Peace To All Who Enter Here

A front door seems like a simple thing, but it's the official "welcome to our home" point and therefore important to me. I've wanted a new door for the year and a half we've lived in this house. On the day we moved in, I was laying on the floor in the empty living room waiting for Trent and the movers to arrive, and I could see light streaming in through giant cracks in the door. I'm sure there was also conditioned air streaming out as well. Also the old door was a weird color and half the paint was scraped off in a destitute rather than distressed way. But now, finally, after an oddly lengthy process, it's here - our new front door:

I've been dreaming of a blue door.

It didn't make the picture, but Trent is nailing on the "Peace to all who enter here" plaque as I type this. Maybe Bolivar will get the peace vibe - can you see him in the window plotting his escape? I hope everyone, human and animal alike, gets a peaceful feeling here.

Morning Parade

The weather this morning was comparatively cool, and truly when comparing it to the rest of August it felt like Colorado. Rush and I went to play in the front yard (to avoid the sun rising right in our faces in the backyard therefore dragging out the cool air as long as possible) as soon as we finished breakfast. And to make being outside even better, it was trash day...

There is not a toy in our house that is as exciting to Rush as getting to see, wave to, and follow down the street the recycling and garbage trucks. All the men working on the trucks waved back to Rush and shouted hello, so it was an overall great, neighborhoodly experience. It's the little moments in life.

Look Ahead

Today was the first day of mother's day out for Rush. He was obviously excited. I'm so proud of him for being such a brave and adaptable little guy. There were no tears for him when I dropped him off - as soon as we walked into the classroom he saw a play kitchen, stack of trucks, and basket full of baby dolls, so he was set. When I picked him up the note from his teachers said "Rush had an awesome day." Exactly.

Calling it "Mother's Day Out" makes it sound like the mothers get to wear white gloves with their matching hat, purse, and shoes while they meet for club sandwiches, or a least put on lipstick and get to go to Starbucks. The reality was getting to turn up the Hairspray soundtrack as loudly as I wanted and doing laundry without having to point at the Shout bottle and loudly say "POISON!" every ten seconds. I can almost hear my own mother's own maniacal laughter as I realize another truth of motherhood.

I missed the little guy today, but I know it's going to be great for him to be around a classroom full of little kids, getting to play on the playground, eat lunch at a little kid table, and hopefully learn to take naps on his nap mat. I can't wait for his first arts and crafts project to come home in his folder. He's growing up so quickly, but we're embracing each new stage. This is just the first of many exciting first days of school.

Hot and Steamy

We're in the midst of getting our new air conditioner installed, so no air conditioning at our house since yesterday morning. It started as a one day project, but you know how all home improvements go...a foot just crashed through the ceiling, so I'm not sure how much time sheetrock repair adds.

As soon as our air went off we went right into hurricane mode - we're sitting around in the dark, eating sandwiches and bread and butter and generally forgetting that we can use electricity. Last night as we waited for Rush to fall asleep -in the living room where we all slept- I almost pulled out the candelabra and Scrabble board, then remembered that we could turn on the lights. Really though, it's just too hot for lights. And Scrabble. We were all asleep by eight.

Nesting

I'm in full nesting mode with this pregnancy. With Rush it was the less fun side of nesting: moving from the city to the suburbs, finding and buying a house (oh the nauseous moments in the backseat of our realtor's SUV), finding a piano mover, unpacking, ripping down the wallpaper in the kitchen. It was the things that an actual bird would do- build the nest instead of just pick out curtains for it. We did do some fun things, like paint the nursery and buy a crib, but it's not like I was knitting booties. Now there's more time for the details and I'm really focused on trying to get the house organized (ha) and as pleasant as possible before we become a family of four.

Giving new meaning to the phrase "cradle Episcopalian", I painted this prayer from Compline on the wall above the crib. Our intention was always to keep the nursery the nursery, but I didn't want the new baby to have a completely hand-me-down room. We'll probably add more finishing touches to the room once we move Rush's things into his new room. Please ignore the poor lighting in the picture; photography is clearly not my strong suit.


Moving Rush into a new bedroom means giving up my craft room. I thought it was going to be a sad day, yet somehow my new craft space in the extra bedroom turned out to be one of my favorite spots in the house. I think it's the Liz Lemon office spoon and fork on the wall. If you need me, I'll just be in my office trying to have it all.

And of course a top priority for me right now is making an Advent calendar, because what other things could I possibly have to do to get ready for a new baby? It just seems 100% necessary to have it finished by Advent this year. I'm using my grandmother's stash of sequins and beads which I inherited and are organized by color in various old prescription and medicine bottles. Two of the prescriptions are dated 1962.

