And so it begins...

When I went off on mat leave, I had a "bucket list" of items I needed to address before heading back to work.  With 8 weeks left, and still some "biggies" on the list, I figured I better get crackin'.  And so begins the....Kitchen Mini-Reno. 

I'm calling it a "mini-reno" because this is the sort of reno I'm doing to live with a not-so-bad kitchen for the next number of years.  Truly, the kitchen isn't horrible...when we moved in, the walls were green, so the bleached birch cabinets took on a green tinge, and the ceramics on the floor sported a certain kermit-ness to them as well.  A big BLEGH...and a much-needed paint job (Ben Moore's Escarpment...awesome!), and now, finally, the rest is being addressed.  The bleached birch isn't bad- but they haven't been treated well.  The old spinsters who lived in this house prior to us decided it was a great idea to nail. things. directly. into. the. cabinets.  Who does that???  So a few dozen holes need to be filled.  In addition- the cabinets are really weathered along the bottom where they meet the ceramic tile.  Almost as though they bathed the floor every couple of days in 2 inches of water (which, might I add, would also NOT surprise me). 

So, we're painting them.  Probably ultra pure white, but I'll be certain after my visit to Uxbridge's Ben Moore outlet to buy the goods. 

We're also replacing the knobs- not sure with what, but they'll be black.  (Any ideas out there?  feel free to forward on some links!).  Lighting is going to go (except for our table pendant- I bought that beautiful gem from Crate & Barrell when we moved here!), under cabinet lighting is going to be installed, and new white subway tile backsplash (getting the existing 15yr old backsplash off is going to be a b*tch!!!). 

THE "BEFORE"

damn I need to figure out how to rotate pics in this program...

Pantry- this is the first area to tackle.  It'll hide itself if I royally screw this up...

So, here goes...I would have loved to have ripped out the tiles as well...definitely NOT my choice!  But Glen and I have drawn the line at that.  In 5-10 years, when there are no more hot wheels being driven all over our hardwood, we'll do the whole main floor.  For now, I can live with it!

Also wondering if this new kitchen reno comes with an organization fairy...I'm seriously lacking:

Cake

So I'm way behind on my 3rd year birthday post for Rowan (it'll come- I promise little guy!), but thought I'd share our cake creation for this year...perhaps the most stellar one yet! 

Rowan asked for a Lightening McQueen cake.  Yikes.  3D cakes in the previous years haven't exactly turned out perfect, so I was leaning toward a 2D option...until Glen stepped in and said he could surely fashion the 3D shape of Lightening out of cake- as long as I was willing to ice it.  And...here goes:

(previous year's creations found below...)

1st Birthday:

2nd Birthday:

(yup- thats a pretty poor looking John Deere tractor and trailer!  Hence the reason that Glen was the cake constructor for Rowan's Lightening McQueen cake!)

Rowan-isms

Mommy:  Rowan, how old are you now?

Rowan: I'm 3!!!

Mommy: And how old will you be next year on your birthday?

Rowan: 4

Mommy:  And how old will you be the year after that?

Rowan: 95

[insert laughing here]

Mommy: 95???

Rowan: Yes, Mommy.  I'll be 95.  But don't worry Mommy, 95 is still really, really young!

The Beach is callin'

I.  Miss.  This.

and this:

And this...



this too...



I miss it all.  And for some reason- perhaps the crappy winter we've been having here in Ontario, or perhaps the fact that it was -16 degrees C today, I am missing the sun, the sand and the beach terribly.  Perhaps its also because I've initiated the chats about my pending return to work, and feel like my mat leave won't be quite complete without another family vaycay.  Not sure if it'll happen, and less sure that the pictures are giving the visual escape that I'm looking for, but they are still darn great memories. 

with sleep, you can do anything

this has been a trying holiday season.  i've noted in previous posts that we have been inundated with THE SICK in our household, and therefore, been plagued with all-night wake-ups from coughing, puking, fever, soreness, bad dreams...you name it, and its kept us from catching an adequate amount of zzzs.  combine that with less than healthy holiday eating habits, lack of routine, no time for personal workouts, and sickies among both glen and i...and you have one very short-tempered household. 

we're hoping for happier days with the return of routine tomorrow...and more sleep-filled nights, which will allow me to reunite with the gym in the basement that i've been neglecting for the past few weeks. 

truly, i have heard from many moms who have gone before me: with sleep, you can handle anything.  so true.  here's to sleep...

