the bane that is wallpaper

***Update: noe has been REALLY good with the potty training today. i don't know why, but she has suddenly decided that she wants to wear her underpants as much as possible. i explained that when she's wearing her underpants, she can't pee. she has to tell me when she needs to pee so that she can pee on the potty (the rule is: we don't pee on tinker bell...it's just rude). so far, this is working. she has peed on the potty (the full amount, too, rather than a few dribbles here and there which is her usual MO) five times today! and she pooped on the potty, too! without a fuss each time! i am so proud of my baby! she had an accident twice today (once at katie's while she was playing because i think she was just too busy playing or she didn't want to tell anyone but mommy that she has to go; and once on the way home in the car or just when i got her out of the car because she had fallen asleep....hey, we all have days like that, right?), but considering her usual potty behavior, this is a real red letter day; and in noe's mind that red letter is an "M" and on a little piece of candy coated chocolate.

should anyone reading this happen to be contemplating the use of wallpaper or certain borders in their home, DON'T DO IT! before deciding to take that step, consider all the angles. it's more difficult, more expensive, more time consuming and less ascetically pleasing (when you add in the rest of decorations you wish to put into the room) than paint. consider how much easier it is to change paint than wallpaper when you're ready to redecorate. and if all of that doen't convince you, then please consider we poor fools who end up buying your house later and have to tear it all down! it takes forever, and my fingers are sore from it! i was at the house from 9am to 5pm and then back at 6:30pm until 8:30pm yesterday working on it. for the first several hours, i had help the help of three other ladies. we all worked very hard and diligently and only managed to finish one room with full paper and 3/4 of a room with just a border. it's rediculous! it shouldn't be this difficult to prepare to paint. i even did all the things they tell you to do to make i simple: i scored the paper, got a good garden sprayer, and a bottle of DIF. i don't know if this was some sort of super resilient wallpaper or something, but it resisted all my attempts to remove it form it's "throne". we ended up having to tear off the top layer that has the color, and then wet the paper underneath. then we could peel it off easily enough...but then i had to go back and get the glue that was stubbornly clinging with more DIF and a putty knife. it turned out, however, that some of that glue was taking some of the drywall with it, so i had to finally give up on that. and may i also point out that when we started yesterday, half of the kitchen had already been done by fai and i the week before? did i already say rediculous!?

i'm headed back today to get some painting started. the girls will spend the day with katie (thanks, katie!) where, hopefully, they'll nap today. they had trouble napping yesterday at the house without a real bed and were really really cranky by the time we left (sorry, rebecca). and then they were so exhausted that noe past out almost immediately when we got in the car (about 5:15, i believe) and slept through the night, skipping dinner. she woke up briefly when daddy changed her diaper and put some pj's on her, but went right back to sleep without a fuss. she woke up this morning at about 7:00 and has been in such a good mood that she peed on the potty without a fuss and is prancing around in her tinker bell underpants.