Sorting

A week or so ago, the bean was enjoying some halloween candy and lamented the fact that there was only one blue M&M in the package she was eating. Blue seems to be her favorite color now that she has learned to name colors (she was partial to green before then-I guess she liked the way the word sounded). Anyway, the boy explained to her that there's a store in the city where you can buy a bag of only blue M&Ms (or any other color, for that matter). She was interested, but didn't mention it again. We figured we'd take her after the sugar overload of the holidays was over.

The bean has been asking to go into the city to her Mommy's work, so the boy woke her up this morning and asked if she'd like to do that. Her response, of course, was to ask if she could also go to the M&M store. Because as much as we'd like to think otherwise, children just never forget a. single. thing.

So we went to the city and the bean got a bag of blue M&Ms. No pictures of that, unfortunately, but once we got home, to entertain her and also turn this into an educational lesson (since it certainly wasn't a nutritional one), I set her up sorting the colors from Mommy and Mama's bags.



A bag of multicolored M&Ms and a muffin tin was all it took to keep her entertained for an hour.



Sorting and mixing over and over again.



Why yes, I do let my 2 year old sit on the kitchen counter! Most days its the only way I can cook or do the dishes. Rest assured, I stay within arms reach and keep her away from the stove and knives. She's been sitting there long enough that she knows to stay away from the edge and to ask for help when she wants to get down.

Halloween

Clearly, I'm finding it difficult to keep up with blogging lately. Life with a toddler moves at a much faster pace than I had anticipated and, on the rare occasion that I do find time to sit down with the computer, there are always fingers coming at the keyboard, wanting to "help." And so, even though I didn't manage to find time to post this yesterday, I'm very excited to share with you our halloween projects (a day late).

Bats! From Country Living, via made


I covered some of our picture frames with cheesecloth and stuck little plastic spiders in them to make it a bit more spooky.


The cute leaf garland is an idea I got from pinterest. I just cut the shapes out of some extra felt I had on hand and sewed some yarn through them. The little ghost is cut from window film (template via Martha).


Finally, our mice that took over the stairs. (Template via Martha).


I also tried to make the bean's school lunches festive the last couple days.

Pumpkin sandwich (not the best carving job, but the bean was pleased)


Spider crackers and ghost banana (this came back with only the chocolate chip eyes and the cheese slices eaten--fail)


Mummy pizza


And finally, the bean in her costume




I hope you had a nice holiday!

Two Years

Our bean turned two today. We started off the day with pancakes fitting for a two year old.



We then headed to the beach, at the bean's request, to make sand castles, just like Olivia. Its been a little over a year since the bean's last trip to the beach, so it was like going for the first time. As we drove up, she asked over and over where the beach was and was thrilled to finally see it. She had a great time splashing in the waves and collecting shells.

We spent the afternoon at home playing with her present--a balance bike. The bean has been very interested in bikes lately (cutely calling them motorcycles and telling us she'd like to ride on a motorcycle), so we were excited to give her this present. She's just walked around with it so far and isn't comfortable sitting down just yet, but hopefully it won't take her long to get the hang of it.



Finally, the bean also received a mailbox built by her moms (well, mostly by the boy--I contributed the letter). As you can see, we ran out of time and didn't get it painted. We'll hopefully finish that up this weekend. The lack of paint did not get in the way of her enjoyment, though, she loved putting the letter in the slot and retrieving it over and over again.



Our big girl was able to blow out both candles on the first try! Since it was so much fun, she asked us to sing again and again so she could blow them out over and over.



Happy birthday, my little girl. I can't believe its been two years already!

First Egg Hunt

A photo essay

Bathroom. Done.

I've been wanting to post final bathroom pictures for a while now, but I wanted to wait until it was completely done and, well, we got it about 90% done and then stalled. We had a hard time finding a towel ring/TP holder set that we liked and since the bean only recently got over her obsession with habit of unrolling every roll of toilet paper she sees, we weren't in much of a hurry. So that explains why I'm finally wrapping up this project about 6 months after it was done.

The last update I posted, we had just finished installing the toilet and "just" had the vanity to do. We debated right up until the last minute on whether we should put a vanity or pedestal sink in, assuming it wouldn't matter much to the other parts of our remodel. In the end, we decided on the pedestal, since a cabinet for the same price would be lower quality composite wood. We also think the pedestal makes the tiny room feel less cramped. I had read online that installing a pedestal sink was "graduate level DIY" which I sort of took as a challenge. How hard could it be, right?

Well, first of all, we had to install bracing between our wall studs behind where the pedestal would sit. Now, when we removed the old vanity, the drywall was pretty damaged and required patches in a few places. We had already patched, mudded, sanded, primed and painted the wall to make it as pretty as it could be, but now we had to open 'er back up.

I wish we had taken pictures of this step, we were both just so anxious to finally have a sink in that room (and frustrated to have to repeat work) that we forged ahead. It only took a couple hours to cut a section of drywall out between the studs, screw in a piece of 2x6 lumber, and patch the drywall back in. Then more of the long process of mudding, sanding, mudding, sanding, and painting (again!)

If you haven't done this before, the base of the pedestal is screwed into the floor, while the sink is held up by long screws that go through the back of the sink and into those aforementioned 2x6's. I had read that getting everything to line up was difficult, but this process went fairly smoothly. (Of course, we were very careful to measure, mark, and measure again before we started.) The hard part was the plumbing. Oh, the plumbing!! It took weeks and weeks along with I don't remember how many trips to three different hardware stores to finally get the plumbing to line up. Thirty-five years ago, plumbing was made from a different material than it is today and the old sink drain was in a different position from the new one and, oh yeah, you can't really see behind that pedestal while you're installing all those tees and elbows. Ugh! What a headache! (Also? Plumbers putty? Totally a steep learning curve with that stuff. After getting all the plumbing to line up, we excitedly turned on the water and got a puddle on the floor.)


But we finally figured it out. I L.O.V.E. this faucet. So much so that we special ordered the pedestal (with just one cutout) to go with it. Love.

We still had one big hurdle to jump and that's this little guy.


Why is this pipe sticking through our wall? We can't even figure out where it leads to, but it was hidden behind our old cabinet and needed to be hidden again. I took a stab at building a box to encase it, but when I was driving the nails into it, the whole thing sort of fell apart. I put the hammer away and went on strike for a few weeks. Then, the boy stepped in and worked some magic.


Ahhh.

Add the final touches we put on a couple weeks ago, and I'm calling it done.




What did that before look like again?


Oh right. And now:


When we started this project, I don't think either of us were convinced that we would actually be able to pull it off. We went into it with the idea that we could always hire a contractor if we got in over our heads but, thankfully, that didn't happen. We did the whole thing by ourselves and every time I walk in there I'm sort of surprised and definitely proud that we did.

Oh, and do you remember the buckled wood floor that originally tipped us off to the leak in the bathroom? After months of waiting it out, the floor has dried out and shrunk back down into place. That section will probably never be the same again and a couple boards sit a little funny, but at least there's no longer any danger of someone tripping over it! A happy ending all around.