So here I sit, glass of wine in one hand- keyboard in the other, watching Stella consume a dinner that consists of organic chicken hot dogs (with mustard, natch), black beans and green beans — lots and lots of green beans. The kid can’t get enough of them. Oh, and juice. Oh, and did I mention that this was all just to tide her over until the pizza comes off the bbq? What have we come to? I swore I would not become the mom who feeds her kid nothing but chicken mcnuggets and Kraft Mac & cheese. I am only a stone’s throw from high-maintenance-food-issues-kid-ville. Man, once this remodel is done….watch out perfect parent land, you are gonna have one more resident!! ;)

So the cabinets are coming along swimmingly. I confided in Peter that I am slowly starting to realize that red seems to be migrating quickly towards the top of my the favorite color list. I would never have considered red one of ‘my colors’. If someone asked me I would probably say orange, yellow — you know, typical Natalie colors. Somehow, when I look at my red purse and my red shoes I just bought, and the boxed red hair I color I sport, and the red paint I selected to have over half of my kitchen painted I am starting to see a pattern. So, anyway– back to the cabinets . It is looking like they will be completed by Friday. They are looking awesome! If we manage to get them painted and dry without any cute little handprints it will be a miracle.

Well, dinner is over and aside from the aforementioned tasty tidbits, our precious one also consumed an entire piece of pineapple/canadian bacon pizza (only choking on the cheese-blob once). I know you grandmothers out there love this kind of information. To all others — bear with us.

The first round of family has shown up, with another set potentially shortly behind (uncertainty has to do with a pyracantha thorn, swollen knee and an orthopedist). Aside from some time out for mother’s day festivities, it’s all about getting this [expletive deleted] remodel done!! We are so close. All we need is cabinet hardware for the bathroom, and we can abandon the Red Tail Ale box we have been using as a toiletries drawer and actually move all the bathroom mess currently residing in our bedroom into it’s new home in the bathroom.

Pictures to follow soon….

Welp, we did it again. Another $40 another bunch of “holy pink!” paint samples. Luckily by the time we went back for the second round, the guy at the paint counter was kind enough to let me take some home to test — promising that if I was very careful and didn’t make a mess of the cans, he would let me return them. So, Country Redwood it is. More of a burgundy-ish than a red, but as we quickly figured out, redder somehow equaled pinker. And we aren’t really ready to spend our life savings finding that perfect cabinet color.

So on Friday night, dizzy from stain fumes, twisted upside down…and backwards….trying to cram stain into the back-top-inside corner of the vanity, I came to realization that having Peter paint our cabinets was probably one of the wisest corners we did not cut. The measly two cabinets in the bathroom will probably take us as long as it will Peter to do the entire kitchen. The thought of now having to apply and sand 2 to 3 coats of polyurethane to them makes us groan. Not that we are lazy or afraid of a good project, but with work and baby to maneuver around, we don’t exactly get to just throw ourselves into the project and not emerge until it is done. Ahhh, the old days.

Yes, Stella is still the cutest thing ever. She is still saying ‘alligator’ with about 16 too many syllables, has successfully mastered the E-I-E-I-O riff, and just received her first official bathing suit in the mail from her Auntie Celene. She is getting fairly proficient at her sign language as well. In most cases it has been an ‘adapted’ version that would make a bona-fide sign language speaker shriek (sorry, Celene), but it works nonetheless. A good example works like this:

Please.

In real sign language you rub your open-palmed right hand over your heart in a circular motion.

In Stella’s version you take your right hand and drag it from the left side of your chest to the right side of your chest as though you were wiping your hand of something wet and gooey.

All the while, saing “Beeee”. Ugh. We are so proud.

What is the worst thing you can do to an otherwise sweet and well-mannered dog whose forbidden fruit is people food? Put her in the same proximity as a highly generous and overwhelmingly ‘dropful’ 16 month old. Through no fault of her own, Lily has eaten raisins, animal cookies, green beans, cheese and various other vittles that Stella has shared both willingly and absent-mindedly.

As Dad’s punch list shrinks, ours grows. Aside from the final finish work (appliances, light fixtures, etc), the only thing left on his list is kitchen floor. Our list on the other hand has grown rapidly. Stain & seal mouldings/window trim, paint touch-up, add baseboards, stain & seal bathroom cabinets, touch-up grout shower, kitchen backsplash, etc, etc, etc.)

Mom and dad will be heading out on Thursday and we will be left to our own devices. Which isn’t saying much. One on baby duty, and one on house detail doesn’t make for much productivity. This is one of those things that isn’t outlined in the baby books: “everything will henceforth take you 26 times longer than it did in your pre-baby days.”