'Twas the night of Christmas

Happy 18 month birthday, bear!

Yes, today is your half birthday, which excitingly lands on Christmas day. And not only is it your 18 month birthday, but it is also your second Christmas!

In some ways, though, it felt more like your first, for this would be the first Christmas where you would fully participate in opening Christmas presents. Today was the foundation for all Christmases to come, as you now know more of what to expect next year. The next time you see a Chrismas tree, see Santa, hear a Christmas carol, you'll know what it means.

You were excited when you came out this morning, and although you became suddenly sick yesterday afternoon, it didn't seem to dampen your mood. What a surprise to see so many shiny wrapped boxes! "Open!" "Open!" You sang, passing me box after box; you weren't too sure where to start, and when you finally picked one present and began tugging on it's tapped edges, you quickly changed your mind and moved on again. Perhaps mommy didn't help fast enough, or all the excitement left you with the inability to sit still (as Christmas mornings tend to do that to little ones), either way you just couldn't seem to choose.

Little did we know that it would be a full day affair, as you wouldn't open your last present until just about dinner time...

The bobbing, from one gift to the next, continued for about ten minutes or so, until we finally stuck with one item. Daddy seemed to know the trick and before any of us knew it, there were a pair of galoshes and a princess backpack from Nana and Grandpa P, sitting out before you. And just as we had put your new rain boots on, you suddenly noticed your new pink, retro, kitchen!

You were so excited, I don't think we've ever seen this full expression before, and you knew just what to do! --You turned on the faucet right away! Expecting running water to come out...?...

...."Help!"..."Wash."..."Help!"...

Which I would expect too, if all of the faucets that I had ever seen in my entire 18 months of life had always had water pouring from their spouts. But you listened to mommy, as I told you, "It's pretend" and you followed me in my "bwoo-ssshhh" (pretend water noise) sounds as I washed my hands, in a make believe fashion.

You then checked each knob, crevasse, and door. And before I could sip just one bit of coffee, you had moved on to cooking (the word we heard most today was most certainly "Cook!") And since you hadn't opened any other presents yet (at least not any that contained your cooking toys), you started to wash, cook, and freeze, all of the wrapped boxes, that you could find, that were small enough to fit in your kitchen. But this would shortly stop once you found play food, and cookware from Santa Clause.

What I found so lovely about you bear, was that only when you were ready, on your own terms, would you again move on to opening more gifts (and yes I know this will not be the same for future Christmases to come, so I will hold on to this moment very tightly). It took much temptation (mommy and daddy resorted to pulling the corner edge off the next present) before you gave in and opened another favorite toy-- a teapot from Grammy K., which sang and made pouring sounds, as you played. You weren't quite sure what to do, just at first, but once I showed you, you caught right on, you poured us all some tea, turtle included, and then pretended to eat tea desserts.

You seemed to be most fond of all the toys that had to do with cooking. You played with all of your pots and pans perfectly with no guidance, you've obviously been watching mommy very well. You told me many times "Mama!" "Come! "Cook!"And we cooked away, we made stews on your stove and in your tree tent. We washed dishes and other items, stored your food in the fridge, and made phone calls on your kitchen phone. And before I could blink an eye, the day was done, another Christmas had gone and passed, and St. Nicholas, I'm sure, went home for a long nap...

It was a special day for us all, and even Ms. Acadia got a present from Santy Paws!

Now sweet bear of mine, I hope you sleep tight, for you have quite the cold to fight!

Sweet dreams, my sweet bear.

~Mama

Toddlerhood meets our kitchen's history...

