Stair Renovation Part One

Ian was in heaven as the carpenters broke through the floor and installed stairs down to our basement. He watched them all day. I am kinda sad that they are gone, but we love our added space and storage it provides. Here are some pictures of the construction. We paint and move furniture downstairs this weekend.

The floor is gone!

A new beam and stairs are installed.

Ian could not be more happy

View from below

The drywall comes down and we are left with amazing exposed brick

The stairs are finished and stained, the brick is cleaned, and the spindles are installed

Another view

Ian enjoying his new space

We are in the midst of yet another house renovation so blogging and free time have been hard to come by. We are adding stairs down to our basement to add more play room for Ian and storage for us! I will post pictures of the renovation soon but thought I would show you some recent pictures of Ian. He is a blast to hang out with these days and is developing quite a sense of humor.

I just returned from the corner grocery. I am totaling having a girl. I just bought three pints of ice cream. This is more ice cream than I have ever bought or consumed in my ENTIRE life... total. I hate ice cream. It makes me gag. I only eat ice cream under two circumstances...I am eating my Dad's homemade ice cream (yes, he actually churns the cream himself, it is incredible!) or I am eating Turkey Hill out of my grandparents pastel plastic bowls while sitting around their kitchen table. That is it.

I know this comes as a shock to many of you...first that you are hearing for the first time that I am pregnant AGAIN, and second that pregnancy actually drove me to eat something in the dairy family. Yes, I do realize that if you let ice cream sit for awhile it takes on the consistency of milk which makes me want to gag again, but oh...the taste and the way that it just cures me of all sickness and nausea is truly amazing!

How do you sum up Christmas? I can't. Too many traditions, yummy food, time with family, catching up with friends, Ian's Hugh Hefner pajamas...
This year was much different though for Ian. He actually enjoyed opening up presents as he took his time tearing little piece by little piece of wrapping paper. It took him close to ten minutes to open up one gift.
We had such a wonderful time with my family and Ian had a great time playing with his cousins. He absolutely loves my parents house. They have a basement filled with toys that I am positive Ian dreams about every night.
Ian also had his first Christmas cookies. His favorite kind are chocolate peanut butter. He kept stealing my grandmother's cookie out of her hand.
At the end of the day though Ian is still content playing with phones. He got a fake I-phone for Christmas, but nothing compares to the real thing.
Also, as you can tell from the pictures, Ian is totally in the mommy phase. He hardly ever leaves my side and is very clingy. I really don't mind though. He is so darn cuddly!

Small Victories

So, I forgot my bottle brush at my parents house and after a week of boiling Ian's bottles every night I decided I needed to stop. Ian needed to stop. For the sake of our family Ian needed to start taking milk from a cup. It has been something I have been working on for some time now but Ian was always attached to the bottle. The bottle was his pacifier, thumb, and blanket all rolled into one.

But today, for some reason, Ian decided it was time to give up the bottle. I simply took his bottles and put them in his closet and said, "We don't need your bottles anymore. We are going to put your bottles in the shelf of your closet and they will be there for the next baby that comes along." Then I handed him a cup of milk and he drank it. Done. Done. and Done.

I cannot tell you how happy I am! Granted, it dawned on me a few hours ago that my son was a total pushover and that next time he should stand up for himself a little more, but I am willing to call this one a win in my book.

dreaming of a white christmas

Every year Tim and I cohost a Christmas party with two other couples. Each year we hold the party in a different location. There are only two stipulations...there has to be a theme, and we can't repeat the same dish twice except for a cheese plate. This year the party was at our house and the theme was all things WHITE- i wish I could show you our invitations. They were so lovely with sparkling snowflakes and perfect print:

dreaming of a white christmas
you are invited to a night of all things sparkling and white

And it just so happened that the party was on the same day of the biggest snow storm in DC! It could not have been more perfect. We thought of postponing the party but how could we? Did I mention just how perfect the weather cooperated with our theme? Several of our friends live within walking distance and the others are hardy east coast folk, and have driven in much worse weather before. So we went on with our party...roasted marshmallows over the firepit and all!

And more pictures of Ian in the snow....

Pics from the Snowstorm

Hanging Around the House

I love going for walks. Actually, I need to walk everyday. This may be coming to an end. It is cold and Ian refuses to keep his gloves on. The other day he screamed in pain the last fifteen minutes of the walk: his fingers were frozen. So, we have been spending most of our days inside. We have also been watching Owen a bunch lately, and Ian and Owen are just two peas in a pod. Here are some pics of Ian just hanging out at the house.

Thanksgiving

Here is it almost Christmas and I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving yet. I actually had to write it into my day planner to remember to do so this weekend. This year we spent Thanksgiving at Tim's parents house in Sewickley, PA. Susannah drove down to DC to pick up Ian and me early so we were able to spend a nice long week with Ian's grandparents. He had such a blast bouncing from his grandfather (who strapped a delighted Ian into the front seat of his car and drove him around town while listening to country music) to Nina (who let him blow dry her hair and help with the Christmas tree lights) to all of his aunts and uncles. There was never a moment he had to play alone.

On Thanksgiving day we drove up to Aurora, Ohio to Tim's grandparents house. They have a great room with a huge dining room table and a smaller side table that fit all 26 of us!!! Ian loved the mashed potatoes and especially the sailors duff (a Chapman family tradition).









Tim and his dad finally finished our kitchen table and so now our kitchen is complete!!!

I don't think I ever posted these pictures. I walked out of the kitchen one day and this is how I found Ian when I returned.

UVA

A few weeks ago my parents and brother came to visit us in DC. My little brother is currently college shopping so we drove down to UVA to check out the campus and take a tour. I absolutely love Charlottesville and UVA's campus. I secretly hope Gregory ends up going there...I would visit him every weekend. We had the most perfect fall day which made UVA's campus sparkle.