Signing!

We've been working with Joseph on learning sign language for a few months now, but it didn't seem to be sinking in at all. Until now. Actually, he started about 10 days ago, right before heading to St. Louis to stay with his grandparents and aunts/uncle so we could run in the Brew to Brew race and move everything back home. He's just started with "milk" and "more" but it seems like now that he's figured out the connection between making a sign and getting what he asked for that he's like a sponge soaking in all of the new words and signs we present. I'll try to take some video of it soon, but it's awfully cute!

And as I mentioned, we are officially back in our house! No, we're still not finished, but we're over 90% of the way there. The carpet gets installed tomorrow, and after that there's just a lot of little details, like final paint touch ups, installing the toilet and vanity tops, shower doors and hanging the closet rods. We are really hoping that by this weekend we'll see enough things finished to move our bedroom furniture upstairs. We are probably a little overly ambitious saying that, but who knows, it may happen. :)

Luckily, Joseph has taken to being back home quite well. Gone are the crazy refusals to sleep in his crib. Maybe it's because we had the house all cleaned up and his toys scattered around the living room and his room, so we could play a lot and explore before it was bed time last night. Today we had a baby play group in the morning and he ended up falling asleep in the car for his morning nap before we made it home. But by the time he was ready for his afternoon nap, I decided to let things happen and put him down in his crib. Even with the half dozen guys running around, firing nail guns, sawing trim pieces and generally being noisy, he still managed to sneak in an hour long nap - not too shabby!

Gaining Weight

After Joseph's last doctor's appointment, we were given instructions to try and feed him more. So that's what we've been trying to do. More hot dogs, peanut butter, eggs, cheese, etc. Unfortunately, he's entered the stage where one day he'll eat a lot of one type of food, and then next time we serve it he has no interest in it.

One month later, I think we can safely say that the daily Pediasure drink and extra higher calorie snacks have helped Joseph to gain a bit of weight, but won't know how much for another 2 weeks when we go back to the doctor's office to check. One thing is sure though...

when it's mealtime, Molly is all about the tasty morsels flying off the tray, and she's certainly gaining the weight that Joseph should be! After he's eaten enough to take the edge off any hunger he might be feeling, it's time to share... over and over and over until we just give up on him eating at least as much or more as Molly.

Oh well. I guess it's a fair trade for all of the "pillow-ing" she does for him. I swear he's decided that laying on the ground is much nicer when you have a soft spot to cuddle on, and they spend plenty of each time just like this!

We've also made a breakthrough with sign language! Joseph now knows and makes the sign for milk, although so far it really seems that he uses it more to mean "drink." At least he's very clear about making the sign repeatedly until we offer a sippy cup. I think he's also got the sign for "more" figured out as well, but that one is a little difficult to recognize. Especially if he already has something in his hands (which is frequently the case).

Since he doesn't really seem interested in speaking English, I think it'll be handy to watch him learn more and more signs as his language skills develop!

So Close

Sorry, no pictures this time. :( Friday was our 5 year anniversary, and Joe decided to take the day off/work from home. What a fun treat! Of course, we didn't really get to do anything terribly exciting - I worked on painting my grandfather's cabinet (yes, the same piece of furniture I've been refinishing for over a year now), Joe did some work, and then we went to lunch at a pizza place that had the old car rides. Hence the picture in Joe's post.

Friday afternoon Joe came home from a haircut appointment with a gorgeous flower arrangement in a beautiful blue and white glass vase I had seen a month ago and really liked. I was really surprised! We then ran to Lowe's to buy tiles for the laundry room and hardware for the bathroom drawers - really romantic, aren't we? Finally it was time for our true anniversary night. Ashley and Mikael watched Joseph so we could go out.

We ended up seeing Limitless in a cinema suites theatre, which basically means you get to sit in a super comfy recliner chair and have wait staff like a restaurant, so you order off a food/drink menu throughout the show. It's a fun twist on the old "dinner and a movie" date. Except that when you condense your dinner and movie into one two hour block, you're done before 9pm and wondering what to do with the rest of your night!