It's a good feeling knowing that none of these things are mandatory. We have a crib, car seat, and stash of white and yellow onesies, so until January we can just focus on the enjoyable details. Next Monday will be the halfway point of this pregnancy - 4.5 months to go!

Schmear

A few days ago I was checking my e-mail while Rush was playing, allegedly with his shoes and socks. When I walked into the kitchen I realized that he had pulled a box of cream cheese off the kitchen table. He really likes cream cheese.

He's a tall guy so apparently things have to be pushed to the center of the kitchen table to be out of his reach. He's also learning to climb, so soon things will have to actually be put away.

Typing this, I'm getting really hungry for a bagel. We have bagels, but we're out of cream cheese.

Preparations

Rush will be starting preschool or mother's day out (whatever you want to call it) soon, so we're getting ready. He has a backpack, lunch box, and now a snazzy new nap mat. I'm not sure that he really gets that the mat is for napping, but at this point in the summer it's just something his teachers are going to have to help him learn.

I made a cover for his mat using two yards of fabric and a little bias tape. The cover also features an attached pillow case with a small pillow that I made using Casey's trick of "buy a bed pillow, cut it in half, and sew the edge." The fabric is covered in dogs for our little animal lover.

Based on our visits to the school this summer, I think he's going to love preschool. Play, eat lunch, nap...it's really a great schedule.

Friday the 13th

Just in case a black cat doesn't happen to cross your path today...

Bolivar, 6 weeks (?)

Jetty, 6 months

Another Post Titled "BEACH"

We spent last weekend at the beach with this group:

I do like the slant to the picture above. It gives a little sense of crazy, although I don't think it was unreasonably crazy considering there were 13 of us in the cabin, 5 under the age of 3 1/2. The trick with all the kids is to stay outside, so we were on the beach by 9:30 on Saturday morning, 8:30 on Sunday. We stayed on the beach all day Saturday, fueled by gourmet soft tacos made by Nick and Kellaura. When I say gourmet, I'm talking about toppings including jicama and cucumber slaw, mango, spiced pecans...should I go on? They also made individual fruit salads in mason jars and brought a tablecloth for the cooler. I love when life has Martha Stewart touches.

Thanks to Brandon and Amber, our new baby got his or her first beach toy - can you read "Bump" on the yellow pail?

If I can go back to talking about the food, everyone taking control of one meal turned out to be a fabulous plan. The Moncla's bacon mozzarella burgers and sweet potato fries hit the spot Saturday night and the Harris's win the breakfast award for not only making delicious breakfast casseroles - baked french toast anyone?- but also for getting up and serving breakfast early.

Our previous trip with this group was to Colorado, then we follow up with this trip to Bolivar. I'm all for sticking to the mountains/beach/mountains/beach rotation. It looks like mountains are next!

Quick Rush Fix

Casey just sent two e-mails full of Rush pictures she took earlier this summer. Here he is, enjoying a snack in their kitchen during our June visit. The school desk proved to be Rush's prime snacking spot.

The Big Kid Room

We're starting to get Rush's new bedroom ready for him, expected move-in date is October. Painting will come later (is there a free weekend in our future?) but for now the furniture assembling and gathering has commenced. Rush was actually a big help in putting together his new bookshelf.

Trent's modeling our attire of choice for any time after 6 o'clock: pajamas. Don and Betty Draper would not approve.

Williams Crew

We spent the weekend at the beach with the entire Williams family, including all of Rush's cousins. Thanks to a five hour drive and busy schedules all around, Rush really doesn't get enough time with his cousins, so it was extra nice to spend a weekend with them.

It was one of those summer weekends when the gulf is full of hermit crabs. Full of hermit crabs to the point of being almost creepy, where you could put your hand in the water at almost any point at come up with a hand full. Plus, porpoise frolicked near the kayak while it was out in the water. I've always wanted that to happen when I was in the kayak, but Rush, Gigi and I had headed back to the cabin for lunch and naptime, so we missed the porpoise. We did see a big group from the ferry on the way to the beach.

Trinity proved to be a good sharer while snacking with Rush on the deck.

Who else is still shocked that 80's fashions are back in full force? Check out little Zach Morris in his jr. high cousin's hat.

It was a full summer weekend. We celebrated Remi's 8th birthday on Friday with watermelon cupcakes and continued throughout the weekend in a sort of celebration mode. The weather was nice, there was no seaweed on the beach (a summer miracle!), and Rush was able to spend some quality time with all his paternal aunts, uncle, cousins, and grandparents.