Has it Been a Week Already?

Ok, not quite. But tomorrow will have been so I better post now. 

6 days ago we celebrated my baby's first birthday. 3 days ago we celebrated it again. Because he's spoiled. And super wonderful. And moms and tots is on Tuesdays and I thought it would be fun to do one outside. Also, all I ever talk about is our house, so I thought, "Hey, people should just come over and see it." So it was kind of a double win. Not to mention I have the best mom in the world and she helped an incredible amount to make the two parties possible. I would have gone nutty had I done it alone.

My babe turning one was pretty cool. We did a monster theme. Had a few friends and the family over. It was lots of fun. We roasted wieners. And ate cake. And opened presents. And then people started leaving, but the lucky few who decided they enjoyed my company enough to stay (namely family, because they're stuck with me and have to love me no matter what) got to have what I will call here "Super S'mores." And they WERE super. 

Pintrest anyone? Not only has pintrest inspired many small details, and paint colors, and other fun things, in my house, it also has plethora of other, non-house related, ideas. Such as Super S'mores. (Only they mistakenly did not call them that.) The Super S'more, my friend, is a delicious treat. It is all the goodness of a s'more and a little bit more. It is different, yet better. Quite wonderful even.

Curious yet?

Take a waffle cone. Throw in some marshmallows, some chocolate and anything else of your choice, we did strawberries. We also did without strawberries. Wrap it in tinfoil. Melt that chocolate and those marshmallows over a fire. Enjoy. And you will. Because I didn't name them Super S'mores until after I had eaten one. MMMM. Try it. So worth it. SUPER S'MORE! There will be many, many more of those to come this summer. And if you ever decide to trek out to see me, and you stay long enough to make a fire, I promise we will try them.

Also, has anyone seen those giant marshmallow's that they have out and about this year? So fun!! I bought some of those to try too. A review on that to come.

Caed was spoiled like crazy on his birthday. SO MANY GIFTS. He is clearly loved. Thank you everyone who gave him something. You are all so kind to our family.

Monster Cake. The eyeballs were too heavy though. We ended up putting marshmallows up the sticks to make them stay.

 It was also a rainbow cake. Fun!

 Playing with sidewalk chalk while the girls played with the doll house.

 The balloons were one of the best things at the party to play with.

Eating!

 More playing. Melissa (and family) gave us this slide, because they outgrew it. So nice of them. Caed loves it!

More eating!

 Pop up cards are way better than opening presents.

 Every time!

 Getting help opening presents. To be so lucky- three beautiful girls to help you, Caed. I'm quite certain you did not appreciate this as much as you should have.

 Finally getting the hang of opening gifts.

 Bouncy ball from Uncle Cool.. err... Josh

A bouncy cow from Aunty Jodi and Uncle Curtis. So fun!

You will notice there are no pictures of the Caed with his cake (although there is one of him eating cake). We tried to set the cake and him in his high chair, with a messy cake picture in mind... he just cried. So that was a no go.

One more to leave this off. Darci playing in the sandbox beside Caed. (Notice a deliberate "beside" and not "with." Quote: "These tonka trucks are awesome!")

 

It Has Happened

Today is the day.

You have been able to walk for a little over a month now. You would show us little sneak peeks of your talents. You always preferred to walk with someone holding your hand, or at the very least with out stretched arms waiting for you.

Not today. Today you walk. You walk because it’s easier than crawling. And you’re darn good at it too. You walk in and around, over and to, back and forth. You are so proud of yourself.

You’ve done it! You’ve reached the walking milestone.

Now hopefully you will keep your stubborn streak at bay and walk a little more so I can carry you a little less.

This mama is never ending proud.

How Did that Happen?

My baby turns one today. He's been around for one whole year. I have spent 365 days hugging him, talking to him, playing with him, watching him... 

Does anyone else feel like it was just last month that he was a tiny baby? Anyone? No, just me? Mmk.

They change so fast. 

So fast.

There I said it. I am like every other parent ever. 

What, from my baby who was sleeping always, cuddling constantly, to this little boy who is loud and busy and if I can hold him for 2 minutes without him squiggling away I consider it a good cuddle.

You have started to walk. Sometimes you're not brave enough. But you still try often. You try to talk. We even understand a couple of words. You are never ending curious. You sometimes call your mom 'mama' and sometimes call your dad 'dada', but most often anyone who's willing to hold you can be your 'mamamama' and 'dadadadadada' is just a fun word to sing, chant or babble. 

You've been able to hang out with your Great-Grandma this weekend. You have spent the entire time trying to show her how amazing you are and impress her. I'm sure you've succeeded.

You've started eating real people food!!!! You still love you cereal, but added to our list of banana, banana flavored items, and cheerios (and obviously powered donuts) you now eat crackers, raisins and you'll try food off our plates.

