September 7th, 2011
Ollie will be 6 months old on friday. 6 MONTHS OLD. I think I’m going to cry. Seriously.
In the last 6 months, I’ve encountered many baby accessories, but these are my favorites so far:
PUJ tub: I couldn’t have lived without this for the first 5 months of Ollie’s life. Now he can sit in a flat sink, so we’ll retire it until the next little one comes.
Jack’s Harvet Baby Food: LOVE this organic frozen baby food. Just like mom makes because mom is a working mom and has no time to actually make it.
Beaba Silicone Spoons: These clean up so well, don’t have hard metal parts, and Ollie loves to chew on them.
Jumperoo: Are you kidding me? This was the best 75 bucks I have ever spent in. my. life. If you have a baby who is old enough, go and get one right now, you will not regret it.
Nuk or Playtex Ortho “Binkies” (KA that’s for you): A great pacifier is the best invention in the world. I just wish you could get them in more colors. boo.
Aden & Anais Swaddlers: These are awesome multi-purpose blankets that breath really well, and don’t over-heat baby. They wash and wear really well instead of looking dingy and gross.
What are your favorite baby products?
September 4th, 2011
Kitchen:
Our dishwasher was delivered this week! It’s the drawer style and it’s a “panel” version, which means that Mr. Project is making wood panels that match the rest of the cabinets, making the dishwasher really look like actual drawers instead of a dishwasher. Pretty awesome!
The cabinets are all installed, and Mr. Project is working on the kick plates, and once those are finished, painting should begin!
Organization:
We took a little bit of time this week to get the studio under control. It feels a lot more organized and clean, which is good for productivity. All the rooms in the house are on “temporary” decoration, so the room is a little blah and definitely needs to be “HGTVed” but, I’ll settle for some nice office chairs for now. I can’t sit on the hard kitchen chairs that we are using in there right now for very long, and my folks are coming to visit, so we do actually need those chairs in the kitchen.
Details:
We got our family room light fixture this week. It is gorgeous! I am dying for our electrician to get it hung up on Tuesday. It’s going to be such a great focal point in the family room. All of the outlets have finally been replaced with new ones, and the light fixtures in the master bath were also installed. We are getting there!
Spencer also stained the stair railings today, the stairs should be this week, or maybe next depending on how much time he has. You can’t really use the stairs for a few days after they are stained and sealed, so it’s been really hard trying to coordinate getting them finished. We may just have to live downstairs for a few days! That should be fun.
I went shopping this week and bought some cute decor for the house including a giant mirror for the entryway. The console table that I purchased should be here at the end of the week and I’m excited to get that table all set up. I really wish we had an Tai Pan Trading here though. Boo. I also found some adorable yellow wire baskets for the nursery and we moved a book case from our temporary kitchen up to his room which will be nice for all his books, whatnots and whose-its.
Oh and the towel saga has come to an end! I got some awesome towels on Saturday… I won’t spoil it now, I’m going to do a follow-up post on Tuesday or Wednesday once the chandelier for the guest bathroom has been hung, so I can do a final update on our one finished room!
Friends:
Our good friend Kristy came to visit us this week. She’s such a sweetie, and she’s actually going to be helping us out a bit with some part-time nannying and taking over some of my more mundane work tasks so that I can actually hit my work deadlines and keep this blog organized too. I am so excited to be spending more time with her she’s such a doll, and ollie loves her too, of course. I also got to spend some time with my friend Staci – she was sweet enough to go shopping with me on Saturday. It was great catching up and just having some girl time including a yummy lunch at Boudin.
Weightloss:
After our vacation smorgasbord, we decided we needed to get on the train to healthyville, so we’ve been doing our best to stay away from all bad foods, and get some exercise as well. Things are going great, and we will soon be at our pre-vacation weights, and then hopefully quickly thereafter at our pre-renovation weights. And then I’ve got to work on getting back to my pre-Lost & Found 1 weight! That line really took a toll on me, and then getting pregnant right after did not help at all! And hopefully after all that work, we can start working on a little brother or sister for Oliver!
Facebook:
We’ve decided to do a week-long experiment of staying away from facebook (other than my project girl page). We tend to waste a little bit too much time there, and so this is an effort to be more productive. After the week is over, we’re going to try for some moderation, if that doesn’t work, we’ll have to try a whole month off!! I might cry!
