Transformation

When we first bought our house we decided that we would eventually turn this little cubbie hole spot in the basement into either a play room for the eventual children or into a storage spot. The baby came first so we turned it into a play room.

Once we had the play room, the God Father suggested that we paint a house on the wall outside of the cubbie hole, so we enlisted the help of a friend who is an artist. He took a photo of the blank wall and gave us a few options. We settled on one of the options and yesterday the painting happened.

The basement family room has officially turned into a play room

**this was done freehand, by our friend Tyler and his wife Hadley. If you need a good artist for a mural on your wall I'll give you his number

487 days (or thereabouts)

Natalie is over her cold. It was a rough time, note to self keep her healthy for the foreseeable future. We are all sleeping better these days.

I just got back from another trip to Minnesota. Minnesota, where there isn't much more to do than drink and work. And when I say drink I mean, throw all caution to the wind and party like you are a 20-something college kid, not a 30 year old mother. I have a bruise on each hip and I honestly couldn't tell you where they came from. Might have been from sleeping on the floor one night or maybe I walked into the wall. A friend of mine, supposedly fell of her chair, she might have a few more bruises than me...

Anyway, back to life as a responsible mom, and no more drinking (for at least tonight).

Tomorrow we are hoping to get Natalie to the park, if the weather warms up. If so, I'll return with photos

480 days

Well, our streak of good luck had to com to an end at some point...

Natalie is sick. First time in her 16 months of life, which is a major accomplishment, she is sick. Poor baby. It breaks my heart. It is a little cold which we hope doesn't turn into anything else.

She has been sleeping in our bed for the past two nights, which means I haven't been sleeping. Phil and I have been taking turns holding her during the night...that is the only cold medicine she can have...love.

Wish us the best and say a prayer this icky cold leaves our house soon.

Photos

Two posts in one day....

First up, do you remember when I told you about our trip to Ikea back in July? In that post I promised photos of the finished product - the entertainment center, and then never delivered. I, like most people, hate those blogs that do that - I don't want to hate my blog any longer...here is the reveal:

I would still like to hang the TV on the wall, but it works for now. What doesn't work is the opening for the cable box and speaker system. Natalie LOVES to push those buttons. So for now, here is what it looks like:

Now to the good stuff. I mentioned in my last post we spent time over the past weekend with family. Godfather was over to watch the hockey game and then took Natalie and her balloon for a walk:

Here is Natalie sitting in her booster chair, which is her favorite chair in our house. She is showing me her zuby (tooth in Bulgarian).

Here she is eating our afternoon snack, using her pencil as a fork

Daily Happenings

Long time no post...because I've been busy.

Last week I was, once again, in Minnesota for work. I returned home Thursday evening and started cleaning the house for the retirement party we were hosting for my dad Saturday night. The party was so much fun (just a little stressful).

I started Friday by cleaning all the clutter out of all the rooms in the house. It is amazing how much room we have now that all the junk is gone (well, not gone, but out of sight out of mind). I also had a cleaning company come and clean all the rooms - so nice! After a quick trip to the store for all the food, we had some friends over for drinks and snacks. Saturday, after a morning walk, a girlfriend came over to help set up the house and food for the party. I made a trip to the liquor store and grocery store for the last minute items. The party started at 5:00, and surprisingly we were all able to get showered and ready by 4:30 (Phil & Natalie even fit in a nap)!

We had about 30 people over for a light dinner and drinks. It was so fun to see my dad interact with friends from all walks of his life, a friend from his first job 45 years ago, friends he met through work, through mutual friends, people who were at my parents wedding, who were at our wedding, and family. We finished up the night by 8:30. Godfather and Auntie gave Natalie a bath and we all crashed until 9:00 the next morning! (I tell Natalie that good babies sleep in, sometimes she listens.)

Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos of the event!

Sunday we watched Canada beat the US in the Gold medal hockey game, then went to dinner at my parents. All-in-all, a great weekend!

Just because...

Give me that camera

hide and seek

Looking at photos

Home again, home again, jigity jig

Well, we are back from all of our travels and we are all standing...barely.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Minnesota was the first stop for us and what a stop it was. We (Grandma, Natalie, and I ) were supposed to leave on Sunday morning at 9:50 am....supposed to that is. Well, as with most mornings I was running a little late, not thinking much of it we high tailed it to the airport just knowing that we would have no trouble. The airport in our city isn't ever really busy - so it shouldn't be an issue getting our bags checked and through security. Well, best laid plans... My mom got to the airport before we did and called saying that it was REALLY busy, so I told her to just meet us at the sky cap on the upper level - there wasn't a line, so we could breeze right through. Again, best laid plans... Because the sky cap was a "Delta" sky cap and our tickets were booked on a Northwest plane (through the Delta website), he couldn't help us - thanks for wasting 10 minutes of our time to tell us that...

We raced inside to find lines the likes of which I'd never seen. We cruised over to the shortest line (1st class) and waited, and waited, and waited. By the time we made it to the counter and told the woman what flight we were trying to get on she responded (without looking up from her computer) "the 9:50? you can't be on that flight, I'll see if I can get you on something else." Great!

She was able to get us on the 1:30 flight, so we checked our bags and went home to wait. We made it back to the airport in plenty of time to get through security and get on the plane. The door to the plane closed and we pushed back, only to wait for a little over an hour on the runway...Lucky for us (and everyone on the plane) Natalie was so tired that she promptly fell asleep and slept through the one hour wait on the runway and the 2 and a half hour flight, waking up about 5 minutes before we landed (what a peach!)

