Christmas Pictures

Short and sweet: Grammy and Papa came up the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with us (because of the baby coming soon, we didn't travel anywhere). Iain had fun helping everyone open his/her presents! And he LOVES his "treehouse," a platform fort with a slide from Grammy and Papa. On Saturday, Yaya (Jeremy's grandmother) and Aunt Gloria stopped by, and that night we went out for dinner at Mimi's. Iain got to sit in a seat that allowed him to look at the big real drumset they have perched on a tiny balcony near the ceiling - he loved that.




Christmas proper was spent with my family. Iain seemed to thrive on the chaos that always ensues when so many people (and so many little ones) are together. I'll have some better pictures soon - my flash wasn't working well.
Iain is talking lot lately. He says the first sound to many words: bath, ball, down, up, out, in, on, banana, Nona, Nan, dog, cat, snack, walk, watch, etc. Dog sounds like " doe" always said in a very deep voice, snack is "nack," and Nan is "nanananan." He also says Haylee ("ee-lah") and Kelsey ("klah"). Are those all the new words? I'm sure I'm forgetting some. He can make a sssssss sound and a rrrrr sound and a w sound. He often repeats words we're using. It's so fun to watch his language develop so fast.

The other day, he put his Christmas bear into the stroller, said "walk," and was on his way, pushing the bear along!
He got this hat from Jenna, the jacket from Kelsey, and the ball from Haylee - too cute! And lately, he makes this goofy grin whenever a camera is pulled out - especially if you tell him to say cheese.

One more picture: doesn't he look like Micah here?
Well, that's all the one-handed typing I care to do with a wiggly worm on my lap. Maybe the next entry will be a baby announcement!

Busy Week(s), part two

I know I said we'd be back in a few days... and that was weeks ago. We've been so busy we haven't had much time to think. Here's the run-down: the day of the last post, we got the carpet down in the new room. You'll see a picture of it in a second. We couldn't be on the carpet for a few days because of the toxic fumes and all that yuck. The next day, Jeremy and I moved everything out of Iain's room, our room, the study, and the living room and washed all the carpets with one of those rental things. It was so good to get the construction dirt out. But it was SO MUCH work. We spent the night at Mom's because there was no where to sleep as all the carpets were still wet. The next several days were mostly spent moving back in. We switched up all the rooms so Iain has our old bedroom (furthest to the back and hopefully the quietest), we are now in the old study (the biggest bedroom outside of the new room), and Jeremy is in Iain's old room. It was a lot of work too, moving everything - almost like moving into a new house. Anyway, I'm sure you all were anxiously awaiting all those details.

A few pictures of the little ham helping his dad in the new room:



Here's a picture of Iain celebrating the new carpet with one of those things you blow and they unroll....

And just to catch up, some Thanksgiving pictures. Here's Iain helping me make cookies (oatmeal carmelitas, thank you to Lauren!).

We spent the holiday with Jeremy's family. It was a very nice few days. Iain here is hugging Sanford's tail, playing with Uncle Phil and Kelly, and hiding in his favorite spot: under Grammy's school desk. He found a tin under there, and a gavel, and you can just imagine what he does with those.



Since Thanksgiving, we've been working on the house (what's new?), getting over a nasty stomach bug (which of course we all caught at once), and working on Grammy's birthday surprise. We made her an apron and drove down for a surprise visit, along with Phil and Kelly. Phil cooked a delicious meal for everyone.

When I say "we" made her an apron, I mean it. Everyone helped - even Jeremy! :) He turned one of the ties right-side out, and played with Iain so I could cut out. Here's what Iain did:

And here's Grammy playing ride a little pony with Iain. She had a different version yet!

And now Christmas is almost upon us. Iain LOVES the lights and Christmas trees, yelling until we acknowledge them whenever he sees any. He's also very into birds of any kind, garbage trucks, and school buses (no sign of him being afraid of them yet... *wink to my sisters*).
Newby is doing well, and we're anxious to meet him or her. Soon!