Oliver:
Ahhhh this boy is the best! I just love him so much! He is just such a sweetheart and practically perfect in every way. seriously. He has started saying “mama” – like really saying it. It’s the cutest thing you’ve ever heard. I’ve gotten it on video a few times, I just have no idea how to get video on the internet. I’ll work on that, because it’s way too cute to not share! He is such a good sleeper. Every night we do bath, book, family prayer, bottle with scripture reading, and then bed. He goes right down around 7PM, and has been fairly consistently sleeping until 5 or 6 am. Daddy gets up with him and brings him to bed with me, and he eats and then we sleep in until 8. On Saturday Spencer was up at 6 and the baby was still sleeping, when he came back upstairs, he could hear the baby just laying in his crib babbling and saying mama. I woke up to hear all this (loud)babbling, and of course my heart melted. He loves eating solid foods, and is a super clean & good eater, which is great because I have no bibs, and can’t find any cute enough to buy, so he won’t have bibs unless I do find them! I have a bjorn bib thing, but that is for when they are a bit bigger and get super messy (I guess?). He is just acting and looking so grown up these days. I would cry if it wasn’t so much fun to see him become his own little person. I see other teeny babies, and as much as I wish Ollie was still teeny, I’m so glad he isn’t, he is growing into such a fun boy. I swear he will be crawling any day now. He can move around a lot, but not so much scooting yet. But he tries… so I say probably 2-3 weeks and he will be at least trying to scoot everywhere. Then we are just plain in trouble.
Me and Ollie today 
Word of the week: Happy
Every day is filled with so much joy with Oliver in our lives. Our world revolves around him, and he makes us smile, laugh, and do all manner of silly things to keep him entertained. Basically he just makes life worthwhile, exciting, and so much FUN.
September 1st, 2011
I have to get some designing done, but now that the baby is awake more than he is asleep, I need a little bit of help taking care of him during the day. Unfortunately Mr. Project has the strict priority of getting the kitchen done, so he needs to use all his non-working time to work on the kitchen, which leaves me at about a 5% productivity level. This has resulting in me getting almost zero work done that requires more than a 10 minute attention span. So I have someone coming to help half days with little Ollie, but I’ll need to be able to effectively communicate and be communicated back his schedule without a lot of talking. So I created this Baby Log for his nanny to keep track of all his naps, feedings, and diaper happenings during the time she is with him, so that when she leaves I can take over without missing a beat. I also made a cute little notes area at the bottom where I can give her instructions like “put away baby’s laundry” or “feed him peas this afternoon” etc. I’m sure that a lot of other working moms or just busy moms could use something similar so if you have a baby that you need to keep track of, here is a little free download baby log to help out!
Click on the image above to download a PDF version of my printable baby log. The downloadable PDFs in this article (and across my entire site) are free for personal use only. If you would like to blog about this free download, please accompany and images from my site with a credit and link back to this article. As a courtesy please do not link directly to a downloadable file but rather to this page.
August 29th, 2011
Things have been busy this past week. Mr. Project has spent nearly the whole week in his shop working away on the cabinets. Today he brought them upstairs and they are just waiting to be installed and then painted! Here is the progress:
He is pretty amazing, and I am completely in love with him… AND the cabinets! And if you don’t know much about cabinets, these are called “inset” cabinets where the doors are flush with the face frame. It requires absolute precision and is like a 10 on the difficult scale of cabinet making. Apparently I like to make things as difficult as possible. Here is a photo of the style all painted white (like ours will be soon!):
(Ashlee Raubach Photography)
We had some bin pull drama this week too. I ordered a massive amount of these new cabinet pulls from pottery barn:
But we got them and they were just OK. So then we looked into the Gillmore pulls from Restoration Hardware:
but after looking at those we just kind of wanted something a little bit different. Bin pulls are all the rage right now, but they’ll probably go out of style sooner rather than later, and we just wanted something unique. Since the inspiration for the kitchen is farmhouse based, we thought a utilitarian pull would be super fun. So we found this on at RH as well:
I ran over to my local RH and picked up all the 6″ pulls that they have and I love them! They are super functional (unlike the bin pulls that have to be pulled from the bottom and can’t fit giant fingers/hands). I had to order a massive amount, but they should be here by the time the cabinets have been painted. I also need to go buy paint still, but I swear I have stage fright when picking paint.
In other kitchen news, I was so so so happy to finally find the fabric for the kitchen windows! Randomly I stopped by Calico Corners while I was out and about (It must be the new commercial blitz they have been doing), and was super impressed by their home decor fabric selection. And the prices were really reasonable too. Anyway I found a 4″ cabana stripe that will make the most amazing roman shades… or faux roman shades.
Ahh it makes me feel relaxed just looking at it. Now the last thing to choose for the kitchen is the backsplash tile. I’m hoping to find something that is super pale aqua but with variation like a recycled glass tile. Wish me serious luck because I don’t have much hope that it will happen.
okay that’s enough kitchen talk… now onto the everyday.
Our sweet Oliver is growing up, I like to say “I’m a real boy” just like Pinocchio in Shrek when people say he’s getting so big, and really he is like a real boy, hardly a baby at all.
I am packing up all his 0-3 month clothes and he has officially grown out of half of his jammies that he was wearing, so I bought a bunch of new cute jammies today. I guess that’s one way to get over the emotional stress of them growing up – retail therapy with cute new baby clothes. I do have to admit it was really hard to see all the tiny newborn clothes next to the bigger baby clothes. sigh.
