Kitchen Renos

This will be my 100th post... amazing. Can't believe I have blogged so much. Hope you all have been enjoying keeping up with us!


Since it has been too hot to do much outdoors, Carlos has been working indoors on some of the projects we have had on our To Do list. The first one, and for me one of the most pressing, was the kitchen. When we moved in, we hadn't decided on what we wanted to put for our backsplash, and if you remember from THIS blog entry, we had only put up a glass section behind the stovetop. I had been looking for ideas and hadn't found anything that I really liked until two months or so before Alixe was born.

I was inspired by a woman who had bought cream-coloured tiles in the style of the Paris metro. I started looking not long after and found something I thought I liked at a home hardware store... but the closest location is 45 minutes north of here, and I was feeling tired as the pregnancy progressed, so we kept the idea in mind but didn't go check out the tiles right away. After Alixe and I came home, however, the idea resurfaced, and we decided to finally go take a look (we had visited a few other stores in the meantime but none of them had what we wanted).

Right away, we saw that the tiles were what we wanted. I also spotted 60cm-long sections of black glass that I thought would make a nice break from the plain white tiles we picked. And last week, Carlos spent 3 afternoons (plus a small trip back to the store to get extra black pieces, as we decided to tile above the end of the island too) finishing our backsplash. Doesn't it look great?

First few tiles!

Staggering them like in the métro meant more work for
Carlos, but he did it anyway :)

Work in progress

Looks great!

All done!

Here are a few more photos of the girls. We haven't gotten out much (to give you an idea, it is 25°C in the house with air conditioning, and last night it dropped below 30°C after 11pm) but we've still been having fun!

My new favourite photo: Aimy giving Alixe a kiss (which
she does often!)

Family photo! (complete with wiggly baby)

Summertime...

...and the living is hot!! What a contrast compared to the awful spring we had. The first half of July has been nearly 2 degrees hotter than normal, and it feels like it went from being cold and rainy to being unbearably hot overnight... which it nearly did. July 3rd was the last day we had rain and 20°C or so - ever since then it hasn't been cooler than 28°C. We haven't been out much since Alixe and I got home from the hospital, since it has been so hot during the day. Still, we're finding ways to keep occupied. Stay tuned for further blog entries on the subject.

In other news, Aimy has adjusted very well to the presence of her sister. In fact, nearly every time I have Alixe in my arms, Aimy gets excited and says "Baby, baby!" over and over until she can get close enough to give her a kiss. She gets a bit impatient when I am feeding the baby and can't do what she wants right that second, but she seems to be getting used to the idea that I can't be 100% at her beck and call. Right now we are going through a "body parts" phase; Aimy loves to point at her (or my) nose/mouth/toes etc. and say what she is pointing at. Even Alixe hasn't been spared the naming of facial features. Aimy has been very gentle with her and very sweet, which makes life a lot easier.

A few recent photos:

Drinking from a cup like a big girl

Another new favourite word: Shoes!

Snuggling with Mama

Fast asleep

A new favourite photo

Alixe

Just a quick entry to ease the suspense a bit!

Alixe Marion was born on July 2nd, weighing 3.31kg and measuring 50cm. It was a quick birth; my water broke at 1am and by the time we got Aimy off to the neighbors and arrived at the hospital, I was just about ready to go! Our precious little girl was born at 2:46am. We have been home since yesterday afternoon and are doing well. More to come soon!!

A few hours old

Fascinated!

Proud big sister

2 days old and wide awake