Family – Page 2 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

A 1/2 weekend

We went back to NY last weekend to meet our new little nephew who is adorable! He is also the quietest little newborn ever, didn’t make a peep the whole visit, just loves to snuggle!

We drove back home on Saturday night so we had all day Sunday to do regular weekend things. We hit up our regular breakfast place where Alex is always admired and she loves to see the new decorations each time we go. Then we did some home depot shopping (got our tile for the kitchen!) and a little work on the house. Ryan got the kitchen window trim all made up and installed.

The apron underneath will go on after tile. Then he got the plinth blocks and the start of the trim around the archway done. The rosettes still need to be stripped so we’re just waiting on me to have time to do that so we can move forward with the trim there.

I started the process of cleaning up the tool area, it’s been a lot harder to organize tools without my back hallway and bookcase to store most of them. So i’ve had to get creative and still keep track of where everything is. For now our hutch is taking on a major roll in tool storage (actually both hutches, the built in one and the standalone). With family coming up this weekend (and my almost 2 year old nephew), I’d like the diningroom to be usable for breakfast at least and safe for a toddler.

A very productive weekend

It’s been a while since we had one of those but we found ourselves home unexpectedly this weekend because Alex got sick again! This is actually a secondary illness (ear infections) so she was feeling fine mostly, just couldn’t sleep at night but with antibiotics she is doing much better.

In the meantime, rather than spread our germs to our new nephew, we stayed home and worked on the house. First Ryan finished the mixer lift (adding the shelf and adjusting the tension).

Next up he got the beam in between the kitchen and diningroom so that we can do crown in the kitchen when we have time and 2 people.

And then it was on to the back door and then trim. He got the new back door installed, the last 2 pieces of cement board in and then trimmed out both new doors and started on baseboards. The last baseboard piece in the back hallway needs to be scribed so we quit there.

It is amazing how much warmer it is in the kitchen with these doors in! And safer for Alex of course. The next big project will be tiling the kitchen floor, probably the first weekend in April. I can’t wait – soon Alex can safely crawl around the kitchen and she will be very happy to not be cooped up in the livingroom. She’s definitely learned that she can crawl out of the livingroom so we have to keep the doors shut or gate off a section of the kitchen she can play in…

She escaped the livingroom but alas the kitchen was walled off 🙂

And Sunday we went to our regular breakfast place and then the grocery store. Of course the time change through us off (we had no idea it was coming) so we just pretended there was no time change for the day! We ended the day with a nice walk – it was a big chilly but Alex loved it, it’s been too long since we got outside!

Ryan’s mini vacation and Alex is crawling

So Alex started crawling over the last couple of weeks. On Friday she did the official hand/knees crawl but she still prefers the army crawl she’s been doing for a while. Of course I can’t upload a video bigger than 1MB so I have nothing to share on that but some cute pics of Alex standing up.

caught ya! Sneaking into mommy’s work bag 🙂

She had a great weekend back in NY with her cousins. She played with little Jason and he found it very strange to have another baby sharing his toys at grandma’s house. He is obsessed with ‘Aahee’ as he says though, always asking where she is and pointing her out in pictures (or pointing to her high chair since they ate next to each other a lot). It was adorable!

Bouncing on the bouncy bike – she loved this thing and now bounces on her dragon at home 🙂

Over at Grandma and Papa Williams’ house she played with both of her cousins who just dote on her and give her tons of attention!. She also bounced on her cousin who was still in the womb (hmmmm… maybe that’s why he came the next day!).

And Ryan took last weekend as a long weekend, taking Friday to Tuesday off. He got some projects around the house done and took a much needed break (of course we also traveled to NY and it was nice to be able to leave friday easily because he was already home!).

New basement door installed (especially important now that alex is moving around so much)

Blocking in the ceiling of the diningroom, firms it up a little bit more. Next up is the fake beams.

KitchenAid mixer lift – it just needs the shelf to be attached. It would be good if that was after I got the outlet installed as this gives me more room to maneuver.

Ryan also made a much needed trip to the dump so the side porch is cleaned off now. We have many more dump trips needed now that the snow is melting and piles are exposed 🙂 Getting there slowly!

