Decorating...

Without great progress, I've been slowly making my way around the house, occasionally "decorating" a bit.

When we first got to the new house, I unpacked a few boxes of pictures and things that we hadn't had out since Tucson. I placed many of these things on our fireplace mantle to keep them out of little hands that might break them.

Yesterday, I was rearranging things on the mantle and, of course, I broke them. All the ceramic frames from Mexico, the glass in the photo frames, and our hand-painted wedding plate we'd been given (which was already cracked in a few places but epoxied back together) crashed in dramatic fashion on the brick fireplace. NOTHING was spared and nothing was fixable. Ceramics and brick are like the Hedron collider: Whole new worlds may have been formed in the shattering.

Ada, hovering nearby watching a little TV but out of harm's way, had a look of wonder, bewilderment, and "haha! it wasn't me!" on her face as the pieces crashed to the ground. I told her it was a HUGE MISTAKE and she said, "MISHTACK!" and I said, "Yeah! What a mess!" She agreed.

After vacuuming up the pieces and tossing the shards, we went about our business.

This morning, she picked up a little art glass night light from a box I was rummaging through. I told her, "That's fragile. It's glass. ... so be careful."

She looked at the object in her hand, looked at me, and then pointed at the fireplace mantle.

Point taken, kid, point taken.

It's Official! We bought a house!

Approaching the house.

The house, front and left

Mr. Homeowner

"We're going into our new house!"

Ready?

Looking into the dining room.

From the dining room out to the main area.

Fireplace

Running ...

Across the room! Live it up kid, once we put all our crap in here it won't feel so spacious.

Dining room, front entrance and coat closet, living room front window.

Looking into the kitchen.

Kitchen.

Undermounted sink! Yippee!

View into the living room from the sink. That's a pantry there, friends, a PANTRY! A place to store food!!!

Looking into the master. Under the bound remnant is lovely dark tile. Curb alert! Free, giant blue bound remnant, very clean! You pick up! 

Looking out the double doors of the master to the ... linen closet! That's right! A place to put your linens! The other door in the shot that is open is the hall bathroom. Not pictured, laundry room door to the right of the linen closet.

Bed wall in master.

Master bath. Jeffrey can see his whole head in the mirror when standing up. Not many people probably have that on their "must have" list when shopping for a home...

Laundry room. It's quite nice!

Ada checking out her closet.

Blankie in the closet. She's moved in!

Jeffrey standing around in Ada's new room.

The other bedroom. This will be the den, toy overflow, and guest stashing room.

Another shot of the pantry!

The garage.

Trying out the patio levels.

Boulders above the patio.

Ada found a shady seat.

Ladies with their new keys!

 Woo!

High fives!

The view out my front window, the front deck, and the garage.

Reminders ...

The AZ Gautreaux group hasn't been the picture of health lately. Ada and I even got a stomach bug. Ada has never thrown up before so I think she was quite surprised and understandably upset about it. I don't think she understood why I was as upset about it -- there is nothing that makes you feel more like a pathetic mom com flick than sitting in bed at 3 a.m. covered in your child's vomit while they snore away on your shoulder and you uncomfortably lay there with your pillow never quite in the right place. Fifty million loads of laundry later ...

We're feeling better -- well, Ada and I are. Jeffrey has finally succumbed to the cold part. Happy Birthaversary my love!

While she's been sick, Ada has been waking up cheerful and full of energy. She sings, dances, destroys, and generally makes the cute.

I knew she was feeling better today, albeit a little tired, when she woke up as her normal jerky self.

"Do you want milk?"
"No milka!"
"How about water?"
"NO WADAHR!"
(I poke her in her belly just to annoy her)
"Uh UH! CARRY ME!"
Then I pick her up and carry her around while I make coffee and she does about 10 minutes of nerve-grating wingeing noises that make me want to tie her to a hill top.

The fun part this morning was when she mimicked me saying, with great feeling, "I HATE THIS!" it even came with a trademark Kat Foot Stomp and a little fist shaking.

Sometimes when things aren't going particularly well between us, I like to look at pictures of her when she is being adorable. It keeps me from selling her for big bucks. Here are a few recent ones.

From the other day: Ada doesn't always refer to painting as painting, but frequently as "I make dots!"

Getting ready to go to school Thursday... before the pestilence hit.

These are from this morning after we'd taken a shower, gotten dressed, and the wingeing had stopped. She's making tea. Ada loves a little cuppa of English breakfast with lots of sugar and milk. She makes the tea bag, "Jump! Jump!" and drinks it out of her little porcelain Beatrix Potter mug with the "Bunyays!"

Her legs kill me. Even when she's being an asshat, I still want to grab her and munch her legs.

Pumpkin Bread Baking with Ada

Baking with Ada is always a good way to mess up the kitchen.

She's getting much better at dumping the ingredients into the bowl and can even crack the eggs (we're still working on where they go AFTER the cracking...). She also counts, "One, two ... one, two ... one, two ..."

Today we Skyped NC while we worked. My dad snapped these via Skype so they aren't super quality, but you get an idea of what it was like.