Double Rainbow

On my first day of graduate school, a few people were wearing t-shirts that read, 'Welcome to the 17th Grade'... a dubious honor for sure. Although it's now been a good while since I graduated, I still spent the majority of my life as a student, and completed a full 20 grades- yikes! 

One thing that I learned in all of these years of study is that I am terrible, awful, hopeless at gauging how much time I'm going to need to finish a project. I was the queen of consecutive all-nighters, and while I always managed to pull out something presentable, it was also always a fraction of the grand plan I had in mind. This trend held strong as I entered the working world and routinely under-estimated my billable hours, which I continue to do to this day. 

I'm at my very worst when guessing at time on personal projects, maybe it's the emotional investment. I get something in my head, it seems so easy and I brush off reasonable warnings and skeptics because I know I can do it ... and then I find myself standing on a chair at midnight, 33 weeks pregnant, only a quarter of the way through stenciling a wall after a full day's work. Oops.

So if  you need me for the next couple of days, in that small sliver of time in which I am not watching or feeding a child, you can find me with a stencil brush in my hand... fending off tears and cursing myself for those grand plans. Some people never do learn!

*James took these photos last night. We had a hail storm followed by the most intense double rainbow, pictures really do not do it justice!

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a portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013

Very busy. I am forever grateful that this boy is so brilliant at entertaining himself... for surprisingly long stretches. I am told that I also had this skill as a tot, but maybe the fact that I was an only child had something to do with it. We'll see if he continues to amuse himself so happily when his new playmate arrives!

*part of Jodi's 52 series

Fairy Towers

My mother always taught me to look for fairy circles, little rings of whitecap mushrooms woven around the trees and moss. I built tiny towers out of rocks and collected flowers and rotted scraps of bark to lay out for them. I closely examined every butterfly and moth, just to be certain it wasn't 'the one'. And then one day, we saw a fairy. It was a fleeting second, but we both just knew it was real. An overgrown dragonfly? A strange unknown insect? Maybe. Still, I prefer to sit in a patch of grass, watch my mother and baby boy stack rocks, and imagine a fairy just might dance around that tower, drinking from buttercups, late into the night. Why wouldn't she?

Tent in the Mud

Our family camping trip got off to a late start due to a fairly brutal rainstorm. We did consider going for it, rain and all, but flood warnings and predictions of lightening finally appealed to our sense of reason and we waited until the worst had passed. I knew there would be mud, so I brilliantly packed galoshes and plenty of extra clothes and braced myself for the mess.

When we arrived we were actually surprised to see that most of the campsites were in good shape, nice and dry. Then we pulled into our site, lucky number 26. We reserved this site nearly a year ago and selected it for the gorgeous lake views. It was indeed a beautiful spot with easy access to the lake and there's nothing quite like gazing out of a tent towards the water's edge. However, it was also very low lying and the fire-pit and picnic table were a giant mud puddle. We pulled the picnic table to dry land and assumed that, since the storm was over, things would continue to dry out. Not so much, and once we realized that the mud puddle was spreading to our tent and being actively fed by a stream of runoff, we gave our site the affectionate title of 'a river runs through it' and embraced our life in the mud. Thank you rain boots!

Mud aside, Little Smith had so much fun. He is an amazing camper this year. He entertained himself poking at puddles and bugs, completely respected the dangers of the fire, ate seated in his camping chair with his plate balanced on his lap, and generally impressed me with what a big boy he has become. 

As for the belly, camping at 31 (and a half!) weeks pregnant was actually easy and enjoyable. I should clarify that we were car camping, meaning our site was only a short walk from the car and we didn't do any extreme hiking. The biggest challenge was getting a comfortable sleeping situation, and it was a challenge. 

We typically rely on very thin 1/4" back-packing sleeping pads. They roll up small, are light, and perfect for more ambitious camping trips... but this time I was looking for something a little more luxurious. After lots of air mattress begging on my end, James borrowed one from a friend. Luckily we also  brought our regular pads along as well, just in case. 

