The Floors Before and After

Bedroom Floor Before

During ...

After (One)

After (Two)

Nursery Before

During ...

After (One)

After (Two)

Also, today I made muffins and they turned out. This is big.

Seriously, We Need Door Knobs

Last night I locked myself in the bedroom by accident. In an effort to keep our tiny furry ones from my cereal and strawberries and milk I pulled the door closed behind me. For the first time ever it closed all the way. I thought "well isn't that great" (since it always stuck before) until I realized there was now no way to get out. I pushed and banged and eventually found the screwdriver in the sewing kit and took off all the metal parts I had access to. Still stuck.

I love old homes (and all their quirks) so much that I've stopped noticing things like missing door knobs. Our bedroom door has no door knob only a hole where once a door knob sat. There's probably a hand full of other doors in the house just like this that I've also never noticed since I've never been locked on one side of them.

R had fallen asleep downstairs watching a documentary about swords (yes swords) and I was pretty sure there was no way to wake him. I tried to call him on Skype (having my laptop) and him being near his computer - no good. I tried stomping a tiny bit but with the floors being so lovely and so new it was hard to make myself make any real ruckus. So I sent him an e-mail hoping he'd see it and rescue me before leaving for work:

SUBJECT: Dude - I am locked in the bedroom ...

BODY: No laughing! I shut the door last night when I went to bed and now it won't open. I tried taking off the metal piece from the inside but nope. I tried pushing really hard and that didn't work either.

Can you get me out before you go to work? Seriously, we need door knobs.

And then I went to bed - hoping and praying that just for tonight the 1am and 3:45am pees would bother someone else. Nope. When I woke up at 1am with a little urge I managed to fall back asleep but only until 2:40am.

New Plan: call my cell phone from the house phone 17 times until R wakes up and thinks "who the eff is calling at this time" and then hoooppefully checks the number and is intrigued by the fact that I am technically calling me. It worked. I tried not to laugh as I explained the situation over our phones. Three minutes later I was out and after a quick hug of immense gratitude and relief I was down the stairs on my way to further relief.

I think door knobs would qualify for the home renovation tax credit, no?

Ex-ercise

I went for a walk today since it is January 27th and 6 degrees outside and this is not only wild but worth celebrating with some extended outsideness. That (six degrees in near-February) is the good news. The bad - my legs hurt by the time I got to the bottom of the hill (yes bottom not top). Eek! Apparently exertion and I have been on a break.

My Summers Sanders Prenatal Workout DVD arrived a few days ago in the mail. I read quite a lot about it online and 26 of its 27 amazon reviews were bustling with affection. Tomorrow morning for sure. I am still tired most evenings so I know there is no point in my planning to voluntarily jump around at 7 o'clock at night. And for the first time in my life (a begrudging 10am riser by nature) I have wisps of energy in the mornings. I had planned this week to start going to the gym in the mornings but (no surprise) that didn't pan out so well. I couldn't sleep Sunday night or Monday night and after getting some much needed coma-like sleep last night I didn't even recognize the sound of my alarm clock when it off. I am still convinced that I can handle exercise in the morning (abnormal sleep patterns notwithstanding). I am less convinced that I can handle a whole bunch of people (gym people) before a shower, coffee, two glasses of apple juice, granola, and some contemplation. DVD = exercise - other exercisers = wicked.

Charlie (Charles) Savino Calabrese

For a boy ...

I can't believe how right it feels

How Do You Say Moo In Italian?

R and I were talking (dreaming) on the weekend of spending a year in Italy with you after you arrive. Maybe a year or two after to give us some time to get the basics (your sleeping and eating) down. It's something we'd love to do. Sure vacations are cool but imagine getting to live somewhere new and imagine the food! We've yet to figure out what we'll do to pay for said food - maybe farm. You haven't met any animals yet but I am sure you will love them. Or maybe teach which would mean living in a really rural (and likely southern but definitely beautiful) part of the county. You keep growing and we'll keep planning.

In other weekend news - this was a super productive one. The first one in which the contents of our upstairs were not puked all over the living room. I think this return of things to their proper floors was a catalyst to getting all those other things done that I had been putting off. For the month of January, it was like "everything is so chaotic why shouldn't I just lie on the bed (in the living room) and watch marathon HGTV? I can't find any clean socks anyways so there's no point thinking about leaving the house".

With clean socks and an eager mind I painted the nursery!

I've learned since learning of you that its best if I now approach things in increments. Whereas in the past I would have cleaned the room, painted the ceilings, taped the ceiling lines and then painted the walls in a single afternoon (thank you quick-drying paint) each of these elements now needs its own day (and each also needs to be preceded or followed by a nap). So Thursday finished cleaning, Friday painted the ceilings and trim, Saturday taped and then painted the walls (first coat) and Sunday second coat on the walls. It's Tuesday now and the tape still needs to come off but otherwise it looks great. So fresh! With new floors, a bright white ceiling and a gardeny green all around its like a whole new room.

I was thinking while painting that my anxiety about the nursery is a bit like my anxiety about being your mom (which I try to push out of my thoughts as much as possible - not being your mom just the anxiety). With both I felt/feel like I have no idea what I am doing - for example - how do you design a nursery and how do I teach you to love all living things and not to eat what you find on the ground? The good news after the weekend is that once I jumped into nursery design I emerged in tact on the other side with a not-so-bad-looking baby abode. Here's hoping that being your mom is a little like that (but maybe with just a tiny bit less green under my fingernails).