Labor Day Weekend = Hard Labor

After our camping disaster, we had to work to pull our spirits back up as Grandma and Grandpa were coming for the weekend. Really, they were coming to see us (read: William), but we were hoping for a little help in the basement. Usually when we're working on a project on a regular weekend, either John or I work in the basement while the other watches William. When Grandpa and Grandma are here, usually Grandma wrangles William. This means instead of one person working at a time, three people are getting work done. The difference is huge! So, here are some pictures of what was accomplished!

Evidence of progress made:

Bathtub caulked, vanity hardware installed. Shower rod/curtain purchased and vetoed by the installation team.
Floors cleaned, carpet remnant laid out, doors painted, doorknobs installed, bed assembled, windows cleans, ceiling fan installed

Doors/doorways painted. Doorknobs installed! Yes, this means potentially you can actually have some privacy in the bathroom!

Baseboard installed in playroom
More playroom baseboard
Office baseboards installed
More office baseboards The basement is a huge mess - however behind the mess you can see that the great room walls have now been painted! A huge job!
More paint pictures and Grandpa cleaning upThis is a little hard to explain because I don't have a great before picture handy. Basically, the walls to the left of the railing used to be white. There was much discussion and arguing about how to best apply paint to both of the walls to the left of the railing as they are quite challenging to reach. However, with the use of the neighbors ladder and assembly of a painting platform, both walls are now painted.
3 new coach lights installed
Shelves over freezer installed (finally). Now for the hard part of actually going through all the stuff sitting on the basement floor.
Materials for the next project: 1 door frame and several window ledges. The list is getting shorter.....

The Worst Camping Trip. Ever.

Thursday after swim lessons ended, we drove our groaning car to Cuivre River State Park for some good camping fun. I love love camping and John mainly like likes camping. But, we both were excited about experiencing William's first camping trip. John had Friday off of work, the temperatures weren't supposed to be super hot, there was only a 40% chance of rain, and campsites were available at the state park half an hour away from our house. Should be a good time, right?

To start off, I thought I should fill some of you in about the Things I love about camping (this is for those of you who consider camping to be staying at a Motel 6):

-waking up in the cool morning air -realizing I don't have anywhere else to be and snuggling down into my sleeping bag to enjoy the sounds of the morning.
-Waking up together as a family in the same tent. Taking it slow in the morning and talking, snuggling, and really enjoying each other's company.
-The sounds: the wind in the trees, the birds, the crackling fire, the waves hitting the beach
-Hiking the trails with our camera
-Cooking outside
-Eating a lot more junk food than usual (I don't think it is physically possible for us to camp without eating an entire bag of marshmallows per evening)
-Hot chocolate and oatmeal in the mornings
-Being away from everything and spending time together as a family without worrying about: bills, lawn mowing, garbage schedules, laundry, or expiration dates of items in the fridge.
-Hiking socks - I don't know why. They just make my day.


That being said, there are a lot of things I don't love about camping. Mainly, it is a lot of work to get all the stuff you need together and bugs. I know I'm supposed to be a science teacher, but I hate bugs.

So, we drove to the state park and arrived later than planned (I almost always arrive later than planned, it is part of what makes me so attractive). It was almost an hour and a half past dinner time and people were getting crabby. On the way into the park, we decided that dinner was the priority and after that we would focus on setting up camp. We checked in, picked a sweet site near (but not too near) the bathrooms and water and began scrambling around with dinner. Here is where the comedy begins:

-We packed hamburgers to grill on our camping grill. John got everything set up while I chased William. After much grumbling, I went over to find that our propane tank was empty. Which meant no hamburgers.

-But! Wait! No problem! We also packed our lightweight backpacking campstove and we had a number of dehydrated meals options to choose from. So I got William out of the cooking area and went to pay for our campsite. John met me on the road to inform me the last time we bought fuel for the cookstove, we bought the wrong type of canister and the cookstove would not connect to the fuel. Which meant no dehydrated meals.

