Dunking

Recently, Sly has learned the fine art of dunking.  He loves to dip his fries in ketchup, crackers into hummus, animal crackers into milk.  He thinks it's great fun to do, and yells when I don't give him his own little cup of sauce, etc. the dip into.

Today I was at the computer checking mail, and Sly was wandering around the second floor.  I hadn't seen him for a little while, and then I started to hear a splashing sound.  THE TOILET!  I ran into the bathroom to find him dunking a plastic toy doughnut into the water.  And yes...Yes.  He was then sucking on it.

Needless to say, he got scrubbed down, and I made him drink a bunch of water to try to dilute any bleach (we have one of those blue 1000 Flushes tablets) he might have ingested. 

Our House Tour Part 4: The Kitchen

This is probably my favorite room in the house.  I spend the most of my waking hours there making meals, cleaning up after meals...It looks pretty similar to my old kitchen, since it's about the same generous size, and has most of the same decor.  But this house has much more attractive white cabinets and countertops, a fresh new marble-look floor, and I made some awesome curtains for the window.

As always, I apologize for the terrible quality of these photos.  I. hate. my. camera.

Looking in from the hall.  You can see my aqua and yellow theme.

A brand new stove!  We have all our pretty glassware up on the shelf.  The decorative plate (which is usually NOT my style) over the coffee maker says "Coffee maketh BRIGHT the spirit" - hehe, so true.

I way reduced the amount of magnets and "stuff" on the fridge because it looked so cluttered before...still too cluttered for my liking.  And the top of the fridge looks pretty bad as well.  I think I need to invest in a few more canvas bins like Caitlin!

This huge ugly metal behemoth is a total eyesore, but oh-so-crucial!  The new place just didn't have any pantry space, so we had to pick something up from good old Craigslist.

It's like my own little grocery store!  I know it doesn't look like it, but it's actually organized.

This is sorta the utility corner.  The chalkboard has our meals for the week (which I've finally resumed), and To Do list.  The broom and dustpan are out of Sly's grasp, the recycling bag is up a hook, the calendar...and off course, the cookbooks and the booze on the tabletop.  We used to store stuff under this console table at the old place (espresso maker, rice steamer, etc.), but Sly pulled them out ALL THE TIME.  So we got smart and just left it empty this time around.  It's sorta a waste of potential storage space.  But Sly loves to use it as a little seat, which is cute.

After months of searching for an affordable and appropriately-sized yellow tablecloth, I just decided to make one.  Why didn't I think of that earlier?  It's covered with clear plastic, which means I can just wipe it down and never need to wash it!  So awesome.

The back corner with some pretty stuff, and Sly's highchair, when not in use.

Teacups!

My retro-fabulous curtains.  The sheers (which are obscured by the light streaming in) are a pale yellow.  I used the excess material from those to make the tie-backs.  I think it looks great when the ties contrast with the curtains, instead of being made from the same fabric.

A close-up of one of the antique Ball jars.

My too-many aprons, and one of the pretty flower prints.

The cabinets, sink, etc.

My love&marriage towels, on a clothesline.

A perfect spot for our side-opening trash can!  This isn't completely baby-proof, but pretty good.

Just another view

Sly's up to some kind of trouble.

Baby Kisses

Sly loves to give kisses.  He kisses Mommy and Daddy all the time.  And his kisses are pretty funny.  He comes at you with a wide-open mouth, and makes a sound like, "aaah". Also, when he's not smacking him and pulling his fur, he can be very sweet with our cat Lance (the one one who lets Sly near him).  He snuggles into his fur and gives him kisses.  He also kisses the statue of Mary in the front hall (I only showed him that one time, and now he does it all the time!), and the picture of baby Jesus in his bedroom.  And he also kisses his reflection whenever he looks in a mirror.  SO CUTE.  He's very affectionate sometimes, or as Tom says, "mushy."

Earlier this evening, the three of us were sitting together on the couch.  Sly spontaneously gave each of us a kiss.  Then Tom and I leaned over and kissed one another too.  Though Sly has seen us kiss dozens of times, he somehow thought that this time was hilarious.  Laughing, he grabbed Tom by the ear, and me by my hair (ow!), and jerked our faces together to make us kiss again.  So we kissed, and Sly started laughing even harder.  He then made us kiss this way over and over, cracking up the whole time.

It sounded something like this: "Ow!" (Tom and I yelling as we got yanked by the hair, the ear, or  - a few times for me - the earring)... "mmwah!" (making a silly kissing noise)...and then laughter from all three of us.

It was a very sweet little moment :-)

Our House Tour Part 3: The Office

I mentioned that our new place has two extra bedrooms.  After first signing the lease, we had toyed with the idea of turning one into a library, and the second into a cozy family room.  After visiting the house again, though, we realized that the logistics for the living room idea just weren't going to work out.  We ended up turning that room into an office/"Christine's work room" (Tom's workroom is pretty much the entire basement - with the exception of my nice carpeted little laundry section -  where he keeps all his dirty tools, and grease-covered man stuff).

I took these pictures in the late afternoon when the light was dim, AND I think Sly had been playing with my camera and smudged the lens again.  So the quality of the photos is pretty poor.  But I didn't feel like re-taking them all.  Sorry, folks.  Here they are anyways...

Check out that beautiful hammered tin ceiling!  It's painted white, which means a lot of people don't notice it right away.  But it's still beautiful.  So glad this has been left in the house all these years.

I rescued these wooden shutters from the trash pile at our cottage.  They used to adorn all the windows there, but several years ago, we replaced them.  These ones had a lot of sentimental value for me, though.  So I spent hours cutting them shorter, sanding them to perfection, and painting them a shade of blue that *almost* matches the original color.  Also notice how my ironing board is conveniently ALWAYS OUT which means that now I do much more ironing!

