Fun and Games

Each month, our church has an Adult Game Night. Don't let your mind wonder here! All this means is adults getting together and playing board games. When I say adult game night, and they know it's out of a Unitarian Church, some people go other places with that. We agreed to host it at our house this month. A potluck starts at 6:30pm and games start at 8. My contribution to the potluck was a king cake (and a salad). Not to toot my own horn, but it was delicious! The cream cheese inside was to die for.

 As game time got a little closer, Michael and I moved a few things around and set up 2 folding tables in our living room. Eliza decided that this looked like a lot of fun to crawl under and walk around. I think it would have been fine with her if we had left it like this!

We had 10 or 11 people here to share food and wonderful conversation with. The fun didn't stop on Saturday though! Dad got up a bit early on Sunday we broke out the sled!

I don't know if she knew what to think about it. As you see, she didn't change her expression at all! She wasn't scared, but also didn't appear to be too excited.

Bath Time

 

 I don't know how it's possible, but this little girl gets cuter everyday! And, thankfully, seems to be feeling a bit better. She was able to keep 2 ounces at a time down today and was very interested in eating solids. We always love nights that Michael is home because he is in charge of bath time and mom can just sit back and enjoy her two favorite people. I think swim lessons are making her enjoy the bath more. She gets so tickled at herself splashing. I think it might be time to get in the big tub instead of in her baby tub, in the big people tub.  

 

Stomach Bug Still Visiting

 If someone were to walk in our house today, I don't think they would think Eliza is not feeling well. She woke up with smiles, kisses for me and vomit after her first feeding. As soon as she finishes throwing up, she is back to her happy self. It is very confusing.

I brought a load of her laundry up from the basement to fold, but made a cup of coffee before starting. When I came back in, she was laying on the clothes in the basket. At first I was worried that she didn't feel well because she was leaned over funny, but I think she liked the warmth. When I called her name, she popped up with a smile.

 I got sidetracked again and didn't immediately fold the clothes, so Eliza helped me by taking them out of the basket. I put them back and then she wanted to climb around it and in it. I always joke with Michael that we don't need to buy her toys because she finds joy in everyday things.

 When I finally committed to folding the clothes, she got in the basket as if saying, "No, those are my toys!" She is such a silly girl.

Also today, we bundled up well and put signs up in the neighborhood for our kitty, Saphira. We haven't seen her since Monday and are hoping that someone will have some information. I love that cat, but what hurts my feelings the most is the pure joy that Eliza gets out of the cat. I hope that she comes through the dog door any second and let's me love on her.

Bug Caught a Bug

 Today started very early for Miss Eliza and I. Around 2:30am, I heard little baby whimpering. When I went in, I noticed she had spit up a bit and had moved to a different part of her crib, I guess to get away from it. I picked her up and she gave the signs for being hungry. I fixed her a bottle and put her back down. At 4am, I heard her in the monitor and when I checked on her, she had lost all of the milk that I fed her. I had to change her because she was quite gross and changed her sheets. 

 For most of the morning, we napped together on the couch. There is nothing sweeter than snuggling up next to this precious baby. I hate that she isn't feeling well, but I love her being cuddly. Since she continued to vomit, I called the nurse and they said to bring her in.

Thankfully, Michael and I got up early to shovel and the city plowed our road early, so we had a nice clear path to get to the doctor. On top of that, it looked pretty outside. Unfortunately, it was in the single digits. We got bundled up and left for the doctor. They said everything looks fine, so she must just have a virus. Equipped with Pedialyte, we went home to snuggle some more.

What I am most thankful for is how happy my Eliza is. Even when she is not feeling well, she has a smile on her face and a kiss for me. I can't get over how cute it is that she laughs at herself being silly. I sure hope that she can always find this joy in life.

Basement Complete!

 Our work started in September, and we just finished all remodeling last weekend. Now, we get to build Michael's man cave. It is part of the basement, but it is something that we want to do for fun, not something that had to be done. We now have no more carpet in our house, only rugs. This makes for less allergies and easier cleaning :) The quote we got to do all of this was around $18,000 and we did it ourselves for under $4000!!

Office/ Craft Room (AKA Woman Cave)

There was mold all along the wall with the window, so we had to rip the wall out, change some studs, tear out the carpet, sand the floor, replace drywall, paint walls and floor and put everything back!

Basement Bathroom

There was mold behind the shower and some up the left wall. We removed the drywall and studs after ripping out the pre-fab shower and took out the tile. We sanded the floor, painted the walls and floor and tiled the shower.

Guest Room (and now legal bedroom)

 The left and back wall (the two you can see in the picture) were the worst with mold. We ripped out the drywall, replaced some studs, ripped out the carpet, sanded the floor, repainted the walls, painted the floor and had an egress window put in. What the above picture doesn't show s the mess we had when they put in the window. 

They didn't refinish the inside of the window sill or replace the drywall because they would only do one of two things: refinish the inside or put a cover on the outside well. Since the well cover was more expensive, we went with that.

Hallway

 The left wall had mold in it, so we ripped that out, took out the carpet, sanded it, painted the walls and floor and build game shelves at the end of the hallway.

Stairs

And finally, the stairs. We ripped out the carpet, sanded the wood, stained and painted and then finished it off with some polyurethane.

All in all, we are glad to be done! We have learned a lot but don't particularly want to do it again. 

Snow day

This morning before we got out of PJs, Eliza practiced her new found talent of banging on her glockenspiel. Look at that good posture while practicing! I love that poof of hair on her head. I think she gets cuter every day.

Over the course of the day, we got quite a bit of snow. Needless to say, Eliza and I stayed inside for most of the day. This gave us a plenty of time to play and cuddle. After I put Eliza to bed, it was time for me to do another round of shoveling. Oh how I long for warmer days, or a warmer climate.

She Likes What She Sees

Eliza is very interested in seeing picture of babies, especially this one. The above picture is Eliza looking at the phone so that she can see what we look like. I don't think she realizes that it is her, but she is always excited to see herself.

Last night, we went out to dinner with one of our favorite Lincoln people, Miss Sarah Fischbein. Even though it was very cold, we had Sarah take a family picture of us on the way out. I thought it was very cute that Michael wrapped 'Liza up in his jacket.

 

I definitely take advantage of the fact that Eliza likes to look at herself. If she is getting into something and she ignores my requests to redirect her attention, all I have to say is "look!" and show her the camera with the picture turned toward her. When she sees that there is "a baby", she crawls over and makes faces.

  

 I am not sure what she was thinking, but I am so glad that I caught this shot. It shows off her two bottom teeth so well. That scrunchy nose gets me every time :)

 What really melted my heart was this sweet face here. She was giggling at herself sticking out her tongue and making noises. It is days like this that make me feel so lucky to stay at home with her.