snow time like the present

Our chimney repair is complete! Just in time for Santa to use it for easy access to the Christmas tree. It was a long week of "bang, bang, bang, on the roof" and shouts of "more mortar!" (a phrase Henry quickly picked up and repeats daily). However, we feel much better about approaching the impending winter weather knowing the chimney will not be causing further leaks in the roof. And, as you can see, we got a nice dusting of snow the other night.

That means Henry has been quite curious about this new stuff. When we saw Papa pull the car in the garage, he pointed to the snow on top of the car and said "sand" -- ha ha -- we convinced him it was much colder than it looked!

We bundled Henry in his new winter gear (more for the icy temps than the amount of precipitation) and let him explore. It was funny to see him toddle around like a giant blue marshmallow, walking the typical skier's limp in his new boots. But, he loved it. And, of course, is thrilled with the idea of letting dumper haul loads of snow.

I love it when a plan comes together

Frankenstein home project.
We were using rabbit ears for our TV reception. We don't have cable or anything. It's been terrible. Horrendous, actually. Constantly adjusting the 'ears'.
So, with most things, I google it so see what there is to do. The amount of information is crazy. So, instead of buying an outdoor antenna (50-70 bucks) and hooking it up where the previous owner's dish was on the roof, I built one out of coat hangers and scrap wood - junk in our garage. Thanks youtube. Screwed it onto the old dish. At least the grey eyesore was good for something.

And how does it work? You'd swear we had cable tv with how clear it comes in.

Best $3 we ever spent.

I'm thankful for
* sunny warm weekends for home projects
* the sharing of information on the interwebs
* extra sleep

Harvest

My favorite "perk" about the house right now.

Grapes, warmed by the sun, fresh from the vine. Mmm.

Working hard

A few more photos - on our breaks as we clean and continue the home projects. Henry's new swing, which he absolutely LOVES, in fact, he cried when we pried his hands off the ropes so we could move on to something else. There will be more days of tree swinging, I'm sure of it.

The second picture is Henry begging for food. He's downing the bread from my sandwich like a little birdie with his mouth open, waiting for momma to drop in little goodies. Gone are the days of mine and yours. Only yours. What's mine is yours. As in, my lunch is your lunch. Even after 7 months, I still feel like a "new mom" sometimes as each new stage leads to new lessons in parenting. Can I still use that excuse when he's a teenager?!

I Heart Rug Doctor

Oh happy day. I'm in love with yet another doctor. The Rug Doctor.

If cleanliness is next to godliness, I've moved up the ladder a little closer to heaven.

Our previous homeowners weren't big fans of cleaning. In the sale agreement, they were to leave the master bedroom bed and family room sectional couch. Sounded good to us as we are in need of couches, and wouldn't want to turn down an extra bed. (bed story in brief: floating headboard attached to wall with 2X4's...oh, and storage drawers underneath the bed are handy, unless they don't open because they're angled into the corner of the room as is...another project, another story, another day).

I've referred to my dad's advice of "nothing in life is free" in previous posts and reflect on its meaning once again. For fear of visitors not wanting to use said furniture, I'll skimp on the details and just let you imagine the possibilities with the fact that these people were dual pet owners (a cat and a dog) who didn't like to clean. We found a Merry Maids business card during our cleaning process, which I find ironic, but also indicates that most likely only surface cleaning was done throughout their 6 years of home ownership. While recently I've been contemplating what it means to be tidy, organized, cluttered, or clean, any of the combination of these are obviously not mutually exclusive.

With the help of my dear friend, the rug doctor (and upholstery attachment), we have ousted the kitty smell in the basement and created a space where Henry can play and I can feel confident that his environment is a safe and cleanly one. Although the couch doesn't "look like new" - it does look like a completely different one than that which was left behind! The Berber carpet is three shades lighter, and the stains I was uncertain would come out are almost gone entirely. (On the rug doctor website they claim some carpets, such as Berber, can hide up to a pound of dirt per square foot. No kidding!?!) I'm so impressed and pleased by the results. You'll all have to come see for yourself. The proof is in the pudding!

