Puddle Splashing

Keith went away with his brothers to Hood River over the weekend so that left Oliver and I to spend some quality time together. The weather was pretty rainy on Sunday but I couldn't stand the thought of staying inside with an active toddler. Whenever Oliver hears a plane overhead, he stops whatever he's doing and looks to the sky. I thought it might be fun to head out to Marine Drive, near the airport, and watch the planes come in. I figured a little rain wouldn't hurt us--this is Oregon after all. Marine Drive has a walking path and as long as it isn't windy, it's really a quite pleasant walk. I thought I was being really smart when I reasoned that we would head to the grocery store after our little excursion. No reason to make more than one trip.

It had been awhile since I had thought about mud puddles. I don't search for them and when I come across them I don't have the urge to splash in them. This is where Oliver and I are different. We didn't get very far before Oliver started playing in one small puddle and promptly fell in. I grabbed him quickly and figured I could wipe off the mud and he would dry out before the trip to the store. At this point, I still had hopes that we would make it to the store. But as you can see from the video, Oliver found a bigger, better puddle to play in. I thought about whisking him out of the puddle and back to the car but I'm glad I decided against it. Oh, did I mention that I had just finished his weekly load of laundry that morning? We didn't make it to the store that morning. Instead we headed home for a warm bath, lunch and a nap.

Guitar Man

I recently strung up a little ukulele that I've had for a while, but the tuning pegs wouldn't stay in tune, so I gave it to Oliver as his little "guitar." That gave him a sense of entitlement to all guitars, so when I was playing my full-sized guitar the other day, Oliver made it clear that he wanted to play it, so I let him have it. He took it out of my hands (it's taller than he is) and managed to carry it across the office and set it on the little sofa. Then he pulled himself up on the sofa, positioned himself under the guitar, and played us this little song. The lyrics are simple.

-Keith

PS: Happy Mothers day to Jenny and all the wonderful grandmas!

Home Haircut and Discovery Walk

Last weekend we cut Oliver’s hair. Unlike his last (and only other) haircut, where he was a model of stillness and cooperation, this time we were just chasing his squirming head. I was afraid I’d cut him. He ended up with crooked bangs and a weird diagonal chunk of hair removed over one ear. Could've been worse.
A momentary distraction from photographer, Nana.

Clean up.

This morning, Jenny took Oliver to the Discovery Walk in Vancouver, where he apparently slept in his stroller through most of the “walking” part and finally woke up in time to splash in a fountain in the park and soak all his clothes.

Excitement at an airplane overhead.

This afternoon, he helped me in the yard by collecting dandelion heads and manning the lawn aerator. His 21 pounds wasn’t enough to really sink it in.

This afternoon we had a scare when Oliver and I were walking up the stairs on our hands and knees. We were only on the fourth stair when he suddenly sat up, leaned back, and went rolling down before I could grab him. He wasn’t hurt, but it clearly scared him (and me!). Hopefully, this will make both of us a bit more cautious!

-Keith

A few spring photos

All is well, and we’re relatively healthy. Jenny and I are spending a weekend at the coast, and Oliver will be watched by my parents.

New words include “bubbles!,” “blue,” and “Oliver.” New skills include opening and closing doors (and sometimes smashing fingers) and just generally getting into stuff he hadn't been able to get into before. New favorite snack appears to be craisins.

Giggles, tantrums, and extended babbling continue.

Children's Museum Again

This last week has been one of colds (all of us) with Oliver developing a fever that blossomed into a nice ear infection. We just spent the morning at the hospital getting a bunch of medications. We've been through this before. Not fun.

So instead, I'll relate the much happier events of last weekend, when Oliver and I went to the Children's Museum. It was his second time there (Jenny took him there a couple months ago). She warned me that the splashing pool right in the center would tempt Oliver, and she was right. He had to splash in it every time we passed by, which must have been a dozen times. He sleeves were soon soaked.

Behind the splashing pool was a full-sized water works, where kids put on waterproof smocks and get slightly wet in all kinds of water-oriented displays (yes, I put on Oliver's smock backwards). By the time we finished, his face and hair were dripping wet.

The last picture is after 3 hours of play. I noticed that he'd been pushed around a bit by older kids who didn't let him spend as much time as he wanted at a particular activity. By the time we reached the school bus, Oliver muscled his way to the driver's seat and gave a firm "NO!" to the other kids who wanted to sit there. His bossy bus driver attitude made a little girl cry. That's when I knew it was time to go home.


-Keith

Garage Project Phase III

This is a continuation of my project involving the restoration of my old 1920's garage. This post describes the concrete work.
(Earlier post: Garage Project Phase II)

It took a couple Saturdays to get the concrete forms ready. My father-in-law, a professional builder, warned me about the need for a release agent to prevent the forms from sticking. I decided to try biodiesel. I have yet to try to remove the forms, so we’ll see how that goes.

