think to paint a string onto a wall...especially when it's textured. The clouds I painted on with some watered down acrylic paint, and a sponge. Oh, the mobile is hanging by a rope I made from leftover ribbon from the kite. Everything matches perfectly.

This is the dresser/changing table. The dresser I found a thrift store, and repainted. It took me awhile to figure out exactly how I wanted it, but I'm happy with how it came out. The changing pad and cover came from a childrens consignment store...the wipe warmer, hamper, and diaper pail I did get new. Wipe warmer and hamper were just the cheapest I could find, and the diaper pail is the same one Noah has which I highly recommend. It's the Diaper Dekor Plus. I has its own refill bags that you're supposed to use, but a tall kitchen trash bag fits it just fine and they're a whole lot cheaper. We're had some pretty nasty diapers put in there, and once that little flap closes, we don't smell anything.

I think that no room is complete unless there is something on the walls. Wall art however, is expensive. Picture books, are not. I found a Paddington picture book online for $8. That's more than I would typically want to pay for a book, but I really wanted pictures for the walls, and just ONE actual Paddington print was at least $30. So, $8 for a whole bunch of pictures was worth it. I have to admit, I felt like I was doing something wrong when I was cutting up that book...

The pictures came out really cute. The picture frames are all from thrift stores, or I already had them, and repainted them to match the room.

These are what I'm using to put diapers in, and hide stuff that isn't so pretty...like noise machines. I got them at Michaels for a few bucks each, but still used a coupon. I painted them, and beat them up (Noah helped with that part) and then made the little kites out of leftover big kite materials to tie them into the room a little more. Josh says the boxes look like they've been sitting in a barn for 20 years. That was the goal. :)

This is one of my favorites. At the beginning of the Paddington books, he has just arrived in London from "Darkest Peru" and he's found by the Brown family sitting in Paddington train station, on his suitcase, with a tag that says "Please look after this bear." I wanted to use the travel part of the story somehow in the room. Making an end table out of an old-style suitcase is how I decided to do that. I found the suitcase in an antique store here in Old Town Clovis, bought some table legs, braces, and spray paint at Lowes, and an endtable was born.

The lamp was another Goodwill find, and the lampshade was on clearance at Ross.

The glider was Noah's and moved into William's room. The name on the wall was kind of an afterthought because I decided this wall was too bare. It's one of my favorite things about the room now. They sell wooden letters at various craft stores, but why would I want to go buy them when I could make them?

I cut the letters out of a big piece of cardboard, from the box the crib came in, and then covered them with burlap. Lots of staples were involved. Then I used the kite yarn from Goodwill to make the hangers, and some macrame cord, which I also had bought at Goodwill to hang the letters from, and to make the little bows at the top.

I found this on ebay. I think it was $1.75. Cute, eh?

The light fixture that was here when we moved in was awful, and I decided that it had to go. So, I ran down to Walmart and found this. It's the cheapest one they had, but it works really well in the room. I put it up all by myself. ;)

Lastly, is the little trike. My grandpa made this many moons ago, and I managed to get my mom to let me have it. It really has nothing to do with Paddington, but it's antique-y looking, and that's just the perfect sized spot for it, so that's its new home.

Hope you've enjoyed the tour. I had a lot of fun making everything, even though it took a heck of a lot of time. Totally worth it. :)

What, a new post!? ...and a few random references.

It's been awhile, eh? I'm not sure I've stopped to sit down since we moved last month, hence the lack of blog posts. If only I could post without actually sitting down at the computer....

We're mostly unpacked now, and almost everything has been painted. I still have a second coat of paint to put on part of what has been dubbed the I-Don't-Know Room, the kitchen cabinets need to be painted, and there's another bedroom left to paint. Oh, and touch-ups on the baseboards. A higher priority than all that is getting William's dresser/changing table painted, but I have to wait for Josh to help me bring it inside. Josh is out of town right now, and therefore unable to help me bring it in, so this is the first time in a long time that I've been forced to not do anything during one of Noah's naps.