A craft cabinet!  Papers, paints, crayons, ribbons, flower-pressing implements, jewelry-making stuff, my wax egg materials...and my knitting stuff all in a crate on top.

In one corner, I have three laundry baskets.  One is for clothes that need to be ironed, one for things needing to be mended, and the other for things needing to go to the dry cleaner.  This is so much better than my old system where all these things ended up in one basket, and then I had no idea what was what!

My own sewing desk!  This has proved invaluable, as I've been having to make so many curtains and other things recently.  And the drawers are great to stash all my materials.  The pretty chair came from Goodwill for $7.

Computer desk back in the corner, and some plastic shelving for all our office-type stuff.

We also keep the changing table here, since we wanted it on the second floor.  Notice that huge expanse of open white wall?  Very boring.  Tom and I have some crafty ideas for decorating it, though.  Maybe in time, I will have a nice project to share on here.

The closet stores board games, puzzles, and...my fancy dresses :-)

Update on Using Cloth Wipes

I mentioned about a week ago that we were about to (finally!) start using cloth wipes.  I can't say why we didn't just do that in the first place.  We were given a lot of disposable wipes as gifts at the baby shower.  I guess we just got used to how easy those were, and were intimidated about using cloth ones.  Turns out, it's really no big deal at all.  I still use disposable ones in the diaper bag.  But at home, we're cloth wipes only now (I had to hide the box of disposable ones, so we weren't tempted to use it.  Those are *marginally* easier, and we are lazy).

The wipes:
We already owned twelve flannel bumGenius wipes (purchased before Sly was born, and never used).  They are a good size, and seem pretty durable.  But at almost $1 per wipe, a little expensive [but really...when you think about how many times you'd use them, especially if you have multiple children, I guess they're actually pretty cheap].  It so happened that Tom was throwing out an old thermal waffle-weave shirt (you know, the long-john style).  So I cut it up into little squares and got about twenty-five more wipes for free!  I didn't even have to hem them.  They've gone through a couple washes already, and are still doing fine - no fraying. 

The wipe solution:
 I have seen various recipes for make-your-own wipe solution (usually a mixture of water, baby shampoo, and some sort of oil), but was always wary of using them.  The biggest thing drilled into your head when you're using cloth diapers is that you canNOT use regular detergents to wash them, or put any baby products (Desitin, oils, etc.) on their bums, because these things would get into the pores of the cloth diapers, clogging them up and lessening their absorbency!  So I figured that washing a bunch of wipes covered in soap and oil in the same load as the diapers would be terrible, right?  Well, I laid out my problem to Adam from the cloth diaper store (Happy Baby Company), and he insisted that the very low concentration of those things wouldn't make a difference. 

He even sent me home with some free samples of honey chunks. 

 They are little squares of concentrated - and supposedly cloth-diaper-safe - solution that you dissolve in water to make the solution.  I do like them, but to save money, I'll probably just do the a homemade water/baby shampoo solution once they run out.

And some people, of course, just use plain old water.

Use:
I bought a dollar store squirt bottle to hold the solution.  Before I wipe Sly, I just spray the wipe a few times to get it slightly moist.  A little goes a long way.  The cloth wipes are able to clean up much more than disposable ones.  Huge "messes" that might have needed five or six disposable wipes can be cleaned up with just one cloth.  When I'm done, I just throw the wipe in the bin, to be washed along with the rest of the diapers.  Pretty much no extra work at all!

Babies

I have FULL ON baby lust right now.  We've felt "ready" for another one since Sly was about four months old.  Now he's fifteen months.  I'm trying very hard not to feel jealous of the seemingly dozens of women I know who are pregnant.  It was very hard last week to discover that I am not pregnant, as we had been hoping.

Please pray for us.

Our House Tour Part 2: Sly's Room

Next stop on the tour is Sly's room, since - again - it was one of the first rooms to get fully set-up.  It's also one of my favorite rooms in the house.  Huge, cozy, and a great place to hang out with my son :-)

Sly's room is entered through a door in our bedroom.  Love the rosettes in the woodwork!

Remember this scratch-off paper from art class as a kid?

For a one-year-old, this little boy has a palatial bedroom.

I mean, he has a freaking sandbox in his room. (it's because my mom insisted on giving it to him as an Easter gift.  And then we moved to a house with no yard.)  Now it's a toy box!)

You can see the curtains I made in the background.  I decided to make them thin, with not much drape in the width because 1. It cost half as much to make them that way!! and 2. they are semi-sheer, so plenty of light comes in even when they're closed all the time.

Cute little table and chairs from IKEA - only $20.

A little reading corner, a basket of blankets, and Starry Night.

This bookshelf was Tom's when he was little.  Now it holds Sly's board books (the books with paper pages are kept elsewhere, so he can't rip them). 

A close-up of the curtains.  A cute button print (good for boys or girls!).  It came from the quilting fabric section of JoAnn's.

Anything in the room with planes used to belong to Tom when he was little.  He used to be obsessed with them, and I think he aims to make Sly the same way.  This picture is a good example of my attempt to mix "baby" decor with "big boy" decor.  So we have pastels and primary colors mingling together around the room.  But I think it looks okay...right?

Cool metal planes on the wall.  And a slide (also purchased by my mom).  Seriously - being an only child has major perks ;-)

Sly's crib with a Peter Rabbit tapestry above.  And that cool globe has a nightlight inside.

60's vintage shelf (look at those splayed-out legs!) to store some toys.

Cute "Sly" train Tom's parents bought on their recent anniversary trip to Florence.

And that's it!