Evelyn's 1st Birthday

My baby is ONE!  We had a fun weekend celebrating Evelyn's first birthday.  We planned a small birthday part at home.  Haha.  Nothing is small when it's our family!  I have 4 sibs and there are 9 cousins, so it's never really small.  But it's FUN.  The day of her party was Saturday and her birthday was Sunday - both turned out to be beautiful days.  Sunny and warm.  Oliver's mom came down from Toronto to celebrate too, which was nice.  

Just in the past 2 weeks she has become a true walker.  She is off and running to keep up with her cousin Charlotte, who is just 6 weeks older than her.  She has 4 teeth (2 top and 2 bottom).  She's eating lots of finger foods now, which is a must for a third child (poor baby - she doesn't get nearly as much spoon feeding as her big sisters did).  She loves her mommy right now.  She's been sleeping through the night consistently for about 3 months.  There is still the odd time she gets up in the middle of the night, but most of the time she sleeps until early morning.  She is a little peanut.  She has her 1 year check up with her pediatrician this week, so we'll see how she's growing.  She has the prettiest hazel eyes and fiery red hair.  She can wave bye bye, clap her hands, point to her head.  She says da-da and something that starts with an m sound, but without much purpose at this point. 

 

Sofia and Adelaide are back to taking dance classes, which they enjoy.  I've had long work days lately, but am hoping to take a few days off here and there over the summer.  The girls have a cardiology check up in a few weeks, so I'll make sure to update after that.  For now, a few pictures of the birthday girl!

 

 

 

 

          

Evie and Uncle Rob

 

Some of the cousins

 

Evie and Oma

 

Making bread with Oma

 

 

 Grandma and Madelynn, the newest cousin 

Tired out from birthday fun

 

 

Typical Adelaide!

 

 I gave up on trying to get a nice picture of the 5 of us.



Industrial Shelves

We don't have much empty wall space in the kitchen - mostly taken up with cabinets, sliding glass doors, entry into dining and family rooms.  We do have one corner that have been begging for something.  I decided to go with the industrial looking shelves.  They are a Restoration Hardware knock off for a fraction of the price (and by fraction I mean like 1/348 of the price).  not quite, but they are between $200-$300 A PIECE.  Not lying!

The RH version

 

This is the empty wall in the kitchen, with doorway to the foyer on left and the entrance to family room on right. 

 

Originally I thought 3 shelves.  I then decided on 2 because all I could think of was 3 active girls pulling on or running into the third shelf.   

I bought a 2x8 and had it cut down.  They're about 32 inches in length.  And then I stopped in the plumbing section and picked up the hardware I needed.  3/4 in. pieces.  The long pipe piece (not sure what it's called) is 8 inches long.  here's the picture of the pieces needed.  Thank you, pinterest. 

The flanges (rings) were the most expensive piece at around $5 each.    The shelves ended up costing about $20-$25 each depending on what materials you already have (wood, stain, etc).  I stained the 2x8s with one of my favorites, Rustoleum Kona.  While they were drying I attached the flanges to the wall with screw in drywall anchors

 

 

  And then you screw the long piece right into the flange and then screw the cap on.  The 2x8 boards rest perfectly in there.  And decorate!

 

And they're done!  Aren't they beautiful?  (so happy I found a place for my sweet little pears!) I just love these shelves

I even made 2 more for our family room and a slightly longer length.

I also did one more project for the kitchen that was by Shanty-2-Chic  (one of my favs).  Easy tutorial to follow.

I had a piece of wood ( 1x10?  1x8 maybe?).  It was stained from a previous project.  I gave it two coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint.  After it dried, I took my sander to it and distressed it.  I had intended to use glass Frapuccino bottles, but then Lowe's did not have the brackets in stock that attach the bottles to the wood.  I had to guess at a size and they ended up being a  little too small for the bottle.  I improvised and use a large baby food jar.  It worked in a pinch.  

 

 

I love it!

I'm glad things are coming along in our house!  My goal is to tackle one room per month.  Not every room needs very much.  Most I want to paint trim and paint some walls.  It's been rewarding so far to put our own touch on our house.

New Year, New Home, New Projects: Fireplace Makeover

I still haven't posted pictures of the kitchen remodel up because we still have one project to complete, which is more than a day job.  Soon, I hope!

I have been busy in the meantime with doing other projects.  I like to research (and by research I mean consulting pinterest) my projects before I start them.  I am very methodical when it comes to finding exactly what I want and what I think looks good, and this part takes me awhile.  But the execution of the projects seems to be somewhat impulsive.  I knew I wanted to do something with the fireplace and I had an idea in mind of what I wanted, which was a whitewash effect on the brick.  I don't really think I'd like the look of painted brick and I thought whitewashing might be a middle ground.  I like being able to still see brick - but I'd prefer it not to be so red.  One night I just jumped in and did it - I didn't have many good before pics, but I think I found a few.