So here you are at one year precious boy. Taller and smarter and just as cute. 

You are mine. I will love you always. 

Lets enjoy another one!

Yes, that wall is holding up my magnet marker.

 Sorry for the horrible quality. I clearly was not very steady while taking this.

Yes, that wall is holding up my magnet marker.

Because I have a magnetic chalk board wall. And I think it's pretty cool. To the average eye it may just look like a black wall. Do not be deceived! This wall is a wall you can write on and hang things on... if you have chalk and the things have magnets, let's not get carried away.

In other news, our bedroom is half painted with one coat of paint. I ran out of tape to tape along the ceiling seam (I have a mennonite husband who insisted we had enough. We did not.)... but I did what I could. "Viking" if you recall. It's blue. I'm pretty sure Josh would have agreed to the color if it was fuchsia, as long as it was named "Viking." He has a thing for vikings. He has a toque that makes him look like a viking. Oh! And soon after our reunited friendship*, he saw me writing a paper on vikings and Polynesians... this may have struck him as pretty awesome and thus, thought of me as pretty awesome. I'm not going to say conclusively, but it may have been this first impression of awesomeness that made him take a second look at this girl and think "hey... maybe she's the girl." That or the blonde and pink hair. For me it was obviously seeing him without a shirt. But we'll just leave that at that.**

Viking. This is the best picture of the actual color... it was getting dark by the time I was done.

Hmm, we also did a little bit more flooring. I was busy painting at first though (see above), and although The Josh is very talented, it's straight up faster if someone is laying out the flooring for you to nail in. He also does all the cuts, because tools with blades scare me. Also, he had to do around the chimney, which takes time. 

And then we came home, because we were tired and making silly mistakes. 

Oh, anyone want a couple boxes of bamboo flooring? I'm about 98% sure we have too much. As in quite a bit too much. I'll confirm once we finish, but if I have any spacial capacity at all, and obviously barring any crazy, wild and unforseeable mess-ups, we are going to have some left over. Not just a box... boxES. So think about it.

So. Much. Flooring.

I don't think I ever showed you a picture of the painted living room. You can see the grey walls above or below.

And here is a picture of my boys playing Mario on the Wii. Well one of them is playing Mario. The other one is using the remote as a phone. 

*We went on Outtatown together. He then went to school in Ontario and I stayed in my Manitoba. He decided Manitoba was way more awesome than Ontario... or at the very least the people in it were (oh fine, maybe he just thought God had better plans and came to CMU to study BTS... but we can pretend), and came to the same school as all his Outtatown friends.

**Ok, maybe we won't. I want you all to still like me. I am a little bit shallow (but who doesn't appreciate the tall, blue eyed, curly haired, blonde boy?) but not quite that shallow. I mean, he is pretty easy on the eyes, but he's also a sweetie and so, so  many other things. And I saw him without a shirt because sometimes, while we were traveling the world, we went swimming... nothing weird, mkay. He's a boy! It's ok to see boys without shirts!

No progress... like at all.

Well. I have no updates on the house. Life has been busy. On Friday we were supposed to have family dinner. We didn't. But we still stayed home. Because that seemed like more fun. On Saturday we actually had family dinner. Happy Birthday Jodi! And Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Sunday, well we stayed home and ate parent sponsored and delivered blizzards. Cookie dough is still my favorite. It was in chocolate ice cream though. Which was a little different. And last night I gotst dunked. Ok, baptized. And it was pretty cool. My silly eyes cried. Testimonies and mentioning babies. Too hard for my over-emotional brain. And today, well, we're sick. I'm almost over it. But Josh is down for the count. So I didn't go without him. I didn't want him to feel left out? Fine! I'm lazy! Are you happy? I admit it. 

I did find enough energy to make my hair purple though. Just a little chunk. I think it's wonderful. My mama doesn't agree. But I like it. 

And my baby. Obviously. Center of my freaking world! Because he's so wonderful. And cute. And never-ending entertaining. He says 'uff'. Any guesses? What does a puppy say? "Uff!" So cute. I think he's just the best. You can choose to disagree. Oh my babe. He also sings a lot. "Dadadada". And is still a pointing champion.

The little man does not like going to bed at night lately. Which makes for a tired mom. That coupled with this whole working business. Getting up at 7:20? I thought 8:30 was early enough. Also, I definitely should have appreciated my sleep more pre-baby. I won't lie, I took advantage of weekends more than I'd like to admit. 11:00 anyone? Oh yes. That is a.m... after turn. 12+ hours of sleep was normal and there were not interruptions. I'm sure my pillow thinks I'm cheating on it. I kind of am. But not on purpose. I'm sorry pillow, please forgive me. (Please note: I realize many people in many places get up at 7:20 always. And they never slept more than 12 hours ever. I am a wimp. I know this. Sleep and me go way back. We're tight. I miss it. Stop judging me, it's not nice.)

