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October 30, 2012

Does my bedroom look like a hotel room?

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So, everyone who has stepped into my new and improved bedroom has said that it looks like a hotel room.  Cool by me!  I LOVE it.

When we moved into this house, we lost our mellow groovy all white and textured vibe and went with a more playful colorful toddler proof look.  My bedroom never really felt like a place to relax, but more like a place where all the leftover furniture went to die.

I did everything I could, but I never really liked our old bedroom.

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There was too much empty space, not enough cohesion, and though I loved each piece individually, they just didn't seem to GO together.

Since Young House Love posted their idea about wardrobes flanking their bed, I thought it looked cool, but we always had plenty of storage.

Till we thought about where we would put two children.

T's room was tiny, but worked really well for just him.

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But there was no room for a crib, let alone another floor bed or clothes for an additional person.

I was happy to give up my "big" room and trade for a smaller one.

So we did.

One morning while Bubbs and T were occupied, I painted the room dark grey.  Bubbs was HORRIFIED when he got home (it did look almost black in the evening) and T was pretty disturbed that his room wasn't there anymore.

We had ordered Ikea kitchen cabinets to fit the 30" spaces beside the bed, ikea curtains, and drawers and shelves for the kitchen cabinets.  They arrived in huge boxes.

The next day, Bubbs got going on putting together the cabinets while I put together T's new room.

By 6pm, both rooms were done.  Well, mostly done.
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We hung the curtains via Young House Love's method (.79 cheapo curtain hangers). 

I bought the wrong kind of drawers, so they sit to be returned.

We purchased $50 swing-arm lights and installed them from Home Depot.

The chandelier had to be hacked (from Cost Plus) since we didn't have an overhead light in that room.  I bought the wrong color chain, so we'll fix that eventually, but for now it works!  I have to say I was totally impressed that Bubbs knew how to make that work.

We still have some art to hang on the opposite walls.

The light puts a honey comb pattern on the walls so T is obsessed with our "beehive" room and LOVES to snuggle in his hive and hide.

The closed in head of the bed is SO cozy and we keep saying how much we love hte room every time we go to sleep.

T's new room is a MAJOR hit.
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I need to patch some spots on the wall still and re-arrange some art, but dude plays in his room SO much more than he used to!


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There's room for the baby's crib and eventually a floor bed where the wicker chair is now.

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Plus, this might sound nuts, but the "view" from each room is better with the new set up.  Since we mostly sit on the floor in T's room, all you can see is the blue sky and a few tree tops (rather than before, in our room, you would sit on the bed and see the cars parked in the neighbor's backyard).

And in our new room, since you sit on the bed, you see the blue sky as well instead of the stucco and dirt on the neighbor's house.

Overall, total success.

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October 29, 2012

Is it Morning?

One of our favorite things right now is that T wakes up and just looks around for awhile.  He drinks in the morning.  His sweet little eyes open and he stays snuggled in bed.

Once we wake up (or aknowledge that we're awake), he is a happy chirpy little guy wanting to chat and catch up.

This morning's sweet conversation:

T: Is it morning?
Bubbs: Yup, it's morning.
T: Is it dark outside?
Bubbs: Yup, its dark outside, but it is still morning.
T: Why?
Bubbs: Because in winter and autumn the days get shorter and it gets dark earlier and stays dark later in the morning, but it is still morning
Mama: Because the sun is still sleeping.
Bubbs: Yeah, because the sun is still sleeping.
T: But, sometimes children are hungry.
Mama: Are you hungry?
T: I am hungry, but the sun is still sleeping.  Children are hungry, Daddy. Let's have some food, dude.

Two bedrooms and two little boys

We had our anatomy scan today.  They wouldn't let Bubbs into the room with me b/c he was late and they suck.  I had the tech write the sex down so we could see it for the first time together. 

He was so upset that he was stuck outside - I could just see it on his face when I walked out, but we opened the envelope and saw we were having a boy.

Lil T is having a brother.

I'm thrilled.

Honestly, I kinda have an internal struggle with being as feminine as I'd like and not knowing how that jives with being a feminist.  Plus, not knowing HOW to be feminine and hating myself for spending money on things like clothes and salons and makeup when it could got to savings or groceries.

So, I never have to teach anyone about bikini waxes or body hair management, worry about spending thousands on a wedding dress, deal with the slutty 6 year old Halloween costumes, or any of those other things.

I do realize that all we know is what body parts our babe is born with, but having a child has taught me that gender is NOT necessarily a socially constructed thing (as I wrote in all my college papers), but there is a spectrum we all fall on.  T surprises me with his love of superheros (despite me never introducing them to him), trucks, legos, and also his love of his "baby" (elmo), feeding him, loving on him, and being so gentle with his baby.  I may still have to buy a wedding dress or teach how to apply makeup, but for now, I'm comfortable and happy with my two boys.

I had issues at first with our boy name being just a cool name I heard, and not something "meaningful," but the only meaningful name we could come up with was "bob" and I'm not going to do that to a poor innocent baby.

His name has a SUPER cool nickname and a very distinguished full name that will totally do for a supreme court justice.

Bubbs and I are both incredibly hairy and I am so glad not to pass these genes onto a poor woman (at least with today's beauty standards).

Hopefully pics to come on the new groovy rooms soon - we still love them to pieces - I just have to make my bed first to make that happen.


October 22, 2012

Decorating and Kicking

18 weeks today.  This baby is KICKING - like so you can feel it on the outside.  Looking back, I think I felt it with T at 22 weeks (but my placenta was in the front).

Bubbs felt it this weekend and T keeps yelling, "my brother is kicking me!"  

My nausea is still horrible if I don't take my medicine, but as long as I take it in regular intervals, I can keep it at bay.  I do have a low energy when I first take it, which is a bummer for T, but it is better than vomiting.  For sure.

I had a surge of energy.

We switched rooms. T and Baby Santa Clause (that's the name T has given the new baby) will share the big room and Mama and Daddy get the smaller one.

I painted (with zero VOC BM Paint) a deep dark grey, and over the course of the two day weekend, we built ikea kitchen cabinets as dressers (similar to young house love's old master bedroom), turned T's new room into a playroom/bedroom, and just generally kicked serious ass in the decorating department.

I have to say that I'd forgotten how good it felt to decorate. I get a serious high when I can turn a blank canvas (or baby room) into a sexydarkgroovy well thought out room.  Even if I cheated and stole ideas from other people.  We all slept very well last night - maybe from working so hard and maybe b/c our new rooms are just what they were supposed to be.

We sold our Kivik sofa downstairs in the rumpus room to prepare the room for construction so our Au Pair will have a decent place to live when she arrives in February.  The sale of the sofa completely paid for our new room transformation!

Photos to come.

October 9, 2012

little belly, little barfing

Still barfing at 16 weeks.  Still nauseous.

Little belly pooch and up two pounds (and growing).  (wanted to track so I could compare to T's pregnancy).

Could be the junk food I'm stuffing in my body.

My work cut my pay in January due to a union disagreement / imposed contract.  So, we can't afford for Tim to stay home with the baby as we planned when we decided to do this thing.

So, the only kind of childcare we can afford (and keep T in school that he loves and we love) is an Au Pair.  And we think we found a fantastic one.  An Au Pair is an exchange student who comes to care for your children in exchange for a small stipend and room and board.  It ends up being way more than that because the agency fees double what you pay the Au Pair, but still much cheaper than a SF nanny and about the same as an in home day care.

Till next time.