Hip (Hip Hooray! It's OK! ((we think))

Anybody with a four year old, particularly a four year old on the very top of the growth chart knows, growing pains a very real thing. It will take your happy go lucky little guy or gal and turn them into a screamy little thing that Ibuprofen and snuggles can hardly alleviate. Then BAM. It's gone as fast as it started.

According to KidsHealth.org, the average four year old boy is 40 lbs and about 40 inches tall. E2 is 49 lbs and according to the doctor's office, right at 47 inches tall. He has grown two and half inches in five months. If you do the math, he's growing at a rate of an eight of an inch PER WEEK.

A Big Old Handful

I can't make this stuff up. 

Today is not trash day. Tomorrow is trash day. I thought that I would be a good little housewife today and clean the trash from the garage to make Husband Dearest happy, then drag all the trash out to the curb tonight, instead of scrambling to get it done in the morning. While I was dragging things out to the curb, I could hear little E3 screeching inside the house. Not a screech of pain, but his very discernible "I'm pissed!" screech. I did not hurry. As I was about to pick up all the little pieces of junk the big dogs had shredded and strewn about the garage, E2 opens the door, "Mama, E3 is stuck." Sigh. E3 has recently learned how to climb unsecured drawers in the kitchen. There's only three or four drawers and they have all of the kid cups in them or are empty. The boys love to play with them and it keeps me from needing to get E2 a cup every. single. time. he's sssssooooo ttttthhiirrssttyyy. 

When I reentered the house, leaving all the bits and pieces of trash around the garage, I saw he was definitely stuck. E3 had climbed into the bottom drawer, then pulled the next drawer open over the top of him. He did the same thing the day prior, only he flipped out and smushed his face on the hardwood floor giving him Baby's First Bloody Nose. 

After disengaging Baby Climbs A Lot, I tried to go back to my trash pick up duty. "Mama, I have to poop," a deadpanned four year old snuck in front of me, just to make me very aware of his bodily function necessities. He then turned and walked to the bathroom. 

I just stood there, shaking my head. My daily conversations have changed a lot since I went to working only part time. E3 shot through the living room, tailing brother. At least I'm not the only person that doesn't get to poop in peace. 

FINALLY I could at least replace the trash bag in the kitchen. Just as I'm shaking the bag to put it in the can my sweet, darling little E2 yells from the shitter, "Moooom, he's going to touch the poop!"

WHAT. 

HOW can a BABY touch POOP IN the toilet? 

I ran. But not fast enough. "Mooom he's holding the poooooop!"

He was holding the poop. E2 stood up to wipe his butt (yay he's wiping his own ass! That's a big hairy deal!) as he hasn't mastered the lean technique yet. In doing so, he left the pot open for the unleashing of ninja moves from our 10 month old angel baby E3.  

When I skid into the bathroom, E3 was bringing his hand out of the toilet with a nice, big chunk of poop smashed in his tiny little fist. 

Now get on my level. Slow things down a bit. Let's give this image that special effect 3D image of zoom. He's bringing his hand to his face, he's opening his mouth... 

NOOOOO!

He stopped just as I smacked his hand down, making him cry and throwing half the turd back into the toilet, half onto the tile. I saved him. I saved me. No poop was consumed. 

I scooped little E3 up and immediately thrust his hands under the sink to scrub. I'm flustered, to say the least. As I'm scrubbing his little poop scoops, I hear the door open. Husband's home. "Court, did you miss the trash!? The trash is still out!? And you didn't pick up the garage..."

Organization Challenge Week 3: The Pantry

Still catching up on the A Bowl Full of Lemons organization challenge. I've finished the pantry and will move onto the master bedroom this week.

There's not much to say regarding my food pantry.

The before was a cluster f*ck.

The after isn't.

I don't really like the storage bins I'm using, but after nearly pissing myself after looking up the cost of the OXO containers, Imma ride this one out.

Playing with Annie: A Chalk Paint Experience

A couple weeks ago I decided I had HAD IT with my kitchen table and chairs.  The set, originally my grandparents, has survived their family of four, my parents family of four, and now is on our family of four. The chairs have been gorilla glued, screwed and nailed (kinky, I know) every which way. The table with a veneered top has been marked on, magic erasered, stabbed and the leaf completely warped (and that was just from me).

I've been pinning furniture redo projects since I did the Pinecone baby furniture a year ago. Es 1 and 2 were gone for the the weekend, and I had my chance. I looked up my dealer stockiest, the Annie Sloan term for retailer, and went for a visit.

