Don't you just hate pants

Here's Jack in his IKEA tent that Brian & Emily got for us - it's fair to say this child will be spoilt with toys! While I was taking this picture he was trying to escape to crawl over to chew my shoes.

Mini milestones this week - he held his own bottle last night and not sure why, but he took his pants off today at Michelle's house! She went to get him from his nap and he'd taken his jeans and slippers off. She said she cracked up laughing at him. He's loving it there and I'm so relieved to have good day care.

He's really fun to be around now - he laughs a lot and is very cheeky. He loves to make noises (including loud rasberries) and has started jumping around in his crib when he laughs - it's so funny I have posted a video of him on YouTube which you can see by clicking HERE.

Oscars week!

Here's Jack with his new toy I got from Once Upon a Child (2nd hand place). He stands there forever, just throwing plastic bits and trying to chew the table. Last night we were showing him how to bang stuff together, which he picked up pretty good. He's also sort-of holding a cup now & sipping water.

I still have him eating fruit & veggies. I'm so paranoid about sugars and crappy food that I can't even bring myself to buy anything with meat in it, so he's officially a vegetarian at this point! I saw come chicken dinner jars but it said "mechanically separated chicken" and I don't know what that means - I have visions of big machines stripping all the fat & grissel off the white meat and dumping it into baby food jars! My best friend, Sue's little boy, Noah, is a veggie and he's fine. I'll think we'll stick with it for a while.

The reason I have no updated pictures of the kitchen is that we have done nothing yet this week. We watched The Departed last night (loved it) and we're watching Babel tonight with Char & Jan. So far, I hope Little Miss Sunshine wins the oscar for best film, although I did like Dreamgirls, which made Gina and I cry. I hope Jennifer Hudson gets a gong, and also Leonardo DeCaprio - he was amazing in the film last night and they say he's fab in Blood Diamond.

I must be having a media week - I just finished a book in 2 days too - The Divide by Nicholas Evans. He's one of my favourite authors (wrote the Horse Whisperer). Anyway, it was amazing and I can't stop thinking about it, but I'm always like that after a good book. I hope Jack loves to read as much as I do..

Sawdust EVERYWHERE

I'm going to be coughing up sawdust for the next two years! The sanding is coming along great guns as you can see. Craig's done a great job & got about 1/3 of it done - got the drawers & doors to do next. I worked on getting the tile backsplash out and each night I clean so that we can make a brew in the morning and I can make up Jack's bottles.
We have been advertising on Craigslist about needing a 36-inch base cabinet that matches. Until we have that in place (on the left were the bin is), we can't get the countertop guys in to measure. Some guy called Stan's been e-mailing me all week saying he has one but he's been too busy to call us. He's promised to call me tomorrow so fingers crossed!


This is what the finished cabinets will look like. We've stained them oak red and they'll have chrome handles. I think they will look fabulous and I'm so pleased we decided to keep them.

We took a quick trip out to Sears Outlet today and bought a fridge. It's being delivered March 16th to give us time to get ready - the old one is going in the basement as a beer fridge and somewhere we can store pizza - the side-by-side fridges are too narrow we found out! These fridges normally run at $1,1000 but we got one for $549. It has a tiny scratch on the front the length of a penny that you wouldn't notice unless I told you - which I just have!! Dohh. No doubt I'll have smart comments now from visitors about how scratched up our fridge is!

So plans for this weekend - get the rest of the sanding done, get all the tile backsplash out and get the area ready for new tile, get together with Stan to get the much needed cabinet, and oh yeah, play with our lad. We played so much with him yesterday he slept from 7pm until 8.30am this morning!

Valentines Day Snow

For those of you outside of Ohio, this is what's happening here this week. The snow started Monday night and we got several inches, then an ice storm, then a couple more inches. The university is closed so I am off work woo-hoo! I did try and take Jack to child care this morning so I could work on the kitchen but got to the end of the road and turned around as my car was sliding all over the place. It was scary.

This is the view from the upstairs window. My Ford Escape is in the foreground.
Poor Cody, who usually loves the snow, is freaked out because he keeps falling through the thin crust of ice on top and it scares him. Getting him to go outside has been a challenge.

Jack is fascinated with the snow. His favourite thing to do is to stand on the sofa in the front room and look out the window at it. I can't wait till we can take him sledding - maybe next year.

