Holy cow! I just finished my second day of the P90X program. I lost track of the number of times I said "oh good lord" when he showed what we were supposed to do, or that we had to do the whole routine a second time. I think I managed to stay at about 90% of my ability through the whole routine, and I stuck it out for the whole 48 minutes off plyometrics. By the way, plyometrics means lots of jumping. Urk.
Only 88 more days to go.
I think I'm going to bed now.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
My Baby Is Growing Up
I know, he's only 15 months old. But tonight he decided that he wasn't going to sit in Mama's lap tonight and eat his bedtime cracker and have his cup of water. And don't even think about reading books tonight. It made me sad. I was just thinking the other night about how comfy he was tucked into my lap and arm at bedtime, how small he was and how he fit in there just right. Hopefully it's just a short phase and he'll be back to sitting in my lap soon.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Accidents and Colds
Monday we had an accident at the house. I had a big glass pitcher of sun tea on a towel on the countertop. I didn't think the towel was in reach of little hands. I was wrong.
Daniel called me to say that Declan had pulled the towel down, dropped the pitcher on our tile floor, and when he went running in there, he slipped on the wet tile, fell and wrenched his back, and barely kept from kicking Declan into the cabinets. Urk.
So I took off from work to come home and clean up. I don't know how they avoided getting cut on the glass, but happily, no one was seriously hurt. Except the pitcher.
Then on Wednesday, Daniel came down with a nasty cold, and by Thursday, it was bad enough I had to stay home from work. Now on Saturday, it seems he's passed his cold to both Declan and myself. Tomorrow, I have to get on a plane to Denver, and he's going to be home with a sick baby all week by himself. ugh. Pity us both.
Daniel called me to say that Declan had pulled the towel down, dropped the pitcher on our tile floor, and when he went running in there, he slipped on the wet tile, fell and wrenched his back, and barely kept from kicking Declan into the cabinets. Urk.
So I took off from work to come home and clean up. I don't know how they avoided getting cut on the glass, but happily, no one was seriously hurt. Except the pitcher.
Then on Wednesday, Daniel came down with a nasty cold, and by Thursday, it was bad enough I had to stay home from work. Now on Saturday, it seems he's passed his cold to both Declan and myself. Tomorrow, I have to get on a plane to Denver, and he's going to be home with a sick baby all week by himself. ugh. Pity us both.
Beat the Heat in Houston
Summer is here. It's in the 90s, both temps and humidity. Ugh. When I step outside in the morning, it's so still, hot and oppressive. It actually feels better to me at noon, when the breeze is moving a bit. We've had a few thunderstorms, enough to save my lawn for a few more weeks. But otherwise, we're looking for fun things to do indoors.
Like the new toy I gave to Declan? I was doing some woodworking in the garage, and he's been enjoying toting our old broom around behind him. Well, the broom was too big for him, and he was knocking things over. So I put in on my miter saw and chopped it down, then I cut the icky bottom part of the bristles off, and voila! A new toy broom for Declan. Now I just have to teach him to use it. :) (Ignore the whole pantless thing. He was indoors and it's hot, so tshirt and diaper may be the uniform of the day during summer.)
If it's not too hot after dinner, and there's a good breeze going, we'll take him to the little (and I mean pathetically little) playground near the pool. It's falling apart and would fit inside my living room, but he doesn't know any better. First, there's the cool wagon ride down there.
Then he gets to play in the sand.
The slide is fun. No matter which way you go down it.
He really likes the swing.
Last Sunday, we decided to beat the heat by going to the Children's Museum. Unfortunately, it was a free day at the museum, so everyone was there.
But it gave Declan a chance to play with, or around, other toddlers. It was fun watching him interact. When he wanted to play with the doors, and someone else was in the way, well, he'd just push them out of the way. Because it's all about him. So we'd make him take turns, even though I know he didn't understand why we let some other kid play with HIS toy.
Driving down the road.
His favorite thing this trip were the miniature scenes behind various doors and screens.
Putting pegs in holes. He's much better at it now.
And of course, the sink is still a big hit.
It's very hard to get a good picture of a sleeping baby. Declan is such a light sleeper, he wakes up at the first picture.
Thursday, we went to a local park in the morning, and the first thing was saw was a turtle.
All this grass to run and play on, and he wants to sit in the parking lot playing with a drink lid.
It may look like he's enjoying running on the grass.
Don't be fooled.
In actuality, he's running toward the pond as fast as he can trundle. Until I redirect him to the bleachers, when he has fun running along them and exploring the tall grass.