10 months old

It’s been a while since I posted, we’ve taken quite a break from working on the kitchen. Some weekends home, a weekend in NY. Lots of time playing with Alex etc. We’ll get back to the house work shortly but it’s been a nice break after 2 months non-stop.

Anyhow – Alex is now 10 months old so I thought I would give a little update since it’s been quite a while since I did!

She’s 18lbs 12oz and 27.5″ long now.

As of today she has a tooth poking through – her first! You can’t see any white yet but i can feel the jagged tooth poking through when she lets me. Yay!

No crawling yet but she’s working on it. She can pull her knees under her pretty well and rock. She can scoot backwards and she can pull herself in circles on her belly to get toys. She loves to stand and tries to pull up to standing. She will stand up and play all day if you let her.

And some pictures since halloween since I haven’t posted many since then…

zoom zoom, rolling around in her car (feb 2013)

More cabinet updates

This weekend was the first in a while that we were all healthy so it was great! We relaxed, did some shopping and got some work done on the house. Saturday Ryan got all the knobs and pulls installed in the cabinets!

Then I installed the 2 drawers in one base cabinet that didn’t come pre-installed (these drawers were free so had to be installed).

And some features of the cabinets…

double oven and that bottom rack rolls out !

All of the base cabinets (except for sink base and kitchen aid cabinet) have rolling shelves!

On Sunday Ryan hung our maps in the tvroom before Alli’s playdate (we had a couple of mom’s/babies over for alex to play with). It was a very relaxing weekend. Alex started coughing though so I’m wondering if we’re about to get another cold – ugg!

Plumbing!

Well this weekend did not go as planned, that’s for sure. The one thing that did go as planned was getting the plumbing in the kitchen done thanks to Jason. Well mostly done, we still need to hook up the freezer/ice maker and install a pot filler. But the sink and dishwasher are all hooked up to the new pex!

We also got both the pendant lights installed and the center kitchen light. The outlets are all installed (using a GFCI double pole breaker instead of GFCI outlets). The cabinets are slowly getting filled up and the kitchen is being used!

What didn’t go as planned was that we all got sick this weekend and missed out on Groudas family christmas. Alex got a stomach bug Thursday and had to be picked up from daycare. Ryan caught it friday night and I got it on saturday. Saturday was a really bad day, Ryan passed out most of the day, me mostly passed out and Alex still fighting her bug so extremely cranky and fussy. We are all on the mend finally and I took today off to keep Alex home since she was still sick yesterday (she can’t go to daycare until she’s healthy for 24 hours).

Pajama day again! We were having fun with blocks 🙂

Alex is eating food today and holding it all down (I’ve been sticking with plain dry food). Tomorrow she’ll be back at daycare and it’s finally back to work for me, besides a short week last week it’s been a long time since I was at work!

Christmas and Cabinets

Well unfortunately Christmas week was fraught with sickness. Alex got a nasty cold and passed it along to us. Christmas morning she awoke with a pink/swollen/crusty eye – fun stuff. So I did’t get any great xmas day photos 🙂

She was a trooper though and loved her dragon rocker!

Wednesday and Thursday we kept alex home (ryan had to work) anyhow, and Alex and I just relaxed trying to get better. Friday she seemed much better so I took her to daycare and got much worse myself with a fever. Saturday we were hoping we’d all feel better, but no such luck and by saturday night it was clear that alex was coming down with something else (ear infection?). So sunday we took her over to the doctor and yup, double ear infection.

We had the plumber coming Monday morning to install the gas line for the stove so Sunday night we got the wiring ready for the stove and hood. Then we spent the whole evening installing the hood after getting the first 2 upper cabinets in!

On Monday we finally all felt better, although I still have a cough (asthma) and Ryan is still not 100%, Alex was good so we took her to daycare and enjoyed our day off working on the kitchen.

At 2:30pm our neighbor stopped over to help out a bit since I had to pick up Alex at 3:30pm, so we ended up getting the rest of the upper cabinets installed and progress on the fridge wall of cabinets! Then today, Alex and I relaxed with Sarah and Ryan finished up the fridge cabinets! All cabinets are now installed! This was actually planned, we are very excited!

There is quite a bit happening still… tomorrow the counters are being installed! Friday Jason is going to do the plumbing so we’ll have a kitchen sink again! Just in time for all the family to come out for Groudas Christmas.

