McPhee and Me

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Friday, April 13, 2018

Lucy and Malcolm Lately

Isaac and Lucy are in the yard; Isaac is working, Lucy is playing.

Daddy: "I need to build you a treehouse, Lucy"

Lucy: "Yeah. And I will live in it. When I am eleven, like Ava, I will live in it so I don't get in trouble."

"Oh, when Uncle Seth gets here to build Nana's shed, he can just build me a playhouse first. I mean, a play CASTLE."

Me: "Oh, I think Uncle Seth will only have time for one project while he's here."

Lucy: "But first he has to visit with us because I miss him."

Lucy, on having a stuffed nose: "Mama, my nose forgot to wake up this morning."

Malcolm is fussing at me, while I ignore him.

Lucy, leans in and in a whisper says, "Ohh, he wants S-U-T-E." ....

30 seconds pass by...

Lucy: "What does S-U-T-E spell?"

"Mama, can we just sell Malcolm for $40? I don't need him any more" (Uh, NO.)

Malcolm, meanwhile continues to ignore all my attempts to get him to speak (he says four words consistently and occasionally throws in a new one, usually never to be heard again). He is very interested in signing, though, and has been putting together 2-3 signs to form "sentences" of a sort. He likes to tell me everything that Lucy is doing, especially. "Lucy, all done, eat" is one of his favorite sentences. He's quite proud when we decipher what he's telling us.

His four consistent words: Mama, Dada, Nana, and "hi" which sometimes means hi, sometimes bye, and usually just short for HIDE. (He loves hide and seek).

Malcolm's favorite activities right now include: brushing his teeth, digging in the dirt, throwing the ball, being a monster, and helping with small jobs. Oh, and pushing Lucy's buttons. That's possibly his favorite pastime aside from teeth-brushing. He loooooves to brush his teeth. Still no canines to speak of, though he's been teething for months now.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

The Rehab Diaries: Part 2

We've put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, hope, and a ton of memories into our house this year. I've compiled a "then and now" post to show the progress we've made. As you'll see in several of the pictures, we've done a lot, but it's still very much so a project house. We have big plans to continue renovating in the coming years, but it's fun to pause and realize just how much we've done this year!

**disclaimer: Yes, there is still heinously ugly, eye-assaulting carpet in some parts of the house. It's next on our renovation project, but...money. So, for now, my poor son has pink carpet, and the rest of us live with vision-impairing green carpet.

LIVING ROOM

We added a front door, replaced the window, pulled up carpet and put in vinyl floors, painted, and closed in the original exterior door. (Seen belowwwww)

DINING ROOM

We replaced carpet with vinyl, replaced the window, painted, and inherited Isaac's grandma's dining room furniture when she downsized!

PLAYROOM

We replaced carpet with vinyl, killed at least a million ants living under the carpet, replaced the window, got new blinds, painted, and rearranged at least five times.

Oh, and we added a built-in ironing board (thank you, honey! I looooove it!)

KITCHEN

We replaced the flooring, replaced the window, and got a new dishwasher.

LAUNDRY ROOM

We replaced the cabinets, replaced the floor, replaced the window, replaced the sink and cabinet, replaced the dryer (the old one was ORIGINAL from the '50s), painted, and added a laundry drying rack. Oh, and we gave up cloth diapering after nearly four years. Whew!

MASTER

We filled about 50 large screw/nail holes in the walls, replaced the windows, painted (it's actually a lovely greige -- Silver Fox -- I highly recommend it -- but the lighting and the cast from the carpet makes this picture look funky).

MALCOLM'S ROOM

We replaced the window, filled a few hundred (I kid you not, I lost count) pin holes in the walls, removed shelving, painted, and upgraded the boy to a full-sized crib. We spilled as much blue paint on the carpet as possible, but it's still vomitously pink. Good thing Malcolm is too young to notice or care!

LUCY'S ROOM

We replaced the windows, put in new blinds and valances, took down wallpaper, changed out her dresser for her great grandfather's dresser and his cubbies (in the closet), and painted. My vision for this room is to have some sort of calm, neutral, non-combative carpet in the near future. And won't that be restful paired with four inch white baseboards? Lucy is still convinced that we're going to repaint her room purple (and brown). Keep dreaming, kid!

OFFICE

New flooring, new windows.
I probably should have warned Isaac I was taking a picture to post on the blog. Alas, I clearly did not.

MAIN BATH

New paint, new mirror, sealed the cracked grout in the bathtub, tore down wallpaper border, added the cabinet over the toilet (picture on left is "in progress), painted.

MASTER BATH

Updated paint and window.

Updated paint and flooring.

