A Little Man of Leisure

The front room is pretty drafty so I found the robe that I had bought for the little guy a while back. He is now a gentleman of leisure (if he will hold still long enough).

Too Much Candy Corn

I do believe that the boy has had too much candy corn this season.

Where did all my pens go?

The boy's newest game...

At least I was thinking about posting

Right. So it has been a month and every day I think, "Hmm, I should really post some new pictures 'n stuff." Finally, I am stitting down. Family and friends know that I am a terrible procrastinator. But really....I was thinking about doing it all month!

To get to the meat of things:

1. I needed some home improvement instant gratification.

The hubby and I are still plugging along on the bedroom remodel. When we (I) were still mudding and sanding, I deceided that I would stop what I was doing and start a NEW project. (Again, to family and friends, this is nothing new. When it comes to any project, I think I have ADHD).

Here is the before...apparently the only pictures I have of the dining room are from eight years ago (and thirty pounds ago). As another aside - this picture cracks me up! We all look so goofy!


After:


2. The boy continues to be funny.

We have had this Pampers box for at least a month and it continues to be a favorite toy. Its latest adaptation has been as a lounging-tv-watching-bed.


He has figured out how to use a straw:


He likes cake with blue icing:



He liked going to Chuck E Cheese (oh shudder):



And...he has discovered that he is a boy.

A New Chapter Begins!

Today, after almost a year from when our little guy came to our home, we officially transitioned from foster care into the adoption process.

Yahoo! (You can see that the baby is actually yawning - so he is a bit less excited than we are).

Maybe in a few more months we'll be a family - legally!!!

On the road to family life?

So we have made one more step in family-dom and away from being DINKs. Behold...our first minivan. Noooooooooooo!!!!

(Actually, I total dig the van - a Mazda5 - even though it means we are transitioning into yuppie soccer mom status. And....we now have three vehicles...how un-green is that???)

I can do it myself

There really isn't much explanation needed for these pictures. It is amazing to me, that in just over a year, a little critter, I mean kid, can go from a squirmy, helpless, mushy, "being" to a VERY independent, temperamental, giggly, person. I wonder what can of worms we have opened...

Can't Retire Yet

So my friend Jessica and I went to the Antiques Roadshow last Saturday. Wow - it was soo cool. We saw lots of people and lots of stuff and some of the Roadshow "regulars." Even "the twins" were there!!! Sadly though, neither Jess nor I could retire on the wealth from our old stuff.

PS. I looked at Jessica's blog and I was kind enough to crop my fat arms out of my picture...for the full flab view, you'll have to read her entry.

Splish-Splash

I can't help but think of the line from "Flight of the Conchords'" song, Foux du Fafa when I wrote "splish-splash." It is a good description though....

These snapshots were taken on the 4th of July and were too good not to post. The little guy is taking a few steps now and transitioning into total toddler-dom. Giggles, tantrums, molars, trucks, 100% boy.

I'm surprised, with his mouth open like that, that he doesn't down a few gallons of water each time he goes swimming.

Funny kid.

Seven-Seven

My little bro, John, just had a baby girl! She is three months premature but very healthy and strong!

Here is what my dad sent:

Name: Elinor Ora Love

Born: 07/07/08 at 1:00 a.m.

Weight: 1035 grams (a little over 1 kg, or about 2 lbs)

Where: Dunedin Hospital

Size: about the length of my forearm from wrist to elbow. Her head is about the size of a small orange.

Both Eli and Sara appear to be doing fine, although Eli is in the Natal ICU in an incubator and is wired for sound.

Sara was flown by helicopter from Kew hospital in Invercargill last Friday about 2:00 a.m. John drove up, fighting with an overheating car on the way.

He called us at our conference in Auckland and we were back in Dunedin by 6:00 p.m. Friday. Sara would stabilize during the day, then be back in the birthing room every night. Finally, last night she went all the way.

