Thank You Grandma and Grandpa!

Andy's parents came to visit last month and they helped us so much around the house.  Even though the previous owner kept the place in great shape, we still have a lot of things on our to do list.  Between Andy's dissertation, work and the baby, it is hard to fit in projects around the house.
Andy's Dad worked almost nonstop the entire trip.  Among other projects I am sure I have forgotten, he:

• Rearranged my entire pantry.  I wanted to move one shelf, but it required taking apart the entire shelving system.  While he was at it, he fixed a couple issues with the pantry.
• Installed four doors!  I wanted to update two of the bedroom doors upstairs to make them consistent with the other doors on that floor.  He also put in bi-fold doors on my closet - it had no doors and just two curtains that the previous owner left.  He moved the guest room door down to the laundry room which previously had no door.  This required basically building a custom frame for that door.
• Installed a cat door on the new laundry room door so that Herbie could get to his litter box. 
• Painted the kitchen ceiling
• Patched some holes in our bedroom wall
• Added an extension to the gutter system in the backyard
• As a bonus, he built a shelf over the washer and dryer so that I could put all my cleaning supplies on top.  This wasn't anywhere on my radar of things to do, so it was a great surprise!

While he was working away, my mother-in-law was shopping and cooking for us.  She spoiled us by making a hot breakfast every morning as well as the evening dinner.  She also took me out to Borders and we picked up some new cookbooks and a little book for Philip.

During their visit, I started thinking that things are getting a lot easier now.  Then I realized that I had two extra people around the house who were helping to load and unload the dishwasher, cook and clean up, grocery shop, and watch the baby while I ran to do some quick things around the house.  One of the best things about this was that I had more time to just sit and play with Philip - sometimes I feel like I have so much to do during the day that I barely get to spend time interacting with him.

The grandparents showed amazing restraint in visiting with Philip.  They knew he had stranger anxiety, so they interacted with him, but never tried to hold him. Grandma Susan would come up and steal kisses from him several times a day, and he thought that was really fun.  As a reward, after spending a full week with us, Philip awoke happy the next morning and actually reached out to be picked up by his Grandma.  They spent several minutes together while he played with the zipper on her shirt.  It was the longest he has been (willingly) held by anyone other than Andy or I in several months. It made my day and of course it made Grandma's too!

A momentous occasion

My in-laws left behind a special housewarming gift that we have been enjoying using - a grill!  We are looking forward to using it a lot this spring and summer.

Andy's first batch of burgers

Babies and grills mix??? We are all about safety around here!

Happy Easter!!!

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

Good Friday

"Lifted up on the cross, therefore, Christ turned death back onto the one who gave rise to it." 

St. Leo the Great

Old and New

In my home-decorating extravaganza the last couple months, I decided I wanted to put a sign on our laundry room door.  Why I got the urge to do this, I don't know.  Perhaps because it is the only yucky, unfinished room in our house and I am desperately trying to make it look decent.  The laundry room is quite large and doubles as a storage room since we have no attic.  Until my father-in-law visited, it didn't have a door on it, so the craziness was even more magnified.

I managed to find some signs in stores and online, but for some reason, they are all very country-looking.  That look isn't really my style, so they were no gos.  A couple weekends ago I found this sign at our antique store:

Yes, still country looking, but I knew it had potential. Here is what I created:

While I was taking these photos I put Philip down at my feet to play.  When I glanced down to check on him, this is what I found:

This kid just won't slow down!  Please stop growing up so fast!

Here Comes T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Somebody is crawling!  We knew he was on the verge and thought for sure he would be crawling by the time my in-laws left town.  We were excited that they would be around to see this big milestone.  Instead, he decided to wait until the morning they left to make his first move.  The target that finally got him moving forward - the cat's tail.  He successfully captured it and the cat has since learned that he can't let the baby get too close. 

Crawling was a very emotional experience at first.  I told Andy I felt like I was watching someone finish the Iron Man.  He would try to pull himself forward (he does more of an army crawl right now), grunting all the way.  Then he would stop to put his head down and "Boo hoo hoo."  Then he would get the strength to pull himself along again.  So sweet!

Since learning to crawl a few weeks ago, he has been getting into all the things that we wish he wouldn't.  Here are some examples.

See all those wires beneath the desk?  We need to do something about that this weekend.

He is a big shoe fan - these are his cousin's soccer shoes.

On top of the wedding album - he visits this area a few times a day.

Checking out some books

Made his way into this obscure corner

On his way towards the cat food dish. The same day he found the food dish, Herbie found...

Herbie spent most of the day in the chair - he hasn't been too interested since.

Yesterday he got into his basket of diaper changing goodies.

 

Happy times!

House Tour Stop #4: The Master Bedroom

Here is the next stop on the tour - our bedroom. 

Here you can see one of my father-in-law's projects - doors on the closet.  The previous owner had removed the doors on both closets and had this one partially covered with the curtains you see on Andy's closet in the picture below. I personally am a fan of doors on closets, so this was a top priority. If space weren't so tight, we would be putting a door on Andy's closet too.

The inside of my closet has a great storage system that I should have taken pictures of.  Oh well!

New rug!

The bathroom is too small to really get a good picture of - this is a 1970s townhome, you remember.  Plus, it feels a bit wierd to post bathroom pics.  But here are a couple highlights.

Love this mirror!  Wouldn't have picked it out myself, so I'm glad I wasn't the one remodeling the bathroom!

King Philip

When we first told people Philip Andrew's name, a few people said he sounded like royalty.  I had to get a picture of him sitting in this chair at our brother and sister-in-law's house this weekend.  I thought he looked very kingly!

Guess Who Dressed the Baby

Philip got his front two teeth last week, so we had some rough nights.  On weeknights I try to take the brunt of baby duty since Andy has a decent commute to work each day and I want him to be well-rested.  So I couldn't wait for Friday night to come and the chance to sleep in Saturday morning.

Even though Andy had barely gotten any sleep Friday night as he stayed up until 3:00 am working on his dissertation, he cheerfully got up and spent some time in the morning with Philip.  When they came into the room to wake me up for Philip's breakfast, I was surprised to see he was already dressed for the day.  But I had to laugh as I looked at the outfit (admittedly it doesn't look quite as bad in a tiny picture on a blog as it did in real life).

He thought this blue and charcoal grey shirt was blue and brown?  So he put on brown pants with yellow detailing (the shirt has a matching pair of pants).  Then he added some semi-matching socks.

Apparently it was stripe day, because he added a striped onesie to the striped shirt and striped socks.  At least this brown and white onesie matched the pants.

But the thing that made me laugh the most was that his shirt was on backwards!

We had  a good laugh and although I tease him, I am so thankful to have Andy's help and support.  I am so blessed by my two boys!