Maddie Smiles

Just a few recent Maddie smile pics...she is a sly one, SO hard to get photos of her smiling because everytime I get the camera out, she stops smiling and reaches for the camera! I think the big smile in the first one had to do with her eating soup, although it's a great showoff pic of 3 of the 4 new top teeth!
And this one isn't so much a smile as a satisfied girl- she was having a rough time (you would too if you were getting 4 new teeth at the same time...) so I followed a friend's advice (Thanks Holly!) and went in search of popsicles. I couldn't find the mini slow melt ones she mentioned, but did find some great whole fruit ones that came "otter pop style"- Maddie LOVES them.

Dancing Queen

Maddie loves music. No, she doesn't just perk up when music comes on, the girl MOVES. She has a baby Einsten book that plays this really loud mechanical music when you push the buttons, and she will just sit in the back seat of the car and rock out to this book! If she hears music, her little body just starts moving on it's own! There is uaually music playing when we get to school in the morning, and this morning, the beat was just too good to not move to...

As for the hair- we decided it was a "three ponytail" kind of day. She is pretty good about getting her hair done, but some days she really gets into it. She has gone to school before with about 10 barrettes in her hair because she just kept handing them to me. Today it was rubber bands....and I remembered seeing a referral picture many months back and the family saying "our daughter has 3 ponytails!" So, we were inspired this morning to do 3 ponytails. We'll see if all 3 have managed to stay in through the day or not...

The Kitchen Demolition!

We started out Saturday morning taking the garbage disposal & sink out...
The walls in the kitchen were all Malamac- this shiny plastic stuff that was pretty popular back in the 50's or 60's. (I think, I've never actually done the research to find out exactly WHEN it was hot, but that seems likely...) A sweet story about this wall- the woman we bought the house from Ella, raised 3 children in this house along with her husband Fred. They owned this house for 48 years before Ella went into a retirement home this year. She wrote us a beautiful letter that we found when we got our keys the first day, and one of the things she said was that she always hung her kids artwork on this wall.
Unfortunately we had to take the molding down, as the Malamac went underneath it. We'd have to anyway for the new drywall, so there was no avoiding it. Scott was in charge of safely removing & marking window & door molding. It all came off in good shape so it will be easy to get back up.

Then one of my colleagues from work- known as "Work Scott" (to differentiate from "Builder Scott") came over with his son Caleb for a little bit of Saturday demolition. We pretty quickly were able to get the malamac off the walls..But unfortunately the cabinets were built in place, so we couldn't remove them. It was a shame because they were seriously solid cabinets. They were really beautiful and heavy duty- but there was just no way to "nicely" remove them from the walls, they had to be dissassembled.
And finally, after all the lathe & plaster dust had cleared...
So maybe the dust hasn't all cleared, but at least the lathe & plaster are off the walls. it was a BIG job, thank goodness we had many hands!!! The electrician came in on Wednesday to put in a new panel, and again on thursday to wire the kitchen. Jim & Hilda (my drywallers, they seriously ROCK. They are the best ever!) are bringing drywall out on Friday, starting on the ceiling on friday or Monday, and hopefully the electrical inspector will be out on Monday morning (not afternoon) so they can get going on the walls Monday as well.

The new House

Our friend Chris and her girls came over to see the new house the day we got the keys- she was sweet enough to remind us to bring the camera, and make sure we posed in front of the house for the first family photo in front of our new house! I was so glad she did, because we had a busy weekend of demolition, and when I was back at the house on Wednesday, I noticed the sign had been taken away!A friend from many years ago had been previously married to a Japanese man. She told me that in Japan, they believe that laughter cleanses a house of past spirits. She told me this when I bought my last house (Or something vaguely along those lines, that is how I remembered it and interpreted it!), and I still remember it to this day. When I bought the house that we just sold, she and I and her only daughter at the time came to the house one night before I moved in and we just ran through the house laughing and giggling until we couldn't breathe anymore. I think her daughter may have been 2 or 3 at the time, so of course she loved it. It was fantastic- an empty house, no curtains, lights on, dark outside, and here are two adult women and a little girl just running circles around the rooms laughing away. It's a great memory!
Well, we didn't waste much time in making sure that some good laughter entered our new house as well, this time we had extra help! Thanks Ruby and Hazel for helping to bring the first of much laughter into our new home!

