Fridge vs. Door: Part II

So, you remember my post about how we ordered this amazing fridge and couldn't fit it in either doorway to the kitchen? Well, Shawn did a little demo work and I went back to Best Buy and purchased the same fridge again. (Turns out, all French door refrigerators are about the same width so going smaller wouldn't have made a difference).

Alas, the doorbell rings and the fridge has arrived! I tell the guys to take the doors off and I hold my breath as they try to get it through the doorway. "It won't fit". What?? Turns out there are these 2 little things sticking out that connect to the freezer door that pulls out. They can't be removed so Shawn tries to bust off the wood in the doorway (hard to explain the set up, plus it's boring), but no luck. All we need is 1 more inch! So we tell the guys to leave the fridge. Shawn and I will do a little more demo and make it work!! We plan on redoing the kitchen anyway so we'll just bust off the door frame, get the fridge in there and fix it all up when we remodel. So yay, we have our fridge!!

What's that? Where is the fridge now, you ask?

Yep--in the dining room!! This is where it will live until Shawn is back from his work trips and has time to work on the doorway...

The funny thing is, I'm not as worried about the fridge being in the dining room as I am not having the ice maker and water dispense hooked up. Haha! I know, I know...I've never had one and I have really looking forward to it.

So the dining room will continue to be covered in blocks of paint samples with a giant fridge in it for a bit longer...but you won't hear me complaining. Yet.

Weekend in IL

Shawn asked me a while back what I thought about doing a long weekend in IL to visit family--of course I was all about it! Every time we are in town it's usually for some event and it's total chaos. There are million people to see and a million things going on. It's such a whirlwind. So this time it was for no other reason just to see some family and hope to catch up with a couple friends. Last Wednesday we hopped on a plane and headed to Chicago to visit family.Evan has flown twice before: once at 6 weeks old and once at 4 months old. I'll tell you, I prefer to travel with an infant! At 6 weeks all he did was sleep. At 4 months he was a busy body but he was fine. At 8 months, the kid could barely be contained. He squirmed like crazy! Mr. Busy Body. He didn't really fuss or anything--he was actually really good--just wore us out trying to keep him entertained.

We get to Chicago and head to Shawn's parents house where we stayed from Wednesday night through Saturday morning. It was a nice, relaxing visit and everyone got a good chance to spend quality time with little man.

Saturday we headed up to the city and visited a couple of our friends that just had a baby boy and a brand new condo--busy parents! Then we went to my aunt's house on the north side. My parents came up from Champaign and brought my sisters Jane and Angel and my niece Tiana. Lunch was a feast and everyone was ecstatic to see Evan.

After that we went to the Wacaster's for their annual crawfish boil. Shawn got a hold of them and tried to coordinate the boil with our visit and so we were finally able to make it ;-) I didn't eat as many as I did the first time we made it to the boil, but it was good! And it was good to see the crew. We stayed at Val's place and the next morning we went to O'Donovan's for brunch. I LOVE that place! A few people met us for brunch, including Erin and Laura. It was so good to see them!

Then off to the airport. We got home and headed over to Paul and Megan's to pick up Jackson and they had the most amazing spread  waiting for us! It was all so fresh tasting and delicious! We hung out there way past Evan's bedtime and then finally made it home.

Overall it was a great weekend! 

I've been a busy girl

Sorry it's been a few days...I've been a busy girl!

Remember the new refrigerator incident? Well, we think we remedied that: Shawn spent Sunday tearing out the 6 feet of wainscoting and the chair rail that's in the kitchen entryway. We're hoping that will do the trick. It needs to do the trick because I went to Best Buy yesterday and re-purchased the fridge. Why not go smaller, you ask? Because then we couldn't get French doors and if we're going to spend the money, we want what we want. Plus, we plan to do a little reno in the back of the house next year and it won't be an issue--it fits in the kitchen now, just need to squeeze it through the doorway! Added bonus: the CO tax rebates started yesterday so we can get $100 back on that fridge!

I've also been gettin' crafty! I'm the matron of honor in my friend, Jess's wedding (in Mexico-woo hoo!) She and her fiancé don't want bachelor/bachelorette parties so I'm going to throw her a shower. This is her 2nd marriage so she doesn't want anything too "showery", which is fine with me. So I get online to find invites and all the beach themed ones are too cheesy. I did find one that I loved but it was a print-at-home, so I said "what the hell". I did make the inserts to my own wedding invites so I could handle this. I set out to Michaels and picked up a few things. Then I made a few more trips. Last night I started to put it all together and I am liking them so far: it's a 5x7 card (portrait) with a black palm tree printed on the left side. On a sheet of vellum, I've printed all the info in black and purple on the right side (her favorite color). I'm going to put the vellum on top of the card, wrap shimmery purple ribbon on the top and secure with a jeweled embellishment. I will post the finished product when I'm done. I have to assemble everything today and get them in the mail. I imagine this will take up the bulk of the day.

