10 things.

01.  trying to work on a house with a baby while there's nothing in the house is virtually impossible.  

charlie and i spent all weekend either at the house or running to various home improvement stores.  there's nothing currently in the house but i was hoping to clean a few things, get the rooms ready to be painted, and charlie's mainly focused on the outside.  it is literally impossible to get much of anything done.  also i fed my daughter more times in the car this weekend than i did anywhere else.  and the only places she's napped are in her carseat or in the ergo carrier because we haven't been home for her to nap anywhere else.  on the plus side it rained a lot today and the grass is looking less brown than it was a few days ago.

02.  i caved and bought a jumparoo.  

avery wants to be sitting or standing at all times now which is sort of hard to do when i'm working all day.  i've been debating about getting one because before the baby i was all 'i refuse to live in a house of plastic toys'.  but i needed somewhere else for her to play during the day.  it took me about an hour to assemble but once it was put together i let her test it out.  although she's still a bit small for it (yes, that's a box she's 'standing' on) she liked it a lot.  i'm hoping this lasts.

03.  henry loves his backyard.

we've been bringing the dogs with us to the house and just as i suspected henry loves having a yard and dunkin could care less.  henry's spent hours out there by himself hunting for rabbits and birds and dunkin spends hours glued to our side.  typical.

04.  charlie is in telluride right now.

i'm beyond jealous.  he sent me this picture once he got there.  

05.  we're planning a trip to hawaii next year.

a free trip.  after buying things like ladders and paint we don't exactly have a lot of money left over for tickets to hawaii but we're going to cash in charlie's credit card rewards which should get us two tickets to the island and 7 days at a martiott.  since we haven't had a real vacation since we came out to colorado on my spring break 4 years ago, and even then we spent half the time looking at apartments, we're both pretty excited about it.  we wanted to go before avery turns two and we'll be stuck buying her a plane ticket.

06.  we took henry to home depot on saturday.

he kept trying to eat the fertilizer in the gardening section.  

07.  avery loves playing in her crib.

she totally cracks me up because she loves to stand and scream.

08.  i finally started cloth diapering on a regular basis.

i'm sort of mad at myself that it took me this long because it is super easy and i love it.  i also love all the money we're going to save from not buying disposables.  basically, the money spent on cloth diapers is equal to the money we spent per month on disposables.  and we can use the cloth ones for years and for multiple kids.  crazy.

09.  the moby wrap saved me last week.

i used this all the time when avery was just a little thing but i'm loving it even more now when i'm working.  sometimes she just wants to be close to me and this makes her happy and lets me get things done.  she also loves to nap in here.

10.  this sweatshirt has been a lifesaver.

it's pretty much the only warm thing i have that fits her right now.  plus she looks adorable in it.  

a post that's not about my daughter.

surprised?  shocked?  me too. 

i mentioned we closed on the house on monday but between charlie being gone, work, and that girl named avery, today was the first day that we made it over to the house.  we were meeting some people in the morning for estimates but we were also trying to figure out exactly what we needed to get done before we moved in.  now if you want the short version, there's a lot to do.  if you want the long version, keep reading.  

so things that we need to get done prior to moving in:  

1.  repainting: the master bedroom, avery's room, the half bath, full bath upstairs, and preferably the entire first level.  basically, the entire house except for the basement and the third bedroom. both really need to be repainted but since we're not immediately using those rooms i figure we can get to it eventually.  

2.  replacing the floors: the carpets are gross.  really gross.  we're hoping to do hardwood on the first floor because it's so much cleaner and then just replace the carpet in the bedrooms.  unfortunately i realized after looking at carpet that the carpet i like is the most expensive.  go figure.  

3.  installing a radon mitigation system:  the radon levels in the house was 0.6 picocuries above the action level, which is practically nothing.  the good news is that with levels that low after installing a mitigation system the levels in the house should be at or below outdoor levels.  and we're also installing a radon barrier.  people think we're a little crazy. 

charlie is currently obsessed with the outside of the house, which while it definitely needs a lot of work i'm more worried about getting the inside ready to move in and somehow getting all of our stuff a mile up the road.  

i'm sure our neighbors already think we're crazy because this is what they saw today.  we showed up at the house in the morning with a dog and a baby.  the second i let henry out of the car he spotted a rabbit three houses down and took off after it.  already we're the neighbors with the bad dog.  i got him back and stuck him in the yard where he whined.  after a bit we left and went to home depot and came back with  carload of random things.  so clearly we're the people who have never had a house before.  one of the things i wanted to do (eventually) was cut down some of the shrubs in front of the house.  we got some clippers at home depot and started to cut the bushes down.  after about 3 minutes they broke.  charlie spent the next 30 minutes sitting on our front porch trying to fix them.  with a hammer.  we finally left.  charlie returned the clippers at home depot and we went to lowes to buy paint and a lawnmower.  charlie came back with more clippers.  cut one of the 3 shrubs down from about 5 feet to about 2 feet. and then left.  

