A quick one for your Friday

Just an average night in the Kinnear household:

Last night, John and Lily came home from the store and Lily had apparently picked out two new pairs of pajama pants for me. You may not know this, but I’m a sucker for some good pajama pants. Maybe that’s because 5 out of 7 days a week that’s all I wear. So this was a big deal to her. Needless to say, she was excited to give them to me.

A little while later, I was sitting on the couch with Owen, watching her play when she came over to me, looked me up and down, looked at my legs, lifted them off the couch and says to me: “You pee on the couch? Yeah? You need some new pants? Yeah?” with the utmost concern on her face.

After double checking (surely I couldn't have missed that), I said “no, mommy didn’t pee on the couch.”. and she went on about her business. She came back a few minutes later, did the same thing and said with that same amount of concern: “mommy, you pants are wet. We need to change them. Come.” Yes, that’s really how she talks.

I realized she just really wanted me to be wearing my new pajama pants. And here I was, six o’ clock at night and still in jeans like a chump. So I obliged. She took me to my room, grabbed my new pants and ordered me to lay down so she could change my pants.  I decided to just put them on and pretend like she was helping. She told me good job. I was strangely proud of myself.

You’d think that would be the end of the story. But remember, there were two pairs of pajama pants gifted that day. So sure enough, after dinner when we went downstairs, Lily decided to announce to the room that I had pooped my pants and needed new ones. It took an unreasonable amount of argument to convince her that I had not, in fact, pooped my pants and maybe she should to check on her baby doll. Apparently her baby doll had indeed pooped her pants and got three consecutive diaper changes.

Oh my child. So maternal, that one.

Hey remember that time I had a baby?

.....and then forgot to tell the internet?

Yes, I have been a bad bad blogger. My last post was about scheduling my c-section and that it was still 40+ days away. The evidence is right there that I have been lazy. No getting around it. But here I am, making up for lost time.

But before we get into that, just a little FYI for you on the blog. You might have noticed that I changed this little blog's outfit (again) and that the title changed. It hardly seems fair to the new guy to keep the blog name as an ode to his sister so I'm going with something a little more....generic? You obviously can still get here by going to www.lilymakesthree.com and eventually I will get around to securing the domain for www.andmoremakesfour.com (I already own it, just have to set it up, so bookmark now! Or wait. Whatevs)

So I owe you a big long post on how the delivery went and all that jazz. But the fact is, it's late and if I go to bed now, I might be able to log a good amount of sleep because little man is conked out. So I will just leave you with pictures of my cute offspring and a promise that I am, indeed, going to be keeping up on this blog. Thanks for putting up with me.

On the books

Yep, d-day is officially on the books for the little dude. Translation: "We have finally scheduled a date for my c-section to give birth to my son."

My actual due date (i.e. hitting 40 weeks of gestation) is on November 15th. But because I went into labor naturally with Lily at 39 weeks, the doctor was going to do the c-section a little early so it was scheduled and everyone was prepared. So all this time we'd been told November 8th would most likely be the day.

Here's my funny blonde pregnant moment story:

Back at the beginning of my pregnancy, I scheduled all of my routine check-up appointments at once. We scheduled them all the way through the end of the pregnancy, including one on November 8th. After I thought I'd have the baby by then, I decided to keep the appointment anyway, just in case. So last week, I got a call from the doctor's office saying that my OB would be out of town on November 8th and did I mind seeing the nurse that day instead?

In my mind I just laughed thinking "silly doctor's office. I'm having my c-section that day. I don't even need that appointment." So I told them it wasn't a problem and continued to giggle to myself about how silly they were.

Fast forward a few hours to dinner time when I'm telling John my funny conversation from earlier that morning. Now picture his face as he waits for it to click. Waiting....waiting....waiting........

....click.

MY DOCTOR IS GOING TO BE OUT OF TOWN ON NOVEMBER 8TH??