While I'm working on these invites, I have to do laundry and start packing--we are heading to Chicago to visit family this weekend. I can't wait see everyone! Plus I'll be getting out of this house for a weekend, Evan will get to spend time with our families, and I get a little mommy break! Don't worry--I'm just mostly excited to see everyone. I miss them a lot. I love it here but coming from a big, close family makes being away tough sometimes.

Okay--I'd love to write more, but I have lots to do!

exercising, doing martial arts while pregnant - POW! Mixed Martial Arts

exercising while pregnant, doing martial arts while pregnant - POW! Mixed Martial Arts

The above link takes you to an article written by my martial arts instructor back in Chicago. It talks about continuing your exercise routine while pregnant (given you are low risk and doc says it's ok). I just read another article about how pregnant women are not active enough. It's hard for me to understand when people (low-risk, of course) use pregnancy as an excuse to eat junk and gain a ton of weight. I don't think it's healthy for the mom or the baby and I believe it makes pregnancy harder than it should be. Think about it: your body is about to go through the most strenuous, taxing, amazing thing a body can go through--why wouldn't you prepare yourself to be able to handle it? For those of you that know me, you know I was working out past my due date! I had an amazing pregnancy and a 4-hour delivery. I gained about 30 lbs. I owe it all to being active. I'm not saying it was easy--I am only human and regularly lack motivation, but I would tell myself "20 minutes and if you want to stop, stop." Shawn also helped keep me moving. He'd encourage me to just come to the gym and sit on the bike or stroll on the treadmill. It sounded so easy, I couldn't really say no. I found that most times I actually got a decent workout in. In my first trimester, a lot of times I just didn't have the energy to do much but at least I got those 20 minutes (and it actually made me feel better).

It was Kat (the author of this article) who showed me that being active while pregnant was OK. She has 3 kids (one just a couple weeks old, I think) and she looks phenomenal. I was still her student during her first pregnancy. She had a cute little baby bump while teaching us how to do a roundhouse-sidekick combo with a cross, hook! I always remembered that, so when I got pregnant I didn't think twice about keeping my body in motion.

I didn't do martial arts though--that was for no other reason than I just hadn't belonged to a school. My exercise consisted of: 3 mile daily walks (dog loved it!), lots of prenatal yoga (including yoga classes with weights), and a prenatal pilates DVD I'd throw in from time to time. I also went to the gym and rode the stationary bike, did some light weights and even a couple of the group classes (although I had a hard time always keeping up, so I stuck to the back of the class).

I think daily activity is so crucial and I try to make sure I do something every day--even if it's just a walk around the neighborhood. We might not think much of it now, but I know it made my pregnancy easier. And I just think about when I get much older, staying active and eating well might do the same for me then...

Daddy's little helper | Learning new things

Isn't this why we have kids--to eventually grow up to learn how to do chores,  so they can one day take care of us when we are old? Well, in this household, it's never too early to start teaching them the way:

Although, he did a little more unfolding than folding, but he will learn in time. For now, he is just making sure that our laundry tastes clean...

Notice he is sitting up on his knees? This is a new milestone for him. He has been pulling himself onto everything and when he gets there, he will just chill. Can't quite get to standing every time but he's close. I love seeing him doing this--he makes me think of dog that sits up on its hind legs. It's just too cute!

I am at the stage where I am torn between being excited that he is learning all of these new moves, but getting nervous that once he's on two legs I'm going to have my hands quite full. He's a good baby--and as you can see, a very happy one. But let me tell you, if you haven't met him, his legs NEVER. STOP. MOVING. During diaper changes they are all over the place--I literally have to pin him down to get his diaper on. His legs are crawling before he even makes contact with the ground. And when you hold him, he is more squirmy than a new puppy! I pray that the next one is a bit more chill--for the sake of my sanity and any hope of wanting more children, haha! Although, with a face like that I don't know that I can be deterred...

In the blink of an eye...

Evan never stops moving. His legs are always kicking, he always squirms when held, and he is all over the floor. So naturally, he has a set of feeding bowls that suction to his high chair tray--Mr. Grabby Hands is always reaching for something.

