Throwback Thursday: Bunny-Buns & Baby Dolls

Dear Em,
You are your own person in every way. You're unique & independent & very clear about your likes & dislikes. At the same time, there's a lot of me that I see in you- like your love of bunny-buns & baby dolls.

This TBT photo comes from when I was four years old, the same age as you. I imagine I was probably excited to have my hair up in a ballerina-like bunny-bun (or maybe it was just so my baby sister couldn't grab it), & I was holding a real life baby-doll, your Aunt Jennie.

When I asked my parents if I could have a sister, I'm pretty sure I thought a little girl the same age as me was just going to show up at our house & be my best friend. When my sister came home, a tiny baby, I thought there was some kind of mistake. Instead of a best friend, I got a new baby doll- except a lot louder, squirmier, & sometimes stinkier. I cant say I was always the best sister as I transitioned to the reality of what a baby sister really meant. It was hard to not be the only child anymore. I think I was really an only child at heart...kind of like you.

Except in your case, we're going to stick with bunny-buns & regular baby-dolls.

I love you so,

Mommy

back to the wall

Dear Em,
Lately, I feel like we've been swallowed up in grayness. Almost every day seems to bring rain or snow or fog or...just yuck. We've been cooped up inside for longer than I can stand. So, when the weather forecasted sunshine & higher temperatures this past weekend, I asked Daddy if we could go to the beach.

Daddy looked at me & smiled. I have become such a typical New Englander. At the first hint of a day with high forty degree temperatures, I feel like it's summer. He warned me that it's typically ten degrees colder when you're on the shore, & I promised him we would bundle up.

I tried not to get my hopes up too much, knowing that more than likely the forecasts would be wrong & we would have to face another gray day. When the sun shone through my bedroom windows on Saturday morning, you & I both cheered. We bundled up & decided to head to the wall. You asked if you could bring a few of your "buddies" with you (your American Girl doll, Minnie Mouse, & a purple bunny you've named Purplicious). We said "why not," bundled them up too, & packed your babydoll stroller in the car.

I couldn't believe how beautiful it was when we stepped out of our car. The sun was shining, & it felt like spring. My heart was so happy as I breathed in the ocean air, I thought I would burst.

We walked the length of the wall, smiling & waving to the other walker/runners, before stopping at your "Kazeebo" for a performance.

You were pretty tired after a thrilling "Kazeebo" performance & we sat on the wall to "take a little rest. I listened to the sweet sound of the waves that I had missed so much & enjoyed the warm sun on my face. I can't tell you how much my winter-tired soul really needed this.

The walk back to the car wasn't as pleasant. You had really tired yourself out walking & performing. You were hungry & thirsty, and by the sounds of it, you were practically dying. Daddy & I did everything we could to distract you from your extreme hunger & thirst.

On the way home, you asked if you could roll down your window, & we said "why not." We were pretty well bundled up, & I was enjoying every second of fresh air. I looked back at you to see a huge smile spread across your face as your hand danced in the wind.

I think your soul really needed a break from the grayness too.

I love you so,

Mommy

Four Year Old Basketball Stars

Dear Em,
Each month & a half your class learns about a different topic. It amazes me to see the creative ways your teachers prepare all types of activities to surround the topic. They use numbers, colors, reading, writing, art, & exercise to teach you more about the topic in such fun ways. Recently, you've been learning about basketball. At the end of your basketball unit, your teachers invited the parents to come & watch your class play a basketball game.

I couldn't help but giggle to myself at the thought of your class playing basketball. When this unit first started, they asked your class what color a basketball is, & you replied "purple." I'd never seen you dribble a basketball- or any ball really- but if your basketball coordination is anything like mine, this four year old basketball game was going to be entertaining to say the least. Daddy couldn't come, but he made me promise to take pictures and videos.

