blanket fort

We were all sick today trying to figure out how to entertain ourselves and Sam in particular, so we set up all the chairs in the living room and clamped blankets to them all and turned out the lights. Armed Sam with a flashlight, so it wasn't completely black, except for when he would blind you by hitting you in the face with the light. Anywho... we had fun. I remember building these sheet and blanket forts when I was a kid. My mom would help us and there were times when they extended into several rooms and spanned half the house; Mom must have had every sheet and blanket in the house available for us to use. It was a blast, but I found out that I am just too big now to try and climb through the legs of a chair any more... who would have guessed.

Sicky news

Well, Sam mostly slept throught the night last night but woke up at 6am hungry. He went back to bed after Aimee nursed him and slept until 10am. He then took an almost 2 and a half hour nap at 2 and went to bed tonight at 7 without any issues. His eating schedule was a little off, since he didn't eat very much at dinner at 4:30 when he woke up, but was signing "eat" after I had done the whole bedtime routine with him and went to put him in bed at 7. So Aimee fed him a half bowl of vegies, nursed him and I put him right down without him even giving a peep or needing the bedtime routine repeated. I really think he was really worn out from being sick all week.

Hopefully tonight will be a good repeat, except with the normal eating routine.

Oh, and Aimee and I tried to watch the movie "1408" we had DVRed. We were leary about it being disturbing enough to keep us from sleeping well since we are both sensitive to that sort of thing. It ended up not being really disturbing but more intelectually puzzling as to what was going to happen and wondering how is he going to get out of this. Anywho... we got through the whole thing and the DVR cut off the ending too soon. I am going to have to rent it on Netflix or from the store now to figure out what happens.... so frustrating.

Roof Vent

Well, the bulk of what I got done today with the bedroom and bath project is going to HomeDepot and installing a roof vent for the bath fan. I went off and forgot to get the 4 inch ducting to connect the fan to the roof vent, but it was all I could do today since I was not feeling well.

Sam and Aimee have been sick on and off for the past 3+ weeks; I have thankfully skated by unaffected until this weekend. I got all head achy and sore throated with general aches and pains all over. Last night was the worst I have felt since the time, about 5 years ago, Aimee and I had a really bad flu at the same time and were fighting over who needed to use the toilet more urgently. I guess that time still tops this but I hope tonight is at least a little better.

If my sore throat and pounding head don't do it; Sam waking up every couple hours probably will. That is what probably got me in the sickness zone since Thursday night I only got about 4-5 hours sleep all night cuz Sam was waking up wailing and needing to be snuffed every 2 hours, almost on the dot. He did sleep a little better last night and only got up once at 2am when we snuffed him and he slept the rest of the way through the night until I got him up at about 8 to take him to daycare.

Decisions, Decisions

Well, I have had 4 companies come bid on the drywall installation for the Master bedroom and bath. 2 bids have been returned so far and when I get the other 2, I have a decision to make. I really liked the first guy that came. Brian was very receptive to my observations about the work and answered my questions well, was friendly without being too chummy, and gave me options for a couple ways to tackle the sidewall gap left by the second sheet of drywall on the previous ceiling.

The guys that came today were very different. The first guy was very reserved and gave the bid on the spot. He and the second guy both mentioned how slow work is now for construction and that they were sitting around because there wasn't any work out there to do. I thought that was kinda unprofessional and wouldn't be something I would say to a client if I were them. The second guy today was 62, has been doing drywall in town since he was 18. He was on the other end of the spectrum from the first guy today and was telling me all about his experience and how rough the business was right now with no work. It was interesting, as I usually find old time experiences of interest, but I am always leery of having someone like that do work as it seems like it may end up with more jabber jawing than work, making the work take that much longer. I would just need to stay out of the way while he worked and not get in a position where we would get to talking.

Anywho... the last guy comes in about an hour and is probably the only full construction company I am having bid on the work. I am curious how it will compare to those that do only drywall.

Sam started signing

Well, Sam started signing a couple words yesterday. When Aimee was feeding him last night, she brought him a piece of bread and signed bread to him. He made what looked like an attempt to make the same sign, like clapping, which he uses for "more" right now, but sliding the hands by each other. The actual sign is swiping your right hand on the outside of your left hand, so it was very close.

On another sign, Sam has always identified what the bath sign is; he really likes his bath and all we have to do is give him the sign and he is headed back to the bathroom. It seems at times we can't get his clothes off and the bath filled quick enough. (aside: Maybe we should get it ready before giving him the sign it is ready.) So when Aimee went to give him a bath last night, he was getting undressed and did an open handed bath sign; rubbing hands alternating up and down on his chest. The real sign is with closed fists, but it was very clear this was what he was signing cuz when Aimee would say the word he would make the sign.