we met our neighbors that live next to us who seem nice.  the guy came over and introduced himself and we talked for a bit.  henry of course was quite excited to see another person and at one point i thought he said to henry 'i must smell like parrot'.  i figured it was an expression.  then later we were attempting to figure out the sprinkler system which meant that charlie, avery, henry, and i were all crowded around behind some bushes and our neighbor walked out to grab the mail, with a parrot perched on his shoulder. well henry looked up and his eyes lit up like a kid on christmas morning.  a bird!  so close!  luckily i grabbed his collar, but then our neighbor looked up and saw us and henry and said 'oh, i'll put the bird back in the house'.  very odd.  we're lucky our first meeting didn't end with henry eating his bird.  

now for some 'before' pictures of this house.  they're pretty terrible because they were taken with my phone while i was holding an avery.  

there are three shrubs in front of the house.  

the right one is now about 2 feet tall.  the rest have yet to be chopped.

the living room.
it is tiny, really tiny.  like 13 x 13.
the curtains must go and we're hoping to have hardwood in this room.  and brighter paint.

family room. 

hoping to put hardwood in here as well.  

kitchen.

not a huge fan of the backsplash but whatever.  the sellers left the island which was nice since we were planning on getting one anyway.

the half bath.
this is a half bath/laundary room.
we're repainting this a green/yellow.  grellow.

backyard.  

dead grass, weeds, and overgrown bushes.

charlie pulled the weeds.

half of the bath upstairs.

brown was not a good color in here.

part of the master retreat.
the sellers used this as a closet.  we're going to use it as our office.
we need to take the shelves down before we paint.  i'm not a huge fan  of the orange/yellow in here.

master bedroom and a henry.

same color as the retreat. 

avery's room.

the sellers had a son a few months older than ave.  they were moving back to st. louis to be close to their family.  

it's the little things ...

this picture cracks me up.

...  watching new girl with charlie while drinking a beer.  a beer!

... putting avery to bed at 7:30 means 2 hours with just my husband.

...  corona lights.  makes me think of manassas.

...  a baby who was pretty much perfect during an almost-three-hour closing.

...  avery's toes.

...  sleeping in on saturday.

...  running into charlie at the end of his run on our walk and then walking home together.

...  watching henry roll around in the grass.

...  baby laughs.

...  ice cream.

...  taking a nap with the baby.

...  rain.

...  cuddling with a clean baby.

...  showering at night.

...  when conference calls get cancelled.

...  grilling season = no cooking!

...  a 'free' kitchen island in our new house.

...  a baby who naps.

...  when charlie takes the recycling out.

...  a baby who likes running errands.

...  the ergo carrier.

...  watching henry play with a new toy.

...  when charlie makes the coffee.

...  fresh pineapple.

...  pink lady apples.

...  picking out paint colors.

...  a healthy, growing baby.

happy birthday to my favorite mother.  

i wish charlie and avery and i were there to watch you blow out your candles but since we can't, we'll be thinking of you all day instead.  love you.

a week without charlie.

charlie's been gone this week which means we've been missing him like crazy over here.  

it also means that we've been listening to van morrison every night before bedtime and taking lots of pictures to send to charlie.  

avery's been so good lately.  she's just an all around happy kid. and cracks her up on a daily basis for usually no reason at all.  although i'm definitely missing charlie and all the grilling he does, i've been getting some work done, going for walks every day, and playing with avery every chance i get.

she finally rolled from her stomach to her back and now can roll herself pretty much anywhere she wants.
so we're surviving on our own but are looking forward to friday when we're a family of three again!

"now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."

-guillaume apollinaire.

avery and ollie.

ollie tolerating the love.


getting annoyed.


and he's gone.


avery's newest obsession along with her feet and laughing like a hyena, is ollie.

she loves this cat.  like seriously loves him.  and apparently she didn't get the memo about not playing favorites because she's not subtle at all about the fact that he's her favorite animal.

i have to say, i'm a little offended on henry's behalf.  kidding.  but he's still my favorite.  

this cat gets more smiles than i do and i'd be annoyed if it wasn't so cute.  i really think she likes him the best right now because he's the loudest and most obnoxious of all the animals.  first thing in the morning the cat's purring ridiculously loud in everyone's face and not because he likes us but because he wants us to get up and feed him.  and once he realizes the purring is ineffective he resorts to meowing.  over and over and over.  charlie and i hate it but avery loves it.  as soon as she sees that cat in the morning she breaks out in a huge grin.  the louder he is the happier she is.  he doesn't exactly reciprocate the love.  although he'll plop down right on top of her it's not because he wants to snuggle it's because usually she's either right next to or on top of me.  but she could care less because the only thing better than a purring cat in her face is a cat on her lap where she can grab and rip out handfuls of his fur.  i guess it's easy to see why he's not all about her yet and continues to shoot her dirty looks until he's had enough and finally leaves.