What's up with The Pierogie Babies?

I used to be so good about keeping up with Penny updates on at least a monthly basis.. But then as soon as her baby book switched from monthly updates to annual, my updates here sort of fell off the radar.

So the last update was in June -  15 months. And she's going to be 19 months old next week. And I'm 17 weeks pregnant with #2. Oy. So here's some things going on in Penny's life and an update on the pregnancy.

TV Friends:
Until very recently, Elmo was Penny's BFF. At the start of my pregnancy when I was laid out on the couch, we spent an embarrassing amount of time watching Sesame Street. I'm ok with it. It was a short period of time and regardless of what others may say - I think there is definitely a level of educational value in watching certain shows for children. Especially for one who is at home with mama 24/7 and does not interact with other children terribly often. Which we're changing.

Penny very quickly grew attached to "Elvo" (which graduated to "Elbo" and is now officially pronounced "ELLLLLLLLLLL MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!") and it was the easiest way for me to catch a snooze for about 45 minutes and just try to get through the first trimester yuckies.

Then when we moved into our new house and we didn't have cable for a couple weeks, I pulled out a dvd called "Juno Baby: Indie's Teddy Bear Hunt" that I had bought before she was born. It's won some Emmys for original musical performance and whatnot, which having been a music major in a past life I have an appreciation for. The voices are annoying comical but now she asks for "kitty!" in the morning instead of her beloved Elmo. She's caught on to a few things from the movie that are absolutely adorable (popping out from behind a curtain and saying "Boo!" or dancing along with classical music) so I tolerate the silly voices and use that time to catch up throughout the house.

Favorite Foods:
This girl LOVES apples. She's gotten really good at demolishing an entire large apple on her own. I prefer to at least peal off the skin for her, but most days she doesn't mind and will literally gnaw the entire thing away if I let her. This is something that has come in handy during road trips. Other favorites include hummus, peanut butter, yogurt, french bread, peas, roasted butternut squash mixed with applesauce, slices of Parmesan cheese, crepes with spiced pear sauce and pistachios.

Activities: 
Putting coins in her piggy bank (which she calls "monies")
Hide and seek
Throwing the ball for Squirt
Reading books with Daddy before bedtime
Organizing / moving things around
Not favorite: grocery shopping. Not in the least bit.

Talking:
In addition to the few words that I already mentioned, she can say -
'pretty' = flowers
'bunny'
'ohh nooo!'
'sheeeze' = cheese
'yum - yum' = food
'juice'
'wirsty' = thirsty
'uh-cooo' =  uncle
'a-teees' = auntie
'gack' = cousin Jack and 'zeeekeeys' = cousin Zeke - her two cousins that she sees most often
'bay-zha' = Babcia and 'vovo' = Vovo, her maternal grandparents

New animal sounds: owl, bee, monkey, elephant, train (choot-choot), sheep, and we're working on saying the words 'goat' and 'goose.' She can point out a ton of different animals, even after only showing her once.
Then she's got this word that seems to be a catch all and it seriously sounds like she's saying bourgeois.

MOPS
Something new that I've signed us up for is the MOPS group at a church close to us. I've wanted to do MOPS with her forever, but the living situation over the last year made me disinterested in making the effort in joining a group, making friends and then possibly moving away. I'm such an introvert sometimes. But once we bought this house I knew we were going to put down roots. So last week we went to our first MOPS meeting and Penny spent her first 2 hours being watched by a stranger. I had zero worries. With #2 on the way, it's important to me that she can branch out socially with other kids and be ok with not having an immediate family member always being the one to watch her. We also want to start going back to church regularly so that'll be another opportunity for her to be independent and make new friends. And she did so well. She was one girl with 12 boys (story of her life - she's surrounded by boy cousins too!) and was really good with sharing.

In regards to my experience at MOPS, I felt so welcomed and supported. Our table has 8 women and 3 of us are pregnant. Each mom had at least 2 kids and at least one of them is within Penny's age range too. I feel so blessed to get the opportunity to know these women and draw on their experiences as moms. I am really looking forward to next week's meeting.

Quick other updates:
As I've mentioned before, Penny sleeps alone in her room in her big girl bed. The transition has been both easy and hard. Easy in the sense that she never woke up in the middle of the night terrified and wanting to return to our bed. Hard because she wakes sometimes 4 times per night just wanting a back rub. And her wake up time is between 5:30-6a when she wants to nurse...and unfortunately I am in the stage of my pregnancy where my supply is almost non-existent. I've started giving her raw whole milk throughout the day and making sure that she gets a really good, high calorie snack before bed time to help her through the night. But the morning routine is tough because I'm battling being tired due to the pregnancy and waking up throughout the night and she gets frustrated about the lack of milk. It's something we're working on figuring out.

