paint edger.

cora thinking I am silly for painting her room without a paint edger, I am sure

Can I just share with you the most amazing tool ever, and it's $3?! I am sure we are the last ones to know about this, but...

shur-line paint edger

 

We just moved into our new house with lots of painting to be done. Well we taped the hell out of every room, cut in the edges- literally hours and hours and we didn't even paint the whole house. We only painted 3 rooms. Ridiculous. This edger could have saved us hours, literally. And this edger was fun. I whipped out a grey accent wall in 20 minutes thanks to this thing. And it looks flawless. The only mess up I have is when I took out a tiny brush to touch up a corner. Bad idea. No more blue tape, no more brushes. This thing is fantastic, and plastic, and red (my favorites). It even has tiny rollers to run along the ceiling or baseboards, or corners. I am sure you all already know this.

had to take a picture, 1/2 way into project because I was laughing.... too easy, too fun.

so many hours lost.

 

Done! 15 minutes later. I have never finished a project so efficiently.

This is our entry way- now with a grey accent wall to house a fun white/wood mirror and a rustic floating shelf matt is making me from pipes and wood. The shelf will hold our keys, sunglasses, work badges... the important always lost items in the morning times.

15 months.

I stopped doing monthly photos of cora at 1 year...and I miss it. To be honest, I couldn't pull it off, I am sure, even if I wanted. She doesn't sit still, ever... and I don't have the time somehow. But we do have a 15 month old in our house now, and she is fantastic. She's my favorite 15 monther I know.

• she loves the mirror, I'm not sure if she thinks its her only little friend...or it's herself. But it makes her giddy.
• she is on the verge of some new words. but otherwise enjoys just babbling, which we know exactly what she is trying to say anyways. Perhaps we should play dumb and that would motivate her to talk more clearly.
• her talking may be slow to advance... but she makes up for it in agility. this girl can get up and down off of chairs, balance on one leg...all while holding her favorite lion, donkey, and toothbrush and making funny faces at us.
• sleep is about the same, even with the move to a new house. 12-13 hours at night.... 7pm-8am. And one 2-3 hour nap midday. Not bad little spud.
• she eats well, but the next day she may not like the same food she devoured the day before. go figure.
• she's tall, and skinny still. she feels like a big girl to us. she has 5 teeth... three on bottom, two on top. Sweet curly blonde hair and big blue eyes.
• super busy, working all of the time. she is pretty self sufficient with playing. she doesn't need a lot of entertaining- but we like to intervene and join her. I think she may need playmates...we are working on it, 16 weeks to go.
• she likes to dance to music... primarily dub step, rap, something with a beat...its weird and adorable to see a head bopping in the car seat with lion dancing in her lap too.
• she waves to other kids in the store, and shares her most precious toys with kids. I think its because she doesn't play with other kids, so she doesn't know sometimes kids don't share. we share all the time with her, her reality is skewed. it's sweet.
• she's a very happy kid, only throwing a tantrum here and there if we don't give her our iphone to look at duck pictures.
• oh, these bullet points of love could go on for days. we love her to pieces. we can't believe she came from that tricky baby over a year ago. she is fantastic. she's our precious little daughter we can't imagine life without.

first date night as parents.

Soo.... Matt and I just had our first date night since Cora has been born, that's 15 months. We tucked cora into bed and had the grandparents come and hang out at our house. We were able to go out to an authentically fantastic Mexican restaurant- El Gallo Giro in Kuna-we had been dreaming of going to since we moved to Idaho. A relaxing 20 minute drive through farm country... a sunset... and oh my, just conversation without the stresses of a fidgety kid was wonderful. And Mexican food. AMAZING. We can't wait to go back, we've found our favorite spot, finally.

It took us so long to get on this whole date night concept because every night we have alone time from about 7pm on... so it didn't feel necessary. But it was nice, and indulgent... like the old days, whatever those used to be like. Our pediatrician actually suggested we go on a date before baby #2 comes... hmm, is life about to get even crazier?!

week 24

 

Well, 24 weeks... just barely squeezed in this weekly photo. And I really did it up this time for you... boxer shorts and all. Pregnancy is just chugging along. Uneventful which is great. But I also have a handful of newly pregnant women around me that are pregnant for the first time. I am a little envious. It is so incredibly exciting to feel pregnancy for the first time. All of the excitement, all of the unknowns, being able to do baby planning without actually knowing what a baby will bring to your life. It's thrilling, and scary...and nerve wrecking too I suppose. I was definitely more stressed the first time, this time literally no stress to be conjured up what so ever. Anyways, the first time ever feeling kicks, hearing a heartbeat, a growing belly. It's beyond incredible. And it just feels different the second time around. Now my attention is from oh wow... little tot is kicking! to... oh my goodness cora is able to stand on a chair! It blows my mind that we get to do this again... to see a little tiny human grow into an independent person. Amazing.

Pregnancy symptoms...

• no real cravings, just cereal all the time. I guess more salty cravings than sweet. I felt like I needed an apple fritter....ummm...well, daily with cora. Now, I can pass it up.
• last time I got pregnant I chopped off my hair to a bob, this time I felt like I had to dye it dark. so silly. perhaps making decisions hopped up on hormones is not the best idea.
• no round ligament pain, or any pains. Just an occasion pubic symphysis pain if I don't sleep correctly propped with pillows.
• so tired, even this second trimester. I blame it on the summer heat chasing a 15 month old. I don't even attempt to go outside if it's over 90 degrees. It will be unsuccessful.
• i'm emotionally unstable. Sorry matt, things will change after child birth, and after breast feeding is over. we have a ways to go. It's worth it, I promise.

summer heat & 22 weeks

uh huh. Being pregnant in a super record-breaking hot summer is HOT. And near unbearable. I think we made it past the 108's.... now on to lower temps Idaho. seriously. I had it easy last time... pregnant sept-april, not bad, just a lot of cozy clothes. But now... it's shorts that have a fully belly panel- what an awful summer contraption and tank tops that I wish could be airy-er, however they are suffocating my growing body. My wedding ring fitting? Hilarious, I took those 3 rings off weeks ago...now I'm down to one thin band. I now nap when cora naps out of pure exhaustion, and our move is getting tricky... matt will inevitably have to do the majority. I am excited to have a baby in the fall though, by the time tater tot is 6 months old and ready to hold his head up high and have sunscreen on him it will be summer again. Yay!!

Anyways, 22 weeks pregnant and growing. It's fun knowing tot is a "he"...lots of nursery planning, trying to picture him running around with cora playing, how on earth to manage two babes under 2. So many thoughts, with so little time flying right by. It's July, crazy right? This will be my last bump picture in our current house... new scenery for weeks 24 on! Woo hoo! If you haven't caught on, I am doing pictures every 2 weeks. I just can barely keep up with it this often. Silly really, my excuses.

Eeeshh... all of the "he's" and "him's." Crazy. It really is going to be a boy? Anyways. Still sinking in. Wish us luck this week moving in the heat. Soon will be time to decorate a tiny boy nursery. And more blogging, and settling in. So. Fun.