We opted for cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, one of our (ok my) favorite splurges. Then, not wanting to go home early, we decided to go bowling. Yes, bowling for an anniversary! Whatever, it was actually a lot of fun. Joe won all three games, even after having to bowl "granny style" when his wrist was too sore from bowling all of those strikes and spares. Oh well.

In other news, we had really planned on moving back home this past weekend, but the walls still weren't finished as of Friday afternoon. Sigh. Yesterday they got back to work and accomplished quite a bit - they sanded all of the walls, which produced crazy amounts of joint compound dust. The painter started painting the bathroom, so they'll be out of the room when the tile guy returns later today. I stayed late at the house last night priming the walls of the dining room, living room and spots of the kitchen than need to be repainted.

This morning I returned to the house to meet a tree trimmer (the power company had stopped by to upgrade our electrical service and decided that a few trees in the backyard need to be cut back before they'll run the new lines) and discovered our bathtub sitting in our front yard.... Turns out the workers tried to carry the 500 lb cast iron tub through the front door, and it was going to be too difficult. I had pulled up in the middle of this whole process, right before they decided that it would have to go around the backyard, turn the tub sideways through the door in the screened porch, and through the french doors in the dining room before heading up the stairs. I'm glad we had 4 guys available, and it appears the tub made the trip ok, even though I'm sure those guys could use a night in a hot tub and a few drinks after hauling that thing all around the house!

Our built in cabinets were delivered this morning, and are ready to be painted. They are a lot bigger in person than I expected, and should provide great storage opportunities in otherwise unused space. The tiling should be finished in the next couple of days, just in time for the vanities to be delivered, stained and installed. It's getting so exciting seeing all of the details come together! Every night this week I'll be working at the house, painting, cleaning and organizing, so that the entire first floor is as finished and ready for us, and more importantly, Joseph, to live in just a few days.

ELEKTRO-MOBILTECHNIK

No, really. That's what it is called.

Wet Walls

This first weekend of spring was absolutely beautiful here. Although it was a little rainy on Saturday, Sunday was blue skies, breezy and upper 70s. A perfect day to play... inside? Well, if you're me and have a willing husband to watch the baby, it sure was.

Saturday afternoon, after spending the morning picking out carpet and showing Ashley's house to the new buyers, I worked for a few hours to count the thousands of pieces of marble tiles we had purchased. I picked them up earlier in the week, but there were so many boxes I didn't have a chance to sit down and go through everything to inventory it all. So that's what I finally had time to do. Fun times, let me tell you. At least I know it's all there!

Sunday I decided it was finally time to finish painting the downstairs bathroom. It has looked like a construction zone train wreck since it was "finished" in early January, with paint swatches on the wall, no light switch covers, goofy trim, etc.

Joe and I had picked a new, darked paint color, but had never found the time to paint the room. I figured it would only take a few hours to finish, not counting on having our neighbor Carmen come over and help me pick paint colors for the upstairs, and needing to take a dinner break. Oh well. After some good scrubbing, here's how the bathroom looks this morning:

 As you can see, I still have to finish the trim, touch up the ceiling, and we have all of the little detail work, like installing door hardware, hanging mirrors, towel bars and toilet paper holders. The workers were going to get the door frame re-hung (since adding the new I-beam this door is one of those that no longer closes properly), and hopefully patch the cracks in the walls in the next couple of days.

Although it's moving at what seems like a snail's pace, the upstairs is coming along nicely. The workers were at the house for most of the day Saturday finishing up hanging drywall and putting the first coat of tape and mud on the walls/ceilings.

I'm standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up in this picture.

The north bedroom, view from the doorway.

 The north bedroom closet with pocket door frame installed, and cut-out for the bank of built-in drawers.

 View of the loft space and master bedroom door, taken from the door of the north bedroom. The smaller opening is where the access doors for the air handler are going to be located.

This is the view of the bathroom, standing in front of the window, looking north. You can see the chimney in the distance. The door to the bathroom will be hung next to the shower wall.

This is the toilet space, with the pocket door framed in. It's rather small and dark, but at least there's some privacy, right?

This is the view of my closet, taken from inside the bedroom looking west.
 

 A different view of the master bedroom as it's taking shape.