-It is now almost 8pm and it is starting to get dark. An evening walk along the beach or an exhuastive trip to the camp playground plans were starting to fade. John decided to run to a gas station just outside of the park to see if they have any fuel that will work with either our stove/grill. It is about a 45 minute round trip drive, so William and I stay behind to set up the tent.

-Our tent is super easy to set up. With two people working together. With one person working and the other person pulling the tent poles out or pushing them over, it is an extremely difficult tent to set up. What usually is a 8 minute job took me over 40 minutes to complete. Without attaching the rain fly or staking the tent (forshadowing).

-John returned with fuel (YAY!) and I decide to feed William a banana to delay the hunger induced temper tantrum that has to be just around the corner any minute. Surprisingly, John and I are the ones who are suffering from the hungry crabbiness. We are sniping at each other and trying to hold it together long enough to get food on (the very dirty) picnic table. Surely, once we have food in us, the situation will become humorous instead of horrible. William is more than happy to wander around the campsite and poke the same stick into the same dirt patch over and over again for hours on end.

-On the way back to the campsite, John thought he saw lightning in the distance and to be safe, he grabbed the weather radio out of the car and set it up while he was cooking. Within two minutes, the weather radio was blaring a severe thunderstorm warning with winds in excess of 60 miles per hour. At that point, we started moving a little quicker around the campsite. We put away stuff we were using and weighted down other items - all the while trying to will the hamburgers to cook quicker.

-Within 5 minutes (probably less), the wind around us really picked up. Things started blowing away (like the tent and tarp, in two different directions). Thirty seconds later it was raining. Raining hard and dark because of the clouds and the sun going down. We tossed William in the car to "drive" and threw as much of our stuff into the back of the truck as fast as we could. Everything was soaked, including the tent because it didn't have the rain fly up yet. The car was full of bugs that are forever present at dusk, attracted to the lights in the back of the truck.

-Notice we haven't had anything to eat yet? I fed William a every popular breakfast bar in the car while John attempted to keep the grill going long enough to cook our burgers. It was now after 8:30pm.

-Soon, the burgers were done and there was a mad scramble around in the car trying to find plates and other condiments to eat out of. Everything was wet and a MESS from being blown around not to mention it was no longer organized at ALL. John got a plate, William and I shared a pot lid.

-As we ate and the weather raged around us in the truck (William's comment: "Raining?" Yep, sure is), John and I discussed our options. It was now dark. Everything that was outside is now VERY wet. Given it stopped raining, it was going to be difficult to set up camp in the dark with a busy 19 month old toddler in tow. The rain showed no signs of slowing and our weather radio voices promised several hours of lightning/thunder/small hail/winds into the night. Disappointed, we decided it was time to drive home.

Recap for the lazy reader: We tried to camp. Stuff went wrong. We went home.

Throughout the whole ordeal, William was perfect. He needed a lot of reminders to not climb things like the fire pits or picnic tables or not to wander off into the brush that was taller than him. Other than those reminders, he was very well behaved and happy to roll with whatever was dealt to us. We got home close to an hour after bedtime and I noticed William was filthy. Filthy is fine for tent camping. But, not for crib sleeping. So, into the tub he went (very happily, I might add) and then down to sleep.

All in all it totally stunk, but I think we have a better idea about what will work next time. It can only get better right?



**I would include a picture here, but I didn't even take any pictures - we were too busy running around!

Loose Ends

We are heading into a busy weekend and I'm afraid if I don't get to this now, it will be quite some time. For those of you holding your breath on the edge of your seats, I don't have any new clues about our next project. You'll have to wait until at least next week for that one. In order to efficiently address everything, bullet points is going to be the name of the game tonight:

-Saturday on the Chair- on Sunday evening, William and I were hanging out outside "riding" his bike. I use the term riding loosely because he calls it riding. I call it more like "sitting on the bike and hoping it will roll a few inches down the driveway". A small difference in vocabulary or possibly I'm already unhip enough to not understand the current trend in toddler slang. Anyhow, we were enjoying the cooler weather and the riding of the bike when something unmistakable happened. Please note, I'm about to embarrass my child and scar him for life by sharing this with you. William's face turned red and he made several noises that are reserved only for when he soils his diaper. At this point, it was clear that we needed to go inside and take care of the dirty diaper. Because it was getting late in the evening, I also made the exectuative decision once we were inside that it was now bathtime (because I'm in charge and I can do that kind of stuff), even if it was a little early. I started running the water and pulling out the things we use for a bath (towels, soaps, TOYS, etc) and put William on the small potty chair that currently lives in the bathroom. Up until this point, William has enjoyed sitting on the chair for an average of .00263546874 seconds per bathroom visits. The rest of the time he spends standing on it, putting toys in it and pulling them out again, and tipping it over. This time, he sat and thoughtfully looked at the ceiling. "Go potty" he commented conversationally. "Yes I replied, go potty please." He sat for a few seconds longer and then stood up and ran over to the bathtub. I sighed and glanced behind me and noticed.....he actually went. He went potty in the potty chair. Wild cheering followed by excited phone calls filled the rest of the evening. A quick note though: it is wise to learn how to empty the potty chair before there is actually anything in it. Also noted: although he has sat on the potty many more times since Sunday, we have not had a repeat performance - which was not expected anyway. But a mama can hope.

-Mom/Daddy: Over the last few weeks there has been a pretty big change in how William addresses us. At first I just assumed it was a fluke, but it appears to be more than that. William has started calling me Mom. Not the sugary sweet "Mommy" of the preschool/kindergarten set, but straight to the adultlike "Mom". John is luckier in that he has moved from the sweet baby-ish Dada to the "Daddy". What brought this on? I don't know - but I sure would like to be Mama again.
* Just for kicks the other day when we were driving to our swimming lessons, I asked William "Where is John?" William looked at me for a brief second and pointed at John saying "Daddy". Like duh, mom.

-Pretend Play- Oh how exciting! One of my very favorite things is starting to show up! Imagination and creative play! Observed in the last week:

1. A piece of corn chugga-chugga-choo-chooing its way around William's plate at dinner.
2. A long piece of play-doh turning into a hissing, slithering snake during our play time.
3. Pretend sleeping complete with actual fake snoring.
4. Pretending to eat plastic food - pretending to put it in his mouth instead of actually putting it in his mouth. I was so excited, I almost cried.
5. More enthusiasm for the little pe0ple and their animals - complete with cute barnyard noises.

-The big Helper- In the last week, William has really worked to become a big helper. He brings thing to me when I ask about 25% of the time - which is a 100% increase from before. He also has really liked helping me unload the top rack of the dishwasher* and holding things for me when we go up the stairs. He is so cute with a very proud look on his face when he knows he is helping! We're working on more ways for him to help around the house - John has vetoed letting him run the weed wacker so far.

*Note to self: William can open the dishwasher door by himself and has "helpfully" unloaded the dirty dishes onto the kitchen floor more than once. Need to rethink how "helpful" teaching him this task actually is.


Tomorrow brings us to our last session of swimming classes. William is hoping they'll let him dive off the high dive or teach him how to scuba dive. Tomorrow evening we are going to take a big adventure to a nearby state park to attempt overnight camping. In a tent. With a baby who doesn't sleep unless he is confined by bars of some kind. Yes, in fact, we are crazy. Friday evening the Grandparents McGarry arrive. So, we will be busy. Pictures/stories/updates will follow at the earliest on Monday evening or Tuesday afternoon.

19 Months Old!

William is 19 months old today! We celebrated by going to a swimming lesson, and Culver's for dinner (also in support of our church Youth Group).

Proof that there is a bit of engineer's blood in William.
(Lining up the cars, he has had much longer line ups, but we haven't taken a photo of them yet. Also the cars are almost always facing the same way. Daddy must have messed with it and William must not have noticed yet. )

Almost bedtime - playing with his cars.

Where's William?

There he is! Guess what, there's Mango too!

Smiley 19 month old.

One, Two Three..Ah ah Ah!