The House

There are a few more from working at the house on Saturday (Kitchen demolition...) but here is a start- pics of the new house!

We have serious vintage wallpaper throughout the house. Unfortunately not vintage enough to keep it, but hopefully vintage enough that it's only the first or second layer in some places! Some places we know it's the second layer at least, because the first one is visible through the top layer!
This is a view of one of the two upstairs hallways. the little closet on the right is really pretty big, and the door leads into a bathroom. We are so lucky that there is already plumbing on the second floor! We'll be adding a shower at some point in the future, but for now the half bath is better than no bath!
This is a picture of what will be Maddie's room, and eventually, the room she'll share with a little sibling! It's a huge room, perfect for two kids! It looks narrow but actually has two "square" spaces so great for one sleeping/one playing or later a special area for each child to have their own space.
This is the room that will be ours until we get the 2nd floor to a shape to move everything up there. Love that pinecone wallpaper!
This is a closeup of the vintage second floor wallpaper. We were joking that if only we could remove it nicely, we could sell it on ebay to fund the remodel!
A view of the backyard. There is great soil in the gardens, and even a greenhouse!
Maddie's temporary room until we move into the 2nd floor. Ironic that the only two yellow rooms in the house (after dismantling the yellow kitchen) are the room that she'll start with and the one she'll end up with. Funny because her room now is yellow and we keep talking about how to keep her world "similar" when we move to the new house. We didn't pick the yellow rooms for this reason, it just happened to work out this way!
The living room- yes, wallpaper. also beautiful coved cielings and a hearth that Maddie LOVES to walk across!
And more vintage wallpaper. Seriously, it's going to be fun when we get to removing wallpaper!

More later when I have downloaded Maddie pics in the new house as well as demo pics. for now, take look through that doorway to the left in the photo above. those yellow walls, white cabinets, and everything standing between the camera lense and the studs are now off the walls. More photos to come!

Up and at'em once again...

The good news is Maddie is now through with hand foot & Mouth disease! It was so rough- and I felt so awful for her. It wasn't the "dealing with crying" that was hard, it was knowing she was hurt and not being able to do anything more than what we were doing that was hard about it. There were days she cried for 2 1/2 hours straight, kicking and throwing her arms nearly the entire time- wanting up, wanting down, not wanting to be put down, not wanting to be held- it was really an awful time for her. And that feeling of helplessness is just awful- we were there and just trying to keep her calm as much as we could and hold her and tell her we were there, but until we finally got proper dosage on tylenol & motrin from our pediatrician on Monday, it was really hard on her! She was sent home from school along with 4 other kids!
But, the good news is, by Wednesday (The day that Baba stayed home with her because she couldn't go to school), she was back to her old self- wanting bottles again, eating voraciously, and happy as ever. They came and met me for lunch at work- what a thing to treasure! Your sweet husband and sweet daughter coming to have lunch with you!

Last weekend- before we knew it was hand foot & mouth- we went to the Mid autumn festival with some of the extended village. Liana LOVES playing with Maddie...
She was following her around to "make sure she didn't need help standing"- you know, just in case...
And of course the star of the entertainment was our own little villager Nina! She is the 3rd one in from the left side, in the front.
And here she is featured bouncing as part of the song- everyone was still and she was in the front bouncing bouncing bouncing- it was totally the cutest thing ever!
And this one is just a random pic I had to throw in- one of her teachers at school loves to put ponytails in the girls hair- we didn't have any ties at home, so after a few days of school ponytails, we accumulated some so we could do our OWN ponytails! This was Maddie's first day of TWO ponytails and the first day with her new jacket.... I LOVE this jacket- it's her own little navy pea coat to match Baba's and she is just adorable in it!
In other news, now that Maddie has made a full recovery, Jeremy went to the Dr yesterday to find out why his mouth has been bothering him- it turns out we had our own little typhoid Mary in house and he has gotten a milder version of what Maddie had, although the Dr said he's likely to be done with it in the next two days, let's hope so!

