Sam's a walkin, man

Sam started walking. He can take about 4-5 steps before he looses it, but he is getting pretty steady, he just gets too excited and forgets to move his feet or swings his arms too much. It is pretty cute how excited he gets. Here's the video to prove it.



And this one shows him practicing on the scooting toy my sister's boys, Tyler and Isaac, had at their house while we were there celebrating birthdays with them. He almost got more excited about being able to walk across the room by himself, with the aid of the back or the scooter, than he has when he tries to take several steps on his own.

The Holiday's are coming

We are getting excited about the holiday's coming up. I went to Seattle with Sam this past weekend and had a blast with him at my Sister and nephew's birthday party. They have all their birthday's withing 8 days at the end of Oct and beginning of Nov.

Sam has been playing with the pumpkins we got when we went to the pumpkin patch at a farm just up the road from us. I hadn't ever gone that way before and didn't realize how many farms there are out there, really pretty close too. Anywho... Sam sure loves his little pumpkin he picked out.

When we went to the farm we had Sam in a really cute overall and shirt, but it was so cold he ended up taking all his pictures in his sweatshirt with the hood pulled up. It reminded me of ET for some reason, something about Elliot or something.

Sam’s tongue

Sam started sticking out his tongue for whatever reason lately. He does it all the time and finds it quite funny when you stick out your tongue to him in response. It is quire cute and hopefully it will turn into raspberries soon; which I have been trying to get him to do since he was born.

Long time, new post

Had an unexpected movie experience the other day.  We forgot to reorder the movies in our NetFlix queue and got Mr. Brooks.  Not that I didn’t want to eventually see it, but there were other movies I would have rather seen. 

Anywho… we watched it and were kinda caught off guard with how we got intrigued by the story and the conflict of the main character.  It is pretty suspenseful, if not a little slow at times, but not the B movie type we thought we would get from this independent film.

Warning… it is pretty graphic, definitely adult.  It is a about a serial killer!

Sleep Time

I have been wanting to post about Sam's current sleep habits, mainly what happens at night, but haven't known what it is that I really wanted to say. I was thinking about it tonight when I put him to bed and realized that our nighttime "routine" isn't really what is so special about that time. I would really rather Sam be able to be put to bed and go to sleep on his own every night, but lately that has not been the case.

It seems like 6 out of 7 nights, he is kinda wound up, either due to our daily schedule being a little out of the ordinary or possibly just getting enough sleep during the day (or maybe not enough) and being still mostly awake at bedtime (or possibly too tired other times). Most of the time it seems there is no specific reason. We are putting him to bed and he is calm, tired, but in a general good mood. We put him down in his crib and walk away, shut the light off, step out of the room and, "WaaaAAA", this most desperate cry follows us out the door. I don't know if he is going through some separation anxiety or just, as I said before, either too awake or too sleepy.

It has given me the opportunity to rock Sam to sleep most nights. He falls asleep in my arms and I get to spend about 5 minutes just looking at him by the light of his night light; barely identifiable shadow.

This time is precious to me. I am not wholly aware of why even now. It does embody the relationship I would like to have with my son. To leave him in peace, be "standing outside his door", and be at the ready to comfort and, when the time comes, support him through my strength, warmth and gentle embrace of love. It is through our daily relationship that I am able to build the trust and comfort with him necessary to bring him comfort in these times and it is good to know we are headed the right way.

Tonight he was fussing so hard as I came back in the room. As I picked him up and cradled him in my arms, the wails turned to sweet whimpers, to quiet coos; his eyes shutting almost immediately and I could tell his body relaxed as I felt his full weight in my arms. I stood there for longer than usual and just soaked it in, fully realizing my place in his life. I may feel like I am not cut out to be a good dad sometimes, like I lack something that is necessary, essential. However, it is times like these that those normal doubts vanish because they never really had any substance. It makes me want to strive harder, be better, to live life so that Sam will have the example he needs and so desperately deserves.

It has changed my perception of my heavenly father also; having a son of your own can evidently give you a glimpse of what God must want for us. He wants to be there, ready to swoop in when we call "Father", and already is if we would just call to Him. I guess I need to ponder that aspect more...

