Month: February 2018

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

Ain’t no valley low enough. Ain’t  no rational way to explain the highs and lows of having a toddler to yooooooooooooou.

I recently shared this photo on Instagram (@allthefinn), which is an amazing illustration by @common_wild.

When I first saw it, it resonated with me so completely. This is such a pitch-perfect depiction of our daily lives as moms: We count down the minutes until bedtime, but then we sneak in and wake Finn up with kisses an hour after he’s asleep. We wait, excitedly, for date nights, and then we spend the entire time talking about Finn. We fall into our own beds at night, elated to finally have some quiet time off-duty, and then we spend an hour flipping through old photos of Finn on the phone.

This is the paradox that defines parenting, especially toddler parenting. When I initially shared the photo, I made a comment about how only parents can fully relate to this paradox. A few friends reminded me, rightly so, that this is not something unique to parenthood. You can feel like this about your significant other. You can feel like this about your girlfriends. You can feel like this about your own siblings.

But I do think that the peaks and valleys–the highs and lows–are particularly and uniquely acute when it comes to parenting. While I’ve certainly felt the emotional push and pulls of all kinds of love, I’ve never felt so absolutely shaken by a relationship until we had Finn.

What can I say? I am simply a puppet, and that kid holds all of my strings. (Which, of course, he totally knows.)

There have been quite a few lows over the past few weeks, as Finn has continued to suffer from persistent ear infections and other toddler-related illnesses. When he’s in the throws of sickness, he’s–how can I say this kindly?–not so pleasant.

Sona and I spent four nights in San Antonio during Valentine’s week. We were so excited to escape, but our trip was threatened by the worst snow storm of the season. Luckily, we got one of the last flights out of Chicago before the snow hit and all planes were grounded for a 24-hour period. You better believe we were in the airport, monitoring the departures board like crazy people, saying silent prayers that the airline gods would come through for us and let us get a much-needed break from toddler mom-ing.

While we were away, my parents watched Finn. We are extremely lucky to have them, and they usually jump at the chance to get him to themselves. However, he gave them a pretty hard time during a couple of the days we were away, and my mom was quick to tell me that she wasn’t sure she could handle two kids, especially if one of them is a toddler in a cranky mood. (I feel ya, Mom.)

However, now, Finn is starting to feel better. His ears are finally back to normal, and so is his attitude. I’m telling you: he’s a different kid when he’s well.

So, for the past week, we’ve hit the highs, again, which are often so much fun that they make you forget the lows. It’s a sneaky little trick those kiddos have: they will charm the PTSD right out of you.

These last few days, Finn has been especially sweet. He’s been letting us cuddle him more. He says he has a “secret” and then whispers “I love you” in our ears. He asks to be rocked for a few minutes before bedtime (something he’s NEVER let us do) and he sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to us as we rock him. Then, he promptly says “All done. Time for bed.” He’s eaten dinner at the table for several days, sitting in his new big boy chair (he now says the high chair is for Little Pizza), and he actually engages with us the entire time.

Last night, we were spinning him before putting him in his crib–something we always do, as he asks for “dizzy” every night–and we were singing a silly little song: “Spin, spin–we love our Finn!” He started singing back: “Spin, spin–I love my mommas!”

Stuff like that. The kind of stuff that makes us forget, almost immediately, the kid who will throw himself on the floor in an absolute fit if we dare remove his shoes without him sitting on his play table first.

Loving a toddler is an emotional rollercoaster unlike any I’ve ever experienced. But like most rollercoasters, the thrills overtake the fear, and–against your better judgement–you get off the ride thinking, “I need to do that all over again.”

 

I Fondue You Very Much

I did not win any Mom-of-the-Year awards on Valentine’s Day, yesterday. I’d planned to help Finn make some Pinterest-worthy homemade goodies for his preschool classmates, but instead we bought a box of ready-made Peppa Pig valentines at Target, complete with questionable neon-colored suckers, and called it a day.