As it turns out, you need a little cap to hold all the air INside an air mattress... and that cap did not make it on our camping trip. James insisted he could solve the problem, no worries. After countless attempts to inflate this thing, many trips up and down a muddy slope from the tent to the car with a giant air mattress overhead (the pump plugged into our cigarette lighter), and an entire roll of duct tape... my love for the air mattress came to an abrupt end in the middle of the night when my head was swallowed up as it deflated. Little Smith was in a travel bed next to us and excited by the late night high jinks  James appealed for one more shot to make the mattress work, but sometimes a girl has to take matters into her own hands and call it a night. We went with our old thin pads... he slept like a baby while I tossed and turned my extra thirty pounds from side to side all night long. In fairness, I'm not sleeping so well these days anyway so it really wasn't too different from the average night. I would however recommend a properly inflated air mattress to all other pregnant campers out there, if one is available!

In the end, the trip really was perfect; good food, crisp air, warm tea, a crystal lake, and mostly clear skies. I'm hoping we will sneak in another before the baby arrives, there's just no vacation quite like camping!

*same campground last year here.

Quite White: Shared Room

The kids' room is starting to take shape. At the moment it's very white, and while there will be plenty of color in the final product (honest!), I am actually loving how peaceful it feels at this stage. I find myself wandering in there during nap time and lying down in the big boy bed... which came out great. I'll be posting a DIY on it soon, but Little Smith loves it and if we weren't expecting guests after the new baby is born, I think we'd move him in there sooner. It's all about the wheels!

We've used lots and lots of white paint so far; the walls, the bed, and the dresser. I love natural wood, but our floors are such a warm color that often wood tones seem to clash unless they are very dark, so white it is. The dresser was in terrible shape and it is a veneer so we couldn't really sand it, plus the top is actually laminate. I would never paint a great piece of furniture, but I don't have any guilt about this one and it seems much happier with a fresh finish.

painted dresser before and after

One of the smartest decisions that we made was tackling the closet first. It was a very simple project, with cubbies above and hanging below, but I could definitely see us scrapping it now if it weren't already complete, we are getting a little worn out.

Next up will be stenciling one wall (ready for some color?), then shades and shelves and ledges and on and on... Oh yeah, and there's the other side of the room too, which sadly looks like this.

So much left to do and so little time. We are going to keep a mini office on this side of the room until Little Smith and the crib make the move in September, but it will not be a total mess- I hope.

I'm certainly feeling obsessed with getting this space done, and it's frustrating that I'm able to accomplish less and less on my own as my belly grows. I find myself making lists and crossing things off and then making more detailed lists. Little Smith arrived a month early and I was so relieved that I had everything done that far in advance. That's probably why I have an internal clock that needs to get everything done by the beginning of July, just in case. Hopefully it will make for a relaxing last month and this little girl will stay put. I'm guessing we will find plenty to keep us busy right up until the end though, even if she's good and late!

Lakeside Camping

There were a few hilarious calamities on our camping trip in Western Massachusetts this past week-end, but for now let's set aside all that mud and the near suffocation via air mattress... and instead focus on this lake (or reservoir actually). 

Since having a child, and especially now being seven plus months pregnant, I am newly convinced that the key to a successful camping trip is selecting a campground with something to do right on site. Loading into and out of the car just adds stress and hassle, so now I look for a place with a good hike, or in this case a lovely little beach, that is easy access from camp. 

Little Smith is a bit hesitant with chilly water (he may have inherited that from me!), so we didn't do much swimming but he loved collecting piles of rocks and throwing them into the water, especially while seated in the lifeguard chair with pop. He was also completely enamored with the motor boats and very loud jet skis (they were so obnoxious, James said they were from the late '80s and maybe that accounts for how loud they were... but Little Smith couldn't get enough and has been revving and zooming ever since... my efforts to convince him that the silent kayaks were way cooler failed miserably).

Next year I am thinking we get our hands on some kayaks and get out in that water, but this time around my highlight came when I got an hour of alone time on the beach. Nothing like bright sunshine, a chilly breeze, a good magazine, and some peace and quiet to cure a mild case of exhaustion for a pregnant mama!

*Here we are at the same beach, later in the season, last year. Little Smith was so much smaller, and I was smaller too :)

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a portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013

Up to no good. This kid is getting to be such a handful, he is cracking himself up with naughtiness... sometimes I am laughing with him and others I want to cry. I keep hearing how the three's are more challenging than the two's and yikes, I'm trying to conserve some energy!

part of Jodi's 52 series.

*Hello there! It's been a week, and we've got lots of catching up to do. At the moment I am covered in sand and mud and nursing a mild sunburn from our camping trip... I'm also happily exhausted,  but looking forward to jumping back in.