Details

Gabe has been to the house quite a bit this week. He took a bunch of pictures so I had him email me a few so that I could update on here. I just don't know when I'll make it to the house again, so I figured it would be nice to put some new pictures up when I can!!

Basically all of the big stuff is done and now we're down to the little details-the things that make a house a home. And let me tell you, seeing this makes it feel that much more real to me. I can't wait to see it in person-it has to be gorgeous! I'm hoping next week I can make it out there to check things out!

So here is our family room-the paint is all done now! You can see they put in the stone and mantle around where the fireplace is. The built-ins are all done-the TV will be going on the right hand side. Love it! This has me so excited-the kitchen!! It was so hard to picture it since it was such an open space, but now it's really taking shape! All of the cabinets are officially in place-they just have to finish up the island. Again....love it! Another view of the kitchen-this is where the fridge will go:
And the start of the island-the space is where the dishwasher will be.
Cabinets are also in in the bathrooms, but I don't have a photo of them yet. I'm pretty sure they're starting our tile work soon too-so that means the bathrooms will be almost complete!!

Fun at the Farm

On Saturday, we had a playdate with Avery's friend Josie and her Mom! We had an idea to go apple picking but waited to see how the weather would be. Luckily, the weather cooperated and we were able to go!

We've taken Avery apple picking the past two years at different places. The first year we went to Whittier Fruit Farm and last year we went to Green Acres. Lisa suggested a new place this year, the Victor Apple Farm so we decided to go and check it out!

We got to ride on a tractor out to the apple orchards. Here is Avery on Gabe's lap on the tractor:

She actually loved the tractor ride. When we took her strawberry picking in the summer, she wasn't too thrilled with the idea (cried when we got on, etc.), but this time she jumped right on and was all smiles!

They made two stops-the first was to pick red delicious and mcintosh apples. The second was for cortlands and macouns. We opted to skip the first stop since none of us like red delicious and I'm a HUGE fan of both cortlands and macouns.

And when we got off, the scenery was beautiful!

Can you imagine how pretty it'll be when the leaves start to change?!

Avery and Josie got right to work picking the apples and Josie started snacking on one right away:

(I'm loving her skinny jeans and pigtails-adorable!)

Here's Avery picking an apple:

Josie and her Mom:

Gabe and Avery (eating apple #1):

We picked cortlands first, and before starting the macouns, we stopped for a quick family photo:

The girls enjoying their apples (#2 for Avery):

Avery really got a kick out of picking the apples. And here, the trees were low enough that she could reach some all by herself, which she just loved!

We tried getting the girls to pose together, but Avery wasn't being very cooperative. I love this picture of Josie in front of the macoun sign-look at that little attitude-so cute!

Showing off her apple:
After getting our fill of apples, we got back on the tractor to ride back. Then we explored the little store there and paid for our apples. We all picked up some doughnuts and cider too!! We sat out at a picnic table for a little snack. The girls loved the doughnuts and cider! Here's Josie making her doughnut face:
And Avery making her doughnut face:
And one more family photo (can you tell the sun was in our eyes?!):
We were there a good two hours and had a really great time. The girls had a lot of fun and Avery talked about it all day long! It was a great day for it too!!

Color

Avery and I took a ride out to the new house yesterday. I knew the painter had started this week and was dying to see what it looked like with some paint on the walls!

Let me tell ya-it's amazing what a little bit of color can do to a place! Wow!

Here's the outside-as far as I know, it's done! They just finished painting the trim around the windows this week and I think that was the last they had to do out there. Looks great!
Here's the dining room with the chair rail put up. (Color-Sherwin Williams "Compatible Cream")

The kitchen-they haven't painted much in this area, but I'm pretty sure that is the wall color they have started. They have the hood up now for where the cooktop will be. (Color-Sherwin Williams "Macadamia").
The bedrooms were really hard to photograph because they had all of the doors standing up in the middle of the room and painted. So it was tough to take a good picture of any room upstairs. But, you'll get the idea!

