The day before Christmas Eve

Last year, we spent the days before Christmas packing, piling boxes, saying goodbye to friends, and trying to have Cash's first Christmas around a rosemary bush. This is what we are doing this year:



I'll take this year.

Cash's first visit with Santa

Clearly, he is not impressed.

18 months

Cash turned 18 months old on the 12th. The pictures above are from our trip on Saturday to Fit for Fun, a play center for kids 5 and under run by the Wilmington Parks Department. It's become our new favorite activity on Saturday mornings.

Cash is so active at 18 months! He really never sits still and is always wanting to play, get thrown around, or read one book after the other. He's also actively tantruming most days as well. We think it is probably because he's at that frustrating language time where he has a ton to say and says it...but it mostly makes no sense. He has a few words that are basically code for everything. All food is "cracker", all please and thank you is "dadoo" and mysteriously, everything else is now "bubby". We don't know what "bubby" means at all and it's become his new favorite word in the last few days. Hopefully "bubby" will reveal itself soon.

Cash had his 18 month check up at the doctor last Friday and we go some new stats. The good: Cash has grown an inch and a half since last check up and is now 31.5 inches long which is the 26th percentile for height. Also developmentally (i.e. motor skills, cognition, language, etc) he is right on target. Finally, no shots this time!

And for the bad: Cash didn't gain much (if any!) weight since his last checkup. He weighs in at 21 lbs and a few ounces, give or take, which puts him in the >3rd percentile for weight. Technically, this could be labeled "failure to thrive" if the doctor wanted to be mean and make me cry but we go to nice doctors so they decided not to make me feel any worse than I already did. Cash has never been a big eater but the last few weeks had seen his appetite plummet for no real reason and even his day care teachers were asking me if anything was wrong. He just looks skinny. The doctor was concerned, but not overly so, and said that we can start giving Cash PediaSure at night along with a multivitamin each day to see if that helps his appetite and helps him gain some weight. So far he is enjoying the fact that he gets what is essentially a chocolate milkshake every night before bed. However we had to change his bedtime routine to make sure that he brushes his teeth afterward which is different then the usual rocking to sleep with milk. He's not liking that change so much.

Hopefully we'll have a good report when we go back in for a weight check in three months.

Putting Cash to work

Cash and Mollie go for a ride

Thanksmas 2011

After a week of recovering, I thought it was time to put up the Thanksmas post. We spent a whole week in Houston this year and had a fantastic time. Wednesday night was our annual "Christmas" party with the whole Inman/Young/Melone crew (except for Charlie, Fiona and Lucy who were very missed) where we opened presents and ate Italian food. Cash got to meet some of his cousins for the first time and also found a new and interesting way to drink milk while Mollie held him.

Cash with his cousins Kylie and Nicholas:


Chugging milk after a full evening opening presents:



On Thursday, Aunt Melinda hosted Thanksgiving at her place. Cash sat at the kids' table for the meal. It was a moderate success:


All of Mama Nellie's great grand-children (except for little Lucy) in one place:



Ross and all of his cousins and their families:


We spent the rest of the week hanging out with Mollie, Old Grandad and Uncle Philip before a bit of a rough trip back last Tuesday. Let's just say that flying with a sick and projectile vomiting toddler is not my favorite way to spend the day. However we had a great trip and can't wait until we get to go back and spend more time in Texas.

Watching some NickJr with Mollie:


We love you Mollie and Old Grandad!

Pizza time!

Cash is a pizza fanatic like his mama. I got pizza for him for dinner last night since his usual pizza Friday at day care is cancelled for a Thanksgiving feast. He has an interesting way of eating it but it definitely makes him a happy boy!

17 Months

Cash turned 17 months old this past Saturday. I've missed a couple of months of updates but this month has seen Cash do so many new things that I had to write about it. He's a special little guy and here's what he's been up to:
-Saying so many new words - bye, "dadoo" which is a variation of "thank you", mama, daddy, ball, Papa, dog, cow, and the newest addition to the list, cracker. He says cracker at most meals now but I can't blame him since the crackers he is talking about, Wheat Thins, are delicious.
-Running - we have a full on runner now. He still trips up sometimes but that is mostly because he is between a size 3 and 4 shoe and size 4 make him drag his feet a bit.
-Using his fork and spook very well. He uses his spoon for yogurt and applesauce and while there is still spillage, a significant amount actually gets into his mouth as well.
-Very into books right now. He's pretty much ignored all indoor toys for the past few weeks and constantly wants us to read to him...
-Except when he wants to watch tv. Which is most of the time we are in the living room. We only allow it for about one hour total a day, mostly after school, and he usually only wants to watch Yo Gabba Gabba.
-Still loves music and dancing.
-Very interested in older kids, especially our neighbor Jonah who is 5. Cash is pretty much obsessed with him.
-Still eating really well but his favorites are pizza, mac and cheese, yogurt and yogurt melts, cheerios, applesauce, green beans, peas, and crackers!
-Currently cutting his last set of teeth before the two year molars. He hasn't been too fussy about it but he's been chewing and more drooly in the evenings so I tend to give him a dose of Tylenol and some gum number before bed.
-Still sleeping in the crib but I think those days are numbered since it is a mini-crib. He's keeps banging his little head into the side in the middle of the night.
-Sleeping solidly through the night from 7-5:30 or 6. Even better is that we are putting him down awake more often so that he gets himself to sleep. Sometimes there's a bit of crying for 2-3 minutes but that's about it. He still has his sippy of milk before bed and first thing when waking up though. That's not going to be a fun transition when we have to get rid of it :(
-Overall a happy, thriving and fun-loving little boy!

