Rough Day

We've had a rough day at Casa McHughes . . . Bree, being the daredevil that she is, outdid herself today. The marks around her eyes are actually carpet burns from tumbling down the steps. Luckily, I caught her as she was tumbling, so she never actually hit the bottom, but did scrape her eye on the way down.


The mark above the carpet burns is from her falling on to a toy. We've had a lot of tears around here today, a lot of frustration, and a lot of runny noses and coughing. (Those last two were from me - Bree seems to be feeling better.) Now if only I could get rid of all this pressure in my head . . . I'd be feeling better, too!



I can only hope that the worst of the marks & bruises have faded by the time I take Bree to daycare on Monday morning. I mean, they witness her daredevilish ways every day, but somehow they manage to keep her from making a mess of her face - unlike her mother!


Let's hope that tomorrow goes better for both of us.

Bree Meets Santa

Santa & Bree

Bree wasn't quite sure what to make of Santa - she couldn't be enticed to make an early entrance last year, and she didn't seem all impressed by him this year. Maybe once she realizes that he'll bring her all sorts of presents, she'll change her tune. But for now, she's proceeding with caution.

We've all been under the weather here - a cold with a lingering cough. Bree's just about over it, I think Scott & I have about two more days of it. Good thing I've got a four day weekend! Too bad that I'm spending it being sick!

Breaking the 15 Pound Mark!

The result of Friday's weight check:


15 pounds, 3 ounces


25 inches long



Yay! The doctors are now convinced that Bree is growing, so I don't have to take her in every 6 weeks. Whew! But at this appointment, the doctor kind of let me know what she had been concerned about - saying things like, "well, I don't think she has dwarfism" and "if she were disproportionate I would recommend a bone age test" and "I don't think she needs to see an endocrinologist."



Wow.


I'm glad that I didn't realize that's what they were concerned about. You know, her pediatricians in Maryland saw her since birth, and they weren't concerned about her growth - they knew she was just small. And she's still small, and she'll likely always be small. But now at least this pediatrician believes it. Bree is in the 3rd percentile for height & weight, but her growth curve does show proportionate growth. The most important thing for me is being done with the six week weigh-ins. Bree's 12 month check-up will be in about another six weeks if you can believe that. I know I can't!


Thanksgiving will be a quiet day here. I just found out today that I don't have to work the day after Thanksgiving, so it will be wonderful to have a four-day weekend! Bree is developing a cough, so it will be good to have her at home for four days. I can get her to take naps at home, because there aren't any other kids here, and quite frankly, we have less interesting toys. (But I'm TOTALLY fine with that.) So she doesn't feel like she's missing out on as much when she naps at home. And the rest will do her good.


Update on the choppers:

5 teeth total: 2 bottom (old news), one top & canine (old news) and the other top center tooth. That one just broke through yesterday - finally. She's been having a tough time lately with all the teething.


AND the walking. She's starting to walk more than she crawls, but she gets frustrated. So everything annoys her at some point in the evening. That's when she goes to bed! (For the first time.) Ha!


Okay, my camera is still broke - forget about the cord, now I can't get it to open. I think it's bitten the dust. This means that I may or may not be able to show you pictures from Halloween. Bree was a flower, but the "petals" also bear an uncanny resemblance to an American Indian headress, so I guess she could be either. The costume was actually a fleece outfit that zipped like footed pyjamas, with the "petals" on the hood. If I can get a picture out of the camera, you know I'll post it.


Bree loved passing out the candy to the "big kids." In fact, even when the kids went to other houses, we had to sit outside and watch them. She did NOT want to go inside. She was more curious about the process than she was in the costumes on the kids. I could just see her mind working: "So, these kids walk up, hand out their bag, and my mom puts candy in their bags. Then they leave. Interesting." I think that Scott will go around with her next year.


And that's about it for now. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and safe travels to those of you who are traveling.

Baby Steps

So, an update on Bree. She has taken her first steps and is on her way to walking. I am SO NOT READY for this.


On the other hand, she's still eating paper. LOTS of it.

The only way I'm giving up this paper is when I'm asleep!

Proof that she doesn't always have a piece of paper hanging out of her mouth.

But really? More often than not, she's got a piece of paper either in her hands or in her mouth.

Bree has a total of four teeth so far - 2 on top & 2 on the bottom. We have a "weight check" on Friday. That makes her sound like a wrestler before a big match, huh? I'm hopeful that she's gained weight and that she's close to 15 pounds. We'll see.


Bree won't let us spoon feed her anymore - she has to feed herself. Which is great, because she eats what we eat. In fact, she wouldn't have it any other way. It's messy - especially when we have lasagna - but she's feeling so proud of herself. As I was telling someone the other day, she thinks she's a seven-year-old trapped in the body of a 10-month-old.


In other news, we're still getting settled in the new place. I was very pleasantly surprised to come home from work one night this week only to find that Scott had painted the living room & hallway with the paint I picked up on Monday. (Healing Aloe by Benjamin Moore) Such a wonderful surprise. Naturally, he did a fantastic job.