Went for a walk

I had been working out in the yard today and came in for lunch. Aimee was feeding Sam and afterwards he got quite upset. He just wouldn't calm down. He had several burps and didn't seem to have any evident bubbles in his tummy, but there was definitely something wrong. He was just screaming for over half an hour, seemed tired, but screamed worse when you tried to lay him down in the crib.

So... I decided he just needed some distraction and I put him in the stroller and started walking. We ended up going down to the river, crossing the bridge and going south along the bike path and he seemed to be doing much better almost immediately. I just kept walking, figuring he would fall asleep and I needed the exercise anyways. I just kept walking, figuring I would go to the bridge to the south, cross back over to the West side and go home with Sam adequately tuckered out if not asleep.



I did not plan that it was over 2 miles to the bridge and I didn't have any water, or a diaper bag for Sam. I was in my work clothes: t-shirt, jeans, work shoes, and my wide brimmed sun hat. My pants were all dirty and still a little wet from weeding and trying to pull out the grape vine stump. I am sure it was quite a site with me walking a stroller down the path in such a condition, but most eyes were on Sam and who cares otherwise.

We got to see some baby geese that were all over a lawn of some retirement place. They were quite cute but I was glad there was a rod iron fence between us and them, they were posturing like they were being protective. Or maybe interested in the slight squeak of the stroller.

Anywho, we got about a mile and a half and were still not at the bridge and I just got wore out. It was hot, I was hot, Sam was struggling every once in a while when the sun would get under the sun shade on the stroller. I finally put the burp clothe hung over the sun shade to provide additional shade over his face and that worked pretty good... then the stroller started squeaking; first the left front wheel and then the right front. Squeak..... Squeak..... Squeak... squeak.. Squeak... squeak.. Squeak. squeak..... Squeaksqueak.... (repeat) I am sure the lady I was following was about to go nuts; I sure was.

Without water and with the repeated squeaking I was just ready to give up. So I found a shady spot just before the bridge that overlooked a pond fed by the river and called Aimee to come pick us up. Going for the walk was a good idea, but just not very good execution or planning.

We had a fun time though and Sam was perfectly content through the whole trip, including the short stop by Fred Meyer on the way back to get him some more baby food (so we can continue to figure out how to make it ourselves and still have something to feed him in the meantime.) BTW, he sat in the cart and played with whatever he could get his hands on... the diaper bag handle, Aimee's purse strap, etc. very contently.

He was great and fell asleep in the carseat on the way home from FM, 1 mile. Ready for a nap when we got home, he slept for over an hour and then got up to eat again, happy as a lark. It was a great afternoon.

Rhodadendrin Garden Park

We went to the Rhododendron Garden Park this past weekend and Sam got to be in the grass for the first time. He didn't seem to know what to think of it at first, especially since we were coaxing him to look so we could take pictures. He didn't seem to mind it too much, but probably will have more fun in the grass when he can crawl around a little better.

It was very nice of Aimee to sacrifice her studying to have a day out with Sam and me. She is almost done with her degree and we both look forward to more times like these.

Daad deee... Daadd daaa

First Words...

Sam said his first recognizable word yesterday. I was taking his picture with a quilt we recieved in the mail yesterday from my Aunt Liz and Sam started saying Daad deee... Daadd daaaeee. He kept saying it over and over and has continued several times today. Quite exciting and special for me to be his first words, even though I have been trying to get him to call me "Papa". He definitely has a mind of his own and will call it what he does dispite my wished; which is actually the way I would have it anyways.

I got a video, but need to edit it cuz it got kinda big, so I will post when I get it done later.

5 minute conversation

I recorded a 5 minute conversation with my 25 week old (just over 5 months) son yesterday. I couldn't understand a word he said, but it was the most controlled jabbering he has made yet. I guess he started doing this last week when Aimee was feeding him but this is the first I had seen of it.

He seems quite taken with the prospect of getting himself understood and seems to be trying so hard to articulate what he is feeling. It was really neat to see him in such great spirit, just letting me know what was on his mind.