Electrical

Well the electrical is all roughed in and ready for drywall. My father-in-law was a great help and I was so happy they came to help. I am so sore and tired. I am looking forward to visiting my parents at the beach tomorrow with Sam and having some down time. It wasn't that hard to finish and I am glad I didn't pay to have it done since they were estimating like $1000, money well saved in two days of work.

We got 4 sconces, 3 outlets, a bathroom fan with light and heat, 4 switches and a junction box, to split off one of the supply lines, wired. It took a little longer than I anticipated because we tore out the remaining drywall; one wall and 3/4 of the ceiling, put in two additional 2x4 studs (one to position one of the switch boxes in the right place and one to fill in a gap where the old door to the Living Room was), run to Home Depot like 5 times for various parts, and a couple other get ready for drywall things.

Well here are the after pics of the roughed in wiring:

The three sconces and electrical plugs above the vanity.

The sconce and switches for the lights by the door. The sconces will work off one switch and the bath fan light will work off the other one.

The switch box for the fan and heater by the toilet; there will be a cabinet to the left of the switches and a medicine cabinet above the toilet.

And the roughed in ceiling fan/heater/light and you can see the solar tube in the upper right that Dad and I put in way back on July 4th weekend last year when I started all this.

Restaurant experience

Well, Sam's Grandpa Bob took us out for breakfast this morning. Thanks, Bob. We had a great time, pretty good food and Sam got to sit in a booster seat instead of the highchair for the first time. He was able to sit up on the bench seat between Aimee and me and was much easier to manage.

We brought some food for him, a veggie blend of sweet potato and broccoli that was left over from last night and a cup of whole milk, but he also ate a half piece of wheat bread and had his own bowl of fruit. It is kinda exciting to have him be able to kinda eat what we have and have a new kind of experience at restaurants. We may have to forgo the aprehension of going to a restaurant with him and needing to bring food for him to have since he should now be able to eat off our plates, if we are selective of what we get.

Talking Sam

Sam has probably been doing this for a little while and we just haven't noticed it except lately since it has gotten quite noticeable just in the past day or two. He has increased his vocabulary by about 10 words; he knows ball, this, yes, Sam, toast, cheese, duck, star and probably a couple more I can't remember at the moment. They are not fully articulated yet, but he is definitely trying to say the words and if you listen carefully, you can tell what he is saying.

We also figured out what he has been doing for about quite a while, like months. He has been saying Dat and pointing at stuff. We thought initially that he was wanting it, but he seems to want to know what it is. As soon as we tell him what it is, he moves to the next thing he is interested in and points to that with a cute little "dat", which we have come to identify as "that". Sam's grandpa Bob says that when babies start talking, they learn a new word every 1.5 hours on average. This is going to be fun.

Plumbing job

I really love the plumbing job that I had done this week. I keep going in the bathroom and admiring the work he did. I know I wouldn't have come up with that nice of a job if I would have done it myself and it would have taken me a month to do instead of 5 hours. They didn't even charge me extra for the couple last minute changes I made when I realized that the shower faucet needed to be moved from where it was and found that the drain for the sinks had a nail driven through it when they put on the siding (since they didn't put any kind of nail plate over the plumbing to keep that from happening. The first required the plumber to re-route the vent stack for the shower drain and the second was a simple fix with a coupling, so I guess it really wasn't a whole lot more work than he quoted.

Before:

This is the Main Bath shower fixture from the other side of the wall in the laundry room. For those who are not plumbers, notice the globs of what looks like hard honey on the pipes. That was used to seal the joints made at those places in the pipe and the plumber didn't have any idea of what they may have used. In otherwords, probably something the previous owner bought on some infomercial.

Above is the shower in the Master.

This is the single vanity in the Master Bath that is going to get extended to a second one... what you can't tell from this picture is that the pipe going into the floor has a nail through it that has almost sheered the pipe in two. Probably where I got the water from that we found under the flooring when we tore it out.

After:

The redone shower valve and drain vent; he actually used the part he cut out of the vent, turned it over and used two more elbows to reconnect it.

This is the vanity connections that have been redone and extended for the second sink. Oh and the broken section fixed where it goes into the floor.

Grandparents

We are being visited by both sets of grandparents this weekend. Luckily at separate times. My parents came by this afternoon to say hi and see Sam for a little bit before heading to the beach for the week. They do this trip every year since their birthdays are on the 14th and 17th and with Valentine's day in there too, they just like to get away at this time of year.