One more story, just so I don't forget to put it up later. There's a place around here that has a walk around a lake, and courtyards, etc. They had a big event where they were going to light up the Christmas lights placed all around the lake. Because of Iain's love of Christmas lights, we decided to take him. Well, it turned out to be a much bigger deal than just lighting the lights. They had balloon animal makers, face paint, live music, etc. We thought he'd like to see the singer/dancers, but he spotted one girl on the other side of the crowd who had a balloon - a regular one, not an animal. He spent the rest of the show yelling about it, trying to get us to "notice." We finally got him one and he was thrilled. Then, instead of just lighting the lights, they did a firework show and had some "snow" (bubbles) blowing out of something on us. Did Iain care? Nope. He had his balloon. He watched, but wasn't too interested. And the lights that finally got lit? No big deal. He had his balloon. Oh well - we tried.

And if you have read all of this and looked at all these pictures - and if you still even check this blog after all this time - you win!

Busy Week

Sorry, no pictures today. I have some great ones - check back in a few days. Right now, we're up to our ears in the final push on the new room. Tomorrow will be our busiest day yet, but by this weekend, we should be moved into the new room and breathing easier. So this weekend, I'll make up for my lack of posting with some good stories/pictures. See you then!

Helping Dad

Well, the little man has been sick for the past five days or so. A nasty cold and fever, and a swollen gland on his neck that got to be very big. As in, have-my-mom-come-down-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-look-at-it big. It's started going down a little bit, and he hasn't had a fever today for the first time since Sunday. He's still congested and has a runny nose and a cough, but I think he's on the mend. It's been a long week for all parties concerned.

So I have no new pictures from this week - he's been looking too pitiful. But here are a few more pictures of my fellows hanging blinds from last week. Note Iain is on the stepstool behind his hero. :) Also note what he's got in his hands: the drill bits. Every time Jeremy would ask for them, he'd give them up... but very reluctantly.


In this one, I think he was going on a lion hunt or something....
And finally, the current favorite game: ride a little pony.

Just out of curiosity, which version do you know?

Jeremy's version:
Ride a little pony, ride him downtown,
Look out, little boy, don't fall down!

My version:
Ride a little pony, go to town,
Please, little pony, don't fall down!

Or another version all together? We must solve the mystery - is the rider to go downtown or simply to town? Who is in danger of falling down?? The boy or the pony??

Dining Room Re-Do

We've been working a lot on finishing up this building project. Last weekend, Jeremy's parents came up to help us paint. John W came over multiple times before the weekend and on Saturday and was a great help, and others came by as well - thanks, everyone! Anyway, the living room, dining room, and addition are all painted and looking terrific. The dining room especially is drastically different, as you will soon see...

Picture number one: the paneling. No offense if you have some in your house and love it, but I am NOT a fan. Glad to have it gone.
Picture number two: what we found underneath. Sea-foam green walls smeared with liquid nails and spotted with large holes in the plaster. This changed the plans a bit because now not only did Jeremy and I have to spend a day and a half scraping liquid nails off the walls, but we realized we'd have to add texture to the walls to cover the remains of the liquid nails and the now-patched plaster. Unfortunately, this meant texturing the living room as well, since there is no good stopping place between the rooms.
Picture number three: priming begins. That's Papa (Jeremy's dad) painting and Jeremy in the background looking happy that he's not painting...yet.
Picture number four: white walls, even just covered in primer, are already an improvement.
Pictures number five and six: voila!

Here's my fellows hard at work hanging blinds. Iain loves to "help." Sorry the colors are so off!
And some cute ones Iain's fairy godmother took today when they went to the park. Isn't he the cutest in his overalls?

By the way, I have to set the record straight for everyone who is disputing it: Iain does say "Aleah." Sorry. She wins. :)

Fun in the New Room

It isn't finished yet, but as far as far as Iain is concerned, it may as well be. This morning, he got to wander around in there for the first time and he LOVED it. Can you tell by the grin that this boy likes nothing better than lots of room to run and play? Too cute!


As far as the house goes, we're painting this weekend (yay!) and will be working on floors and electric next week. It's coming together.

A few cute Iain stories:
When we pray for a meal, we hold hands around the table. Iain likes praying - he reaches his hands out to us and looks at the ground (what is down there, anyway? he thinks). Then after we say amen, we try to get him to say it, too. Usually he does ("mmmmen!"), but a few times, apparently Jeremy's prayers have been too short or something. When we finish, Iain says "g-na, g-na!" ("again, again!") and reaches out his hands. So we pray again. Then, he is satisfied and we can eat. :)

Today, Iain and I were driving in the van - and it was raining. Iain was watching the windshield-wipers. Every time they would go, he'd say "g-na, g-na!" and lo and behold, they'd go again! He thought it was very clever. He sure makes me laugh.