Dancing machine

Ross and his friends have a love of the R. Kelly song "Ignition: Remix". Basically if we are at a wedding or at a bar with a Jukebox, it has to be played. So Ross decided it was time to introduce Cash to it.

Traveling again...

I got an email from my boss this past Friday asking me to come up to our office in NJ this upcoming week for a couple of days. At the bottom of the note was also a mention that he wants me to go to our UK office soon as well as the German office within the next 6 months. On top of my usual travel for conferences (four trips already planned for the spring with a chance for a couple more) and a June NJ office visit, my travel schedule has taken a huge uptick. I didn't really think Cash recognized too much that I was gone or going away. Sure, there was the time that I came back from a three day trip and he promptly ignored me when I went to pick him up from day care (to which the teacher informed me that maybe "he was mad at me"...yeah, thanks for that), but overall he didn't seem to get it yet. However, after I booked my flight for Wednesday, I called a friend up in NYC to let her know I'd be in town and Cash came over to me and gave me a hug...and wouldn't let go the entire time I was on the phone. I think he's starting to get it.

Travel is an essential and important part of my career and if I continue to progress I will have to do it more, but it definitely doesn't help with the guilt parade that can be motherhood sometimes. However, giving up my career isn't an option for a number of reasons, including that I enjoy it and feel that (personally) I'm much more valuable to Cash as a working mother than I ever could be staying at home full time. I just do my best to make sure that when we have our time together during the day I'm fully invested in him and not distracted by other things. But the more he understands that mommy is leaving for a few nights and won't be there when he wakes up in the morning the harder it gets.

Halloween weekend

Cash had a fun fall weekend with lots of time outdoors and some candy as well. On Saturday we walked down to the Farmer's Market which is always a good time even though it was a little cold and rainy. However, it cleared up in the afternoon and we spent a lot of time outdoors. So much time, that we forgot to nap and proceeded to have some first tantrum spells...but I digress.

On Sunday we got dressed up for church and I made Cash take pictures with me out on the festively decorated front porch. These are the last photos you will see taken with my Sony Cybershot as we had a bit of a snafu while handing off the camera, causing it to drop and break beyond repair. Which is a bit unfortunate since Cash looks pretty darn cute in his monkey suit for Halloween. IPhone pics will have to suffice and they did when we went to Trunk or Treat at our church last night. Everyone was pretty impressed with the cute little monkey. This morning we got dressed up again for Halloween at day care. Since I'm not sure we'll be going out around the neighborhood this year (I don't think he really gets it yet and I'm more excited to hand out candy for the first time) it's good that he's gotten some good use out of the monkey suit.

Glow Tub

This weekend when Ross was away, Cash and I decided to have a little fun with tubby time. So I bought some glow sticks to throw in the water. Cash was pretty amused for a good five minutes which tends to be his max attention span right now so overall, a success!

Happy Birthday Grandma Mollie!

Cash wanted to send a very special Happy Birthday to his Grandma Mollie in Texas. We love you and will Skype with you soon.

Pillow attack

Work trip

Last Saturday I left on a four day trip for work to Columbus, OH. This was the first trip I've taken since June, and the longest since Cash was born. Plus it was in Ohio. So overall, not ideal. However nothing is better than getting to surprise him the next morning when I get him out of his crib which leads to Cash and me hanging out all day.

Trip to Hugh McCrae Park

Last Sunday we decided to try out the toddler playground at Hugh McCrae park. It was one of the first cooler days of fall and the past week had seen Ross away on a work trip and then with friends. We were in need of a much needed day for the three of us to hang out and not work on the house, clean, run errands, etc. The playground was great - just the right size for Cash and he had a blast for a good 20 minutes before he decided that running in the parking lot was more fun. Oh well! It was still fun and we'll have to make it back sometime soon.

And finally...the house post

I've been meaning to post about our house for a long time but there always seemed to be one more project I wanted to complete before sharing pictures so the post kept getting pushed back and back. But recently, we've actually started "completing" full rooms and are around three quarters of our way through what we like to call Phase 1 of the remodeling process so it's time I put some photos up for public consumption.

Being that we moved from a 450 square foot rental in NYC with little furniture, an infant, and a very limited knowledge in all things home ownership, the only smart thing for us to do was to buy what some would call a large "fixer-upper" home in a short sale and attempt to do some of the renovations ourselves...Oh wait, that's not the smart thing, cause that's what we did.