And then there's the topic of Penny's hair. Yes, I am making a specific comment about her hair! The poor girl is so fair haired and it's taken her almost the full 19 months for her to have any hair to speak of. Now she's got this cute little plume / faux hawk going on and even has some hair over the collar of her shirt. Bring on the hair clips!

Pierogie #2
Admittedly I haven't had too much to say about this baby on the blog yet. The second trimester has been so low key and until recently I've felt 'pre-pregnant.' But now that bump has appeared and gets in my way at night so it's starting to feel very real now.

I had my 17 week appointment with the midwife this week and this was the second appointment where we heard the heartbeat. I've felt little bumps in the last couple weeks but with the Doppler pressed up against me I was able to feel a few more profound kicks. Baby's heart rate was in the 150's, as was Penny's.

We scheduled our ultrasound for October 9th and will be hosting a laid-back gender reveal party on the 13th with our family and close friends. It'll be a mix of reveal, house warming and just a plain old get together.

And that's what's going on with these Pierogie babies!

How Not to Drive Yourself Crazy When Decorating a New Home - Guest post from Pink Heart String

Guess what I'm doing today? You got it. Tearing apart my house. Today I'd like to welcome Kareen from Pink Heart String. She shares some awesome tips on an area of the home that really intimidates me...decorating! 

How Not to Drive Yourself Crazy When Decorating a New Home

Moving to a new home is one event in our lives that is notable especially if it is your first time. It will surely create a lot of changes for you and your family. But before you get to know the new neighbors and before you look around your new place, it is important that you have transformed your new house into a new home.

Let us admit it. It is stressful to pack things and unpack them again. My family and I had been transferring from one house to another. So, we sort of got used to the packing-unpacking scenario but of course, it is indeed tiring. As a matter of fact, we will be transferring to a new home before this month ends. Moving to a new home is not just about living in a new dwelling but it is also an adjustment to the entire family’s daily routine and all. But as always, it would be challenging on how you can decorate a new home.

A new home would have a different layout, different window sizes from your previous home, different interior color scheme and all. The decoration and arrangement we had before might no longer look good in the new home. That is why, it is important that we check on some things first before finally bringing all the stuffs to the house. If it is your first time to transfer to a new home, then you might need a few pointers. So, to help you with that, we have prepared some tips so you can save yourself from the headaches of decorating a new home. You can even make it look a lot better than your previous home if you just try.

1.Clean your old and new house. Yes, you have to clean your old house first. This means getting rid of things that you no longer need. Lessen your possessions to minimal amount so you won’t need to bring a lot of stuff with you. You can have a garage sale or donate items to charity. Also, it is the perfect time to clean your new house before you bring in stuff.

2.Be organized when packing. Label your boxes. This will save you from a lot of work. Also, arrange them according to the part of the house they’ll be going to. For instance, you have boxes of plates and other kitchen utensils. Place them in a group so that when taken inside your new home, they will stay together and will all be placed in the kitchen. This way, you will no longer be looking for your things everywhere in the house.

3.Assess your new home. Look around your home. Then try to picture how your furniture and home décor would look once you arrange it inside. You can even sketch it on paper so that you can get a better picture. Try to look into every part of the house so you can also check on what other things you would need to buy. But you could save a lot if you have proper planning.

4.Plan well. Before you get all your things, furniture and all the other stuffs inside your house, make sure that you already know how to place them so that when they are taken inside, they can already be placed on areas designated for them. With proper planning, you will be saved from bringing things here and there. Make sure also to create a system on how to move things inside. You can start bringing in the furniture for the bedrooms and lastly for the living room. If you do this, you will still have a lot of space to move around in carrying things because your living room is still spacious. Also, see to it that larger ones get inside first before the smaller items.

5.Mix and match furniture. Once you are inside the house and everything is already there, do not worry much about furniture. You can actually mix and match old pieces together and get an eclectic look. This is way cheaper than getting a new set of furniture. You can also repaint some in order to give it a new look.

6.Create coherence with colors. Make your interior appear as one through colors. Again, you do not need to buy new items to do this. Look for a color from your furniture and then search for throw pillow covers and curtains that would match it. This will tie everything together. They do not need to be monochromatic! Even pops of the same colors for each item in your space will already work. Say you have a beige sofa, then you can get a throw pillow cover with some beige linings on it.

7.Liven up your wall. If you find a boring wall in your new home, create a gallery. Place family pictures on the wall. You can also paint it with stripes or chevron or any other pattern you like to create an accent wall. Adding a wallpaper or wall decal to one area of the room will also work and make your home look a lot lovelier!

8.Repair and revamp. Instead of buying new stuffs, you can always repair and revamp everything in the house. You just have to be practical, innovative and creative. For sure you will be able to save a lot of money if you do this. Make purchases only when necessary. You can stay for a month or two before you decide to get major stuff like a sofa or something so that you will still be able to assess your needs.