And finally, we signed on our new house on Wednesday, and it is supposed to be funding today- which means...we are supposed to be getting keys to the new house today....we are keeping our fingers crossed as we have a crew of 5 (including us) set for kitchen demolition starting at 9:00 am tomorrow!

Wedding Pictures Part 1

I fully intended to post both part 1 & part 2 on the same day, but of course it didn't happen!
So here is Part 1, even though it's posted second....

We got married at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland- it's a Portland Public Park but they have two different sites within the park you can rent for weddings. We used the Meadow- the larger of the two spots. It was just perfect even though our group was not so large, but there was lots of space and no one felt cramped. We were situated close to the bathrooms and close to the areas where the kids could go feed the ducks. There was an access road for delivering food/etc, so it was really a perfect spot. The view looked out over a river and onto a golf course, so it was green trees and flowers in every direction. It was just amazingly perfect and exactly what I envisioned for an outside wedding! The weather was beautiful and the temperature was perfect, and everyone had a great time!

Now onto the most important part, the photos!

Mom & I before the wedding- I started crying and of course she started too, but just a little....

My sister Heather & I

Madeline loved playing in the Mirror in our dressing room

And playing in my veil when I leaned down to tie the ribbon on my shoes
My sister Heather and my best friend Lisa...my two bridesmaids! I really love the dresses we ended up picking!

We did photos before the wedding so there wouldn't be so much delay after while we were taking photos- I'm glad we did it this way because then we got to share the special moment of seeing each other for the first time alone as a couple. Our photographer had told Jeremy to "wait there, don't turn around" and I walked up behind him. It was very exciting and seems weird to think about it, but it was such a special moment when he turned around and I saw him for the first time that day and he saw me...
We were both a little dumbfounded that this day had finally come, and overcome with happiness at the same time!

After the initial pictures Eva, Liana & Maggie came running over to see us- they wanted to play of course!

Trying to get a photo of all 14 little girls was definitely a challenge- I'm not sure we fully achieved it (at least not all at one time!), but we have wonderful shots of many of the little girls!

I really love this photo...

Wedding Pics- Part 2

The cake- it was Chocolate....pure solid dense chocolate...soooooo good! My mother in law and I baked it, from a Martha Stewart recipe I had used for Jeremy's birthday cake (Devils food cake with mint chocolate ganache, minus the mint chocolate ganache for the wedding) and Jeremy's mom decorated it. I had found some photos in magazines and she put it all together! I think it turned out just beautiful, and we had LOTS of comments about how great it tasted! After the wedding with Madeline, Jeremy, and his parents, Dana & Craig

The new family!

This was just before the ceremony, I was hiding behind a rhododendron so the people couldn't see me...I made my bouquet myself- I didn't love it nearly as much in person as I do in photos looking back!

Jeremy with his brother Grant (left) and best friend Douglas (right), also known as "the Tallest Chinese Man we ever saw!" No, he's not chinese, he's Japanese....but this guy one time at a rest stop apparently.....well, some stories never go away!

Doesn't everyone have this photo? Our rings are from a company in Germany called Xen- they are stainless steel. We both absolutely loved them when we found them!

The "romantic photos" as our photographer put it- I think his words were, "okay, now let's go do the romantic photos". Cue romance......NOW!

But it's awfully hard not to be the happiest you've ever been when you've just married the most perfect person for you....so the Romance wasn't actually so hard....

There are a lot of ducks at the Rhododendron garden, so our "wedding favor" was duck food in chinese takeout boxes. The little girls loved feeding the ducks!

Our tables...

