Week 33

                               

This weeks the books say I should be going through a growth spurt along with the baby so I should gain about a pound a week for the next five weeks (until 37 weeks of full term). If thats true then I get the sense that baby E will be about the same size as Arielle was because last week I was told she is 4 lbs 2 oz. and will double by birth so thats about 8 lbs 4oz..I'm not really all that concerned about her size as long as I can make it through the next few weeks of finals week without collapsing between the train and the campus because the weight is starting to make it uncomfortable to walk and harder to breath, not to mention the lack of my ability to fit into my clothing. After this week I will inevitably revert to sweatpants or stretchy maxi dresses depending on the weather and I only really have a handful of occasion left to dress up for.

I feel pretty good except for feeling like I have elephantiasis, I have swollen feet which I haven't been able to get down. They are slightly swollen in the morning and very swollen in the evening, and the right foot is quite a bit worse. luckily the semester is almost over so I will have a lot more time with my feet up and time to workout a bit so maybe that will help.

I will miss being pregnant..I never thought I would ever say those words but theres something about the idea that there is a person living inside of me. To the outsider, it may seem a bit weird but I have gotten used to the little taps and grumbles all day reminding me she's there and she's safe.

On another note, the picture is rather deceiving, the angle and the long skirt both make me look larger than I actually am ( I feel for Jessica Simpson) but who knows I may delusional as well. 

Over PROTECTING our children

My sweet girl 

Its no secret that I am a cross between a helicopter mom, a tiger mom, a self professed attachment parent and a mush! I've gone from being a nervous wreck over the news of having a daughter to not being able to even leave this little girl without falling to pieces. I know its partially my fault that she is also rather clingy, she melts when she has to leave me, she melts when she's had to leave her cousins, she's genuinely saddened when family hang outs have to come to an end. She loves so hard already that I'm so afraid for what life's ups and downs will do to her heart and spirit.
I certainly hope she has everything she's ever wanted and never gets turned down or let down but thats not possible and its healthy to know what it is to lose someone you love or not to get your way or win all the time, the issue is that its my responsibility to teach her that concept and how to cope (and in a few weeks..I'll have two!) I'm not sure even I have developed my coping skills to  a degree where I feel completely secure in giving others life defining advice/ guidance. I know, I know, she's only 3 1/2 and she must develop some of this on her own from mistakes and such but its really hard to see your little one hurt isn't it?  So how do I do this?  Still thinking?

If I may digress, I thinks that's been the shift in my mindset, now as I'm expecting another child, and I am still surprised by the fact that I'm not nearly as anxious as I was to meet my first. By week 33 the last time around I was so, so, so anxious I thought I would burst but right now, I realize that in 7 weeks I will have a baby girl and I am okay with that and the time left before we meet. Knowing the littlest is safe in there just swimming around with no idea what's out here is so comforting to me and of course, I take her with me everywhere.

My sweet girl and one her friends (what do 3 year olds say to each other?)

Anyway, so how do young-ish moms (and dads..I suppose) who work and therefore leave their children for the whole or part of the day feel about the type of care the kids get and the effects of the experiences your children have outside your protection. Yes, she's only 3 1/2 but she expresses herself quite well and when we discuss her day, there are things she tells me that make me proud and there are things that make me want to just quit and take care her myself..I will warn you this is the 'mush' part of me speaking now so you may not think this is as critical as I did last night..but my sweet girl has been drinking a larger juice box this week (Yes..its THAT dramatic!) and has had two accidents during nap time at school this week, so I asked her about this before bed and she said she felt embarrassed because Michael C. (yep I'm calling him out!) was laughing at her while she was changing! Immediately my mind starts racing.."why was Michael C. in the bathroom while you were changing?.."Why wasn't your teacher helping you?"..."Did she stop Michael C. from harassing you?"...I bombarded this little girl with questions hoping something she says would make me feel better about this. I'm not sure if she felt as bad as I did, and if my line of questioning might have recast another light on the experience for her. 

I dont think, its okay for little kids (boys and girls) to change together..is that wrong? I don't appreciate the teacher telling my daughter that she doesn't need help changing because she's a "big girl"..and I certainly have no appreciation for Michael C. making fun of my baby because she had an accident ( I got my eye on you little boy!) So am I overreacting? Should I say something to the teacher or is this just par for the course?

I've heard people's feeling on this kind of attachment parenting or overprotection of your children, that it results in 'spoiled and bratty', 'undisciplined', 'disobedient' and even overly independent children but I tend to think that theres enough they have to deal with so early on that my role as a mother needs to cushion some of those realities for as long as I can. 

Barn Project Part I

A. Existing Barn Structure

As  architects, we don't yet have a consistent strategy for finding architectural projects/work, we both work full time jobs in practice and academia and in the past have basically have applied for some projects and gotten recurring work through some of these past clients, colleagues and acquaintances. This is normal in architecture especially for smaller firms; word of mouth and networking is really the norm but in general we treat every project with care and try to go above and beyond the clients requests so they come back when they need more work or refer us to others. 