More to come later!

Pictures of Our Home, Round 2

I'm back! With the last remaining pictures. Again, these were taken before we purchased the home, so the furnishings belong to the former owner.

So this is a picture of the living room. And this photo doesn't do that wall justice. The wall with the "whale tail" picture (which, incidentally, is what they also call it when a lady's thong is showing due to low-rise pants. So I giggle to myself whenever I see that "whale tail" picture. Yeah, I'm still twelve in a lot of ways. Juvenile humor is one of them.) That wall, is texturized in a very cool way, and the wall is actually a milk chocolate color. Even though the rest of the room will be painted green (I'm leaning towards Benjamin Moore's "healing aloe") I think I'm going to leave that back wall "as is" and see how it all goes together. My couch & leather chair look great in this room. The only drawback to this room, and I have not included this photo, is the cheesy gas fireplace that is awkwardly placed in the room. We're going to keep the fireplace for the master bedroom, because when used in the right setting, we both think that this would be really nice. BUT, given that we have floor vents, and given the available wall space, this fireplace is in an odd place in the room. As a result, our living room furniture doens't all fit right now. Once we get the fireplace out, we'll have a much better configuration.

One of the most unique features of this house is this ceiling. It's not a panel that's stapled to the ceiling, this is actual design work done in plaster. We've not seen anything like this in a ranch house. We always get comments on it when people see it - the movers liked it, the cable guy thought it was cool, but best of all - Bree is fascinated by it. And the design continues down the hallway.

So, I feel better now that these pictures are finally up. Now you can see where we live. :)

Whew!

Pictures of Our Home

Okay, you've seen the front of the house, complete with the air matress! (Which we only used for one night. Really.) Now it's time to take you on a tour of the rest of the place.

BUT, I still don't have the stupid cord to upload pictures from my camera, so these are pictures taken before we put an offer in on the place. Scott took these - and thank goodness he did, otherwise you'd be in the dark about our great new house. Let's begin the tour!

This is the back of the house. The camper is not ours. The windows, left to right, are the following rooms: guest bedroom, bathroom, kitchen & dining room. The door on the far right is the door to the garage. There is a small wooden deck off the garage. We hope to wall up that door, put french doors where the dining room window is, and put the deck off the dining room. That's our "blue sky" plan, anyway.

This is the river/canal that runs behind our house. Right now, the water access is tidal, and our neighbors rave about the crabbing that can be done in these waters. We have heard that there is a development planned for the other side of the water, downstream a ways - and that they are going to dredge for deep water access. Once "they" do that, we'll have deep water access all the time. That will be nice! We were going to explore the option of dredging the canal bed with a neighbor, because he wants better water access, too. But now it looks like we won't have to do anything! I hope it works out like that, anyway.

So, the bathroom has been renovated. And I'll be honest with you, they did a great job, considering the tub is mauve. In fact, they did such a great job with it, that we're going to leave it exactly as is. Since the house only has one bathroom, we plan on adding a master suite, so that we'll have one more bathroom but the same number of bedrooms. Again, that's the grand plan. For now, we're fine with the one bathroom.

So, the dining room is the ONE thing that I would love to change about this house, this very minute. It is so small that my dining room table doesn't fit. At all. Not even one half of my table fits. It's very unfortunate. This is how the former owner had it furnished, and really, that's about all there's room for. This is a tragedy that needs to be rectified (just as soon as we have the funds for it). I wish I could explain the plan for the extension - I'll do my best. So, the door to the back left leads to the garage. Which has been "partially converted." Partially converted to what, I have no idea. There's a wall about halfway into the garage, and awful pink carpet in the "enclosed" part. Anyway, you have to walk down into the garage, so the plan is to put in a subfloor, so that the "garage" floor is even with the house floor. Then we'll take out that entire back wall that opens into the garage, and extend the dining room into the garage. Then I can put french doors where the dining room window is, and we can put in a deck off the dining room. Then and ONLY then will my beautiful dining room table fit. Oh, and the gorgeous mahogany buffet that I got from Linda. That doesn't fit anywhere right now, either. Such a shame!

This is the kitchen. Aside from changing out the cabinets, everything in here is wonderful. The baker's rack didn't convey, but we plan to put a kitchen cabinet base and wall cabinet on that wall. We've had to stop unpacking boxes until we can find a place to put more things. We're all tapped out in the kitchen!

And that's all the pictures I can fit into a single post. At least until I learn more about blogger.com. More to come, I promise!

Moving In

"Oh My Goodness, Ma. They paid so much for the house, they can't afford any furniture!"

" . . . and look at THAT! They don't put shoes on their baby!"

The furniture comes tomorrow (October 16), yay!

More to come, I promise. We are all moved in, and we've gotten as far as we can with unpacking the boxes. Lots to do, but it's so great to be settled.