Once the counters are in I can start filling the lower cabinets. We have handles and knobs to install and doors to straighten still but the cabinets are in so it feels like a real kitchen! Next on the list is to buy tile for the floor and backsplash. We still have all the moldings to install too. Lots to do but it feels so close to done 🙂

The demo never ends!

What a long weekend, the little tiny bathroom upstairs was insane, Ryan said there were 3 layers of renovation and each time they renovated they didn’t take anything down so we had more plaster from a tiny bathroom than we did from our entire kitchen demo!

Saturday morning Ryan got to work on the demo (starting with some dump runs which will never end!). Our neighbor came over to play with alex for a couple of hours saturday so I was able to help here and there with demo and other things. Ryan got most of the bathroom demo’d and what will be the laundry room, leaving the tub, toilet and floor (and miscellaneous unfinished demo) for sunday.

Then Ryan’s parents showed up for the evening and we all went out to dinner (Alli-boo got some great snuggles in at the restaurant and did great considering it was latish for her to be out and about). No melt downs though and she got to try a sippy cup for the first time (which she grabbed right on to!).

Sunday Ryan and I finished up the bathroom demo and cleanup while Suzanne spent the day with Alli-boo and Mark installed our new railings he built! They look amazing, and half of our porch is going to be the envy of the neighborhood for sure now! Hopefully next summer the whole porch will be 🙂

Alli gets some snuggles from grandma at the restaurant

new railings – they look exactly like the original but better! We plan to stain that top piece of cedar to match the deck (maroon), the rest will be yellow.

from the street – half of the porch is done!

Unfortunately the bathroom took SO long to demo (come on it was a TINY bathroom, we didn’t think it would take more than half a day!) that we’re a bit behind on the renovation. Plus one wall needs to come down completely and be rebuilt, these walls are just horrible. So we have to come up with a game plan to get a few things done quickly and soon.

a start on the electrical – saturday morning

hard to tell but a bunch of the old plumbing and gas lines were removed (water capped in the basement). The only water in our house right now is in the downstairs bathroom running off our manifold and our washing machine in the basement!

upstairs bathroom all gone. notice the old doorway – always interesting finding different layouts to the house. this is a view from the master bathroom

a view from the hallway outside the bathroom. This wall is the one that we’ll take down and rebuild. It will have the washer/dryer on one side and the sink on the other side plumbing wise.

Happy Halloween

Alex had her first halloween and she was such a good sport for it! She was dressed up as Pubert Addams (easiest costume I’ve made yet – a grand total of 2 hours to complete it!). Since it was designed after one of her jumpers it was nice and comfy (although she’s already growing out of it!).

She got dressed up, with makeup and got to play with candy for the first time. Then we went trick-or-treating to a couple neighbor’s houses where she proceeded to dry to grab candy from bowls. Back home to hand out candy until bedtime, where she got to play with candy in our bowl for another 20 minutes. So I think halloween is her favorite holiday, she got very very mad when I took candy away from her (evidently wrappers taste really yummy).

handing out candy (yes that is the bowl right there for her to play in)

And now it’s almost the weekend again! We’re very excited about this weekend, Ryan is going to demo the upstairs bathroom and soon to be laundry room. Then we plan to get new cement board down for flooring up there. After that it’s back to the kitchen to work on electrical and the floor down there (has to come up and cement board put down). We have one more weekend before thanksgiving and insulation so this weekend has to really count!

6 months old

A little late but I’ve back dated the post. Alex is now 6 months old!

She is 14 lbs 9 oz. 25 1/4″ long and her head is 17″ diameter. She dropped JUST below the 50th percentile for height and weight. The nurse didn’t tell me what she was for head this time. The doctor said she’s doing great (I was concerned about the drop in growth) but he said she most likely had just had a growth spurt for her 4 month appt and hasn’t hit her 6 month spurt yet.

What has she been up to this month? Rolling rolling and more rolling! She rolls all over and squirms around in circles to get to toys etc. Also new, she’s been trying to sit up by herself! Also new is she’s working on learning to eat food – so far she’s had oatmeal, banana and avocado. Next up is sweet potato.