11 months

Shea is getting so big. I can't believe that in this next month, I'll be planning his birthday party!?
He is crawling quickly now and is into everything. He loves zipping down the stairs on his belly and has mastered turning around at the top before he goes down. As I said before, he is onto his bottle now and doing pretty good with it. He sleeps 11 to 12 hours at night and then has one or two naps during the day. He loves to play and "wrestle" with daddy already. He is a messy eater and seems to be a dominant left handed baby (like his dad!). He eats most things, but loves grapes and yogurt.
He hasn't tried walking yet, but will pull himself to stand next to anything.
He is just growing and changing and we all are madly in love with him. How can you not love this little guy??

Renovation update

So I thought maybe my walls would be painted, but we're not quite at that point yet. Luke is just finishing up the new countertops. I made him a challenge as I asked him to round the two corners on the end of the bar and the counter that we walk by all the time, so as not to get a serious jab every time. He was up to the challenge and managed to make them curvy (while keeping a birch edge all the way around the front). I went to check out the scene in his garage last night. Though it was full of contact cement fumes, it was fun to witness the making of the beautiful slabs of counter. Ha ha.
Here they are!



And here is the new set of drawers he made to go into the spot where my fridge had been.

I will soon have a stretch of around 8.5ft of counter on top of those cabinets. Sweet. Check in again soon! They should be in tonight!

Officially a weenie

I last nursed Shea at 6am yesterday morning! That means he's gone 33 hours or so without nursing! So I guess this is it. He's done! And I'm feeling good too, so that is a great change from the last time.

Of paint and painters

We are still knee-deep in renos around here. We have finally decided on colors...mocha brown for the kitchen, green gables green for the dining and window wall in the living room. We have grand teton white cabinets now...just look at them!!

(And you need to check out more photos on my facebook album to see how Pam looks after she paints them!!)
I bought our arborite today, a dark brown shade with lots of texture. We had to keep it neutral as we have to work around the tile and hardwood that is already here and want something basic so that we can change our paint color and accessories if need be!
It feels good to have nearly all the details picked out. We are hoping to get painting the walls by this weekend, Luke will be building the countertops, and then we reassemble it all. So I may have a finished kitchen really soon!!

Never a dull moment

Things are full-speed ahead with renovations. I would show you an update picture, but I'm too lazy to get my camera, and really...I should just plain GO TO BED. I find though, that this blog is much like a diary...and until I write down my thoughts, I can't really sleep as well. So here I am.
Luke has been showing up to fill the holes and then come back to sand and then fill and sand some more. On the side he is building my new cabinet above the fridge, and the lower pot drawers. Pam has started on prepping my cabinets for painting. They ended up taking all my upper cabinets today, and drawers, plus all the cabinet fronts of the lowers. I feel exposed. All the stuff that was hidden in cupboards is now laying around in random corners and boxes. It's almost as though we are moving again, yet I still have to make meals and find my dishes in the chaos. That and there is a nice little layer of white dust on everything. So I guess it's more like camping. I have this baby that likes to get his little hands into it all, which makes for an interesting time.
All that being said...I LOVE the kitchen already. The light is wonderful, so the chaos is absolutely worthwhile, and the end result will be so astounding that you all will feel the urge to renovate! (That or you'll just come and visit us and ooh and aah over the beauty.)

Then tomorrow, just to keep things interesting, we are having a garage sale. Not really because I had a ton of stuff to sell, but because our street is having one, so it will be good publicity and I told my sister and so she's bringing some stuff. I'm sure we'll pack it in early if nothing is happening, as man the weather is just YUCK. I do have stuff set up in our "studio", which is where a garage used to be, but is now finished with french doors to it...so it will be perfect in there. We'll try to have some fun anyway, despite the weather.

Riley has his first soccer game tomorrow as well, and he is all charged up for it. He slept with his new soccer team shirt after his practice the other night! so cute!

Anyway...happy weekend all. I need to hit the sack.

Supply and Demand

In case you weren't aware...I am in fact, STILL breastfeeding. Yes, the milk is still a flowin', though I'd say it's more tricklin'. Every day I try to sneak it past him, and offer him some whole milk in hopes that he'll like it as much as he likes mine! I must have super yummy stuff, because neither of my three boys have done the "self-weaning" thing as they tell you about in those books. It basically ends with a struggle that is hard for both the baby and myself. I've tried it all, different kinds of formula, different kinds of milk, different temperatures, you name it.
I nursed Riley just over a year, Liam for 9 months, and Shea now for almost 11months. That's a lot! Think of all the money I have saved us! Not only that, I know that it is probably healthier all-round.

