belated... Easter Weekend

Well, had a little bit of a hard time finding and hten downloading all the pictures in this post, so it took awhile...

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We had a great time with Family in Seattle, well except for my brother and his girlfriend, Candace (who was sick and couldn't make it).

We first had a nice visit with Aimee's parent's, got Sam all dressed up in his Easter suit, did an egg hunt and, the best part, got a good hour nap before heading over to my sister's house where my parents were also.


Sam also got a kick out of playing with a baby doll that MaeMae had... he drug that poor doll all over the house for about an hour or so.


While at my sister's house, we went to the 6:30 Sunday morning Sunrise service, which was very cold and we were all quite tired. It was a nice morning and the sermon, although a little long for 6:30, was very good. Sam got a little restless and we walked around the park that the service was held in behind where everyone else was standing.

We got home, had some breakfast, hunted for Easter baskets, opened up presents and then did an Easter story my sister did with plastic eggs that had different things in them related to the story the kids would open up in turn.



Then we were out the door for the main church service. Sam looked so cute in his outfit.He seemed to have a good time at daycare; when we dropped him off he went right in and started playing with the toys without even needing to say goodbye to us when we went to leave. I think we may have gotten a wave, but that was all.



After church, we played a little and had a nap then sat down for a very good Easter dinner of steak, oven baked potatoes, pea-n-cheese salad and green salad. Then Ann brought out short cake and strawberries for dessert; yum. I really tried not to eat too much, but was hard and I ended up a little too full. It was totally worth it though.



Sam enjoyed watching his cousins with their remote train set. He couldn't keep from grabbing the train, so he had to watch from a distance. It was pretty cute watching him squat down behind Tyler and watch as the train went around the small track. Sam got distracted from that when we started hunting for easter eggs; Tyler and him had a good time gathering them and Sam even tried to help himself to eggs Tyler had already found, but we redirected him.



At the end, Sam just got in this groove of wanting to hug Isaac and would find him again and again for a big hug. Isaac was almost not too sure about all the attention but took it in stride and was very patient with Sam. What a great cousin!



We ended up leaving around dinner time and drove back to Portland, where we met up with some friends who had just had a baby girl. It was really good to see Robert, who has been a long-time friend of Aimee's and was the person who introduced us 9 years ago. I met Robert while we were both working for Intel. We had the pleasure of getting to know his new daughter and his wife Pam whom I have only gotten to know a little at their wedding reception. Aimee and Sam had dinner with them on a trip to Seattle they did last fall, but I didn't make that trip. Anywho... we ended up at an Applebee's in Tualatin at 9:00 at night and had fun visiting for about 2 hours before heading back home. oh, and Paula, a friend from back when Aimee and I first met showed up also. It was a fun break before driving the rest of the way home.

Progress

Seem to have made some progress on the raised garden beds lately. Got the first one's first level built and set on a gravel trench last week; leveled, etc. I got the second level of 2x6s cut to length and built today. Ended up shoveling a bunch of gravel from the front that has been causing our driveway to fill with water when it rains; also known as Lake Owosso on those days.

6 wheelbarrows full and a lot just moved to the high side of the gravel parking pad away from the road; Sam even helped for about an hour also. Found out he is strong enough to lift a full size square shovel all by himself and carry it away. Couldn't figure out where it went for a little bit...

Should have the first raised bed completed for Aimee to start planting in it by EOD tomorrow... if the landscape place is open and I can get a load of garden dirt on a Sunday. It will at least be ready for the dirt by tomorrow night.

Plane mess

Well, I got one raised garden bed worth of old deck boards planed tonight. I have a ankle high pile of wood shavings from it, but the garage smell pretty good with all the cedar. Had to pull a couple more boards off the deck to have enough longer boards. Will have to pull the rest of them off the deck to have enough for the second and third ones.

If I make the beds a little shorter, there may be two beds worth done... the one set of boards is only about 7 and a half feet long; we were looking for 8 x4 foot beds, but 7 and a half would be good enough.