My latest project has been painting the fireplace, which I just finished about an hour ago. When we moved in....oh boy. It was pretty awful. Just ugly, ugly, ugly. After we made the offer on the house I started looking up ways to paint bricks, and then proceeded to tell Josh that I was going to paint those awful bricks ASAP after we moved in. Josh, being the trusting guy that he is, said, "Ok. What color?" "Well....I'm gonna make them look like brick. Just different." "Uh...ok." Then last week as I was putting on the mortor color he goes, "That seems like a funny color for that." "Well, the bricks aren't going to be red." "Oh, ok." So, without further ado, it's time for "Silly Songs With Larry"- the part of the show where Larry comes out, and sings a silly song.

Before

After

Pretty drastic difference. I showed Josh the "before" picture a few days ago when the fireplace was only half done, and the only thing he had to say was, "Wow. We bought that?" Hehe. :)

So, a little research, about $30 worth of paint, a whole lot of time, and slight artistic ability, and we now have a pretty fireplace. It even makes the wood stove look a little better.

I've also done my first of what will be many caulking jobs, mostly replaced a faucet (I ran into a road block that I haven't gotten a chance to fix yet), and learned how to replace light fixtures, which I'm now a pro at after replacing 5 of them. Still a couple more left, I just have to find a few wall fixtures that I like.

Noah is doing well. I don't think he realizes yet exactly how is world is about to be changed. He knows what a baby is, and when I ask him if he wants one, he says "yes," so we'll see how this goes. At least he doesn't shake his head "no." (He doesn't say "no" yet.)

He's been talking more lately, which has been nice. Maybe we can put off the whole speech therapy thing. We'll see. In the last week or so he's added "help" and "juice" to his vocabulary. It seems like there were a few more, but I don't remember what they are right now. He's also been trying to say a lot more words when I prompt him. Like, this morning, he wanted some of my tea, so I had him say "tea" before he got some. Yes, drinking hot tea at the age of 2. A little weird, but what else is new?

He's also thrilled to have his very own backyard. Every morning he gets up, eats breakfast, and then asks to go outside. Doesn't matter how cold it is...if it's cold out, he finds his coat and hat, we get him all bundled up, and out he goes.

William is...well, making me giant. Every time I go out somewhere it seems like someone is asking me if I'm having twins. It's not my fault my hips are so stinking narrow and all baby has room to do is go out. Two weeks from Wednesday is when he's scheduled to make his appearance. Hopefully we'll have everything ready for him by then. Josh is betting he comes earlier than that, so we'll see. As of last night, my hospital bag is packed, and last week we went and registered at the hospital where we found out that Noah officially will not be able to come and visit me and his new baby brother. *tear* Stupid flu season. I'll have to go a whole 2 days without seeing my favorite oldest child. Oh well, I'm sure Daddy and Grandma will take good care of him.

Well, until next time, goodnight, sleep tight, auf weidersehn to you.....

Speech, house, and my foot.

Today was Noah's much awaited speech evaluation. He just got to play, while the therapist asked me all kinds of questions. Turns out that his input, what he understands, is pretty significantly higher than average, but his output, the whole talking thing, is significantly lower. He has about the same speech abilities as a 14 month old. She said kids like him, who understand more than they're supposed to, get especially frustrated when they aren't able to express what they want. Lucky boy, right? So anyways, she did recommend we get him some therapy, although she said with as shy as he is, it might take a little bit of extra time just to get him to open up enough to get anything done. She also gave me a whole bunch of things to do with him in the time between now, and actually getting him some appointments set up. The waiting list at this place is 2 months long, so we got put on that, but she also gave us some referrals to other offices that we may be able to get into sooner. I guess there's a state funded doo-hicky that she's going to try to get us in to, but says that his test results are right on the line of what they'll accept. I'm not sure what that means, but whatever.

I can't say I'm all that surprised. It's pretty much what I expected- He understands everything, but doesn't want to enter in to conversation. Who does THAT sound like? He is my child. :)

In other news, we closed on our house yesterday. Yay! Now we just have the daunting task of moving in, and making everything how we want it. Josh pretty much lets me do whatever I want as far as that goes, as long as I don't make anything look "old." I was looking at exterior lights today at Walmart, and there was one I like, but it kind of has an antique look to it, so I want Josh to see it before I buy it. He can be a little picky about that kinda thing.