Since Sona and I just got back from our little trip to San Antonio, we are still easing back into mom life.  And, as it turns out, crafting was not part of the re-entry process.

Still, we wanted to have a quiet V-day celebration at home–just the three of us. We made heart-shaped pizza and chocolate fondue, letting Finn do all of the heavy lifting. We ate in our PJs, let Finn basically bathe himself in the chocolate sauce, and didn’t even bother breaking out the big camera (hence these pretty mediocre photos).

BUT–we didn’t touch a TV or iPad once, didn’t have any meltdowns, and we did  do a lot of laughing. So, I’d say it was a win.

The Great Snowy Shut-In of 2018

This past weekend was, well, rather uneventful. Midway through last week, it became clear and Finn and I were working our way through a pretty nasty stomach virus. So, we canceled all of our weekend plans and decided to stay put.

Couple the sickness with a good bit of snow, and you have two mommies and a toddler who didn’t leave the house–or get out of our pajamas–for 2.5 days.

While we did get a bit stir crazy–and took a pilgrimage to Target on Saturday evening to get out some of our wiggles–it was actually pretty nice to have a completely obligation-free weekend, something we haven’t had in months.

We did our best to try to keep Finn entertained, although he’s generally pretty good at playing independently.  We cuddled, watched movies, did puzzles, made art, started some Valentine’s crafts, made cookies, made snow cones, and spent a lot of time just sitting on the couch.

Here are some photos from our weekend, which was almost not even worth mentioning, but which was pretty great all the same.

When I was a little girl, my father used to draw pictures for me, and I would color them. It’s one of my favorite childhood memories. So, I’ve started doing the same with Finn.

Of course, my dad drew elaborate tropical scenes, seascapes, and exotic birds. I drew firetrucks (barely) and Peppa Pig. Same thing, right?

We’ve gotten back into the smoothie habit, and a house full of upset tummies meant we drank a lot of them, this weekend. (Nothing more appetizing than a pea-green smoothie when you’e had trouble stomaching food.)

Whenever it snows, Finn and I usually make “chocolate snow ice cream,” which is really just chocolate milk mixed with questionable city snow, scraped from our porch or back parking lot. (Don’t worry, I scrape around the pee and soot. #momoftheyear)

On Sunday, we decided to try something new: snow cones! I simmered 1 cup of fresh blueberries, 1/3 cup of water, and 2 tbsp sugar on the stove for 5-10 minutes. Then, I strained it and let the liquid cool. (The reserved blueberry pulp makes great jam for toast or a topping for oatmeal!) Then, I poured it over a bowl of snow.

Finn loved it so much that he ate TWO whole bowls!

I love his little bird mouth.

Before & After: Guest Bathroom

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any house updates. So, I thought I’d share the results of our somewhat unexpected bath reno, which we did this past November.

I’ve posted a bit about our home, which we’ve now owned for almost two years, before, including the before and after photos of our master bedroom and bath reno, before and after photos of our living room/dining room reno, and photos of the move-in condition, along with our original reno plans.

I need to get around to posting a lot more home-related stuff, because I’m pretty behind. Let’s start with this most recent project.

This is our guest bathroom, which is downstairs and across from our third bedroom, today.

Sadly, I don’t have a ton of before photos, as it was clearly the least-photographed room in our house. I pulled this one from the original realtor’s listing:

As with all realtor’s photos, this picture really does this tiny little bathroom a little too much justice.

The shower, which I don’t have a photo of, was a bath/permanent glass shower door relic, almost exactly like Finn’s old bathroom (which we’ve also renovated), originally pictured here:

This was the view of the bathroom door upon move-in. You can see how the door inconveniently swung open into the bathroom and blocked the entrance to the shower. Basically, you couldn’t even use the bathroom without the door shut. It just didn’t make any sense. Adding a pocket door, which we’ve done to all bathrooms in the house, made a world of difference.

The third bathroom was, upon move-in, the least in need of immediate attention. And, since we’d already stretched our reno budget with the rest of the house, it ended up being the only room that went completely untouched, aside from a new coat of paint.

