Ball and Breakfast!

Christopher's new favorite toy is his "Big Ball!!". It comes out more like "Ball Ball" but, here see, it's his Big Ball.





He loves it. Rolls it around and around, tries to bounce it. It's very cute.


All the way down to the little balls.



They are his new obsession. Actually, Wednesday when I dropped him off at daycare he started shouting "ball, ball", which yes, in fact there was a ball nearby. He started playing with his fingers still saying "ball". Our daycare provider, Susanna, noticed, got excited and said that he was doing the sign for ball. It was nice to see her excitement that he was learning and it was a lot of fun as mommy to see him learning and progressing.


He now knows quite a few signs and his vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds. He now knows the word "stinky" because of diaper changes. LOL. Saturday I told him he was stinky and he repeated it. So funny what they pick up. (Could have been worse of course!)


Then he had breakfast.






I can't remember what he was having. I think it was french toast, strawberries and milk. He LOVES strawberries.


See?


He has his 18 months checkup (I can't believe he'll be 1 1/2 years old in 2 weeks) on the 15th of April. I'm really interested to find out his weight and height. We can't get the food into this kid fast enough. Because his weight so so low recently our doctor told us, he wants to eat, feed him. It get's a little tough coming up with new health things for him to eat. I'm thinking of trying to make some hummus for him. But he can't really dip things yet so I might be putting it on tortillas or something. We'll see....

Done Part 2

Ahhh, the joy of completing a project. However with this one, we had a little help. DUH!


When David and I bought our house, the backyard was "ick!". The "lawn" had more weeds than grass and we had a constant growth of mint growing in it. Except for every time I smelled the mint I wanted a mojito, we didn't like it. Plus the fences were covered in ivy. Like 6 inches deep on the fences and about 3 feet deep on the ground. I believe a play yard set was found half buried in it when we moved in. When we bought it, we had all the ivy removed and left it at that. Last summer, we it came back. Revenge of the ivy! Argh! It was almost ALL back!


So David and I spent a few months going at it. We did some research (what wife of a geek doesn't?) and found that the leaves are so waxy, you need to cut them back and spray just to get them to start to die off.


So one weekend we went out, started chopping away. Then David went through with weed killer. It worked, a bit died off. Of course, being who I am, we found out fairly quickly that I was allergic to english ivy. Fun times people!


So a few weeks later we did another cut back and sweep with weed killer. This time however, I was in a long sleeve shirt, gloves on, and rubber bands around my wrists to avoid "slippage". Yes, the rash was that bad. The protection worked and no more rash. We did this about 3 or 4 times and the ivy was gone.


Then we roto-tilled the yard. Well, David started then we got a bit of help to finish. That brings us to the first "before" photos that I can find.









I should mention here that our AMAZING lemon tree only DOUBLED in size once we got rid of the ivy. We can't give lemons away fast enough, and they are Meyer (sp?) lemons!!


Then we had a border put in.

I love it!


And then we had the mulch delivered!

Yes, it was too much mulch (ha ha). A ton for $35!!!! We are going to me mulching ALL over the yard now! :)


The grass was delivered the next day!





We were so excited at this point! We knew it would be soon...


Then the fun stuff started!

The mulch went in!


The sod was placed...



AND... Our new backyard!






Before the sod went down, we decided to put down sprinklers. It's such a small area that it only needed 4 sprinkler heads. But now we need to run then a lot and stay off the lawn for about 1 month. Not even mow it. We had some sod left over, so it went right outside the gate towards the front yard where the grass had just been beat down after so many years of walking there.


We are so excited about the yard. The dogs have enjoyed looking at it from inside the house. NO dogs on the new yard! :) I can't wait for our first dinner out on the patio. Just in time for warm weather and fun times outside with junior.

Done!

Almost a year and a half ago, when David and I bought our house, we knew that one of our future projects would be a complete remodel of our master bathroom. Of course, that is going to be a MAJOR and costly undertaking that will be in the future. In the meantime, we figured out a minor and inexpensive fix.


World, meet the eye sore of our master bath, the vanity.



Yeah, ewwww. Ancient cabinets, under an ancient sink/counter, attached to an ancient faucet.





Eww, eww, eww, eww.


