Monthly Archives: December 2007

These Are a Few of His Favorite Things

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Houston smiles & giggles while playing on the bed with Mommy. 

One of Houston’s new favorite things is to play on the bed. “Mommy usually starts out by reading to me,” says Houston, “and then she pulls out the toys, encourages me to roll over, helps me stand up, plays tummy time, tickles me, and makes lots of funny faces and noises that I always find quite amusing.”

Houston takes a snooze with brother Stanley.

After that, Houston is pretty worn out. Stanley, who usually comes near for the fun, will snuggle up to Houston for a well-deserved cat nap. The two sprawl out and bask in the comfort of Mommy and Daddy’s bed. And here we thought it would be Stan who would give us the most trouble with our addition to the family. Stanley and Houston couldn’t be better pals!

Houston taking a breather while eating his toes!

And last but not least, Houston absolutely loves to put things into his mouth, especially his toes! (Can you believe we were all that limber at one time?) Click here to see more pics of all the fun!

Installing Laminate is NOT Easy

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The crew (Stephen, Rebecca, Greg & Meredith) after installing laminate all day long on December 8, 2007.

As many of you know, we are doing some DIY home improvements to our house – installing laminate floors to be exact. On December 13, we finally completed the hallway and living room installation – a task that began some nine days earlier! We are taking a much-needed break now and then plan on completing our installation (which will also include our nursery, office and bedroom) after Christmas. You can see some before, during and after photos here. Please bear in mind that we haven’t put down the toe molding or threshold plates, and that our living room is most definitely a work in progress, but you can certainly get the gist from the pics. I can’t believe how much our laminate looks like real hardwood and how much carpet sucks!
The silver lining of the extremely tedious and time-consuming experience (besides, of course, how awesome our floors look) has been how giving, kind and charitable so many folks have been. My parents came down on December 13: my dad helped me rip up carpet and secure the sub-flooring, while my mom tended to Houston. Andy, our friend and Stephen’s boss, lent us a bunch of tools, including the much-used jigsaw and circular saw. Our neighbor, Milt, lent us his nail gun and sander. Our neighbor, Trey, gave us a hand on the evening of December 14 when Milt’s sander wouldn’t get up some glued-down carpet underlayment (his automotive grinder did the trick!) Trey’s wife, Heather, even made and delivered to us a home-cooked steak dinner that night. Our best Greensboro pals, Greg and Meredith, gave us an entire Saturday and Sunday of labor (not to mention a previous Saturday in November that they spent helping us plan the installation). Meredith also spent the night on Sunday and helped me all day on Monday, December 10. After taking our kids on a sunny stroll together, another neighbor, Jessica, sent her former subcontractor husband, Mark, down to see us on Wednesday, December 12; Mark critiqued our work thus far, saying it looked quite meticulous, and added that he would lend us a couple additional saws for round 2 of the installation. Not only have we been lent tools, equipment and manpower, but we have been given moral support and advice, without which we could not have come this far. We are quite blessed. Thanks to all!

Tis’ the Season

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Houston donning his political onesie!

The political  season, that is. Yes, Houston is our little politico, thanks to the awesome onesie given to him by Ashley Bahen.
Well, our boy still has the sniffles a bit, but his cold is much better. I just keep the cool-mist humidifier going in his nursery pretty much non-stop and make sure his nostrils are kept as unclogged as possible, so he’s surviving the fall/winter weather fine thus far. He’s been eating solids twice a day since my last blog about it (turns out my pediatrician said I was doing it right!) and we’ve also added in both fruit and juice once a day. In fact, he successfully ate his first pureed turkey yesterday; he had tried it a few days before, but totally hated it (the cats liked it, though). All the November photos are now available in gallery.
Other big news is that Stephen and I were recruited to play Mary and Joseph in our church’s Christmas play. No, Houston will not be playing baby Jesus ’cause the guy who’s in charge of the production doesn’t want to deal with the possible stress that that would entail. Going to play practice on Monday nights throws Houston off of his sleep schedule for the next day, but he has been a trooper. Plus, it will have been worth the hassle when mommy and daddy win their Oscars!
And the last bit of news if that we’re finally replacing our impossible-to-keep-clean cream carpet with Pergo laminate flooring. That project will start later this week with us ripping up the nasty carpet, reinforcing our subflooring and laying down the underlayment. Gramsey and Papa are visiting to assist with this task; Papa will help with the labor and Gramsey will tend to Houston so that I can help Papa. And then our pals Greg and Meredith are coming over on Saturday to help us install the flooring. I’m sooooo excited; this has been a dream of mine for about a year now and it’s finally happening. Now when Houston pukes on the floor or the cats track in their muddy paw prints, the clean-up will be a breeze!

Houston at two days old with Grumps and Daddy!

There are now more old photos of Houston’s first weeks at home available in gallery.

Houston with Daddy and Papa in late July 2007.

And here are the rest of the Houston photos from July 2007.