Moving to a new home is not easy. It really take time to prepare all the stuff from your old home and then arrange it again in your new home. But if you do it ahead of time little by little, you will eventually finish your preparations and be ready to go. When you arrive your new home, make sure that you have a ‘system’ in bringing things in. This will save your sanity because everything are in its proper order. After all, decorating a new home shouldn’t be a headache but it should be fun especially that you will do that with the entire family. It could be your first family bonding in your new home.

Images Credit:  Naypong & Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Kareen Liez is a full-time mom to an adorable two year old daughter. She writes for a graphic design and home design website while blogging at the same time at Pink Heart String. She wanted to share stories about being a mom and other valuable information to other parents. She is a civil engineer by profession but prefers to stay at home to take care of her daughter.

And so it begins..

Starting yesterday, we have 22 days between the closing date on our new house and the end of our lease. 22 days to strip carpet, refinish hardwood, paint the interior, design and install a new kitchen island (complete with plumbing), make some minor changes to the footprint of the kitchen and finally.. actually move in! All without hiring any contractors. Can we do it?

Not to waste any time, we started work immediately. I began work on prepping the windows for paint - they had not been cleaned in such a long time that the caulking around the edges had turned black and were mostly water damaged. Scraping is the name of my game. Adam began the demolition of the pantry that is in the middle of the main living area. The house originally featured a fireplace in that spot (?), but the previous owners decided to change that into a pantry. My wish is to have a much more open floor plan where I can see the living room and breakfast nook from my perch in the kitchen so we decided to remove the pantry, build a bitchen island and rearrange other cabinets to create some food storage.

This weekend we'll be tearing up the carpet and prepping the kitchen for renovation.

Follow along as I share about our new adventure as second time renovators. I've also teamed up with a group of awesome bloggers who will be guest posting here - we have a great mix of recipes, family tips and DIY projects.

A Peek Back in Time.. Our Kitchen Renovation

As the anticipated closing date on our new home looms (and how tightly crossed my fingers and toes are!!!), my thoughts return to our previous home that we renovated. I haven't shared those pictures with you on this blog yet, so I thought I'd open up my renovation brag book and show off what my husband and I accomplished at our first renovation, affectionately called The TTD (T-ton Tear Down).

80% of that renovation was done by our own hands. The only parts that we contracted out were carpet install (because seriously, $100 to Lowes to install our carpets is a NO BRAINER), granite install, a little bit of exterior paint and electrical work in the kitchen. Everything else from cabinets, hardwood and tile flooring, paint, plumbing, landscaping, dry wall.. you name it.. was all done by us, with the help of friends and family along the way. We didn't have prior experience in a lot of these things, but youtube videos and a healthy relationship with your local hardware store goes a long way :)

I'm going to start off with our kitchen.

That's what we did on Day 1.

Then we started using blue painters tape to map out where our cabinets would be. 

And our peninsula with raised bar.

Then our cabinets arrived and Adam began his install.

Then came paint.

And uppers, which had under cabinet lighting.

And granite with full height backsplash. We were so in love with this color!

And then.. the final product.

Some of my favorite features that we had in the kitchen were a dedicated KitchenAid mixer cabinet (to keep the mixer off the counter but easily accessable)

And a faucet over the cooktop.

Adam made custom corbels for under our raised bar that matched the pulls on our cabinets too.

The kitchen was definitely a labor of love. We spent close to 7 months without a cook top - I cooked every night on a Coleman propane camper style cooktop. Adam spent countless hours under the house reworking plumbing when we moved the sink from an exterior wall to an interior wall. We grew angry and frustrated when we realized that our kitchen designer was taking us for a ride and was not going to come through with his promises and jerked us around. We learned so many valuable lessons as homeowners and a married couple. 

Have you ever thought about doing a renovation, or any upgrades in your existing home? 

How did it go for you?

The fastest year of my life: Penny is 1 year old

Welcome to Post #101!

Little Pennypot-

Yes, I am 11 days late in writing you your 1st year birthday letter. Oops! You already know how busy mama and daddy's life is, but I promise you that all this moving around is the path that we're working on to get us into the perfect home and perfect job for daddy. We just have to be patient. Luckily you love exploring new places so this new home has been a total adventure for you.

It seems like just yesterday that we brought you home. You were so small! As your mama I accepted you wholly for who you were, but looking back now it is simply unbelievable how perfectly portioned you were.