Master bedroom (Color-Olympic "Cosmic Rays")
Master Closet:
Master bath (toilet area):
Baby's room....the color is supposed to be Behr's "Pale Daffodil", but honestly I don't know if this is it. That's the same color that Avery's room is painted now and it looks a LOT different. So I have a gut feeling that it's not the right color. If that's the case, they'll be fixing it! It just looks way brighter than it does in her room now.

Guest room (Color-Sherwin Williams "Compatible Cream"):
And Avery's room (Color-Behr "Jamaican Sea"):
This is her closet area:
Avery loved her bedroom-she kept running in and out of it to look at it-it was so cute. She was so excited to see it painted and I'm so happy she ended up liking the color (you never know with a 2 year old!).

The rooms they haven't started yet are the office, family room and kitchen/morning room and the foyer.

I'm very happy with how it looks so far! Hard to believe it'll be completely done in about a month! Wow!

22 Weeks-Baby #2

How I'm feeling/sleeping: Doing pretty well. My back is still bothersome overnight and of course I'm up to pee 1-2 times so my sleep is pretty broken up at this point. Still having some mild sweeling of my ankles on some days.

Appointments/events: I had my monthly appt last week. Gained 2lbs since my last appt (for a total of 8lbs so far). Everything was good-urine tested fine, blood pressure low, heartbeat was fine. Talked with another OB about my repeat c-section vs. VBAC....still undecided as to what to do. I have now met with 3 out of 4 docs-2 of them (one of which is my doc) were very laid back and basically said it's up to me. The 3rd was leaning more towards a repeat c-section. So who knows. I also had my "big" ultrasound that day. We got to see the baby in all it's glory-well except that we didn't find out the gender! The heartbeat was high-I think in the 160's if I remember correctly. I do have to go back for another ultrasound next week because they couldn't measure the vertebrae because of the baby's position. And so far, the baby is breech...but I know that can change.


Cravings/Aversions: Still not inclined to eat oatmeal or peanut butter but everything else is fair game. I feel like I've been a pig lately-some days no matter how much I eat I'm still starving!

Movement: Yes! Still several times a day and still unpredictable. Gabe finally felt the baby move yesterday which is way later than he did with Avery (by a good month!). I tried having him feel it numerous times and as soon as he put his hand on my stomach, the baby stopped moving.


Avery's thoughts: Nothing new-she had the baby blow a whistle yesterday which was funny! She made me pull up my shirt and she put the whistle up to my belly! Cracks me up! Today she came up to me and said "Let me see that tummy" and pulled up my shirt-then said "Hi baby!"

I'm officially converted to all maternity clothes now...finally sucked it up and put them on.

Here are some pics-the one in the light pink shirt (left) is me at 23wks with Avery and the white shirt is today!

Yesterday we went to Buffalo for the day. We were supposed to go sailing with my Dad (my belated bday present) and my Mom was going to watch Avery for us. On our way to Buffalo, my Dad called and said the captain had to cancel our sailing trip. His son had been in a car accident and he needed to be at the hospital. It would have been a beautiful day for it too....so now we have to reschedule that.

So, we really did nothing all day. I didn't really hear from any friends and the ones I heard from were either sick or already had plans so we ended up just relaxing at my Mom's house all day.

Avery did lots of running around and playing with toys. Gabe and I watched the football game (it was an exciting one!). We had a nice dinner and after, Avery had a blast helping Nama outside.....

digging in the dirt....

watering flowers.....

and sweeping!

We had a nice visit of course-it's always good to see Mom and Aunt Pat!

I had to post these pics from Friday. I had Avery outside "doing chalk" (as she says) and she really got into it! She had our front stairs all decked out and of course sat in it so her pants were covered-they looked like tie-dye! She was just having a ball with it!

Here she is showing of her masterpiece (both stairs and pants):

And apparently she thought Daddy needed some chalk on his face to go along with hers!

Daycare-The Real Test

So our big "test" as far as potty training goes was to see how Avery did at daycare.