Another shot of the cake...

The little girls watching the first dance...

The first dance...we danced to "time after time" by Frank Sinatra

Crying isn't just for new teeth anymore...

Maddie has has 2 teeth since about the time she turned 1. The first one started coming in around 11 1/2 months, and the second one started a few weeks later, and they both took their sweet little time coming all the way down, but by about the time she was 12 1/2 or 13 months, they were there. Two adorable little bottom teeth! But no top teeth in sight...we waited, we looked, we felt....just in case anyone is curious, it really hurts when you are trying to feel if there are top teeth coming in and those two tiny little sharp bottom teeth close on your finger and hit the skin right at the base of your nail....yikes! Fortunately I was only "no fast enough" a few times before I caught on! She thought of course it was hysterically funny, probably because we play at nibbling her fingers, and so she was just doing the same thing!

So finally, a few weeks ago, right about the 16 month mark, we started seeing for SURE that more teeth were coming! We were so happy because we thought she was just going to be our two tooth girl forever! But no, new teeth. But not just one or two new teeth, no! She is getting 4 new teeth! All four across the front are coming in as we speak. It's made for some rough days for our poor girl. The end of last week and this weekend were especially brutal and I began to suspect that there was possibly a 5th tooth coming in as well, maybe one on the bottom.

Under the advice of a doctor friend of ours, we have been doing what they call "piggybacking" motrin & tylenol. Motrin, then 3 hours later- tylenol, then 3 hours later, Motrin again. By doing it this way it reduces the "peaks & valleys" and helps to keep the pain management even. But no amount of Tylenol or Motrin was helping this weekend! We are talking HOURS of crying- little girl up until midnight...not wanting her bottle and not wanting to eat but asking to eat. Every time she went to bite down on her bottle she would start crying and push it away. Same with just about any kind of food. Maddie is a 6-7 bottle a day girl, and she's done perhaps 1 bottle a day (or less) since Saturday.

Finally on Sunday we tried chicken broth from a sippy cup because she was just not drinking fluids at all- this worked and she drank 2 or almost 3 bottles worth of this on Sunday, but still the girl was in some serious pain. We still could not see anything, and thought the pain was because of Teething. Still, it seemed way worse pain than was appropriate even for getting 4 teeth at a time, so I called for a doctor's appointment on Monday and got her into to see Dr Liz. Dr Liz took one look in her mouth and said, 'it's not just teething'.

Turns out our girl has coxackie Virus- which apparently, is a VERY common virus and most kids will have had it. She said that there is little to no chance of us getting it because we most likely had it as kids & are therefore now immune to it. This is in the same family as hand foot & mouth disease- so lots of little sores in her mouth and throat, that make it very painful to swallow. No wonder our girl has not been wanting to eat!!

The good news is that since it's been going on since Friday or Saturday, the Dr said we only have 2-3 days left of it...but our poor girl has been in such pain and this has been so hard! She will be thrashing like she's having a night terror, but it's just anger and frustration and hurt, and she can't get comfortable because her throat hurts. We did get proper (HIGHER) dosage info for tylenol & motrin from the Dr, including instructions for more frequent dosage, as well as a little mix to soothe the sores. It's hard to say if it's helping yet because we just started it last night, but hopefully today it will help. She was able to get down last night at 8:00 to bed, but then was up from 11:30-1:45 am in pain just crying crying crying- not wanting to be held but not wanting to be put down- mostly just not wanting her mouth to hurt so much. It was awful because the next Motrin wasn't due until 2 am at the EARLIEST, and we just didn't make it to 2 am before she fell asleep, so I've got the Motrin at the ready for when she wakes up this morning, and hopefully it won't be so bad.

The good news is that when she is playing and active during the day, she can generally be distracted by it and it's not all encompassing, so she has a little relief during the day, but at night, it seems to be all encompassing. Let's hope that this is really just about over- it's truly heartbreaking to see your little one in pain and know that you are doing everything and can't do anything more, but they are still in pain....