Kitchen Complete!

Today marked the last major step in the kitchen remodel. I just finished grouting the tile backsplash and screwing on some fancy outlet covers. I’d almost say it’s 100% complete, except there's a corner where the doors to the outside, the basement, and the next room meet, with the last doorway converted into a spice shelf. We’re not including that corner as part of the kitchen... so we're done!

With this project, I got a little better at tiling, more confident with electrical work, and I even moved a gas valve. I learned how to plumb for and install a dishwasher, and I’m really glad I left the cabinets, the countertops, and the flooring to professionals; I would have messed them up. Most of all, we learned the good and bad of designing, buying and installing cabinetry with a big box store (rhymes with “Blowes”); there’s a reason this summer project didn’t get done till late in the year. But we’re happy with it now.

Before:

During:

After:

This is the second time I've stripped several layers of paints from an 80 year old chrome heating grate. Here's how I do it:

1. Find a huge metal pot that you'll never cook food in


2. Add about 1/2 cup of washing soda and several gallons of water. Mix.


3. Heat the metal pot on your stove, camping grill, or bonfire.


4. Cook the painted metal grate until the paint starts to peel.


5. Pull, pick, scrub, curse.


6. Break out the chrome polish.

Next up: Finish the garage!

Back to the Tree Farm

This is our third year going to the same tree farm, which we first stumbled upon while driving through the countryside around North Plains. The place is owned by a very nice couple with an incredible house, a beautiful view, and a few acres where they grow Christmas trees. They don’t make a big deal out of it and there are never many people there. This year we found a suitable tree pretty quickly. It was a sunny winter day and we didn’t feel hurried. After I’d cut the tree and lugged it back to the parking lot, Oliver watched as the guy put the tree in a machine to shake out the needles. Then he had hot chocolate.

Back at the house, we faced the struggle of explaining why we hang so many awesome toys on the tree where they can’t be played with. That is an ongoing discussion.

Big News!

This fuzzy ultrasound picture is our next child, due in May 2009!

We’re very excited! Jenny is past the first trimester and her morning sickness should hopefully start to calm down a bit. All tests look good and the little one is wriggling away.

We’re remembering how tough those first six months with Oliver were, and May is now a deadline by which we need to wrap up a few household projects -- namely the kitchen, where we just need to finish the backsplash, and the garage, where we need to finish the wiring, walls, and cabinetry. Those will both be good winter projects before we paint the house in spring.

This is funny: several months before Oliver was born, we bought a car seat and I took a hands on class through the fire department on how to properly install and use a child car seat. On the way home, I stopped by a thrift store and bought a cheap plastic almost life-sized doll to practice strapping in. It was useful, but once we had it sitting in the living room, it started to give us the creeps, so we put it away. Then tonight, I found it again and brought it out to Oliver. We made a big deal of holding it carefully and letting “the baby” sleep. Of course, Oliver needed in on this, so he took the baby, laid it out roughly (but with gentle intentions) on the coffee table and said “Baby needs a binky” and put his pacifier in its mouth. Then he curled up on a chair with the doll in his arms and announced that both he and the baby wanted to watch “The Wiggles” again. (Me and Jenny: “Oh, God, again?”).

That’s big brother material!

(We’re just happy he didn’t chuck it across the room.)

Speaking of big news, a second event deserves a post of its own, but I’ll have to squeeze it in down here. Today at daycare, Oliver used a toilet! Apparently, he’s been watching his older classmates at work in the little bathroom adjacent to their classroom, where teachers offer encouragement to grunting and frustrated toddlers perched on the lip of the toilet. Oliver decided to give it a go. We’re told that liquid actually came out of him and went into the toilet!

As momentous as that news is, the truth is we need to see it for ourselves. At home, we still get a big “No!” when we ask Oliver if he’d like to use the toilet. I think that will start to change. Man, I hope so...

Halloween

This is the best picture I got of Oliver’s costume. Not very good, eh? What can I say? The kid was a blur. He's an astronaut. This was at a party held at his daycare. The candy and games were a big distraction. On Halloween itself, his friend Rhett up the street also went as a spaceman. I have to say, Rhett’s helmet was very creative.

Look out! Children are the future, and as we see in the movies, the future is always set in space.

We all ended up at a party hosted at the Moore's across the street. Kids everywhere!

The kids weren’t the only ones to get dressed up this season. A couple weeks ago, our friends the Robars hosted a murder mystery where Jenny and I were assigned characters. She was a former beauty pageant queen and I was a German wine expert (thanks to Henry for the lederhosen loan!).

Birthday!

Oliver turned two on October 28th (does that make this his second birthday or his third?) Here is a family gathering we had the weekend before. Last year he was just sort of confused. This time he was extremely enthusiastic. He was surrounded by people he knows, he was the center of attention, and he got to unwrap one present after another. Add some cupcakes to that, and it was a good day for him.

Pumpkin Patch with the Petersons

On Saturday we went to a great pumpkin farm we hadn't tried before, where we were joined by our friends Danny and Sylvia Peterson and their wonderful kids Julia and William. There were a million other people there, but the farm was spread out and we had plenty of room for animal petting, hay rides and all that. It was a blast.

Julia looked after Oliver a little bit -- especially when he took off running from the group to see the baby chicks again. She chased after him and herded him back. She also took him on a little ferris wheel for kids only.

Here William and Oliver help push the cart with our pumpkins to the weighing station. Strong guys!

Last Days of One

Oliver turns two on the 28th. We've been working for a while on his answer to the question "How old are you?"

"One!"

So now we'll have to do some new training. In the meantime, he's speaking in full, if challenging, sentences. We're having so much fun with him!

I took this picture a couple days ago when I picked Oliver up from daycare. He seems to be the only kid in the room, but there were several others. Here's the gang that gathered around me when I came into the room.

Oliver is about to transition from the "Wobbler" room to the toddler room, where he'll hang out with 2 and 3 year olds. He spends a couple hours in that room each day. The great thing is that, as Jenny and I are working on the potty training at home (not much progress yet other than some useful vocabulary), the daycare will reinforce the lessons. They have a bathroom right next to the toddler room for just that. Won't that be great!

Oliver is really into his blocks and we have a great time building houses and choo-choos with them. Sometimes, he'll just spend a long time, quiet and absorbed, sorting them by color and shape, or building little structures like this:

A blurry shot from our walk this afternoon (with Abbie in tow).

Sunny Weekend at the Beach

Last weekend we loaded up the boy and the dog, some Bob the Builder videos and buckets and boots and tennis balls, and went to our favorite beach getaway -- Proposal Rock in Neskowin. We've gone there at least once or twice a year for a long time now. We like the dog-friendly rentals right off a beautiful beach and a creek perfect for dog splashing. The weather was amazing, sunny and warm. We were so ready for rain! In fact, we wished we'd packed shorts, sunscreen, and flip-flops.

We last took Oliver here when he was just six months old. I remember he just sat there in the sand, tasted some of it, and smiled at the wind. This time, he was much busier. He found a bucket of toys in the condo and brought as many as he could hold out to the sand, where he had a lot of fun just shoveling sand and flinging it as far as he could (a lot of it into his own hair, and a bit into mine). There was also shell collecting, wading in the creek, running after seagulls, and throwing the ball for Abbie (who is always disappointed to have to chase a ball less than ten feet.)

-Keith