On Tuesday we sent her in her underwear and came prepared for the day-lots of extra undies, pants, socks, and of course treats for when she went on the potty.

I was curious at work all day wondering how she was doing during the day. Was it accident central or was she doing an ok job?!

I found out when I picked her up.....she had one accident in the morning. Not surprising-lots of kids, lots of stuff going on, different bathroom, etc.

Apparently she woke up dry after her nap (which never happens at home) and right after nap the teacher took her to the potty and she went! Then later on, Avery did tell the teacher "pee pee on the potty" and went!

I was SO proud of her!

She was also at my in-laws all day on Thursday and unfortunately had 2 accidents there that day. I guess she didn't tell them she had to go and would just run to the bathroom. By the time they got there, she had already peed her pants. Not a total fail, because she did know to go to the bathroom!

Avery was at daycare again yesterday and I forgot to ask how she did on the potty. I noticed she was sent home in a diaper, but also in the clothes she went in in the morning so I was confused. I did end up emailing the teacher because I was curious how she did. She did stay dry all morning (not sure if she peed on the potty or not) and was put in a diaper for nap. The teacher forgot to put her undies back on after nap, but was checking to see if she peed and apparently she didn't. It was a different teacher than normal that day, so I don't think she remembered about Avery's new undies!

So it's been a week now and so far, not too bad. Yes there will be accidents with different situations, but overall I think she picked up on it pretty well! Will keep ya posted!

Potty Training-Day 4

So Monday was my day 4 of potty training. I decided since I had the day off I would tack on an extra day since I only did a half day on Friday. I will say that I really wanted to go out somewhere since I was bored being at home all weekend, but we did end up staying home.

It was nice outside so I decided to chance it and take her outside to play while we have the nice weather. Our neighbor's daughter was also outside so they got to playing with each other. I was a little worried that she would be too distracted, but I kept giving her reminders and praise (for dry undies) every few minutes. The reminders weren't as frequent as they had been because I really wanted to see how she'd do with less reminders in a day.

After awhile of running around and playing she ran up to our front door and stood there. When I caught up to her she said "pee pee on the potty" so I took her inside. Sure enough, she peed!

That was the only time she went before her naptime. When I went to get her from her nap, she had pooped in her diaper.

After nap, we were back outside and eventually we made our way across the street to play with some other kids. At one point, Avery ran down their driveway and was pretty far away from me. When I looked at her, she was just starting at her feet and I couldn't figure out what she was doing....then I saw it....a huge puddle of pee! She came running towards me and said "I peed!" So, she had an accident but it was partly my fault. I wasn't reminding her as much and I let her get too far away from me. Not to mention there were 4 of them playing so I'm sure she was quite distracted.

After dinner, Gabe gave Avery a bath. To our surprise, during her bath, she said "pee pee" and Gabe said "you want to go on the potty?" She replied yes so he put her on the potty all soaking wet and sure enough she peed! We were very shocked at that!

Overall not a terrible day-2 potty trips and one accident. She went to daycare on Tuesday in just undies, so that was the "real" test.

Potty Training-Day 3

Sunday was day 3 of potty training.

Avery woke up again asking to wear her underwear and as excited as could be. She walks around a lot now saying "I went pee pee on the potty" and "I want a treat!" Kid cracks me up!

It took her awhile before she went again-I think it was around 11am or so. She was playing in our family room and all of a sudden said "pee pee" and ran into the bathroom!! I quickly followed her in there and sure enough, she peed on the potty!

About a half hour later, she was still in our family room and Gabe heard her say "poopy" so he quickly ran to her and got her on the toilet as fast as he could. And surprisingly, she did a poop on the potty! I couldn't believe it! And as an FYI her poop reward was a piece of a cookie-we had to up the ante for that!

Gabe's parents invited us over for dinner Sunday night and I was skeptical about going-I didn't want to break the "don't leave your house" rule and I knew my nephew and neice would be there so I was a little nervous. But...we haven't been to their house for dinner since July 4th (ususally it's a weekly event!) so we decided to go. Besides, I was getting ready to be out of the house a bit!

