and so the destruction continues...

So apparently we are jumping head-first into a kitchen remodel. Mike says its all my fault because I am the one that said we should take off the paneling in the kitchen. Once that came off things just got uglier and uglier. Since we are fixing and remodeling things we might as well just do the whole dang thing right? I am very excited about the prospect of a new kitchen. Its not going to be my dream kitchen any means and the entire thing has to be done for less than 3,000 but nevertheless it will be nice when its all done. The scary part is living with it in the "progress" stage because as you know the kitchen is something you just have to use no matter what. Of course being that Mike can only work on the kitchen in the evenings and weekends-- so its going to be a while before its done. My hope is this whole thing (complete with new non nasty flooring will be done before Keira starts crawling.. which considering that she will be 5 months tomorrow gives Mike a few months to get things going.

Happy Halloween

Not eating solids!

I am firmly convinced that my child is too young to eat solid food. Her digestive system has been untouched by any food substance other than breast milk. Oh wait...don't forget about the "teething" apple we gave her this past weekend. I believe that 6 months is a good age to "start" solids- which means an occasional taste of solid food every now and then.

Lately; however, Keira has been giving the Jedi death stare to our food- she is concentrating so hard that I think the food may actual go to her. Well, today while Mike and I were eating dinner, Keira YELLED. Yes yelled. She wasn't crying or whining- she was yelling in her "I am annoyed" voice. I think she has had enough of being a bystander during dinnertime and has convinced herself that we are eating something far more interesting than we really are and she wanted some.

We tried to ignore the yelling for a minute or so; but then then it got really obnoxious. So in hopes of quieting her yells- I mashed up some bananas. While Mike was holding the spoon of mashed bananas, Keira was sitting there mouth agape like a little bird. The banana's consistency and thickness is far different than that of the sweet nectarine that is breast milk and thus a little foreign to her. When she swallowed the little that made it to her throat, she sat there with this look on her face that said, "What the heck did I just do?". The spoon was more of a teething toy than a spoon to her.

While the spoon and banana were in her mouth, she laid her deathgrip on the spoon and Mike had to pry it from her hands so that he could get more banana. As soon as the spoon vacated her mouth, she started whining again for more banana, not giving Mike anytime to get more. After figuring out that she just liked to suck on the banana for the juice, she spit out more that we put on the spoon. We abandoned the spoon for the mesh feeder, which she liked much better.

So here are pictures of my child "not" eating solid food. I firmly believe she is too young and does not have the digestive enzymes to eat this stuff.

A completed project or 2

The new red back/side door.

upstairs hardwood floors

new door and molding around the door...

Another view of the pretty floor. :o)

Mike did find some time this past week to complete the small open area between the two upstairs bedrooms. The doors are installed (complete with doorknobs), there is molding around the doors, and best of all- I have a new beautiful hardwood floor. He also installed a new door bell by the back door and painted the back/side door bright red to match the front door. The bright red doors do add some nice color to our otherwise boring and bland white with black shutters house!!! ( NOTE: the blue around the window is tape... and just temporary)

Phase One: Tanya's Anxious Descontruction

So, it seems that Tanya is tired of seeing the last of the wall paneling downstairs in the Kitchen and decided that today would be a good day to tear it down. We knew that there were some secrets lying below, but you never know how many layers the onion has until you start peeling.

Not only do we have this beautiful green wall, but we have some "electrical" holes that will need patching. We may have to pull off the plaster and drywall currently on there to reinforce the slider.

Tanya had no idea how ugly the kitchen could get before it gets a little nicer...albeit with ugly cabinets still. Oh yeah, don't forget our disappearing floor; aptly titled that because we lost an entire box of CousCous (think Rice...only smaller) on it this evening. Everything dropped on that floor goes into a blackhole. No matter how many times you wash it, it never changes.