I hope I don't have to go buy any new cedar boards... I guess I do have the pile in the back patio to go through also... almost forgot about that pile, but I think those boards are not over 6 feet though, since they came from the short deck on the south side of the house.

Park Fun

Here are some of the pics from the park I wrote about earlier in Park Drop. We had a great time, as I said before, despite the bonk.

More making it right again

Well, I was up in the attic trying to get a few things squared away when I decided to try to straighten out the insulation that is at the end of the vaulted ceiling in the Family room. Well, I start pulling the batts of insulation back and what do I find:


The phone cable isn't that bad, but it should be secured, but the electrical splice is a big NO NO. This had insulation sitting on it just like that so it was a fire hazard for sure. I think this electrical line goes into the kitchen by the sink and runs the plug there (GFCI), the plug under the breakfast counter, the dishwasher, and the hot water tap under the sink.

[sarcastic] I am so looking forward to finding all the other messups that have been done around the house during the last owner's remodel.

Oh, and I evidently didn't get the picture of the wire that was just past this that just had wire nuts on the ends of the wires and the ceiling box, probably for an old light(?), that had wires running into it. The box had joist hangers on it, so not quite sure if is a light box, but it had a small gauge wire coming back out of it that was cut off... hum?! Anywho. Without having some way to identify if they were live circuits, I decided to just end there and get out for the night.

Ended up at HD and got a non-contact circuit tester that I will keep with me at all times when crawling in the attic or anywhere, for that matter, around the house. I have had enough close calls with electricity to not want to get zapped again. Although most of the experiences were just with a lot of sparks from the screwdriver making contact between the beknownst live wires I was working on.

... [chuckling nervously] except that one time at Gordy's when I thought I could fix the plug with it being live and shorted it when the screw driver slipped... oops! But that was the first really bad one that started the process of making me respect electricity a lot more. That time and when I shorted the water heater at our first apartment when the cover, that I had cleverly left the top screw in and turned so it was up, decided to swing back down unexpectedly and caught both of the connections to the thermostat. Live and learn; what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Ouch!

I kinda forgot about this one although it has been numb ever since I tipped the ladder and caught myself on the rafters in the bedroom a little bit before this happened. I was securing the light switch to the attic lights that I moved to put the switch outside the access hatch, instead of inside where it is dark. Well, I hit my finger with the hammer while trying to hold the box... I was laying on my side in the attic over the rafters and trying to get it done pretty quick. It sure hurt like crazy and went really numb when it happened, but didn't bother me too much after that. The numb fingers started the next day and haven't come back to life totally yet.

As far as the numb fingers go, I think it caught myself on the nerves that run down the inside of my arm. Aimee noticed a nice bruise, that still hasn't gone away in 2 weeks, on the underside of my upper left arm the day after it happened and what my chiropractor said about the way the nerve to my fingers runs down my arm finally registered with me about a day later that this is probably what the issue is and not the hammer. Hitting it with the hammer probably didn't help though.

More making it right

Well, what did we find here? This is what I found when I tried to secure the heat duct in the bathroom:


come to find out there is a pipe clamp over a piece of rubber wrapped around the cold water pipe in the bathroom. They had a leak, which had to have soaked the drywall on the ceiling, and instead of fixing it proper, they put a bandaid on it. I am really surprised that this hasn't leaked in the 3 years we have been in the house. I literally touched it and it started dripping. It amazes me that in gutting the bathroom, we didn't end up disturbing that pipe enough to start it leaking.
Oh well, better to find it now than when it failed later. I can make it right and fix it with a proper copper connector. I really wonder if it would just be easier to just replace all the copper with PEX and get rid of the hundreds of elbows and splices in the lines.

Oh and here is a view of all the wire nuts that werer used to splice the line for the microwave with the rest of the wiring in the hall, lights and plug:

All electricity to this area are turned off, by the way, but I didn't notice Sam was standing there when I took the picture til I just uploaded it.

The long wires are from the forced air heater I was taking out... but all the wire nuts there are a splice in the line that should be in an electrical box and not just hidden in the wall. Everything is so short I am probably going to need to run some new lines to take care of this, but we shall see. Maybe I will take down the wall where they patched it poorly and have that redone with the rest of the drywall.

Project Update

So in the last week or so, I :

1. Installed the vent fan ducting and roof vent
2. finished insulating the garage wall above the bedroom
3. installed and insulated the attic access door for that end of the house
4. got a couple pieces of wall insulation in the bathroom.
5. took out the Living Room forced air wall heater that Sam kept playing with and found a 4 line electrical junction in the wall with just wire nuts holding it all together, no box. Nice huh. Mike Holmes says this is not a good idea!
6. picked up everything yesterday and vacuumed since it was getting a little messy in there.
7. Oh, and I fixed the sprinkler head I ran over with the mower and broke off; as well as removing a 6 inch strip of the grass that runs along that sprinkler head so that I don't risk hitting it again.

Things that I am stuck on:

1. Does it matter if cellulose blown-in insulation is up against the roof sheeting? Do I have to allow for some kind of air brake in each rafter cavity or just the vented ones?
2. How to insulate the water pipes that go through the corner of the house where it is going to be hard to pack insulation in around, especially considering if I have to leave a air space below the sheeting
3. What do I do with the electrical line that is coming from somewhere in the house (haven't been able to trace it yet) that is just hanging unconnected over the bedroom?
4. Should I install the gable vent fan before I get the bathroom closed up so I can access it a little easier... should I be putting that above the main living area?
5. How to insulate the vaulted ceiling the best way so I get the best R-value and less gaps and ghosting on the rafters.
6. Am I really going to have to run a new electrical line to the Living room to correct #5 accomplishment?
7. Why do I keep making lists of things to do, ordering them and then not following the plan?

Bend over backwards.

Aimee, Sam and I get to rough housing from time to time and it usually is instigated by me with Sam. He sure likes being flipped over from his belly to his back; when he is on his belly, I grab his legs, pull him up so his feet are above his head and then kinda toss his feet so he lands on his back... this is done on the bed or couch so soft enough to catch him. He also enjoys coming and flopping down on us when we are lying on the ground. He will just lay his head down afterwards, sometimes it seems like he is listening... to our heart, stomach, breathing... something, cuz he has a concentrated, for lack of a better word, look on his face when he does this.

Sam also likes to climb up on your back when you are on all fours. Yesterday Aimee had put her head down in this position and Sam came up and kinda pounced on her back, with his feet at her head. They had just come home from somewhere and he still had his shoes on, so when Aimee raised her head up and he was on her back with feet up in the air, I grabbed his shoes off his feet. Aimee thought I was lifting him but in fact I took a couple steps away to put his shoes down by the door. Thinking I had him, she raised up and Sam went sliding off the back of her, planted his forehead on the floor and arched his feet over him as they went over his head.

I hate giving notice of these types of events, but it is part of growing up. Lord knows I had my share of falls, accidents and emergency room visits; but I can't say that I remember Mom talking about any bad falls we had when we kids had in our first years.

Anywho... We were both mortified that this had happened but when he wouldn't be held more than a couple seconds because he wanted to continue to play and even though he continued to whimper for a couple minutes, we figured he was OK and unharmed. Oh, but this was after he fell and had a big bump under his eye that had pretty much gone away at this point, but still. This was probably the 5th time I can think of when he really fell hard or hit his head, but was probably one of the worst contortions he has gone through.

1. Don't remember the details, but he was pretty young, less than 3 months old
2. Grandpa and Grandma Beltz's house 6-9 months - head hitting the corner of their chair with metal brads on it; ended up having two welts puff up and turn into one big knot.
3. Auntie Ann's (early Nov 09) - falling off the bed when I turned my attention for a second. The box spring and mattress were on the floor but the carpet pad is pretty worn and it sounded like he hit solid floor.
4. Falling backwards off the couch during playdate at the groups most protective mom's house; I felt like a really neglectful dad since he fell to the floor and landed on his bottom then whipped his head back and hit it on the rug covered hardwood floor. But, to my defense, Sam had been playing on our couch for months where we had shown him how to be careful and respect the edges; evidently unfamiliar couches have a learning curve and are not to be dismissed as the same as home.
5. This week's bend over backwards.

He continued to play and act normal the rest of the day and went to bed without trouble so hopefully any damage done was minimal. I just hate when the unexpected tumbles happen and my protective impulse get bruised; I guess you can't keep them in bubble wrap their whole life. He is bound to have more during his life; he is a Beltz, after all.

Bed, now.

In putting Sam to bed the last couple nights, he has evidently been really tired or not really interested in the books we have been reading for the nighttime ritual. It probably helped that it was kinda late last night when we got home from shopping at Costco and Fred Meyer, so Sam got a later dinner and to bed about half hour later than normal. I started reading his books, only two when it is that late, and he signed "bed" to me. This is a new sign he has started to do when we prompt him for it, and I have been pointing to his bed at night when I do the sign so he evidently got the idea that was his bed and he wanted to get in it now.

So when he did it the second time and pointed to his crib, I knew he meant business. I stopped reading, had him turn out the light, thinking I would still get some cuddle time in the rocker, but NO, he signed bed and pointed toward his crib again. I got up and he did lay his head down while I tried to rock him like normal while standing up just a little bit before laying him down, but when I guess I didn't lay him down fast enough. He picked his head up off my shoulder and signed bed again and pointed at his crib again. So I said, that is fine said his final goodnight prayer and set him down, said goodnight and left the room. There was not another sound come out of that room and he went right to sleep.

It is great to see him come to understand when he is tired and all he has to do it ask to go to bed when he wants. Tonight I actually got in one book, which he showed interest in, but that was all and he did the same thing tonight. I didn't fuddle around this time and said his little prayer and left... again without a peep and he went right to sleep. Amazing. We will have to see how long this lasts... hopefully potty training will go just as easy when he figures out what we mean when we sign potty when he is evidently straining.

Drywall decisions, Prep and Weeding

Well some of the plans for the bedroom and bath have been a little on hold this week cuz I am still trying to decide who to have do the drywall. The second and third bids were 1.5x and 2x the cost of the first two. The 2x one was the most professional contract looking bid with everything that was going to be done listed out, so that is attractive, but can I get that from the other guys for less money? and will they do as good as a job? is the more expensive one worth the extra money? who knows... I think I will end up calling a couple other places to get some more quotes to compare.

Anywho... I still need to do the insulation and finish up some repairs before they come do any work anyways.

So instead of thinking about a lot of that this week, it is yard debris week and we didn't have anything in either of the two cans we pay for so I decided I was going to go out and weed and thin stuff out for an hour every night. Aimee and Sam have come out and helped for a little bit after dinner also, so a lot got done this week in cleaning up all the weeds that grew over the winter and taking out part of the rest of the Yuccas that ended up taking up almost one whole bucket. We filled the other 50 gallon can with weeds and only got about half the back yard done... the garden area is the next and most densely weed infested area.

Anywho... I realized tonight that it is just fun working with Aimee and having Sam try to help. He at least is at the stage where he can bring me the trowel he has taken without me noticing when I need it. He really seems to just like being with us even if we are concentrating on something else. He at least didn't' keep trying to go out into the street tonight like he has in the past... maybe danger, road, cars, DANGER, NO, cars, no road... has finally sunk in.

Park drop

We decided it was a really nice day out and made plans to go to Costco and shop, get hot dogs for dinner on the way out, drop off the fridge stuff at the house and then go to the new park that Aimee discovered last week. Well, it wasn't in Sam's plans to wake up from his nap until almost 4:30, so we got a late start. With Daylight Savings it was just fine though.

So we got the shopping done, got hot dogs and drinks, got the milk and stuff in the fridge at home and got to the part around 5:30, not too bad. Well, we ate and fed Sam his food we brought with us, cuz I am not feeding my 15 month old a hot dog, yet. Anywho... I go to throw away some of the trash and Aimee is like yelling at me about something when I come back and I can't figure out what she is trying to tell me to look at.