I've come to a dilemma. When I went to buy new locks yesterday (I wanted to just get them rekeyed, but Lowes doesn't do outside locks anymore. Phooy on them), I bought silver colored ones. I'm just not a fan of gold. Problem is, now the entryway door knobs are silver, but the inside ones are bright shiny gold. Blah. I plan on eventually replacing them to all be silver, but this is my problem. Our room, and William's room, at least, is going to have brushed bronze light fixtures. Will a silver knob clash with the bronze light fixture? Or if I changed it to a bronze knob, would that clash with all the other silver ones? I know, I could but a silver knob on the outside, and bronze on the inside. Am I being too detail oriented? Probably. I've been known to do such things. :)

I'm gonna take a nap now since I've thoroughly exhausted myself today. I should be packing, but I'm pretty sure that would be going against the "don't do too much" theory that Josh and my Dr. seem too have.

Oh, and I'm officially 8 months pregnant today. 9 months of pregnancy my foot.

Fair, Birthday, and Twu Wuv

A lot has happened since I last posted. Well, at least, more interesting stuff has happened in the last week or so that in the previous few weeks, so get ready for a long post. There will be pictures though, so that makes it a little easier to tolorate, right?

Josh has pretty much been working non-stop the last 3 weeks, including weekends, but this last weekend, he had to work at The Big Fresno Fair. Noah loves all the animals at the fair, so we tagged along since Josh was getting his ticket paid for, and we also were able to get parking paid for since it was work related. This year they raised the ticket price to a whopping $10 that I was NOT looking forward to paying. Noah gets in free, but still....$10 for me?! We were standing in line, and I was dreading dishing out the dough, and someone walked up and handed us two tickets. FREE!!! We only needed one of them, so Josh gave the other one to someone who was standing in line. Our trip to the fair ended up being pretty painless as far as the moo-la side goes. I did buy a drink for Noah and I since he got thirsty and we were there for quite awhile, but besides that, we didn't pay for anything else while we were there. Made my day. Thanks Mr. Free Ticket Guy!

Since Josh was working, Noah and I hung our with a friend, who took some pictures for us. At least until the camera battery ran out (which was sooner than I thought). Here are the never-before-seen pictures of Noah checking out the sheep.

I think he'd be perfectly happy if he "accidentally" fell into the sheep stall.

I think it was "bahh-ing" at him.

I'm not sure what he was doing, but his face makes me laugh...or as least smile.

Noah also turned 2 this week. Since Noah is just about the last person in the world that would enjoy people coming over to help him celebrate, so we just did some of his favorite stuff with just our little family. Daddy was even able to take a lot of the day off of work to spend with him. Noah loves his Daddy. Noah had his favorite breakfast, of cocoa crispies and hot chocolate, and then played at home until lunch, and had one of his favorite lunches, a hotdog and strawberries, played some more at home, and then it was nap time. I ran out to spend birthday money from great-grandparents so that I could get stuff wrapped for him so that he could open everything at once and I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. When I got home, I wrapped all his present, which ended up being more than I thought. We stayed within the birthday budget, but I did almost all his birthday shopping at consignment stores, so I ended up with a lot of stuff. By the time I was done with that, it was time for us to go out.

First we went to the park to play. We went way out of our way because there aren't any parks around us that have baby swings, and Noah LOVES the swings.

He's a fan of the slide too.

Tummy time!

Doghouse Grill for dinner. Noah likes the tri-tip so much he occasionally takes a break from the french fries to eat some. That's saying something.

After dinner we went home for cake and present time. "Present time, present time, open the present and see what's inside!" I've been watching too much Blue's Clues....

His brownie cake. A big round Fudgy brownie with chocolate chips, chocolate frosting, and sprinkles. He'll be a diabetic by the time he's 3.

Josh said it was "brilliant." Who says that? Outside of England.

His very first puzzle. I figured one with animals on it would be the best shot at him wanting to do it. I was right. He was playing with it before he even got the whole thing unwrapped, complete with making the animal sounds for each of the animals.