Last week was a bit nerve-wracking because I’ve only ever worked with small batches of concrete. I really didn’t want to mess up the $675.00 worth of concrete and gravel I’d ordered for this project. Also, the only opening they had to deliver on Saturday was at 8:00 AM! Thankfully, I had the day before that off, but the list of things to get done was long.

The concrete company told me their truck needed a stable road at least a 10 feet wide, with no overhang under 14 feet. If the driver didn’t think the road was good enough, we’d have to use wheelbarrows to carry the concrete from the street – a nightmare scenario! Unfortunately, the back alley to my garage was choked with blackberries, overgrown brush, and muddy potholes!

The critical 300 foot path from the street (top) to my garage (red square) had to be cleared for the concrete truck.

After checking with my neighbors that I could chop down whatever was growing behind their property into the alleyway, I started in early Friday chopping, mowing, and trimming – with the most work being on my own overgrown hedge. The whole time, my mind was running through everything I had to prep on the garage, and here I was clearing brush! But it had to be done.

With the alleyway (hopefully) clear enough for the truck, I turned my attention to the open pit of loose, fluffy, and rotten log-filled dirt that made up one third of my garage floor. Before I could pour a new slab on top of it, I needed to compact the soil. But first, I had to dig out the bad stuff. I ducked between all the wooden braces and started to shovel. Every time I thought I’d gotten down low enough, I’d turn up another rotten log. In the end, I shoveled out 6 wheelbarrows full of dirt.

Meanwhile, a load of gravel had arrived in a big pile in the alley. It was to go in the cavity I was digging out, allowing me to get a good compact foundation on which to pour the concrete. With my wheelbarrow and shovel, I started moving gravel into the void. By this point I was exhausted and running out of daylight. There would be no time in the morning to prepare, so I had to get it ready at whatever the cost. But I hadn’t yet starting digging out the slab I intended to pour behind the garage! I didn’t even have a pick-axe and didn’t know how long it would take me. I was almost ready to forego the new slab altogether.

My neighbor Dan comes out to see concrete poured in the slab he helped excavate the night before.

That is when a hero stepped in. My neighbor Dan knew about my project, and he volunteered both his labor and tools just when I needed them. In the fading daylight, he swung his pick-axe into the boulder-filled earth outside the shop, and together we dug until we could no longer see what we were doing. I hastily laid out some wooden forms for the slab sides. With light and space for removed soil running out, we scaled back the length of the slab from 10 feet to 8 feet. Dan left his tools for me. It was late. I closed up the garage for the night, took a shower, and didn’t sleep a wink.

Dad floats the new slab.

The second hero, as always, is my dad. He arrived at 7:30 the next morning and we frantically started preparing the site. The concrete truck arrived 10 minutes early! The thing about concrete is that you have x minutes to unload the truck and they charge you y dollars for every minute beyond that as stand-bye time. When that truck is ready, your wallet is on the clock.

The driver came out to look at the alley, hemmed and hawed about branches and the stability of the surface, but thankfully decided to give it a go. His truck squeezed down the alley with inches to spare on either side, and we now had concrete right next to the project! My alley trimming the day before had been worth it.

The next hour and a half was a sweaty frantic rush of action as we moved the concrete from the truck to the forms a wheelbarrow at a time (we blew out one wheelbarrow tire). Finally, it was in! Dad and I spent another 3 hours floating and smoothing things into shape. The concrete started to get firm. We took a lunch break and came out to see that the cat had walked across the area. We smoothed over that, but later, when it was just soft enough, the cat did it again. And those prints are now permanent.

Wet concrete fills the pit that once held 80 years worth of rotten wood. A proper floor at last!

Anchor bolts in the foundation forms.

Next: Removing the forms, replacing the sills, and maybe lowering the structure into place!

Happy Easter!

The weather was rainy today, but Oliver had a great time. Jenny hid eggs around the living room with some toddler gummy treats in them. We had to point a few of them out, but he ate the treats as he went, so pretty soon he was searching for them himself.

Oliver was standing around, hugging Abbie. I took a few pictures because she usually isn't that patient with him. I was kind of kidding when I suggested that he give her a kiss, but to my surprise, as soon as he got close, she leaned over to give him the kiss first!

Steppin Outside

Now that we're having a bit more daylight, Oliver insists on going outside and walking up and down the sidewalk as often as possible. In this video, I hand him his coat so he can try to put it on himself. What happens next cracks me up.

-Keith

Spring! and Garage Project Phase II

Oliver is 16 months old. We need to start writing down his ever growing vocabulary! He recently impressed us with "apple," "eye" (including finger jab into dad's said object), and "mouth." Generally, he gets more talkative the closer he is to the ground. Drop him down to run in the grocery store and you'll soon be hearing about everything he can point at.

