New House- Week 1!

Just a week ago the moving truck was pulling up to the house with furniture and our stuff that we hadn't seen in a year and a half.

Since then, we have spent every single day working to turn it into our home. Ami's the chief do-er, I'm the creative director and cleaner-upper, and so far, we're getting there.

We're focusing on a little bit in all the rooms we really use- the three downstairs bedrooms and the den, and doing a bit everywhere instead of working on one room at a time and completing it soup to nuts. Before we moved in we had new carpeting in, our room was wallpaper stripped and painted and the boys rooms had the wallpaper stripped.

So here's where we are!

Eitan's room: down came the wallpaper, up came the hot blue carpeting, in came new paint and carpet. I painted that little table that I got at a thrift store for 5 dollars (and still need to find more chairs/stools) and have some things in frames that need to go up on the wall.

The nightstand was mine from my room growing up, and was also in Eitan's nursery in our DC condo. The bed was left to us by our sellers (and there's a matching second one that we have in storage too). I'm thinking about painting the headboard in that navy shiny paint to match the table.

Eitan LOVES his big boy bed! He gets so excited to get in there and thankfully (poo, poo, poo) hasn't rolled out yet.

Levav's room: down came the pink trellis wallpaper and up came the hot pink carpeting, in came new paint and carpet. The furniture was all from our DC apartment in Eitan's room. The globe was left behind by the homeowners (and it's SO old with the countries to prove it- awesome), and we need to hang up lots of stuff.

Sweet boy on his rocking chair, and new blanket that matches the room PERFECTLY thank you Uncle Murray and Aunt Eileen Rothman!

Our room: down came crazy wallpaper, hot grass green shag carpeting, in came new wall color and carpet (sensing a theme?). We took down heavy floral drapes and put up new curtain rod and breezy white panels. The sellers left us that green chair (love them!), and we got the dressers off craigslist for $200 last month. We still need to build a headboard (I found fabric that I love last month) and add art and install sconce lamps on either side of the bed. Also put a light bulb in the floor lamp.

Our room is awesome because it looks into the backyard and at night the lighting bugs go crazy out there. And it's really beautiful to wake up to.

The den: we left the wallpaper for now because it's not really offensive, just textured, but put in new carpeting. I need to paint that little table in the corner there and we're thinking about staining or painting those built ins...

So that's what we've been up to this week. Sorry about the laundry bin, unmade beds, general un-done-ness, but this is what we've been up to. I promise to post more as we get more done. Oh and the other two bedrooms and living room/kitchen/dining room which are so not ready for the internet viewing public yet...

Eitan in Camp!

Eitan's summer camp started on Wednesday, and he has been loving it! We are so lucky that it's been a smooth transition for him and he's jumped right in. It might be because on the first day they greeted the kids with lollipops, and yesterday they decorated cupcakes (and brought home a couple too- THANK YOU CAMP!), but they're smart cookies over there because he's literally a very happy camper.

And they send pictures! Here's the first batch with shots that Eitan is in. Because the other kids are cute, but like, you don't really care to see them...

The house is coming along we have new carpet, two of the bedrooms painted, and are working on the third getting done this weekend. I'm proud to say that I'm anal and crazy enough that every box is unpacked, albeit unpacked meaning dumped in a place. Next week I hope to get things a bit organized and pretti-fied, and slowly slowly we'll hang pictures, put up new drapes, etc.

Moving Day!

After 19 months of  payments to Extra Space Storage today's the day we free our belongings, oh yeah, and move them to the house we bought!

Since closing we've been in there every day preparing. Well, mostly Ami, but I've been there supportively complaining, whining and kid wrangling.

I did take the first peels of wallpaper off an hour after closing (with my bare hands!) and pull down the drapes, but Ami has been in there peeling layers (layers!) of wallpaper, painting, spackling and all things that go with that. New carpeting came in yesterday in three bedrooms and the den, and things are starting to look like we can really live there (12 garbage bags of wallpaper and drapes later).

Tonight's our first night in the new house and we are so excited! More pictures of the chaos to follow.

Baby Bowling!

So we invented a new game around these parts. Baby bowling. It rules. It was created one day when Eitan was playing with the amazing toy bowling set that Aunt Debra and Uncle Hudy got for him for Chanuka. We would set up the pins for him and as he'd get ready to toss the ball, his little baby brother would crawl over and knock them down.

So Ami hatched the plan to get the baby in on the bowling action. And when he said, let's do some baby bowling, I DID think he had some intention of lobbing or rolling guy into the pins. Thankfully, I underestimated him.

Baby bowling is a ball-less competition where turns are taken trying to get the baby to crawl into the maximum number of pins. We used the remote, one of his most beloved objects to lure him.

Here's how it went:








So for that round, dad won. Fun for the whole family...

Videos: Levav Eats Applesauce and Eitan Sings the ABCs.

Seriously. That's all this is. A post with two videos, 6 minutes and 26 seconds of our sweet boy eating applesauce and making faces and sounds and a very super accurate 55 second rendition of the pre-school favorite. And I just realized both of these videos take place in the highchair, the only place we can keep them contained, albeit, only one at a time.

I can imagine maybe two of you out there in internet land will watch more then 20 seconds. But Mommy goes to work all day and asked Daddy to take videos, so here we are. Plus, this kid is cute. And has great faces and cheeks. And makes great sounds. And we are so into him!




Our little Eitan loves to see pictures and videos of himself. So much so, that every time I break out the camera, he asks to see (which sounds like Inaasee, which I figured out after longer then you'd think ) before I can even record or snap a photo. If you watch, you'll hear a bunch of requests for seeing. I love it. And love the way he sings this song. And that in his world there's no D or K and there is a series of letters that are F W F.

Eitan Says More

So remember back when I posted all these ridiculous things Eitan said? Yeah, he's still doing that. And it's nice to have a running list in the "edits" on the blog so we remember. Like half of these things, I would have forgotten already.

Such gems as:

Driving into the Lincoln Tunnel:
Me: Eitan, we're finally here, we're in New York!
Eitan: I was born in New York last night.

At Bedtime:
Ami: Eitan goodnight, I have to go now.
Eitan: Stay.
Ami: I can't.
Eitan: Don't can't


After falling, and crying for a while:
Me: Are you all better?
Eitan: No.
Me: What hurts?
Eitan: The ceiling hurts.

Eitan: I want an orange
Ami (holding Levav): Orange your face
Eitan: Orange your baby Levavi face

Eitan: Why is the chair round?

After a big rainstorm ends
Eitan: I want it to rain again. Mommy, please turn the rain on.

Talking into a slice of cheese
Eitan: This is my iPhone.

And one even captured on camera!

Bath Time at the Crazy House