He did it! He was very proud of himself.

His gear toy for his little mechanical mind. When he pushes the button at the bottom it makes all the gears spin. He was in awe over this.

The perfect Noah toy- a kitty cat, and a keyboard. It even meows.

A drum.

This is a pretty awesome toy. He gets to build his own Who-like wind instrument. I think we'll get a lot of use out of this one.

His first remote control car. He's not quite sure what to think about this one yet. It's a little loud, so I think it scares him a little bit. He'll warm up to it soon though, and then the cat better watch out!

So, last year was the year of the books, and this year was the year of the music. I think he had a pretty good birthday.

One of the not-so-fun parts about turning 2 is having to go to the doc-doo for a 2 year physical. I was less-than-thrilled with our pediatrician, so I thought that this would be a good time to change. Noah needed his physical, and I wanted to switch before the new baby came. So, by switching now I could meet the new Dr. right before he comes to check out William at the hospital.

Today was our appointment. I think I'm in love. I mean, he's old enough to be my grandpa, but still...."Wuv...twu wuv." This is the first time I feel like Noah has been thoroughly checked out by a Dr. since he was born. I thought I was going to have to fill out a bunch of paperwork so I was able to get Josh to go with me to help with Noah. I also kinda wanted him to meet the new Dr. with me. The office is farther away than the old Dr.'s office, which I was a little bummed about, but it's worth every extra minute.

Dr. Miller walked in the room quoting Bill Cosby's "Noah" skit, which immediately won Josh over. Dr was very impressed when he quizzed Josh on who he was quoting and Josh knew it right off the bat. He asked us a lot of questions about Noah's history, and then went on to tell me that if I didn't learn anything else from him today that I needed to remember one thing- Never, ever, under any circumstances, let Josh and Noah go out alone. Apparently Noah is a "chick magnet" and all kinds of girls will be swarming all over Josh if he has Noah with him. Hehe... :)

I told Dr. Miller about how Noah still doesn't talk a whole lot at two, and also how he's been constipated for the last year and a half. He's been on meds every day since he was 6 months old, and if Noah doesn't get his full dose, or if he misses a day, he gets all backed up. It's pretty horrible to watch. Screaming, shaking, occasional vomiting, the whole sha-bang. Dr. Miller is actually taking this seriously! He asked if either of us has any lactose intolerance in the family. I have a cousin that's severely lactose intolerant, so he thinks there's a chance that could be what it is. So, we're trying a diet for the next 2 weeks where Noah will be off of milk and chocolate. If it doesn't get any better, he's going to refer us to a gastrointestinal specialist. He told us he really doesn't like the idea of a kid, especially as young as Noah is, being on medication every day of his life, and he wants to know why this is happening and fix it instead of just giving him meds to cover it up. *insert the Hallelujah Chorus here*

It makes me a little sad since I know how much Noah loves dairy products, but if it'll fix this whole constipation problem, then it's worth it.

As far as the talking....he says at 18 months if they're not talking, he doesn't worry about it, but at two, he starts to worry. Some kids just start talking in sentences, but that's not always the case, so he wants to make sure there's nothing wrong, and if there is, start working on it now. So, we're getting referred to a specialist over a Children's Hospital just to get everything checked. He told us that they might say that everything is just fine and send us on our way, or they might decide that they need to keep an eye on him. Either way, he wants to get him checked out. He said that in every other way Noah is perfectly on track for his age, but the lack of talking worries him a little bit.

After Noah got all checked out, he told us a little about himself and the office. He's on his THIRD GENERATION of kids. Geeze. The office is open every Saturday specifically for kids who get sick on Friday night, and during flu season, they're open on Sundays too. Like I said, I'm in love. I've never been one to go to the Dr. at the drop of a hat, but it's nice to know that if I need to, I can get kids checked out on the weekend without having to go to the ER. Our old office closed early on Fridays, so we were pretty much screwed if anything did happen.

Anyways, I'm very happy we switched. Even Josh, who usually doesn't have to go with me, noticed a big contrast in this pediatrician compared to the last one. So, if anyone in Fresno/Clovis is looking for a pediatrician, I definitely recommend Dr. Miller at Northwest Medical Group. Even though it's way out in Timbucktoo.

