Before and After: Living Room Built-ins

We have some exciting new house developments going on lately! One of the biggest challenges we faced when moving in was our living room. It is wide like side-to-side, but narrow front-to-back. Plus, there is literally no wall space for a TV besides above the fireplace. So we knew that we faced a furniture/layout issue right away and decided that while it would look better to perhaps do a loveseat and two chairs facing each other, function and comfort called for a L-shape. Like so:

We actually had a hard time finding a couch that would fit. Most sectionals, it turns out, are giant. But that's not what this post is about. No, this post is about that far wall, with the big window and lone radiator:

With just a couch and a coffee table in this room so far, something significant was really needed on this wall to bring the room together. I took to Pinterest and found this:

Sooo lovely. I gave the picture to Jason and said, "Let's see it honey!" :) And here we are, several months later, and boy do I see it! What he did is amazing!

Here's the official "before":

And "after"!

The radiator is built in under the window seat - he used some silver grating that looks fantastic. And all the woodwork and moldings...gold star for Jason! Here are some more photos of the process...

 

And the finished product:

My job was mostly limited to finding the fabric for the bench cushion. Oh, and picking the handles on the cabinets. I still need to get to Home Goods to find some pillows for the window seat, get some little knick knacks, organize the books, and "style" the shelves, but otherwise, all done! It warms up our living room like you can't believe and I'm totally in love. But no rest for the weary, Jason already knows what his next project is (built in closets for our bedroom). The house list marches on!

p.s. seriously can you believe Jason did this? Based on my inspiration picture? xo honey, X...O. Now can you take the air conditioner out of that window? It's an eyesore in my photos ;)

Applesssssss!

Yesterday Ashton did not nap. Trust me, this is a !!! kind of event. But we chose to see the silver lining and go apple picking - we hopped in the car to South Natick and arrived at Belkin Family Lookout Farm around 4 pm. I had heard such great things about this place in terms of U-pick, animals, fun for kids, etc. It was a beautiful day and despite knowing they closed at 5 pm, I really wanted to take advantage of Jason having a Sunday afternoon off and go for it.

The farm did not disappoint one bit, but I had no idea it would be the most expensive bushel of apples I have ever picked. Now, usually I don't gripe about money but after paying $28 for two adults plus $16 for the bag, I did something I'm not proud of. I lied and said Ashton was under 2. Who does that?! But kids OVER 2 are another $8 and I thought at $44 we had paid quite enough; they were closing in an hour! That indiscretion aside (which I actually felt terrible about, and decided later that giving them another $8 would have totally been worth not feeling that terrible, so I maybe plan to make up for that next time), we had so much fun! The orchards are incredibly expansive, there are a dozen varieties of apples and I could not believe the fruit everywhere. And there was a fun train to ride - it stopped at different areas and you could hop on and off and pick away...

The entire track (and it really was long - at least 1.5 miles) was covered by grape vines, and you could actually reach up and pick those too! They were bunches of concord grapes- I have never had one and they were SO sweet, I like could not stop marveling haha.

Ashton carried our bag in the beginning and got busy filling it with leaves, rocks, and all the overripe rotten fruit littered on the ground that was covered in bugs. It was very hard work.

With a little help from Dad, he learned what to look for and even had a sample or two :)

Due to a mysterious iPhone illness, my battery life was draining like crazy and sooner rather than later, it had died. Sniff. So I didn't get any snaps of the gigantic children's play area (it was a huge field with pony rides, face painting, slides, swings, music, animals (even a camel!), and a picnic zone), our 10 pound bag of fruit loot (haha) or a family photo. But I can tell you that this place is beautiful. We made the most of the hour we had but I definitely want to go back, price and all :) We picked asian pears, several types of apples and if we had had more time, we would have added peaches and plums. Next time! Waiting for the last train to take us back to the main barn...

I love this time of year and can't wait to pick out pumpkins. Now, off to eat my third apple of the day...

A New Recipe

So there's been a lot of baking going on in the Nill house lately. In fact, I've been baking up a storm for a little over three months now. Like, 24/7. It's a very time-consuming recipe that I want to make sure to get just right because I've got a yummy little...

in my

!!!

