Dinner Revelation

Last night at dinner, Tom was trying to convince Will to eat his food. Tom would dangle one piece of chicken over Natalie and say, "Here little Birdie! Here little Birdie!" and she would bite. Then he would dangle a piece of food over Will and say, "here little Froggie! Here little Froggie!" Will would grin and take a nibble. The whole meal went on this way. Then Will suggested he feed Tom.
"What kind of animal am I, Will?" asked Tom as Will dangled a piece of food over his head.
"You are a dolphin, daddy!"
"Oh, okay! So Natalie is a birdie, you are a froggie, and I am a dolphin! What is mommy?"
"Mommy is a WHALE!"
Out of the mouths of babes....

Kitchen Remodeling

As many of you may have noticed, I have been slightly MIA lately. We moved into our house, and then a lot of things happened all at once. We started remodeling the house and in the middle of tearing down wallpaper in our dining room we received a call from my parents informing me of my brother-in-law's brain tumor.
David remains so amazingly positive, and I read his blog to be UPLIFTED which I think is incredible. www.jumpdavidjump.typepad.com summarizes his condition better than I ever could. He starts his treatment very soon if he has not already. Please keep him and my sister Amy in your prayers! Thank you.
So, the day before I left to go be with my sister and brother-in-law in Minnesota I found out some interesting news. Yes, baby number 3 is on the way and I am due February 16th. Thankfully, this wretched morning sickness did not kick in until I returned from Minnesota. I am just starting my 11th week. I have been so sick but am hoping it will start to get better soon, so that I can be a better mother again. Will's new favorite question is, "and you're gonna throw up?"
Now, in the midst of all this "throwing up" we have been remodeling our kitchen. I thought I would post some "before" and "during" pics. I will post "after" pics when it is completed.
Here is the kitchen before. We just finished tearing down the wallpaper, replacing all the appliances, replacing countertops and replacing the hardware. Yes, I helped.
Here's an upclose of the granite we chose. Chris Yaughn (Yaughn Countertops) did a great job with the counters. I could not be happier! You can see where we still need to tile the backsplash.

My new sink and faucet make me so happy.

It has been hard to steam down the wallpaper without bringing a little drywall with it. Oops.

It is coming together though and even though my walls look atrocious at the moment the kitchen is so much prettier already.

Here is my new stovetop range. We had to modify the cabinets to put this in. We have purchased a wine chiller to put in the hole where the old oven was.

Now I just can't wait for the painting to begin!

Too Smart

My little man Will turned THREE a few weeks ago. He literally found independence overnight. It is like he woke up on this third birthday and said, "from now on I will do EVERYTHING by myself. I am a big boy now!" My husband and I have had to rapidly adjust to this new found independence and help foster it. At first we resisted a little.

"Um, Will what are you doing with a chair pushed up to the refrigerator? The milk jug is too heavy for you!"

"You can't get ice by yourself! "

"Get down from that counter, you are going to fall."

But, I am happy to say we have figured out that it is best to just let him try and guide him along the way. Things also stay a lot more peaceful that way as he will fight us all the way if we try to hold him back.

Today, Will was resisting taking a nap. We had been back and forth about it and after 30 minutes of lying awake in his room, he came out and announced he needed to get a cup of water. I let him climb on the counter to get his own cup. I let him get his own ice. I helped lift him up so he could fill his cup with the filtered refrigerator water. Then, I gently tried to ease the lid onto his sippy cup so it wouldn't slop. Big mistake!

"Mommy!!!!! I want to do that by myself!!! I can put my own lid on!"

"I am sorry Will, I was just trying to help. Is there ANYTHING that you think you CAN'T do?" I asked, slightly exasperated.

He grinned a sheepish grin. "Yes, " he nodded. "I don't think I can TAKE MY NAP!"

Touche!