He is still super happy and mellow although I can see the energy building up in him. In the morning he just wants to go go go even though he can’t really go yet. I have to enjoy all these “containable” moments, because he is going to take off in no time and never ever stop. He is starting to really babble and we even get a mama out of him every once in awhile which I love. He is eating pureed food and loving every bite. He even whines in between bites because I am not fast enough. He is a very clean eater right now and just gobbles up his food. He has had apple sauce, mashed bananas, peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, and mangos. He liked them all even the peas which he liked a little less until I mixed them with a little bit of apple sauce. But overall he’s a pretty awesome eater. He doesn’t seem to like rice cereal that much, but he will drink some with his night-time bottle without argument. He still loves his bouncy seat and his play mat, so between those things I can still get a little bit of work (and some crafts) done when he’s awake. He’s also been taking a longer mid-day nap which is really really nice!
I love this boy so so so much and I really do think that everything he does is way too cute. I know I say it all the time, but I love being his mom.
In other family news, my folks are going to come and visit in 2 weeks. I can’t hardly wait, but I need to get the guest room in order, which is going to be quite the task since we are storing all of our storage bins in the guest room while Mr. Project is using the garage for the cabinets. Soooo I’ll have to move all those bins into my craft room while they are here. Sounds messy and crowded, but totally worth it.
Well thats it in news this week. We’re mostly just busy working on the house, working on work, and working on raising a little one!
August 21st, 2011
Its been awhile since I wrote one of these! I swear this week has been so LONG, which is actually really nice because these days weeks seem to go by way too fast. Last Sunday we drove back from Utah. The drive was not bad at all either way, and the baby was super good on the ride. We were able to visit family and Ollie met his grandparents for the first time, here he is looking so cute with his grandpa:
So this week Mr. Project started on the kitchen cabinets! wahoo! I’m so excited. They are coming along really well. This was the original kitchen plan:
Window Side
Stove Side
We’ve made a few modifications. I took out the farmhouse sink, and the cabinet next to the sink on the left will be a pull-out trash/recycling center, and on the other side of the sink, we are putting in Dishwasher Drawers (with panels), but other than that, it will pretty much look like that. Everything is purchased for the “window side” of the kitchen except for the pendant light (I’m still trying to figure that one out), and the legs for the desk.
Here is my faucet that I just ordered that I’m completely in love with:
And we are planning on doing Cherry wood countertops like this inspiration photo (which if everything works out should look a LOT like our kitchen – if I can find some fabulous back-splash tile):
(click for source)
And we got our island lights this week:
They are seriously massive and pretty awesome. I’m worried about them fitting, but I think they will be okay.
So here are the progress on the cabinets so far:
The boxes (made of pre-finished cabinet-grade plywood)
And the boxes with face frames!
These just need to be puttied and sanded and then I can start painting them (need to pick and buy paint first!!!) while Mr. Project works on all the drawers and doors.The plan is to finish the window side and then he’ll build the stove side and then demo the existing side. I’ll have to post pictures this week of how the kitchen is now, it’s not terrible to work in, but its better if we don’t dirty dishes since we have no kitchen sink, so our meals are pretty limited. Anyway we are getting super excited about the progress on the kitchen!
Okay back to the weekly wrap up. In Ollie news, he is officially sitting up, which is so much fun! He can sit up in the sink for his bath time and he plays with his little rubber ducky while I scrub him down. He started eating solids this week. We had introduced a few things here and there – a bite or two while we were eating while we were in Utah, but this week I got a baby spoon and some baby food, and he went bonkers for it! He has been such a great eater and even steals the spoon away so he can get it in his mouth faster. He’s a pretty clean eater so far, I keep forgetting a bib, but he really doesn’t have any “overflow” yet. I don’t think he is a fan of the rice cereal, but he loves everything else that he has tried. We’ll try peas tomorrow and see how he does on some green veggies. He is still just as mellow as ever and new people that he meets are always amazed at how quiet and pensive he is… and he really is just this mellow little guy, but not in an ambivalent way, in a very present observant way. We just love our little guy and pinch ourselves daily because we are just so blessed to have such a wonderful light in our lives. Oh and he loves his Tickle Monster book that his Aunt Des gave him that has tickle monster mitts that you tickle him with and he just giggles and giggles. Love that boy!
Lets see what else is happening? Mr. Project and I are trying to be really good about our diet and excercise. I have started swimming laps in the pool and am having a lot of fun (I’m also super sore!). Unfortunately Mr. Project hurt his let running, so I’ve been trying to convince him to start swimming while the weather is still nice and hot.
Right now our world is revolving around the baby and the house. Life has calmed down a lot since we moved into the house, and that has been really nice, and hopefully it will calm down a lot more once the kitchen is done. Overall though, we are having a lot of time in all our adventures whether they are watching the baby grow daily, working on home improvements, or seeing our talents blossom into successful careers. Life is pretty darn good!