I landed at Bella B Decor in Stanley, KS. I went in and introduced myself to Very Helpful Lady (she told me her name, but after I told her I was going to feature this project on my blog, she politely asked that she not be identified- so OBVIOUSLY she is a Secret Chalk Paint Agent. Obvsly.), and told her that after I browsed I would for sure need some help.

First, this store is really cool. Not only does it feature repurposed and refinished vendor booths but there were also really cool  boutique clothing booths alongside the normal decor.

A beautiful setup for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint at Bella B Decor

The Annie Sloan and Milk Paint sections are well thought out, displaying all the color options as well as examples and previous works. Bella B offers some really neat classes showcasing design and work principles of chalk and milk paint. I'd love to take one of these classes in the near future.

I told VHL (Very Helpful Lady!) about what I was wanting to accomplish, showed her the current condition of my sad sad table and she set me up with some ideas. I settled on Annie Sloan Burgundy. for my "pop" of color. It's a reddish wine, and I'd show you an example, but I guess it's brand spankin' new because I cannot find it anywhere. Then I went with CoCo as my "over" color.  I also purchased the clear soft wax, although I do want to get the dark wax to add to my collection. The final purchase I made was a good wax brush. I'm super cheap and was having a hard time convincing myself to spend money on the paint plus brush, but I decided if I was doing it, I needed to do it right (for once).  VHL tried to add in a few point of sale purchases, but I held fast.
 Later that afternoon, I set to to work. The first thing I had to do was clean the grime and yuck off of the table legs and chairs. I had to call in reinforcements and get my friend Beck to come help.  Mostly because she brought chocolate liqueur.  After everything was thoroughly scrubbed and dry, I was ready. Okay, not really, I needed a pep talk and Beck pretty much had to shove me to start.

The first couple strokes are the hardest.
(That's what she said.)

The first thing I noticed was what a soft texture the paint had when applied to the table. It started to dry within a few minutes and was pretty thick. I did expect each quart to go a long way- it's nearly $37 so for that, it ought to stretch.

I worked on through the evening and had everything coated in the Burgundy for the next step.

The texture is incredibly soft- just like chalk!

I officially hate the chairs by this point. VHL told me that would happen, but boy was she right. See all those spindles? And the bottom section is basically another nine spindles on top of the nine on the back of the chair. The whole damn chair is made of spindles. And there's four of them. By now, after a million feed the baby breaks and not enough feed the mommy breaks, I'm ready to launch everything to the curb and head downtown to Hickory Dickory to buy a new set.

Once everything was sufficiently coated in burgundy, it was time to apply the Coco. The disappointment I have here is it's not as chocolatey as I expected. It's a grey base but between the grey in the Annie Sloan paint the the greige we had the house painted (which was happening at the same time, but we hired that out) I'm just over it.  I'm mad I didn't do a more drastic color change on our walls, and then the damn chairs seem to blend in.

Once the coco was applied and dried, sans table top, I got out the clear soft wax and my new fancy wax brush. Working in a circular motion, think Danny in Karate Kid- wax on, wax off- I began what might be my favorite step. In order to distress the furniture, I sanded small sections after wax was applied. This kept the dust down and made the top paint coat very easy to manipulate. I will say that the few pieces of sandpaper I got at Bella B were not going to cut it. I actually got out a nail file emery board and it did the trick perfectly.

I did a slightly different technique on the legs of the chairs- it really needed an additional coat of coco, but since I was SO. FREAKING. OVER. IT. we will just call this technique "Lazy It" and so there's no actual distressing on those legs- it's just a lack of paint. But it's good enough for the chicks I hang out with.

Here's the finished product. It takes about thirty days for the two coats of wax to cure (three on top of table) so we need to be careful with E3 not dumping chocolate milk all over and leaving it. Everyone is using a place mat and we have about 20 days of curing left. I think we'll make it.

My overall impression is that this is a really cool paint and techniques will vary as much as the style that influences you. Although I'm not enthralled with my color choices, I'm happy with the way the project itself turned out. I think the next item up for revitalizing is my jewelry stand left to me by my grandma. It's an old oak look that simply outdated but a very functional piece of furniture. I'll have to head back to Bella B to select something fun.