See, I told you it'd be a long post.

Oh, today marks 2 months until William's born. I have a feeling it's going to go by really fast.

Ok, I'm done now. I promise.

Packing and sappiness

Today marks the beginning of the whole moving aspect of this. We can see the light at the end of the buying tunnel, so now it's time to jump into the dark abyss that is moving. We're planning on moving into our new house the first week of November (happy birthday to me). I'll be...eight months pregnant on moving day. I was eight months with Noah when we moved the last time. We really have to break this tradition with the next kid. Noah's room is being slightly overtaken by boxes since they're somewhat out of the way in there. I didn't notice the dirty face until AFTER the pictures. By now I'm pretty sure I'm immune to all the gunk that ends up there during the day.

In the process of packing today, I've come across a few interesting things. I found an old wallet of mine, with $20 amidst all the receipts, an old ceramic purple-haired troll, and I also came across a letter I wrote to Josh on our year and nine month "anniversary" when we were "dating." It struck a chord when I read it again. I was 17 at the time, but it amazed me how much is still true now, and how much of what I was looking forward to in the future has happened. I thought I'd be momentarily sappy, and share parts of it-

A year and 9 months- Lots of really good times, and also lots of hard times. We've been thrilled with each other, and also been where it's hard to talk to each other. I know these times will stick around forever. I look forward to both the good ones and the bad ones. The good ones, well, for obvious reasons, and the bad ones because they'll bring us closer. As hard as they are, in the end, it's worth it.

I know I'm not very good at getting out what's in my head, but I'll keep trying. I love you so much...you really don't know how much. I so look forward to living my life with you- being married to you, being the best wife I can possibly be to you. I want to be the mother of your kids. Be with them when they take their first steps, when they have their first day of school, be with them when they're having trouble with their math, when they have their first boyfriend or girlfriend, be with them when they graduate from highschool and then later, be with them when they get married. You'll teach our boys how to love their wives and how to be the best daddies to their kids.

And here were are almost 6 years later- married for almost 5 years, we have a little boy, and another little boy on the way. Definitely had the hard times, with losing our first baby, and also Noah's twin, and the other little things that happen when you live with someone, and also have had plenty of the good times.

Anyways, all done being sappy. Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted. :)

Adios!

The cutest little AV kid on the block

Noah...

...knows how to use this...

...to hook this...

...up to this...

...to hear this...

...so that he can do this.

And he's not even two yet. I'm so proud of my little geek.

My Revelation

Tonight I took my 7-months-pregnant self into Goodwill to look for some picture frames. I stopped over in the PJ section because I've been wanting a new bathrobe for a long time, and the things are so stinking expensive that I can't bring myself to buy one new. The one I have I've had forever and it's starting to look pretty awful. Anyways, tonight was my lucky night. I found a like-new very very soft and cuddly bathrobe from

It looks like this, only it's red-

Then I went to the gym....and Starbucks on the way home 'cause it was ever so slightly chilly (not chilly enough to wear even a hoodie, but this is Fresno, after all), and a pumpkin spice latte sounded really good. Anyways, I went home, took my shower, and put on my brand new (to me) bathrobe, looked in the mirror and realized that I looked like this-

The end.

Sewing and house progress

When I was pregnant with Noah, I really wanted to sew things for him, but we never got a sewing machine in time, and I didn't want to do it badly enough to do everything by hand. Since then, I've gotten a sewing machine, so I've been able to actually make stuff for the new baby. Yay! Here's some of what I've done so far.

The blanket and crib skirt I made, and I found the bumper at Goodwill.

The sheet and crib is Noah's.

The extra special Starbucks and Harry Potter hats.

The Christmas outfit.

Some crocheted hats.

William is going to have a warm little head.

In other news, the house stuff is all going well. I heard from Mr. Mortgage today, and our loan has gone through, and we're *gasp* ahead of schedule. He said we should be able to close before the end of the month. That means, that we'll be doing our big moving weekend on my birthday weekend. This'll be the third time I've moved on my birthday. Thankfully, it'll be the last time for awhile.