Ellicott City

On Wednesday afternoon we had the wonderful opportunity to meet my aunt and my cousin's wife at Ellicott City, MD.  It is about 45 minutes north east of our house. The city was founded in 1772 and is home to the B&O Railroad museum. It also has a great Main Street with numerous antique stores and boutiques.

 My favorite store was called Vintage Girl. It had so many cute things! I bought a pair of vintage fake pearls for $8.00 and an adorable hat. I could have bought so much more! My Aunt Arlee was so great with all the kids. I love her. She is so patient, loving and fun. I'm glad her kids live nearby so I get to see her (and them) more frequently.

 Calder loved playing with Anniva and Tove. I'm so glad Arn and Leisha live so close! It is quite a blessing.

 If you have the chance to get to Ellicott City for an afternoon of shopping I highly recommend it.

How 3 People Happily & Comfortably live in 715 sq. ft

Hello, Welcome to our new home. We actually move in at the beginning of July but I'm just now posting pictures. It's actually a good thing because I'm excited to tell you how living in such a small apartment has worked out for us thus far, what I love and what I would change if I were to do it all over again.

This is our entryway. I just scored this vintage piece at 1/2 price day at the thrift store. I love that Jason uses the drawer to store his pocket contents and our favorite shoes live in a bin inside the cupboard below. This definitely works for us.

As you look left you enter the kitchen. I really love my kitchen. There is more than enough storage, it flows well and I can see Calder playing in the living room while I cook dinner. That is priceless.

Right behind the door is our really cool coat rack. I made it with some friends of mine and I'm quite proud of it. I have another one that isn't hanging up yet. I don't have the wall space, but I'm saving it for our next apartment.

 

From the kitchen you walk into the dining area. This is the one major part of our apartment that doesn't work for me. The counter is designed for bar stools but since we like the dining room chairs we have and don't have anywhere to store them otherwise we're using them instead. So we eat with our plates closer to our necks than our laps. All well.

This is my creative zone. I use the cabinet on the left to hold supplies. My sewing machine lives under the desk but is always plugged in for easy access. This is one of my favorite parts of the house. In our last house I didn't designate one spot to create. I designated 3. It wasn't as cool as it may seem. I was always going between the spots.

This is where we keep out books. Well, almost all of them. Ooh and that suitcase is a vintage Samsonite I found at the thrift store in perfect condition. It still had the 'inspected by' card in it. I use it when I'm sewing a bigger project and want to put it away, that way it is out of sight.

Here's the living room. We have great lighting and it feels large and open. We're happy with it.

The bathroom. This is one of the greatest designed bathrooms I've ever seen. There is so much storage.

The cabinet next to the sink houses Jason's clothes that aren't hanging up. My clothes are on some shelves built next to the washer and dryer. It is nice not having to have a dresser for our clothes.

This is the bedroom. You can access it from the bathroom or the living room, creating one large circle. We have some very creative storage ideas going on here. We have a large 6-8 person table that we really like and didn't want to get rid of. So, we used it as our headboard. One added bonus is that there is about 4 inches of storage behind it, so all of our unused picture frames go there. It's great. Oh and the table legs go there as well.

Calder's clothes go in this dresser. The cedar chest holds all sorts of stuff, our china, Calder's too big clothes and a few other things.

I love my jewelery storage. The necklaces, rings and broaches go on this corkboard. The earrings go in the red jewelery case. It's easy to see what I have and I think it looks good.

This is Calder's bed. We decided not to get him a bed frame yet and it made the transition to a twin bed really easy for him. He only fell out once and it wasn't a big deal at all.

This is the bedroom storage closet. It holds everything you would need to have a child from newborn to 2. Seriously, this is all baby storage. But, this is the only place for baby storage. It works perfectly.

The bedroom walk in closet. This is where Calder and I hold our 'hang up' clothes. The rest of our shoes go here as well as Christmas storage, the air mattress, athletic equipment and a few random other things.

And last, but not least, this is the entry closet where Jason keeps his 'hang up' clothes and ties. We started with his clothes in the walk in closet but since he usually gets home after Calder is asleep it was easier for him to change his clothes here. We also store our stroller, winter gear and a few other things here.

So, that's it. I hope you enjoyed the Wilcox family home tour. We really like where we live and are making the one bedroom work. It actually hasn't been a problem at all. Calder goes to bed at 7:00 or 7:30 and then we go to bed around 10:30 or whatever. 

I feel like we have everything we need without being overflowing with stuff. We're at just the right capacity.

Update:  Here is a picture that will make it easier to really get a feel for the layout.

Lately

 We've been doing all sorts of fun things. Calder enjoys looking at the calendar and choosing activities for our week. If you ask him what day it is, he will tell you Thursday. It's an odd favorite day, but I guess he likes it. Ooh, I just realized Thursday is the day we occasionally go to Jason's work for happy hour. Maybe that is why it's his favorite.

On Sunday we went on a fun nature walk. We all enjoyed the beautiful fall colors and the crisp fall air.  This is the only decent picture I got of my boys. All well.

Here are a few things about Calder these days.

• He knows about half of the alphabet. I made a felt Happy Birthday banner a few weeks ago and he quickly learned all the letters in Happy Birthday. I've been working on a few more with him while I attempt to make a felt alphabet as fast as I can. I love how he can recognize them anywhere and tell me which ones he knows. 
•  He is an expert negotiator. When I told him his favorite jacket was dirty he asked if since he was just going for a walk around the block could he just wear it for a little bit and put it back in the dirty clothes hamper. How could I argue with that? He also likes to negotiate on food. If he "eats just a little bit more maybe he can have some candy." Yeah, that one never works.
• He has discovered newspaper ads and likes to show them to us while telling us he basically wants everything. He has stopped asking for things for his birthday and Christmas. Now he just asks if he can go to the store and buy it. 
• His sleep has been really weird for the last few weeks. He often wakes up for an hour or two in the middle of the night and just wants to talk. I think it may be time to transition from a 7:00 bedtime to a 7:30 or 8:00. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm totally open to anything!
• If you ask Calder where his daddy works he says "Peem Coot" in the cutest way. He also says daddy makes purple money. It's awesome.

