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.