Project...uncompleted

As always, the timeline I have in my head for completing a project is completely different from John's timeline. Apparently, mine was a little unrealistic. Imagine that. But, there was progress this weekend...

I almost hate sharing this picture. The before of our TV alcove. From the beginning, we always meant to do something to fix this area...almost 5 years later....


The cabinet in pieces. Stained and ready to go. John is attaching the backing to each piece.


William is organizing the screws for Daddy.


Big helper...


"Enough watching! I want to do it!"

"You go ahead, I got this...."

Oops...you'll have to turn your head. The TV alcove all cleaned out.

Here comes more help - with his hammer!

The lower part of the cabinet fits (after removing molding...)


Then we decided we needed to paint the walls on the sides of the cabinet...

Shucks! Turn your head again! Here we think the painting is done and the lower cabinet piece is installed. Can you figure out where needs more paint?


Where we are at right now. Both pieces of the cabinet are installed, some painting is done. Trim has been measured, carpet cut. Shelves are measured...and we are sort of at a standstill as we work out the finer points of the shelves (if anyone asks, I am right). Progress was made this weekend.


Busy busy busy busy....





And William practices standing.....


More standing - this time without a spotter...

New trick: opening closet doors. I'm not sure that we're excited about this one...

This may be the only post this week as we are leaving Tuesdayish for our wild Thanksgiving trip (MO, IA, MN, MA, RI). I have lots of laundry, packing, wrapping of gifts and general worrying to do! Unless William starts walking or reading, expect to hear from us Tues/Weds!

You thought I was kidding about those bubbles...

The rest of this post is not for the faint of heart. John and William spent some boys time together Saturday morning and tried to out snot each other. Unfortunately, William is unable to operate the camera, so we only have pictures of William and his bubbles....

FYI for anyone hoping to spend any time with us next week: when you go to wipe his nose, he gets quite upset which causes his nose to run and make the situation even worse. Wipe at your own risk.

PS What? You thought I was above posting snotty pictures of my kid? Think again.

My kid can blow bigger snot bubbles than your kid

I think that says it all. Snot is flowing full force here. Baking, packing, shopping, washing, and wiping of noses all going on high speed around here. Big project coming near completion. Maybe we'll have some real pictures up tomorrow? We're teaching confirmation tomorrow - I need to go study...

A Round of Applause Please

We were all laying around on the floor in William's room. John and I were discussing various adult topics such as: who was the coolest smurf (Handy or Smurfette - I'll leave it to you to figure who was arguing for who) and which animal noise on one of William's toys makes the most realistic noise when something amazing happened. William turned to John and said "Dada dada." Very clearly speaking to the plastic bat in his left hand. We have been trying to make a big deal out of these types of occurences thinking it might transfer into him being able to identfy us by name one day. Names of course being "Mama" and "Dada". As we cheered, William got a huge grin on his face and let the plastic bat drop to the ground...and clapped his hands together. Just like we were doing. This, of course made us clap and cheer more loudly then before. William paused for a moment and looked at us as if we had both managed to loose our minds at the exact same moment before bouncing himself up and down and giggling like crazy. And then clapped his hands some more. Every time he clapped his hands, we cheered and clapped for him. Every time he looked at us like we were just a little nuts before joining back into the clapping celebration. Kind of cute when your kid thinks you're a little crazy.

At different point throughout the day, we would try to encourage him to clap some more and practice this vital skill. However, every time we would start clapping to encourage him, he would look up with a surprised look from whatever he was doing and look at us like "Hey guys, really it isn't that impressive that I just..... [insert lame activity here]" He was convinced to join our craziness a few other times and clap with us. I got the feeling he was just kind of humoring us though.....oh well. It's about time he started learning to humor the craziness at this house.

Do Over

Okay, yesterday we took pictures outside and they were alright. The light was really bugging me and instead of pulling up the photo editing program, I decided to give it another try. Not sure these are better - but the bad lighting isn't the problem this time.

Beautiful Fall Day!

We had a very pretty day today with just the right amount of leaves on the ground in our backyard for some pictures. William was way more interested in the leaves than looking handsome for me. The strong sun gave us some problems, but I still think we got some cute ones!

Then we moved further back into the trees

Peeka- BOO!

My newest favorite picture of William. Don't you wish you were this happy? About a blanket and someone yelling "Peek-a-boo" at you for the 565735435241324687th time today?

William has been playing this peek-a-boo game for quite some time. It has evolved from a simple kind of game into something, well still simple but more complex. It began with peeking at each other around the couch and William dissolving into giggles. It has changed into hiding his face against all type of objects (toys, carpet, blankets, hands, etc) and calling for one of using his special "Mama/Dada/cat/grandma/grandpa" all purpose word "Ehh!" Although this word doesn't look like much written down, it is very distinct from other sounds he makes. I can now tell when he is starting to get worried about where I am when he can't see me because he crawls around saying "Ehh!" Anyway, he calls for us and when we reply "William?!" he pops his head back up and we say "Peek-a-boo!" Giggles follow. Every single time. The old couch type of peek-a-boo is also still good for a laugh every single time. In this last week, the game has progressed to hiding other objects. He'll take a toy and hide in the fold of his blanket. Before you can finish saying "Where did it go?", William will be reaching into his blanket to pull the toy out. Giggling the whole time. Hours are spent daily playing different variations of this game.


We've been working to get this on video for at least a month without much success. Either he is being cuter than we ever thought possible or we are laughing until we about wet our pants. Enough enjoying the moment: must document.

Hiding: Where IS William? Can you find him?

Oh quit being lazy, just turn you head! Sometimes we need to stop and play with whatever we are hiding for a little while.

Hiding with some help from mama. I know this one is blown out, but I know you all can pretend like it isn't.


And the reveal: Peek-a-boo


Hiding again!

Trying to play while hidden. Very sneaky.

PS Regarding the pants situation: We are having a little bit of a squished banana problem over here. We are LOVING being able to put the bananas into our mouth by ourself, but one of the slippery suckers always ends up under him somehow. I guess I'm going to have to do laundry. Or buy more pants....