Project 365: Week 30

9 months, 25 days old

07-23-12

B loves sitting in the big boy bath. We turn on the water and he gets so excited.

07-24-12

Little Man is starting to give real hugs. He doesn't know that they are hugs and won't give you one when asked but he will hold on tight like a real hug. Melts me.

07-25-12

Barrett will lay on my legs and take his bottle. Gradually, he wiggles his way until he is just laying in between my legs and uses them to prop up the bottle. Lazy kid.

07-26-12

Bubs is completely obsessed with hats. He will take them on and off and on and off. It's a great game.

07-27-12

London Olympics 2012!

07-28-12

Kiddo makes a mess now when he plays.

07-29-12

We went for a walk after dinner/before bed time tonight. B went down the slides for the first time with Dad.

Mama

9 months, 23 days old

This will be quick but it's something I don't want to forget. This weekend, Barrett seems to have a new word...Mama! The crazy thing is he seems to use both mama and dada in the correct context now.

Unfortunately, he uses Dada whenever he is happy and excited. He uses Mama when he is whiney or like tonight screaming bloody murder when we made him to go sleep.

I'll take what I can get. (Plus I can get back at him by posting naked pictures on the internet.)

Standing up

9 months, 20 days old

I really need to work on my titles. They are lame.

Anyways, I've mentioned in a few posts that Barrett is all about standing up. Most specifically, standing and sitting, standing and sitting and again and again. When we get home from daycare, he is perfectly content with crawling around the floor and pulling up on the coffee table or fireplace or insert object here. No toys needed. We find ourselves rolling around the floor while he climbs on us quite often. He wants to be moving constantly. It's strangely cute and endearing to watch him sitting still playing with and concentrating on an object which is crazy because he was just doing that 2 weeks ago. It's amazing how fast things change.

So since Thursdays are now becoming Video Thursdays, here's a clip from 2 weeks ago after he just started mastering his new skill.

Project 365: Week 29

9 months, 18 days old

07-16-12

Barrett is a crawling machine. Tonight, we turned on the bath water, called for him and he came.

07-17-12

Someone found a new place to play tonight. He had zero interest in it before now but it was inevitable.

07-18-12

While I folded and put away clothes, Little Buddy and Dad played with the laundry basket.

07-19-12

He's just getting into all sorts of trouble this week. As you can see, we're already getting lazy about the "baby proofing."

07-20-12

Bubs and I played in his bedroom before Dad got home from work. He now loves to toss the books on the floor and I caught this just before he made a mess.

07-21-12

Dude woke up at 8:30am (me too!) and was so happy. He wanted nothing more than to climb all over me while we played on the floor.

07-22-12

Buddy was miserable all day for some reason. He and I came home from Pontiac early since Dad stayed back to get some house things completed. I got him to bed just after 6pm only to have him wake up in hysterics at about 7pm. Poor kid just wants to cuddle and cry.

Daycare update

9 months, 16 days old

Now that we are a month + into our new daycare, I thought it was time for an update.

I love it.

Now, coming from someone who wants nothing more than to stay home, using the L-word is pretty big but it's true. The place is great. I know I mentioned before that it wasn't that I hated his other school, I just didn't really like it. His old school had availability when we needed it and his current school did not. We were on the wait list for a very long time until a spot finally opened up where he is now.

I realize what I'm about to say is very judgmental but his old teacher was not very.... put together. She had a tramp stamp that I saw many times and was um..busty. (Can you not put away the cleavage while I'm dropping off my kid?) Yes, she was nice enough but I always felt like there was this judgey attitude especially when it came to breastfeeding. (B was the only one out of 9 in his class who was on breast milk.) I'm also a control freak about documentation of things. Part of her job was to document what he ate, when he ate it, when he slept and other notes of the day. Half the time his sheet was barely filled out and when I asked her about it, she would play it off and tell me the bits of information (which I fully believe she made up off the top of her head to appease me.) There were also 4 infant rooms in this large daycare. Any given day, if a teacher was absent, he would shift to various other infant rooms. While this isn't a huge deal, I really would have preferred he stay in one place to keep some consistency. Overall, he was cared for so I shouldn't complain but I didn't hesitate when Daycare #2 called saying they had a spot open up for us.

Moving on...

I'll start off by talking about his current teachers. They are all fantastic. There are four throughout the day that are in charge of his classroom. Again, with the judgyness but they are all cute and bubbly and fun and PLAY with the kids. At this place, there is only one infant room with 10 kids total (6 girls: Charley, Ava, Finley, Haylee, Lola and Mia; 4 boys: Sean, Zach, Brayden and B). So this means that he is in the same room with the same teachers, every day. While our old place was only about a 5 minute drive from my work, this is only a 5 minute drive from our house. Therefore, a short commute for Bubs and very little time in the car. I like this (although it was nice for him to be close to my work in case of emergency.) This also means that his current classmates will likely be his classmates when he gets into real school. A big bonus for us.

Another great feature of the new place is that they have locked doors at all times and each parent has their own individual access code. We have to check in on a computer every morning and check out every evening. Also, I've never once had to ask for his daily sheet report. The teacher always makes sure to give it to me while telling me personally about his day. Communication is so much better here. More perks? Tuesdays are music day where the school brings in a special instructor to sing songs and play with instruments. Wednesdays, during the summer months, are for water play. There is a huge playground with grass as well as rubber mulch and they take the kids on walks whenever weather permits. I also really like that late in the day, they have a few high school boys who help with outdoor supervision for the big kids which is nice coming from a parent of a boy. He's around girls all the time, it will be nice to have some more males around.

So overall, we're really happy. Barrett is so independent and loves going there. He gives me the biggest smile when we get out of the car because he knows he gets to see his friends soon. I can put him down and he hardly gives me a second look before I leave.

Like I said, I love it.

Month movies

9 months, 14 days old

Here's another installment of Barrett's month movies. It appears that his 5th month movie was removed by youtube for copy write and I didn't know it so I need to go back and remake it with a new song.

I've already started compiling his big 1 Year movie. Note to self: do not watch old videos unless you want to cry.

Month 8


Month 9

Deck Build: Part 3

9 months, 13 days old

Back again to talk about that never ending project. Good news! We are "this close" to being done. We had originally planned on staining everything before it would be added to the structure but it was such a pain that Joe just started adding in un-stained boards.

This is what it looked like after our last update.


The structure itself was complete. We could walk on it and go in and out of the sliding door. We just couldn't use the stairs or get close to the edge. Since then, Joe added the posts, top and bottom rails, the pickets, and a cap board for the railings. He also completed the stairs by laying down the deck boards, adding more posts for stability as well as the railings and pickets. Of course, we ran out of lumber so he has the last railing on the stairs to construct and it is structurally FINISHED.

Before:


Current: I took these before he had added the railings on the stairs. Under the stairs will be an eventual landscaping bed/retaining wall to hide the concrete footings and bottoms of the posts.



Before:


Current:



Before:



Current:


This is a really bad quick photoshop job of what I am picturing for Phase 2. The brown is a paver patio that will extend out past the current concrete patio. The peach is the retaining walls/landscaping beds with the paver walkway running between.



And onto the details up above...

The lumber that is stained only received one coat. We plan on doing a second coat and maybe some poly in the Spring. Ideally, it would get done before winter but let's get real, we've gotta get the first coat on the rest of the boards done first.

The upstairs access and the sliding door we added. Still need to pick out a light fixture for by the door....And clean. Yuck. Everything in this picture has a layer of dirt, debris and saw dust on it.


The landing to the left of the sliding door before walking down the stairs. Joe made me a gate with some extra lumber so we can let B roam free. (Supervised, of course.)


Looking from the landing area into the whole deck. The size is hard to distinguish here. It is so huge. We'll easily be able to fit a 6 person table with an umbrella and eventually hopefully a lounger.


And finally another view of the stairway side of the deck. I really love how the railings came together.


To Do:
Stain (Ugh)
Add final stair railing
Pick out and install light fixture
Add furniture
Scrub all the things! and pick up the random crap


You guys can expect one final installment when it is all complete (hopefully sooner than later)!

Project 365: Week 28

9 months, 11 days old

07-09-12

Flying high with Dad

07-10-12

Our newest book for the month came in the mail. Barrett is so enthralled with feeling the pages. He thinks that the pictures are real things he can touch.

07-11-12

This morning, Baby boy decided he would wake up and stand while he yelled for Dad to come get him. Looks like we need to lower to mattress again!

07-12-12

Sit, stand, sit stand, sit, stand.

07-13-12
I suck. Thought I took a picture today but while uploading them, it appears I did not.

07-14-12

B celebrated Baby girl Blythe today!

07-15-12

We spent a big chunk of our day in the pool today. Bubs woke up from his nap and was very stoic about the whole thing for a while.

Big boy pool

9 months, 8 days old

I've talked about how B is a fan of the water and this summer we have had our fair share of time in the water. He isn't afraid at all which I am so thankful for. I think his love for the big pool is a combination of being outside and also being around people. Whenever we are in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's, there are sure to be others around. He is never short on playmates.







He has been dunked quite a few times to get him even more comfortable in the water. Unfortunately with his chronic ear infections, I've been avoiding this recently. No need to increase the fluid problem even further. We'll see how he does as time passes, but for now, he does not like it one bit.





Besides just getting dunked, Barrett does not like to lay on his back. We try to practice his floating skills each time he's in there and he does not like it. Otherwise, he loves it all. He'll sit or lay on his stomach on the top step and splash around. He'll stand on the second step all by himself and this usually leads to him trying to put the railing in his mouth.







He really loves to sit on noodles and other floaters and he loves to lay his stomach in the water while we pull him through the water. Although, he does think that he should lick the water when he's on his stomach which has resulted in some choking incidences.





He's our water baby!

Dada

9 months, 6 days old

I knew I would forget to write about this during his 9 month post but it still needs to be documented. (And really it deserves it's own post so this works.)

Barrett said his first word, Dada, a few weeks ago and since then he's added in Baba. His teachers comment that he is a very vocal kid because he's pretty much constantly making noises. He doesn't use his words in the right context yet (it's definitely just babbling) but it's good to hear him putting sounds correctly together. Here's the crappy cell video I managed to capture.

Project 365: Week 27

9 months, 4 days old

07-02-12

Bedhead before bed

07-03-12

Barrett has a playdate with his stuffed friends while Mom put away laundry.

07-04-12

In honor of the Fourth, I put together one of Bubs new toys.

07-05-12

B is absolutely obsessed with walking. All he wants to do is hold your hand so he can walk around.

07-06-12

I didn't capture this on purpose but well....when you gotta go, you gotta go.

07-07-12

Big boy bath

07-08-12

Growing up, us Eckhoff girls were in love with the "We Sing" series of movies. Aunt Allyson got Barrett "We Sing in Sillyville" for Christmas so I opened it this afternoon. He was MESMERIZED for like 30 minutes and hardly flinched.