So this is the before picture of the fireplace.  This was the listing picture when we bought the house (not our furniture and decor). 

The brick itself wasn't too bad, but I didn't love it.

I started by one night (after the girls were in bed so no fumes would be breathed in) by painting the brass around the doors on the fireplace.  I used Rutoleum High Heat spray paint.  Taping it off took more time than actually spraying two coats of this stuff.

 A few nights after that, I decided I was finally ready to try the whitewashing, even though I was still a little hesitant about it. I actually used a light gray/beige paint that I already had a mixed it with water.  I did about 1 part paint to 4-5 parts water.  It was very drippy, but I started by applying it with a brush and then wiping it off after a couple seconds.  The brick is pretty porous and absorbs a lot.  We also did the mortar. The whole thing probably took a half hour.  I had 2 little helpers, who liked to paint it on.  It was pretty messy because it's so watery, but we did a good job avoiding getting it on the carpet.

 

 Halfway in 

This was the immediate after.  I liked it - was subtle, but I couldn't really see it at night.  I decided that I needed to see it in natural light.

I also painted all the trim white in the room and painted the walls.  finally got a chance to see it a few days later in daylight (lots of late work nights and getting home after dark kept me that from happening until the weekend).  I found some good decor for the mantle and with everything put together - the whitewashing, the wall color (Glidden - Fossil Gray), painted trim and crown moulding I have decided I love it.

and the before and after!  

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  Very subtle.  Just brightens up the space a little.  On to more projects!! 

Hello 2015

We've had a busy and wonderful few months.  November was full with celebrating Adelaide's birthday on the 6th, closing on new house on the 11th, getting our keys on the 17th, remodeling our kitchen, moving in on the 23rd, and celebrating Thanksgiving on the 27th also.  Not to be outdone by December, which followed up with unpacking, a joint birthday party for Adelaide and Sofia, a trip to Toronto, Sofia's birthday, and Christmas.  It really has been a whirlwind. 

We are gradually settling into our new house, which is now starting to feel like home.  It's been hard without many days off, so the unpacking, paint, hanging stuff on walls, has been slow going.  It's now January, and I've just now cleared out the remaining boxes that we had shoved into the living room when we first moved in.  There is always a girl underfoot and that slows me down.  We are all enjoying the space and the house is just what we needed. 

We had two birthdays thown in the mix - Adelaide turned 4 and Sofia turned 6.  Such big girls!  We had a joint birthday party for them in December with all of their cousins (5 more little girls).  Thank goodness for big finished basements with lots of toys.  They all have so much fun together.  And right around the corner was Christmas, which was a nice Christmas at home this year.  Oliver's brother and wife came to Toronto from London, so 2 weeks before Christmas we went up to Toronto to spend some time with them and Oliver's parents.  We hadn't seen them in 2 years, since their wedding in London in 2012.  They enjoyed their nieces, and I'm sure meeting Evelyn for the first time.

We had our share of germs in the month of December - I got the flu followed by pnemonia, partially collapsed lung, and a cold for New Year's (yeah - what??) Adelaide had a cough forever, Evelyn a long cold.  I think the only healthy ones were Sofia (oh wait, she had pink eye) and Oliver.  We're hoping that we've paid our dues and can be exempt for the rest of germ season.  Please and thank you :)  When Sofia was born we were extra aware of germs and her getting sick post-surgery and I remember it being fairly easy to keep her healthy.  With kids in school and preschool now, it's much harder to keep everything at bay.

Sofia and Evelyn had cardiology check ups in November also.  Happy to report that everything looked great for both.  Sofia continues to do well.  She is on Coumadin, which isn't my favorite, but a necessity.  It's hard to regulate with her and we ended up taking her to the ER in December because of a fall.  She said she hit her head and complained of a headache.  CT scan was done and she was fine, but with Coumadin I don't think you can play it too safely.  Her cardiologist calls her dosage "Coumadin light" because they've set her desired INR at a level lower than if you had something like a mechanical valve, but I still worry.  We also talked about going back to Asprin.  He's kind of leaving that up for discussion and up to us, but for now we're staying on Coumadin.  Eventually he'll want her to have a cardiac MRI done (less invasive than a cath), but will probably not recommend that until she is able to lay still for an hour, unless it is needed sooner and in that case she'd need to be sedated.  Evelyn still has mild pulmonary stenosis, which is just a slight narrowing of the valve.  The cardiologist finds it encouraging that it has stayed mild.  They will both go back in May for a check up.