In case you're in KC and are interested in checking out the store, Bella B has several locations, although I would recommend stopping by the Stanley Station shop and saying hello to VHL. Here's their info:

http://bellabdecor.com
Bella B Decor7733 W. 151st Street, Overland Park, KS 66223 • 913-814-0300 • lynn@bellabdecor.comStore Hours: Mon-Sat 10-6 p.m, Sun 12-5 p.m.
Bella B Decor                                                          
11 W. Wea Street, Paola, KS 66071 • 913-294-4499 • lynn@bellabdecor.comStore Hours: Wed-Fri 10-5, Saturday 9-Noon
Bella B Decor @ The Painted Sofa  NEW LOCATION!!!                                                      
1413 W 11th Street, KC, MO 64101 • 816-474-8832
Store Hours: Wed-Fri 10-3, Sat 10-4
Week of First Friday Event: Fri 9-8, Sat 9-6, Sun 11-4
Bella B Decor @ La Bottega Vintage Market
173 English Landing Drive, Parkville, MO 64152 • 816-741-6255 • lynn@bellabdecor.com
Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5


http://www.anniesloan.com

  

Organization Challenge: WEEK 2 Laundry Wrap-Up

This week I was worried I wasn't going to finish, and much less START my organization challenge from A Bowl Full of Lemons. I had a bunch of sewing projects due out the door this week, so my evenings and "free" time were being hogged by that. We also had to select and buy paint for our painter (No, no, we don't do the painting on the walls in our house. I cannot tape to save my life and am reckless with a paintbrush. Bad idea.). He started prep work and painted the trim and walls in our master bath over the weekend. 

Want to see how crazy we got with the paint? Well good luck, because you can hardly even tell a difference.

For the record, we went with the bottom, #3. It's called "Amazing Gray SW7044" from Sherwin Williams. It's a couples shades off from what currently is on the walls but goes more to the "greige" versus beige. I'll update you on how this goes. 

Back to our story of the day. My laundry room is a multipurpose room in our home. It's a laundry room, duh, but also the main entry for our home through our garage, launch pad, and French Bulldog chill out space.  

I have recently purged and cleaned the lower cabinets so those were already in really good shape. The upper cabinets were a hot mess, as you can see below. 

First step: Change the light bulbs! The space was so dark and dreary. There were two of those funny fluorescent blue-ish bulbs, but of course, one was burnt out. I put in two fresh bulbs and Voila! I could see how badly everything needed cleaned. Boo. 

I started by taking everything out of the cabinets like suggested. This nearly gave me a brain aneurism. I posted a picture on Instagram and a friend of mine asked if Husband Dearest had a meltdown yet. Surprisingly, he did well with me stringing things across our kitchen. 

I luckily had some leftover containers and baskets from last week so I employed those with my cleaning items and made a new "whole home" cleaning caddy.  The difference in my cabinets and over all space is dramatic.

I am leaving the big sprucing up and decorating to the Launch Pad dedicated week around week 10. That will be closer to spring and I  will hopefully be ready to make some fun decor changes by then. 

Here it is, one last time. 

Before and after:

This coming week is the Pantry. I do hope that will be the easiest of the three first weeks as I could use a quick project. 

Mom Guilt: The Sleeping Baby

E3 smiles in his jumper while Big Brother rides a purple unicorn. 

Last night my family and I hung out with our back yard neighbors extended family. Like literally, hung out; see the picture.  E3 was intentionally put to bed and E2 cashed out on the couch watching Pocahontas.
  Side note: Every single time I see or hear something about the movie Pocahontas  I immediately picture the basement of Running with Racheal's parent's house and her singing one of the songs and me wanting to choke her because I couldn't stand it them. We were nine. I love it now. Sorry 'bout that, ShayShay. 

We had the kids home and in their own beds at a respectable time, for once.  That meant, ooh la la...uh, no, not that. It was shower time! For me! By myself! No one screaming at the shower door! No one needing me to open a cheese stick! No one crapping their pants and it spilling on to the carpet while I try to shave my vagina.  I lolligaged and got fully showered (Well, I didn't wash my hair, but come on, it was Friday. That only happens during the week, maybe.) and dressed in comfy PJs.  I checked on both boys and my head hit the pillow before 10:45pm.

Flash forward: 6:35am.

Six
Thirty
Five

AM

EIGHT HOURS LATER.

Eight full hours after I fell asleep I woke up to E2 climbing into bed. I immediately reached over and grabbed the monitor. When the screen lit up I saw the sweet sleeping E3.

Wow!

But then it occurred to me: The sound is off. The sound on the monitor is off. That means he didn't really sleep all night... he probably woke up and I didn't hear him through the closed doors. Oh My Gawd. I'm a terrible mother.  When Husband Dearest woke up I told him about my dilemma. His response? "Oh he slept all night, you're a great mom."

NOT.

He told me that he heard little baby E3 crying in the night, but he fell back asleep before he woke me up. So, two things: Why didn't he get up, is the most obvious, but secondly, my poor sweet innocent angel probably felt sad and scared and hungry and abandoned.

So, obviously, I am now wrought with mom guilt.

I think I will need him to sleep attached to me via boob all night to fix that.  Or, maybe leave the monitor turned off more often.