Hunsader Farms

Last weekend, we went down to visit Jeremy's parents and take Iain to Hunsader Farms, a family fall festival/fair-type thing. Iain wasn't feeling very well, but he still seemed to enjoy it, as did we all.
Pumpkin Kid:


These pictures were inspired by Noah's adorable pumpkin pictures! :)
Family Photo:
They had several bands playing throughout the day: country, bluegrass, etc. The stage in front of the stage was for the kids to dance on. I didn't think Iain would want to go up there, as it was mostly bigger kids (about four and up), and he wasn't feeling well. So we all sat down on some benches to listen. Lo and behold, Iain just walked right up to the stage, not even checking to see if I was coming with him (of course, I was!). He crawled up the steps and walked right through the twirling, jumping, dancing mass of kids. Then he stopped right in the middle, in front of the band. He didn't dance, move, or look around; he just stood and watched the band until they finished. Then he tried to climb up onto THEIR stage. What a bold little kid. :)
Iain listening to music with Grammy:
There was a pretty neat butterfly tent there, too.

All in all, we enjoyed the farm. Hopefully next year, we can go again.

Savannah Trip

Get ready for a lot of pictures...

For our third anniversary last week, we took a trip to Savannah. The little man, of course, came along. :) It was a really nice trip - relaxing to be away from the home construction for a little while. We like to stay in B&Bs, but this time we thought a hotel would give us more freedom and be easier with Iain. He really loved the hotel room, for whatever reason. He walked around and around it, carrying his box of wipes. Go figure. We also had hot waffles for breakfast every morning, thanks to the hotel's waffle-maker (which, I learned, you can't buy unless you're a place of business. Too bad. It was nice.).

Anyway, we spent the first afternoon (we got there Monday afternoon, in time for Iain's nap) wandering around looking for a fabled pizza place that Jeremy had heard might exist and might be good. Eventually we found it. It did exist and was good! But by that point, I think rocks would have tasted good. :)

My fellows at the pizza place:

Iain enjoyed walking around this little park. Savannah has tons of these squares throughout the city; they were really nice. This was one of the first times Iain had walked around outside by himself and he enjoyed looking at things and picking up acorns.

Day two: a trolley ride that we did in two shifts because the Iain wasn't cooperating. A walk through the beautiful St John the Baptist Cathedral. Back to the hotel for Iain's nap and for Jeremy to stub his toe, tempering his enjoyment of walking for the remainder of the day. Back out for the second half of the trolley ride. The railway station museum was next. It was basically an abandoned train yard and a few abandoned buildings that you walk through. Iain LOVED the fish pond - one of his favorite things about the whole trip. I think he would have jumped right in if I had let him. He liked pounding on the train, too. Everything is a drum...




Then we went out to dinner at the Pirate House, a restaurant in a building that really did use to be used by pirates. There are tunnels under the building that lead to the river. Pirates could smuggle in contraband rum or smuggle out prisoners (people who had too much to drink and woke up to find themselves on a ship sailing for the far corners of the world). Don't you think I have the cutest pirate around?


On our last day, we wandered around for most of the morning and early afternoon. Iain got to pet the carriage horses - he wasn't at all nervous. We looked at the train in the candy store. We walked down by the river and he and I split an ice cream. We wanted to go in the First African Baptist Church, which had holes cut in the floor for the slaves on the underground railroad, and which was built by the light of bonfires at night, by slaves who had worked in the fields all day. Talk about humbing! But we missed the only tour, so we headed home. It was a really nice trip.


The other news around here is that Iain has moved to one nap a day. He hasn't quite adjusted yet, so much of our morning is spent like this:
But some days we see this instead:
Or this:
And as of today, the last of the drywall is hung and waiting for its second coat of mud and tape. We've chosen the paint colors, tile for bathroom and laundry room, and have started investigating flooring. Soon the texture will go on the walls, then the paint, then we'll really be cooking! We can't wait to get this room done - and before Newby arrives!