Progress at the new house

I know it's been all baby talk around here lately, and really that is the most important stuff. But there has been a lot going on at the new house lately too!

You will hardly recognize the kitchen. The pantry is gone, as well as that weird column, and of course all of the appliances and the strangely placed water heater. Oh and the floor.

But scroll back up and look carefully at where the pantry used to be, and you will see it peeking out from under the drywall . . . old beadboard! Just like on HGTV! We really found cool old beadboard underneath.

After talking to the contractor, we are going to pull some of the sheetrock down and have beadboard, but apparently it doesn't seal very well and we would lose our AC and have dirt fall on us from above if we left it everywhere. But we will have at least a couple of walls of pretty old beadboard. Yay!

The next picture is what is left of that column. It turns out that at one point it was a brick chimney. I realize this is just a pile of bricks and you probably could have imagined what a pile of bricks looks like without this picture, but I thought it was kind of neat-looking.

Here is the front room where the water went from the burst pipe. Not recognizable either, is it?

Paul has been helping some with this work. I haven't at all. It is so nice. : ) My main toil has been over at Pinterest, with an expanding board of "for the home" pins. That part is important though too, am I right or am I right?

Three posts in one

Glasses

Ella is fascinated by glasses, and understandably, I think. They have small moving parts. They are almost like a body part, but you can carry them around and play with them in a way that you can't with eyes, for instance. You find them in unexpected locations and Mommy always chases you once she sees that you have them. There are probably other reasons too. So obviously Ella was very excited to be allowed to try them on. We had quite the protest when the glasses were all done.

Sisters

It is SO MUCH FUN to watch these girls start to be sisters. The pacifier has been an important object in their relationship so far. On the one hand, if Nora fusses and Ella can see she is missing a paci, Ella RUNS to find one, crying "nah-nah, nah-nee" and then attempts to jam it in Nora's mouth with utmost concern. It is so sweet, if not very effective in calming Nora down.

On the other hand, if Nora is not crying, but her pacifier is nearby, Ella is not shy about borrowing.

Also, there are some games that Ella has found out Nora can already play with her, like funny hat.

Nora is continuing to be quite the mellow and patient soul.


Geese

Here are some geese holding up traffic.

I just love when this kind of thing happens. It gives me two thoughts that I like: #1 Most of our normally road-rage stricken population has the compassion and sense to stop and give a flock of silly geese safe passage across a busy road. #2 Nature can still trump human traffic laws. So often I just get afraid that we really will pave all of paradise--it's nice to see paradise stand up for itself a little.

And with that, happy weekend everybody!

Two babies

This is my third day with just me and my two little girls at home, and so far so good. We are having a lot of fun. But today I wanted to post some of the photos from when Gramma and Granddaddy were here. Gramma was such a big help to us for the first couple of weeks! And it was wonderful to have both of them in town to play this last weekend. I love where we live but really wish we could have that family time more often. It is so much fun.

I remember when Ella was born thinking, how did I ever think I was busy before I had a baby? And now I think, how did I ever think I was busy before I had two babies? But honestly, it hasn't been that bad. Not at all bad actually. It is actually a really big blessing to have these two beautiful little babies to take care of. Sometimes there are more things two do than hands available, but I've found it's ok to just slow down. And this is spoken 2 days after a night of probably about 2 hours of sleep (mostly Ella's fault, but Nora shared a bit of the blame as well). We were able to hang in there. And it is fun to have a crowd at home. Overall, I can give a good report for our first week. The one problem for you, dear readers, is that this slower pace and competition for Mama's hands means that there is less time for typing. There have been so many things I have thought, oh I should blog about that. But then by the time I have time to sit down at the computer uninterrupted about 12-20 hours later, the mood is gone and I just want to veg, hence the update on new blogs to read. Anyway, overall it is great to be a mother of 2 sweet girls. And slowly but surely, I'll tell you more about it.

New blogs I like

So, surprise, I love reading blogs. And this week I found two new ones that I love. I have to confess that while I have a couple of blogs that I read that are deep and spiritual, and I know of other good ones like that, I mostly like eye candy. Love it in fact. My reader is full of interior and style blogs. That being said, let me introduce you to the new ones I love. #1 is ledansla. This is some of the most beautiful photography ever, and the little girl with ringlets makes me feel some kinship with the blog's author, (since I am also a gifted photographer and artist and cool french girl . . . ). The second one is a fashion blog, kendieveryday. This girl is a great dresser and she does it with stuff you could possibly afford. Thank you! I found this one by way of creaturecomforts, and loved how she described why she liked it, "because rolling out of bed and tossing on my Choos and Cavalli are about as much my reality as riding on a unicorn to go grocery shopping is." Haha! The blog is full of the same self-deprecating and slightly snarky humor, and great clothes, of course. Check 'em out. I hope you enjoy!

Can I just say?

 My husband has some mad omelette skillz.

Strolling

If you'll recall, I posted a while back about my complaints with the way carseats and strollers work in general. I was new at the whole thing and not yet used to all the wrestling that is a part of a mother's daily life. So I got over all that. Kinda. But when my parents generously offered to chip in for something we needed for our new little Nora, I knew just what I wanted.

This is not the Orbit stroller I was in love with back then, but our needs have changed. We are onto the double stroller phase. (Have you noticed what a hot topic double strollers are around the soon-to-be/newly parents of two crowd? Bring it up and you can easily start a fairly passionate 15 minute discussion.)  We thought and thought about it and settled on this one from Britax, the B-Ready. I had gotten a Baby Trend double stroller from our friends and reliable baby-need-suppliers Pat and Brenda, but since their report was the Sit and Stand was only good until the babies got a little bigger, after which it became totally unmaneuverable, I was looking around for a more permanent option and jumped at the chance to get this thing. Take a look:

It can be a solo stroller if you just leave the top seat on. But you can add a baby seat or another kids seat in just about any configuration of top and bottom you can think of. And it is not that big. And it is easy to push. And has lots of storage and a good handle and we love it so far! I'll let you know if we start to have complaints with it, but the initial impression is, ooooh, coool. 

Ella and Nora agree:

Here it is in action at one of our favorite strolling spots, the farmers market:

 Coooool.

Nora Grace is here!

Well our sweet little Nora Grace McCall arrived just after midnight on the 1st of July! Since then we've been settling in and, as predicted, drowning in cuteness with our two little angels. If I sound overly chipper for a mama who has just given birth, I will say that although I am definitely dealing with all the first week postpartum things, I have discovered what is meant by the concept of "easy baby" and I am delighted, if somewhat bewildered, by it. Nora just sleeps until she's hungry, squeaks a little, eats, and after some knowing looks, drifts right back off and turns into a warm little bundle that just melts over your chest and darn near makes you fall asleep too. This is so different than our first week with our first little angel. We'll see how it goes as time moves on, but I am so thankful for how restful this time has been!

Here is some of what we've been up to in our first few days as a family of 4: