Good intentions

As I was looking over hubby's shoulder reading my blog entries this weekend, I remembered I had set a few goals for the month of August. In addition to getting started on "Little Man's Special Moments", I had wanted to complete Wenderina's wedding album and get my website up and running.

While I have obviously finished quite a few layouts for Little Man's album (some of which I even submitted to Creating Keepsakes), I didn't make any progress on Wenderina's album. I'm really hoping to be able to finish it this month considering October is their anniversary month.

On the website front, I did accomplish a temporary one while my beloved brother tries to pry himself away from his daily duties. Although it did come in handy the other day when one of hubby's colleagues was inquiring about my services, I wish more of my layouts were posted (and not in video format since they are unable to view videos). We'll see if it's complete by the end of the year.

So here's one more layout for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Going with the flow

For the past few days, hubby has taken the truck to get to the train for work, leaving me and Little Man to fend for ourselves. Wednesday wasn't too bad since we had just experienced 4 fun-filled days with Daddy (more on our adventures later). We took our time walking to the park, walked to the grocery store, and the infamous Dollar Store. I'm always a sucker when it comes to taking Little Man to that store. Although I know if he were to find something that seemed really cool at the time, five minutes later he'll have forgotten about it. But that bright, shiny blue balloon just had to come home with us. And it has been well worth it since. He runs wild around the house with it, just giggling in delight that it's following him around.

Thursday was another hot day, so I made sure to be out the door by 9:30am. We made it to the park and only 35 minutes later he was either bored or just plain done with the park. It didn't help that the temperature had started to rise. So we headed home and tried to hang outside playing with chalk or blowing bubbles as long as I could handle getting bitten by those pesky mosquitos. All in all it wasn't too bad of a day. It definitely made me realize it is time to re-evaluate our leisure activities with Little Man because some of them he's starting to outgrow.

So on our third day at home, I'm just going with the flow. Taking my time walking to the park. Making sure to walk by the "spiny trees" so he can reach out and touch the pine needles. Walking up to the grocery store just to walk around and look at the fruit (especially since I didn't bring any money). Seems like Little Man is just going with the flow also. He found an old toy, Leap Frog Spin A Letter. Today he actually waits until it stops, listens to the letter or sound of the animal that starts with that letter, and repeats it! Then he decided it would be fun to sit on it and roll off of it!




Of course this is when our digital camera starts to act up, hence the lovely purple striations across the screen. But at least it captured the moment.

Thankfully, it's the weekend and hubby will be home to help entertain this weekend. Which, since we have a weather advisory starting tonight for this weekend due to Hanna possibly heading our way, we may be in for a long weekend. Hope everyone else has a great weekend!

Bathroom reno #2 complete

Although the bathroom has been useable for the past month or so, there were little details that needed to be finished. Like the baseboard in front of the tub (which needed to be stripped of the paint the previous owner applied), filling in nail holes, and redoing the moulding around the door.

The bathroom itself was really out of commission for only 2 weeks. I think that is a great accomplishment for hubby considering what needed to be done!

And now, since it is finally complete, I thought I would share a few highlights of the new bathroom.


This was a support beam under the subflooring. Notice how it's not there. Yeah, that's what happens after 20 years of decay from water damage.


A nice fresh coat of paint to turn our dungeon of a bathroom into the perfect retreat. It took three coats of off white paint to cover up the awful color. We were debating about putting a pocket light over the tub, but since the new color is so bright we don't need one. Notice the beautiful wrap around tile on the edge of the corner?? Yeah, hubby had to replace the last row of tile so we decided to prevent further water damage by adding it .... and to make it look pretty. The other thing we changed, one because of the color, and two because of the amount of paint caked on, was the baseboards. Who paints their baseboards a darker shade of the same color as the walls?? A nice crisp, clean white is what it needed.


Because this bathroom is in the main hallway on our main floor, and right next to Little Man's room, there wasn't much we could do about hiding the mess. So we let him help Daddy whenever he could. Even if it was handing Daddy a nail or handing him a particular tool. I think it made him feel really useful. The other down side of the position of the bathroom was we couldn't make much noise at night for fear of waking Little Man up. We tried to make sure the majority of the noise was made during the day.

We had a medicine cabinet on the side of the wall. No big deal, right. Well not if it supplies the only mirror in the bathroom. Makes it kind of difficult for hubby to shave in the morning. We weren't sure if we wanted to cover it up with drywall or replace the medical cabinet with one without a mirror. Turns out, no one makes medicine cabinets without mirrors. So our other option was to make our own - with or without a door. We opted for the less expensive version: Open box with moulding around the edges and re-use the shelf from the old medicine cabinet. I think it's kind of nice. It's a place for us to store our toothbrushes to keep the counter top clear.