THE EXTERIOR FRONT

We took down 12 trees and a weird stump of a tree that had a planter on it, replaced the fence, replaced all the windows, added trim to all the (new) windows, closed in the breezeway, and gutted the hot tub room and second garage, added a new front door, built a porch, cleared all the ivy, painted the house, and added a bird feeder.

NANA'S COTTAGE

We closed in the breezeway, and are well underway on turning the garage into a mother-in-law unit for my mom!!!!

THE BACKYARD

New windows, uniform trim, fresh paint, new sump pump, removed all ivy from flower bed, added a vegetable garden (not pictured, but to the right of this lawn), and cleared trails on our back acre. Oh, disregard the white covering the sliding door. It's there to keep the door insulated until we can replace it with one that doesn't bleed heat.

NANA'S COTTAGE (INSIDE)

Looking from her front door, through the living room and into the kitchen.

From the kitchen, through the laundry, into the bathroom. Bedroom will be to the right of the bathroom.

Lucy Lately

"I had a dream that daddy attacked me in the kitchen. It was a bad dream."

"I had two dreams last night. But I won't tell you the other one right now. It was spooky."

It was a dinosaur and it was big and real and stomping everything.

Later that morning:

Hey daddy.... I had a dream that daddy attacked me in the kitchen. But I love that monster!"

Me: "Lucy, you must be the slowest person to ever get buckled in [to your carseat]"
Lucy, cheerfully: "Well, life goes on."
I about died. No more frustration here!

Lucy, looking at Nana warily as she coughs (and coughs and coughs): "Nana, cough medicine works really great. It makes my coughs all better. Orange juice helps too." -- She's never HAD cough medicine...

From the other room, and entirely to herself (or perhaps her brother): "I have different strategy"

"Imaginating"

Saturday, October 7, 2017

An October Day

It was a lovely, warm-ish sort of October day. Lucy asked me to take her picture, and how could I say "no"?

A stick and a fire pit: what more does a boy need?

She asked me to take her picture, and then gave me this...

Boy, n.: A noise with dirt on it.

Sugar and spice

"Hey mom mom, I have a STICK!"

He calls me "mommom" and I melt!

Adventuring together

So much of my life right now
Just when I feel like I can't take any more, he says "I-I-I-I-yuuuuhyooouuu" and I'm putty in his hands

Always wanting snuggles

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Lucy Says...

Lucy constantly has us cracking up with the things she says (and the crazy faces she makes).

All of her best crazy "faces" include her hands. It's become her signature

A few recent gems:

Lucy: "When I grow up I'm going to be a mommy."
Me: "Ohh."
Lucy: "I'm going to name my baby Willem. Actually I'm going to have THREE babies and name them Willem....Tori and Amelia."
(Willem is the name of our friend's new baby, Tori is her cousin, and Amelia is Tori's daughter).

***

We're eating dinner at GG Nancy's house. Everyone is having pizza, except Lucy, who is having some rice leftovers from Grandma's takeout lunch. (Rice is her favorite food, it wasn't a punishment).
Isaac: "Lucy, how do you like your rice?"
Lucy: "Wif soy sauce." (Although with her enduring and endearing lisp, it sounded more like with thoy thauthe)

***

Tonight at dinner daddy is teasing her: "Do you eat with your EARS? Do you eat with your TOES? Do you eat with your NOSE?" Lucy is laughing and saying "no" to each one.
Daddy: "Okay, what DO you eat with?"
Lucy: "A spoon and a fork. Or my hands. I eat pizza wiff my hands."

***

Lucy is in Isaac's office, and picks up his duck call.
Lucy: "What's this, dada?"
Daddy: "That's a duck call"
Lucy, with confidence: "Oh." (puts duck call to mouth and yells) "Here ducky, ducky!"

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Happy First Birthday, Malcolm!

Happy first birthday, sweet baby boy!

Height: 31.8 inches (98th percentile)

Weight: 24 pounds, 4 ounces (88th percentile)

Head: 19.4 inches (off the charts -- still! Somehow there's something greater than 100%)

2 teeth

Malcolm's favorite things are mama, food, and following dada and sister around the house. He will eat anything now, except eggs. Eggs make him angry. He eats three meals a day, and nurses four times a day (morning, naps, and bedtime).

Just in time for his birthday, Malcolm began walking! May 1st he took off and hasn't looked back.

Malcolm plays in the kitchen, mostly pulling everything out and then walking around everywhere with a spatula or the pretend pizza cutter. He loves his dinosaur. He gives hugs now and loves to dive to give hugs, then right back to mama or dad. He has also started giving (very open-mouthed) kisses!