Bilibo

Sam got one of these for Christmas. I had never seen or heard of them before, but I have to say it is pretty cool. I'll have to post some pictures later.

Thankful

I am thankful for a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Toys are assembled, bags unpacked, laundry done and now I think its time for bed. But first, a picture....or two.....

This Old House

Pedro and I bought our house knowing that it needed a LOT of TLC. (Airplane bathroom anyone?) It's a good starter house and we do love it here, but sometimes we shake our heads and wonder what the heck we were thinking? Last winter we were blessed with a little extra money so we decided to pick something from our long list of house projects. The floors in the kitchen, dining room, living room and entrance seemed like the best choice. Of course, it was the middle of February and everything was covered with snow so we completely forgot about our eyesore of a front yard. We tore it up our first summer here to put in a mandatory city water line. That is a whole other story. Anyways, we installed wood laminate in our living room and tile in the kitchen, dining room and entrance. Here are some before and afters. I think it turned out pretty well and I am super proud of Pedro for all the hard work he put in. He will be the first one to admit that he is no handyman. We couldn't have done it without the help of many friends.

The chipped, dingy, stained slate floor that greeted anyone walking in the front door. My dad couldn't understand why we would EVER get rid of such an expensive floor.

The new wood laminate and our favorite rug.

Putting in the laminate flooring.

It doesn't look too terrible in the picture, but the white carpet was very stained and dingy. It also stunk. We steamed it several times before moving in.

A shot of the carpet and the old vinyl tile linoleum. The glossy finish was almost completely worn off and it was peeling and cracking around our stove and fridge.

Loving the tile.

I actually love our vintage cabinets, but I don't love the mustard yellow sink and gold-flecked countertops.


When we put the tile in, it raised our floors up about a 1/2 inch and as a result the cold air return vent on one of the kitchen walls didn't fit right. Six months later we still haven't bought a new one. And that brings me to the main point of this whole long renovation story. I was making dinner one night in July and Sam was playing with his ball popper. Next thing I know I hear "Uh oh." I turn around to see that he has thrown one of the plastic balls down the cold air return never to be seen again. At the time I remember thinking, "Huh, that could be interesting when we fire up our furnace in the fall." Yep, every morning when our heat kicks in Pedro and I are greeted with the sound of that ball pinging throughout the vents.

Trying really hard......

I know I need to start updating my blog again. It kind of fell apart when the charger for my iBook died. (It was way easier to upload pics in the Mac world. I still can't get used to using Pedro's PC.) And then I got pregnant and Sam stopped taking two naps...but I will try my best to start this thing up again.

Let the Sunshine....

Samson's personality is developing more and more each day. Here are some things I've noticed in the last couple weeks that have made me smile.

1. The only chair he will sit in is his high chair. He prefers to push chairs around rather than sit in them. I usually peek in to the nursery at church at about the time they are doing snacks. All of the other children are sitting at the table eating. Not Sam. He's pushing his chair around the table and occasionally he'll stop and eat.

2. Although he definitely plays rough and beats on his toys, he has a very sweet side. The other day I fell asleep on the couch for a couple seconds and when I woke up he was brushing my hair with his baby brush and patting my face. Then he tried to put his red converse shoes on my feet. Sometimes he will drop everything he is doing, run to me, kiss me and then go back to whatever he is doing.

3. He is starting to pick up on my sometimes OCD cleaning habits. The first thing he does when he gets out of his high chair is run for his toy vacuum so he can help sweep up the crumbs under his chair. One day in the church nursery he took the wipe he had been given to clean his hands and got down on his hands and knees and starting wiping the floor. (He had shattered a snow globe on the tile earlier in the day and had to sit in his high chair while he watched me clean up the mess of tiny styrofoam snow and plastic shards.)

4. He enjoys power tools. Check out the picture of him below. It was 7am and he had just gotten up. He absolutely loves his jackhammer. It lights up and makes noise.

A Video!

And to really make it up to you, here is a great video! I think Sam was about 5 months here.

A Long Vacation

Let me begin by apologizing for my hiatus from the blog. Now that Sam is walking and only taking one nap a day, I have less time for blogging. When I actually do have some free time I usually spend it laying brain dead on the couch in a puddle of drool. Its exhausting chasing a little one around and saying "NO" and "Don't touch!" all day long. SO to make it up to you, here are some SUPER cute pics of little man.