New House: Emeline's Room

I know the last of our house transformation photos left you all a bit unsatisfied, but it's been a slow process of doing little bits here and there, so it has taken a long time to get one room "done", so to speak.  We are now in the the process of a kitchen remodel, which will probably be the most dramatic pictures, but until that is finished in a few more weeks, I thought I'd give you all a taste of the transformation of the house through Emeline's room.  The pending arrival of her sister has prompted me to do some organization of her room and put up some decor, so this is probably the most "done" room in the house right now.  Enjoy!

Here is the before picture, taken on one of the walk-throughs of the house after we bought it.  It's not much to look at, just a small back bedroom.

Then we painted.  Emeline's room is the only one to have a more interesting color, for the time being.  The others are an off-white like the hallway in the previous post, but Emeline got a light sage green.

After paint came the new floors.

 

After the floors came a new ceiling fan, baseboards, curtains and other decor.  We still need to update a few more things, but it's pretty much complete.  Eventually we'll have a toddler bed along with the crib, or maybe bunk beds when the girls are older, but these are the after shots for now.  These are taken from the doorway, turning around the room clockwise.

And a complete before/after comparison!  

Before

After

SF Zoo

While Wes continues to plug away on the kitchen project (contractors working during the weekdays, and him working on it on weekends), and myself at work organzing bedrooms and trying to rest, Emeline has been having lots of fun with Aunt Diane and Uncle Miles.  This weekend she got to go to the SF Zoo for the first time.

And Emeline loves spending time with Diane and Miles.

 

They said she wasn't very excited about all the big animals, but they did get up close to some of them 

But she loved the kids area and climbing around.  I did a double take with this photo, thinking it was a real turtle!

 

Looks like it was a beautiful day in the city!

 

Mother's Day Madness

This Mother's Day was unlike my first two, and probably unlike any other I will have.  At least I hope so.  I spent the weekend almost entirely alone, which is actually not such a bad gift for a pregnant uncomfortable mother of a 2 year old.  Aunt Diane and Uncle Miles took Emeline for a night, I had a delicious steak dinner with a dear friend, saw a movie by myself, went to church by myself, and then had another delicious meal with good friends.  

Meanwhile...Wes and his dad were busy destroying our kitchen.  

 

 

 

 

The last picture is now the potential waiting to happen. We are now in the rebuilding phase, which is much more satisfying than the destruction phase (at least to me ;) ), but it takes a LOT longer.  Full before, during, and after photos to come in a few more weeks upon completion!

First day of preschool

This week Emeline started at a local Spanish immersion preschool.  Here she is all ready to go!

 

Soon after arriving, she turns to me and says "bye bye Mommy!".  I guess she was ready to get the fun started without me, but I stuck around a little while to watch her play and take some pictures.  With in the first few minutes, she had already found the markers, stuck them up her nose and gave herself a green "Hitlter" stash.  That's my exploratory girl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This program is a very exploratory, emergent, play based program, done all in Spanish.  I'm excited to see what she learns.  She's only had two days, and I've already washed four outfits, one getting totally lost to mud stains.  But it's good she has a place to get messy, cause Mommy doesn't do as much messy play at home.  I'm sure we will both learn from this.  She already asks for "leche" at home and says "adios" to her new friends.  I used to speak a lot more Spanish to Emeline in her early days, but as her talking increased, so did my English, because it was more natural for the both of us.  But in prep for the preschool, I started going over body parts and numbers in Spanish.  She can identify and say lots of her body parts now in Spanish, and what I find most fascinating is that she will count to 5 in Spanish, but she'll only go up to 3 in English.  It's amazing to me that despite my lack of speaking Spanish in recent months, it's still all in her brain.  I'm looking forward to seeing all she learns at this new school.