Little Nole

Avery is sporting his Florida State t-shirt today! When he sees Chief Osceola, he starts to sing the Florida State fight song - well he kind of grunts it really... but he lifts his hands over his head in the end with a good 'woooo'. Happy Birthday to Bryan today!!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jason! Our house may be in ruins but there will be cake!

Not Part of the Plan

So here's the thing... The demolition crew (jason) apparently had a miscommunication with the designer/foreman (jen). The picture of the stairway is the result. "Oh, don't take THAT wall down?" Oh yeah, the "core project" is going well. That's what we're calling the project that we set out to do, namely the livingroom and bathroom ceiling and the livingroom floor. The ceilings all look great. Jen has one coat of primer on them all. As for the "extra" (that's what we're calling the still-expanding ancillary project), we now have to attempt our first sheetrocking job in a stairway. It will involve some tricky trim-work too. We'll keep everyone posted, and try to put some pictures of the "core" project soon.

Renovation Update

Today is day three for the contractors.  They managed to get the sheetrock in the living room hung on Monday.  On Tuesday, they hung the sheetrock in the bathroom and mudded both rooms.  Today they’re back to do some sanding.  It looks great so far.  I think they’re scared of Jen, who has had some tough quality control questions for them. 

Happy Spring!

Avery put these leis on himself. I think he was celebrating the start of spring.
Tonight when we asked Avery if he was ready for a bath, he signed 'bath' completely unprompted by us. We show him this sign often during our evening routine but he has never repeated it-this was the first time he signed it. Its amazing how much he is understanding and communicating these days. 

Renovation Day 1: Demolition and Fan Installation

We began the renovation of our livingroom and bathroom ceilings today. First we tore down the ceiling in the bathroom. It's interesting when you do something like this because you get to learn a bit about the history of the house. We discovered that the bathroom used to be about a foot narrower. When the previous owners renovated the kitchen and bath, they moved the bathroom wall about a foot back and then dropped the ceiling a couple of inches. Much of the previous ceiling is still intact. We left all of the strapping in place because the sheetrock can be installed right on it. We removed the old bathroom vent fan and bought an improved (read: supersucker) fan. We managed to get that installed and wired up this afternoon. We had to do a bit of monkey engineering to hang it, since the strapping prevented us from hanging it directly on the joists. I just hung another piece of 2X6 on the side of the joist and put a couple of furring strips up and it worked well.

The contractor starts hanging sheetrock tomorrow. Actually starting this project is giving us some motivation to think about some other projects we'd like to do. We'll keep everyone posted on our progress.

Its Finished!

I finished Avery's sweater last night. Its just a little big for him now which is perfect. Its made of cotton so it should be nice for spring. I'm excited to see him wearing it!

Signing

Avery is signing more and more these days. He loves to watch his Signing Time video!! This morning I asked if he wanted to eat, and he signed 'eat'. Once in his high chair, he signed 'milk', so I gave him a glass of milk and he drank a lot of it! When he finished his last bite, he signed 'all done'. He signed all of these signs without any prompting. We're still working on 'more'. Its really exciting to have him communicate with us before he can talk!

First tooth update, its almost here. The gum has started to break but the tooth hasn't made its way out yet... won't be long.

A Walk in the Woods

We went out for a walk in the woods to find a geocache today. In the process, we found a great new place to take walks. It was a warm day and Avery had fun stopping along the trail to touch the trees. Max was happy to get out and tromp through the woods too. We managed to find the geocache after a bit of searching. We're looking forward to more warm weather like this and getting out into the woods. 

Eating the Cake

Sorry to disappoint... he was fairly tidy with his cake. 

The Frogstomp

Today was Avery's birthday party. Avery had a great time and was happy to see everyone. Thanks to everyone for coming up and spending the day with us! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

One year ago today we holding Avery for the first time. I remember every moment like it was yesterday. It doesn't seem possible that an entire year has passed since his birth! The birthday flag and banner greeted Avery as we arrived at daycare this morning. His friends are very excited to have a birthday party this afternoon. They were all hugging and kissing Avery! We'll have a quiet family celebration this evening Elmo style! We'll post photos this evening. Our sweet baby boy is ONE today, can you believe it?

Almost One

This little man turns one on Thursday! I can't believe a whole year has passed. Avery is really starting to interact with us a lot. We can tell him to take a drink of milk at dinner and he picks up his glass and drinks. We can tell him to go get his monkey and give him some love and he finds his stuffed animal and hugs him. He's starting to sign food, more, milk, and all done... on his terms and not on demand... but he's definitely signing. He's taking 5-6 steps at a time and while crawling is still the most efficient mode of tranportation he does walk. What an amazing year this has been!!

1w+1d=1y

 

It’s a bit hard to believe that AGR will be one year old in a week.  I watched him playing this morning and it’s a pretty amazing thing how he’s changed, and how he changes every day.