The National Arboretum

 Last week we went with our friends Melissa and Megan to the National Arboretum. It was beautiful and I can't wait to go back. We only got to see a small area and I'm looking forward to exploring more. I'm sure it will be beautiful in the Spring.

 Calder enjoyed running around, collecting leaves, finding caterpillars and watching the lawn mowers. The air was crisp and clean feeling. I am really loving autumn this year. Maybe that is because it is just finally getting here.

 These are the columns from the East Portico of the Capitol which were built in 1828. The iron dome of the capital was constructed much larger than it was originally designed to be. This provided a very unsettling illusion that these columns couldn't support the dome. To eliminate this illusion they proposed and later constructed the East Wing of the Capital. And now they live somewhat oddly at the National Arboretum.

 

This is Megan. Calder loves her and makes her laugh all the time. And yes, Calder is wearing her size 9 month, pink jacket.  He got it on all by himself and was quite pleased with himself.

Bumps

 When we reach our destination in the car Calder often wants to climb into the front seat get out my door. Partly because it is fun and partly because he has a great fear of parking lots. I have to hold him so cars can't get him.  So anyway, the other day I let him climb from his seat to mine so he could get out. He tripped and hit his head on the radio control knobs. It was instantly swollen and I was sure it would get worse. Thankfully it didn't but now he is walking around with these massive bumps on his head. Poor kid. He now only gets out the back door and any time he gets hurt he says it was because he fell in the car.

Calder's 24 months Stats

These are Calder's stats from his 24 month doctor appointment. 

Height: 35 inches (75th percentile)

Weight: 28 pounds (50th percentile)

He loves his new doctor and has mentioned many times how much he likes her. She seems really on top of things and is very sweet with Calder.

Annapolis

 Last week Calder and I went to Annapolis to meet up with a friend. She works in Annapolis and told me about a fabric store she's been wanting to go to.  We made a date to meet up for lunch and a trip to the fabric store. It was awesome!

 Calder and I stopped by the Maryland statehouse and meandered around the town.  It was a perfect sweater weather day. Calder enjoyed collecting leaves and chasing squirrels.

I think Annapolis is so quaint. It reminds me of the cute old parts of Philadelphia. I loved it.

Happy Halloween

 We had a great Halloween this year!  It has lasted for 3 days and we've loved it.  This is the year he caught on to what was happening. Calder requested to be a garbage man for Halloween so we went with it.  I tried to convince him to be James Madison (like last year) but he could not be swayed.  

At first he wasn't thrilled with the costume I made. He was upset that he couldn't ride in the cab or drive it with a steering wheel or open the doors. Basically he was upset I didn't provide him with a real garbage truck to ride around in.  Thankfully he got over it. He liked his costume even more once other kids thought it was cool.

 The garbage truck fabric is all felt, which is definitely the way to go because you don't have to worry about fraying in any way. Plus it is stiffer and holds up well.  I used wooden dowels for added support and balled up newspaper for support in the front and back. The cab has a compartment on top to hold his candy. It worked beautifully. His orange vest is actually a Tonka construction costume vest but I added a WM (Waste Management) logo over the Tonka logo and we were good to go. The hat was a lucky find and the gloves were a pair we had around.

He wore this costume to the church party, a friend's party and trick-or-treating. It was well used and still looks pretty good.

 At the church party on Friday he won the Most Original Costume award. He was elated.  For a prize he got bubbles. He could not be more proud.

Canned Apples

I decided to can the 20 pounds of apples we picked. I just did a basic light syrup with cinnamon.  They look delicious.  I love how versatile these apples will be. I can make pie filling or applesauce. We could eat them alone or serve them over vanilla ice cream.  Yummy!  It's going to be a good winter.

Shabby Apple Design Contest Results

You are NOT going to believe this. I am a finalist in the Shabby Apple Dare to Design Contest!  I can hardly type I'm so excited!  They chose their favorite 15 dresses and they happen to think mine should be in the running!  

You can check out all the dresses that made the final cut here.  Everyone can vote and if by chance you like mine best please vote for #11.

Apple picking

 A few weeks ago Calder and I went apple picking.  We both loved it and would be happy to do it again. Most of Calder's time was spent playing the drums using sticks, running up and down the long rows of apples and riding his makeshift garbage truck.

 We picked Fuji and Pink Lady apples. We are still eating them and they are still as tasty as the day we picked them. I love it!

 Calder pretended he was a garbage man riding on a garbage truck. While I pushed the wheelbarrow he would hop on and off just like a real garbage man. He also spent a good deal of time riding in the wheelbarrow.

 We've never done one of these cardboard head things. Calder couldn't figure it out. I love the pictures anyway.

We picked a pumpkin at the patch they had but my camera batteries died so I didn't get any pictures.  I keep asking Calder if he wants to paint something on his pumpkin or if he wants to carve a face out of it. Every time he tells me he wants to cook it and eat it and thinks it would be weird to do anything else.  It looks like we'll be eating pumpkin. I'm not a fan of pumpkin that doesn't come from a can because of the consistency.  If anyone has a good recipe that uses fresh pumpkin my little boy would be thrilled.