Cucumber allergy

Luke had cucumbers this week 2 times. The 1st time he had them he woke up from his nap with what looked like welts on his face. Just one side of his face, and almost looked like bad irritation from dirty sheets since it was in the side he slept on. I thought nothing of it and it went away within an hr of him waking. He had cucumbers 2 hrs before his nap.

Yesterday he had cucumbers again at 4:30pm. About 5:30pm he started getting really whiney and was crying a lot, but this isn't unusual for him some evenings since he is hungry and tired. We just kept trucking along and had dinner. At 7 DH was undressing him his bath and noticed his legs were red. By the time he got out of the bath he had huge welts in his legs (like the size of a dime in some places) and they covered both his thighs, the backs of his calves and his buttocks. It was also very red and hot to the touch.

Being so close to bedtime, him never having Benadryl before and the fact that he was breathing fine I opted not to give Benadryl. I did put hydrocortisone cream all over his legs though. Within 10 minutes the redness was going away. It was clearly bothering him because he willingly let me put cream on him. He slept like crap last night, and was up at 4:30 this morning. Now he is acting normal and his legs are fine.

I've never dealt with a reaction before and this rash took up most of his lower half. Poor guy, doesn't seem like he can catch a break sometimes.

Funny things they say...

Grace:

1. Her new thing is whenever she's forgotten something she yells "WAIT!!!" Example.

G: "WAIT!!! More milk mama!!"
M: "Oh, that's right. You did want milk."
G: "Silly mama!"

2. Grace burps or passes gas

G: "Piggy piggy Grace" 

3. The other day Kris was patting Luke on the back because he was upset. Grace comes over and pats his back saying "It's ok, it's ok. Oh buddy, you ok?" She's so cute!

4. Tonight I was rocking her while reading her bedtime stories. This is my favorite time with her. She's just so cute and comes up with the funniest things. Tonight she saw a dirty spot on her baby doll's head and thought it was a boo boo. She says "oh baby, you have a boo boo?" Then she kisses it. Then she looks at me and goes "kiss, kiss??" Then gives me the fishiest face ever and waits for another kiss. Melted my heart!

5. Again we are in her room tonight doing bedtime routine. She understands that daddy puts Luke to bed and mommy puts her to bed. She is always so concerned with Luke and has to ask me a million times if daddy is still reading to "Oompa." They she has to ask about all her toys in her crib. Then she turns to me and picks out things on my face to say. Mama's eye, nose, ear, hair, head... you name it, she will point to it. Well, recently she is obsessed with eyebrows. Tonight she pointed to both my eyebrows, then I pointed to her's. She then says "Mama kiss Grace eyebrow?" And I kiss it. Then she says "Mama kiss Grace other eyebrow?" Then I kiss it. Then she says

G: "Uh oh mama!!"
Me: What?
G: "Mama have boo boo on neck"
Me: "No, those are beauty marks."
G: "Booty murks?"
Me: "Yes."
G: "No. Boo boo mama. I kiss it."

Haha! She's just too funny!

Luke

Whenever he is done with dinner he will stand up in his chair and say "DONE." It is the deepest voice we have ever heard. Usually his voice is all squeaky and whiney and high, but this "DONE" is just so deep, like a little man voice.

Luke is obsessed with Elmo. He calls it "La la." All day long he will say "I watch Lala?" He also calls everything "mama." Grace is mama, daddy is mama, Meemi (My mom) is mama, milk is mama. Everything. It's kinda funny.

He probably says more, but it's late and I'm tired. I just wanted to remember the funny things my kids say.

Our fireplace mantle

We started the fireplace mantle about 3 weeks ago. Just in time for our power to go out during Hurricane Sandy and we had no fireplace for that. Fun times. Luckily we had kerosine to get us through and now we are back to normal. See that black eye Luke has? That's why we did this HUGE project.

Here are the kiddos "helping"

Then the shopvac came out and they did.not.like.it!!

Big girl helping daddy.

This was after day 1: Thanks Luke for getting that pic haha! My did day 1 of demolition. Kris and I were at her house installing her new roof. Thanks mama!

Day 2: Taking down the brick... again!

And finally after my mom, Kris, me and the kids got our hands on that stove we were done! Yay. That brick was gone.

Then we go the bright idea that we would lower our fireplace to the floor instead of having it raised. Yeah, poor Kris had "fun" doing this! Luke helped.

This is the mess our living room was in for like a week. Ugh. The new firebox took like 3 weeks to get here and we just sat with a duct taped wall with a kerosine heater in front of it for 3 weeks. Real klassy. Oh well.

Then that firebox finally came in and Kris got it working. How glorious!!

