Happy Easter! Our day started 100% too early (like at 11 pm last night) thanks to a grumpy baby and ended with children who hate 10000% too much candy. Thank goodness our spring break does NOT start tomorrow, because I need to send these monsters to school. Far, far away to school.

Sunday:

Eating cereal at the big table

Quite in church, thanks to coloring supplies

Headed home after the egg hunt

Monday:

His new favorite toy

I have no idea where these came from but they’re fantastic

We had a snow day, so we watched a LOT of movies

Tuesday:

Chillaxing

Buying egg dyeing kits on clearance the year before is one of my smartest moves

Poor dog would do anything for attention

Wednesday:

Talking to the baby

I got some goodies from International Delight and that mug could not be more true

Helping with yard work

Thursday:

Shopping buddy

Eye appointment

NO I’M NOT TIRED DON’T PUT ME TO BED

Friday:

Eating kettle corn with a spoon, as one does

Easter-themed piano lesson was adorable

Caroline calls this the “ornament” and she LOOOOOOOVES it

Saturday:

Fun at the town egg hunt

More ornament nonsense

A rare glimpse of the Easter Bunny at work

I am SO TIRED from just one night of terrible sleep. My body had completely recovered from that newborn phase where 5 hours broken up into 3 sections seems totally fine. It occurred to me this morning those days are coming back and so I should go to bed at 9 pm every single day between now and August. And I swear I’m going to start doing that, right after the Walking Dead ends for the season.

Is it possible I could be nesting even though I’m not pregnant? Maybe it’s less nesting and more getting ready for winter hibernation. I’ve been living on a steady diet of HGTV while I edit photos, and nothing makes me hate my own (pretty nice) house than watching people turn their horrible basements into super useful space. Why can’t someone do that to MY basement?! It’s disgusting! The before and afters would be amazing!

The current first floor makeover started when E moved our cheap, old, Walmart desk downstairs so I could carve out an “office” corner for my business stuff. Need a lamp for one ugly desk was the gateway drug to a Target trip, which lead to a HomeGoods trip, which lead to an Ikea catalog with half the pages marked and a Pinterest board full of links to more furniture than I could ever fit in my house.

Last weekend I went shopping alone to “just look” for a little tiny couch to put in the living room. I didn’t end up finding the couch of my dreams, but that didn’t stop me from dragging the rest of my family out at 7 pm to look at the couch I DID find. It’s probably for the best I couldn’t find the one I wanted – I’m not sure a white tufted fabric couch is the right thing for a room that is currently full of surfaces the children are allowed to write on. The tan microfiber that was delivered yesterday will DEFINITELY survive more Play-Doh mishaps.

Part of the deal when E agreed to come look at “my” couch was we would also look for “his” new couch, which was basically the total opposite of that white one I had in mind. Think of the ugliest, most ridiculous man-couch you can. Now make it a) bigger b) uglier and c) add more cup holders. THAT is the couch he wanted. If a dozen cows didn’t have to die to cover his own personal reclining seat with built in beer fridge, he was NO INTERESTED.

Fortunately, our budget couldn’t support that couch, so it is NOT what I am sitting on while I write this. Unfortunately, the store’s huge sale item that weekend was a big, squishy sectional complete with cup holders and power recliners at each end, so that IS what I am sitting on. I’m not going to lie…it’s pretty comfortable. And this cup holder is very convenient for my Diet Coke. And it’s nice that it takes up basically the ENTIRE ROOM so we had to move most of the toys upstairs and I have most of my house back. The kids are both old enough that I can send them upstairs to play without me and I only have to occasionally shout at them to stop hitting each other. It’s pretty amazing to go from having 3 seats in this room to at least 7…and that’s not counting MY couch in front of the fireplace. A couch in front of the fireplace! For sitting on while drinking mulled wine and eating sparkling brie bites and having adult conversation without the TV on!

That will probably happen once. Right after we put the Christmas tree up. Then someone will say “We should watch Love Actually!” and we’ll move back to the giant ugly couch and that will be that. But when we have people over, there will be SO MANY PLACES TO SIT DOWN!

I realize I just wrote 500 words about two couches and I’ve posted no pictures, but that’s because I’m not done with the rearranging and redecorating. Plus I haven’t finished cleaning the old couch to put on Craigslist, so we actually have THREE couches in two small-ish rooms. I’ll be sure to do an underwhelming reveal if I ever get this part of the house set up the way I want – but I sort of suspect we’ll get busy and never actually sell the old couch or move this bookcase that’s basically blocking a doorway or buy a coffee table or patch the holes in the walls. So for now, just IMAGINE I live in a Pinterest-looking classy yet casual house. That’s what I’m doing.

After trips to three different real furniture stores and a few half-hearted searches on our local Craigslist we ended up buying a twin sized bed for Little Evan at Ikea. I don’t know why we even bothered looking anywhere else when the bed I had pictured in my mind was clearly modern, minimalist and Swedish while all the furniture at the traditional stores was heavy and tall and wooden. The salesman at our local store tried to convince me we shouldn’t get a twin bed at all, because eventually he’d need a full sized bed anyways so why not buy one now? Along with the matching dresser? And hey, how about this $400 mattress too? I tried to point out that 99% of college students I know sleep in twin sized beds so Little Evan’s “need” for a full sized bed was sort of subjective. Besides, my little 27 lb toddler still fits just fine in his crib. It’s not like he needs the space of a full. Heck, I can lie in the twin WITH him and we both fit fine. So basically, I told the salesman to shove it (politely) and we went to Ikea. Besides, I had already ordered super cute sheets from Garnet Hill in twin and I hate returning things. Flawless logic, that.

