Hard at Work

Here is the front room before all of the ripping and tearing. It is no longer blue. It actually has no walls and beautiful hardwood floors! Thanks to grandpa Myers and great grandpa Don for all of the help ripping down the walls!
Here is Brie's room. It started our blue and green with a dinosaur border. It is now pink with white trim. Thanks to the Joiners and Petersons for all of their hard work.

Here is Pop putting the finishing touches on Brie's room. Daddy is much happier now that the trim is painted white. We have decided to refinish her hardwood floors instead of putting down carpet. That will of course be done after we move in.

After a little bit of water damage we ended up putting some tile down on the floor in the bathroom downstairs. We will eventually redo the entire bathroom, but for now a new floor was necessary. Everyone said putting down tile was easy, I think they lied. Nothing in the bathroom was straight and almost every tile need to be cut! There is still one more tile to be done, but it is hidden behind the toilet so it can wait.

And finally here is the little munchkin helping daddy paint the living room. Of course there is no paint on her brush. She did manage a few minutes later to get her fingers into the can of paint when daddy was not looking and decided to add some color to her clothes and Mommy's.

Brie's froggie pool

Here we are getting ready to try our new pool. At first we were a little afraid and the first day we would only splash in the water.


But on the second day, of course with our clothes on, we were willing to get in and get soaked!

Work, Work, and more Work!

So after 4 weeks of working on the house we are nowhere near ready to move in. Our new bathroom needs alot more work, but thanks to Uncle Brian it is functional and has walls. The only two rooms that are even close to being done are Brie's and the living room. We continue to find places where some of the 68 cats that were the previous owners of our house left us presents. There is a corner of the living room that needs to be completely ripped out and the windows replaced and the kitchen cabinets need to be replaced, but it will all get done with time. We want to thank everyone who has helped us get so much done already. Three rooms have been completely gutted, the irises moved, and alot of painting is already done. We could not have done it without the help of friends and family.

Brie is very happy at the new house. She eats alot better and loves to run around in the yard. She even talks more there. Last night she said "stuck" when we had her trapped in her playyard so we could eat dinner without chasing her around the yard. She seems to be mocking more of our speech as well and babbles constantly while playing.

Today we also had a new visitor in our house. Marcus was sweeping the attic this afternoon in preparation for the movers later this week. He must have left the attic door open and a bat flew down into Brie's bedroom. Imagine my surprise when I went in to put some boxes in her room and saw something black hanging on the wall. Luckily Brie was not with me and was taking a nap in our room.

Bear with us the next few weeks, with the move starting tomorrow and our internet access not being ready at the new house we may not be able to update for a little while. I also tried to add some new pictures tonight, but it seems there is something wrong with the blogger server. As soon as we are settled we will add some new pics.

Some real improvements in the feeding front

Is it the new house, all of the new distractions, that she is having a growth spurt, or has she just deciding that eating makes her feel good. I guess we will never know, but Brie has been eating better the last week. Recently we discovered the gerber graduate meals and she seems to really enjoy them. She will eat almost an entire meal in one sitting. Hopefully by adding olive oil and butter to the veggies and the bonus of some actual nutrition going into her with these meals she will have gained some weight.

With all of our long car trips lately we have discovered that Brie is outgrowing her infant carseat. She does not mind it for short trips but after about an hour she starts to sign all done. We would love to make her forward facing so she could see where she is going and look out the window, but she is a pound shy of the 20 lbs required by law to be forward facing. (Yes, we finally hit 19 lbs today!) Marcus and I have been looking at convertible carseats, but the ones we like and have the best safety ratings will not fit rear facing in our car. So it is a race to see which happens first does she hit 20 lbs or 29 inches. Her infant seat maxes at 29 inches and we are getting close. I guess if she is too tall we will have to make her forward facing sooner.

As for the new house things are starting to come together. Brie's room is almost finished. It is a nice bright pink that daddy is not a fan of, but Brie seems to like. I think it will be toned down a little once we get the furniture in and some decorations on the walls. We are also going to add some crown molding and a nice area rug. Her room is the closest to being finished. Our move is scheduled for next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so it should be interesting.

Just a quick update!

With all of the work at the new house, finding a minute to update has been difficult. We have been taking weekly trips to Muncy to get work done prior to our move at the end of the month. There is alot to get done in a few short weeks. We spent the last few days cleaning and tearing out walls. Finally we are ready to get some painting done. Hopefully Marcus can get at least one of the rooms done this weekend. Unfortunately Brie and I are not much help. Neither of us can be around the chemicals. We have spent most of our days running errands, walking around the mall, and playing in the backyard.

Brie seems to really like the new house. There is so much more room for her to run around. She loves the backyard. She even slept well the entire time we were there. We did not hear a peep from her all night!

We did see a new pediatrician for Brie in our new area and I am not really impressed with her. Our current ped is very thorough and this lady was not. She did not even ask about her history. She just referred us to a GI and a speech therapist for the feeding issues.

Brie's current stats were: Weight 18.2, Height 28 in and head 18 inches. She has grown 3 inches in the past 3 months and gained 1.5 lbs. At least she has made some progress despite her small intake.