So since our purchase date of April 5th and then our move-in date of May 14th, we've done a fair amount of necessary work on the place. Some of this we did ourselves (painting, some shoe molding, changing out light fixtures, etc) and some we left to the professionals (fixing wood rot on the outside siding, plugging up holes left in the porch overhang by the previous owner's own attempts at DIY porch construction, exterminating the roach infestation that resulted from previous owner's DIY construction attempts, etc.). We bought enough furniture from discount and wholesale sites to outfit about five of our previous apartment and I've gone half insane trying to figure out how to interior decorate our place so that it looks like us but with more style then Ross's penchant towards skull art and my love of prints but lack of knowledge on how to actually make them look good together.

We're definitely on our way. There's is a lot more work to do, namely major renovations on the kitchen and both bathrooms and some house painting so that we don't have purple doors, a purple porch and two different colors of siding and trim. Also, some landscaping would be nice since we have no grass, but a girl can't be picky.

Here is the house by the numbers so far:

Days since purchase = 176
Days since move-in = 138

Square footage of old apartment = 450sq ft
Square footage of new house = 2450 sq ft

# of pieces of furniture moved from NYC = 5
# of pieces of furniture purchased = 17
# purchased from Overstock.com = 10

# of massive bushes Ross ripped out from the front and back yards = 10
# of weird tree growths chainsawed down by new neighbors 2 days after meeting them = 1

# of toolbelts I lovingly purchased for Ross at yard sale = 1
# of times Ross has worn lovingly purchased toolbelt = 0

# of wood floor contractors who swore that the pasted linoleum Ross scraped off the floor was asbestos-based = 1
Percentage of asbestos found in adhesive sample that I panicked and took to a lab = 0%
# of calls Ross made to certain wood floor contractors threatening legal action for giving his wife a nervous breakdown = 1

# of Gallons of paint purchased = 8
# of mostly full gallons of rusted over paint cans left by previous owner and found in shed = Over 30
# of environmental disasters I probably caused trying to dry out paint cans with kitty litter as instructed by city = 1

The house:
Living Room -


As you can see, my print love has invaded the floor in the form of a Kilim rug. Ross affectionately called this the "drug rug" for the first couple of months after purchase because he said it looked like something one would make a hemp poncho out of. He loves it now.



My office:
When we first moved in -


And now -


Yes, these are two totally different rooms. After living for a month and trying to work in the wood-paneled hell that was that room at the back of the house I decided that I needed to commandeer the room that is supposed to be a dining room at the front of the house and make it my office. And I couldn't be happier.

Dining Room:
Before -


And After -

This room was so random that we had no idea what it was going to be when we moved in. It's supposed to be a sunroom and gets lots of light, but it had a red cement tile floor and rough cedar walls. But we kept just finding ourselves in there to eat on our little card table so we decided to make it our dining room. After having a contractor tell us that sanding the walls would be disasterous and then having the "Grout Doctor" determine that trying to clean the tile would be futile, we decided to paint the floor and decorate around the walls. We decided on an "Argentine wine cellar" motif. Oh and Ross made that table. And it's awesome. This may be our favorite room.

Kitchen:


Nothing to see here folks, just ugliness. While I am rich in ideas on how to renovate this kitchen, I am currently poor in funds to make it happen. So fruit tile countertop and first generation dishwasher, I will live with you...for now.

Game Room:



Originally my office, this is now Ross's "sports bar". One woman's hell is another man's oasis. I think the pictures explain all that one needs to know about this room.

Guest Room:

Our previous "guest room" was the recliner chair in our living room. Now we have a real bed for y'all! And not just any bed, but the entire bedroom suit I grew up with. If that doesn't scream come and stay with us, I really don't know what will.

Downstairs bathroom (aka Cash's bathroom):

I thought putting the Coconut Monkey Bank in this room would make it whimsical. However nothing can make floor to ceiling Pepto Bismal pink tile whimsical.

Laundry/Mudroom:

This is my most recently completed project. The walls were previously orange with some sort of either dark green or black "splashes". Also, those curtains are a bit of a crafty moment for me made from curtains left behind by the previous owners and stick on wall decals. Ross is still iffy on the curtains...

Upstairs hallway:

We never had pictures up or around in the NYC apartment due to lack of space. Now I have an entire hallway of family pictures. This makes me happy.

Upstairs bathroom:

Just..ugh. I can't even comment it is so awful.


Master Bedroom:



I'd be lying if I didn't admit that this shoe closet, which is larger than the only closet we had in our NYC apartment, may have been the deciding factor in my mind about purchasing this house.

Cash's Room:
What we were working with -


And what it is now -




I'm very happy with this room, Cash seems pretty happy with it and it will definitely grow with him.

Backyard:


Ross has probably spent about equal time on this yard as we have on the house. It's a lot of yard with a lot of trees (and little grass) but we love it and think that Cash will definitely love it in years to come.

So that's it for now. There will definitely be much more to do for many (many) years to come but we love it so far.