January and February goings-on

My little girl grows up so fast! For Christmas, Katy got a toddler bed from Nana and Papa. I thought the transition would be more difficult than it was. We set up the new bed in her room along with the crib. From day one, she was done sleeping in the crib. So, the next weekend the crib was out the door and onto the sidewalk for recycling/trash. This is the morning of that first night...

Katy sang and danced in her first stage performance at daycare. She was an acorn and an owl. Very funny!

We had another fun weekend with Evi and Rachel when they came to stay with us. We explored the Edinborough Park Adventure Peak playground. As per usual, Katy ran, slid and jumped for a bit then was more interested in snack time. Evi definitely got her money's worth out of the equipment :-)

We also went to our first performance at the Children's Theatre, The Biggest Little House in the Forest. The one woman puppet show enthralled the girls, it was so cute to see.

We explored sensory activities. Mixing baking soda, water and shaving cream to make fizzling, foamy fun.

We decorated the window for Valentine's Day. And while the girls are already fast friends...

they are still toddlers!

We can't wait until we see them again!

A few weeks later Valentine's Day arrived with a coating of fresh white snow.

Max and Adam came to visit. We watched Peter Pan. They were all very excited as you can see.

And because I didn't want Riley to feel left out, here's some proof that the old girl still has some puppy left in her.

If you're still with me, we're almost there! Passport drama and cruise photos coming up soon.

Baby's room update

While technically she's not a baby anymore it seems funny to call it a toddler room :-) This weekend I plowed through a ton of projects that I'd been sitting on for a while. (some longer than others.)

First, I finished putting all the flower decals on the walls, plugged in the new lamp and added the dimmer switch so it can be a night light...

Then I hung up the paintings and hanger I found at the art fair in Tel Aviv. Seriously, the cutest paintings ever. Also finished the afghan that matches all the other kids' afghans I made for the next generation of the Romano family. And made the pillow out of the fabric we bought in Tel Aviv...

Then I painted the closet door knobs to match the decals...

Later this summer we'll add the shelf and world map that my dad is crafting but other than that, we are done! Ready to be populated with a little munchkin very soon!

What do you think?

Latest Updates and Two Year All Clear!

Sometimes you don't realize you're holding your breath until you let it out. That's how I felt this morning. Last week I had my follow-up MRI and mammogram and today was the appointment with the oncologist. Until she said those wonderful words "Everything looks great" I had no idea how it was weighing me down to wait. It's funny, you know that you feel good and so you think everything will be good but then you think that you felt good before and it went so terribly wrong. But not this time, and hopefully not ever again. I feel like a huge weight just flew off my back. Could not imagine what I would have done if, with travel to Ethiopia looming in the near future, I had heard something else. Thankfully I won't have to think about that any more. The end. For another year anyway.

And speaking of travel, I have a court date! I'll be heading to Ethiopia in March to meet Baby G for the first time. It's finally becoming real! Plane tickets are purchased and I've arranged a few days in London before and a few days in Israel after. Can't say that everyone is 100% excited about my itinerary but I am! Looking forward to seeing my friend Jon and the sights of London and Susan in Israel with all of her wonderful puppies. The extra travel added much to the cost and time of the trip but I know it will be a long time before I'll be able to travel solo so I'm taking it in now while I can. Originally I had planned to also take in the Seychelle Islands. Sigh. So much money and so little time. I've had a picture of the Seychelles on my fridge for a long time now but it won't happen. Then again, I'm not so sure I really want to go to the most beautiful place on earth by myself, and only for a few days. Guess I'll save that for some other lifetime.

The reality of it is that I'm finally feeling like it's really going to happen and I will actually meet my daughter. It sounds so wonderful! I'm so not ready and yet more ready than I can even express in words. Enough limbo already, let's get this show on the road! Sunday (with the help of my fabulous cousin Lexi) Baby G's room was painted Pale Shrimp pink. This weekend I'll apply the daisy decals I bought from Etsy and head to the fabric store to find fabric for curtains and a valance. Assuming I'll be able to figure out how to sew curtains and a valance it should work out well! Boy I sure hope she likes pink and flowers!

Saturday I ticked off one more item on the to-do list and painted the kitchen. Sadly to anyone else it doesn't look so much different than it did before but I think it looks brighter and fresher. And as a bonus, the floor under the refrigerator and oven is now clean as well. eew. One bad idea for the weekend was running the oven self-cleaner. Ugh. Here's a tip...don't. At least don't do it in the middle of winter when you can't open your storm windows and it's cold outside. Save it for summer when you can open the windows and leave the house for a few days. It stinks! I wasn't feeling so well and Riley took a couple of days to recover I think, poor thing. Clean is good, just not the smell. Now if I could just finish those Christmas stockings I'll be back on schedule. Knit, purl, knit, purl...they just go on and on!

That's life in a nutshell for this day...

Baby's room thoughts

Update June 2011, the room is done! See how it turned out...

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I'm realizing more and more how much I would like to do to prepare my house for a child. Is it fine if I just paint and decorate the baby's room? Probably. But, I'd really like to have a better place for toys and crafts and storage. Plus there is a whole room of furniture in the room right now. So I've decided to use the money I had set aside to landscape the front of the house to finish the basement instead. That will add much needed storage and a great place to house toys that won't have to be put away so you can walk from the living room to the bedroom. Hopefully those front stairs will last until I have enough money to finish up outside!

Since I need some help from a contractor and Home Depot for the basement, I've turned my daydreaming to decorating the nursery. It's so hard to imagine what she will like. Is she a pink and ruffles kid? An undersea adventurer? Enchanted garden? So much to choose from! Also, since she will be almost two years old when she comes home, will she still need a crib or are we already on to the toddler bed? I'd hate to spend money on a crib that only gets used for a month or so but don't want to have the wrong bed when she gets here. Anyone have advice on that?

I know I'll be doing some kind of painting on the walls. I did my first mural at my good friend Molly's house for her twins Jack and Chase. (top banner had their birthdate, which at the time hadn't happened yet)

Pretty sure I don't want to go with the airplane theme but I found a few pictures that might be close to what I'm thinking.

I love the idea of polka dots...

Or maybe it's a garden theme...

I would love love love to be able to afford this and also have room for it. How fun is that!?

Still so much to do before the painting starts but it sure is fun to get ideas...

Finished!

Closet is finally done! I've decorated it with the only items I'll buy before I get a referral, a fuzzy pink heart pillow and a smoke/carbon monoxide detector. The pillow is prettier but I'm happy to have both. Now the wait continues. I've seen a few blogs with decorated nurseries, awaiting referral. Just can't bring myself to do it. Something about not counting my chickens. So I will wander into the room, open and close the drawers and wait. And wait.

More remodeling

I'm not quite ready to start making a nursery but I did splurge on a new closet door. I still need to put in the shelf unit but I'm excited to have the whole closet accessible!

Before...

After...(or at least 'during' since the shelves aren't done yet)