As you can see, there's still plenty left to do and to clean before we'll be ready to move back in. We're still shooting for moving most of our stuff back this weekend, and possibly staying there starting next week, depending on how quickly things progress this week. Our biggest concerns right now are the dust from drywall sanding, finishing out the bottom of the staircase so Joseph doesn't fall right through, getting all of the first floor doors hung properly so they all close, and hopefully painting all of the first floor spaces so that we aren't trying to do that with the little guy walking around and bouncing off the walls. We'll see what happens. :)

Achievement

Joseph passed! What, you may ask? His swim lessons, of course! :) Last night was our final class, and at the end each kid received an achievement certificate declaring his/her proficiency in a number of skills. I'm not so sure I'd call Joseph proficient at anything other than blowing bubbles, splashing and the full body shiver, but we had a good time nonetheless.

Our biggest surprise came last night when the instructor wanted the kids to "dive" for the sinking toys. We figured there was no way Joseph would get this skill. He shocked us, though, when we showed him the bright pink ring sitting 6 inches under the water. His response? Reach as far down as he could, and when it was time for his chin to go under the water, start blowing bubbles till he grabbed the ring! No prompting necessary! Of course, beyond that he figured out that if he just turned his head, he could grab the ring and keep his face out of the water, but baby steps people, baby steps.

We figure we'll continue to take trips to the pool so he stays comfortable with being in water. Hopefully we can find an indoor pool with heated water!

Some Craftiness and a Tooth

So before I forget, since I haven't written any of these dates in his baby book yet, Joseph cut tooth #8 on Friday!

Another first this week - swim lessons! We signed him up for a short spring break parent & child (or two over-excited parents and child) lesson, which meets for 30 minutes Monday-Thursday this week. So last night we packed him up and headed over to the pool. The water is rather chilly, even though it's indoors, probably because it's normally an outdoor pool that the city just covers with a dome durting the non summer months, so no heater. Joseph was a little fussy about the whole thing before "class" started, but once we got him moving, he was much more excited about it. He particularly liked the parts where he got to splash in the water, and be dragged around on his belly like a fish... I think we might have the makings of a future swimmer!

The best part? He came home, eat a lot of dinner, slept for 13 hours, woke up happy this morning and didn't fuss while actually eating his breakfast! If 30 minutes in the pool each evening is what it takes for him to start eating, then that's what we'll do!

And this is a little late, but I went a bit overboard with the craftiness for our Disney trip. Besides the group tshirts we all made, I wanted to make a few more things that I knew would come in handy. Last year when I was traveling with Joseph by myself, one of Joe's sisters suggested taking a small pillow so I had something to make the baby sleeping on me trip more comfortable. Great suggestion, but it was really hard to have one more bulky thing to carry on the plane.

This time around, I decided just to make my own pillow, with an attached loop so I could secure it to my diaper bag when it wasn't being used:

It took about 5 minutes to sew and since I couldn't find the travel pillow I bought last year, I just used the stuffing from an old pillow and filled it while we watched a tv show one night. So much easier, and it definitely got used!

I bought an umbrella stroller off craigslist for $10 for the trip, so I didn't have to worry about our nice stroller getting damaged on the plane or potentially lost at the parks. I have learned that I hate trying to push a stroller while carrying/wearing a bag, and found a tutorial online for a messenger bag style diaper bag with smaller straps that could be secured to the handles of the stroller.

I found some fun all weather fabric, a good pattern (since I'm not ready for most freehand sewing projects yet) and spent a few days the week before the trip putting this new diaper bag together.

Best part? I was able to completely customize it for everything I wanted. I have two deep pockets on either end, sized perfectly for water bottles or sippy cups, a large pocket on the back, two large pockets on the inside, and a few sewn in d-rings for attaching toys/keys/etc with carabiner clips.

You can see in both the pictures the black webbing and bright pink clips, my solution for being able to adjust the straps for both the skinny umbrella stroller handles and the much larger bar on our jogging stroller. The stitching certainly isn't perfect, but it worked out great for the trip, and I'm still using it at home.

Next up? Pictures of the quiet book I made for Joseph. MUCH more time intensive and still not completely finished, but I'm really excited about how the pages I've made so far have turned out.