Every time I look at this picture of you at a mere 48 hours old, I'm astounded by how different yet the same you look.  Every time I look at this picture, I am reminded of the very sudden waves of different emotions I had during those first two days. Utter and complete love. Fear, as your weight was dropping and I was so afraid of losing you (your dad did a great job at diffusing those fears, reminding me how strong you and I are). Admiration. Your smell. Literally intoxicating.  I should also mention that for the first probably 6 weeks of your life you were usually only dressed in a diaper and wrapped in a snugly "luly." I preferred the skin on skin contact and honestly..was just too tired to dress you.

Looking at you now, still a short little cutie pie but in a very independent toddler frame.  It was only a short while ago where all you needed was to lay snuggled inside of me, and later n my arms. Although we don't spend as much time laying together, it's become more special because now you search out mama or daddy's embrace.

Sweet Penelope, I never knew love until I met you. Love was stirred in my heart in ways it never has before, I never understood the depths of commitment or selflessness until I had you to care for. You were, are, the perfect reason to remember why every day is so precious.

Some of my most cherished memories in the past year..

• watching your daddy pat you to sleep on his chest to the tune of "Sweet Child of Mine" in your first couple weeks.
• the first time we shared a laugh together.
• you crawling around calling for mama or dada.
• the way you play ball with Squirty.
• as a newborn, how your cheeks would droop so low (almost to your shoulders) when you were so ready for a nap. You never cried for your naps, you just got very quiet, still, contemplative and droopy.
• how you know exactly what the Boppy represents and how quickly you come clambering over to me, demolishing everything in your path to get to me as quickly as possible!
• the look of recognition when you see your grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins.
• how absolutely tickled pink you used to be when you saw this silly chicken keychain that played the Chicken Dance.
• the certain icy blue your eyes turn when you are just about to fall asleep.
• how you wake up happy and with a clean slate every day. It's something I aspire to do too.

Penny's Birthday Party

Ok, a short break from moving/unpacking while Penny naps and I get to decompress...

This weekend was a whirlwind! It started on Friday night when my parents and brother drove up to have dinner and help out in the morning for the party. Saturday was Penny's birthday party - with probably over 30 adults and close to 10 kids. It continues ended on Sunday with us moving to our temporary home for the next 6 months.

Side note: My mom is the party food QUEEN. She knows how to arrange a veggie / fruit / cheese & cracker platter like none other. Although I would say that I inherited her love of entertaining, I definitely did not inherit her platter arranging ability at all. Everyone has their niche in this world, and I guess that is one of my mom's. Sadly, looking through the pictures from this weekend - there are no pictures of the food :(

On the menu:
melon balls wrapped in proscuitto
deviled eggs - it's not a party without deviled eggs, in my opinion. 
various platters of veggies, fruits, crackers and cheese
smoked salmon with cream cheese and pear jam dip
Rigatoni "Pasta Pie" with ground turkey and mushrooms - a big hit!

Marble cake with butter cream frosting and ice cream.. I was going to attempt the paper towel trick for a fondant look a like, but got side tracked and ended up just frosting it. Oops!

do you think her cake topper is adorable? It was a custom order,
but you can find more of the artist's work here.

And what you've been waiting for.. {cup}CAKE SMASH!

There were actually 2 smashes for Miss Penny. A week before her birthday, we scored an awesome deal at Target and got her one year pictures taken. Here's a sneak peak..

 And the real deal. As you can see, her practice the week before came in handy!

Also, at Adam's request, we had a pinata for the kids. Which really ended up being for him.

It was a crazy, hectic and fun party and I couldn't imagine celebrating Penny in any other way.

Guest Post: Bone Broth in the Crockpot at That Mama Gretchen

Good morning!

Here in my corner of Washington it sort of feels like winter is just beginning. True, we had snow a few months ago but sometimes in the same day we'd have a balmy 50 degree afternoon. These days, as I settle into our new house and take Squirt for walks around the neighborhood I'm reminded that winter is not over. There's frost on the ground, and a foggy mist obscures the sun into a hazy glow.

I'm also reminded that it's still winter because this week, probably from all the hustle of moving, Penny and I have battled the flu, sore throats and residual congestion.

One of the best bits of "old world wisdom" that I carry in my pocket is the power of bone broths. It's not as unappetizing as it sounds. It's so easy - especially in the crock pot! So why don't you check out my recipe at That Mama Gretchen today and start reaping the benefits of bone broth.

Here's a couple resources to check out if you don't know very much about bone broth and why it is good for you:
Underground Wellness: Top 5 Reasons Why Bone Broth is the Bomb (the video at the bottom is particularly informative)
Nourished Kitchen: How Bone Broths Support Your Adrenals, Bones and Teeth / Traditional Foods 101

How Bone Broths Support Your Adrenals, Bones and Teeth

Copyright 2013, Nourished Kitchen, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this content may be republished without express, written consent.

How Bone Broths Support Your Adrenals, Bones and Teeth

Copyright 2013, Nourished Kitchen, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this content may be republished without express, written consent.