He has also been jabbering during meals now when he gets something new, like beans the other night, that he doesn't especially care for. You have to be careful not to stuff a bite in while he is doing this since most of it comes back out, either as spray or just runs down his chin. He makes the funniest faces and shudders from time to time; like when you get a bite of something that just doesn't taste all that great.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

Sam is really getting the hang of rolling over since his first time last week. He has realized that he can throw his head at the end to overcome his arm underneath him. He just today realized he could roll over in his crip too. He was maybe a little surprised when he was successful and wasn't too happy about it. I am sure he will master this in no time also.

Sam, almost rolling over

Well, Sam has been keeping us on our toes lately... running for the camera every time he almost rolls over. Here is a sample. I don't know if he is just playing with us or if he just hasn't quite figured out what to do with his arm to get all the way over yet.

Funny... but you might have had to be there.

My wife, mother and I had a good laugh with Sam tonight. Here is the video. Too funny, but really not sure why it is so funny. He was doing this for the whole time we had him in the new booster seat, about 15 minutes or so. He must have some energizer bunny genes in him... he keeps on going.

Update...

Well, since my last post, I guess I have been a bit busy with projects getting ready for my first child, who came on Dec 1, 2008. I got the nursery done, with paint, curtain rod, shelving, and a stand for the changing table to accommodate my bad back; raises it 3 inches so I don't have to stoop to change diapers.

There have been many, many diapers, spit-ups, play times, books, snuggles, and buzzing ear drums since Dec 1, and it has all been worth it. You could say I am quite the proud Dad. I am still learning to gracefully take a seat full of after-bottle spit up that has inconveniently missed the 2 sq feet of burp cloth laid out in front of Sam and soaked my only pair of jeans from knee to rump; luckily I feed him in a slick leather chair. He is very good at thwarting my efforts to keep this from happening and I think I am more frustrated with myself for not anticipating it better, or being ready for it. You would think I could learn by now.

My wife has many pictures of Sam over the past 4 months of his life posted on her blog , since she keeps hers up better than I do. Check it out if you are interested and I will try to post some here that she hasn't posted; maybe some of Sam and me that are special to me.

More to come

I know it has been a long time since I posted last.  There has been a lot going on and I haven’t taken the time to write about it all here.  I do have a lot to identify as past projects and new ones I am currently working on that need to be finished in the next month before my first child decides to come into the world. 

There is a lot to tell and I will make an effort over the next several weeks to post the past and future entries with pictures, but painting the nursery comes first this weekend.  Things will be a little more relaxed once Aimee can start putting together the nursery finally.

Oh, and I am trying out a new way to post that doesn’t require me to bring up blogger.com directly.  Microsoft Windows Live Writer (Beta) is part of the Windows Live offerings that I came across when posting my work schedule to Office Live and trying to get access to it from home.  Anywho, I will let you know over the next several posts how this goes and if I like Writer for blogging.

That’s all for now.

Another weekend

Well, this weekend I have a few other things I wanted to get done and ended up doing a lot of other little things, but it feels good to have a list of finished projects:

• Nailed the loose baseboard in the Office to the wall so we wouldn't keep kicking it across the room
• Put some fold down door stops on a couple doors that like to work their way closed; Master BR, master bath, and Office. These seem to be way nicer and easier to use than the wedge door stops we were using.
• Vacuumed, to clean up the drilling mess from previous task and catch oversize hairballs in the office and bathroom
• Tried to patch hole in roof over garage that is leaking; but didn't quite get it completely, or the roofing sealant didn't completely stick.
• Hair cut; done by Aimee - really short
  
• Tried to patch up the small holes in Aimee's car trunk that are letting in water when it rains really hard; but with little success.... I think the bondo I got was not the right stuff to use, so I have to go back to the store to see what else I can find.

Power's out

Wow, we were sitting here and the power just went out. I think this is the first time we have actually used the UPSs that I got for our computers. Granted Aimee's laptop and my work laptop aren't affected too much since they have batteries of their own, but my desktop and the router and cablemodem allow me to keep writing this in the dark.

Evidently there was some problem with the transformer on the pole in the backyard of our neighbor that needed some attention by the power company and they decided to just cut power to about 10 houses fed by it witout letting anyone know. There is a guy perched on the pole out there working with redoing what looked like the main connection to the distribution point.

