Bummer

We got a much needed shower this evening. It had been building all day and when it let loose it really hammered us. The winds didn't last long, but they lasted long enough.



I'm really most bummed about the pool. It could have been worse because at least the pool is still usable and we can probably get the dents out, but sigh...

Although you can't see them because they are under all the branches my poor Cannas' had just gotten to that really tall pretty stage.

Smashed a section of fence too.

We really seriously talked about renting a lift and cutting down a tree by the pool this weekend. In the end we decided we had too many other projects going on and it could wait. Ironically the tree we were going to cut down was not the one that attacked our deck and pool. So we are glad that at least we hadn't gone through all the trouble of renting a lift and cutting down one tree when obviously we have a second tree that needs some serious trimming.

Climbing

A month ago I taught Blake to climb the ladder out of the pool. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then he taught himself how to climb the step stool. Now he's unstoppable. About two weeks ago Blake realized he could climb everything, or at least try to climb everything.


He can climb up his blocks.



He can even climb on top of his play table.


He can do a spidey on the sliding glass door.


I believe he was trying to climb onto his toy to reach the gate latch. He kept grabbing the gate to steady himself, but never could keep his toy still long enough to stand on it. Thank goodness!


His favorite is probably climbing in his toy bin. He sits down on top of all his toys and then one by one drops them out until it's empty or almost empty. Then he climbs out and puts some of them back in, and then climbs back in.



His expression in this one cracks me up.


Blake's first laptop, almost. We had an older laptop that I tried giving him to let him play with. He loves to try to "type" on our laptops. As you can see it went down hill pretty quickly when he started climbing on the laptop. I took it away and decided to wait a few years before I let him break it.



I saved the best climbing photos for last. Here they are. He LOVES the mowers. This is Lil' V's Snapper. Blake can and does climb on all of them, but he likes hanging onto the handlebars on this one.

He's perched oh so precariously on that bar. Every once in awhile his feet slip off and he just hangs on until he gets his feet underneath him again.

Walking and Talking

Wednesday Blake started walking at 10 months old!  No 1 mile marathons yet, but he's managing to totter a few steps back and forth between Dad and Mama.  I feel like as soon as he gets more confident he'll really take off.

He's also been adding quite a few words to his vocabulary.  He tossed his sippy cup of milk on the floor this morning and told Vance he wanted "juice".   He said it pretty clearly too, and then guzzled his juice down. 

Bye Bye is a favorite. When Vance is heading off to work in the morning and Blake hears the Rodeo start he'll start waving excitedly and saying, "Bye bye Dad".  When Dad didn't go to work this morning he got really excited and hugged Vance's neck. He then figured somebody had to be leaving so he said, "Bye bye Mama," and started waving bye.

If you hand him a cell phone he'll put it to his ear and say "Hello." Too cute. Of course usually the conversation gets a little one sided from there with Blake pushing buttons and listening to you talk to him. He's pretty good at hanging up and speed dialing too.

Blake loves his brothers and frequently throughout the day when he sees them I'll hear, "Hi bro," or "Hi brudder."

  He's also decided to share his drink or food or toys with us. He sometimes gets just a little forceful trying to feed us, but is a good sharer.  I love watching him as he quickly learns to connect words and ideas.

Reno

So we've made big strides on the house renovations. I can almost see the end in sight. This last weekend we tackled the last of the hardwood floors. It meant emptying Lil' Vance's room and shoving everything into Shane's room, and taking everything out of the living room and mostly putting it in the kitchen and dining room. Fun times!



Since we had LV's room empty I went ahead and worked on the drywall that needed to be finished and painted. The doorway on the left is the closet. It's a mess because we stole part of his closet to add to our master bedroom. Our tub is behind the gray area on the wall. We had so many other projects that we never got back to his closet to put a door on or finish the drywall work.


Another view of LV's room almost emptied. The hole in the wall is from where Vance had just removed a wall heater. The house was converted to central heat and air before we bought it, but the wall heaters and air conditioners were still in place. Unfortunately the AC units were not window units, but were actually in the wall through the brick. So outside the house we have several places we need to brick in, but that is a later project.


Mama's little helper. He loves this step stool.

My little painted baby. I have no idea how he got paint on him. I had him in his backpack carrier while I painted and somehow he managed to get a hand into the paint, and from there you can see what he did.


Finally, not totally finished, but close. This is LV's room with the floors refinished and the walls painted. I replaced the outlets yesterday, and still have to paint the trim and retouch a few spots in his room. If I can get Vance to pick up a closet door on the way home one of these nights that will be one room COMPLETELY finished!