I called the office the next morning and asked for some more details. She was going to be on vacation from the 3rd through the 12th. Super duper. So in my mind that meant I either had to have the c-section on the 1st (14 days early...not happening) or wait until the 13th (I may not make it that long based on when I had Lily).

When I finally had my appointment yesterday to talk to my OB about it, those were pretty much my options. She also suggested that we could still schedule it while she was gone but with one of the other practicing doctors instead. John is a very strong proponent to not delivering a baby before that baby tells you that he or she is ready and I'm inclined to agree with him. As convenient as a scheduled c-section sounds, there's something to say about the excitement of going into labor when your body decides it's time. So we decided to just schedule it for the day after my doctor comes back and if I go into labor early, we will get the doctor on call.

We had a mini panic right after we scheduled it thinking that Thanksgiving was that week and that we'd be celebrating in the hospital. Luckily, it's actually the next week. John thinks it would have been cute and fun and a great story to tell. He would have thought that until my hospital-grade Thanksgiving dinner was flying at his head.

So with that, I will tell you that my official c-section date is scheduled for November 13th. Though we'll have our "go-bag" packed and ready before then. Just in case.

46 days and counting...

Nap Time

I clean Lily's room every day. Sometimes she helps, sometimes I do it when she's not home. But this is generally the way it looks when it's clean:

Now let's fast-forward approximately 2.5 hours to after she wakes up from a nap:

To the untrained eye, this may look like a room that a toddler had some sort of tantrum in. You are probably thinking "man, this kid hates taking naps and takes it out on her poor room! She must have been in there for hours just throwing things around!"

You'd think that. But you'd be wrong. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

I know this wasn't a tantrum or a toddler boredom session because there are still things on the shelf. Aside from the one book, all of her reading material is still where it should be. How many books do you know that have survived an actual tantrum? The diaper genie is still upright and the wipes haven't been emptied from their pack. It's all just blankets.

As you can see, all of these blankets came from the green bin on the lower left shelf, where they were previously folded and nicely tucked away. Now they are seemingly strewn about haphazardly on the floor. Or are they? Let's take a look at blanket #1 here. See it yet?

Let's take a look underneath:

Yep, like Lily herself, this little guy has been laid down for a nap. Let's peek under a few other blankets.

After I lay Lily down and leave the room, she proceeds to lay down all her little friends for naps. The trouble is, she has far more blankets than animal friends. So she starts to get creative. Observe:

Yep, that is a shoe, a hat and a block, that have all been laid down for nap time. Under blankets. Ya know, in case they get cold.

Kind of makes this scene a little cuter when you look again, doesn't it?

Which is why I can never be mad when I go in to get her from a nap and walk in on this. Sure, I could move all of her blankets into another room or store them higher so they're out of reach. But why would I do that? The two minutes it takes every day to re-fold them and put them back in the bin is worth the mental image of her putting all of them to bed with a blanket. And I can usually hear her singing songs before she falls asleep. Much like when she puts very tired, pregnant mommy to sleep on the couch:


Ah, sweet child of mine. How I love thee.

So by the way....

I started another blog. Again. Don't worry, I think this is only the 5th blog in as many years. I'm glad you are all keeping up.

LilyMakesThree has had its ups and downs and I've gone back and forth on whether I wanted it to be anything when it grows up. I've come to the conclusion that, just like I don't want Lily to stop using words like sub-tubby (strawberry) and fo-peep-teen (fourteen), I don't want this blog to grow up any further, either. For a while I was actually putting in effort to network and get followers and make sure that my blog posts where picked up on search engines and all that teacher's blogger's pet stuff. But really all that came from it were a bunch of people that I networked with who I don't think read the blog, nor do I ever check on theirs. (Sorry if any of you are reading this)

This is in no way a good-bye from this blog. I will still be posting. But it's not going to be reaching toward a large audience. It's going to be what it started out as and what it probably should have stayed as: a simple blog about my family. I will also be guest-posting now and then on John's incredibly awesome blog www.askyourdadblog.com (which has completely taken off since he launched it and I could not be more proud of him!)