John had come back to our house about 9 p.m. Sunday and got a call from Sara about midnight. I drove him to the hospital and dropped him off. Eli popped out (literally) at 1:00 this morning. Karen and I were back at the hospital by 1:30 and got to see Eli about 4:00 this morning.

She is fully formed, but thin. She looks more like a little teenager than a baby, with her thin legs and arms. She is breathing on her own. Sara and John got to reach in and touch her. What a thrill! She appears to be in very good hands.

We're all very glad.

Dad

Convalescing

A week ago today I had surgery on my back. It was a long time coming and I am already so happy that I had it done. A monster ruptured disk had been running my life for the last nine months.

(it should be pretty obvious in the picture what is NOT supposed to be there)




I do have to say that being at home for a week now has opened my eyes to a few things:

1. Daytime TV is horrible
2. I can improve my sewing techniques by watching PBS
3. The baby should learn to take longer naps
4. One doesn't really need a shower everyday if one doesn't get up off the couch all day
5. I miss the office in my own sick way


Anywho...I plan to get back to work next week...but I promise to take it easy (to everyone who has been nagging me).

Bub's new toy

So one of our cats - Typhoon - has this "bond" with the baby. She is the dumber of the two kitties. The older one - Tsunami - is a wee bit smarter and actually times her feeding bathroom breaks to the baby's nap times.

Anywho, enjoy the clip.

Giggles

Happy Mudder's Day

I know I'm a week late on this, but here is how my first Mother's Day went. ha, ha!!!

My first trip to the Zoo was...

...a little scary at first - where did that dead whale come from?? - , and




...beary interesting, and


...a great way to work up an apatite, and



... exhausting, and


... better with a friend, and




... extremely educational, and


... a really interesting dinner theater concept, and


.... a five-star comedy gorilla comedy routine


... for the birds, and


... really, I said "for the birds already," and


a chance to get a souvenir!

Building walls

The insulation is all in and we have sheetrock on the north and south wall. Now for the mudding. And sanding. And mudding. And sanding. Etc.


I have a couple of coats of mud on the south wall...in places. I'll need at least another coat on those spots and quite a few on all the wonky corners in the room. Hopefully I don't goober up the walls too bad. There are only a couple of spots in the previous remodel where I wish I had given the walls one more coat. Also, I'm not too concerned about how smooth I get the ceiling. We are going to hang textured wallpaper on the horizontal portion of the ceiling. The wallpaper looks like old tin ceiling tiles.


Why do I bother asking him to smile for a picture????


I have the first coat of mud up on the north wall. It is nice to get the old , original wall covered back up and stop the influx of blown insulation from wafting in from the attic.


I would have loved to have gotten all the sheet-rocking done this weekend, but it didn't play out. We'll see how much we can piece in during the work week.

Its like it always was there or something...

I can't tell you how rockin'-awesome our contractor was - if anyone in the greater Wichita area is thinking about a remodel job, you should totally look into Heartland Home Improvements. Not only was the job wonderful (due to our wonky old house, everything was stick-built with a lot of cut and fit), but the clean up job - Holy Cats! It is like no one was here, only better. It was like Mr. Clean was here. Okay, I'll stop raving.


Here is what we have so far. Now Pat and I will start working on the sheetrock, closets, and fun stuff like painting and building cool built-in shelf thingys. Trust me, it'll turn out okay! I mean - look how well the office turned out a couple of years ago and it is still standing!

We'll keep you posted as we slog through the mudding. (Wish we had sweet, sweet Josh - our carpenter. Dude does a mean mud-job!)

Its looking like a house!

Recap from a soggy week

The week started out with a bang...well lots and lots of little ones......


But the crew kept plugging on:

It is taking shape

Rain is forecast for the rest of the week. The crew focused on the roof sheeting while the weather was still nice.That roof is scary-steep!!!! I'm so impressed that they are able to match the style of dormer on the windows.
He, he, he - it looks like the house is wearing a bib. I think I've been hanging around the baby too long.

Remodel Continues...

Here are some pics of the progress!!!!