Remodel

For those of you who don't know, Don and I have been working with a builder on a pretty major remodel of our main living spaces. We have an older ranch home and it had a traditional layout of a large front living room, dining room, small kitchen and small den. All of these spaces were divided by walls so the home always felt very small and claustrophic. Except for a huge front living room that we never used! We decided to bite the bullet and tear down the walls, get a beam put in above the ceiling for support and basically to create one big open room with a larger kitchen. We're still decorating and settling in, but we are very happy with the results.

Party Time

We had some friends over to watch an outdoor movie last weekend and Declan and his friends started an impromptu dance party.

More MN Pics

Checking out the New Gopher Stadium with the Devines

On the Lake

Trains, Planes and Outdoor Movie Night

Moving on Up

Well, tomorrow is the first day of school down here in Atlanta and Declan will also be making a transition - moving up to the ranks of Toddler II at his daycare. :) I actually have been looking forward to this . He moved into the Toddler I room in January and he was a lot younger than some of the other kids. It was a bit of a tough transition - no cribs, only one nap a day, eating at a little table, etc. He learned a lot and I loved his main teacher, but overall the room just always felt WILD. Every time I walked by Toddler II they looked so much calmer, there is such an amazing developmental difference between kids that are around 18 mos and those that are 2 years.

So I am excited he is moving on up. But at the same time it is really starting to hit me that he is not a baby anymore. He now uses two words together - my daddy, it's mine, apple juice, mama here - and is constantly surprising me by what he knows. The other night we were on the web cams with my parents and he found a coloring book. We all commented on it, then he ran into the kitchen and pointed at the drawer that holds the crayons. He rarely colors and I had no idea that he knew that we kept crayons there. Just makes you realize how much he is absorbing and learning. It will be interesting to see how he does with the new room. I'm sure he will miss his teachers Loretta (Ett-a), Lubov (Bu-ba), Corterra (Tar-a) and Michaela (Ya-La).