Michelle in Texas: Some Stolen Time

I'm taking Declan's precious nap time this afternoon and using it to catch up on email, pictures, blogs, etc, instead of painting the bathroom or doing some cooking. I'm way behind in my pictures and writing. I've been very productive on all other fronts though. :)

I initially gave myself 6 weeks to finish my bathroom, and I think I'll get there. The painting is coming along okay. As I said, I'm sacrificing a couple hours this afternoon, but I'll do it after the little guy goes to bed tonight, instead. I have to give everything 2 coats, and it seems that in this bathroom, there aren't any easy sections. It's either around the vanity, over the tub, behind the toilet. Actually, I'm saving the big flat walls for last. I should probably be changing the light fixtures right now, but no, I said I'd work on this stuff instead. It's light in the evenings now, so I can do it one night after work. I've got the areas around the new lights painted, so I can do it at any time and finish painting later.

Still to do in there: hang the towel bar, find and hang a new toilet paper holder, find or make a new shower curtain, and find a new bathroom rug. Oh yeah, either find or make some new shelves, or paint the old ones and put them back up. And of course, the final clean up. But it is taking shape.

As I'm writing this, the wind is going crazy outside. Another typical Texas wind storm. I don't remember the wind blowing this hard and this frequently in Virginia or Illinois.

So far this weekend, I've managed to bake a butter pound cake (it was an experiment, since my last one flopped), bake more blueberry oat bran mini muffins for the little guy's breakfasts, paint a couple walls in the guest bath, steam some veggies for the week, go to Sam's Club, run the vacuum cleaner, play with my son, cut out fabric to make a shirt for him, hem some of his pants and go to a farmer's market. We didn't get to pick our own strawberries though; the weather was too bad.

Besides learning his first sign, he's making great progress in learning to walk. He can probably walk on his own, but he doesn't have the courage to yet. He can toddle while holding on with just one hand.

Declan's also figured out how to use a spoon, flip a light switch and use a toothbrush. Sorta. Mainly he chews on it, but I figure that's gotta count, right?

Okay, pictures...

We went to a park last weekend and let him crawl around the grass. He thought it was great, although I think he got annoyed that we kept taking the grass out of his hand after he pulled it up. I think he only ate 1 leaf. ;)

"Hey, what happened to the green stuff I grabbed?"

I got him at breakfast one morning. He's like both his parents - he doesn't wake up very fast. He looks like he's thinking, "geez, mom, give it a rest. I haven't even had my bottle yet."

Here he is using a spoon. He got the concept over about a week. It went from him learning to hold onto it, to putting it in his mouth, and today, he got the idea of scooping stuff out of the bowl with his spoon and putting it in his mouth. He's not any good at it, but he getting the idea.