So we went over there and she wore her underwear in the car and did great! She was playing a lot and having a great time! We were sitting at the table either finishing dinner or something and she ran by saying "pee pee on the potty" so I ran and took her in the bathroom. Sure enough, she peed on their potty! She stayed in her undies on the ride home and did just fine then as well! I can't say enough how proud we are of her!!

I have to say that day 3 was pretty great-no accidents at all! I am doing one more day since Friday was only a half day in undies....so it's my 3 1/2-4 day plan!

Potty Training-Day 2

Saturday was Day 2 of potty training for us (or maybe day 1 since day 1 was only a half day?).

Avery woke up and as soon as I went in her room she said "my underwear." She was very excited to get them back on again! I brought her downstairs and let her pick out the ones she wanted to wear again.

We had breakfast and played a lot-again with me right by her side and giving reminders every few minutes. She was up a little after 8 and was a camel again-I don't think she peed until after 11!

Her and I were out in the kitchen and she started to pee. I ran her to the toilet and she got a very tiny dribble in the toilet. We celebrated that and she got a reward!

After that incident, she realized she could easily take her undies off-so she stripped herself down naked. The 3 day program emphasizes them keeping their underwear on, but I didn't see the harm in it for a little bit. Maybe a half hour later she started grabbing at herself so I said "Avery let me know when you need to go potty" and she sort of grunted and I took her to the potty. And sure enough, she peed! She got another reward and was super excited then. It sort of became a game and she just kept running to the bathroom to see if she could get any pee out to get a reward. She ended up peeing a total of three times on the potty before naptime!

I put her diaper on her for nap and she slept just fine.

After nap, as soon as I got her she asked about her underwear again and all day she was so excited and kept saying "I went pee pee on the potty!" Of course we called Daddy (he was getting his haircut) and Grandma to beef up the praise!

Undies went back on after her nap and she didn't take them off this time. At one point we were playing in our back family room and she started to pee so I ran her to the bathroom. It was the biggest pee ever and none made it in the toilet-but she left a nice pee trail from the family room all the way to the bathroom and a nice puddle on the bathroom floor!

Later in the evening she had another accident. Gabe was out mowing the lawn and she was watching him through the front door and started to pee. So I took her to the bathroom, but none of it made it in the toilet.

You're probably wondering about pooping. She pretty much poops on a daily basis. When we started on Friday, she pooped that morning and when she woke up from nap so it was all before we started undies. Saturday she didn't poop at all which is unusual for her.

Oh and for rewards....the first time she went on the potty I gave her a sticker. Honestly, it didn't phase her much. So I bumped it up a notch. Avery is very food-driven and loves "treats" so now when she pees, she gets a tiny piece of chocolate (equivalent to 2 M&Ms I'm guessing). This of course gets her very excited!

So for today....naked she's 3 for 3 on the potty but with underwear she's 0 for 3.

We'll see what day 3 brings!

Potty Training-Day 1

I'm going to apologize in advance if I bore any of you with the next few posts. I just thought it might be helpful information for anyone going through this stage now or in the future, so bear with me!

I'm not really sure if there is a "right" age for potty training a child. Gabe was asking me the other day what age is considered "late" and I honestly don't know....4? So really, I had no idea when to start training Avery or anything.

When we went for Avery's 2 year appointment I asked her pediatrician about potty training. He told me that there is a window between 2 and 2 1/2 that you can train them very easily. He said typically once they reach 2 1/2 they're harder to train because they get very set in their ways at that age. So introducing something like this gets harder to do. So he basically said if you can catch that window, to go with it.

I'd say back in early to mid August Avery really started showing more readiness signs to potty train. For awhile she has said when she poops, but this was different. It started when we were ready to go outside one day and she goes "I pooped my diaper. Change diaper." and ran into the other room, threw herself on the floor, and basically was begging to be changed. And when I changed her, she didn't poop...she had peed. This became a trend-she didn't do it every time she peed, but she did it at least once a day. I also noticed that when she was sitting in her chair at dinner, if something got her seat wet, she would flip out wanting it cleaned up and to be out of her chair. I started thinking "is this the sign I should be looking for?"