Like the new toy I gave to Declan? I was doing some woodworking in the garage, and he's been enjoying toting our old broom around behind him. Well, the broom was too big for him, and he was knocking things over. So I put in on my miter saw and chopped it down, then I cut the icky bottom part of the bristles off, and voila! A new toy broom for Declan. Now I just have to teach him to use it. :) (Ignore the whole pantless thing. He was indoors and it's hot, so tshirt and diaper may be the uniform of the day during summer.)
If it's not too hot after dinner, and there's a good breeze going, we'll take him to the little (and I mean pathetically little) playground near the pool. It's falling apart and would fit inside my living room, but he doesn't know any better. First, there's the cool wagon ride down there.
Then he gets to play in the sand.
The slide is fun. No matter which way you go down it.
He really likes the swing.
Last Sunday, we decided to beat the heat by going to the Children's Museum. Unfortunately, it was a free day at the museum, so everyone was there.
But it gave Declan a chance to play with, or around, other toddlers. It was fun watching him interact. When he wanted to play with the doors, and someone else was in the way, well, he'd just push them out of the way. Because it's all about him. So we'd make him take turns, even though I know he didn't understand why we let some other kid play with HIS toy.
Driving down the road.
His favorite thing this trip were the miniature scenes behind various doors and screens.
Putting pegs in holes. He's much better at it now.
And of course, the sink is still a big hit.
It's very hard to get a good picture of a sleeping baby. Declan is such a light sleeper, he wakes up at the first picture.
Thursday, we went to a local park in the morning, and the first thing was saw was a turtle.
All this grass to run and play on, and he wants to sit in the parking lot playing with a drink lid.
It may look like he's enjoying running on the grass.
Don't be fooled.
In actuality, he's running toward the pond as fast as he can trundle. Until I redirect him to the bleachers, when he has fun running along them and exploring the tall grass.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Declan Doings
Why haven't I been posting lately? Let's see...I've been making furniture, watching "Lost", making baby toys and clothes, sleeping, cooking, and even playing some games. It's absolutely impossible for me to get on my computer when the little guy is awake, because he insists on crawling under the computer, turning it off, grabbing the mouse, or insisting on getting on my lap and playing with the keyboard. Then in the evening when he goes to bed, I have so many other things to do. I can do a blog post from the laptop, but I need to sit at my desktop to actually upload and play with pictures. Well, mostly. I sneaked in some picture editing time today. Shhhhh.
So I thought I'd do a big ol' post with all the pictures and things we've been doing lately.
We went to the Greek festival a few weeks ago. Wasn't that interesting, unfortunately, and not much place for a little guy to run around. They had some kiddie rides, but he's not big enough for them yet. He wanted so badly to do the inflatable slide, but it was way too big for him. So instead, he settled for getting underfoot of the bigger kids and playing with their shoes whenever he could get away from us. He did find one little playmate for a while though.
I was getting tired of pushing Declan around in his stroller. He had to be fastened in, couldn't move much, and we couldn't ever see him. Plus it didn't hold much and was hard to maneuver over rough terrain. So we ended up buying a little red wagon, and we went fancy. We got the all-terrain rubber tires, on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm glad we did. It handles great and is nice and quiet. We put Declan in it, with a couple of blankets, and he absolutely loves riding in it. The first time we put him in it, he leaned back and draped one arm over the side and was all "look at me, I'm so cool. Oh yeah, the ladies love a guy with a smooth ride."
One night we had corn on the cob, which was delicious by the way. Just for fun, I gave an ear to Declan.
"What a cool toy!"
"What, me? I didn't give it to the cat. Nope."
This is one of his favorite daytime activities: Pull all the DVDs out of the rack and scatter them around. Then he likes to carry one to Daniel or me, so we can "read" the DVD to him. I guess they look like his baby books. The other day, he brought me "Team America" to read. Yeah, I gave him a very edited version. :)
Declan wants YOU to eat your dinner!
What do you do when it's hot out and lots of mosquitos, and you don't want to go to the pool? You make your own baby pool with shredded paper.
It was a big hit. I still have paper bits scattered around though.
Testing out his drumming skills:
On Memorial Day Sunday we went to Galveston Beach. Figured we should go at least once before the beach gets oiled and Declan never gets to play there again. Bleah.
Anyway, he loved the beach. At first, he just sat in the surf, or held onto Daniel's leg. Then after a while, he would run into the surf up to knees, turn around and run back, then repeat over and over. I wouldn't have minded so much except that there were a ton of little jellies washing up on the beach, and it was hard to try and steer him around them all. I didn't want him to get a sting.
Oh, if you're wondering why his face looks funky, you try putting sunscreen on a squirmy toddler.
So I thought I'd do a big ol' post with all the pictures and things we've been doing lately.