When I got to your school, parents lined the side of the gym, like fans at a stadium. Instead of seeing the traditional set-up for a basket ball game, you & your class (wearing the "basketball jerseys" you had designed yourself) were divided into smaller groups, working on different skills of basketball. There was an area where you stood in the middle of a hula hoop & worked on dribbling inside the hoop. There was an area where you stood on cirlces & worked on passing the ball to eachother. There was another area where you worked on shooting the basketball into the basket- a laundry basket. It was the most adorable thing ever.

I was really impressed with how well you listened to & followed instructions. You very intently tried your very best at each skill, looking up occasionally to make sure I was watching. I was equally impressed with your basketball style. There was a lot of twirling & the ballerina-type leg movements.

Seriously, look at this adorable form. I couldn't get over the cuteness of the whole class.

At the end, your class lined up & you all got to show the parents what you all could individually do by shooting the basketball into the basket. When your turn came, you shot the ball right into the basket. You were so proud of yourself, you did a cute, little victory dance.

I was really proud of you too. I really loved watching you play. You've come a long way from the girl who thought basketballs were purple.

I love you so,
Mommy

Front Door Makeover

Dear Em,
It's funny that I'm posting this now, because our Front Door makeover has been a long time in the making. The thought of it came at a time when I was mostly satisfied with updating the inside of our house & started looking at the outside. We had plans to put in a paver stone walkway (I can't tell you how many times I had almost fallen on my face walking through our crushed stone path in heels, & Daddy hated trying to shovel it in the winter), update our front door, update our shutters, & work on the landscaping. A couple years ago we put in a paver stone walkway. The next year I was hoping to tackle the door & shutters. I just wasn't sure how.

I looked at paint colors, thinking maybe a different color would make the door pop (& the green shutters have never been our taste). I studied door-shutter-house color combinations on every drive I went on, looking at all the other houses along the way. I made up my mind with different colors several times & then unmade it. Finally, I decided that we would forgo the paint altogether & just buy a new wood door. Except that I knew how much we hate to have to restain our back deck, & I wondered about the durability of wood doors. Since a fiberglass door could give us the wood look without any maintenance, I finally settled on a fiberglass door. I waited a month just to be sure & still liked the same door. So, I went into Home Depot to look into the process of ordering & installing our new door.

This was back in September. The front door was finally finished a few weeks ago. Sigh, it is a long story...

First, someone came to our home to do some measurements. While we had originally planned to just buy & install a front door, the gentleman doing the measurements explained that wasn't going to be possible. It seems that our door frame (which we had asked a handyman to fix years back...sigh) was rotted, & we would need a whole new door frame & sidelights (the panels on either side of the door) as well.

I took you with me to Home Depot to place the order. I thought it would just take a few moments, but I think we were there for over an hour. It seems that the sidelights we wanted couldn't be matched up with the door we wanted. The price went from reasonable to something five times what we had planned on (so much for updating the shutters as well). By the end, you were ready to go into meltdown mode. You had looked through every door & window catalogue in the doors & windows section of Home Depot by the time we finally ordered, not exactly what I wanted but, something I thought we could all be happy with. The order was placed with a rough timeline of our door being installed in about a month (mid October).

Though they came weeks after we had originally planned (begin of November), the day the installers came was an exciting day. You wanted so badly to talk to them & tell them about your whole life story, but you & I had to head off to work & school. We left Daddy, who was working from home, to oversee the project. Daddy called me later in the day to tell me that the installation was done, & I looked forward to coming home to see our new door.

It was when I got home that Daddy explained some of his concerns, & we realized why we would never order something from Home Depot that would need to be installed. While Home Depot was very friendly, had great customer service, & we loved the product we ordered from them, we were stuck with whatever installers they had contracted with. The installers had left us with holes throughout our screen door (apparently, they thought we no longer wanted our screen door & threw it in their truck), molding that showed gaps of bare sheetrock, & a constant draft coming from the door.