The timer will ding sometime around 3/12/14 and we will have another new Nill on our hands! Baby boy or baby girl we don't know yet, or if we will even find out, but we are so excited to announce that Ashton is going to be a big brother. He is, of course, completely unaware of this fact. At some point we'll have to start talking about it to prepare him but for now, ignorance is bliss. 

Getting down to the nitty gritty, I've been feeling mostly good. A little tired and I have off days but in general I've had it easy so far (knock on wood). I don't really notice any difference between this pregnancy and Ashton's, which leads me to believe I am having another boy despite well-voiced hopes by certain grandparents that it is a girl. We shall see.

There was an anonymous comment a little while ago saying that I needed to have another baby to spice things up around here (JP?). So in addition to some spice, I'll be adding lots of sugar - buns are best when they are baked with some sweet :)

One year as a working mom

I started at Bentley on September 4, 2012, which made yesterday my one year anniversary! For nearly half of Ashton's life, I have been a working mom. Gosh, not hard labor or anything, just general office stuff ;) There are a lot of things I love and a lot of things I don't, and I thought it would be good for the blog (and good for me) to reflect on the past 12 months.

Things I like

1) Getting up, dressed and out in the morning. Jason has the "morning shift" and is responsible for Ashton's breakfast and drop-off at either Chera's or Christine's (his new home daycare two days a week). I like having a specific start to each day.

2) My commute. It's a blissful 2.1 miles and often my only alone time. Oh, and I drive. After years of riding the bus and the T to get downtown and their unspeakable horrors (I often thought about writing a collection of short stories about my encounters on public transportation) being in my car is a luxury every time.
3) The first minutes of my work day: drinking coffee, reading the news, catching up on Facebook, etc. in peace and in front of a real computer vs. on my iPhone.

4) Being connected to a calendar and having my weeks structured a lot like most peoples'. This includes looking forward to vacations and feeling like I've earned my time "off" (rather, when I go from being a full time employee to being a full time picker upper/laundry washer/lunch packer/diaper changer/what have you).

5) Lunch breaks - these hours are far too valuable to waste eating. I get all my errands done: I can run to the drycleaner, the bank, the drug store, the post office, get gas or even head to TJ Maxx for a little while. The other day I went grocery shopping and then home to unload everything, watered the plants, picked up some toys, paid a bill, made a sandwich and was back at work within 60 minutes. Boom! In the beginning, I thought I'd be asking Chera if I could come have lunch with Ashton but quickly decided that would be too hard on me and on him. Now I love getting errands done that I'd otherwise have to do after work with him in tow - time we currently use for walking to the park and playing with toys.

6) Ashton experiences a world outside of me. Three days a week he is with one of my best friends and Owen is his 2.9 year old hero - like a brother, really. And two days a week he is in a home daycare with 5 or 6 other kids his age and learning how to be a part of a group, follow directions, and become more independent.

Things I don't like

1) Feeling like less of a mom. I can't devote all my time to Pinterest art projects or sensory games. 5 days a week, all we have is between 4:45 pm - 8 pm. And you can't really count from 6:30 pm on because I'm making Ashton's dinner, he's eating, and then we do bathtime, storytime, etc and then bed. Is this enough? Who's to say. But I do make it count and really try to "unplug" during this time - most people know that between 6-8 pm especially is a dead zone to try and reach me :)

2) Feeling like I am always racing. Refer to #5 above. I race everywhere, to work, from work, on errands...whether or not I have Ashton with me. If I don't have him, I'm pressed for time because I'm usually on my lunch break or on borrowed time with whoever is watching him. If I do have him, I race because he hates to shop and I'd rather be somewhere where he can run and play. It's really, really stressful.

