TGIF!!!

Spring time in Wisconsin....

Okay, I cheated- this is from a couple months ago, but it could have been from now- it just snowed again last night!!!

Whoa, as usual it's been quite a week- where did it go?!?! The first floor tiling continues- we are almost 2/3 done with laying the actual tile- I think that has been 3.5 full 8-10 hour days of 1-2 people! Mostly DH, but I've been doing a lot of the cuts for him. I am very impressed with the wide range of power tools I now have in my repertoire - various tile saws, angle grinder (that one is kind of scary!), skil saw, cordless drills (of course), air-gun stapler thing... and there have been a few others over the years. Lily has even gained a few home improvement skills in her 18 months of life experience- the other night she grabbed the mortar spreader- the one with the square teeth and started to "spread" it across the floor like we do. She knew just where to use it! That provided 10 minutes of entertainment for the whole family! It's not like she can hurt the concrete subfloor!

This is the tile to date. There is a whole other room around to the right that is done that you can't see here.


The bathroom "nightmare vanity" that I mentioned in the last post. I am very happy with the final result though. Oh- the ugly light fixtures will be replaced in the next couple years - but for $10, these fit in the budget and serve their purpose.

Of course, there are always dangers around every corner at home- especially when remodeling. Did the angle grinder get away from me or was this from changing a diaper?

Oh yes, this would be from changing a diaper!!! It's not very deep, but just abrasive enough that it has had that constant burning/stinging sensation for the last 3 days! Lily fights the diaper changes when laid on the changing table and rather that have the world come to a screeching halt if I took her away from her new shopping cart (see below) I decided to change her standing up. This actually works just fine most of the time, except this time she lost her balance and I caught her before she fell into the corner of the dresser... with my arm!!! I suppose it's much better it was my arm versus her side- she'd still be screaming! It really, really hurt!


This is Lily with her new shopping cart. WW3 ensues every time we have to separate her from it. So I have Chad or the dogs distract her in another room so I can hide it in a closet!

For those of you that don't know, my dear little angel is having eating/feeding issues. Mainly- she doesn't. She looks "slight" as the nurse puts it, but maintains 95-100th percentile in both height and weight - she packs 24 pounds into that little body somewhere! However, she pretty much exists on yogurt and cold cereal right now. I give her baby food just so she gets the nutrients from a variety of foods. Her "pickiness" began 6-8 months ago and has continually gotten worse and in the last 4-5 months has regressed. She now refuses foods that she ate readily at 10-12 months old. The newest refusal is banana- she loves to say the word, but won't touch them anymore. And this isn't just pickiness, she will flat out not eat for two days - and they I have to deal with super cranky, whiney, hungry baby that still refuses most food. The daycare is also at a complete loss. So, this morning a coordinator from the Birth to 3 program came to our house for the initial paperwork session to make sure we qualify, etc. It was supposed to last about 1.5 hours- she was here almost 3! And Lily isn't even here! There was that much paperwork, and I hadn't recived one of the packs in the mail, which would have cut out almost an hour (I'm sure it'll show up today...), but since I was her only appt today, I think she was extra chatty. And you all know I can talk! The next step will be to have a Speech/Language Pathologist evaluated her to make sure she does have the oral sensory/ texture aversions that are suspected. From there, they set up a plan for therapy. Apparently there are many things that can be done to remedy these oral sensory issues - that work for most children. (Seriously, what did parents ever do before all these fancy terms and therapy programs?!?!) :P (that was dripping with sarcasm by the way....) Although I think we over diagnose ourselves and our children with all sorts of disorders and ailments, I'm definitely willing to give this a shot, to see if it will help. My Mom keeps assuring me that Lily will not go to kindergarten eating baby food, but there are days I'm not so sure!

In addition to all this, my brother is getting married in 4 weeks. Two weeks ago we had the wedding shower for 50 people! I had to post the picture of all the gifts- CRAZY!!! That is sooo nice for them!


For all the men reading this, the picture of the "toilet paper brides" will give you a small glimpse into the stupid games we play at these showers. Out of the 6 "models", Angie had to pick the best bride made out of toilet paper and various accessories/trinkets.



This last one is my little "boho" daughter enjoying the party. Actually, she was very entertained by the cups of ice cubes and the cup holders on the tops of the coolers!