A refinishing job 3 years in the making.

When Chris and I first got married and bought our house I made the ‘new homeowner’ mistake of beginning about 50 projects simultaneously. Some projects were a necessity to us actually being able to live and function in the house {like fixing up a table so we didn’t have to eat on the floor and painting over the blood red walls in the kitchen – if you saw the walls, you’d realize it was a necessity}, other projects were just my creative genius getting away from me. The chair in our office was one of the latter. I had taken it apart before really knowing what I wanted to do with it. It sat in a dilapidated state in our garage for almost 3 years until this past week as I was getting our house ready for our resource parenting home study.

I wish I had a ‘before’ photo of the chair because it’s always very satisfying to compare with the ‘after’ photos. This chair is one that my mother re-covered to match my room when I was younger, and I’m sure she salvaged it from the thrift store. It took quite a bit of muscle to peel away the 5 layers of fabric/pleather stapled to the seat over the years.

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My apologies for the blurry photos, but here are some of the previous coverings.
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The fabric I chose is some of my favorite. I actually purchased it before Chris and I even closed on the house. I came across it at the fabric store, fell in love, and bought every yard and scrap they had. I am very selective with which projects I use it on. It’s currently on our kitchen chairs as well. I also added additional padding to the chair – a necessity since the previous padding was practically nonexistent {or so old it had been squashed into nothingness from the weight of 10 previous owners}.

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The chair itself was originally white but was very easy to spray paint a pretty teal color {it looks blue in the photos because of the poor quality of the pics but really has more of a teal/green tone to it}. I honestly don’t remember the name … ‘sea’ something and I don’t care enough to go digging in my trash to recover the canister, but if you want to know I’m sure I can find it online! image-62

I am loving the finished product and am so glad this space is starting to come together.

Did you miss me?

I’ve been a little preoccupied. Now, I don’t expect you all to sit at your computer patiently waiting for the next post on this humble blog to pop up in your newsfeed or in your inbox. So I don’t expect you to have noticed that I haven’t even posted Charlotte’s 10 month photos/update. Actually, I haven’t even taken her 10 month photos. Weeping. I’m weeping at the thought of that. It has definitely become much harder to take her photos as the months progress, and the arrival of summer has packed our schedule full of activities way more important than mini photo shoots and blogging:

  • I have been picking up a few extra days of patients at work now that my sister is home for the summer and is able to watch Charlotte. She loves spending time with her Aunt Mel and cousins.
  • Charlotte and I have also been enjoying play-dates at the aquarium, park, and the good ‘ol baby pool in the backyard.
  • Chris and I finished our resource parent {foster parent} and adoption training through the city of Virginia Beach and are now in the process of completing our home study. The process is very extensive {as I think it should be}. We met with our case worker 2 weeks ago to fill out paperwork {background checks, DMV records, and the like}. We also had to answer questionnaires and decide on the ‘parameters’ we feel comfortable accepting {for us, we only placed limits on age – birth to 3} , any race or gender is welcome in our home! Eventually we will expand the age, but our current room/bed/toy situation is perfect for a younger kiddo in need of a safe place. We went to DHS to be fingerprinted last week and met with our caseworker again to provide an extensive history {our family history, relationships, work history, education, parenting style, support systems, etc} and this week our case worker is coming by for a preliminary home inspection. Once our home study is complete our application will be put before a board for review and approval. Once we are approved we will be ready to have another kiddo in our home. It could be that same day we are approved, it could be in a week, it could be months… we will just wait.
  • I have also been planning Charlotte’s first birthday party. Talk about emotional. I probably should have done way more at this point (with a little over a month to go), but I have been in severe denial.

Stay tuned for Charlotte’s 10 month update later this week. I am PROMISING right here in written word so I had better deliver.

 

Real Life Parenting: vomit.

Sick babies are never fun. Charlotte is very healthy, and for that we are truly blessed. Today she succumbed to her 3rd illness though (the first being a head cold at 7 months and the second being a high fever from some sort of virus at 9 months). The really sad part about this time is that I didn’t even know she was sick! One moment we were playing by the pool, the next she had thrown up and was feverish. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and as I look back on the course of the day it seems completely obvious that she was sick.

My first clue should have been the surprise waiting for me in Charlotte’s crib when I went to get her this morning:

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No that isn’t blood. It’s blueberries from her dinner last night. She must have thrown up at some point in the night. I feel awful that she slept in yucky blueberry regurgitation, but she never woke up or cried so I had no idea! I thought that it was the blueberries that upset her tummy so I didn’t think much of it. Also I’m sure Charlotte will thank me for posting this lovely photo of her ‘bed head’ and blueberry ‘schmear art’ in 15 years.

I got Charlotte cleaned up and started the sheets soaking {I’m fairly certain they will never come clean but I’m willing to give it the ‘ol college try…. not that I would have ever spent this much time cleaning something in college. I most likely would have just thrown it away}. After nursing for a bit after waking up she actually vomited again! I know, I know… any sane person {parenting experience or not} would have figured out that something was wrong.  I thought it was because she drank too fast and choked, which is something she used to do when she was much younger. I just assumed her tummy couldn’t handle the amount she drank.  After that she ate a great breakfast and was her usual giggly and playful self so I wasn’t worried.

We visited my office for lunch and Charlotte socialized with all her loves there and was on her best behavior.

After that we met up with some buddies for a spashy play date.

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Charlotte wasn’t in love with the cold water, but she loved watching her buddies play.

After a little while though I could tell she was beginning to not feel well and then she threw up again after nursing!

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I am so sad it took me that long to realize I had a sick kiddo on my hands. I’m trying not to beat myself up about it. She was just as playful as usual until the afternoon when her fever spiked. Poor baby. image-57

For a kiddo battling a tummy virus, though, she certainly had a very successful day: Standing unassisted for the first time and SO proud of herself.

Does that look sick to you?!

 

Real life parenting: multiplying dishes

I just did a weeks worth of dishes. Not even kidding. Bottles, bowls, coffee cups, almost every pan we own…The only counter space in our kitchen not covered by dirty dishes was in front of the microwave and Keurig {priorities}. Granted, we have minimal counter space to begin with so it gets covered quickly, but there really was no excuse for the filth… I just didn’t want to do dishes. There’s something about washing bottles that I really despise. Thank goodness we go through minimal bottle paraphernalia because I breastfeed {nursing, for the win}!

Also {apparently I drank truth serum tonight} my husband told me yesterday that he would do the dishes because ‘I don’t want you to hate me’.
Yikes.
Me: ‘I won’t hate you’
Him: ‘well, I don’t want you to be mad at me’
Me: ‘I won’t be mad at you’
Him: ‘well, I don’t want you to have disdain for me’
Me: ‘ok’

It seems I have a pretty bad habit of being grumpy towards him when I have to do the dishes. I H.A.T.E. doing the dishes. Wrinkly fingers, dry skin, the bits of food circling the drain… Gah, just typing that gave me a full body shiver.
Nevertheless, it makes me feel awful to think that my husband would do something just so I wouldn’t be grumpy towards him, and especially for something that i have no grounds to be grumpy about. I definitely need to work on my servant’s attitude. I started tonight by washing with a smile on my face.

Also, since we are already confessing, I’ll offer full disclosure: after I finished washing everything and cleaning the counters I rewarded my ‘awesome housekeeping’ with a giant bowl of icecream {and a few spoonfulls straight from the carton}.