When I called Home Depot, I was livid. We had spent five times what I had originally budgeted for our new door....for this? I explained the problems. They were very understanding & supportive, but in the end they were sending out the same installers to fix the problem. So I made another appointment, & a week later the same installer came out. He told me that the holes in my screen were Home Depot's problem & that the bare sheet rock was really a fault of our house- not the installation itself. I was ready to cry. So, you mean that our new door is actually going to be much worse than our old door & it's our house's fault? In the end, he "fixed" the problem with the draft but said he didn't have any of the materials needed to fix anything else.

This left me with nothing else to do but make another appointment for the installers to come back a week later & fix everything else. A day before they were scheduled to come, I got a call that the appointment would have to be rescheduled after a certain part was delivered to our house. When I called Home Depot to figure out just what was going on this time, it was then I had learned that the installers must have broken the bottom piece of our door without telling us & the new piece being sent to our home was meant to replace it (which would explain why there was still a constant stream of air coming from under our door).

At this point I was beyond livid. I was afraid that if I tried to deal with anyone in relation to our door at this point, I was going to have a meltdown. So, the new piece to our door came in two weeks later, & I scheduled an appointment for the end of December for the installers to finally fix the installation. That's right, the end of December. It had been over three months that I had been working with Home Depot & the craptastic crew they contracted to install our door.

You & I were in North Carolina when the final install happened, but Daddy assured me everything had been fixed (except for the screen door, Home Depot has told us they will replace it but I still don't think I've calmed down enough to talk to anyone about it). When we came home, I looked at our "amazing" door & just felt sick to my stomach. Don't get me wrong the door itself looks great, but I swear the floor in front of our door is much colder than it ever was before we replaced our old door- which is funny because this door was supposed to be infinitely more energy efficient. If you look from the sides, I can still see bare pieces of sheet rock & feel cold air seeping through the sides of the frame.

I just can't bring myself to get upset about it or really even care about it anymore. So, a couple weeks ago, I put a fresh coat of paint on the molding around the door & called it a day. I guess it's just as done as it's going to get.

I feel like it's a really sad thing to see that there are people who have so little pride in their craftsmanship. It's disappointing we spent what I would consider a lot of money & received so much less than what we were promised. And that was just for a door. In a few years, we hope to remodel our kitchen. Just thinking about going through this type of situation with our whole kitchen is enough to make me drop to the floor and huddle in the fetal position. I know one thing, we won't be working with Home Depot.

Sometimes I wonder...was our old front door really that bad in the first place? Sigh.

I love you so,
Mommy

Throwback Thursday: Messy Eaters

Dear Em,
Sometimes it's amazing how much of a messy eater you are. Sometimes I wonder if you get more food in your mouth or on the floor...& on your chair...& on the table...& all over your clothes. It could be due to the fact that you enjoying bouncing, dancing, & running while you eat. Food naturally flies as you fly through the air.

In an effort to encourage you to sit still for longer than 30 seconds while eating, we've implemented a new incentive. If you can sit on your bum, without getting up, during dinner Monday-Thursday nights, I will get you a donut for breakfast on the way to school on Fridays. I know there are a million studies that say you shouldn't bribe your children, & bribing your children with food should be forbidden, but this was actually something your pediatrician suggested. And if it works, I'm just going to smile really big.

Maybe it's kind of my fault. You do come from a line of messy eaters. I think I'm two in this TBT photo.

Maybe my parents should have promised me a donut if on Monday-Thursday I got my food in my mouth.

I love you so,

Mommy

Throwback Sunday...posted on a Wednesday

Dear Em,
Things have been busy & hectic for...well...for a long time. I realized a couple weekends ago that we've been so busy, we haven't gone to Daddy's Restaurant in a while. We've either been out of town, rushing to get out the door, or so tired from it all that we've eaten breakfast in bed (& I'm not complaining about breakfast in bed). I realized how much I missed Daddy's Restaurant moments, & asked Daddy if we could go. You & he both excitedly said "Yes!"