Hmm, so, our house is, well, no closer to being done... but we're all still smiling, in the moments between feeling ill... But for real. Life is good. And maybe someday soon my son will sleep through the night consistently. 

Well we can dream...

Houses and more important things

I thought I should probably post something here. Actually the most exciting thing that's happening is how well my baby is walking. He's almost there. So soon he's going to be walking everywhere. I'm not sure how it's going to change life. He already crawls at ridiculously fast speeds and gets into everything. But maybe I'm just being optimistic. I'm excited to see him walking. He claps whenever he gets to where he wants to go. Hilarious. I'm also really sad my boy is growing up so fast. And changing, like every minute. It's also wonderful. I love my kisses and hugs and my heart is happy whenever he says mamamamama, even when he's not talking to me. "Dis", "dis" (this, this). That's what we all listen to everyday all day. As he points at everything. All day. But it's fun. Also throwing things. Everything. All things. We need to start channeling his throwing abilities. Because he's really good at it, but it hurts if it's not a ball.

So our house. Our house is looking more and more house like, livable in and pretty everyday. The living room/hallway/kitchen is all painted. I have one more coat of chalk board paint to put up and then we'll officially be owners of a magnetic chalk board wall. I think it's neat. I hope Caed will too. The living room and hallway have flooring. So pretty. So just the kitchen and our room left to floor. And only our room left to paint. We actually might live there some day. 

The end of May Dar has to make a trip to Calgary... for school or, you know, something. But I like to call it our Ikea trip. Because we're going to go to Ikea. And I'm going to buy things. Namely a shelf/pantry thing for my bathroom (mess be hidden!) and some other this and that items. Vote: ceiling fan in the bed room or pretty light fixture? I'm leaning towards pretty light fixture, but my practical side (it shrinks when the alternative is pretty) says I should get a ceiling fan. Or maybe that was Josh talking? 

My brothers are helping out once again. So while I'm writing about the house, they're actually at the house. Hauling drywall downstairs. Hanging drywall? I would know if I went. They are so lovely. And I didn't go because I am, for two weeks, a working woman. Ok, it's only in the mornings and it is only for two weeks. But I feel tired. And I miss my boy more than I thought I would, like a lot, which is silly because I'm not gone that long, but it's true. He's too wonderful. Also, I can't lift drywall. I'm a wimp. I stayed home.

I have no pictures of the house. I apologize. I shall leave you with a picture of my son eating a banana. 

Cute and hilarious, right?! Wait 'til he gives you an open mouth kiss. You'll love that slobbery mess.

Toasty

Get you all pumped up for the basement framing and follow up by telling you nothing. Keeping you in suspense. In the dark. So uncool. Well enough is enough. Tonight is the night that I welcome you to our pink basement.

Ta dah!

We had two guys come help on Saturday. Amazing. Thank you Mike and Don. Your hands were a huge help and extremely appreciated. Josh (obviously) and dad were also there and between the four of them all the rigid foam got up and half the basement was framed Saturday during the day. And yes, I did show up. I believe I stayed long enough to put up 5 mmmmaybe 6 pieces of rigid foam, do a little taping, snap a couple pictures, bbq some hamburgers (in the rain, just saying) aaaand... nope that's about it.

As if that wasn't wonderful enough, later that day these two gangstas showed up. 

There are a couple funny stories that could and should be shared here, but I need to get permission first.

On a less hilarious note, with Curt and Josh's help, we (and I am including me this time) got so, so close to finishing framing I'd basically consider it done. We got almost all of the top half of insulation up (we need some electrical done on the bottom half before we can insulate). We got ready for the electrical to be done. And I spent another moment attempting to defeat my white whale... the bumpy wall. I would call the day a success!

If you refer to the picture above, of Curt and Josh, you can see a before picture. Here is an after.

Pretty decent right? The rigid foam (all the pink stuff) took sooo long to put up. But our extra arms and legs diligently finished it. (Did I say thank you? "Thank you!") Our ceiling is just short enough that every piece had to be cut down. And then the joists are all awkward and such, so dad spent a lot of time cutting small pieces to put in between every one... tedious to say the least. I know, because I then spent time cutting pieces of the insulation to cover the rigid foam. I almost finished. My face got really itchy.

Our basement is already warmer than it was before, which is wonderful. The only thing better than seeing your work, is knowing it was worth it. Toasty.

