Finished refinishing

Yep, we refinished our two remaining rooms upstairs over the last week and a half.  We are very tired and very done with refinishing floors, luckily we really are done - until we buy a new house.  We've been sleeping in our living room on a mattress and were delighted to move our stuff back into the room today!  Here's the before of the master bedroom:

We chose to have our floor guy (Anchondo's Flooring) sand for us, so we could have it done while we were at work, and not have to worry about the mess.  It was a great idea, and the professional equipment sanded these floors better than we ever could have with a rental.  The stain went on MUCH better after his sanding.  

And, the master after we worked our butts off staining and applying 3 coats of poly:

Delicious espresso goodness!  While the master floor was not in bad shape, the guest room floor had significant water damage....

We were so happy to see the stains were completely gone after the sanding!

We not only stained and poly'd the floors, but also repainted this room.  We had enough of the peanut butter color on the walls, so we went over it with Benjamin Moore Bleeker Beige...so much better!

Many subsequent hours were spent repainting the trim, cleaning up, and then putting our lives back to normal.  But before we put everything back, we let baby enjoy some crawl and babble time in the echoing room.  

I will be sharing more about the process soon, but you can see our hallway and back bedrooms refinishing here, Ashford's nursery floor here, and the way we did our very first refinish job here. 

9 months

Ashford turned 9 months old a couple weeks ago.  Taking his picture in the buggy is becoming quite impossible.  He keeps standing up because sitting is so BORING...

I reach out to stop him from falling and sit him back down, try to take a pic fast, and end up with this:

A blurry jack in the box, you can't keep him down.  For long. 

This hat sort of represents how I feel on a daily basis.  He has cut his top two teeth and is into EVERYTHING!  At his 9 month appointment, he was 18 lbs 5 oz and 28 inches long.  He is wearing 9 month clothes and eating solids a little better than before.  

He loves to babble and laughs at the funniest things...he has also decided he loves baths and hysterically laughs and waves his arms and legs when he sees the bath tub come out.  As for the toothbrush, he likes to play with it and lets me brush his little teeth for .2 seconds before biting it. 

My favorite pic was an accident.  He was standing up and laughing, I gave up trying to put him back down and snapped away while holding his hand.  I love it when that happens!

We are also working on a rather large project....more to come!

8 month update

Here I am.  I kept starting this post and then deleting it because it would end up depressing or apologetic or somehow 'woe is me,' so I have put it off.  I will just say that I've basically been a single parent for the month of February and it does not agree with me.  Actually, I don't know that being a parent at all agrees with me....but Shaun is home and isn't traveling next week, so I can relax a little knowing I will have his help.  Ashford is 8.5 months old and he is what I guess you would call, "needy."  Or, "whiny, crabby and exhausting."  It's a very good thing he is adorable.         

He is taking steps with his rolling walker.  Crawling so fast I almost can't catch him.  Getting very good at holding his own bottle and feeding himself puffs.  He also lets us hear that cute laugh more often.     

He was not really interested in sitting down for his 8 month photo shoot, which is sort of the story of my life.  I see his butt a lot more than I see his face these days.  He has also started crying during diaper and clothing changes, I pray it's just a phase. 

He continues to put everything in his mouth, including cabinet handles, the dishwasher door, fur throws (complete with cat hair), you name it. 

He still doesn't like eating solids, and lately isn't nursing or taking bottles too well, either.  All he wants to do is play, which might be ok, except his version of fun has nothing to do with his toys and everything to do with stuff I don't want him to touch.  He does love his take along tunes and a few other noisy toys, thankfully.   

We managed to take him out for some winter photos in January, my mom got him the most adorable and impractical baby peacoat.  Who can resist a dapper baby?

And then we had a little snowfall and got him into a snowsuit for some pictures.  We took about a half hour prepping the baby and ourselves to go out, and then came back inside after 5 minutes and left puddles everywhere.  Sounds about right.  

He had no problem crawling through the snow, but I did receive a 'look' that told me he might not appreciate the extra effort.  

We are amazed that he still has his bright blue eyes.  It appears they are going to stay, but I'm not paying out any bets until he's 2.  

I'm hanging in there, and trying to keep up with other blogs as much as I can.  Now that Downton Abbey is over (and broke my blubbering sleep-deprived heart) I have a little extra time.   

7 months and life stuff

Hello. My name is Sara, and I used to run this home renovation blog when I wasn’t at my day job. Now, my 'spare' time is spent following around a baby and wondering what kind of Twilight Zone I’m in where weekends are over in .2 seconds and my house is a constant disaster.  Since Ashford started crawling and cutting teeth last month, I’ve been finding it very hard to do anything but entertain him. Pick up his dropped toys. Pull him away from the cable boxes for the thousandth time. Patiently try to get him to eat solids day after day. Try to make his teeth feel better. Plead with him to sleep when I know he is tired, but he wants to play. Try to hold him down long enough to change his diaper.  He is so beautiful and funny and makes me want to implode from cuteness overload. But, I’m tired.  I just don’t feel like doing anything but sitting around when he’s sleeping.  Damn Netflix is not helping!