It was fine for a year, though I think we both had immediate regrets about not just finding a way to do it when everything else was renovated, as we knew that doing a one-off project would be a headache–and likely more expensive.

Then, around summer, we started noticing some issues with the tile in the shower. It was pulling away from the wall in many places, and eventually, there grew to be a 2-3” gap between the tile and the wall around where the small in-bath window seat was. At around that same time, my father came to visit, and he had a pretty terrible fall in the shower.

Since the 80’s-era plexiglass shower doors were permanent, and the bathroom is so small, it was really difficult to get in and out of the shower safely. You also really couldn’t turn the shower on without leaning dangerously over the edge of the tub.

With several upcoming guest visits planned, Sona and I decided that–rather than just spend a few hundred bucks to get a do a bandaid fix of the broken tiles (which were causing mold issues)–we should just bite the bullet and reno the bathroom. Since we were already buried under a pile of fertility bills, we knew we wanted to be as cost effective as possible.

So, we called our favorite contractor–the same one who did the rest of our house–and we asked when he could fit us into his schedule. That was on Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening, he called back and asked if he could start the next morning. “We could squeeze you in this week,” he said. “Otherwise, it’ll probably be a few months out.”

Last-minute renovation while we’re trying to get pregnant and have non-stop houseguests? Why not! We’re just crazy like that.

It took around two weeks to get the whole thing done, held up mostly by the fact that we ordered a bunch of fixtures that required a little bit of lead time in order to be delivered.

All said and done, the full project, including all supplies, labor, and the installation of a pocket door, set us back around $6,000, which I think is pretty dang good, if you ask me.

Here’s the finished product, which now matches the rest of the house and is a heck-of-a-lot more user-friendly:

We decided to stick with the greys and whites that we have throughout the whole house. Now, aside from our white bathroom, every wall in our house is some shade of grey (insert 50 Shades of Grey jokes, here). Overkill? Probably. But we like a lot of eclectic–and colorful–furnishings. So, the blank slate works as a good background for us.

We also did two styles of tile that we already have upstairs: hexagon and subway. When we were shopping for homes, one of the weirdest things was when a house had multiple finishes. Like, some houses would have one 50’s-style bathroom with black and white checked tile floors and then another bathroom that looked straight out of a Tuscan villa. So, we wanted some consistency.

We also completely ripped out the disgusting tub, opting for a walk-in shower instead. It feels 10x as large and, since Finn has a tub in his bathroom, we didn’t feel like we needed another downstairs.

This photo is from our trip to Italy. We have two photographs of this Italian street art in the bathroom, per Sona’s request. (More Italy photos available in my Etsy shop!)

Just like our other baths in the house, we went with gold fixtures. I know it’s trendy. I know it may not date well. But, in the end, we LOVE them, and they can be easily changed. Since all three of our bathrooms are on the smaller side, we felt like having really nice fixtures and lights was necessary to make them feel a bit luxe.

We went with the exact same Kohler pedestal sink that we have in Finn’s bathroom. It’s sleek and saves a TON of room when compared to the bulky vanities that we tore out.

We went back and forth about the floor in the bathroom. We have marble floors in the two upstair baths, but we didn’t want to have a high-maintenance stone in a guest bathroom, as we didn’t want to have to worry about it getting messed up. So, we chose a porcelain hex in a light, cool grey, which I actually really love. Originally, we were going to do this exact same tile on the shower floor, but we opted for the smaller white hex last minute.

We also had planned to do the threshold of the shower in subway tile, but the contractor urged us to choose something wider, ensuring that we didn’t have grout lines on the threshold, which would likely crack over time. We opted for just a teeeeeeeny bit of marble in the shower–on the threshold and in the window seat–and I really love the mix of finishes.

Eventually, we plan to add a really bold wallpaper on the top half, over the chair rail. For now, though, we’re pretty happy with how things turned out. The bathroom is a million times better than it was upon move-in and, although there’s still a lot of little stuff we want to do around the house, it’s nice to have all of the larger reno projects behind us!