Don't get me wrong-I'm in no rush to train her. Diapers are easy-I can take her out anywhere and she really isn't bothered by them. My thought process was this-she'll be 2 1/2 right after Christmas (the age when according to her doc it becomes harder to train). Early November we'll be moving-new house, new bedroom, new bed for Avery (LOTS of changes for her to come). I'm due for baby #2 in January (another HUGE change for her). Between the move and the baby is all of the chaos of the holidays. I didn't want to introduce training her then-it's just too much going on for her in just a few short months. And I know once the baby arrives, I'm not going to have my full attention on Avery anymore (*sniff sniff*) and it would probably be a dragged out process at that point.

So, I decided now was the time.

This weekend is my last 4 day weekend for months. We had nothing planned, so I decided this would be the weekend for it.

I followed the 3 day potty training method. Well, most of it at least. It's an e-book that you can buy online (I got mine from a friend).

Basically, you purge any diapers you have and put them right in underwear. They wear a t-shirt and undies for 3 days straight. Ideally, you do not leave the house and the child is by your side every waking minute. When you catch them "in the act", you rush them to the toilet. It's all positive reinforcement and putting the child in charge of training. You don't sit them at designated time intervals or anything-the child dictates when they have to go. No using pull-ups or anything.

I will say I was dreading being homebound for 3 whole days, but I was also anxious to see how things would go.

I started Friday afternoon after her nap. I wanted to get out Friday morning and take her to story time and have something to do that day so I figured after nap we would start things. She woke up after her nap and I brought her downstairs. We made a big deal out of her picking out the underwear she wanted to wear for the day and praising her for being such a big girl.

Then the games began and I followed her around until bedtime, giving her reminders every 5mins or so ("are your undies dry?" "tell me if you have to go potty"). The girl is part camel I'm pretty sure because she didn't pee until 4 hours after her nap-so right before bedtime! In fact, she was in her bedroom and we were getting her PJs and stuff out when it happened. I ran her to the toilet but she had already finished going at that point. We made a big deal about her underwear being wet and "yucky" now and that they needed to be changed.

Now the reason I'm only doing part of this method is that I'm not training her at naptime or night time yet. Honestly, she pees so much at nap and overnight that there's no way she would stay dry yet. I'm just aiming for daytime, awake training right now. Sleeping times will come at some other time!

So, day one (or half a day) is done-only one accident! Keep posted for the rest of the days!

Just as a note-I did take some super cute pics of her modeling her new undies, but didn't want to post them on here just in case....ya never know who's looking at these things! So the next few posts will mostly be photo-free (sorry!).

Oh, and if you have any questions, please ask! I'm more than willing to share my experience with you!

Siding, Stone and Primed

Avery and I took a drive out to the house today!

And I'll say that it looks AMAZING!

The siding is almost done, the stone is finished and we have a few shutters and cedar shakes as well! I love, love, love the way it looks! Just what I imagined!

Here's a closer look at the stone:

And a better shot of the windows and shutters. The details around the windows still need to be painted. And it's amazing what a little paint can do! Now it's really looking like a house inside...the transformation is incredible! The painters came a few days ago and have everything primed right now. I guess they don't do the actual paint until after the trimmer comes and does all of the baseboards and molding (doesn't make sense to me, but whatever). So, we have all of the walls and ceilings fully primed right now.

Here's the family room:

Kitchen:

Dining room:

Stairs/foyer:

Office:

Now upstairs....Master bedroom:

Master closet:

Master bath-shower:

Baby's room:

Full bath upstairs:

Avery's room:

2nd floor foyer:

As of now, our closing date is November 2nd-so less than 2 months now! But....the house is supposed to be finished by mid-October. It's really crazy to think that in about 5wks it'll be finished! It's definitely getting more exciting now!