Warning: Late at night, very tired blogging. Run on sentences and unfunny jokes are probably ahead. Incoherent, incomplete stories are guaranteed. Read on at your own risk.


As the count (Seasame Street people, come on!) would say "One, Two, Three...ah ah ah!"

William is a counting maniac. He has always like to point (with help) at things and count them, but he has really ramped it up this month. I started to notice at the end of July he would say "One...." and look to me to finish counting the objects he was pointing at. The best object for counting? Cars/trucks/buses of course! We've been counting and counting and counting and counting everything around the house for the last few weeks and slowly we built up to "One, two..." This last week though has brought the number three. Which, makes the geeky teacher inside of me all warm and fuzzy. My kids likes to count. I'd love to teach him to kooky Count laugh to use after the number three, but I'm afraid we will never advance beyond to the number four. Imagine the sad day his fourth birthday will be if he thinks he is turning "ah, ah, ah!". So this week around the house has heard a lot of "One, two.......three...."*

Unfortunately, the communication William is using is becoming clearer and clearer. I would estimate he now easily has well over 100 words. However, he really wears out a few of these words every day. Now that he knows how powerful his words can be, he spends at least 25 minutes out of every hour requesting either "Milk" or "Elmo". Both of which are rationed at this time. Milk is currently rationed (for William) because our doctor reprimanded us at his 18 month appointment for giving him too much milk throughout the day. For reference, our doctor recommends between 18-24 ounces of milk a day for a kiddo William's age. William was easily drinking upwards of 30 ounces a day. Which, I didn't think was a problem. It's healthy, has vitamins and it makes him happy. However, then he wasn't eating as well (or gaining weight as well) because so many of his calories were coming from milk. I knew it was going to be hard cutting the milk down from his diet. I was planning for about 3-5 days of tough love with the milk restrictions. Here we are almost a month later and like a broken record I hear "Milk, milk, milk, milk, milk, mo' milk" all day long. The kid has endurance (nicer than stubborn, don't you think?). The funniest part (to me) is that when I tell him "All done milk" or "No more milk", he'll ask "Juice, water?" "Milk? Juice? Water?" in this pitiful little voice that brings to mind someone who hasn't had a drop to drink for days or weeks.

Elmo is the other rationed commodity around our house. We try to only use Elmo (or TV at all) when we absolutely have to. The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) reccomends kids William's age watch 0 minutes of TV per day until they are 2 years old. At two years, the reccomendation is to watch less than 30 minutes of TV a day. So, I'm working to follow the guidelines. However, sometimes a girl needs to take a quick shower, go to the bathroom by herself, open the oven door without help or complete another task without the help from the toddler tornado. So, we use the Elmo then. But, William is in love with Elmo and would watch him until the drool ran down his chin and he couldn't support his weight on his chunky little legs any longer. I've never tested this scientifically (and never will), but I suspect William would watch Elmo from the time he wakes up until he topples over from exhuastion 12-14 hours later. Without eating, drinking or having a diaper change. So in between the petitions for "Milk? Juice? Water?" will be "Elmo? Elmo?" "Elmo? Milk? Juice? Water?". LIke a broken record all day long...

When his words fail him or when we fail to follow through with what he commands us, he is starting to get physical. He is not patient enough to try and explain it again to you. When he wants something, he'll sigh and grab your hand (is there a sweeter feeling? A warm little hand in yours that isn't pulling away while squealing like a stuck pig?) and say "C'mon" and drag you to the location he would like you to go (usually the fridge for some of the beloved "Milk".**

And to conclude, here are some pictures of what we've been up to this week.