We worked on both rooms simultaneously. Here Vance is removing the quarter round trim from the walls and getting ready to start sanding in the living room.


Sanded and getting ready to poly.


Another view of the living room sanded. This shows all the furniture shoved into the kitchen. It also shows the archway. I still have some finish drywall work to do on it before I paint it.

Close up of the floors before

And the same spot after



And finally the living room put back together. I think the refinished floors make our furniture look newer. I love that the floor no longer looks dirty.


This last picture is just the latest picture of the dining room. I had debated about what color to paint it and the kitchen and finally decided with help from Dear Genevieve (aka Kelly) to paint it the same color as the living room. It's not finished either, but I like that other than the laundry room we are past the demolish stage of the remodel and in the wrap up stage.

1st 4th

It was Blake's first Fourth of July this year. It was kind of a funny 4th. The parade was on Saturday, Sunday was the official 4th, and Monday everyone was home so we celebrated that evening and shot off what was left of our fireworks from last year, mostly bottle rockets. I mistakenly thought Blake would be scared of them. He really wanted to hold a sparkler. We didn't let him. The only time he cried or fussed is when I tried to light off fireworks. Even though Dad was holding him, I think he just couldn't handle mom being that close to the loud noise.



Watching the parade




The only thing Blake didn't like was the sirens on the trucks. He didn't cry, but they did startle him.


This years parade was longer than last years because it is a big election year, lots of political floats. Some were cuter than others. I kind of got a kick out of this one.


Blake's give me candy pose. He didn't get nearly as much candy as some of the nearby toddlers. Next year he's going to have to work the cuteness a little bit more. He did get a Jack Prat, Jr. Wilson County Property Assessor fly swatter in John Deere green, which he really likes.


I would love to have both the horse and the carriage.


Blake and Dad. We didn't stay up for the fireworks. Vance had flown in that morning from Oklahoma and been up since 3am. Blake's bedtime starts earlier than the fireworks, plus I wasn't sure how much of a hit the loud explosions would have been.



The real 4th fell on a Sunday so we managed to get a couple pictures of us actually dressed up before church.


Blake may have my coloring, but he has his Dad's head and build.

What a Week!

What a week! Vance left Sunday for a week long school in Oklahoma. Sniff sniff! I always hate when he's gone. Sunday night was going pretty smooth. It was just Blake and I as the older boys decided to stay another night at their mom's. Then our dogs decided to gang up and kill a kitten. Stupid dogs! I hate that. I was so mad at them. I even went and got my gun and shot into the ground to scare the dogs because they all hate loud noises. Duchess was the only one not in on the massacre.

Monday I was exhausted. I didn't sleep that good and neither did Blake. I was glad to see Lil' Vance and Shane come home because it made the house a little more normal. Blake was happy to see his brothers, and I know it helps him not miss his dad so much.

Tuesday Blake turned 10 months old!! Wow! I am so not ready for him to be a one year old. Time is just going way too fast!

And Shane called me to say his car had broken down. He'd been hanging out with some friends and it broke down while he was driving one of them home. We'd replaced the clutch prior to us going to Illinois and apparently something went wrong...again. So I loaded up Lil' Vance and Blake, found a number for a tow truck, and we went to go pick up Shane.

Wednesday we made a trip to a parts store to buy a new floor jack, and jacks stands so Shane could start working on tearing his car apart. I helped him get started that afternoon, before I had to run him to work.

Thursday has so far been our least eventful day. I spent it helping Shane work on his car until we hit a stopping point. Anyone have a 30mm socket? No, me neither. Bill said he'd loan us one.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon mowing the yard.

Tomorrow is Friday. Saturday morning Vance flies home, and Sunday is the Fourth of July. I can't wait. What a week. And can I just say where on earth did the month of June go??

Here are some pictures of my 10 month old little boy. Blake is now into climbing. Here he pushed the step stool over to the kitchen table and when I turned around, Tada!


What a pumpkin! He didn't know how to get down once he got up there so he was kind of stuck.



And in keeping with our theme of safety, here he is playing with my plastic bags. You know all those zillions of plastic bags that you get at every store. Well, I keep quite a few because I love to shop at Aldi's and its BYOB (Bring Your Own Bags).


Blake loves to unstuff them and he did a pretty good job, I think. And so pleased with himself. He was just having too much fun!


So I'm off to bed, finally. And I'm hopeful for tomorrow. At least I know it's Friday. I'll be glad to put this week behind me, and I can't wait to celebrate Blake's first Fourth of July!