Bring on 2015!

 

Putting Down Some (New) Roots

The thing with any kind of journal is that if you don't keep it up, it's daunting when you finally want to update. I'll keep this in mind so that it's not 3 months in between entries. We had a nice end of the summer, and then I don't know what happened after that. Everything has kind of been a bit of a blur since school began at the end of August. Sofia started full-time Kindergarten and Adelaide began preschool 3 days per week. We squeezed in a short trip over Labor Day weekend to Toronto and a trip with friends to Lake Chautauqua, NY. And we did our annual heart walk.

 

                                                                 Lake Chautauqua

 

                                           

 

 

                                                                         Toronto

 

    

                                                                     Lake Erie

                                                            hanging out around home

 

                  

                                                       Heart Walk 2014

 

 

         

 

I've been surprised at what an adjustment it has been sending Sofia off to school (packing lunches, keeping up on all the paperwork sent from school, getting up earlier to drive her to avoid an hour bus ride, still getting up with Evelyn overnight, usually twice!, and the nightly homework, dinner, bath routines).  It's been a change to our schedules, but the results have been great.  She seems to love school and it keeps her very busy.  I can't believe how much her writing and reading have improved in the 2 months she's been at school.  She is reading so many books on her own and I'm very impressed with her progress.  She loves recess and the playground. 

 

              

                                                Sofia's first day of Kindergarten      

 

  

                                                         Adelaide is soo excited for Sofia!

 



Adelaide is such a little sponge.  She wants to do everything that Sofia is doing, and she can!  She is excited to pick up Sofia's books she brings home from school and read them.  She is very excited with news about Sofia's school day - Mom, Sofia was on PURPRLE today! (the Kindergarten color coded behavior chart) or Marissa shared her snack with Sofia!   Everything is very exciting to Adelaide and she wishes she was old enough to join her big sister at Kindergarten.  She is in preschool 3 mornings per week.  And this big girl is going to turn 4 in 2 weeks!  This girl is going to have to be kept busy in school.  She is a whirlwind.

 

Adelaide's first day of preschool

 

Evelyn is growing.  She is just over 6 months old and she is at a very cute stage.  She is sitting up unassisted now, with an occasional flop backwards.  She is a little thing (long and lean - 15 lb. 14 oz at her 6 month check up), but with chunky thighs.  She is a very sweet baby and likes to observe what's going on.  And there is a lot going on.  She has taken a step backward with her bedtime routine and is getting up twice a night.  It's catching up with me and I'm ready for her to take a few steps forward and start sleeping through the night again. 

 

   

                                                          I love this Hazel-eyed girl!

 

 

 

              Her sisters love "playing" with her - yes, these are underwear on her head. 

 

 

 

Maybe things will improve when we get into our new house and she is in her own room in her real crib (right now in the rental she's still in our bedroom in a cradle, which I think is not ideal at this point).  Yes, our NEW HOUSE!  I'm so excited.  I feel like it's Christmas and I can't wait 3 weeks until we close on it.  After many months of searching and waiting and trying to be patient and not settling, we have found a nice house in a great neighborhood in our desired location.  Somewhere we will live for a long, long time.  We sold our house in June, have been renting an apartment since then, and are so excited to be in our own place again.

 

here it is!  our new house

 

After our months in the apartment, 2200 sq. ft, 4 bedrooms, plus a finished basement sounds like a dream!  Not to mention a few other things that I love - ground floor laundry room, private backyard, and a fireplace.  Now I'm in heaven.  It has some cosmetic updating to do, but I'm up for a challenge and some design updates.  We should be in right before Thanksgiving.  PERFECT!   We literally had been stalking the market for months and when this one came up late on a Friday, I quickly contacted our realtor to see it.  We saw in Saturday late afternoon and by the time we put in our offer at 6 pm there was already another one submitted.  Couldn't believe it.  So the seller's realtor came back to both of us and told us to put your best offers in.  It was hard to come up with an amount that you'd be ok losing the house to, but also if you bought it made you feel like you didn't overspend.  We still offered several thousand less than the asking price because that's what we were comfortable with and I thought for sure we wouldn't get it.  We added a little personalized note to the seller and when we found out the next day that they accepted our offer (even though it was lower than the other bid!), we couldn't believe it.  Neither could the realtors.  We don't know what the other offer was, but I think it couldn't have been too much less than the other one.  Sentiment only goes so far.  These were the original owners of the home and I think they must have liked our note and that it was going to owners that would really appreciate it.