So we started.... the project. I was so excited. I think I was just happy knowing the old sink was going to go away.


We headed over to Home Depot and found the same sink/counter top in white, on sale. Woo hoo! (this is actually where this whole thing started, we saw it and thought... hmmm, could we? yes, we could, and we did). We found a new faucet that was on sale as well, double woo hoo. We figured, this isn't final, we still want to do a major remodel eventually, we just need our sink to be a little nicer in the meantime.


Of course, when you head to Home Depot without measurments and find something on sale the wife/husband talk goes something like this.


Husband: "We don't know the measurements of our sink, we can't get it. We should go home, measure and come back." (good reasoning)


Wife: "I bet it's this size. Let's get this one." (not good reasoning)


Husband: "We should measure it. What is they say? Measure twice, buy once? Or is that cutting?" (again, good reasoning, bad memory)


Wife: "I'm pretty sure this is it. My makeup brushes fit here, our toothbrush holder here, that here... fits perfect. I'm pretty sure it's this one. Plus, if it's wrong we still have to come back." (Wonderful reasoning)


Husband: "Hmmm, you're probably right wife. You are always right, you always know best, you are so smart and beautiful too. Let's get it" (Perfect, wonderful reasoning)


Ok, so maybe he didn't say that last part but he was thinking it.


So home to the demo part. (which really just involved removing the top.)





But what to do with those ugly cabinets? Paint them of course!


With drawers out and doors off, I (with David's help) painted them. (No really, I painted all of it but one part.)


And Voila!



I was already in love at this point. We have the black trim on the tile, it worked perfect.





And yes, that is a TON of paint for this tiny project. But that was the only size they had so they gave me the gallon at the small price. Now I'm trying to figure out what else to paint black... :)


I painted the doors and drawers...









Then we replaced the what had to be 30 year old valves.





Before:



After:



Yep, I'm a home owner. I love the look of brand spanking new water valves :)


We connected everything to the sink...






Then, before we could put the sink on, we had to touch up the wall a little. David filled in gaps, I painted. (I'm telling you, we are going to create a side business here... I just need a name)


Then, we put the hardware on the doors and drawers and put them on.


Ahhh... beautiful...



And then... we put everything together...


















(Sorry, ignore the weird tints. Some of these were at night and it's soft lighting in the bathroom)


I love it. So we have a new sink for little money.

Sink - $74
Faucet - $24
Valves - $5
Paint - $15 (I think)
Hardware - $15 (about)

Total - $133 (give or take)

So for under $150, I feel like that bathroom has a whole new feel. I love it.

World, meet my new sink.

AHHH, darn teeth!

Teething... teething sucks. I can't imagine how painful having a tooth slowly poking through your gums must be. I have to admit, Christopher has been stellar at teething. He drools, he chews. He chews on blankets, toys, his hands... the dog if they'd let him. Until recently we had it fairly easy.

That is until the molars started.

For reference:

Christopher already has all four of his Central Incisors and Lateral Incisors. He started getting his First Molars (Baby Molars) the beginning of December (yes, almost 4 months ago). The first was tough and he had a eruption hematoma (sp?) with it. Poor guy. His second and third came in without toooo much fuss. This last one though? Oyyy, it's been rough.

The other teeth seem like clean cuts, once through, it's through. The molars though? They cut, and cut and cut again. All these little edges. He's been miserable. The last few nights, he's woken up at 10pm, 12am, 2am crying, then back to sleep. 

The worst might be over since he slept through the night last night. 8pm to 7am... whew... mommy needed that :)

And now looking at the chart, his canines start at 16 or 17 months old. He is 18 months old next month! Argh. I don't think we are dealing with just the last molar, I think he's being tag-teamed with a canine.

My poor little boy...

Cheeeeese!!!

So this past weekend was definitely one of ups and downs. The ups obviously included Christopher, the down was that I got food poisoning or sick or something starting Saturday night. You know, it sucks to get sick at all, but on a weekend and when you have a kid, it just double sucks.


However, Saturday we had fun, we got out of the house, and I was able to get some videos and pictures of our little peanut.


I remember reading somewhere when I was pregnant in one of my MANY pregnant/baby/new mommy books that you should talk to your child as if they know what you are saying. To avoid talking baby talk back to them. I mean, we do this occasionally, but the idea is to ask him to "put the toy over there", "give me the sock", "are you done with your milk" even if you don't think they know what you are saying.