We went to the Greek festival a few weeks ago. Wasn't that interesting, unfortunately, and not much place for a little guy to run around. They had some kiddie rides, but he's not big enough for them yet. He wanted so badly to do the inflatable slide, but it was way too big for him. So instead, he settled for getting underfoot of the bigger kids and playing with their shoes whenever he could get away from us. He did find one little playmate for a while though.
I was getting tired of pushing Declan around in his stroller. He had to be fastened in, couldn't move much, and we couldn't ever see him. Plus it didn't hold much and was hard to maneuver over rough terrain. So we ended up buying a little red wagon, and we went fancy. We got the all-terrain rubber tires, on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm glad we did. It handles great and is nice and quiet. We put Declan in it, with a couple of blankets, and he absolutely loves riding in it. The first time we put him in it, he leaned back and draped one arm over the side and was all "look at me, I'm so cool. Oh yeah, the ladies love a guy with a smooth ride."
One night we had corn on the cob, which was delicious by the way. Just for fun, I gave an ear to Declan.
"What a cool toy!"
"What, me? I didn't give it to the cat. Nope."
This is one of his favorite daytime activities: Pull all the DVDs out of the rack and scatter them around. Then he likes to carry one to Daniel or me, so we can "read" the DVD to him. I guess they look like his baby books. The other day, he brought me "Team America" to read. Yeah, I gave him a very edited version. :)
Declan wants YOU to eat your dinner!
What do you do when it's hot out and lots of mosquitos, and you don't want to go to the pool? You make your own baby pool with shredded paper.
It was a big hit. I still have paper bits scattered around though.
Testing out his drumming skills:
On Memorial Day Sunday we went to Galveston Beach. Figured we should go at least once before the beach gets oiled and Declan never gets to play there again. Bleah.
Anyway, he loved the beach. At first, he just sat in the surf, or held onto Daniel's leg. Then after a while, he would run into the surf up to knees, turn around and run back, then repeat over and over. I wouldn't have minded so much except that there were a ton of little jellies washing up on the beach, and it was hard to try and steer him around them all. I didn't want him to get a sting.
Oh, if you're wondering why his face looks funky, you try putting sunscreen on a squirmy toddler.
A Seashell Picture
I was inspired by a picture on another blog. Give me a moment and I might be able to tell you exactly who.
I found this old, beat up frame at my local thrift shop for $0.25. Awesome! Just what I was looking for - something that was weathered and beat up. The fact that it didn't have any glass was actually a plus for this project.
I decided I wanted to white wash it, to give it that beachy, weathered look. When I first painted it, I thought the paint was still too thick, and I kept watering it down. After it dried, it was actually a little too watered for what I was originally going for, but it was good enough and I didn't want to redo it. I thought I might end up with too much paint, and for this, less is more.
I cut a piece of heavy cardboard from a discarded diaper box and wrapped it in some burlap. Glued it to the back of the wooden frame.
Then I pulled out my sea shells. I had some from a couple trips to the beach, some from a $0.75 cent bag of shells from the same thrift shop, and I actually shelled out (ha ha) $2 for the star fish from a craft store. I played around with the placement until I was happy, then used my trusty glue gun to stick them down.
I used a 3M command strip to hang it to my wall, since I was worried about hitting wires in this particular location.
All in all, I'm quite pleased with how it came out. It's my favorite sort of project. Easy, cheap, entirely hand-made, and looks good. What's not to love?
(BTW, Thanks to Funky Junk Interiors for giving me some tips on resizing photos in Blogger. Very nice.)
I found this old, beat up frame at my local thrift shop for $0.25. Awesome! Just what I was looking for - something that was weathered and beat up. The fact that it didn't have any glass was actually a plus for this project.
I decided I wanted to white wash it, to give it that beachy, weathered look. When I first painted it, I thought the paint was still too thick, and I kept watering it down. After it dried, it was actually a little too watered for what I was originally going for, but it was good enough and I didn't want to redo it. I thought I might end up with too much paint, and for this, less is more.
I cut a piece of heavy cardboard from a discarded diaper box and wrapped it in some burlap. Glued it to the back of the wooden frame.
Then I pulled out my sea shells. I had some from a couple trips to the beach, some from a $0.75 cent bag of shells from the same thrift shop, and I actually shelled out (ha ha) $2 for the star fish from a craft store. I played around with the placement until I was happy, then used my trusty glue gun to stick them down.
I used a 3M command strip to hang it to my wall, since I was worried about hitting wires in this particular location.
All in all, I'm quite pleased with how it came out. It's my favorite sort of project. Easy, cheap, entirely hand-made, and looks good. What's not to love?
(BTW, Thanks to Funky Junk Interiors for giving me some tips on resizing photos in Blogger. Very nice.)
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