3) I don't like that I like to go to work. Honestly, it's easier! Being chased by a whining, persistent toddler who wants yet another cracker, picking up toys, wiping spills, etc....moms that stay home deserve gold stars. It's funny, I was recently at a work retreat and we were all at lunch together. I was sitting next to another mom who had a 6-month-old and just finished her maternity leave. I mentioned that I was lucky enough to take a year off myself before starting at Bentley. Some younger women across the table said, "Wow, you were home for a year?? Like, what did you do? What's it like to just, not work?" The other mom and I laughed - how could we possibly explain? "Oh, you work!" Is what we said. But they thought exactly what I used to about maternity leave: all that time off! There must be vacations! Parties! Relaxation! Shopping! Ummm, no. No, no, no, no...no. Maternity leave is not about you! But anyway I will just never forget that innocent question :) The point is, staying home full-time has many challenges - I have challenges at work too but they seem easier to conquer.

4) Hearing other people tell you things about your own child - new milestones, funny observations, suggestions about what they might like. Don't get me wrong, I live for these things and am grateful for every last ounce of information about Ashton's day - I soak in every word and am lucky that I have such great care for him. But it's very, very hard to think someone else might know your kid better than you do in some ways. Last week I picked Ashton up from Chera's and noticed a picture of Jason and I on the floor. Chera said he was walking around asking about mommy and daddy and she said, "I ended up printing the picture and I show it to him when he says your name and it seems to help."
Words cannot even describe that. Searing pain in my heart. You never get over what you are missing by not being there.

5) That there really is no good choice for the average young mothers these days. Oh, how I could turn this topic into a completely separate post! My guess is we fall into one of three categories: 1) we can't afford to stay home with our children, 2) we don't want to have to give up where we have gotten in our careers or sacrifice our professional selves to stay home or 3) the cost of childcare is so high that it would eat up almost every dollar we made if we did work so we stay home and the income responsibility falls on the husband, however great or small. In my case, I went back to work because we really wanted to move out of our condo and get a house. We couldn't afford it without another salary besides Jason's. Bentley has been the perfect place for me but you know what they say...the grass is always greener and I do sometimes wish I was able to stay home like I did the first year. Sometimes ;)

So as I said, yesterday was my one year anniversary at Bentley and what did I do to celebrate? I performed in the staff flash mob! This has become a Bentley tradition during the first week of classes and a couple months ago when the email went out to sign up to participate, I almost deleted it. Then I thought, you know what, I have never done anything like this and sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zones! I clicked reply and said, "Count me in!" Here is the result :) I'm on the left hand side and come in around the 26 second mark (during some rough slide moves haha). The camera pans all around but I'm in a black dress and my blond hair is down. I'm so proud and had a huge smile on my face the whole time! It's been a great year :)

A Beautiful Wedding

A couple weekends ago on August 16th, two very dear friends of ours got married. The groom (Jason Lomberg aka "Berg") has been Jason's best friend since freshman year of college. Berg and Karen met at the same restaurant that Jason and I did way back when so we have all been friends for a very long time. The wedding was held at the Hyatt Harborside which has an absolutely stunning view of Boston across the harbor. It was a gorgeous evening - their ceremony was right on the water and officiated by another very good friend, Mr. Bob Kollar. Jason was the best man and A New Nill's own Ashton Christopher made his debut as the ringbearer extraordinaire. He was adorable in his little charcoal gray suit and hot pink bowtie, clutching his tractor for dear life:

 But his performance was nearly flawless. I say nearly because his boutonniere didn't last until the ceremony  (the flower on his jacket was just too interesting to let be) and he offered the pillow to the first guy he saw.

But then I knelt down, pointed to Jason at the other end and said, "Bring the pillow to Daddy!" and he was confused for a minute but then ambled off down the aisle. He held the pillow straight out the whole way. Honestly I was so proud watching him that I nearly cried, he was so cute.

At this point, I passed Ashton off to his "handlers" (GG and Grandpa Pat) and the rest of the ceremony was just perfect.

After a couple of pictures post-ceremony, GG and Grandpa Pat took Ashton home and Jason and I stayed and had a wonderful night! We slept at the hotel which marked the second night I had ever been away from Ashton in his whole life. And boy was I fine with it.