I've hit slacker mode again (oops), but here are some things that we've been up to:

Bear is now a romping toddler! We said goodbye to crawling for good last week, and just as we said goodbye to crawling we said hello to getting up on the couch! I'm guessing bear grew an extra inch or two in the process of becoming a fully upright toddler which in return is allowing her to reach her little legs up onto the cushions. Now if only there was a way to teach her that we can fall off the couch! The first thing bear does, once she gets up onto the couch, is run and flop head first on the big cushions. Our couch is L shaped and takes up the majority of our living room. The cushions are larger than most couches and the nicest part about it is that it breaks up into four pieces. This comes in handy for sleeping as it can become a large U shaped mock bed if you feel like taking a snooze. It can also become a little play area for a bear if mommy or daddy lay across the open side (the area of the U that has no back). We tend to do this when we feel like laying around with bear. We get to relax and she does baby gymnastics bouncing from one section to the next. And now that bear's crawling up by herself and romping around, I'm realize that those previous lazy afternoons might have been a bad idea... The only way to get bear to sit on the couch right now is if she's sitting on my lap and reading a book with me. So I've been using this new couch exploration as a way to fit in more reading time. The exuberant toddler is quickly tamed with a little mommy reading time. :-)


Besides walking and the couch "expotition," our whole family has had some new changes- our kitchen has finally been renovated! It was a long process, it took about month of planning (and not to mention the two years of fantasizing about it) and then two weeks of installing (plus a week and a 1/2 with no dish washer or kitchen sink was thrown into the mix- ah!). There are still some miner details that need to be taken care of but the kitchen as a whole is again functional and absolutely amazing! I am in pure kitchen shock as I just can't believe this gorgeous kitchen is all mine! Chris did all of the installing, with the exception of the installation of the granite counter top and some help from a friend when he hung the upper cabinets. He did a great job! I certainly hit the husband jack pot when it comes to handy work...

Here is some history on our kitchen:

We moved in about two years ago. We loved our place but it needed A LOT of work, and that was  some of the appeal to the place. Chris loved the thought of having lots of projects to do and I liked the idea of making this home our own. We also thought that, maybe, if we were lucky, we'd end up increasing the value of our home for the future. I hope our luck continues!

This is what the kitchen looked like right before we moved in:

Wow, did it need some work! The very first thing we did was replace the appliances, there was no way I was going to be cooking on a stove from the early 80's! 

Here is our kitchen after a "quick fix:"

We were missing two main cabinets but we found a few creative ways to make the kitchen look nice and functional until we were really ready to make some changes. Why wait to make changes in the kitchen you ask? Well, there were a lot of other things that we were a bit more concerned about, such as:

This AWFUL wall!

This wall was our first real project! I don't know very much about the history of housing, architecture, and decor, but I believe that wood paneling went out in the 70's? Am I wrong? Our building was built in 1982 (the same year I was born!) and whom ever built this place did not install this wall~ someone between 1982 and 2008 put the ugly thing in. 

We also had an awful peachy beige paint color to get rid of which was covering all of the walls in the place including the front door and the bathroom ceiling, ick! I felt like I was walking into Willy Wonka's shrinking room, the peach swallowed you whole as soon as you closed the door! You can see the color if you look to the right of the wall. 

Within a month or so of living in our place we:

-removed that ugly @$$ wall and the popcorn ceiling

-painted the bathroom yellow... (too bright!)... and then blue 

-painted the bedrooms 

-put in recessed lighting in the living room

-fixed the shoddy attic door

-replaced the vanity and mirror in the bathroom 

-replaced all hardware in the bathroom

Following the first few months we:

-pulled up the tile in the kitchen and the flooring in the hallways and replaced them with a nice wood floor

-replaced the old carpeting (but made sure Acadia was house trained first)

-painted the living room and kitchen

-replaced the chair rail in the kitchen with the correct molding (previous owner used floor molding)

-removed our chair rail and put in wainscoting

-turned our spare room into a princess room

Things were starting to look pretty good!

Oh, and lets not forget that we replaced all of our living room furniture following this incident:

Lessened learned: always make sure the lock on the puppy crate is fully in place!

We took down those awful blinds, too!

So now that we had done almost everything else in the house it was time to change the kitchen. New cabinets, counter top, and back splash we had concluded would change. After a few weeks of pondering, researching and browsing we began demolition. Two weeks following demolition, everything started to come together. All that is left is a small book shelf that will sit between the left wall and the cabinet for our cook books and figuring out where I want to store everything!

Here is the final outcome:

With the overhead lights off

With overhead lights on

Side view (ignore the dinner dishes please!)

A closer view of the tile

A better view of the granite counter top (camera doesn't capture
the full color)

Thanks for taking the time to check out our new kitchen!

Happy Cooking :-)