...and she's off!

Miss G started crawling over the holidays...December 23rd, to be exact!  Thank goodness we (smartly) decided to "hide" the Christmas tree behind the club chairs this year, otherwise with her curiosity, we would have picked the tree up off the floor more times than once.  (As a side bar...ironic that we named her Georgia, and now we have a "Curious Georg-ia" in the house!). 

It is so entertaining to watch her- she does laps around the kitchen/hall/toy room/pantry, and back...and thinks it is hilarious if you chase her.  She crawls faster and just giggles to herself, as we hunt her down.

Rowan is quickly learning that her crawl-abilities are slightly less than cool.  She's the household godzilla that runs through his freshly made train track design, and plows through his car "races" with the greatest of ease.  She's also able to chase after what she wants, and has no problem helping herself to whatever Rowan's toys she so desires.  As one would guess, this drives Rowan batty!  Presenting another million parenting opportunities for Glen and I...reminding that we "share" our toys, disciplining on big brother dropping the shoulder to get G outta the way, breaking apart a pull-down on whatever toy G and R are equally vying for (yup- at 8 months, Miss G has quite the grip on anything she wants!).  When Rowan's back is turned, G will steal into the toy room and secretly play with his cars and trains...and has a glowing look on her face when she's caught in the act.  Already wanting to be like her big bro, and following his lead.

One of my favourite things...

Quickly becoming a Holiday tradition in our house, we went to the Fantasy of Lights at Elgin Park in Uxbridge this year. 

A number of businesses throughout Uxbridge sponsor holiday displays of lights for 2 weeks in December.  My amazing Realtor husband came up with the idea to put in a display for this year's event (fantastic!  an audience of 8,000+ Uxbridgeans), and ingeniously, created this work of art:

He was the first-ever Realtor to put a display up at the Fantasy of Lights.  Hands-down Genius, baby...way to go!

Rowan loves, loves walking through all the lights.  Christmas music is blaring from the centre of the park, and you can walk or drive the periphery to enjoy the displays put on by local businesses.  There is also a maze of lights to walk through- Rowan was our "leader", and only had us turned around once!  Here's our Year 3 picture infront of the light tunnel...

ICK THE SICK

The Holidays have come and gone, but the Holiday Sick didn't get the packing notice to pack up and move on with the tinsel and trimmings that are long gone from our mantle.

We've been trading The Sick since December 23rd...possibly earlier than that, as Miss G had chronic GI issues for almost 2 weeks, but I'll pin the 23rd, as that is when I got the full body aches and was worshipping the porcelain god for 2 days straight.  Then Georgia puked for a few days, then the mass head cold went around the Buchanan household.  Rowan was up and down, but finally caught the cold just before New Year's.  I spent most of New Year's day in the ER at The Cottage Hospital with a very sick Miss G...wouldn't eat (well, couldn't eat...her sinuses were so full, she literally couldn't breath enough to suck on a bottle), and she'd had a raging 104 degree fever for 48 hours.  Turns out she had a very red throat, and a massive ear infection that put her on antibiotics for a week.  Fast forward a few days, and she's finally feeling better, eating...Rowan had appeared to kick the cold he'd been fighting, and as of January 6th, Glen and I were the worst ones with a lingering head cold and night cough (nothing a little Advil Cold & Sinus wouldn't suppress...sorry J&J, you did pay my salary for a few years, but NOTHING holds a candle to the Cold & Sinus!).  Short-lived- this morning, just minutes before Rowan's birthday friends were to arrive, he vomitted all over the bathroom, and on checking his temperature- 104.  Here we go again...  Party cancelled.  Bed for the day, and back to rotating Tylenol and Advil in an attempt to manage the fever.  Eff.

Ick the Sick, I say.  I'm considering dressing everyone up in heavy winter gear tomorrow and opening every window in the house.  If the air doesn't blow out all the germies, it'll at least freeze their little contagious butts off. 

I've got some catchin' up to do...

A month worth of blog posts to catch up on...and a very busy month at that!