Our house is not changing.  We recently threw in the towel on adding shoe molding to the upstairs hallway. The trim was laying in the hallway for months, we finally gave up and moved it down to the basement because we knew it wouldn’t get done anytime soon.  I also found my favorite paintbrush wrapped in plastic and rock-hard in the frig.  I had put it in there when I was touching up the kitchen walls a couple months ago, and I straight up forgot it was in there.  So.  Home project fails aside, Ashford is growing ever more cute and hilarious.  He turned 7 months on Jan 5th and weighed in at 17 pounds when I did the very scientific 'weigh myself holding him and then weigh myself alone' method.  Quickest 17 pounds I ever lost!

He has hit a million milestones over the last few weeks. He started crawling 'for real' December 18th, sitting unassisted December 25th, going from sitting to crawling and vice versa by December 28th, first tooth December 29th (now there are two!), started doing this funny 'downward dog' pose on January 4th...

Then he started clapping on January 5th, and the finale - on January 13th I found him in his crib, standing up and smiling at me in his sleep sack.  

We have since lowered the crib.  He's also pulling up on furniture now.  This kid is not content to just sit around, he wants to be moving at all times.  Thankfully, he loves his exersaucer and jumperoo.  Mommy needs uninterrupted wine time.   

He's still sleeping 7:30pm to 6am for the most part, unless he's fighting bedtime or having a random wake up at 3am (which we usually ignore, by the way).  I'm so grateful for his nighttime sleeping habits.  He is still not a good napper at home, though.    

He doesn't love eating solids, he hates the feeling of even the smallest chunks going near his throat and gags a lot.  I gave up on the finger foods and he is only getting purees.  Hopefully he will find it fun to feed himself soon! 

We are really enjoying seeing him get bigger, laugh more, notice new things, and other fun stuff.  Now if he could just help us with some house stuff, we'd be in business.  Until then, he will earn his keep being a model for adorable photos. 

Have a great weekend!

Huffington Post Feature

Hey everyone, I hope you had a wonderful new year!  We went out with my brother and his lady for NYE while my mom watched the little nugget, and it was divine.  There was champagne, party head gear, and sequins involved. Here is a photo to prove that I did not fall asleep on the couch at 10pm as initially planned...  

Ok, this doesn't prove the time, but I assure you if you could see my raccoon eyes you would know this was about 5 hours past my normal bed time...or, 2am. 

Enough about my shenanigans.  I wanted to share a link to a Huffington Post Home feature on our kitchen!  Amy contacted me before Christmas and asked if she could interview me for a little post on the kitchen renovation, how could I say no?  You can check it out here.  

ps - I love how the first comment says that our kitchen is entirely underwhelming.  Awesome! 

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, I'm sitting on the couch digesting and watching some TV, it feels mighty fine.  Now that everyone in real life has received our Christmas card, I thought I'd share it here.  I used Mixbook for these cards, and they turned out really nice! 

And I snuck a few more pics on the back, because I had about 300 to choose from.  This kid is photogenic, I'm afraid.  

And yes, Ashford did visit Santa and was a complete angel.  Or, elf.  

Random question - does anyone have an opinion regarding Nook HD+ or Kindle Fire HD?  I received a Nook for Christmas and I'm debating getting a Kindle instead since I have an Amazon Prime membership.  Discuss! 

6 months

Our baby is half a year old.  It really doesn't seem like it's been that long, but here he is looking all big. 

At his 6 month doctor visit, he was 15 lbs 15 oz and 27 inches long.  He's skinny, but strong.  He is now 'scooting' across the floor and crawling!  He is slow and shaky, it is hilarious to watch.  Curiously, he can't sit up unassisted yet, but I think it's because he's always on the go.  Who has time to sit around?

He makes some goofy faces and I love capturing them every day.  Boo!

A note about sleep...we had a tough time getting him on a schedule.  In my last update I mentioned that a couple days after he turned 5 months old, he just magically started sleeping 7 to 6am.  I think he was just 'ready.'  However, we did let him cry to teach him how to soothe himself, and we also carefully watched for his sleep cues to figure out when bedtime was.  As soon as he started rubbing his eyes, he was put in his crib.  Bedtime usually happens between 6:45 and 7:30pm.  In case you are interested, he naps from 9-11am and 1-4pm at daycare, not as long on the weekends.  Kid loves to sleep!  At night, he will sometimes wake up once, but cries briefly and falls back to sleep.  

He's not a big fan of solids yet.  He will eat purees, but hates rice cereal and oatmeal.  Fortunately, I don't really care if he eats cereal, and probably won't be buying any more.  I've been trying to give him finger foods a la Baby Led Weaning, but the only thing he seems to like is bread.  Yep, must be my kid.  Carb addict.  

I tried a new perspective with the photos this month, and I love these through-the-crib shots!

We have a thumb-sucker.  I'm trying to discourage it during the day, but at night I pretty much love that it keeps him happy and helps him fall asleep.  Is that terrible?  

We had another milestone last week - he fell off our bed.  I had no idea he could crawl backwards off the edge (from the middle!), so it was totally heartbreaking when I looked up from my laundry sorting to see him laying on the rug screaming after a terrible thump.  I guess I've learned my lesson.