More swimming lessons - next week is the last week. Here he is trying to pick up weighted easter eggs from the bottom of the pool without getting a hair on his head wet.
Still reaching...I love the facial expression in these!
Can you believe I'm posting a picture of myself on the internet in my swimming suit? Here we are practicing our kicking. For the record, William would like me to note that after we practiced our kicking, we worked on perfecting our swan diving from the platforms and then did some backstroke practice. None of that baby stuff.
Just because it is funny. I pulled out this gigantic dog from a closet this week, thinking William might like to roll around on the floor with it. My class won the dog through some school contest we won - I can't figure out why I didn't pawn it off on some poor kid to take home instead of storing in our closet for the last 3 years. Anyway, although William sort of liked it, the cat has now claimed it as his own sleep buddy.
Last weekend we tiled, this weekend was all about the grout. You can see the tile now has grout and the shower fixtures are installed. You can't see that the sink is also working and more importantly, so is the drain! Very close to completion on the "Grandparents' Suite" portion of the basement.
Backdoor entryway has also been grouted - complete!


Annnnddddd....two more clues about our next project. These are tough ones!
Clue #3: If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll see one of the video tapes is labeled "Big Brother"
Clue#4: Our office needs to be moved to the new location in the basement before this can become the future home of William by Januaryish next year...we have a lot of work to do!

*Clarification for those of you who care. The counting is no where near automatic or memorized. It is a laborious process each and every time. The pointing is ridiculously inaccurate. He cannot answer the question how many_______________ do you have and does not really understand what the numbers mean. But he likes the sound of 'em and I think that is cool.

**Enough rambling. Remind me to tell you about the potty chair on Saturday and the evolution of the titles Mom and Daddy at our house, and the beginnings of pretend play.

The Next Big Thing Vol 3

Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes with me knows that I think big. Big plans, big ideas. I'm changing the world from reorganizing the pantry to developing a state wide curriculum for teenage drivers- all inside of my head. It isn't uncommon for me to try and get John to agree to our next vacation destination during takeoff of our current trip. I like big projects and changing things up. There is always at least one or two "Next Big Things" on the horizon at our house. The list of things to do always is longer than the time we actually have to accomplish things. Which is why John is such a perfect fit for me. I am the crazy one who wanted to install a bathroom in our unfinished basement. I was ready to turn off the water and start busting up the concrete when the voice of reason came through. In his quiet way, John recommended researching (gasp!) and not cutting pipes until we had a better plan in place. With my pushing to accomplish and his pushing for perfection it makes for a interesting tug-o-war dynamic at our house from time to time.

This isn't one of those times. John and I have talked through the remaining pieces of the basement finishing and hope to be done by the end of January 2009. With one project coming to a close, how could I resist the temptation to look towards the future? And, we have agreed upon what the next project will be. But, I'm not going to tell you what it is quite yet. I am going to take some pictures over the next week or so and see if you can guess what we are going to do next! Here is your first two clues:

Clue #1: See the Prego Sauce hiding in there?
Clue #2: Don't you see the bun in the oven? You can't see the one in my uterus yet either...

The Next Big Thing Vol 2

I've been quiet this week. There is a lot going on, but it isn't really anything new. This is a post that has brewing for quite some time, only I wasn't sure how to tackle it because it is so big. This was the first week of school here in Missouri and it is hard on me to not go back. This is only the second year that I haven't gone "back to school" since I was 5 years old. Old habits die hard. I miss the kids, I miss my coworkers, I miss the smell of the freshly waxed floors in the hallway, I miss the books and the crazy questions eighth graders think to ask. Earlier this year, I had a post called The Next Big Thing. The Next Big Thing is sort of a family joke around our house. But, that was an important day because that was the day that I resigned my teaching contract with the school district. It was a very difficult decision for me and for us as a family. I didn't write about the specifics that day because I was feeling pretty fragile about my decision and I wasn't sure where I was going next. I haven't even really discussed it with anyone in person either unless they specifically asked about it.

I've been waiting to write about it until I was feeling more comfortable- but I haven't. I had even decided that I wasn't going to write about it here at all. But, this poignant first week of school and the accompanying writer's block have forced the issue. So, I'm not going to say much more. I do have big plans and ideas about what I want to do next. Some things are in the works and many things haven't worked out. I may talk about it here, I may not. We'll have to see how things go.

Now, with that out of the way, I can maybe get out several of the other posts brewing around in my head.