Category: Uncategorized (Page 24 of 40)

Here’s a gallery of the winning snaps from the Big Christmas Events.

Thank you so much to all of you for the wonderful and thoughtful gifts you sent!

And thanks for Dad for trekking all the way out here. We loved having you here and you were such a big help when Jeff was down with influenza.

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And Happy New Year! I know it’s a bit belated but you may enjoy hearing Adam Dunning’s “Happy New Year.”

D’s language and comprehension skills are so acute now that we really have to watch what we say, since not only will he repeat us but he seems to understand almost every word.

It seemed time to come up with a phrase to say when things don’t go your way…

Click here to watch the video if your browser doesn’t yet support HTML 5…otherwise you should see the video embedded with controls below.

Yesterday we were sitting by the Christmas tree when a rap at the door signaled a delivery…oh how exciting, a box marked “Perishable!” Well that must be opened immediately, so the boys went to work…

Many thanks to Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Ed for this sweet holiday gift, the opening of which is here, documented in two parts.

(note that Grandpa Don also received credit from Dashiell–I guess he didn’t want Grandpa Don to feel left out.)

Part I

Part II

Dashiell is so proud of his (now) long record of pottying on the potty. Since Fall began and we started potty training he’s made great progress, and on most days we have 100% success (except at night, of course. Have I mentioned lately how this boy sleeps 13+ hours a night and takes a 3 hour nap on weekends? The sleep gods are paying me back, and more).

And his speech has skyrocketed. Everyday he utters a sentence with words in it I never heard him say before. I have to work on writing them down, because I always forget them, I think because I am so distracted by my astonishment.

A couple weekends ago Miss Ashley from school came to babysit while Jeff and I went on a lunch and Christmas shopping date. Miss Ashley must have put his toddler potty right on the toilet, because after her visit, he insisted his floor potty be placed up on the adult potty. This new height causes some trajectory problems, however, and so D has been working on the new skill of aiming…

I think there’s something about being up high that makes Dashiell feel important and confident. The other day, while up on his throne after his nap, he said, “Take my picture!”

(he then insisted on seeing how he looked by previewing the shot on the camera).

I guess this interest in how he looks on camera is no surprise; obviously we take a gazillion pictures and movies, then we have them playing on the TV sometimes through Apple TV. I hope we are not creating a serious narcissist. On the other hand, having the photos on the TV is better than watching TV, and it helps him remember the names of our family members.

Yesterday, we were at Starbucks (“cafe!”) having a midmorning snack (on Saturdays we often do this; sometimes at the New Seasons cafe if we are also doing the shopping) and D cried out, “Aunt Amanda!” when he thought he had spotted her in the coffee crowd. It’s been observed that we “see” the people we miss in strangers; I know D misses you, Amanda (and “cousin” Victor, too, whom he loves to point out in photos).

For Christmas (and my birthday, and Mother’s Day), I’m getting new kitchen countertops, hooray!

As many of you have heard me complain, the wooden countertops are beautiful to look at but hard to maintain and too easy to damage. They have to be sanded annually and re-oiled for optimum preservation, but who has time to do that? Worse than that, they are not level, so water pools on them and mildew grows there. Yuck!

The previous owners of this house did a lot of amazing work remodeling it. But they did it all themselves and their inexpertness in certain areas is starting to show. For someone who cooks as much as I do, the mold on the countertop is a show stopper.

Something had to be done!

Both Home Depot and Lowe’s said they couldn’t install the new countertops until the bottom row (at least, if not more) of backsplash tile was removed, and Home Depot was going to charge me $700.00 – $1,000 to do it for me, and couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t wreck the wall behind the tiles, which I would then have to pay more to have repaired. The nice folks at Lowe’s gave me the confidence to try to do it myself.

So this week I saved $1,000 and learned to remove ceramic tile myself (that is: taking one’s time, very carefully and slowly–no wonder people charge so much. It’s not hard–you just have to take your time).

I started with a simple grout removing hand tool then graduated to a power tool–I am now a proud owner of a Dremel 200, which is so much fun to use. Drilling away each tiny section of the grout cement made me think of my dentist removing my crown this summer, and I realized I liked the detail work involved in working with small power tools. Maybe I should have been a dentist or a surgeon…

I do have to rebuild part of a wall in one section (my very first removals, I am getting better as I get the hang of it), but hope the rest will continue to go smoothly.

I think my mother-in-law Beverly knows about all things Dremel and am hoping when she’s in town in January she can show me how to use it to engrave Dashiell’s name into his stainless steel lunch boxes.

(yet another use of the headlamps! way to go Jeff…)

Here we are experimenting with a new cookie recipe. These were fun to make with Dashiell; since they didn’t contain eggs, he could eat all the raw dough he wanted!

The cookies didn’t turn out all that great (sweetened with maple syrup, they were too sweet for us) so they went to Jeff’s office where they were gobbled up.

Hmmm…did I forget to add the salt?

Oh what an exciting outing: a trip on a steam train to see Santa Claus! (video still to come…)

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I took this video this morning. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a cold foggy morning. If only I could play with him all day…

We pulled out the Christmas music box Grandma Sherry sent last year; now that he’s older, he can appreciate it more (although he still wants to pull out the figures and play with them). D has been carrying it around–even bringing it to the potty with him (a sure sign of fascination) and asking me to “‘ind it again” when it runs low).

Grandpa Ed & Grandma Sherry sent an exquisite gingerbread house that has been at the center of the table–and the center of conversation–since it arrived. When D comes downstairs in the morning and sees it on the table he inevitably gasps, “Woah, ‘innerred house!” Every night he is allowed to tear off one section as his dessert, and he gets one section in his lunch–wow! The gumdrops used are the real old-fashioned kind with flavors reminiscent of another, less industrial, time–orange ones are clove, purple licorice, and the white ones are mint. Yum! Thanks for this memorable and tasty gift.

D likes very much to name or collect things in a series; if he’s going to line up his cars to play “Crossing Gate,” he first gathers them all, then names them all, and only then can he line them up in an orderly way, with one as the designated “driver” or leader. If he can’t remember the name of a new car or old train he’ll say “This..??” Sometimes he’ll now say “what is…” or “who is…” this. Names of things are important but so is their quantity; perhaps one day he will own a fine collection of vintage sports cars.

Here is a sweet example of the naming of things.