Well the new house is finally coming along. We now have walls (Tyveck wrapped) and most of the roof on (no shingles but the covers that go on underneath it). We also have the back deck in place and they will be working on the front deck next week. We have put Anderson windows in and they look really nice. They are just plain white with grills on the top only.
Our biggest challenge has been getting the kitchen sorted out as we are way over budget. We really wanted white Shaker style cabinets – nothing fancy – but even these are really expensive. Our countertops will be made of Staron (granite is way, way too expensive) but they will look nice. They are called Pebbled Grey and should contrast nicely with the cabinets.
In the master bathroom we are going with an Asian look. We are having a dark (almost Ebony coloured) double vanity and then a plain, white matte vanity top. This is made from Cultured Marble but it is not the type with the swirls in it. It is just completely plain. For Eleni’s bathroom we have white cabinets and then a cultured marble top that is similar in colour to the kitchen countertops.
In January the SEER rating requirement for HVAC systems is going up in January (government requirements) so we are upgrading the heating and cooling systems to meet the standard but also because the upgraded systems are so much more efficient. It is a large house so we want to keep the long term costs down.
We will be getting siding put on the house. This is really common in the USA as for some reason brick is really expensive. We are going with a pale yellow colour and then will have a burgandy red for the shutters. The front of the house will also have a “feature wall” of stone which should look really nice.
We are starting to think about the landscaping. The back of the house is surrounded by woods which is great, BUT, it means that it is in shade a lot. Great for summer but, we have just had snow and this was stayed on the ground and now turned into ice! Our driveway is also steep and has quite a bit of ice on it. Anyway, we want to plant a Weeping Willow tree in the back – they like water and we have a section that stays quite damp. The soil is really good for the area (an interesting mix because you can dig one hole and get clay and then a few feet away it is really sandy). The whole area used to be part of a dairy farm so hopefully it has been getting some good fertilizer over the years.
At this stage we are looking at a completion date of end of March. Things are currently on track so we are hoping they stay that way!
Well, finally our little girl has a tooth coming through – the bottom one on her left which I discovered on 16 December. She has had a cold since our visit to New York last week so is in a constant state of dribbles and has a very runny nose. She is surprisingly cheerful and does not seem too phased about it all.
Eleni also got her first pair of proper walking shoes last weekend. They are pink with velcro straps. She has already learnt to undo the velcro and take them off. When she walks in them it is like she is walking on the moon. I think she finds them really heavy and she has trouble keeping them going in the right direction.
She has become a huge Wiggles fan and loves clapping along to their songs. Dorothy the Dinosaur is her favorite. I am teaching her body parts (she knows where her nose and head are so far). In preparation for our Christmas trip to St Louis she has a new car seat and is now experiencing going forward instead of backwards in the car. Here is a photo of her taken in the bath last night – still her favorite thing – up there with The Wiggles.
The big news is that Eleni managed to take 12 steps yesterday (ok she was 10 months and 3 days old) so technically she managed 5 steps in her 9th month.
Her vocab is still quite limited. She has mastered the words Dad and Mum, and I think she has also said ‘dog’ on occasion. She can blow great raspberries and can also roll her tongue into lots of shapes.
She is a determined eater and has to have her own fork to feed herself. Not a whole lot ends up in the mouth and she just loves rubbing her hands in her hair when they are sticky with baby food.
She now weighs 8.5kg and I can no longer manage her in the Baby Bjorn carrier. She is still enjoying Little Gym where she is a star because she was the first to crawl and walk. All she cares about though is the other kids there. She gets so excited when she sees them.
She has been invited to her first birthday party – twin boys who turn one in December. I have to talk to her about playing hard to get as at the moment she just lunges herself at them when she sees them.
We took her to the Natural History Museum in DC last month which she loved. They have lots of stuffed animals there so we are thinking she is going to really love the St Louis Zoo when we take her there at Christmas.
So her first Christmas is coming up. We had snow today so hopefully we will have a nice white Christmas in St Louis. The picture shows her sleeping in the car after a hard day sightseeing in DC. We are hoping she will also do this for the road trip to St Louis.
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