On a main level update, I think I picked out all of my light fixtures. I've exchanged a couple of times already, and I had a few that I hadn't even thought about. You know what, I just lied. I still need a ceiling fan for the living room, but I can't find one I really really like. AND a light for the pantry. And not to deceive you but I don't physically have the bedroom lights either.... I want to go to Ikea for those. But technically I have picked out what I want for those two. Light fixtures have not been easy.

My light fixture problem occurs with the whole open concept idea. Combined with having a lot of different light locations. Our house will be bright if nothing else. I have two lights in my kitchen, which I chose track lighting for. We're putting a chandelier of sorts over our table, which will technically be in the kitchen and living space simultaneously. The afore (it's telling me 'afore' is not a word. Blogger is an hater of Old English) mentioned ceiling fan for the living room. A hallway light. And last, but not least, a side entry light. The two track lights in the kitchen are the only ones that are the same... I thought about making the hallway light and entry way light the same, but dad mentioned it would be extremely difficult to change a bulb in any light fixture that doesn't hang down in the front entry, and a light that hangs in the hallway would be a hazard, so that didn't happen. Now (well not really "now" now... but eventually) if you stand in the door way to the kitchen, beside the chimney, you will be able to see 5 different light fixtures. This will be a true test of my decorating skills. 

Back to the basement.

Pink Panther

Dad being his wonderful self, patiently putting up small pieces of rigid foam between every joist.

You can see our half insulated work.

 Discussion!

Working hard.

On a different note, still related to my life (because really, that's what blogging is all about... right?) Caed stood by himself for... 30? seconds. Amazing. He promptly fell with a crash (more a scare than any pain) afterwards, so he may never do it again, but it was crazy. Crazy cool. Crazy unbelievable. Crazy he's growing up really fast. Crazy. 

I never got why parents always said that "growing up too fast". I didn't feel like I grew up too fast. Those first 18 years kind of seemed to take close to forever... I'm sure I felt every second of it (not in a bad way, I had a wonderful childhood). I mean my birthday's didn't come fast enough. And Christmas... was that really once a year, or did we skip it every other year? But we did. We all grew up too fast. One minute we're helpless and completely dependent and then we walk, which is just the beginning of "I have nothing to wear" and "Why do I have to make my bed? I'm just going to mess it up again". And soon, so soon, we're crying and saying goodbye. (And then hugging and saying hello again, because we need our laundry done.) But I can't think about that. Instead I'll focus on training so I have the endurance to keep up to a running toddler. 

Speaking of running, everyone was saying how busy it's going to be when he starts walking. I asked Josh how much different it could be, he's already into everything and going everywhere, where else is there to go? Josh - "Up." Which is probably true, that's something to look forward to.

Not the Bathroom... but still

So... it's been approximately two weeks since I put paint coat number one in the bathroom. Unfortunately I have not gotten back. In my defense I did attempt to go a couple days ago, but alas, the furnace decided to stop and it was very, very cold. Not good for paint on walls or Ashley's fingers. And Josh forgot to take a picture today, so I apologize, but you will have to wait until Monday to see a picture of the bathroom with only one coat of paint. (Perhaps I will do another coat on Monday before I take a picture and you will get to see the bathroom fully dressed.)

Because I think Caed is adorable I have put picture of him here. (I have heard that people without kids do not like when parents put pictures of their kids everywhere. I personally don't understand it. I have always enjoyed looking at pictures of other peoples kids, especially when they're little. Even knowing someone out there probably will judge me for it I will continue to post pictures of him everywhere. There will be pictures on my cell, on my facebook, on my blog, on my fridge and on my walls (when they are done) because even though I'm always with him I always enjoying seeing a picture of him too. I just like him. :) Please continue to like me despite this flaw.)

In other news. The living room is almost done, which means that most of the really, really, really time consuming stuff will be done (1. demo and 2. insulation, but mostly demo). Just 3. dry walling will be left in the really, really, really time consuming department.

In hopes that Josh doesn't read the blog about the house he'd renovating I am going to tell you my plan. I have mentioned that I don't like drywall. So, I will paint very, very slow spending all my time painting instead of helping drywall. Diabolical, I know. I'm basically a super villain, competing with Gru, Megamind and probably some other awesome villain that we all love, despite the whole bad guy thing. I will keep you up to date on how that progresses.

OH! And Josh did take a picture of the really ugly ceiling texture in the living room, so I will share that with you. 

I know right! It's not pretty. I am sorry I think that. I'm sure it took someone a lot of time once and they really liked it. I do not. In defense of the ceiling in this picture, the wood strapping is not native to it. Josh put it up in preparation to drywall over the existing ceiling.

Here are some other pictures.

The living room (taken from the kitchen).

The kitchen (taken from the living room).

Our bedroom.

Caed's bedroom.

Caed reading.

(This is a book he got from Owen and Jody. He loves it. I thought his expression in this picture was pretty funny.)