I've really enjoyed these last 2 days being at home with him and feel like we've got much closer. He puts his arms up now when he sees me and grins everytime I enter the room. He does the same to Craig. It's heart-melting! Talking of melting hearts, Craig and I didn't even say "Happy Valentines" this morning. We didn't get each other cards or anything. We'll have to make a bit of an effort tonight - maybe get a pizza, bottle of bubbly and watch American Idol - how romantic!

Kitchen Renovation

This weekend Craig got about 1/4 cabinets sanded and stained "oak red". My job is to keep Jack entertained. I feel guilty not getting stuck into the DIY but we both agree that keeping our lad happy & amused is the number one priority.

We've got the chrome cabinet hardware we think might fit and the new sink, which I LOVE. We bought a 33" black granite sink, which is just gorgeous & sexy (yes really).
The blue tile backsplash is going. No idea what tile we'll replace it with yet - like I said before, this thing is ever evolving.

The sanding dust is EVERYWHERE so I've got to try and not stress about it. Being a clean freak that's going to be hard. We've hung plastic sheets in doorways so at least it's not in the front room.

I'm not going to freak out if this isn't done in in the next 2 weeks but I'm the impatient one that likes things done yesterday. I don't think it will take us long once the cabinets are done though. It's going to be so nice to have a contractor come in and do the countertops for us so we don't have to do it the poor way and botch it up.

Above picture ~ I can live with construction as long as I can go in there every night and make it clean - I'm a clean freak!

Lastly, for the floor we're thinking bamboo hardwood. It's lovely (and only $2.95/sq.ft.) but we have no idea how to fit it. We'll have to Google it.

More renovation pix soon ...

Message from Jack

Hello peeps,

Sorry it's been a while. My selfish parents have been busy renovating the kitchen and aren't giving me chance to be on the computer. If they carry on like this I might have to have to call social services & report them for techno cruelty.

Here I am - standing up in my crib! I can pull up & stand all the time now. Mum's constantly around me in case I decide to try a back-flip and land on my head and I let her fuss because I know I can do this all night in my crib when she sleeps!


I think I might be getting some pesky teeth -FINALLY! I'm 7.5 months old and not even a milk tooth. I'm drooling like a big shaggy dog and I want to chew everything, even dad's shoes - so you know how bad I need to chew! I've been a bit high maintenance today too (to say the least) so mum & dad know something's brewing.

If you want to see me standing & chewing and doing all other kinds of highly embarrassing stuff (yeah thanks mum) go and see my videos on YouTube

Jack at 7 months & 1 week

Jack's constantly exploring and now climbing on sofas & us to stand up on his own. He can't stand for long but he can pull himself up.

He's still really chilled and laughs a lot. Babbles a lot too when I'm driving (Craig says he does too when I'm driving).

Changing his diaper has become a battle. It's like trying to dress a cat! He's rolling, squirming, arching and flatly refuses to stay still.

I'll have to retire the changing mat soon. His activity gym got retired and I think next is his flying saucer as his legs are too long for it. He's growing like a beanpole and in some 12 month clothes now.

All these changes but still no sign of any teeth! Good job he's only eating mushy veggies..

Bring on the Sunshine!

Since Jack was born I've got emotional. It can't be age/alcohol abuse/the sudden realization that I'm 2,000 miles away from home because I've only had it since Jack's been here. Call it whatever, I've got a heightened awareness of people and animals and the world in general and a lot of things upset me - not in a rant and rage kind of way like Glenn Beck (ahole) but I cry at the drop of a hat.

One thing that's made me very sad this week is Anna Nicole dying. I don't know her from Adam but she seemed down to earth and okay & I loved her show. Craig is convinced Howard Stern killed her (boyfriend not DJ obviously). Does seem a tad fishy her son and now her dead under sketchy circumstances - maybe Daniel hated him and Anna said she was going to leave him??

On a happy note, humf - not too much! Jack is miserable with a cold and I think his first ear-infection, so he's sad and we're lacking in sleep.

I need warm weather and a good laugh!

Snow Snow & More Snow!

