ooops

I guess I should have mentioned that one of the reasons I really want her trained is that she HATES diapers changes as most toddlers do I assume. She cries, arches her back, kicks me etc etc.... all rather annoying to say the least. And of course there is the toddler poop factor. Enough said!
Plus being that she is in cloth she definitely knows wet from dry.. either way I will give it a shot and assume I will be changing diapers for a while yet. I am going to buy her some "pretty" undies and see if that changes anything.

Life

Mike has finished installing all of the railing posts for the deck, installed the stairs, and has started putting down the cedar decking. It looks great! He has been working at work all day and then coming home from work and working until its to dark to see. He has been so busy with the deck that poor Keira hasn't been able to spend any quality time in daddy in a while. Today at dinner when Mike was holding Keira and she was screaming "Mama hold me!!!!" I asked her whats wrong with daddy holding her and she said "No like daddy!!!!" Toddlers! She LOVES her daddy normally!
Less than 2 weeks till our ultrasound. I am a bit nervous that it it show that Little Bean is a boy and I am so hoping for a girl. Silly I know. I am starting to feel heavy, cumbersome and pregnant... and I still have 24 weeks to grow and grow and grow and you get the idea. I appear to be well on my way to another 40 lb weight gain...
I attempted to begin the potty training with Keira Tuesday and lets just say that's got to be the most frustrating part of parenting yet. I tried the no diaper method... letting her hang out naked and sitting her on the potty. Lets just say I felt like I had a puppy, an untrained puppy. I am not dumb enough to think that potty training happens in a day or even a week but wow... She has no interest and actually teases me. I say do you want to sit on the potty Keira and she says noooooooo and smiles. Fun Fun.

Signs of Life

Our record breaking warm spell has created some early blooms. Techinically around here you aren't supposed to plant annuals or most veggies until after June first because of nightime frost but I might just plant a few things in another week or 2.

After

The back stairs and railing finally got finished this weekend as well! I love the vinyl railing! I should have taken a side pic so you can actually see the railing but I didn't-- ooops.

Before

Sunshine

I have been waiting all winter to be able to hang Keira's diapers out in the sunshine to dry!

Sunday

If you look closely you can see the new Kitchen window going in....


first time in the kiddie pool this summer. For those of you that don't remember Keira LOVES water and even in the winter she asked about her pool if she saw it! She was happy to play in it for almost 2 hours today.


It probably doesn't look like they much progress on the deck but they did work on it most of the day.. more framing and they started putting in the posts for the railings.

Deck progress!!!

The supports for the deck... attached to the ledger board



Check out these massive screws/nails ( not sure exactly what they are) but they are huge! That's my shoe and I am a size 8...

Despite the heat.. it was close to 90's and sunny and humid and HOT. Mike worked from 8 am- 8 pm with the help of Anthony and Paul. All the support beams are in and its almost time to start laying down the actual cedar decking. Yesterday wasn't without its usual glitches though. Lowes was supposed to deliver a bunch of stuff at 7 am... by 9 when they weren't here I called and they said we were marked for Monday for some reason! Mike was obviously frustrated as he needed some of the parts on the delivery and had to stop working and run to the store to pick up a few things. Lowes finally delivered the stuff at noon.... all in all there were 4 trips made to Lowes/ Home Depot within the course of the day.. ( plus the delivery), which is no record for those of you that know us well. I think the record is 6 0r 8 trips in one day.

Summer?

Summer means watermelon around here.... check out her sticky face and watermelon all down her chest!!!


We are getting a taste of summer and its great!!! It was almost 90 yesterday so out came the cute summer clothes and new sandals for Keira.

The faces of Keira

Lots of progress.... Lets hope

Mike and I are super excited to see some progress this weekend! It all starts with a Lowe's delivery at 7 am of our cedar decking. We were going to go with Trex since its easier to maintain and lasts longer but after pricing it out be decided not too. Who knows if we will be here for the next 10 years. We were also hoping to put some lighting on the deck but that seems out of the budget as well. We are going with pretty white vinyl railings though! Similar to this ( minus the columns) https://www.weatherwisevinyl.com/store/agora.cgi?hdr=pr&product=boxed_railing&k=charleston&user3=white&ppinc=railing

Either way I am excited to see the deck take shape, to be able to hang laundry out in the sun (our backyard gets almost full sun all day so its great for drying clothes), and to be able to eat out on the deck. Tomorrow Mike and some very helpful and handy friends will start the actual deck framing and if time permits actually lay the cedar decking down.
Our hired handyman is coming tomorrow also to put in a new window in the kitchen and finish a few other projects that Mike hasn't had time to do such as fix the siding around the new back door, install railings on the back stairs etc.
Its supposed to be in the 80's all weekend so we hope for lots of progress!

Little Bean update....

Hopefully by the next update it will no longer be Little Bean.... we have our ultrasound scheduled for May 12th to find out the sex and check the baby's heart! Finally in 3 weeks I can start to do some planning..... :o)
Little Bean's heart was ticking away in the 150's..... and he/she kept kicking the Doppler making it hard to get a heart rate reading.
I am starting to feel a bit better. At this point I am only nauseous about 75% of the time and its a bit milder than it was before so we are making progress!

I love this outfit!

Cute Jammies!

More work on the deck....

You will notice that there are 4 LedgerLoks at 5" each and they are 16" On-Center. I think that should hold the ledger in place.

For the flashing, we used ice and water shield and then put a roll of vinyl flashing on top of that. Should keep the water away from the house.




You are probably wondering why there are pieces of composite decking attached to the wall? Well they will act as block to pull the ledger board away from the house. That way when it rains, the water will fall between the blocking and not sit; thus, keeping our house/ledger/deck from rotting out. They are also cut at 15 degree angles on the top so water won't sit on the top of the blocking, but will roll off. Then we caulked around the blocking mostly for in the winter to keep it from getting behind the blocking and freezing and expanding.


Mike had lots of help... Thanks guys!!!!

This is what it looked like before they started work....

Keira's Friday photo shoot

She is wearing her first short sleeve shirt of Spring... :o)

A few more firsts

Daddy and Keira eating grilled Keilbasa and pasta salad. Soon we will be able to eat dinner on our new deck!!!

Keira and Simon on the slide


Keira and Grace eating snacks.... These two found the snacks much more exciting than the actual park for a good 35 min!
Today was the warmest day so far this spring. We took full advantage of it by spending the morning at the park ( the first park day of 2009 for us) and by eating dinner outside for the first time this spring. I even gathered up the energy to make dinner!

Firsts

Sunday we gave Keira her first haircut.. I saw we because first I cut a bit and then Mike straightened things up. We didn't take any pics because she was in the tub at the time and wiggly and its not really that noticeable. She had a rat tail in the middle of the back of her head. The hair was longer than the rest so we just evened it up.
Today Mike took Keira to the library for the first time to get a few books. He said she loved it. She found the Corduroy books and wouldn't let go. When they checked out and had to hand the books to the librarian Keira started whining afraid that she wasn't going to see Corduroy again. Looks like we will be making a few trips to the library.

Keira Videos

This video is her reading Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before bed. I think we have read it many times if she can recite it from memory.



Have you ever seen anybody ever make this much of a mess while eating rice? But it is cute and funny!!

Keira Finger Painting

Keira tryed out her new finger paints from her Easter Basket. This was the first time she has done any painting of any kind. She only knows painting as something daddy has done with a paint brush so she kept asking me for a brush. I think she might like regular painting better.

Easter shots

Michele cooked a great meal and did dishes and dishes and more dishes

Mike and baby Will

greg

Aram

Uncle Peter

Easter cake