Thanks everyone. I am so nervous leaving them, you'd think they were human babies! I've never been away from either of them overnight. I do think that there being two of them will help. We got the little girl because the boy was becoming almost obsessed with me. No matter how much I played with him he wanted more, attacking me as I walked by, howling if he couldn't find me in the house, etc. He's calmed down quite a bit since we got her in July.

I'm so excited to see this! We have seriously been considering the Verano sofa and chairs for our new house. My only hesitation is that we aren't close to a store and I'm nervous to buy without seeing/sitting on it. Does anyone have experience with this sofa?

We've been without our kitchen for one month and have 2 more to go. My kids are 6 and 3 and we have a new au pair. For me, the hardest part has been living without a sink - I have to trek upstairs to the bathroom to wash fruit, sticky hands, etc. As a result, I've started buying 2 1/2 gallon jugs of water. We use it for drinking, washing small things, etc. I've also made the decision to not even try to cook meat. Instead, I buy prepared meat at Whole Foods - rotisserie chicken, sliced london broil, sliced turkey. I also buy prewashed lettuce and premade salad dressing. I also make a lot of couscous - all I have to do is boil water on the hotplate and then let it sit for 5 minutes - no draining and minimal mess. Although the kids eat on their plastic IKEA plates, the adults all eat on paper. It's not environmentally sound, but it's a lot easier on my nerves. The one nice side effect of all of this, is that I spend a lot less time cooking. After I come home from work, I can have dinner on the table in 15 minutes. On weekends, I'm not busy cooking meals for the following week, but am out doing fun things with the kids. Although I'm excited at the prospect of my nice, new kitchen, not having to do as much house work has been an unexpected luxury. Good Luck.

I feel for you. We started around April with full demolition June 30. I had my kitchen usable by Thanksgiving. This week we have new hardwood floors finished. Full bathroom gutted but I am here to tell you it is really all worth it in the end. We too did an addition and knocked out the back wall of the kitchen to add a 30x16 foot addition. It added to existing bath and an upstairs laundry room. It all has surpassed my dreams. Taking a long time but so worth it in the end.