B. Verifying measurements

Things slowed down over the winter and due to the economic status but once in a while we'll find a project that seems worth the extra effort and I think this might be one of those. We met with the client who is an artist and talked about how to convert this barn located in Highland NY into an artist space. The project would consist of various studio spaces and gallery space in a picturesque setting, alright so its not Italy but its a nice quiet location in upstate NY.  The project seems interesting enough and could be fun for us because of its size (pretty small) and what it entails. As usual the budget is small, at least for architectural services so we're doing it basically for free..or to be fair it may provide enough to pay for the baby's furniture (crib and dresser). Why would an architect work for free? Good questions..well we basically get the experience and the opportunity to work on something you think you may put a project you think is worth. 

So far we've been paid to survey the entire barn, do a code review (sort of) and produce drawings to describe a renovation of the exterior (clean, paint and restore original wood cladding) and interior (new concrete slab/grade beam, interior partitions, insulate and close walls, 'close' it (so its climate controlled not open to the environments) re-design and re-frame two roofs and add some fenestration. 

The first visit was for a quick meeting and survey so we brought our little one and she had a good time pretending to be an architect. It turned out she was pretty helpful in holding the other end of the tape measure until she lost interest! The worst part of surveying old buildings is the dirt and possible "other inhabitants" in the building, in this case there were some birds nests, cobwebs galore, a possible fox and small bugs but I've been surveyed a building where we walked in and there were squatters living (and relieving themselves) out in the open  in the building along with a host of dead animals etc..luckily this was not that bad. Anyway, when its done I'll post a part deux to show the outcome.

'I Think I Canvas Hamper' HACK

My 'Land Of Nod' I think I Canvas Hamper hack.

After the unfortunate demise of my daughters plastic laundry bin (long story..), we have been making due with piles and a hanging laundry bag to put all her dirty clothing in and for me to get them down to the basement where I do the laundry. It not only got to be annoying but also, its teaching her a bad habit..throwing her clothes on the floor because she couldn't reach where the bag hung. Although  I am still working on getting her putting her toys away but at least she was really into putting her clothing in a hamper at bath time and putting her shoes in her room in a nice neat line in the corner, and I saw that all starting to change.

It was partially my fault as well because I haven't been able to put away the laundry fast enough so she sees laundry piles in every room; me, being a 'good example' hasn't been so great. Anyway, after looking for some simple hampers and not really finding what I wanted, I gave in and decided I needed something..anything, I also needed one our new little one as well. So the project began..

I found one at PB kids which I almost ordered embroidered with their names but they got mediocre reviews,  then I found one I liked at Restoration Hardware but it seemed too rugged and it was $79, its a bit expensive at least for Laundry hamper, so I then found these beige (plain) canvas hampers at the Land of Nod for $16.95 and decided it may be fun to try to personalize them with some stencils and paint. It initially began as just wanting to put a standard stencil letter for each one but my lovely husband suggested actually spelling their names out on the hampers as well, sort of like the RH hampers. 

Land of Nod's I think I Canvas Hamper

Restoration Hardware's Salvaged Tarp Laundry Hamper

Process: 

Homemade stencil

We found 4" stencils at Michael's to spell their names out and I decided to make my own stencils for the bigger letters because they didn't have anything I liked or anything big enough at Michael's. I printed the letter on card stock and cut it out with an X-acto knife.

We decided to use a matte grey spray paint and some masking tape to basically try to achieve a slightly uneven, 'standard issue' type effect on each bag. 

Stencils from Michael's

Firstly we taped all the letters together spaced as tight as I wanted them to read, then taped them to a piece of scrap paper to keep the spray paint form getting all over the rest of the bag. At this point we discovered the text was a bit to big and wouldn't fit on the bag as 'Arielle' so since we call her 'Arie' quite a bit we cropped it to say 'Arie'. 

We then taped the entire template to the bag, laid it  down and just sprayed it. 

We did run into some problems because the bags weren't able to be completely flattened due to built in piping (good for making it stand up and bad for trying to mount a stencil).

Stencil after we sprayed the first hamper

Stencil taped to the hamper

Hamper after removing the stencil

I was a bit shocked by the result initially, the flatter the bag is, the more control you will have over the spread of the spray paint, the better (neater) it would have looked but once I got over the initial result, I actually liked the imperfections. It took about 20 minutes to dry and then we filpped it and did the other side with a big 'A'. We also made one for the baby but I won't show this until we have actually officially named her and shared the name with our family and everyone (currently only the three of us know what it is). Obviously, if we stick to the name we have, then she has a cool hamper but as of now you can see that it begins with the letter 'E', if we change it, we can always toss the hamper!

Finished