The other day, I heat up his yummy homemade food and transfer it into his spill "proof" bowl (ya'll see where I'm going with this...). I securely suction it to his tray--as far away from him as possible, so as to reduce temptation--and turn to grab his bib. By the time I turned back to him to put said bib on (like 1.5 seconds), this is what I see:

This may not look too bad to you, but this was before we even started eating, so he had the entire duration of the meal to spread that around the tray, his face, and his clothes!  Once I saw this and realized that I couldn't really do much before he made a total mess, I just started cracking up! I called Shawn down to see--it was just too funny. I got him out of his clothes before we left the high chair and I just took him to the sink to rinse his hands and face.

That is one of the many things I quickly learned about being a parent: a sense of humor. If you don't have one, you will just be stressed out all the time. You have to learn to laugh at things beyond your control. The truth is, babies are meant to get messy. Clothes can be changed, messes cleaned--It's precious moments like this, though, that come and go in the blink of an eye.

Are you kidding me?

When we moved into this house, we could tell the previous owner did a lot of work to make it appealing to prospective buyers. As first-time home owners with a baby about to be born, we greatly appreciated it! We were fine with having to provide a washer/dryer because that allowed us to get the high-efficiency, large capacity set for all the baby clothes and blankets we knew we'd have to wash. The appliances were newer, but definitely the simple white models--especially the fridge.

It's about 16 cu. ft., no ice maker, top freezer style. It's nice, but clearly the most simple model the previous owner could find. Again, we appreciate the fridge being here. It works perfectly fine, until you put certain things on the top shelf...Frozen lettuce, anyone? At least our cottage cheese doesn't ever go bad because it's always half frozen! So we decided, let's get a new fridge. Bigger, better, and one that will match the look we are slowly working towards...

Saturday takes us to Best Buy. I had already done my research so we went with a beautiful Samsung French Door refrigerator (in stainless steel) with a built-in water/ice dispenser :) It's 26 cu. ft. and it's glorious. And it can be in my house by Monday! I am so excited--like a kid on Christmas morning!

Finally, Monday (today) arrives...between 8-10 a.m., I will have my little beauty! Ding dong--Best Buy delivery! They move the old fridge and get the new one ready. She is gleaming in the sunshine by the curb waiting to come home...but wait...we have a problem. We have 2 entrances into this house: the first entrance is plenty wide but the doorway is too narrow (by 1/2"). The second entrance is through the large back gate off the alley but our back door is too narrow.

WHAT????? How could this happen??? There was no way to get this fridge through either doorway, even if they took off the doors. UGH! So, they put the old fridge back in place and told us we could exchange our fridge for a smaller one. I almost cried. So instead I laughed, because what else could I do? This was ridiculous.

Now we have to go back to BB and get the smaller version (which is still larger than our current one) and I will have to be a good girl and wait for my new beautiful new fridge to arrive.

blah blah blah

Evan started babbling today!

I will admit, when I thought of a baby "babbling", I just imagined a baby making noises. He gets quite vocal--he is learning what his voice can do by yelling or making zerberts, but today he started sounding a bit different: it sounds like he is actually talking but not using English. It's hard to really describe, but imagine reading this sentence using gibberish words--that's kind of what he sounds like. It cracks me up but I sit there and listen as if I actually know what he's saying. I guess all that talking to myself that I do is paying off...for him anyway!

Rereading what I just wrote, I feel obligated to make the following statement:

Before I had a kid, I used to think that I would never be the kind of person who:

• takes a million pictures of their kid and think they are all cute...
• ...then proceed to post all those pictures for others to see
• talk about their kid in every conversation--sometimes being the main topic
• sharing stories like the one I shared above thinking people will be as thrilled as I am
• barely flinches when touching baby poop (a main hazard of cloth diapering)
• dedicating a blog to document this kind of stuff

I guess now that I actually have a kid, I don't really care that I do the above-mentioned things. When I was 21 I never thought I'd ever be the kind of person to enjoy staying in on weekends, but life happens and we adjust (and I enjoy nights in!). I happen to truly love being a mother--a lot. I'd be lying if I said it was great 100% of the time--it's hard work and we all need a break sometimes--but I love it. And I don't care if I start a lot of conversations with stories of Evan. For the last 8 months (or more), he's been most of what has been going on in my life. (Although sometimes I still wish I could just pick up and go to happy hour or run out for a pedi). But mostly, I have fun with him. He's so happy and silly that talking about our day together keeps me in a good mood. When you really, truly want to be a parent, it's much easier to enjoy (or tolerate) what children bring...And call me crazy, but even after baby #1 I am ready for more! How many more? Only time will tell...We're taking it one kid at a time.