It ended up being her friend Tammy and family who were getting out of their van in the parking lot. Evidently she had recognized the boys who were running out to the park equipment to play, so she waited for Tammy to go walking across and called her over. We had a nice visit and I finally got to meet her since our families hadn't met yet, so that was nice.

It was a really cool park. I will have to post pictures to do it justice, but I have to download them from my camera first, so maybe this weekend. Anyways, Sam had a blast going all over the place and unfortunately thought he was bigger and more coordinated than he was cuz he kept wanting to try things that were just kinda dangerous for his size and coordination; like climb down poles from the second story of the climbing structure or go down the slides without someone to catch him.

I had fun trying to catch some good pictures of him while trying to keep him from doing the before mentioned stuff. Aimee and I had fun too, since we would take turns running to the top of the third story of the play structure to go down the really big slide. I went down once with Sam also which he loved.

Then Aimee went to take her turn climbing around and I was watching Sam as he went from thing to thing on the ground level and he started doing something I thought would be a cute picture, I just don't recall what it was though cuz as I went to walk around in front of him to get the picture... BONG... I hit the metal pipe from the monkey bars and laid myself out. It really kind of dazed me but I was alert enough to be concerned that I needed to identify where Sam was and make sure he wasn't in immediate danger where I couldn't get to him with me laying on the ground.

I look over and he is sitting the ground about 3 feet from me and then lays back, copying Daddy I guess. It was quite funny and I had a really good chuckle over it. You will never know just how funny and good of a boy you are, Sam, until you maybe read this years from now. I love you and am so glad you have such a good time with me. I love spending time with you and really hate times where work or projects keep me busy during normal family times.

So I have a bit of a knot on my head, right frontal lobe, and I felt kinda silly having just about knocked myself out at the playground, but we wrapped things up and headed home since it was dusk and starting to get dark. Sam got to bed a little late, but it was all well worth the memories.

Sam's belly laugh

Sam just started doing this really good belly laugh/giggle. It has happened in a couple different situations when Aimee and I have been playing with or even just holding him. I have yet to get it on video since by the time we get the camera, he is evidently all laughed out. We will keep trying to remember to video it from the beginning and I will post as soon as we get it.

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.

Sam is settling in

Well, Sam seems to have settled into his first week of daycare. On Friday, he was happily playing with a big puzzle at one of the tables when I came in. He didn't notice me for several minutes until I said his name. He came over with a puzzle piece to show me... I asked him to put it back on the table, which he ended up giving it to one of the other kids who had taken over it when he turned to walk to me, and then came back and wanted up. It was all very calm and he didn't seem to have the wimpery relief that I was there finally.

We tried to keep the same schedule as school with nap time right after an early lunch, but with a piano tuning going on in the house and me and Sam running errands in the late morning, he got lunch and nap time about an hour late. Aimee said he was asleep before she even laid him down in the crib. He slept for over 2 hours too. It was great.

Oh and he sure has had a great appetite lately. He eats all his vegetables, with minimal fussing by the end, crackers or cereal, and a full helping of a fruit (he loves applesauce but we have been trying mango lately, which he is warming up to.) Oh and tonight Aimee made a berry smoothie with yogurt and a berry mix we get from Costco... we all had them and had no problems finishing them off.

Aimee's workin it

Well Aimee started working again this week. It was inevitable, but I really wasn't ready for it. We had to identify and place Sam in daycare, which has not been our desire from the beginning.
I am tasked with dropping him off in the morning, 8am, and picking him up at 2pm so we get a slightly reduced rate for not having him there all day. I have a pretty easy schedule, so it works out pretty good and I get to give him a snack and try to get him to rest for a little bit before Aimee comes home, we eat dinner, entertain him until his bedtime at 7 when we get to work on other things until we get to bed around 9-10pm.

I would still like to try to find a place, other than a daycare facility, like we have him in now, that may be in some one's home and with someone who could give him more personalized attention. They seem to have a lot of kids at the place we have him at now and with limited teachers, it means that only the fussy ones get the attention. That said, the "teachers", "caregivers", "play coordinators" or whatever you call them at this stage, are great. They do seem to try to attend to each kid, there are just too many to really allow a one-on-one interaction all day.

