Beep Beep, Here I Come

This is what I hear quite often throughout the day. And, then we sing, "The wheels on the car go round and round...." Essie's Great Aunt Carol brought this little car to us a few months ago - I'm pretty sure it came from Essie's cousins Abbey and Riley. Now that she is big enough to sit up on her own and make it move a little, she loves to play on the car. The horn is a bright yellow smiley face, so of course she wants to touch it and make it beep! Sometimes, we forget to turn the car off when Essie is done playing on it; then it will start playing music and beeping at random times and it startles mommy. As you can see from the pictures, she is already learning to drive with one hand!

Just for Jim

So, the pictures in this post were taken a little over a month ago. The company where my dad works hosted an Air Show for employees, families and friends. This is the three of us with a stunt pilot, Sean Tucker. He flies the bright red, Oracle plane. Our friend Jim works for Oracle. He was a little jealous when I told him we were going to see Sean fly. So, here you go Jim :-)

Smart Mommy, Smarter Baby...

Yes, I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything. Life has gotten more and more crazy as Nick gets closer to the big move! Tomorrow is the last day in the old location; moving begins Sunday!!! I'll get in there next week and do some final pictures to post - the new cafe is absolutely gorgeous!!

So, about Essie....her feet are cold most of the time. Especially now that the weather is turning cooler. We can't keep socks on her for anything. We put them on, she takes them off. As we are putting one on, she takes the other off. Put her in her car seat and the first thing she does is remove her socks. You get the picture.

Yesterday, I thought I was smart! She has an outfit with pants that have feet - no need to worry about her pulling her socks off, right? Nick put her down for her morning nap. I went in after she had been asleep for a few minutes to check on her - her pants are missing! Little booger took them off! I went to check on her during her afternoon nap, too and the pants were missing again! She is a smart little thing!

She loves her food!

Essie has been doing really well with her foods. She loves any fruit we put on her spoon. Veggies have not been as easy. Sweet potatoes are her favorite. She also really likes green beans and will eat carrots most days. We tried squash the other day, but it made her so gassy she was up during the night with a belly ache. She didn't like peas when we tried them a couple weeks ago. We'll try again soon!

A couple days ago, I gave her mac 'n cheese. I was pretty excited about her trying it - who doesn't love it, right? Well, I forgot she is lactose intolerant. Most of it came back up - all over daddy. Oops. We won't do that again!

The New Cafe

Ok, I'm going to make another post that has nothing to do with Essie or adoption. Although, one could argue it does have to do with Essie since it's about the business that will one day pay for her college education....Anyway, I thought I'd give all you out-of-towners a little sneak peak of the progress on the new building. Things are going very well. The grand opening is scheduled for Tuesday, October 14.

A little over two years ago, 5/3 Bank closed the downtown location and sold the building to the Tipp City Library. The library owned it for about a year, using it for storage and the annual book sale. These first pictures are of the inside when we first purchased it from the library in August 2007.

This was where the loan officers and account specialists sat. It is now Nick's kitchen!

Here's a peek inside the vault. Yes, we kept the door - it weighs nearly 12,000 pounds!

This was the bank lobby. The two columns are part of the main dining room.

This small teller line was open on Saturday's back in the day. There was a partition that would close off the remaining area of the bank so customers could only walk to this front area. Now, it is the bar.

This is the big teller line, looking into the lobby. The area behind the teller line is now a long hallway, leading to the stairs going up to the banquet room.

The new pictures were taken today. There is still a lot of finish work to be done, but the transformation has been amazing!
The bar area.

Nick's new kitchen!

The main dining room. The fireplace is 2-sided, so it can be seen from the waiting area as well as in the dining room.

The vault will be a second dining area.

Ever wondered how thick the walls of a bank vault are? About 18" of solid concrete! Since it will be a dining area, fire code requires a second means of exiting the room.

The outside of the building a year ago....

And today....

Obviously, the ugly tree came down. And, the windows on the second floor need to be re-installed.

Phase 2 of the project. The second floor above the restaurant used to be a dentist office. The walls have all been torn out to open it up for a banquet facility. It will seat about 85 people. This will probably open toward the end of 2009.


Phase 3 of the project is an outdoor patio. This is the roof above the vault. This final phase is probably 2-3 years off.


I'll snap some final pictures to post just before the opening!!

Wwwweeeeeee

Essie loves to swing at the park! A couple weeks ago, I took her to the city park - I was really just looking for a way to kill time. She has an attention span about as long as mine! I know the swings are meant for kids over 1, but we tried it anyway. She gets the biggest smile on her face! So, now we try to go swing almost every day. I don't know what we're going to do when it gets too cold for this! Our subdivision has a mini-park with an Essie sized swing. It's about 2 blocks from our house, so most days, we go there.

Six month check-up

Ok, I know Essie will be 7 months old next week. We actually had her 6 month check-up over a week ago and I'm just now getting around to posting about it :) She weighs 19 pounds, 5 ounces and is 26 1/2 inches long. Her weight is still in the 90th percentile, but at least her height is catching up with her; it is now in the 70th percentile.

Everything went well with the check-up. The doctor asked if she was starting to sit up if I propped her up with pillows. I said, 'no, she's completely sitting on her own.' Then, the doctor asked if she is starting to scoot around a little. I said, 'no, she's crawling everywhere.' So, I asked the doctor what the normal age is for crawling around - she said between 8-9 months. I believe Essie is going to be walking by then!

I have more posting to catch up on - I'll try to do it in the next couple of days. Right now, I'm exhausted. So, I'll leave you with a couple pictures.....