He likes to walk around the block, where he can point out birds or an ever-present FedEx airplane passing overhead (we live directly under their landing zone to the airport -- not that they're scraping our roofs or anything).

Here are a few classic toddler negatives: He's suddenly not enjoying his bath. His mastery of the fork and spoon also needs work. And when denied something, we get a real show of stomping and crying. Fun!
But we love the little guy.

Here is my garage. It was built with the house in 1928, and was clearly cobbled together with scrap lumber left over from the main house. After rainwater leaked in and ruined a bunch of stuff and some thefts from the less-than-secure structure, I decided to start restoring it.

Phase I was last fall, when my dad and brothers (what would I do without them?) helped me put a new roof on the building. That took care of the water problem. The next big issue was the foundation. When it was built, the builders stacked a wall of bricks 3 high and laid the wood on top. They built up from there. Over the years, the bricks sank, the soil rose (under a big cedar tree), and the bottom sill thoroughly rotted out. The whole structure was leaning. I didn't even know there was a brick foundation until I'd done a lot of digging!

Rotten 4 X 6 sill

Phase II started over the winter, as I reinforced the roof structure, adding metal brackets anywhere I could. Yesterday, my dad, brothers and I did a LOT more reinforcement, then set up jacks and posts under giant beams I'd affixed to the ceiling truss structure. Using 4 jacks, we slowly lifted the whole structure off the ground about 10 inches. It was stop and go. There was a constant discussion about how to proceed, and we always erred on the side of safety, deciding that we needed more support and insurance for our points of failure. We were soon ducking under a network of cross-ties, but we got the job done. The rotten sill was knocked off and we were able to get some of the foundation forms in place.

NEXT!

Phase III: Concrete poured in for a new floor on one side and fill in the concrete forms.

Phase IV: Lower the structure onto the new foundation.

Phase V: Rebuild the doors, replace the window, etc.

That should do it. After that, I'll just work away as time allows, building workbenches and a ladder to the loft. More home projects are waiting, and this will be the construction base.

A Sunny Weekend

We had an unexpectedly dry weekend -- even sunny on Saturday. It's been so wet for so long!

Here is a video of Oliver dancing to the Latin beat of his electronic maraca. This kind of dancing is pretty common for him (as is the abuse of his toys).

Baby Loves Disco!

Yesterday, we joined about 200 other parents and kids under 6 at the Wonder Ballroom in NE Portland for Baby Loves Disco! – an event hosted throughout the country.

Remember those high school dances in the gym, where a mass of people did their best moves to “We Are Family” in the middle of the room, while others milled around quietly nearby, and a few more sat softly crying around the edge? Well imagine that, but with the floor is covered in apple juice and goldfish cracker crumbs. Oh, and there are hula hoops and bubbles.

Oliver is a natural dancer (he must get that from Jenny), and no sooner had we set him down than he started his usual bopping in place, arms swinging and sometimes clapping. Other than getting bumped a few times by other kids, he enjoyed himself like that for almost 3 hours. He was far from the smallest kid; some parents brought their 3-month-olds, and tried to get their $13 worth of the dance experience with the little ones on their shoulders. I don’t think we would have tried this when Ollie was that age.

Of course I had to save my best "Solid Gold" karate disco moves for fear of kicking some little tot at my feet.


After the dance, we went to get groceries, assuming that he would crash once we got in the car and one of us would stay behind while the other got the shopping done. (This one-parent-shopping arrangement is something we turn to more and more often these days. Usually, one of us has to take Oliver to some remote aisle and let him run.) But even after all that dancing, he was ready to play and flirt with the ladies in the store, so we were all pretty tired when we got home.

Wow! I’m sure I’ll say this many more times in the future, but this stage of Oliver’s language development is amazing! Not only does his constant babbling have the rhythm and cadence of natural speech, but real words are popping up here and there. As we read about speech development, we’re learning that toddlers learn to use distinct, if not correct, words for items and general concepts. So we’re slowly understanding what he wants. He’s also gesturing aggressively now, pointing at everything, talking about it, and opening and closing his hand at the things he wants. (I'm having temporary problems posting video)

Also, for the first time today, he looked at a picture of a cow in a book we often read, and said, “Moo.” Exciting!

Now what does “Dee-daw!” mean?

Children's Museum

Last weekend, Oliver and I headed to the Children’s Museum and the Rose Garden. The weather had been pretty icky so I thought this would be a great place for Oliver to burn some energy.


After the museum we headed to the Rose Garden. With the weather being so iffy, we practically had the place to ourselves. It was kind of nice after the crowds at the museum. - Jenny