Come on spring...

Ugh, we got a spring teaser a couple of weeks ago, I even had tan lines from the short couple of days that were nice.  Since it's been cold, rainy, and it's even snowed a couple of times.  Come on spring, I've got a hyperactive kid that needs to be outside!

I introduced Ami to watercolor painting during our indoor adventures.  She's already gone through 3 sets, and one of them was super-sized.  She LOVES painting.  She's painted many a picture in the last week.

I've tapered off on my thrifting for the time being.   I don't specifically have anything to buy so I'd better stay out of the stores so I don't spend unecessary money.  Instead, I found this new website Pinterest, which is just as addicting and time consuming.  That's one of the reasons I have been neglecting you poor blog.

Progress upstairs has been eeking along.  Tyler was out of town for work for half a week so that stalled things a bit.  Right before he left we had the electrician back over to install the switches and these lights.  I love them.  I got them both at IKEA.  Ty just installed the 3rd ceiling light tonight but the power is off upstairs and it's dark now so I don't have a photo.  It was also purchased at IKEA.

Our little nut loves wearing her helmet.  Sometimes just around the house.  She said to me the other day at the store, "Mommy, Ami ride bike, NOW.  Helmet ON!"  She's got bike safety down.

And yes, she's so special she has 2 helmets (thanks to our generous neighbors.)  She fits on this scooter a wee bit better than her bike right now.

We celebrated Easter at Grandma D's house.  Ugh, she all cute and grown up.  

She had a blast hunting for eggs.

and eating the treats in them.

Look at these 2, practically teenagers. 

Here is something real that happened yesterday, I was eating wasabi soy sauce flavored almonds and then left the room for about 45 seconds.  Upon my return I find Amelie up in her chair, with the almond's  dumped out on the table so she could shovel them into her mouth faster.  The funny part is, that these things are hot.  She would eat one, whimper, then shove another into her mouth.  Then she just started sucking the flavor off them and putting the nuts back into the container.  Did I mention they were wasabi flavored?  She's crazy.

Cross your fingers that the next post will have photos of our finished master bedroom.  Cross them HARD!

  

Tantrum: Day 3

Holy jeez, we are going on a 3 day tantrum bender over at my house, which looked like this yesterday afternoon.




Other times her face is buried in the rug or the couch, or she is throwing a shoe across the room, or screaming for crackers.  Pretty much anything will start a tantrum.  Me asking her if she has to go potty, suggesting getting dressed, not allowing her to do EVERYTHING for herself, denying her anything, breathing, looking at her, feeding her....you get the picture.

Then there are the short moments of extreme cuteness, like these...

Learning how to ride a bike for the first time.

Drawing all over the sidewalk in chalk.

Enjoying and english muffin pizza lunch in the backyard.

So, it's not all bad.  Plus getting her outside (if I can get clothes and shoes on her) and running around tires her out after a while.  Although it's getting quite difficult for me to keep up with her which is turning out to be a safety hazard.  Lately though, she's been wanting to hold hands during out walks, and I love that.

I got a check in the mail yesterday for almost $185 for consigning some of her old stuff at the JBF sale.  Totally. Worth. It.  

Tyler is really making progress upstairs.  We bought flooring last week and he already has it half laid out.  Not bad for a guy that works all day and comes home to do more work!  Check it out, it's going to be so worth all the work in the end.

In order to maintain my sanity, I have been stealing slots of time for myself, on the weekends or during nap time.  Last weekend I walked up to the Angry Catfish for a small mocha and A Baker's Wife for a large pear tart.  It was delicious.

I've been re-potting plants and planted some new ones during nap time yesterday, and planted some seeds for the garden today.

 Today I painted some bottles and turned them into planters.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

Baby kicks and toddler undies.

Guess what I am doing right now?  I'm watching my baby move around.  I can see the kicks and punches through my belly skin.  That's always pretty crazy to see.  I remember watching Amelie arms and legs drag across my belly skin when I was pregnant with her.  Not a surprise that she was very active in utero as well.  Even when she flipped from head down to breech, I felt it like a rubber band snapping.  

Anyways, I'm sick again.  She has a runny nose and was up for about 2 hours last night upset and crying.  I'm guessing her poor throat was as dry as mine and probably hurt.  