New house firsts

We had our first meal in the new house this week: take out pizza! We think Henry likes the new space. Right now, there is a lot of room to crawl around. When he's not crawling around, there are many more doorway options to choose from to hang his jumper. Thankfully, it still keeps him fairly occupied while we work.

Henry also had a guest over to look at his new space. This is Mia, Dave and Stacia's little girl (she turned 1 last weekend!). Stacia made a quick afternoon trip to Madison for a visit - it was good to see the two of them - hopefully next time the dads will be around, too.

I think in the first photo they are playing the "I'm not looking at you" game with each other.
For this photo, Mia scooted over to be closer to Henry. What a cute pair of kids!

Mini Me

Henry has been hanging out with us as we are cleaning and getting ready to paint in the new house. He now fits the flannel shirt and khaki pants that Meme bought for him when she visited Detroit shortly after his birth! Like father, like son in this photo!

Parenting the mobile child

Enter the next phase of parenting: mobility. I feel like I'm not keeping a step ahead of Henry these days. He has gained speed and agility with crawling. I put him in the living room, went to the kitchen, as usual, to make coffee. Upon my return, I found my child standing next to the computer chair! Ah, lesson learned. The next phase of Henry's life, his gaining freedom through the ability to go after what he wants, is going to keep me on my toes. I had no idea pulling himself up on furniture would be so close behind. I have a feeling walking is also in the not so distant future!

The only good side effect to all this activity is that he's been sleeping at night. Last feeding around 10-11pm and I don't hear from him until 5-6 am. I almost don't want to say it out loud for fear I'll break the spell. I feel human again!

We close on the house today. We are all very excited, and will be looking forward to baby-proofing as we move into the new house. I'm sure the spare bedroom would also function nicely as a padded room so Henry can learn to get around without the dangers of hardwood floors, woodwork, and other everyday building materials. ha ha ha.

A few recent pics, just to keep everyone interested. I'm usually behind the camera lens, but George took a nice photo of me and Henry. You can see those two little razor sharp teeth poking up through his gums. The other is a treat for all the BC alumni out there. We just finished a week of rather warm weather and this was the only T-shirt in his current size to let him hang out in. Don't worry, we're back on track for fall weather now and will be sporting only long pants, socks, and long sleeve shirts for a while, I think.

Where did July go?

Oh boy, aside from the guest blogger for that last post - those aunties who love to tease - I haven't been very diligent about keeping the blog updated. Then again, given all that has happened recently, I'm not surprised!

Quick notes about Henry:

• He has started having pureed solid foods and absolutely loves the taste of everything we've fed him from sweet potatoes and carrots to applesauce, pears and bananas. Now we just need to find a good balanced diet for him so he doesn't struggle so much with gas and other tummy troubles. (I'm sure that when he's older he'll love that I've posted information about his GI system on a semi-public forum!) That's what happens when he has a nurse for a Momma. We nurses are always concerned with that sort of stuff.

• He figured out how to roll from his back to his tummy. Then he forgot how to get from tummy to back. I've gone into his room in the middle of the night when he wakes up for feeding only to be very confused by what body part I'm grabbing as I sleepily try to wrestle him from his bed because he landed face down. As soon as he gets all this rolling over coordinated, I have a feeling we'll begin the "chasing" phase of parenting.

• The "Henry safe" zone has grown considerably. Gone are the days of holding him on my lap during meals. His range is impressive as he's discovered that these opposable thumbs are incredibly useful for snatching up anything within a 12 inch radius. And his most recent trick is switching objects from hand to hand. It is fascinating to watch him do these things - yay milestones!

• Henry almost sits by himself. Its so funny to see him in a position besides lying down. He is trying very hard to stay upright by himself, but when the balance gives way, the weebles wobble and over he goes.
  

Our most exciting development lately has been navigating the housing market to buy our first house!! We are working on finalizing paperwork to purchase this home, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, we will close September 30th.