It kind of felt like a throwback to finally return to our favorite Sunday breakfast spot. You helped Daddy make french toast, & you & I even made corn muffins together. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed our Daddy's Restaurant moments, sitting & laughing & cooking & eating & cheersing together as a family. Even Charlie joined us.

I love you so,

Mommy

Em's little class

Dear Em,
You don't like to play on your own...I mean you really don't like it. You're a social little girl, & you are in your element when you have others to play with. You beg us to play Barbies or American girl dolls or play dough or Babies. Better yet, you love when your little friends visit & you can play with someone your own size.

You don't like to play on your own, but you do sometimes. When you do, it's truly magical to see (& not just because it means that we don't have to also play Barbies or Babies). The other day I spied on you leading your very own class. You had some of your babies & stuffed animals, placed in a circle around you. You had a stack of books to read for circle time, & you caught me spying in on you & trying not to laugh while you read What does the Fox Say? to your class.

You told me about how your class was doing. Two babies were having a hard time being away from their mommies, & you had them sitting in your lap as you read to the class. One baby had been particularly fresh, & was sitting in timeout in a chair in the other room, facing toward the windows. She sat in time out for a very long time. You are a very sweet, & very strict, little teacher.

I know it must be tough to be an only child & not have another little in our home for you to play with, but I hope you know how magical your imagination is when you're on your own. I hope you know how enchanted I become as I watch you from afar...even if in your imagination someone is usually sitting in timeout.

I love you so,
Mommy

Family Room Makeover

Dear Em,
When I'm stressed, I take on projects. To most people, that seems kind of dumb. Why take on more when you're already stressed? Well, my life (our lives) has been filled with new uncertainties recently. I've been hearing the phrase "control the controllables" a lot lately. Except that still left really big things in my life that I'd recently totally lost control over. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big darn deal. We're all healthy (that's what is really important. It was just enough stress to, you know, drive me crazy. Some people can just roll with it, but feeling totally out of control does not bode well for me & my Type-A personality.

So, I've developed some coping mechanisms. We do a lot of praying (we're always praying, but we tend to do a lot more focused praying in times like these & ask for prayers from our friends & family). If I can't control things, then we leave them in God's hands. And with the big things in God's hands, that doesn't leave very much in my hands. So, I control the controllables by taking on things I can control, like wedding shower projects for your Aunt Andrea (I can't wait to post more about these soon) & Valentine's projects with you (posted here, here, & here). But when those projects were finished, & I started working on little home improvements.

There are little things that I've been putting off updating forever, but now was the perfect time to get things done. Our first home improvement project of this year was a Family Room makeover. I made a deal with your Daddy. If he put you to bed every night for a week, I would work on the family room by myself. It gave me a project of my own to clear my head with, & ensured you would be taken care of without me having to stop mid project. So, while you giggled & snuggled with Daddy, I put on my design hat & rocked out to music & listened to audio books & tried to get my head straight.

Just for funsies, here is the family room when we first moved in five years ago.

Family Room: Way Before

Isn't it funny to see it that way? I forgot what it looked like back then until I stumbled upon that photo. The mattress on the floor is the spot your Daddy & I first slept in our house for a couple weeks while we worked on painting & putting in new carpet throughout the house. The yellow paint color was one of the first things to go. With a baby on the way, I was thrilled to put my own mark on the Family Room.

Family Room: Before

Family Room: Before

Family Room: Before

Five years ago, we painted the room Valspar Lyndhurst Celadon Green, hung up our recent wedding photos, kept the curtain rods but changed the curtains, & filled the shelves with pictures & books. It's funny for me to see mostly cat toys, because back then we had just found out that I was pregnant & there was no little love to put the family in our Family Room.