Here are some fabulous detail shots as well as some of my other favorites. Jason's whole family was there (Berg has been a friend for so long he is an honorary family member) and tons of my friends and we had a great time. Karen, you looked totally and absolutely gorgeous and I want to thank both you and Berg for letting us all share in a beautiful night of love and laughter. Congratulations!! :) xoxox

Like could NOT stop taking pictures of the view and the sunset. Gorgeous!

p.s. This is the link to a video of the processional (Ashton comes in around the 1 min 40 second mark) and this is the link to Karen and her dad walking down the aisle :)

Age Two: Part Two

OMG! It's been nearly two weeks since I posted. Whoops. Where did I leave off? Oh, the remaining "twoisms" that I should document at this milestone age.

Stats: 
Height: somewhere between 36.5 and 38 inches (Jason's wall measurement and the pediatrician's, respectively - roughly 99th percentile)
Weight: 32.2 pounds (95th percentile)
Shoe size: 7.5
Clothes size: 2T across the board but 3T in pajamas
Teeth: All in but his two year molars
Diapers: still a 5, 6 for overnights
Favorite things: Trains and anything even remotely related to construction vehicles. Dump trucks, bulldozers, cherry pickers, backhoes, excavators, and cement rollers all live in our house. In their toy form, of course.

I guess it's appropriate to begin with his favorite phrase: "TOO too!" Usually while holding something up, this is Ashton's most commonly used sentence. No one has any idea what it means but he says it ALL the time. He is not saying "choo-choo" because he can make the "ch" sound and we just know it doesn't mean train. Up until now I've treated it as a catch-all for "look at this!" but now that he is TWO I'm pretending he's announcing his age :)

He is showing improvement every week with his speech. He probably says about 20-25 words (still a low count for his age) and he maxes out at three in a row. Most popular right now: "One more....CRACKER!" He says this regardless of whether there are actually crackers around. He has also started to repeat the last sound he hears in a sentence. So if I tell him, "Just a minute please" he'll immediately echo "Pees". On Block Island a couple weeks ago, I said, "No, that's Daddy's beer" and he followed with "bee-er." I do recognize new sounds almost daily but pronunciation is still not great and there is a lot of frustration when he can't communicate what he wants. So we are still in Early Intervention every Wednesday but we are starting to get some cute "little kid moments" that show just how differently they actually see the world. For example, yesterday at the park (where there were previously lots of bees), there were almost none except for a few dead ones (you know, the giant fuzzy kind). We were over in that area and Ashton started pointing excitedly at the ground, "Bee! Bee, help! Help, bee, help!" and it took me a second and then I realized, "Ashton, are you saying the bee needs help because he isn't moving? Does he need to fly?" and he looked right at me and solemnly nodded. Well I had no idea how to handle that one. Add to the list, "Read up on how to tell your children about death." So I told him the bee was sleeping and that it would want us to go on the swings until it woke up. :-/ Another example was when we were at the beach and we were standing at the water's edge with our toes in. I said, "Wow Ashton, do you see the waves?" He looked up at me and then back at the ocean and then reached his little arm out and started waving. I nearly died laughing, I mean of course he doesn't know that one word can mean two things yet. But it was an unexpected response haha. He has also started to sing - he will repeat exactly if I sing "La la la la" and also has freestyled a couple times although no discernible words or melodies, just as he plays by himself. Like a background soundtrack.

It's also time for "school": Ashton's first day at daycare is today. With Jason's full schedule and me going back to work on Fridays for the year, we needed a set schedule. So, Chera will have him three days and he will go to "school" (which is a home daycare nearby) the other two. I think he is ready to learn some additional independence and how to handle himself in larger groups of children. I found a place I love and actually can't wait to see how he does with the experience. A year from now he will be trotting off to preschool so I am doing my part to get prepared haha. This is not to say I wasn't immensely grateful that Jason did the drop off this morning. I don't think I could have done it and am anxious to see how he is when I pick him up.

We are nowhere near potty training or transitioning from his crib. We are also nowhere near allergy therapy, so for now still avoid eggs, sesame, peanuts and tree nuts.

