'Tis the season!

Cold season that is!

Shawn and Arianna arrived home yesterday at 1 PM and I spent the morning doing a mad dash through the house trying to clean.

I was at The Christmas Tree Shops first thing Saturday, just as they opened. I bought new curtains and lamp shades for the bedroom - the finishing touches on the 'new' room. Then over to BJs to buy water, cat litter, diapers and granola bars. Then to Dave's Market to buy food, then home to do a mad dash cleaning.

I concentrated on the bedroom first - moved everything back into the room, changed the outlet covers I had painted over, vacuumed the rug, dusted the furniture, changed the bed, put the mirror closet doors back on the track, put up the new tensions rods/tie up curtains, changed the lamp shades and closed the door. The room was 'complete'.

The to Arianna's room - quickly picked up toys, straightened up changing table/crib and put dirty laundry in hamper.

Then to kitchen - it was a disaster as the table/chairs was moved to accomodate the painting I was doing the night before. Pieces of the electrical work boxes were strewn everywhere from where my brother changed out my electrical boxes (we've put in child proof outlets so we don't have to mess with covers). My dad had a dozen different tools blocking the way of ANYONE walking (let alone a toddler) and I still had bags of groceries to put away - and the cat box smell was overpowering all of this. Did I paint a vivid enough picture for you?

So I started by taking all of my dads tools and putting them on the back porch - that was an instant face lift. Then I put away the groceries and then picked up the trash around the room. I moved all the painting equipment into the spare bedroom and closed the door - that room was a total mess, not to be seen! After that was done I changed out both cat boxes and straightened out the table as best I could - it was still piled up with pictures and cork boards I had taken off the walls to paint. I moved the table back against the wall and put the chairs in the living room. We haven't finished the cabinet that will hold the microwave so I have to shimmy (I love that word) the current cabinet back against the new pantry - it luckily fits. I grabbed the broom and swept the kitchen floor (took a good couple of passes as the sawdust was thicker than I thought), moved the catboxes, cat food, and trash can back to their respective spots and grabbed the vacuum (Dyson - best investment EVER) and did the rug in the dining room and living room.

Then I started Arianna's lunch and ran her bath - she had thrown up in the car on the way home.

Then picked up the living room, moved the dining room chairs back and took one final walk through the house - it sure didn't look like a house that had undergone such a MASSIVE transformation that week. I had to pat myself on the back as the house looked great for a mere 2 hours of work.

I finished making Arianna's macaroni and cheese just as they pulled in the driveway. I practically ran outside to get her and she had a huge smile on her face and was trying to unbuckle her carseat to get to me - I was excited to see that.

Into the bath she went as my parents arrived (with lunch! yum!). I sat her in the high chair for some mac n' cheese and she wouldn't eat. As a matter of fact by the time the day was over she would have thrown up twice and had only 4 oz. of yogurt and 2 pediasure bottles. That's it.

My parents stuck around long enough for my dad to finish putting the moulding around the pantry at the ceiling. The only thing we have left to do is baseboard around the pantry, the cabinet for the microwave and chair rails for the kitchen/dining room - and massive amounts of painting. I'll do the painting as I'm the new expert but my dad will have to do all the woodwork. Its amazing to me how much goes into a project like this. I'll have pictures for everyone tomorrow (hopefully).

My baby is sick... 'tis the season! I ended up pulling her out of bed about 8:45 PM because she kept making a gagging sound and I was afraid she'd throw up again...

She stayed up until about 10 PM and then went down for the whole night.

Shawn informs me one of her cousins came down with strep throat while they were visiting - I hope/pray Arianna doesn't get strep! She had a wicked cough this morning but otherwise she's as happy as can be - odd. When I'm sick I'm not chipper, thats for sure, but she's not acting sick at all - despite the 103° fever.

Unfortunately a family emergency is keeping our nanny in South Carolina this week so Arianna gets to spend Monday - Wednesday with grandma (who won't complain a bit!). I just hope she's just about over this cold. She's handling it alot better than she did when she was younger - not complaining/whining at all, which is refreshing.

Love this time of year! Don't you?