The dogs came with us, so we drove 9.5 hours with an 18-month-old and two dogs, stayed two days with my parents, three days with Pete's family, another two days with my folks, and then drove another 9.5 hours back. It was really nice to see everyone, but as this trip was pretty much directly on the heels of the Thanksgiving trip, we were tired and ready to be home. Lukie was obviously relieved when we got back to HIS house with HIS toys and HIS bed and everything else that was HIS.
That's not to say he was an angel- poor guy was a fuss-pot for two days when we got back. He has six teeth now, but I think the ones on either side of his bottom two teeth are coming in, so he was hurty and tired and cranky.
On Friday, we decided he needed to go to daycare so Pete and I could get a little bit of a Lukie break. Pokey (his nickname) came back happy as a clam that afternoon. I think he was just ready to get back into his routine, play with his teachers, see his friends at school. I'm done feeling guilty about sending him to school for at least part of the day when I'm home. It's obviously good for him; he was a happier guy after getting some ya-ya's out with the other crazy toddlers at his school.
In the meantime, Pete and I did some housework. For one, I painted the dining room. I only have a couple before photos, and they're not of the room before we pulled the furniture into the middle, but they'll have to work. I guess I COULD use old photos of the room, though...
That's an older photo. The others are of the dining room once we'd moved everything out of the way and rolled up the rug.
I have HATED that blue paint color since the day we moved in. It actually looked way less blue in person. Almost white-- as in so light blue you couldn't tell the difference between it and white. It was kind of scuffed in quite a few places, and the worst part that it didn't offset the trim at all. You couldn't see any difference between it and the trim.
Our house is a very old house which has been MOSTLY renovated. It has some (but not all) of its original character. In fact, every room in the house has something a little special about it. The living room has a fabulous turquoise blue milkpaint ceiling that is to die for. The downstairs bedroom has plank walls and a fireplace mantle. The upstairs bedrooms have gabled ceilings and big windows. The bathroom is lovely...but the dining room has bugged me since we moved in. It's just a box. The only things it has going for it are nice hardwood floors and trim...so we needed to offset the trim. We're talking about ways to put in a window because I think it's absolutely necessary. Pete thinks he's going to build a door with a built-in window. Another solution is to just put in a window that matches the one in the kitchen. We've also talked about wainscoting, but that won't happen until we have the window situation figured out.
Point is, the room needs help, and the first stop on that train was to paint it. I chose a sandy color that ended up looking gray on the walls...which was EXACTLY my goal. Pete might deny it, but he has since conceded that I was right about the color on the walls. IT'S IN WRITING, PETE, YOU CAN'T CHANGE YOUR MIND AND NO I DON'T WANT TO PAINT EVERYTHING IN THE HOUSE GRAY BUT I WAS SO DARN RIGHT IN THE DINING ROOM!!!!!!!!!
I love the color on the walls. It's a subtle difference, but it affects a huge change in the room. Plus, it's just so nice to have fresh, clean paint with no scuffs, holes in the walls, or Lukie marks. I briefly mentioned painting the hallway the same color and then left the room before Pete could tell me I'll have to do it because he wants no part in that fun.
I started painting Frank the Desk over the weekend (yes, the desk has a name-- he was built in the early 20th century by my great uncle Frank...and he's kind of poorly constructed, but we've painted him and moved him and he's a family member. Uncle Frank would probably get a kick out of knowing that someone was STILL limping this desk along after all these years, knowing how shoddy Frank's construction really is...). Pete thought maybe a blue/black color, and I liked it on the chip, but was less enamored with it once I got it on Frank and into the dining room. It looked fine on the porch, but I think it'll have to go more brown/black. I'm thinking a tea leaves color.
Someday soon, Frank will have a fresh coat of paint and be back in the corner of the dining room. Hopefully under some new artwork.
Anyway, things are back to normal around here, but can I note how nice it is to be working on projects again? For a year and a half, I guess more because PREGNANT, we've been in a holding pattern on working on things...and neither Pete nor I enjoy sitting around. We're workers and one of the hardest parts of having a baby, especially away from family so we have very little help (except for Suzi...thank God for Suzi), has been putting all of our little projects on hold. I think we've both always felt like working on a project meant we were borrowing time from the other person. Lukie has a demanding personality (which will serve him well someday, but is very difficult right now and was impossible when he was an infant), and that has meant that up until now, someone has had to be interacting with him at ALL times. He's getting better at entertaining himself, and it's getting safer and easier to have him around when we're working on things. It'll get easier from here on out, and I know Pete is looking forward to actually having Lukie "help" (though probably closer to "hinder" most of the time) on projects.
I leave you with pictures of Pete feeding Lukie ice cream...in the bathtub. Lukie LOVES ice cream, and I usually tell Pete he shouldn't have it if he didn't eat his dinner, but last night, Lukie did eat SOME dinner, so he got ice cream. He had been pretty on the fence about the brown ice cream (he was used to only white ice cream), but apparently he's over that.
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