Hey, maybe this will fix the light flickering that has been going on since before Christmas. If I remember correctly the lights did that brownout thing earlier tonight. Well, that would be cool cuz it can't be good for all our appliances and electronics for the power to dim like that.

Wow, they must be finished with whatever they were doing, cuz the lights just came back on. End of the excitement for tonight; although it is also good to know I knew where the flashlights were so I could see where I was going. It is amazing how dark the house is when there is no ambient light.

The Weekend

While Aimee was volunteering at one of her clubs, I decided to do some stuff around the house and ended up just doing odds-n-ends:

• Mowed the Grass
• filled the pond; I had taken a little too much out when I was lowering the water level from the winter buildup
• Christmas lights taken down off the house
• Plum Tree hole got filled the rest of the way
• Sprayed the first application of Round-Up on the yard to kill off the weeds that have started to spring up
• Put back up and fixed the black-out shade in our bedroom; it needed the brackets put back up and some adjustments to make it work right
• Weeded and cleaned out a flower bed in the front yard that needed attention since last fall when the gladiola greens had browned and almost rotted away.
• Put a padlock on the tool shed; have been meaning to do that since we got it because of guidance from "It Takes a Thief" on Discovery channel.
• cleaned up some of the dead stuff in the flower beds by the front walk and driveway
• Noted that I need to cap the ends of the deck so cats can't get under our deck and make a mess

Well, that is about it I got finished this weekend. Will post some pictures if I have a chance later.

starting February

Starting off February, I got the last lower cabinet disassembled and wrapped up with all the extra shelves. This is the last of 3 lower cabinets.

I am using the new "adjustable" saw horses my sister's family got me for christmas and my oversize I-beam supports.

I just have one more upper cabinet to wrap up that I will do later today. I have quite a stack of cabinets now, hopefully my dad or someone on CraigsList will be able to use them.


Now I have some space to put away some stuff that has been sitting out in the middle of the floor and space along the other wall to put up the cabinets that have been sitting there since early last year. My rolling lumber cart is going into this space, once I move that other stuff along the wall out of the way. I hope it fits.


Oh and there are a couple things I left off the list from last post:

1. Got my trailer lights working; ended up being that it didn't ground until it was laying flat. When it was foldeded up, the lights mostly don't work.


2. Installed the tank and faucet of a hot water tap for the kitchen sink; I still need to rewire the electrical to add a plug to plug it in and connect it to the the water pipe.
   
3. Installed shelving for storing lumber out of the way... on the outside wall of the garage. It is storing the 2x4s for my mobile workbench table top right now, but with the added space due to getting the cabinets out, I may have room to finally put that workbench top together. You can see the stack of lumber at the top of the last picture above.
   
4. Installed a key lockbox so that our extra keys are safer than just leaving them in a basket by the door.
   

Over 3 months

It has been over three months since my last post. (That kinda sounded like confession, but none here, except that I haven't been too busy during that time.)

I do have a list of projects I have worked on during that time though... I had to get out the pictures to help me remember what all I did and I am not sure I have pictures of everything.

Oct 2007 end: Celebrated Nephews birthdays

Isaac turned "1".


Tyler turned 4.


November:

Fixed sprinkler pipe


and partly filled in hole from plum tree


Dug up a wheelborrow full of irises which had overrun the front patch next to the driveway


Put up shelves above Aimee and my desks.



Put up Christmas lights


Spent Christmas with Family, I may post some pictures later.

It snowed Christmas Day!


Dec 31, 2007:
Had a really weird freeze that left this frost forest on my car roof.


Jan 2008:

Then less than a week later it snowed a little.


got the power strip attached above where my new workbench goes.


Then finished the first part of my workbench, that has a set of yet-to-be-finished pullout extensions to support large sheets for sawing (and evidently no picture.)

Watched as the local water company flooded my front yard for the 4th and worst time in 18 months


Celebrated my and Aimee's grandmother's birthdays with family in Seattle.


Removed old white melamine cabinets from the garage wall, took them apart and plastic wrapped them for someone else to maybe use. oh, and game myself a nasty blood blister in the process.




And it decided to really snow, about 4 inches, which stayed around about a week.

And that brings us to Feb. which just started.