The Big Girl Room

Last weekend, Jon finished Cecilia's big girl room. It is perfect. I still need to make the curtains and decorate, but Cecilia has been sleeping in her big bed since Saturday night. She has done remarkably well transitioning. We've been prepping her for months now by calling the nursery "the nursery", and her new room "the big girl room" and "Cecilia's room". We've let her explore her room from the pre-construction to then end. She even knew that she was going to be sleeping in there even before we moved her bed in.


When we tucked her in on Saturday night, I cried. Blame it on the preggo hormones if you want, but my sweet baby girl was no longer sleeping in her crib. She was in a twin size bed. The nursery was empty. I know its not for long, but it was strange for that room to not belong to Cecilia any longer. It solidified the fact that she is growing up even more.


I'll be sure to update again when I get her room finished :)

Pleats

Sweet potato is proving to be a very active baby- especially between the hours of 5PM and 7AM. So, the other night, when baby was practicing aerobics and Jon and I were watching TV before heading to bed, Jon was feeling all of the action with his hand on my bare belly. Jon couldn't avoid feeling the destruction zone that is now my belly. Between the amazing amounts of stretch marks and the 4 scars that I have from my gallbladder surgery, my belly will forever remind me of this time in my life. So, Jon, noticing the thinning skin in my stretch marks says to me "Your skin is getting so thin! You should have pleats." HAHAHAHA!! Yes, honey, pleats would have solved the issue. I'm not sure how attractive pleats in my skin would be.

Going with my Gut

Cecilia ran a slight fever all weekend, along with a runny face, irritability, and extra snugly. It seemed like it was just a cold working its way through her system, but deep down, I knew it was something else. I tried to push away the feeling. Jon even suggested that we wait just one more day to see if the fever broke before taking her in. Her fever was still here this morning, so I kind-of reluctantly called and made her an appointment. I fully expected to bring her and and the doc to tell me that she is fine, and its just a cold. My gut was right though: sinus infection. Poor baby girl. She IS sick :( Antibiotic and all. She is relatively happy, and the snuggles are a nice bonus.

Bob

Cecilia's vocabulary is really starting to explode. She is working on saying "Mom" or "Mama" or "Mommy". Really, I'd appreciate any of these three. Sometimes when Jon prompts her, she will say "Mama", but it takes a lot of focus. The "M" sound is just a little difficult still, and the"B" sound, well that one she has down, and she likes to practice it. So, she does have a name for me right now: "Bob". It's quite funny actually. She will wake up in the morning or from her nap, and I will hear this beckoning call "Bbbbooooooobbbb! Bbbbb-Bbbbb-Bbbbbbboooooooooooooooob!". At least she is associating a word with me, and its better than "Dada".

Plumbing

After spending the last three and a half years hoping, praying, fixing, patching, drinking out of a filter, watching water pressure decrease, and listening to drops of water fall somewhere in the house, we have NEW PLUMBING!!! I am so excited about this! Its the little things that you might take for granted (like rust free water) that make the difference.

I took a picture of our kitchen faucet with the hot water all the way on, so that I would remember how awful it was getting. Lovely little trickle of water- huh? Try washing dishes with this kind of water pressure.
Our pipes were so rusted that they were cutting holes in the neck of the kitchen faucet. For the past 3 months or so, our faucet has had a dish rag draped over its neck to prevent my kitchen from getting a shower while I did dishes.


This is a picture of the water filter we had to have on the kitchen faucet in order to prevent to much rust from getting in our drinking water. The part you are looking at here is where the faucet connects with the filter. Ya- those little rocks- RUST!
Jon and my dad spent all day Saturday cutting out the old galvanized pipe and replacing it with PEX plumbing. Here is most of the old rusty stuff. I think it looks much better outside than inside my house :)

You could not see through some of the pipes- they were that rusted.



Here is the new, wonderful, clean, efficient plumbing:
I am so lucky that my husband and my dad could put this all together for us. It is such a relief to have it done. It was amazing to hear how full the dishwasher got the first time we ran it. Full water pressure on every facet is fabulous! Clean drinking water out of any faucet is a relief. Knowing that my house is WAY less likely to have a broken pipe is priceless.

18 months- again

Today is March 1st. Yesterday was February 28th. This means that there was no 29th day last month. This means that my sweet baby girl is still 18 months old, right?? I'd like to think so. But, if someone asks, (and most days someone does ask) I will say 19 months. I've discovered that no matter what the calendar says, she continues to grow. Every day she is learning, saying new words and sounds, discovering her environment and how she can control it, pushing my buttons, and showing off her personality.

Last week she perfected the words "doggy", "daddy", "baby", and "uh-oh". She said all three on the same day, clear as could be. I was so proud of her. I will be even more proud when the word "Mommy" slides out of those precious lips- hopefully before she goes to kindergarten.

She is a little mini-me, and she reminds me of that everyday. She reminds me that she sees and hears everything I do, which makes my job of MOM all the more important. Nothing like having a mini-micro-manager :) She lets me know with all of her tiny personality that she is following in my shoes.


She loves her Daddy so much too. She loves to "help" him on various projects.
And she loves to snuggle with him.