I'm not one of those mothers that enjoys breastfeeding exactly. It hasn't been easy for me to nurse. I'm not blessed with a large supply of milk, so that doesn't help. It's not usually a beautiful serene moment where we bond...it's more like 8 teeth and wrestling him down amidst millions of interruptions from older brothers. Shea has been my best nurser by far, not taking hours to eat (like Riley), or wanting to eat every hour (like Liam). He can go for a long time in between feeds at this point, but when he wants me...watch out. He wants me. I know I should be almost treasuring this ("milkin' it) for all it's worth, as there will soon come a day when Shea will not want anything to do with me. But I'm pretty tired of it. I'm ready to burn my saggy ol' nursing bras and wear normal clothes. We are almost there. I've been able to give him more and more food and slipping in some milk on occasion, so hopefully he transfers easily.

Removal of the wall

The men were back at work today...with the help of a few special ladies (Pam, mom and myself!)
They did their miracle work again, the biggest change of all. The wall went down.

Morning:


Noon:


Night:


More photos on Facebook

I LOVE the wall being down. When I'm standing at the counter, I can now see right up the road through the side window...which is important when you have kids to spy on!
Dad and Luke had their work cut out for them with the wiring. Poor Luke was climbing in the insulation of the attic to shoot some wires down. It was a long day for everyone, but again, they were amazing and got a lot done!
What do you think?

Part two of renovations

I showed you all the "before" pictures here
well, we've got an update, people!!
My dad and brother came in on Friday morning and ripped the place apart. Ok, not really. They did the first step, which was to take out the sliding door, put in a new single door, rebuild the wall, and rewire everything (to make a long story short). They did it all by supper time! Go guys! They are fast and amazing, aren't they!
Here's the proof...
Hour one:


Lunch time:



And 8 hours later:


(more photos on Facebook)

It's SWEET! I love it already...my kitchen is no longer a cave! I'm just itchin' to tear the wall out now!
WHeeeeeeeeeee!
Thanks guys!!

Photo update again

I know, I haven't posted in awhile. Thank you all for your concern for Liam...within a few hours, he was back to his usual self. Unfortunately he needs another shot at the end of the month, and another one in October to catch him up on his HepB shots that they didn't give him in Calgary.
We have been having a good couple days. We have been busy with lunches and gatherings and visitors...all who are here to celebrate the life of G's grandpa. 11 of the 14 grandkids were here for the event, so it has been nice to see the cousins.
We get to have Glen (G's brother), his wife Bri and their two girls (Ava and Olivia) here for the past few days....check out their cuteness.


And of course we had to do the "cousins shot"...




And why not, a few more of my cuties...

Not a fun time

I had to take Liam to get his usual immunizations today. He also needed to get a 4th one, cuz he was behind on one. 4! yes, four, the poor guy. He was not at all happy. I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE! Ooh, he was mad. By the fourth one I had to corner him and basically use all my force to hold him there for it. Not at all a fun time. Finally it was over but the kid was MAD. He was still crying during our time in the waiting room after. Then he says to me, why does my tummy hurt? He came and sat on my lap and then proceeded to change to a lovely shade of pale green and then white. I grabbed on to him and then he barfed everywhere and his eyes were rolling back in his head!! ACKKK! I didn't know what to do next, the waiting room was empty as it was already 5pm and Shea was climbing up my leg...Liam and I are covered in vomit. I'm yelling HELP! HELP! Finally someone heard me and came in the room then ran to get the nurses. They started checking his vitals and called the ambulance right away. It was all rather a blur as they raced about. Poor Shea had pooped and one of the nurses had taken him off screaming to change him. We all 3 climbed into the ambulance and off we headed to the hospital.
Thank goodness, all was fine. It wasn't an allergic reaction or anything. It was just his reaction to being hysterical and then almost like if someone faints when they see blood...he basically vomited and fainted. But SCARY!
He now is back to normal after a quick stay at the hospital.

Pictures from the weekend.

This is baby Sawyer...8 weeks younger than Shea. Shea wouldn't smile for me, but Sawyer was a poser like his brother Eli used to be.

I only took 14 pictures while we were away, mostly in the car! It gets a little difficult to carry a baby and a big camera around, so I didn't take many photos.