By the time we got to Minnesota it was 6:30 and by the time we had a car and were leaving the airport it was 7:00. I had to make copies for work the next day and pick up food for Natalie and we needed dinner. So we found a Target, bought food for the week, found a Kinko's and requested the copies I needed, then made the short trip to the hotel to check in and eat at the hotel restaurant. The hotel was very nice and extra helpful while checking in with all our bags, even though the bell boy said "How many people are in your party?" when he saw our bags :)

I was ultra busy at work while there, leaving at 7:30 and not returning to the hotel until 8 or later each night. My mom was (as always) great! Never making me feel like she and Natalie shouldn't have come. When I returned from work, tired, stressed and needing bed, she knew that just that 20 minutes with Natalie and her was all I needed and it made the trip and all the work worth it. I said to her one night that someone had mentioned that it probably wasn't worth my mom and Natalie coming along, because when did I actually see them...my mom looked at me and said "Does that person have a good relationship with their mother? Do you know that even if I had to travel for days just to be able to spend 20 minutes with you I would?" I just smiled and gave her a hug - because I feel the same way about her. It makes me know that is the mom I hope to be for Natalie.

Thursday afternoon we packed up the car and made our way towards the airport, stopping for lunch along the way. We got to the airport and finally got to the gate. My mom and Natalie were flying home and about 20 minutes after they were supposed to leave Phil was going to get to Minnesota and then fly to London with me. So after a tearful goodbye to my mom and Natalie, the gate door shut and I waited for the plane to fly away and for Phil to arrive...well, I waited and waited and waited and the plane never left. There was a mechanical issue and they ended up waiting an hour and a half before taking off. Phil arrived and we watched the plane until it finally left. I continued to cry every 5 minutes until we got on our plane and left for London. I then gave myself one last cry in the bathroom and then told myself that we would have a good time and the days would fly by (which they did).

We got to London the next day (Friday), made our way to the hotel. I worked, Phil slept, then I slept for an hour and we decided to make the 20 minute (ha) trek to London. We finally got to London, made our way through the train station and then on to the underground. We went first to Piccadilly Circus and wandered all around, finding a cute "local" bar (which we stopped in for a quick beer...so delicious), then found China Town. We walked for about another hour before stopping in a local burger shop for dinner then made our way back to the underground stop, back to the train station and back to hotel.

Saturday we slept in a little then made it back to London, went to Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery and walked all over. Made our way back towards our Hotel, hitched a ride with a person from the train to a local pub enjoyed dinner, beer and wine. Then walked to our hotel. Slept in on Sunday had a crazy time getting to London, but finally made it and saw Big Ben, Parliament,Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the Jubilee Bridge and made our way back to Trafalgar Square for lunch. Then back to the pub near our hotel for beer and relaxing.

Monday I worked so Phil went to London and visited the British Museum, the National History Museum and did more exploring. Tuesday I worked, then joined Phil for lunch at "our" pub, we took a nap after that and then went back to the pub for another beer (the beer is so good it is a shame not to drink this much).

Wednesday we were up at 5:00 to make it to the airport 3 hours ahead of our departure time, then flew to Detroit, then home. I had a pretty nasty cold, so flying was not my friend that day. We were so happy to be home and see Natalie and family!

First night - China town and burgers for dinner

Little church and cemetery near our hotel

Big Ben

Beer - Yum

Trafalgar Square

Westminster Abbey

Grounds at the hotel

London Eye & Thames River

Tower Bridge

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go

With my mom and baby in tow...

Tomorrow I start a week and a half of traveling for work. First stop Minnesota. My mom and Natalie will be joining me for this visit, which as I write this, I still have second thoughts about. I'm very happy that I have a baby who is easy to travel with and a mom who is willing to drop everything and babysit in a hotel room in a city she doesn't know. What will they do all day with no car and no knowledge of their surroundings? Play. Play in the room, in the lobby, at the neighboring hotel, on a bus to the Mall of America - there are options. Not great options in the cold, but options. Selfishly I think it would be nice to leave them home...

My mom will bring Natalie home on Thursday and the family will start their week of babysitting...because Phil is meeting me in Minnesota and we are heading to London for a week. I'm working and Phil decided to come along for the weekend. It is the first time I'll be away from Natalie for longer than a work day. It will be harder on me than her, I hope.

I'll report back with photos of both locations. My mom, Natalie and I are staying in a nice hotel in Minnesota. I've heard the beds are wonderful, so I hope Natalie will cooperate and we will both sleep like babies. Phil and I will be staying just outside of London and are looking forward to full days of sightseeing, eating and drinking. I'm thinking we will be even more tired upon our return than I am right now...although, I'm not sure that is humanly possible.

Dance Party

Natalie loves to dance. Any time she hears music she starts to bop around. My brother took a video of her rocking out to Paul Simon - you can find it on you tube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7YSTeJT89s

I also took a little video of her dancing to the music her piano plays

Enjoy the show

Grandma + Nanny = granny?

While we were searching for a nanny my mom stepped in and babysat. She is a trooper, getting up early every morning for a week to come and watch little Natalie. On top of that, she has taken Natalie outside to put the snow suit we bought to good use. They go on walks and play in the back yard. Natalie is in shear heaven - she loves my mom and gets super excited when she sees her.

Our new nanny started on Monday (yea!) . She is working part time this week, so that Natalie "eases" into it. Monday was a half day, then we are adding an extra hour every day so that Natalie gets comfortable with it. My mom has, again, been coming over to help out when the nanny leaves, and she hasn't even complained!

While I was completely stressed out over the holidays looking for nanny (and knowing that I wouldn't find one in time), my brother, the God Father (or Ga as Natalie calls him), reminded me that the reason you live by family is so that they can help at times like this. It is so true. I was nice knowing that my mom, dad, and he were willing to come and help out when needed.