Priceless

So here’s what I found when I went to check on Jack during his nap today.  Yes, he did this himself. Yes, he is still sleeping soundly like this. And no, that isn’t just a distortion in the monitor, his shirt is half wet. Looks like we’ll be doing a little laundry when he wakes up. Am I terrible for taking a picture?  Nah. Should I have woken him up?  Maybe, but he was so comfortable that I decided that if he doesn’t mind, why should I?

Family Room

The work on the family room is pretty much completed. We are still working on getting things up on the walls, and the baseboards need to be done (in the rest of the house, too), but it is taking shape.  Here are some pictures of our new, improved space!

 The fireplace and mantle (still have to fill the frames with pictures!)

 

A couple of different views of the eating space.

My Budding Artist

After being gone the entire weekend, I decided to hang at home this morning with the boys.  Jack got an easel for his birthday and he’s had lots of fun using the chalkboard, whiteboard, and paper. But, I’ve never had the courage to let him paint on it. Well, today I decided to give it a try. 

I convinced Jack to wear his smock so that his jammies would stay protected. And I admit that he was fairly patient as I poured the paint into the containers. I had a small conversation with him about where the paint should and should not be. Then, I turned him loose to paint. I admit that it was fun watching his excitement as he dipped the brushes into the different colors of paint. Each time he did, he exclaimed, “Look Mommy!” But as I watched him paint, I kept imagining what must be going through his little two-year old head as he painted. Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I put the paint on the floor. What does it look like on the walls? Monty? Emmett? My mouth?

Thankfully, my fears were unsubstantiated. Well, almost. He did try putting the paintbrush in his mouth. And he experimented  painting with hands, which is really part of the fun, right?  He was so proud of his artwork. It is drying, as we speak, so that he can show it to Daddy tonight. I DID have fun watching him paint. But, I think next time I’ll let him do it outside. :)

Dirt!

  I took the boys and spent this past weekend with my parents while Tom was out of town. The highlight of the weekend for Jack was, hands down, playing in the dirt. His favorite part was to run and then “fall” down on his bum (as seen below). It looked like it might hurt, to me, but Jack loved it! He also created sidewalks and a zoo in the dirt using his dump truck. What fun!

Emmett watched longingly from his nana’s arms. He can hardly wait until he can be right there next to his big bro playing in the dirt. 

Backyard

We spend a lot of time in our backyard these days. It isn’t big, but it is the perfect spot for little boys to play and explore. We have a small patch of grass that is great for Emmett to practice sitting up. The previous owners were avid gardeners, so we have lots of plants and shrubs around the perimeter. Jack loves to explore in these, especially with his dump truck!

Emmett is becoming quite good at sitting up by himself.

 

Jack hauls “stuff” (as he calls it) around the yard while Emmett observes.

 

A brief attempt, on my part, to get a picture of the two together.

Jack has fun chasing Monty, as well.

Family Room Update

Well, it isn’t finished yet, although the painters said they will be finished today (yippee), but I thought I’d give an update on the progress of the family room.

In my last post I mentioned that I had begun removing the wallpaper. Against my better judgment I declined the painters’ offer to remove it, thinking that I would save us a few bucks. Many, many hours of intense labor later, I was wishing I could take it all back and have them JUST DO IT. I removed wallpaper in our old house, so I wasn’t anticipating the labor this was going to entail. I think the difference this time around was that this wallpaper was REALLY old, possibly original, since the painters said they thought it was just plain drywall behind it. Whatever the case may have been, it took a lot of painstaking scraping to remove that paper and the glue that had been used on it. Removing the glue involved using a highly toxic cleaner called TSP and literally scrubbing the walls until the glue came off. The good news is it did finally come clean.  Mark my words, I will NEVER put wallpaper on a wall. Ever. Unfortunately, the previous owners of this home did not share my idea and there are three more rooms with wallpaper that will need to be removed. I’ll tackle that later.

The painters came on Wednesday to begin patching the drywall and texturing it to match the existing textured walls. Today, they are painting. I can’t wait to have it painted and done so that we can begin using that room again. 

When it is finished and the furniture is back in the room, I’ll post a picture of the finished product!

6 Months Old

Can it really be true? Is Emmett already 6 months old? Everyone says that it goes faster with the second child—boy am I feeling that now!

Emmett has started solids—sweet potatoes, bananas, and peaches are his current favorites. He’s not so hot on the rice cereal, and I don’t blame him, that stuff tastes disgusting!

Six Month Stats:

Height: 27 3/4 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 18 lbs. 10 oz. (75 percentile)

Easter Weekend

Finally the boxes are beginning to disappear and we are starting to feel like it is home. We have our share of projects ahead of us, the latest being the family room. Last week we ripped out the nasty carpet that had been in the kitchen eating space for a VERY long time. We got it down to the original linoleum. As we did that, we noticed that some of the paneling on the wall had old water damage, we removed the one panel, decided that we liked it better without paneling, and ended up taking off all of the paneling in the room!  I guess that is how it goes with home improvement, you set out to do one thing and end up making over an entire room!  At any rate, we got some laminate down on the floors in place of the carpet, which is an inexpensive way to spruce up that room and make it more clean for our boys.  I’ve begun removing the lovely wallpaper that was above the paneling in preparation for painting.  I think the room will look about a hundred times better once it has a new coat of paint on it. The picture to the left is where we currently are with the room—floor is in, paneling is off, and wallpaper is beginning to come off. It is well on its way to looking good!

 

 

 

 

 

We also had a pretty busy past weekend. Tom’s cousin, Jill, got married here in Seattle. Tom and I got to sneak away for the evening on Friday night to go the rehearsal dinner sans kids. My parents were kind enough to stay with the boys. They stayed the night with us, too,—our first houseguests! 

On Saturday morning we went to an Easter egg hunt at the community center near our house. Jack knew what to do immediately, but was very selective with what treats he put into his bucket.

That night we went to Jill and John’s wedding at the Lakeside.  It was blustery and cold outside, but we had a blast inside with family. Jack was such a good boy—he even did a little dancing with the flower girl!

On Easter morning we did an egg hunt at our house and then headed off to church. After church we went to Tom’s parent’s home for Easter dinner. Jack got to do another egg hunt and play with Nana, Boppa, Jane and Tom!