This blog started when Lily was born and it's been a great place to document her life and it is going to be a great place that she can share with her brother. So to any of you that were here from blogging networks that want to stick around, that's awesome and I welcome you. I hope you enjoy reading the chronicles of my little family. But don't be expecting any giveaways or blog-hops or the like around these parts.

Now, back to the new blog thing. I have found quite a bit of enjoyment in doing some redecorating around these parts and it's actually been pretty fun to document some of that. So that's what the new blog is focused on; just me tackling this box we've lived in for two and half years. I'm not looking to make that blog big either, it's really more just a place for me and my family and friends to watch the transformation of certain rooms in my house. A diary of sorts. So if you would like to keep up with that one, head on over to www.usversushouse.com

Thank you to all who have stuck around, I like forward to being able to share with you :)

Planes, Trains and….fire-cucks.

Sure my kid loves baby dolls. Loves them. Loves feeding them, walking them, making them wave hello to people. Loves them. But she also has another very obvious interest: locomotives. Yes, the girl loves her planes. And her trains. And her motorcycles. And her fire trucks. And her sub-tubbies. Ok that one is actually strawberries, I just love the way she says it.

I'm not sure where the fascination came from but it's adorable. That is, until a motorcycle passes and she gets upset yelling "more more mo-cycle!" and I have to follow it around for a while. So to the motorcyclists in the valley that have maybe suspected I was following them...I was. If you had a screaming two year-old in the back seat, you'd understand. Just be flattered.

She likes the idea of them and she likes the words. But in practice, she doesn’t quite get it. She sees a bus and yells ‘fire-cuck!’ Then will see a dump truck and yell ‘bus!’ Oh and if she doesn’t know what it is? Then it must be a boat. Really only mo-cycles are recognized. Bicycles are also mo-cycles. But we’ll let that one slide. Close enough, right?

I’m going to be so sad when she actually figures these things out. I don’t like imagining the day when she no longer says ‘hecca….copper’ (helicopter) with pause and all. And the day that she no longer says “oh ‘scuse me guys!” after she burps. Or announces ‘toot!’ whenever she farts. Someday she won’t do those things. But I’ll still remember. 

Lookin' for airplanes with Papa.

The finer working materials...like duct tape

Poor kids' room. Poor, poor kids' room. I got all excited about it when I painted and installed a new light fixture and then just kind of moved on with my life. So the kid has been sleeping in a grey box for the last few weeks. She doesn't seem to mind though.

Well now I'm going to remedy that. With everything (everything for now, anyway) done with the guest bedroom/office, I can refocus my efforts. Which is good because yet-to-be-named is going to be here in less than three months. Three. Freaking. Months. I'm cool, I'm fine....I'm not freaking out or anything.

....ok maybe a little.

Not only was the room boring with the lack of any artwork on the walls, I actually still had old hardware up there from the window treatments that were there before. So it was time to tackle the window. Here's an idea of how boring the window was before:

I had seen some things on Pinterest that I really liked (seriously, are there any ideas that don't come from Pinterest?) but what really caught my eye was the sleek look of a window cornice instead of a valance this time around. I did some searching and came across a few not-super-technical tutorials. However I was determined to keep this on the cheap and their cost estimate was $50-$100 for the whole project. Challenge accepted.

One of the materials called for was foam insulation board. You can find it at any hardware store for between $15 and $30 or so. Too much. I don't think you are fully grasping how little money I was determined to spend on this. So I thought to myself - it's really just foam sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard. Well so is foam board. I'm not going to insulate my house with it anytime soon but I figured it would work for this project.

So I grabbed a few pieces of foam board from the craft section at Walmart. It wasn't nearly as big as what you would get at the hardware store, obviously so I had to buy a few pieces. But at a whopping $0.89 each, was still a good penny cheaper.