Sam was a little shy at first but warmed up a lot sooner this time than when they came last time. It helps that he is older and can remember them better and that we were just up there visiting over Christmas; which is a lot shorter time span than we usually see them in. Sam colored on some cards that Aimee had printed out for the various birthdays and Valentine's day. They seemed to enjoy getting to watch him do it, even though it is like pulling teeth to get him to color on something specific when you want it done now so the grandparents can leave for the rest of their trip. We are still hopeful to get to the beach during next week to visit them, but I am not holding my breath with the way work is busy right now.

I think I said before that my wife's parents are coming to help with working on the bathroom and master bedroom this weekend since her dad has a long weekend to take time off. I still need to figure out if I have the day off on Monday too or not. I put in for PTO, but didn't get any response so someone is probably laughing behind the scenes, thinking I am not knowing what is going on and don't need to take PTO for a holiday. Anywho...

Electrical and drywall will be started and hopefully finished this weekend, depending on how well my and Dad's backs hold up with doing sheetrock over our heads. Much fun all around and I at least get someone to work with for a couple days, so that is great. I really hate doing big projects by myself.

Chilies, slippers and apple juice

I have been really amazed at Sam's ability to understand what I am saying lately. When I got to daycare to pick Sam up yesterday he was playing in the plastic food bin and had red chili or pepper that he came over to show me, then dropped at my feet wanting up and to go. I said, "Well, you need to pick the pepper up and put it away and then we can go, ok?". He bent over, picked it up and walked across the room to put it in it's bin and walked back to get his coat on. I guess I need to give him a little more credit.

Then when we got home, I thought I would try it again to see if it was just a fluke when he came to me with his one slipper to have it put on and I sat him in my lap, put the one slipper on and asked him where the other one was. He wanted down, so I let him down and he walked into the other room and a minute later came back with his other slipper, wanting up so I could put it on also. I really do give him a lot of credit for understanding us now; it is just really amazing when it turns out so straight forward and results in such precise action from him.

Today, though, we came home from being at playgroup after daycare and I was trying to get his dinner together and all of a sudden there was a big thud behind and Sam started wailing but when I turned around he was just standing there. Then I saw the gallon of apple juice that he had pulled of the shelf and realized that it had cracked the plastic container and was leaking all over. By the time I got to it, there wasn't much left in the bucket.

So, needless to say, dinner got delayed while I cleaned up and tried to keep Sam out of the bucket I was squeezing the apple juice in to, out of the towel I was using to mop it up. The bad part was it was puddled under the fridge but really didn't take too much to clean up and I got to clean up the apple juice soaked dust bunnies out from under the fridge too.

Sam said the funniest thing

Sam said the funniest thing today, but I for the life of me cannot remember exactly how it went. Hopefully Aimee remembers and we can memorialize it before we both forget.

UPDATE: As Aimee's comment states: Sam said "Da da doh"; I guess I quote Homer a lot.

Anywho... Sam did something else today that was kinda cute, that I do remember. I was laying on my back on the floor playing with him and he was running around playing. He has always come over to me and kinda pounced on me, chest to chest, laying his head down for a little bit and just giggling. Today he did that but I made some kind of guttural noise and he left his head on my chest. I guess he realized that my chest was making noise and was curious. So I made a really low level hum that rumbled my chest and he let out the biggest squeal/giggle. He thought that was the coolest thing.

He got up and played again, but came back several times and would leave his head on my chest with an expression of anticipation on his face. He would giggle again when I would make the noise and it would start all over again. He really notices everything.

Master Bathroom

The master bathroom is officially back in renovation after about a 6 month hiatus, time I wasn't really working on it due to Master Bedroom issues.

I have:

• network cables run to the office nook and entertainment center on the other side of the bathroom wall.
• two new runs of PEX pipe, hot and cold, that will be below the insulation, once blown in, and will keep it from freezing again.
• plumbing done my plumber today, which I am glad I didn't try to tackle myself with all the adjusting he had to do with the existing pipes to make the new sink rough in and shower valve move to work. It looks so nice and was fun to watch a professional do it.

There is a lot left to do. I need to finish the electrical and install the heater/fan/light next. Then onto Sheetrock the entire bathroom and Master Bedroom ceiling to finally get back to where were before the water pipe broke. In-laws are coming this weekend to help since they have a holiday, President's Day I think, that I don't have and can make the drive and have a whole two days to work. It will be good to see them and have some help since my father-in-law has redone a bathroom or two in his day.