I am an experienced house painter. With my Dad being in the Navy, we moved a lot, & that meant a lot of new house painting. What I am not experienced in is painting cabinets or shelving. Which is probably why when we moved into our house five years ago & painted our whole house, I decided the shelving in the family room looked fine without a fresh coat of paint. Really, the cabinets could have used a coat of paint back then, but after five years of family time (& the Family Room being the main space for you & your little friends), they looked disgusting. This one was of the biggest pushes for me to redo this room again, & this is what it looked like as I started out one Monday evening.

Family Room: Mid-Project

This time around, the changes are more subtle. While I repainted the whole room, the colors mostly stayed the same. I've added & changed things over the past couple years (an ottoman here, new curtains there, & some artwork everywhere), & this was the drive to put it all together.

Family Room: After

The whole room needed a fresh coat of paint. We all loved the color, but I wanted to go with more durable paint this time. Little hands & feet can really do a number on the walls. I went with Benjamin Moore paint this time. It's more pricey than our typical Valspar go-to, but I'm hoping it's worth it. I asked them to match the Valspar paint sample I had. The mixed paint came out a little bit lighter than I wanted at first, but after asking them to add some grey, it was perfect.

I got the curtains from West Elm a couple years ago, but finally got around to putting up a new curtain rod. The pillows I bought at Target. The cat, Joey, was our very first baby. That is his favorite spot to sit when you're not in the family room.

Family Room: After

I also wanted to update the artwork. When we first moved into the house, Daddy & I had just gotten married. I included lots of family pictures, but mostly the photos were recent wedding photos. Five years later, the Family Room was starting to feel a little too much like a shrine to our wedding. The Family Rules Canvas (found at One Kings Lane) is perfect for a Family Room. I also updated many of the photographs & frames in the room (frames from Michaels). We went with mostly beach pictures (being the beachbums we are, there was no shortage to choose from) & family photos. 

Family Room: After

Your kitchen set & toys have replaced the cat toys (they have a tiny basket in the living room). I bought a few bins to store toys in at HomeGoods. I couldn't believe how well they matched the Family Room colors. It gives the room a decorative way to store your toys that would otherwise fill our floors.

Family Room: After

I ordered an enlarged print of our Christmas Card photo as the big family photo in the room (although I'm kind of hoping we get a great family beach shot at your Aunt Andrea's wedding that may replace it).

Family Room: After

Family Room: After

Other than the toys, I wanted to a fun way display your mark as well. As we were looking for Valentine ideas, I came across a Valentine Tree that I thought would look perfect in our family room. First I traced the outline of tree foliage (is there another word for bush part of a tree?) in yellow marker on our middle cabinet doors & painted them in the same color as the Family Room walls.

Family Room: Mid-Project

Family Room: Mid-Project

Once the paint dried, it was time for your part. We covered your hands in beige paint we had leftover from some of the other rooms in our house. You put your hand prints in the middle of the tree foliage. I have to say, it was tough to get your hand prints down low & at that angle, but we did it.

Family Room: Mid-Project

Family Room: Mid-Project

Family Room: Mid-Project

While Daddy cleaned you off, I painted the trunks of the trees & did touch-ups where your fingers had wiggled a little too much- & where you accidentally grabbed part of the freshly painted white cabinet with your beige painty hand. We let it dry overnight. The next day, we covered your index fingers in red paint & used your fingerprints to make apples. I painted two hearts, one on each trunk, with your initials & the date & "J+B=E" to add a little more personalization. 

Family Room: After

Family Room: After

I love how your handprint trees came out. To me, it gives the room that little extra feeling of home & family & fun. After watching me work on the room for a week, I think you just loved being able to help with the Family Room makeover.

I also reorganized the shelves, which had started to look a little cluttered, & added new pictures & knickknacks & flowers.

Family Room: After

I can't even explain the sense of peace & accomplishment I feel when I walk into the room now. I know that overall, we just made little changes, but little changes made a big difference for me. Unfortunately for you & Daddy, my need for head-straightening projects didn't end there. Over the next few weeks, I'll be revealing a few other home improvement projects as well.

I love you so,

Mommy