Kitchen Questions

I have been itching to get a window installed in our kitchen eating area since we moved into our house.  Our kitchen is very dark and installing a window on that wall, which is on the south side of the house, should really help brighten it up with natural light.  The problem is, there is a Mr. Slim air conditioning unit on that wall as well, which is making it harder to figure out what size and style window to install.  If the air conditioner wasn't there, I'd probably go for a bay window.  Here's what I'm dealing with:

The wall is about 11 1/2 feet long and the air conditioner takes up a third of that length.  Any suggestions?  I don't think moving the air conditioner is an option either.  We don't really have anywhere else on the first floor to install it. 

Another thing I have been thinking of doing is painting our kitchen cabinets white.  That would also help brighten up our kitchen, plus it would look better with our color scheme.  I watched a video on the Young House Love blog of them painting their kitchen cabinets white, and I totally think Justin and I could do it.  Just need to find the time, which is the tricky part!  Here's our kitchen now: 

My ultimate goal with the kitchen is to blow out the wall between the eating area and the kitchen and open the room up. 

I'd then redo the whole room. New cabinets, new appliances and a breakfast bar/peninsula.  I think there's enough space to do that, I just need to figure out the layout.  Oh, and win the lottery.  Haha.  Small detail.  Fortunately, our kitchen functions just fine for us now since a kitchen remodel isn't in our budget and likely won't be for many years.  Any non-budget-breaking suggestions on how to pretty up our current situation are welcome though! 

Jay - 9 Months!

Well, Jay will be 10 months old next Friday, so I figured I'd better get his 9 month post done ASAP!  Lots of new and exciting things going on with our little guy.  We haven't been to the doctor for his 9 month wellness visit yet, so I don't have his exact measurements, but I'd guess he's 22 pounds.  He's such a happy little guy and has been relatively healthy lately.  Knock on wood because that can change pretty quickly!

Jay has been pulling up on things since the beginning of the month.  He loves standing at all the tables in the living room and pulling off anything he can reach.  He is especially intrigued by all things electronic, so he's always trying to get the remotes and phones off the tables.  We're also having trouble keeping him away from the cable box and video game consoles.  I think we might just need to get a standing gate to keep that area off limits.  He's so cute because he knows we don't like him playing with that stuff and when we tell him no, he just turns and gives an impish grin.  

His two top front teeth have been working their way through for a couple of weeks now.  They caused him some discomfort, but overall, it hasn't been too much trouble for him.  We can tell when it's really bothering him because he won't let us brush his teeth, which is something he usually enjoys.  We use a rubber finger brush and he thinks it's the funniest thing.  One of the teeth has finally poked through.  I found that out when he bit me on the stomach.  Ouch!  The other looks close and then we'll really be in trouble. 

Jay is a really good eater these days.  He's been eating from the menu offered at daycare, so depending on what they're offering he can possibly have two snacks and lunch there, plus his bottles.  He'll try anything offered to him and likes to feed himself whenever he can.  He really seems to like strawberries this week, but he has such a hard time picking up those little bits!  He gets such a look on concentration on his face, trying to pick up a piece of berry but he never really gets frustrated. Must not take after me, hehe. 

The pets are all getting a bit more abuse by Jay since he's become so mobile.  Poor Hobbes seems to take the brunt of it, but he's sooo good about it.  Kind of strange for a cat, but he'll allow Jay to pinch and pull and squish him, and he's never hissed or made a move to scratch.  Butters seems to get stressed out by Jay and has been experiencing some jealously lately.  He has barked, but usually he just runs away and tries to avoid contact with him.  Unless it's feeding time, of course.  Then he's right by Jay's side.  He's coming around again though and I have no doubt that they'll be best buds later on. 

He's also been really playing with his toys these days.  He really studies and manipulates them.  He likes playing with his dancing bear toy and bops his head around to the music. He also likes banging on his ball toy and I got a good video of him playing with it the other night. 

 

We are just loving every day with Jay and it is so much fun to see him develop into this awesome little person.  I still can't believe how quickly this year is going by.  It's a little bittersweet, but exciting at the same time. 

Cape Cod - August 8th - 10th

Justin, Jay and I went to Cape Cod for a couple of nights earlier this month.  Justin’s Dad and Brigid own a house in North Truro, so we were able to get some visiting time in with them, as well as with Brigid’s son and his wife.  It was a short visit but we had a nice time.

We headed there late Wednesday morning, after dropping Butters off to be boarded.  Don’t feel too bad for Butters; he had a great time playing with the other dogs.  The drive in wasn’t too bad, though we did hit some traffic on the Cape.  North Truro is way out near the end, so it takes awhile to get there even after you reach Cape Cod.  Jay was great on the drive and slept for the majority of it.  He was awake when we were stuck in traffic towards the end, but he didn’t give us any problems, which was quite the relief!     

We arrived late afternoon and then after visiting for a bit and eating a snack, we headed to Collins Pond.  It was such a nice place to take Jay!  Freshwater, so we didn’t need to worry about him drinking the water, which he likes to do.  The water was very calm and warm and the beach was really nice.  We stayed there for awhile and then headed back to the house for dinner with everyone. 

Thursday we took awhile to get moving because Jay hadn’t slept the greatest the night before.  We ended up going to Pepe’s in Provincetown for lunch with Ray.  It was a really good lunch – lobster roll! – but we were faced with a couple challenges with Jay.  First, there were no highchairs provided, so I had to run back to the car to get the stroller.  Not a big deal, just an inconvenience.  I got back to the restaurant and had probably been seated for less than 5 minutes when Jay had a poopy diaper that leaked through.  As you can imagine, since the restaurant didn’t have highchairs, they also didn’t have anywhere to change a baby’s diaper.  Thankfully, the hostess helped us out and let us use a small office area to change his diaper.  After that, I gave Jay a bottle and then he actually sat quietly in his stroller and let us eat our lunches undisturbed.  There had been mention of going out to dinner, but after this lunch experience, we were pretty worn out and another restaurant experience just did not sound appealing!  Instead, we went back to the pond with Ray and then he cooked us a yummy seafood and pasta dinner. 

