before and after: our master bath

we finished this renovation in august 2010. as for sharing pictures, better late than never, right?

this bathroom used to be a bedroom. and the old bathroom is now our connected master closet. did you follow that? ;) here's a picture of the bedroom that became our master bath.

 we ripped up the carpet on the second night we owned the house, back in the winter of 2009.

during:

and after!

we designed the layout of the bathroom ourselves with help from ben's dad. at first we were going to try to squeeze in a tub, but we realized we aren't really tub people and decided on a nice big shower instead. (staying on top of cleaning the grout can be tough, but i've had great success with basic h from shaklee—which i use all over our house—and mr. clean magic erasers for tile and grout!)
 

here are our sources in case any of you locals are curious.

cabinetry: designed cabinets

countertops: corian in glacier white from nu shapes construction

tile: marble mosiac and white ceramic penny and wall tiles from kate-lo tile and stone

glass shower enclosure: designed glass

fixtures: delta, kohler, and moen (menards and home depot)

mirrors: ikea
paint color: benjamin moore palladian blue

more on the diy artwork here. 

 

 

jane: two months

eight thoughts from the first eight weeks {in no particular order}

1 :: i'm pretty sure jane looks a little different each morning. and sometimes, when she wakes up from a nap, i swear she looks different from when i put her down.

2 :: watching ben with jane might be the happiest thing in the world.

3 :: baby breath on my neck might be the second happiest thing in the world.

4 :: isn't it funny that tiny little babies are capable of adult-size gas? seriously. and the explosive pooping? my favorite is when it happens during prayer time at small group. she's such a lady.

5 :: moving her to size 1 diapers was kind of traumatic. of course they grow up. i know this. but do they have to grow up so fast? and while we're on this topic, starting a bin of outgrown clothes was kind of traumatic, too. but i better get used to it because i'll be adding to it for a long, long time.

6 :: i am absolutely amazed at the generosity of friends and family. meals, gifts, phone calls, encouraging emails, offers to babysit. the works. i am humbled and blessed by the outpouring of support we have received!

7 :: this sounds super scandy but ben and i love our baby shirtless. that soft baby skin...mmmmm good!

8 :: it seems strange that i have such a strong relationship with a person who can't talk.

the witching hour and sleeping through the night

she's done it: seven weeks old and jane slept through the night.*

*no, i do not assume this is a new habit. but it happened and i am thrilled about it!

jane is generally a happy baby. we get lots of coos and smiles from her and every day she becomes more interactive. but most evenings when ben gets home from work, she gets a real fussing spell that lasts until 7 or later. i've heard this called "the witching hour" and it seems a common thing among little ones who are overtired at the end of the day.

ben is so great about taking her when he gets home so i can get dinner ready. he usually puts on music (oldies or current pop music that makes me roll my eyes and laugh) and dances with her.



jane hasn't been taking long naps during the day and she had just snoozed a few times yesterday. i knew she was overtired and we put our cranky baby down before 9. she fussed a bit and finally fell asleep around 9:30. well would you believe she slept for more than 8 hours last night? she did.

but just because she slept through the night doesn't mean i did. i woke up a few times thinking, "wow, she made it this long!" and then finally around 4am i woke up scared instead of amazed and ran to her bassinet to make sure she was breathing. she was.

strangely enough, i missed seeing her last night. i'm excited for this new day and grateful for the sleep i got. thank you, Lord, for each day with our little girl. what a gift she is.

jane: one month

if i can manage to stay on top of this, i'd like to take a picture of jane in her nursery glider each month for a year. it will be so fun to have a whole lineup of pictures to look back at her growth each month! i've also seen people do this with a toy or animal for comparison, so this month i took one with just her and one with a sweet lamb toy given to us by my friend caroline.

jane at one month

even now, she looks so different from when i took these a week ago. i can't believe our little girl is five weeks old already. we are so crazy about her!