We bought this bed:

ODDA bedframe with drawers

I love that it’s low enough for him to climb in and out himself and the extra storage space underneath. You can NEVER have enough places to hide toys and stuffed animals. So we bought the bed frame and the least expensive mattress they sell (my theory is between now and full potty training it’s going to get so gross we’ll end up tossing it anyways) and E swore his way through their wordless Swedish instructions and now it’s all set up and ready for Little Evan to start sleeping in it. Which is going…not so well.

Sunday night he lay on the bed but asked to sleep in the crib when it was time to turn the lights out. But for Monday nap time he climbed right up, lay down, asked for his milk and and kiss and told me night-night. I tucked him in, made sure he had his eight zillion different blankets and stuffed animals and left the room.

I listened outside the door. All was quiet. I came downstairs and listened over the monitor. I could hear him babbling a little and rustling his sheets. Then there was complete silence and I did a little happy dance of joy.

I texted E to tell him how I was AWESOME and that our kid was a big-boy bed genius and that when he got home we could totally take the crib apart for good because who needs it?! I made plans to hem curtains and move bookcases and blog the awesome new toddler room because the redecorating was totally going to be done super soon!

Ten seconds later, a little voice said “Hai!” and Evan peeked around the corner of the kitchen.

My heart totally stopped. My genius big-boy bed sleeping toddler was instead a genius room escaping (EVEN THOUGH there’s a child-proof cover on the door handle) toddler who managed to get out of bed and climb down the stairs in complete silence.  I am TERRIFIED of letting him climb down the stairs on his own so the thought of him doing the whole flight without anyone there to spot him almost made me pass out.

So. No more big boy bed until we get a gate for the stairs. And any recommendations for door handle covers that ACTUALLY KEEP CHILDREN FROM OPENING DOORS are appreciated.

Adorable bebehs in the adorable bed

Final room makeover results have been officially pushed back until we can take the crib down for good. I’m hoping some time before June.

He asked to have Caroline lie in bed. I think he'd sleep with her all the time if I'd let him.

Uh, ALSO needed: a way to make that outlet/cords a little less dangerous. Because right now I can imagine about 4000 ways he could kill himself either accidentally or because he’s a toddler and doesn’t seem to remember playing with outlets is danger! no matter how many times I scream it at tell him. Unfortunately, that’s the outlet that the light switch works not using it at all is the worst possible option. Well, worst besides some sort of terrible tragedy, so maybe not really WORST worst. I’m just hoping there’s a solution besides never having light in Little Evan’s room.

"OK Mom! Go away! We're good without you!"

Yeah kid, that’s what YOU think.

Little Evan had his 18 months check-up yesterday, and since this blog is my baby book I should probably record his stats here, rather than lying to myself and pretending I’m going to hold onto this “Baby’s Health and Growth Record” they gave me at his first visit and I shove in my purse before each appointment.

Height: 32 inches
Weight: 24 lbs 3 oz
Head circumference: 47.6 cm

All of that puts him somewhere between the 25th and the 50th percentiles and back on the kind of “healthy curve” the doctor is happy with and doesn’t require coming in every freaking month to make sure I’m not starving him to death. They made me schedule his next appointment on the way out, which is his 2 YEAR CHECK-UP. I was not only mentally unprepared to think of him as being 2, I am incapable of picking a “good” time and day for an appointment in April, when I will have 2 babies. My day planner doesn’t even go past December, because that’s when I figure my whole life will just turn into chaos and won’t ever leave the house anyway.

In “things that make my life easier news”, we also went to Best Buy and bought this:

HUGE. But useful.

Our current TV stand (which, if you REALLY need to see it, is the in background of 85% of my pictures) has solid wood doors, which means when you close them you can’t control anything with the remote. Design FAIL. We took one of the doors off a long time ago and that was a workable solution for a while…until we had a kid. A kid who likes buttons. And knows which button turns the TV on and off. And thihks pushing it is HILARIOUS. Our new stand will prevent the button-pushing and cord-pulling, as well as give us a lot more storage for E’s giant electronics collection and free up space on our bookshelves for, you know, those things with the pages and the words. Oh yeah, BOOKS.

We also ordered this:

Nursery Glider

It’s the Newco Serenity Classic Glider to go in the new nursery/playroom. You can’t see the fabric closely in the picture, but it’s a chenille corduroy that is very soft AND very stain resistant. I was torn between buying the chocolate brown and ordering it in the green version, but when the sales guy said the green was “special order”, which meant it would take 10-12 weeks AND I couldn’t use my BRU 20% off coupon, the brown won. Easily. It will work just fine with beige and orange and if I end up hating the color I’ll just throw a blanket over it.

Also, if you read all the reviews of the chair they’re split between people who love it and people who hate it because it squeaks, and although squeaking is annoying the cheap Target glider we have already is INCREDIBLY squeaky and it never ever bothered Baby Evan. Comfortable is really my only concern.

Next weekend starts our new master bedroom renovations and also the start of fourteen bazillion posts featuring MORE crap I want to buy. I know you’re already excited.