On Friday, Justin and I headed into Provincetown by ourselves to do some shopping and have lunch.  Ray had kindly offered to watch Jay for us and we jumped on that.  We’re no dummies!  We had a nice time walking around and checking out the different shops and then we went back to the same restaurant as the day before for lunch.  It was so good again!  Definitely recommend their calamari and they are really generous with their lobster meat.   After lunch we returned to the house and pretty much hung out there until we left later in the afternoon. 

The drive home didn’t go as smoothly as the drive there.  We ran into a lot of traffic, which seemed like it might just be the norm there.  It wasn’t for people leaving the Cape, because the bridges were clear.  It was also raining buckets for part of the drive.  We got home at 10:00 PM and it took us probably an hour extra.  Jay was really good on that drive as well, thankfully! 

All in all, it was a really nice visit and we’re so happy to have a place to spend time with family on the Cape. 

Eden Trip Recap - July 2012

Wow, I started this post WEEKS ago.  Blogging time was hard to come by for a bit there.  Jay was sick one of the weekends, Justin was sick for an entire week, I work 40+ hours a week...Yeah, blogging was not a priority for a bit there.  Anyway, back to the post...

Jay and I had such a great time in Eden.  The week ended up flying by.  It was pretty busy in the beginning, but I was starting to wear out, so we spent the last two days mainly relaxing.  I already talked about our first day there and how Jay loved the inground pool.  Now I'll try to cover all of the other days.  Get ready for picture overload!

On Sunday we went to visit Sarah, Bill and Trey.  We took the boys to the beach.  Jay did not like the lake so much!  I think the waves scared him.  I had him stand in the sand at the water's edge and he got upset when the waves got his feet wet.  When I carried him out into the water with me, he climbed as far as he could up my body to keep his feet out of the water.  Then a wave came and got water on his bottom half and he started crying.  That was the end of playing in the lake.  Instead, we went and enjoyed some watermelon back at our towels.  Jay really likes watermelon and is good at eating slices of it. 

On Monday, we went to Chestnut Ridge Park with Grandpa.  We took Jay on the swings and then walked around the park for a bit, looking for the old playground equipment that used to be there.  We're talking super tall metal slides, merry-go-rounds and teeter-totters.  Sadly, we were only able to find a couple of the old slides, and they weren't even the really tall ones.  Apparently the other things were removed from the park, probably due to fear of people getting hurt.  Such a shame.  They've replaced it with new plastic playground equipment, which is fine and I'm sure Jay will have fun on it one day, but it's still a little sad. 

On Tuesday we went to the Buffalo Zoo with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Becky and Aunt Lisa.  It was a bit warm, but we had a good time walking around.  We took turns pushing Jay in his stroller and carrying him.  It's nice having so many extra hands around to help out!  The zoo itself was a bit depressing.  I felt badly for a lot of the animals.  Some of the enclosures weren't too nice and it seemed some of the animals were just by themselves.  The new rainforest area was nice though and we had a lot of fun walking around there.   We had our lunch in a little picnic area next to the kiddie train.  While there, we had a peacock encounter.  A peacock seemed quite interested in Jay and his watermelon.  I was ok with this at first, but then he started getting too close and I got nervous!  After the peacock incident, we rode the train, which Jay had enjoyed watching during lunch.  Later in the afternoon we went on the carousel.  I didn't think he really cared for it when we were on it, but he let out a cry when I took him off the horse! 

 

On Wednesday, we went to visit a friend from college/Rochester, who now lives near Fredonia with her family.  She's got a two year old daughter, an eleven year old stepson and a thirteen year old stepdaughter.  It took nearly an hour to get to her house and then we stayed for lunch.  It was a lot of fun and so nice to catch up with her and meet her family.  That evening we went to Aunt Loie's for dinner.  Jay slept for the first hour there, which worked out well and we all were able to have our dinner.  When he woke up, he was pretty grumpy.  I felt bad because the last time we were at Loie's, Jay cried a lot and was pretty miserable the entire time.  I wanted her to see him happy!  It turned out he had a tummy ache and once that passed, he was happy as could be.  He put on a good show for her, crawling around and showing off his new tricks.  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures at all that day.  Can't believe I forgot to do that!

On Thursday we took it pretty easy.  We went to Granny's for lunch and visited with her for awhile.  We took Jay out in the wagon, which he really liked.  Haha, the only pictures I have of him in the wagon are of him crying, but that was just because he was approaching nap time.  After Granny's we returned to my mom's house.  That evening I took Jay in a blow-up pool that my mom got for him.  He loved it! 

On Friday, our last full day in Eden, we also took it easy.  We went to my dad's for breakfast and then just hung out at my mom's for the rest of the day.  We had a nice visit from a longtime family friend (and our childhood babysitter!) and her son (who I babysat when I was a teenager) late in the afternoon.  After they left, my dad and Becky arrived and we had some burgers and dogs on the grill.  That evening some more family friends came over to visit.  We spent some time in the blow-up pool and just had fun catching up.  It was a really nice last night with everyone. 

I was so sad to leave on Saturday morning.  Oh, how I wish we lived closer to my family.  I don't see that happening, so we'll just have to make the very best of all of our visits.  Speaking of which, Family, when are we going to see you out here? :)