Taking care of Lucy

Now that we live four minutes from my parents, we are able to babysit the family dog, Lucy, while they are away. We love it! A few weeks ago they went away for four nights, and we had Lou. Cohen loves it so much, and is in charge of feeding her and giving her treats. 

(Chilling with Lou on the couch) 

 (About to take Lou out. Cohen was surprisingly good about taking Lou out with me every few hours)

(He basically did not leave her alone at all the entire time she was here.) 

(Walking Lou around the block)

We had Lucy here while the guys were working on the kitchen. While they were here, Cohen insisted that Lucy stay on a leash even while inside, and Cohen never let go of the leash. I was worried she would escape while the guys were in and out getting stuff from their truck. So while Cohen was sitting at the table having a snack, he was holding Lou's leash, and she just sat obediently at his feet. One of the guys commented that Cohen sure loved his dog. I was like, actually, it's not our dog, we are just dog-sitting. The plumber dude was shocked. He was like, you need to get that kid a dog! We will, for sure. Maybe just not for a while. 

Our kitchen facelift

The guys just finished our kitchen renovation this morning, and I am so happy! We went the entire week last week not being able to use our kitchen at all, so I am pretty happy to be able to make meals again. We are super happy with how it turned out. 

Before: bubbly cabinet doors, weird fluorescent lights above the top cabinets, white dishwasher, appliance garage, countertop that had seen better days.

On day 1, the guys got to work removing cabinets and changing the lighting. At this point they ended up having to redo the location of the lighting because the reality looked different than the drawing they were working with. I have never been involved in renovating anything ever before, but I was grateful that the guys didn't just follow the drawing that the designer and I had come up with. In real life, shifting the lighting and the shelves a few inches made a huge difference to the feel of the room.

Ready for countertop installation on day 2. They put up a few cabinet doors, which are way cleaner-looking than our old ones. They also had installed the doors with "soft close" hinges, which I absolutely hated due to the fact that it took a full minute to fully close any door. So they removed them. They must have been loving me at that point.

New counters. The designer chose this caesarstone countertop very early on, and I had never ever seen a sample. We love it, luckily. Also, the floating shelves were much chunkier than I figured they would be, so we decided to do two on each side instead of the planned three.

The tiles are the oversized subway tiles. They seemed huge at first, but I think our kitchen is big enough that it can handle it. Also love our new dishwasher.

Finished! We are really happy with it. The biggest thing is that it feels like we have more counter space, even though we don't. And the kitchen just feels so much better and brighter. Though I do kind of feel like now it would be nice to get a new fridge and new flooring, BUT that is not going to happen for a long time. We have a huge list of things we want to do in this house, and the next thing is probably the master bathroom. Also on our list: powder room, laundry room, and then we just need a ton of furniture. We will be taking things really slow as our finances permit.

Pics from lately...

We are baking all the time these days, and I totally think it's because we have more kitchen. And our kitchen renos start on Monday. I am so pumped to have a dishwasher with a third rack (oh wow, what is happening when you are excited about a new dishwasher?) and cabinets that are not covered in bubbles.

This little angel is doing so good. He has started writing his name (well, he can only do the O and the H right now, but I am still impressed), and is OBSESSED with puzzles. He does maybe 5 puzzles a day. He is into the 50 pieces ones these days.

These two cousins make me so happy. They could not be more different. We went on a worm hunt after a rainfall, and one cousin could not collect enough worms with her bare hands. Cohen would not even consider touching them.

They love doing activities at my parent's house.

They had a halloween party at Cohen's preschool that I was able to go to. So cool to see Cohen doing his thing at school. The kids were supposed to make a jackolantern out of the stuff on the plate. Cohen made just a huge pile. The teacher said she liked his individuality. I really think preschool is helping him be a little more outgoing. He will now talk to people when we are out and about. Or maybe it's just that he is getting older.

Today...

This weekend we have just been hanging out around our town and relaxing. It has been so needed since we just had a really busy couple weeks. Jon and I had a really busy trip to Toronto for four days, then Cohen got a really bad cold, then I did, and work, etc. The usual. 

Anyway, this morning we went for a little walk to the little market that is a 3 minute walk from our house. So nice!! We are loving fall in NB. 

(Cohen watching Jon tie his shoe)

Cohen wore his spiderman mittens for most of the day and held them up to strangers like he was "spinning a web." Everyone acted like they were caught in a spiderweb when he did it. So cute.

Later this afternoon we had tickets for Jon and Cohen to go to Sesame Street Live. The tickets were kind of expensive, but we figured it was worth is and Cohen would love it since he loves all the Sesame street characters. We were dead wrong! He flipped out and refused to watch. He said they were loud and scary and he was super scared. Haha. Jon came and got me at the mall where I was about to enjoy a coffee all by myself, and we went back so I could try bringing Cohen in to the show. NOPE! He physically would not go to his seat. He pretty much ran back to the exit screaming. He said he was SO scared of the characters. It was honestly pretty funny, and Jon and I were having such a hard time stifling our laughter, but Cohen was taking it really seriously. He was so upset. So no more live shows until Cohen is maybe 6? And I am thinking we will delay Disney until then too. Lesson learned.