We took a trip to the co-op this morning to get some meds and a Neti Pot.  I irrigated my sinuses for the first time today and it was weird/great.  Amelie pushed around the mini kid card with the groceries and did pretty good.  She bashed it into the back of my legs a couple of times and almost knocked over a few displays, but she was helpful and had fun.  Sidenote: she was wearing undies at the store, went pee after we checked out, and got all the way home (even after a 2nd stop) before she peed her pants.  She got pretty upset about her accident, but made up for it by spreading out what should have been 1 poo into 3 different trips to the potty in about 10 minutes.  

Here she is finding a good spot to put the cheese.  

It was really hard to get a photo of her because she was moving so fast.

Here are a few mediocre picture of the painting that was done upstairs thus far.  Since I only take blog photos with my iPhone they don't always turn out fantastic.

I really really really really really hope we will be done with this project soon.  So bad.

Thrifty Thrifterson

I am sure that I could host a show on some network like TLC about thrifting.  If I had a little more time, an occasional babysitter during they day, and someone to pay me to shop, I could definitely make a living out of scouring the local thrift stores and finding awesome deals.  I mostly go to Goodwill, Savers and sometimes the Arc and usually find something pretty awesome.  I like to check the clearance items at TJMaxx, Homegoods, and Marshalls for stellar deals too.  I know there are other great thrift stores out there, but I don't have the time or a child with the patience to allow me to thrift as much as I'd like to.

Here is what I found today, and I'm way pumped about it!  It was only $49.99.  I saw it, decided to shop a little more and think about it, then when I went back, someone else was sitting on it and talking about buying it.  I was so sad.  I don't know if they decided not to buy it, or if they went home to get a bigger car, but the important part is that they disappeared.  So I ripped the tag of and ran up to the register and paid for it.  

It's in great shape, looks like it's hardly been used.  Look at how happy it is making Tyler and Amelie.  Tyler is sleeping on it this very second.

Check out the cool detail on the legs.

Then I found these giant pillows at TJ Maxx for $15.

 And this wavy blue patterned pillow was at Savers for $2.99, seemingly brand new.

This thing is going to go PERFECTLY in the nook with this chair that we got for free and this, or this for an ottoman.

I also found these 2 candle holders at Savers.  I love the little owl, and my mom has a green version of the red one I found.  I have been thinking of a way to sneak her green holder home with me from the cabin for at least a year now...good news mom, you can keep it!

I got a couple more things including some nice rubber gardening gloves for $2.99,  some Sesame Street undies for Sam (7 pairs for $5.50),  this planter for $7, 

and another cool own candle holder for $2.

I've been looking for a planter like that for herbs or strawberries for a little while now.  There were some at Menard's for $50, and others similar to it at TJ Maxx for $20 or more.  Yes!

Speaking of Menard's, we found our bathroom sink, fixture, mirror and vanity there this weekend.  $99!  It is small and modern and will fit in the master bathroom perfectly.  What a dorky photo though, you can see Tyler and my faces in the mirror.  

Amelie and I also did some fun non-shopping related activities this week too.  We played at Auntie Abby's house with Adaline and Sammy.

Look at these two finally learning how to share.

We also went to the zoo with some friends.  The kids outnumbered the adults but the 4 adult women were able to keep track of all 7 kids that we brought with.  Granted 3 of them were 1 year or under, these 4 sure kept us on our toes!

And tonight we all went down to the neighbors for dinner and had a lovely time.  Now Amelie is in bed, Tyler is snoring on the new couch, and I am nursing yet another cold, blowing my nose raw for the 2nd time in a month.  

Amelie would like to send a special shout out to her uncle Ben for the fantastic birthday balloons that he brought her last Tuesday night.  She puts them in the chair next to hers when she eats, carries them around the house with her, and routinely reminds me that "uncle Ben" brought her the balloons.  I think that he is her new favorite.

Soon, I'll have some more upstairs photo updates.  We have a little painting left to do, but are still deciding if we like the combo of colors we chose.  I took some pictures but the lighting is really bad.

Work in progress...

Here are a few photos of our work in progress.
They are painting the kitchen cabinets white and the walls gray.

Here is The Human laying the tile.

A fresh coat on paint in the kitchen

I got a ton of packing done today. My neighbor Linda loaned us some of her plastic totes and I filled a bunch of them up. They piled up in my kitchen, there are a bunch in Amelie's room too.

I've got the UHaul truck reserved and I'm labeling all the boxes to make this move as smooth as possible. We've got the Salvation Army coming to pick up a large donation and Tyler took Friday off of work to get it all over with. Hopefully this will be the last time I have to move for a long time.