Manchester "Halloween"

Well...Today was Keira's "First" Halloween. Manchester is weird and does trick or treating from 1-4 pm on the Sunday before Halloween. I don't think she had any idea what was going on. But we handed out candy to about 60 kids and she wore her Patriots Cheerleading costume.

We also went to a Halloween Party with Tanya's CMC Mom's Group.

Teething is going to be the death of me...

Who decided that young children should have to suffer through teething??? Teething has replaced my happy, laid back, content baby with a whining, crying, never content monster. We have done Baby Oragel, Tylenol, ice in a mesh feeder, apple in a mesh feeder. If anyone one as any more suggestions send them my way. And I hear that teething lasts until they are 2. GREAT.

Back to real life

Mike's mom made this car seat fleece covering to keep Keira warm. Mike used it today for the first time as it was 36 degrees this am... According to Mike (as he and Keira went out this am to visit his old place of employment and his co-workers) Keira wasn't a big fan of the fleece. Oh well- its getting cold out so she will have to get used to it.

Here is Keira's first taste of food other than breast milk. Well not really. She isn't eating solids but really wanted a taste of the apple that I was eating for lunch. We gave her a chunk of apple to suck on. It kept her occupied for about 5 min as she sucked the juice out of it and seemed to enjoy it.


So most of the Mayhem in our neighborhood has ended. It really wasn't that bothersome but its nice to have our quiet neighborhood back... somewhat. There are still security guards at the street corners and the house is still guarded and non resident traffic is not allowed in the neighborhood. I guess they want to give the family a few days to settle in without all the gawkers. Apparently the lucky family has yet to spend the night in the new house as last night they had to stay in a hotel because they were still using the house for filming. Ty Pennington was spotted leaving Manch-vegas on an outbound flight to LA......


So now that all that excitement has ended.. its back to the star of the show... KEIRA of course.. :o)

Final day...

(Look its Ty!! :o)

Okay- so Last night Mike and I had planned on volunteering for Extreme Home Make-over. We had a babysitter lined up for Keira. However we did not know that they were filming a car/go-cart race with all the designers from the show in front of our house.. therefor no one was allowed in or out of the street until they finished- and by then it was 7:30 pm. Mike took 292 pics of the show but because it was dark out and because everything was in constant motion none of the pics really turned out.

Today was the reveal ( MOVE THAT BUS) and our neighborhood was CRAZY. Mobs of people. People got to the shuttle place at 4 am to be shuttled in to our neighborhood for 8 am- to stand and wait until 2:30 pm. No thanks. We watched for about an hour from the back yard of our a neighbor- so as you can see our pics are of the BACK of the house. Anyways- They did take after take of the family getting out of the Limo and them moving the bus.. We got bored and Keira got whiny so we headed back to the house..... So yes we don't have many great pics from today. SORRY. We didn't feel like standing in a huge crowd for 6 hours and Keira didn't feel like it either.

Finally!!!!

I finally caught a glimpse of Ty Pennington... Here he is skateboarding on my street..

Day 7

Keira this am... apparently its spiky hair day today.

The extreme team is still behind schedule. The house was supposed to be "finished" today at noon and the keys handed over to the design team to decorate the house. Mike, Keira and I went down to take a peak at lunchtime. Siding is still going up.. flooring is still being installed, the deck isn't finished, the landscaping is just getting started... you get the idea :o)

Cooperating?

So...with the Internet Cooperating, we are going to post pics of the latest goings on with the Extreme Makeover house. They are close to finishing. Many of the inside rooms are painted, the outside siding is almost complete and the roofing is almost complete. They should be able to turn over the keys on time...anyways, on to the pics.

DAy6

We have had NO interent for over 24 hours.. hence the lack of posts!!!!!! We are currently waiting for our new modem to arrive so meanwhile... for some reason we have internet for the moment.. probably won't last and I don't dare waste the time upload pics for the computer to tell me it lost connection.
Extreme Make-over wise.. the house is coming along. Most of the work is being done on the inside. Although they are doing the siding and roof as well.

Day5