17 month milestones

Let's see, Eden is a busy girl these days.  She is finally a full-time walker, and getting a bit steadier on her feet, but still careening out of control a lot of the time.  She is saying a whole lot, but her favorite word is still 'AT!' which can mean just about anything.  She's a cuddler, hugger and kisser...when she wants to be...and can throw one heck of a dramatic tantrum.  Good thing mama's a seasoned ignorer the 3rd time around.  If only I'd been able to do that the first time around :}  I do have to protect her from crashing her head into walls, corners and hard floors as she throws herself down on the floor repeatedly when she's *really* steamed. She is now devoted to climbing, crackers and anything involving her brothers.  Speaking of having two older brothers, another 17 month milestone is noticing during sibling bath time what it is that makes a boy a boy, assuming she must be one too, but failing to find the evidence of it.  Did I say that delicately enough for a blog?  It is quite adorably hilarious.  At first she would land on her belly button, realize it wasn't what she was looking for, and keep on hunting.  Now she's resigned herself to figuring she must have just been looking for her bellybutton.  Luckily the boys have not noticed this whole process, at which point it would have become obnoxious I guarantee, so I imagine her interests will move on in short order and she will someday, at a more timely age, learn what a bellybutton is, and what it isn't :)

Tiling Day

Reuel got the tile down in the new entry room.  He's getting downright good at this!  Only a half-bath left to tile and we hope that will be the last round of it!

Mortar mixers are well worth the rental fee.  We've never gotten one before...oops.

 Owen's end of day concert?  No idea, just snapped a picture.

First piggies

So cute!!  This is going to take some skill-building on the parents' part...

Food faces

Since very early on, Eden had a liking for chili.  Sometimes I would buy Trader Joe's turkey chili in a can and mix it with rice and it was my go-to convenience dinner for Eden around 8 months (?).  She has not lost her taste for chili powder, tomato and beans.  She devoured two bowls of leftover chili from supper last night when she missed out on a get together with Moo, Bunky, Nancy and Ben.  (What a rousing couple of games of Uno we had!)

Owen got to spend some birthday money at the store today and I gave Asher found this for $2.50 and wants to be Batman for Halloween, so mom couldn't resist.  He wore it the entire rest of the day, pretty much.  Batman could use some work on keeping the yogurt in his mouth.

Some moments...

...of life are unforgettable, like when your 3.75 year old comes up to you and asks you to draw a star on his forehead.  Then, he comes back with a roll of duct tape and asks you to rip off two big pieces.  You want to see where this is going, so you do.  He wraps the duct tape around his wrists and declares, "I'm Superwoman!"  (He meant Wonderwoman)

HAHA!!  This is the stuff of future blackmail, right?

Stripes done!!

Well.  That was much more labor intensive than I had predicted!!

Construction Update

Our little project went great guns while hired labor was here...and now...back to the parents-of-three-and-a-day-job pace :}  We are working as hard as we can.  The progress is happening...sometime this summer we'll be move in ready!

Here's looking out from the dining room into the new 'mudroom'.  Just got a call that the tile is in.  Reuel got the backerboard down on Memorial Day so tile is ready to lay!  Then, this room needs outlets, wall paint, lighting and trim.

View into new side entrance.  Needs lighting, nail spackling, and exterior paint!  A stone/block patio leading from the drive to the stairswill probably have to wait til next summer.

Angled view

Standing at mudroom/boys room doorway looking into boys room.  Stripes on the wall are not quite done...more greens and cobalt blues coming.  Doorway on left is half bath, right is closet.  Off the picture to the right is the kitchen entrance, the door of which is now on the floor as you can see.

View back into mudroom.  The two side walls are plain light blue.  The boys loft beds will go on either side of this doorway and have cool robot decals along their bright blue sides.  And a multicolor braided rug will cover the hickory flooring which should come in tomorrow or early next week.

Here, I'm stuck.  We already have the green tile and the white in our possession from past projects.  I like the white a lot (I know the first reaction is White???  Boys bathroom??), but with gray grout I am unafraid of it.  But with white PVC beadboard wainscot (let me tell you, plastic covering on the walls of tight toilet spaces are heavensent as far as cleanup is concerned!), and white sink and toilet, that's a bit too much white.  The fixtures look so much nicer when the white can pop in contrast to a floor with some color.  The green looks like it should be fantastic, but I am confused about whether it matches.  If I'm confused, it probably means it's not ideal and I'm trying to think myself into liking it rather than actually liking it.  The color on the walls is a very bright lime/frog green with a lot of yellow.  The floor tile is distinctly 'aqua'...green-blue.  However, the room is green and blue.  It's confusing to me whether it is a clash or not.  It doesn't look quite right.  Opinions?  My current 1st-place is this inexpensive orange-y tile that I brought home last night and which I am going to lie in a diamond pattern with 2x2 small bright blue accent tiles at the junctions of the diamonds.  That seems bright and I like the orange/blue combo.  The orange is really a very neutral tile also, which is nice.  Hmm.  Small decisions become too big sometimes ;)  I was just hoping to use what we already had, but the orange tile is very inexpensive, so no biggie.

40s weather here last week and 90s this week.  Wow!  The kids are playing in the kiddie pool and I put in the window units last night!  Can you believe it Nunu, after the freezing we gave you last week?