Also at this stage I'd like to report that the terrible two's are a myth. Alas, they are not. But Ashton's actually pretty good and the only real tantrums I get are when I won't give him a cracker. (I don't know if it's that he truly LOVES crackers, or if it's one of his few real words that gets a response and that's why he uses it all the time, but if I say no, boy, look out. I taped a solid 60 second movie of him crying and stomping at the cabinet where they are kept after I said "We aren't going to have any crackers right now". When I stopped recording he ran over to me, cried "No! No! Nooooo!" and pushed me! I would have given anything to get that on video. I tried not to laugh :-/ ) He is also super particular about food being whole. If I break off a piece of bagel rather than give him the whole half, or give him a piece of a cookie instead of the entire thing, it doesn't end well.

Other than that, we still spend most of our free time playing, walking around the block, and generally being outside. Both knees are still in various stages of scabs and when I put him in the tub, I don't know where the dirt ends and the bruises begin, but he's a happy little boy :)

2 years old!

We've come a long way since age 1. Last year's birthday was such a blow out it took three whole posts to document it all. This year, due to said blow out, I planned a party for me, Jason and Ashton. That's it. Because Jason had to work on Saturday, Ashton's actual birthday, we celebrated it on Sunday. Besides eating breakfast in front of some cartoons and walking around with no pants on, Saturday was nothing crazy.

But SUNDAY was! Woo! We had a few different present opening sessions (in the morning: new trains from Chera!):

And in the afternoon, we took a drive out to Honey Pot Hill Farms in Stow, MA. It was the most darling little farm ever. We got lemonade slushies, went to see the animals...

And then headed out to pick some blueberries. This proved to be difficult in the beginning. The first patch did not have very many ripe ones and Ashton was eating them about as fast as we could pick.

But we got the hang of it and after walking a little further out, filled up our quart in no time.

The best part is that when we got home, I used the berries to decorate the from-scratch egg-free cake that I had made. It wasn't the prettiest, a little sunken and lopsided on the top, but I know it tasted great because I made it in a 9x13, then cut and stacked it, and had a few sample bits left over ;) Also, the density was perfect ifidosaysomyself. (Ifidontsaysomyself?)

Well we ran into a small problem. Ashton wanted absolutely nothing to do with this cake. I mean, ran the other direction when I brought it out. Jason and I were completely perplexed! I cut him some small cubes, I gave him his fork, I tried to get him to put his fingers in the frosting...no freaking way. ?!?!? The only thing I can think of is that he is currently obsessed with hot things. He requests "Hot toast!" for breakfast (uh, and lunch, and dinner- he gets so excited about toast):

and when we read stories that have pictures of fireplaces or birthday candles he holds his hands over the page and says "Hah-hah" for "hot hot!". He's also famous for what I like to call "the flamingo". This is when I plop him in the bathtub and he immediately lifts one leg all the way up, says "hah-hah" and then stands there balancing until I say "It's ok, it's not hot." Then he will put his other foot down and we can go on with the show.

So who knows, maybe he saw the real candle flames and was afraid? And it's actually my fault because I always say when things are hot in pictures and that we don't touch? I also have told him that we stay away from bees because they are very busy smelling flowers and can hurt us if we make them mad. I didn't count on him generalizing and now he thinks every small buzzing insect is a bee. He started panicking the other day when there was a fly in the house and ran around saying "Bee! Bee!" So I need to figure that out. But I have no idea if he is allergic to bee stings and really don't want to find out.

Anyway, back to the birthday. We facetimed with Grandma and Grandpa while we sang and opened a couple cards and books, and then it was time for the present de resistance. Two big construction trucks. He would sleep with these things if he could - he loves anything that is in the dump truck, backhoe, bulldozer or tractor family and makes all the corresponding whirring sounds when he plays.

And that was about it! Oh, and then he fell asleep like this.

Have you guys had it yet? I'll save the rest for Two: Part Two. I guess I had more to say than I thought!

p.s. I am not one of those people that looks good without mascara. I'm just not. Anyway, wanted you to know that I know. I've been lazy lately :-/