Each board is 20"x30". I made the on-the-fly decision that I wanted my cornice to be 10" tall, merely because that would be exactly half of one of the boards, it would make things a little easier. And it looked easy on the eyes...or the windows.

They were really easy to cut just by marking my cutting line, then scoring it with an x-acto knife. This was some pretty easy material to work with.

The window itself is 6' wide and I wanted to extend the cornice another 6" on each side. So I needed a 7' long board. However, these are only 30" long so I did the most reasonable thing I could think of.

I duct taped them. I'm not kidding. I busted out the duct tape.

Now I had one long foam board that was 7' long and 10" wide. This is the front of my cornice. Now I needed to decide how far I wanted them to stick out of the wall. For mounting purposes, I needed it to stick out at least 3 inches. For impact purposes, I wanted more. So I just decided on six. Yeah, six is a good number.

I made another 7' long board that was only 6" wide instead of 10". I took this entire board and hot glued it perpendicular to my front board. That made the top of my cornice.

Yep, some hot glue and a good solid two-minutes of waiting did the trick. Gave me some good time to really admire my duct-taping work.Once that was dry and secure, I needed to add the sides.

From my scraps, I cut down two pieces of 6"x10" to fit perpendicular to each end of my 7' board.  I ran a bead of hot glue on two sides (one 6" side and one 10" side) and held it in place. More duct-tape admiring commenced.

Once I had that part done, I let it sit to harden for a while and then busted out my batting. I just used regular craft batting that happened to be the cheapest stuff I could find at JoAnn's. I figure if it's not the warmest grade batting, my cornice won't complain too much. And if it does, we're moving from this haunted house.

I laid out my cornice over my batting and measured to make sure I would have enough. Barely.

In the tutorial, it says to lay your batting sandwiched (is that really the second time I've used that term in this post?) between your fabric and your board. I felt like that would be a pain to work with considering how little wiggle room I had with my batting. So what did I do? You guessed it: I grabbed my duct tape.

I pulled up the sides of the batting and got it good and wrapped around my board so it would fit and it was all even. Then I did lay out my fabric to give it a go. The thing I like about this cornice method is that you don't have to sew, glue or staple your fabric. I just laid it out, wrapped it around my board (treating the corners like you would wrap a present. A poorly wrapped present) and used pins to hold it in place. Because the board is made with foam, the pins actually stayed put really well.

To hang my new best friend cornice, I picked up some L-brackets from Walmart. It's pretty straight-forward. Just mark where you want them, make sure you're level and the brackets screw right into the wall. But, because nothing for me can be straight forward, I had to do it twice because A) I put them up too high and B) I didn't screw them into studs.

Now granted, because this thing is literally made out of foam and duct tape, I think it weighs less than a pound. So there's not much risk of it pulling down the brackets. But if you're gonna do something, may as well do it right.

Once you have your L-Brackets up, you can actually just slide your board right over the top of them. Then you can spend 30 minutes trying to take a picture only to realize that the sun is really working against you and you can't take a picture of a sunny window when you have no photography experience. So this is the best you get:

I'll have some more pictures up in a later post but I have some other projects going on in this room that you aren't privy to just yet. Stay tuned for those.

So how did I do on keeping under the $50-100 estimate from the other tutorials? Here's a breakdown:

Foam boards: $2.67
Batting: $9.99 on sale for $4.99
Fabric (2 yards): 7.99/yd  JoAnn's coupon for 50% a cut of fabric: $7.99
Duct tape: on hand - FREE
L-Brackets: $3.96
Total: $19.61

Not too bad for such a big piece that makes a pretty big statement in the room. I, of course, immediately decided I didn't like the fabric once it was up (far too light, I need some boldness in my life). So my total cost is going to go up when I go buy new fabric. But that's life. See now why I like the pinning method instead of the sewing method? It will be a cinch to change! So stay tuned for that little "upgrade".

How are your projects going? Anything coming seriously under budget? Or over?