Like the first bathroom, I'm not exactly sure how much we spent on the project. I do know that we did so much more work than the first and hubby still managed to get it done in record time. And that we made record trips to and from Lowe's. It really could have been a lot worse than it turned out to be. Fixing the water damage in the walls and the floor was the biggest obstacle. And I found out something about my hubby in the process. He used to part of a program called BOSS (Better Opportunity for Single Soldiers) in the Army. Instead of soldiers waiting around for minor leaks, cracks, or broken parts in the barracks to be fixed, they learned how to do it themselves. Because of this program and the repairs and work we have done to this house, we'll be able to build our own dream home some day. Looks like I married a real "Handy Manny"!

August Recap

So since last month's recap was a hit, I decided to do it again. Although I didn't take as many photos, it feels like we did a lot during the month of August.

Little Man noticed a few "new" things in his closet this month. One in particular was his backpack Gramma had given him last year with a bushel of books. He decided it was pretty cool to walk around the house with it on. Little did he know that I was starting to cry just thinking about the first day of school for him.


We introduced a box of chalk for Little Man to scribble his masterpieces on the driveway. He actually liked it so much he decided to share his masterpieces with the truck and the truck tires. Daddy thought it was funny at first until he came home to blue and purple chalk lines on his tires. Little Man even carries the little box around by the handle.


He continues to love playing with his lawnmower (although we don't put the bubble juice in it and I'm not even sure Little Man cares either). Oh, and don't forget about sunglasses. These are his toddler glasses that we bought him shortly after he was born. I remember walking around Kennedy Space Center with him wearing these things. They've been hidden for awhile since they started to bother him over the nose, but now he thinks they are really cool!


And he continues to be totally infatuated with the real lawnmower. Maybe he'll be a landscaper one day. In that job alone he'll be able to use a lawnmower, a tractor, and truck, and maybe even a train... if he's lucky.


August was his third month at Gymboree. He has continued to excel in his overall agility and his ability to climb. We continue to visit our local park which features a huge wooden playground that he loves to climb in a out of. It's especially fun to watch him observe stare at all the older kids and see what moves he can look forward to doing in the future.


August was the big fair in the area and we couldn't wait to show Little Man all the tractors, animals, and fun things to do at a local fair. Although he was still too young to get on any of the rides, besides the ferris wheel, he undoubtedly had a great time just watching EVERYTHING. He is such a people watcher, but I think that is true for any toddler really. The funniest part was when he was walking by a rooster as it decided to voice his opinion to Little Man.


Little Man has always had an ... unusual way of sleeping at night. We have constantly found him with his feet dangling between the bars of his crib, curled into a ball with his butt up in the air with his beloved "Jeffrey" tucked under his chin, and this position. Seems a little uncomfortable to me, but he doesn't complain in the morning.


The other thing I started to notice Little Man attempting to do was putting on his own shoes or shirt or socks by himself. I already showed what it was like for him to be in Daddy's shoes.

There were more little moments in the month of August that weren't recorded. They just all went by too fast. Until next month!

A look back in time

Last night, after I finished downloading a few pics from the digital camera, I was trying to organize a few other photos. From there, I ended up scanning through the first twelve months of Little Man's precious life. From his first taste of rice cereal to tummy time in the middle of the living room (which he was not too thrilled with) to the day he made his successful attempt to stand and to taking his first step.

I watched every single short video clip....

What's wrong with me?? My child is not even 2 years old yet and I'm reminiscing about the little moments in his life already. Aren't you suppose to wait until he's at least 5 or 10 years old before you start recapping??

It just amazed me at how much he's grown. And in such a short period of time. I mean, it's September already. Where has this year gone?? I guess this is what happens when you have children. Just to show you what a years time can do, here is a chair that Gramma got him last July.

And here he is the other day:


I think the other part that has made the summer fly by is having something new to do every day - especially Gymboree. Although we have contemplated about continuing him in Gymboree, I have to admit that is the best thing we have done all summer long. Not to mention, if our vehicle even points in the general direction of Gymboree, he starts to mutter "Gym" and points us onward. Last night when we were headed right by Gymboree, I had to tell him that it was closed for the day, to which I'm sure he didn't understand.

I have to be honest though, I miss the days that he was learning how to crawl. Those little gums with no pearly whites. His first successful step toward Daddy. But I'm sure there will be more "little moments" ahead that we will be able to cherish for years to come.