The coolest thing about this is when out of the blue, after asking/saying it a few times, they respond. Christopher will all of a sudden turn and put the toy away, give me his sock or hand me his sippy cup. I know daycare helps with this a lot, but it's so cool when I say something and I learn that he knows something I didn't know he knew.


Case in point.


Christopher has two musical toys attached to his crib. He turns them on for the occasional midnight party, but mostly in the morning after he's woken. He turns them on, lays back down, has some conversations with his stuffed animals, some can't take it and throw themselves overboard, the others stay to play. David went in one morning and asked him to turn off his music. And.. the video...



This was after his afternoon nap on Saturday.


He seems to pick things up quick, so it's fun to try out new things to see what he knows.


Later, he was playing in the bathroom. No, he doesn't play in the bathroom often, but he has such a good time with bath time, I think he goes in to play with his toys.








Christopher's spify new big boy shoes.



So he was playing in the bathroom, when I asked him a question... here look.



Cheese!
I think this is now my all time favorite video! I didn't know he knew it! And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he's posing by leaning on the toilet. Lovely, this years Christmas card photo... in the bathroom. At least it's nice and clean!


Bath toys in our cool new basket!



Ahh, the pose



And I captured it! The cheeese! I think he's really working it here.



And on to snack time (after washing up of course)









He's getting so big and developing such a great personality. I'm consistenly proud of our little man and what he can do as well as tries to do. I can't believe he'll be 1 1/2 next month! It's amazing how time flies.

My Gym

We had quite the busy and productive weekend just recently. More to come on other things... but this post is about our trip up north to San Carlos to a My Gym for a birthday party.

This place was pretty cool. It's pretty much a big play area for kids. They had a ball thing like at McDonalds that the kids go in and it's just full of balls. Christopher has a deep rooted love of balls, any ball. He LOVED the ball area, so many balls, so little time.

He loved all of the balls. He'd be playing with one...


Drop it, see another and go running yelling "ball, ball" till he got another one.


Then we had group time where the kids were asked to sit in a circle. Yeah, that didn't really happen. He loved to dance with everyone though...


I'm not sure what he's doing here. I think he was getting ready to run, but they said put your hands on your head... too many decisions!


Then... the bubbles started. Now, this is my (and David's) fault, but it appears that our son has never experienced bubbles.


He was too young last summer to enjoy it but we do have bubbles. I think this will be something we'll have to do when it gets warmer.

So, they started blowing bubbles, the kids started running around. And what does our little "I don't want to sit still and watch" kid do? He sat down and watched. He looked up in awe at the bubbles. He watched the other kids playing... popping and chasing bubbles.

This was the birthday boy of the day.... Aiden :)

And then he stood up and ventured out into the land of bubbles.

You see his little blond head there in the lower left corner?

And then it was all over. He had found bubbles.


Bubbles over here...


Bubbles over there...


Oh my goodness... they are everywhere!

The other parents and friends were enjoying that he was soooo excited about the bubbles.

And then of course, being his father's child, he goes looking for the source. How do these bubbles work? Where do they come from? Are they being made the right way?

I believe they received a thumbs up from Christopher on their bubble making abilities.

And then Christopher found this ball/donut/toy thing. Thank goodness he's not at the "I want/need that" phase. Otherwise we'd have been googling where to buy a ball/donut/toy thing.


Oh my goodness, the fun to be had.


It was almost unbearable!


Fun times, over and over and over...


and over...


again.


And don't forget the trampoline.








Overall, we had a great time. Christopher slept most of the way up. Then had dinner in the car and slept almost the whole way home and went straight to bed. He was coughing a bit more after playing hard and we aren't sure if it's just that he was getting over a cold or some sort of allergy. However, the minute we got outside he was fine, ate fine and slept great (as usual).

And he officially has the new word "ball". He played Sunday with all his "balls". He'd find one and shout out, "ball!". His vocabulary seems to be really increasing which is really fun to watch.

Oh, and we are in the process of re-doing our backyard and the vanity in our master bath. Details (and photos of course) to come soon. I won't post till the projects are done, but we are soooo close and I am soooo excited!!!