Then we built the mantle! From scratch. It was actually surprisingly easy. Only took one afternoon while the kids took an insanely long nap for us. Then Kris spackled and the last of that ugly brick was gone!! Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

Then I painted to surprise Kris. And I staged it with a dinky mirror just to get the idea. I tell you painting the mantle put me into the Christmas mood big time. I just can't wait to decorate that mantle. I'm in love.

Our living room before. Notice the ugly stairs in the background too. WOW!!

And the after: Luke got in that one too. Haha!

And I spent all week trying to find the perfect tile, accessories and mirror for my new mantle. Found a $20 mirror at TJ Maxx and some accessories at Home Goods!! Yay!

Then after weeks of trying to decided on tile and me not finding anything I liked. At Home Depot. It was like the angels were singing to me. I was in love!!! Over tile. So pathetic.

Now I have to buy more and actually put it up, but for now I have it standing next to the mantle. I will get there soon. I just love my mantle, though!! And no one will get hurt again on it, so that makes it even sweeter!!

Photo dump

Here's some random snip its into our lives. I was going through pictures the other night and these stood out to me.

Here's my kiddos in the tornado mess they make daily, watching LaLa (Sesame Street). Luke is sitting in our puzzle storage keeper. Silly boy.

Attacking mama...

Matching PJs ith Daddy

Fun in the tub.

Hamming it up with his black eye from the mantle

Fell asleep in the living room on teddy bear.

He's a cutie!

Grace runs in to find me yelling "mama, I draw a circle!!!" I go inside to look and sure enough she drew a circle... on our ottoman... in chalk. How do you get mad at her for that perfect circle she drew?

Playing baby

Matching PJs again...

Luke playing with his reflection in the mirror.

Hurricane Sandy took our power. :(

Halloween...

Photo op fail...

"I want to go Trick or treating!!!" It was cancelled due to the hurricane.

The only shot I got in their Halloween shirts.

1st haircut, before:

During:

After:

For fun, Grace at 14 months and Luke at 13 months. My twins!

 And lastly my pretty girl with my other "girl" in the background. Luke ran out of PJs and had to wear Grace's. He made such a pretty "girl." Daddy was so proud. Haha! :P

So that the month of October in pictures. I love my kiddos. <3

My stairs are DONE! A reveal!

Well, I finally did it! I finished our stairs! Only took me 3 months I think?? It was slow process since I had to do it on my "free" time when the kids were napping or being good for a second. It was little bits here and there that I could get done. The whole thing probably would have taken me 2 weeks at most, but I was held back by the kiddos. Anyway, here's where it started:

The railing: It was wood. I wanted white. 

So I painted it:

And to think that I thought THAT looked good!!

So then I decided I would rip up the carpet. Here's the before on what that fugly carpet looked like. 

Ugh, it gives me shivers just seeing it. Wow, I can't believe I thought that was ok!! So here the process:

Mommy's helpers!

Then I was left with this:

Then I sanded. And sanded and sanded and sanded!!! I swear that took forever! The carpet ripping up process didn't take long at all, but that sanding. And it was hard because I couldn't do it when the kids were napping because I'd wake them. And I couldn't do it when they were awake because a certain little boy was a big sissy. Oh my boy. So I had to do it whenever I had a free second without the kids, which rarely happens. Hence, the 3 months to complete this project!

So then I stained the stairs. I took the Thrifty Decor Chick's advice and stained them first before painting the risers. Great advice!!! Totally made sense and probably saved me hours of work. 

I used cloths on the stairs you could step on because people kept stepping on the wrong stairs and ruining my work! I then Polyurethaned. I did 2 coats of stain then 2 coats of Poly. It took me 2 days to stains the stairs because I could only stain every other stair so we could still use them. Then it took me 2 days to Poly for the same reasons.

I had to use post-it notes as well as rags for the Poly because people really started stepping on those stairs. It was harder to tell which were finished and which were wet because all were stained at this point. I never anticipated how hard it would be to use every other stair with 2 kids in my arms. Haha!

So here's progress: 

Then I went on to taping so I could paint the risers. I chose to tape with contractors' paper so that I could ensure that nothing happen to my stairs.

I used an entire roll of Frog Tape. I opted for that tape after this blog recommended it. I'm so glad I did because that tape was amazing!! So not like that blue painters tape. Then I painted. 

Then removing the paper started:

AHH!! LOOK AT THE BEAUTY!! I could tell from the very 1st paper I took off that my stairs were gorgeous!!

Look at those stairs. I am in love with the finished result!! 

And another before and after just because I can and because it's just such a dramatic difference:

This whole project cost me about $60. I had plywood on the landing and had to buy some wood to make it match my stairs. I opted for poplar since it stains the closest to pine, which our stairs are. That cost me $50 alone, but honestly it was so worth it to me!! Then I had to buy the stain and the Poly, but that's not that much. I had that primer and the white paint already.

I am just in LOVE with my new stairs. Grace loves them too. She tells me they are "pretty mama!"