 



On to packing and being settled by the holidays!

 



 

Just love this picture of these little feet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matters of the Heart

I'm in my 3rd week back to work after maternity leave.  It has actually been a pretty smooth transition returning to work.  Evelyn has been sleeping through the night since I came back and has made me a happy and functioning mom!  I still can't believe my maternity leave is actually over.  That was a fast 11 weeks.  I had great visions of doing a lot on my leave, but we were basically consumed by our move.  Makes me a little sad to think I won't have another maternity leave, but instead of guarding every minute of my vacation time for an upcoming maternity leave, I can use it freely and hopefully have some nice days with my family in the future.

So, it's has been hard to say it and even write it - 2 of my 3 children have been born with heart issues.  There, I said it.  I don't know why that is so hard to say.  Maybe it's because it makes it sound like it's something that was caused by either Oliver or me in our genes (which it may or may not be) or maybe it's because I worry about what other people think (don't pity us) or maybe it's because it just makes me sad.  However, I'm coming to terms with it.  And in the back of my head I've thought we won't be Team Sofia at the heart walk this year, but we'll be Team Curwen.  It's also a strange thing having one child that has a much more complicated history and one that hasn't.  I also am finding it hard to figure out what word I want to use when describing their heart... problems? disease? issues?  defects?   I think it matters to me because I don't want my kids growing up believing there is something wrong with them.  Those words imply that they're less than perfect, and let's face it, these kids are pretty darn perfect in my eyes.  I have asthsma.  I don't say that I have a lung defect.  Why can't I just say they have heart?  :)  Saying they have pulmonary stenosis or tricuspid atresia sounds like a mouthful.  Do other heart moms feel like this?  I'm probably overthinking this, but it's bugging me.  There is something different about their hearts and it's not the way I would have wanted it for them, but I struggle with it because their heart is a part of them but it's not all of them.  On a daily basis, we aren't consumed by their heart issues.  They are typical kids.  Probably everyone who knows us already knows that Sofia is a normal and happy kid, but I'm protective of her and how she and others will handle her heart issues as she grows.  It's something that they'll always see a specialist for, but it's something they have, not something that has them.  Maybe I'm just ready for my mind not to think about their hearts all the time.  I'm going to try this.  But first, I have to update about Adelaide...

In light of her family history we felt we needed to have Adelaide checked out.  I had 2 fetal echos when I was pregnant with Adelaide, and that had always been enough in my eyes that she was heart healthy, but I also had one when I was pregnant with Evelyn.  And fiesty Adelaide has a history of passing out after holding her breath when she gets hurt, which has always made me want to have her checked out anyway.  So, it was time.  And she is completely heart healthy.  Breathed a big sigh of relief after and EKG and echo revealed normal heart.  I don't know what we'd do without Dr. Edwards, who has been with us since day 1 with Sofia and has truly been so good to our family.  I'm grateful we have someone to answer our questions anytime and who I believe really cares for our children.  As for having 2 children with heart problems, it is of interest medically that Sofia and Eveyln have right sided heart issues.  Does that mean they're linked?  Maybe or maybe not.  If we really want to know, we have to wait for technology to catch up a little and for price of testing to come down and have genomes mapped, or something that is totally foreign to me.  The why probably doesn't matter right now.  We weren't planning on having more children and it may lead to complicated feelings about things.  It may matter for Sofia and Evelyn if they want to have children someday. 

We are still hanging out in our rental until we find a house.  We have two potential new houses we're looking at today and tomorrow.  I'm hoping one of them feels like it's our home and we buy something soon.  The girls don't seem to mind, but I'm wanting to feel more settled.  My hope is that we are moved in by the holidays and can spend our first Thanksgiving or Christmas in our home as a 5some.

I'd like to do a few things before summer ends and school begins:  1- taking the girls to the drive in.  We had so much fun doing that with friends and cousins last year.  2- Going to Toronto.  We are waiting on Evelyn's passport and then will take a trip there.  3- Do some projects.  I've made a few things and have the need to build and craft again.  I'll get some pictures posted soon of some projects I've done.  Can't wait to have a house to decorate!

Summertime

Ahhh, I'm sitting with the laptop on the couch.  This is an accomplishment, as I usually have a baby in my arms or at the boob.  And I'm usually jugging the iPad or the phone which are not nearly as easy to type on.  We'll see how long this lasts and if I can actually finish an entry.  It is 8 o'clock, which has been known as her fussy hour.  Presently though she's swinging away sleeping peacefully.

