Harper likes utensils

Game Changer

For a year now, Harper has been going to sleep like an angel. She'd be so sleepy she'd almost collapse in her high chair at 5:30. We'd keep her awake for a bath when we could, I'd read a few books to her, plop her in her crib and she was usually out by 6 PM, not to wake up until 6 AM. And then last week happened.

Suddenly Harper has decided she is not tired at 6. She's also not tired at 6:30. By 7 she might be tired for a few seconds at a time--long enough to need to rest her head on the chair or the floor--but she is certainly not tired enough for bed. If you try to put her in a horizontal position she will let you know just how much she does not want to go to bed by squirming and screaming. I swear she grows three extra limbs at this stage because her squirming is so effective it's impossible to keep all her limbs contained, avoid a kick in the face and not drop her all at the same time.

She also has realized that the books we always read to put her to sleep, well, they put her sleep. Now when I pull out Ten, Nine, Eight she pushes it away, grunting and using all the communication methods in her power to tell me very firmly that she DOES NOT want to read that book. If I insist and open it up, she'll turn her head and look the other way. "You can't make me!" she's saying. Same goes for the other three old standbys for bedtime books. So now I have to try to read Hop on Pop or some other boisterous Dr. Seuss rhyme in a soothing bedtime tone.

And finally, after making "Mr. Brown is a wonder. Dibble dibble dop dibble dibble dop dop dop" as boring as I can, I attempt to hold my flailing octopus and hum a lullaby over her screaming. Sometimes it works, sometimes I just put her in her crib anyway because I'm ready to scream myself, and sometimes she's quiet for about 15 minutes--just long enough for you to relax and think, "Thank God!"--and then she'll start crying again. We still haven't figured out the rules to this new game. For awhile I didn't want to acknowledge the game had changed because it seemed so unfair after a year of easy bedtimes, but apparently no one told Harper she had to play by the same rules year after year. Let's hope that once I figure out this new game, it lasts for at least a couple of months before changing again.

Cabinets!

The cabinets have been in for a week now. They had doors for about two days. Then the worker dudes realized some measurement had been off and the fridge wouldn't fit in the space, so they had to move all the upper cabinets up a half inch. So the doors came off, the shelves came out, and that's how they still are. Then the countertop people came and said it would take 10 days instead of three to get our granite. Then the electrician installed the electrical boxes for the pendants over the island six inches too far to the south, so he had to come cut new holes in the ceiling. Then the painters couldn't come this week because the drywall dude had to come fix the holes in the ceiling and the texture had to dry. So basically no one has been working on our house for about four days and our general contractor got an earful about what I thought of that this afternoon.

But the cabinets are beautiful and some day, God willing, our kitchen will be beautiful too.

Harper has pigtails

Nothing new to report on the kitchen--after rapid progress in the demo phase, the mudding, taping and texturing phase has taken ages. Plus it doesn't make for very exciting photos.

Harper does make for cute photos, however. Last Thursday the ladies at day care put her hair in pigtails. Darn cute. I did my best to capture them in either a picture or a video, but she doesn't cooperate very well once the camera is out, as you can see in this video.

The only way to get her to sit still was to allow her to destroy a box of plastic bags, which she has been wanting to play with for days, ever since we moved her play room and the kitchen both into the spare bedroom.

The Kitchen Remodel

We're starting week three of our kitchen remodel. Supposedly we have just a week to go before we'll have a functioning kitchen again. We've been confined to our second floor while the first floor gets a total makeover, using a makeshift kitchen in our upstairs guest bedroom and turning our hallway into Harper's main play area. We'll be very happy to reclaim the kitchen and the rest of the first floor when this is over.

Here are some photos of the progress so far!

The Actual Kitchen Area

The kitchen before

The kitchen after Day 1 of demo

Day 2--Lots of progress in one day!

Day 8: Wood floors are in, sheetrock is up, HVAC and plumbing read to go and passed inspection

The Dining Room/Living Room Area

Because one project leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to an empty savings account.

Dining room before

Day 2: The wall is gone!

Day 8: Wood floors are in and the mini wall to hide the side of the fridge is framed

The Pantry Area

The original pantry door, with the rather useless desk on the south side facing the family room

Day 6: The new pantry, version 2. Version 1 didn't cut the angle enough so the island that's going to go where the shop vac is sitting in this picture was less than 30 inches from the pantry door. After much discussion and grumbling, Version 1 was torn down and Version 2 was completed.

Day 8: The pantry area looking into the family room, which has a new wood floor. That's our old fridge hanging out in the middle of the work zone. It's currently accompanied by our piano, which keeps getting shuffled around depending on where they are working.

The Desk/Bar Area

Transforming working space into drinking space.

The original desk-soon-to-be-bar area

Day7

Day 9: Half wall is framed, sheetrocked and mudded. The kegerator will go next to the wall, with two taps for Joe's homebrew. There will also be cabinets and a granite countertop, all matching the kitchen.