Look who's sitting!

This is one of my very favorite ages! Playful but not mobile. Squealy (sp??) and talkative. Entertainable. Distractable. Chubby, squeezable, and so very kissable! AND last Wednesday Carter learned how to sit up. No in between tottering with the Boppy around him. Just full-blown learned how to sit in one day. I seem to remember Hannah doing the same thing. It helped a lot to have a toy in front of him to keep his attention and balance. And now he sits for several minutes before eventually toppling over. It was a big day and so fun to tell Daddy when he came from work, "Look, Carter can sit now!" And then plop him on the floor and he did it! So cute!

love the drool!

such a delightful baby!

oh he's darling!

out of focus, but I still love it!

NOW, how to press the pause button on this little guy...

Bathroom Project: Begun!!

playroom closet, view 1

view 2, with window on right that looks into bathroom

BEFORE view into bathroom. just a toilet with a small window that looks into playroom closet. (???)

the wall's out!

pretty high ceiling in there, especially compared to the dining room!

gutted. the current status

Well, initially remodeling this bathroom was not very high on priority list of ALL the things that need done around here. But when the flooring around the toilet started rotting out, causing the basement ceiling plaster to crumble apart all over my laundry shoot, we knew we needed to fix it. And if we were going to go to the effort to fix the flooring we might as well do the whole project while we're at it, especially since we were going to be moving the toilet. SO, the project began. We found a contractor right here in town that said he could do it in just a few days, definitely before Eli's birthday, he gave us a very reasonable quote saying if we did the demo ourselves it would be even cheaper. So we decided to go for it and start a project! We figured since someone else was going to be doing that one, it didn't matter so much that we weren't quite done with the dining room yet. Well...

Turned out we demo-ed the bathroom pretty much the very next day and then never heard from our contractor for 3 weeks! We called and called, wondering how many times was too much. Finally we tried again last week and finally got a hold of him, he came by two days later to check things out. Said he's pretty busy working on another project, but Kevin could ahead and do this and that... SO, in order to get the bathroom done as we need, Kevin's going to work together with the guy to do this project. The guy was really nice about it, but still, we're having to do quite a bit more than we had wanted/expected. So Kevin will do as much as he can and whatever he doesn't want to do (like drywall mudding) or can't do (like plumbing) the guy will come do. He said he was willing to come in evenings or weekends to get it done. So hopefully at the end of this week "we" can start getting our part of the bathroom done so the contractor can come do his parts. So here we go again!

No major design for this bathroom... Moving the toilet to the back part of the bathroom,closest to the window and putting a pedastal sink closest to the door. I hate cramped, so we're not going to try to fit a shower or anything in there. Even with the wall knocked out in the middle, it's still quite small. Just a nice bathroom with a toilet and sink, vanity lights, outlet, and a re-centered ceiling light. Hopefully simple!

Flooring's down!

molding is up (just need to fill in the gaps), light fixture is up, and flooring is down!

the cupboards plan we have for the back wall: utility cupboard on the far left, pantry cupboard on the far right, and misc storage for paper towels, napkins, recycles, etc on the others with a wine rack in the middle. there'll be a countertop on top of that for our toaster and coffee pot (a breakfast bar of sorts). It might be awhile til we get this figured out and ordered, so for now we just went ahead and painted it.

a usable dining room again!

Still to finish: doorways, trim around doorways, floor trim, new windows and window trim, then paint all the trim (and the door maybe) the same cream color as ceiling. Oh and decorating--curtains and decor! But it's coming!

Kinderfest

Every year for 25 years now my hometown has a children's festival. At somewhat the last minute I decided that since Kevin was working the weekend, I would drive home to take the kids to it. We drove home Friday afternoon at naptime and were hoping to go to the talent show Friday night but there weren't enough participants so it was canceled. Bummer. So we just hung out at Grandma and Grandpa's--I'd brought the kids' bikes. Then Saturday at noon the festivities started with a parade...

the kids, waiting for the parade to start. my parents took {sleeping} Carter in the stroller and we waved at them as we walked by

since we were walking IN the parade and at the very end we still saw everything go by as they were lining up

all the kids were given a "free ice cream" for walking in the parade. a perfect time for a cool treat!

adorable little caterpillar the kids were too scared to crawl through. the crawl-through ones are a tad scary.

the bounce house! The kids actually gave it a try! Just a few months ago the kids {particularly Eli} wouldn't even try these inflatable things. He was too scared. This time around he finally gave it a go and had loads of fun! And of course he's the ring leader so whatever he does, Hannah just follows right along (except for snow and big swimming pools).

Probably the favorite of the day. Both kids went again and again! I was very impressed with Hannah's ability to get up these big things!

Eli gripped the edge almost every time.
Hannah pretty much just went right on down.

the new concept of the day...waiting in line. Grandpa was so great about taking them to each thing!

the kids were getting tired so I suggested they go on the "tractor train". Aren't these things so cute??

what Carter did most of our time there...oh, one more inflatable they'd just set up!

Then we walked home stopping halfway for an ice cream break. It was a fun day and neat to see a lot of old classmates in parent mode! =)

Getting big!

Remember these little guys?

And a video of Eli from that night that I never got around to putting up. {We had to kick the male cats out of the shed that night to keep the mama and her babies safe. Eli will tell you about it.}

Well, almost 7 weeks later, they're alive and well! After mama had her babies she took them to the upstairs part of the shed for several weeks so we never saw them and really had no clue how they were doing. Now they're back down in the lower level and walking around and maybe starting to eat from food bowl. They're cute and adorable and for the first time getting to come out of the shed for little visits!

the black and white one

the white and yellow one

And my favorite, the gray one...