Sam hasn't been fussy, for the most part, except maybe when I first leave he gets a little pout and wimper. His reports for the day have rated him as content, but when we come to pick him up he is evidently relieved and kinda whimpers about it a little when he sees me. I watched him through the window yesterday before I went into the room to get him and he was just kinda milling around the room at the coattails of one of the main caregivers, Kristin. It looked like he really didn't know what to do with himself. It really made it hard for me to leave him there today.

As a result, I have found it a little hard to concentrate at work. I read a book when Sam was about a month old, well part of a book, called The Science of Parenting. (I should finish that now that he is older.) It talked about the observations that this doctor group had done on brain chemistry of children, through brain scans, as they grew up and were in different situations. One of their conclusions with kids in Daycare was that they were all under stress of being away from their parents, even if they seemed content and didn't fuss during the day. The same stress hormones and indicators were present in the calm, content kids as in the ones wailing and crying for periods of time during the day.

Sam kinda looks at me when I leave with an inquisitive and almost sad look on his face. He seems to accept that he is staying at I am leaving with minimal fuss, but I can just sense that he really just doesn't understand why we are leaving him there with these strangers. I know he will adapt, as kids are very resilient, and Sam seems to take to new experiences well. My crazy analytical, or as my friend growing up liked to call it just anal, mind just can't keep going over what his experience must be like for the two closest people in his life (his caregivers, family, friends, and play pals) give him up for what must seem like forever to his time insensitive mind. He has to get used to new people, doing things in a different way to Mom and Dad.

Please pray that Aimee and I can make the most of our interaction with him in the morning and at night when we are with him that he would be aware that we love and care for him deeply and are only putting him through this because we have no better alternative at the moment. Please also pray God's will with our situation, that if a better place for Sam is out there that He would direct our search to find it and make us aware when we come across it.

I pray that Sam is getting at least some good out of this experience and will come through it with some beneficial life skills and experiences, like making friends, dealing with new experience, how to manage change... I have to trust God will nurture and protect Sam in the way only He can and that Sam isn't too young for it to be beneficial for him.

Sam's attempts at feeding himself

Sam has been attempting to feed himself. Aimee has some more details on her blog, but thought I would mention a couple details here.

Last night when I had to feed him by myself before Aimee got home because he was screaming and trying to climb into his highchair, he was evidently hungry. He wouldn't let me feed him more than a couple bites, so I gave over the spoon and he got a couple good spoonfuls in when he started just kinda playing with it. He also got this, for a better way to describe it, "sinister" look on his face (like when a madman in a movie contemplates his master plan) and was jabbing his spoon into the bowl of food he was eating. I hope this isn't something he is picking up from kids at Daycare.
He then decided to start wiping the mess of food on his face and got it in his hair and chair and essentially everywhere. Aimee and I are quite neat freaks and are having a hard time with him making a big mess, but trying to let aside our inner Monks to let him be a kid and explore and figure it out for himself. We have been successful to this point in keeping him from playing with the bowl too much, like picking it up or swiping it off the table, but have tried to not clean up every little splotch of food he gets on the table and himself. I don't want to give him a complex about having stuff on his hands as I have seen some kids almost have a panic attack if they get messy hands... and I don't want him to turn out like me since I can't continue eating comfortably with sticky hands or utensils.
All that said, it is amazing how well he is doing and how little help he really needs now to feed himself to his content; then he lets us help him finish eating and is fine with it. I guess he is just starting to express his individual space and initiative.

Legos

I am so excited!!! Aimee found a set of old Duplo lego blocks on Craigslist for really cheap. They don't make this model of Duplo any more and the newer ones are smaller than these blocks. My sister gave us a bunch of the ones my nephews were not playing with any more, like 50 total or so, but we now have over 175 pieces...
unfortunately the majority of them are single peg blocks, but they are still fun to build with.

I made a couple lego towers for Sam that you can see on Aimee's blog. Sam really liked pushing them over and even helped place a couple blocks with help... it was exceedingly hard to keep him distracted with other things as i got taller and taller towers built.

I look forward to when we can build something together.