We started the week unbelievably cold with just a high of 9 degrees F yesterday (-12C) and today the snow came. 5 inches so far and still falling as I write this. I suppose we've been spoiled this winter as this is the first snow but I'm never ready for it. I hate driving in it and on the way home I saw 2 accidents.
Here's our neigbour's tree - still up from Christmas. Tonight I went out into the street and it reminded me of my childhood, going outside when it's snowing. The sky was a light pink and it was very quiet. There were no cars on the road and it was lovely and peaceful and made me feel all sentimental. I get this way a lot lately - I think my hormones are all screwy after having Jack.

Kitchen Renovation Update

Like all DIY projects, the renovation is evolving every week - that means we keep changing the plan because we have no idea what we're doing! We have had a productive day today though as Craig was off work ...

All 6 layers of floor are now out. The original floor is just hardboard. The fridge will stay where it is. The counter top on the left will be expanded to the window. We'll upgrade the sink & fridge. The masking tape in the foreground is our proposed island.

This is the most exciting part! We shopped around a lot for countertops. We didn't want laminate. Didn't end up liking Corian after we saw that it scratched up a lot. Decided we wanted granite but it's ungodly expensive. We found cheap granite at Bargain Outlet but have had trouble finding someone to cut it for us for less than $1,000 and 6 weeks wait - basically they don't want people like me and Craig buying our own granite and just having them cut - so they price you out. I was also told that the granite was Chinese and therefore not good product - I have no idea if that's true! Anyway, we found this place - L&E Stone & Kitchen Supply and we were sorted! These guys will measure, supply, cut & polish and install for a fantastic price. The granite is an inch thick too! We've chosen the color "Bainbrook Brown" (see above) for countertops, backsplash and an island - all for much less than we thought.

Craig found these walnut stools at Lowes today, reduced from $178 each to $49. Perfect! They might be too high for the kitchen island - if they are we'll use them in the basement around the pool table.
Our life for the next couple of months - sanding cabinets! I think we made the right decision to keep them, although we thought they were solid wood but they're not - they're laminate! We'll have to be careful sanding. We'll stain them a dark walnut, get some pewter hardware and Bob's your uncle - fab new cabinets!
By the way ..... this could all change next week!

Videos of Jack on YouTube

I have been downloading all sorts of videos of Jack onto YouTube. If you want to see our lad's videos, click here: Jack's Videos

I know I'm probably going to get boring with it, capturing every single movement he makes onto video but I can't help it!

Jack stands up now (clinging on to stuff) which scares us as it means he's growing up. The nice thing is, he's getting into the clinging stage where he wants his mum and dad for a cuddle. At the risk of making him a mardy-bum, he can cuddle us as much as he likes.

Our Weekend

I can already see that our weekends are going to be spent chasing Jack around the house/supermarket/park/neighbourhood. He's got so mobile now that he's getting frustrated and started crying if he can't move about. He needs to crawl, climb and chew everything!

Yesterday Amina baby-sat Jack and we went to watch "Borat" - we loved it! I haven't laughed out loud like that in years. I wonder if Pamela Anderson was in on it??? When we got back to Amina's house she made us tea and refused to take baby-sitting money from us. Mmmm, next time she bettter.

Today we retired the baby gym and boppy as he has no interest in them anymore. We also dropped the level in his "Pack N Play" to make it into a play-pen so we have somewhere we can plonk him when we need to get stuff done for half an hour.

We are making slow progress on the kitchen but Craig has now got all 6 layers of floor out. We've decided to keep the cabinets - we're going to sand them down, stain and finish them a darker colour. It will take a while but save us about $1,700 in new cabinets. We also priced up granite countertops and think we can fit it ourselves if we can get it cut to size - we just need someone that will be able to do that.

Anyway, time for bed.
Ta ta for now ...

Little monkey's getting mobile

Here's some pictures of Jack's favourite activities - standing, climbing & chewing everything in sight - including his dad! He had a really good week at Michelle's house. He slept a lot (he's got a cold) and did a lot of exploring. He found the toy box and learnt how to pull himself up with her dining room chairs!

It's hard to make him sit down - he locks his legs straight and wants to stand up all the time.

Climbing on dad is a favourite thing to do. I love these fleecy sleep suits - they keep him really warm. It's going to be 2 degrees F on Tuesday (that's -16C!!!) so keeping him warm is going to be a priority. They are calling it the "Arctic Blast" so I hope it doesn't last long. This weather is amazing - tornados in Florida and Arctic blasts in the Midwest.

Lastly, check out the YouTube link - I have posted a short video of Jack in the bath - another favourite pastime!