We took Rex on his first roadtrip this past week. We left for Minneapolis late Tuesday afternoon and the kid slept almost the entire way. He woke up for about 20 minutes during the trip but just kind of looked around and did not need to be fed or changed. He did great at the hotel too. I think it freaked him out a little at first but once he got in his bouncy seat and had his mom and dad right there entertaining him, it was just fine. I was nervous about him sleeping in the Pack N' Play because he had not spent one minute in the thing prior to the trip. He slept the whole night through, just like he usually does. Rob and I both woke up a lot to check on him though so our sleep wasn't so great. We stayed at the Radisson in Bloomington which was a change for us but we really liked it and would definitely recommend it (just in case any of you CA people happen to find yourself in the Twin Cities area) and will stay there again on future trips to the area. On Wednesday, we went to IKEA which was the main reason for the trip. Well, the main reason was that I had not been on a trip since February and I had to go somewhere because I was about to lose my mind. We bought some bookshelves for the living room and a wall shelf for our bedroom. Rob was able to get the first bookshelf put together but he still has 2 more. They are only about 3 1/2 feet tall and the idea is to line them up and then mount the tv on the wall above them. We are trying to minimize the electronics in the room and think this is a good way to do it. We had to motor through the store pretty quickly to keep Rex happy so we didn't have much of a chance to look around like we would have liked to do. Rex also did really well on the ride home though we did have to stop and feed him and change a poopy diaper. Awesome.
One project I wanted to share is the update to our guest bathroom/laundry room which was known in our house as "The Trucker Bath." I had given it that name because I thought it was ugly and looked like something you would find in a truck stop. It truly was not that bad but it got the point across that I didn't care for it. We took out one of the wall cabinets and put in open shelving which is more attractive and more functional. We also put in new flooring and painted it "Honeysuckle Beige" which is a nice yellow color- if you follow the link, it's one of the muted yellow colors and it looks much more yellow in person than on the computer. When I say we did this and we did that, I mean that I picked the things out and Rob did the work although I did help get the cabinet off the wall. The vinyl floor tiles were a tough sale but Rob finally agreed to use them and they went in super-easy and look good, especially for the price. I didn't want to do a major overhaul but we spent less than $200 and it looks so much better. I promise to share pictures of it as soon as I can!
The other project that has really taken a while is installing a corn/pellet stove. Our house had no fireplace when we bought it and that was something we both wanted. We started discussing this summer about our plans to put in a fireplace and Rob brought up that maybe we should think about a stove. My first reaction was "NO WAY!" but the more we looked at all our options, we both realized that if we were going to spend the money, it needed to put out some serious heat. A fireplace is much more appealing to the eye but we live in Iowa now and we need something that is going to heat the house up. So we bought the stove and Rob's been working on putting some tile down for it to sent on and he has all the venting in place too. Our neighbor was kind enough to give us a hand so the three of us were able to get the thing in the house yesterday. Rob just has a few more things to do and it should be ready to go in just a couple more days! It's not any prettier in the house than it was when it was sitting out in the garage but since it is going to keep me toasty warm, I can deal with it. We got about two inches of snow Saturday morning which was the first real snow we've had. We've had a few flurries but nothing has really stuck. Yesterday was pretty warm though and it's all gone now. Looking out our windows and seeing everything covered in snow makes me very happy we have the stove.
Finally, the Rex update. He got his second tooth about four days after the first one and again, he was pretty crabby that day but it was not too bad. We had a big milestone last night with the first solid food. We finally got the kid a highchair last weekend and I put it together Saturday and we fed him rice cereal on Sunday. I didn't expect for so much to come back out of his mouth when I put it in but it did. He got the hang of opening his mouth when the spoon was coming but swallowing it was the hard part. Overall, I would say it was pretty successful. Rex is going to have to learn how because we are done with the breastfeeding as of Sunday. We were down to just once a day and then he bit me twice and I said, "That's it! We are done." Anyhow, he really didn't make any funny faces like I was expecting when I fed him the cereal. The best part was sitting down at the table together and having all 3 of us eat our dinner- that was pretty cool.