And I'm typing from our apartment.  Yep, our apartment.  We sold our house!  Eek.  We sold our house.  This is also an accomplishment since we had a bit of a rollercoaster ride to get there.  We have been in our new place for about a two weeks now.  Please remind me -after we are moved again into a new house- how hellacious this move was.  I never want to do it again.  We haven't found a new house yet, so we're temporarily renting an apartment.  It was kind of interesting to go from house to apartment.  And by interesting I really mean scary, exciting, stressful, adventurous.  It is 3 bedrooms and a good size for an apartment, and we had done what I thought was an admirable job of downsizing and purging "stuff," but we still had a lot.  We were able to store some things off site and didn't move everything into the new place.  I'm trying not to open all the boxes here and unpack as we hope to only be here 6 months max.  It was a strange feeling when we saw someone else with a U-Haul truck in "our" driveway unpacking.  I've driven by as we still have friends in the neighborhood and Emily lives just on the other side of the development, and I feel a bit like I'm stalking an ex-boyfriend or something!  It's not my place anymore, but it was for nearly 8 years.  What has helped me feel better about this whole thing is how well the girls are taking the move.  I thought they'd miss the house, but surprisingly they've hardly mentioned it.  If they were begging to go home, it'd pull at my heartstrings.  The only time I felt emotional about the move was when I stood in their empty bedroom for the first time.  We started and completed our family in this home.  Brought all our tiny babies home to this home.  But we are ready to move on and find that next new place that hopefully will be our forever home and the ones the girls really call home. 

I'm wrapping up my maternity leave.  Work has been way at the back of my mind because of how much we have going on.  Emily went back to work a week and a half ago and I lost my maternity leave buddy.  And one of my close work friends is leaving for a new job before I return, which has made me not want to think about work either.  Things had finally settled down enough that I was able to stop in at work today and introduce my coworkers to Evelyn.  It felt easy.  I don't think I'll have a problem going back in 2.5 weeks.  I do have some of the greatest coworkers that will make this easy for me.  Let's just hope Evelyn makes this easy for me.  She is, of course, very attached to me.  And I to her.  She has been sleeping about 5 hour stretches at night.  Some nights are better than others. 

Uh oh.  Baby awake and fussing.  She's now laying on me - not sure how long this will last.  I wanted to lastly update on Sofia and Evelyn's cardiology appointment.  I took them both solo the week of the move.  Dr. Edwards listened to both of them.  He said Evelyn's murmur was soft and he wouldn't expect the gradient across her pulmonary valve to be over 20 mmHg.  It was 12-14 at her initial appointment in April.  It was expected to rise a little, for reasons I can't seem to really remember - I think it was as her pulmonary pressures stabilized in her newborn period.  Anyway, an echo was done and it was measured at about 20-25, which is still categorized as trivial/mild.  It will be important where she is at 6 months as it's likely that where she is there is probably where she will stay.  If it's still mild, she will probably not ever need intervention.  We will hope and pray until then that this is the case.  She is such a loveable baby and she is changing daily.  At 2 months she is 11.5 lbs.  That is 60th percentile for weight and she's 97th percentile for length.  She's going to be a tall drink of water.  She is now 9.5 weeks old and she's interacting so much more now.  Smiling and cooing.  Very cute.  Just in time for me to leave in a few weeks and go back to work.  Boo. 

Sofia also had an echo.  It is always tricky with her anatomy to see all everything really well, but things appeared to look good.  We talked about doing a sedated MRI sometime in the future.  Not in any hurry, but an eventual thing.  At about 10 years old is when they wouldn't need to be under general anesthesia, but before then it's very hard for a child to be completely still for 45 minutes.  And he would like to have one before she's 10, so she'll have to be out for it.  Again, no hurry, but it'll be another tool that would likely produce better images than echo.  She has done better with the regulating of Coumadin over the past few blood draws.  Hopefully that is a trend that will continue.   She has been so active, especially with the weather being nicer that we've seen more bruising on her "summer legs."  She and Adelaide are both taking swim lessons this summer and it is a sport I hope to see her continue because it's good for her body.  She is such a little fish in the water.

I can't believe how grown up Sofia and Adelaide are becoming.  Sofia is 5 1/2 and is going to kindergarten in August.  We chose a school, St. Gabriel's, and I'm really excited to see her start school.  Also, can't really believe she's going to school.  My baby!  And Adelaide.  It is so much fun to watch this girl.  She is a ball of energy and sass.  She is so smart and is growing up so quickly. 

Ok, baby is really fussing now and it's taken me about an hour to write a paragraph.  So more updates and more pictures hopefully in the near future!

 

goodbye house!