Extreme Garage Makeover

We have a dog, and we walk her quite frequently. During those walks, my neighbors have their garage doors up, and I am able to see that many of them have very nice, functional garages. By contrast, our garage was completely unfinished and pretty ugly. The original builders hung drywall, added tape and one coat of mud, and then did nothing further. That was 7 years ago, and the original owners didn't do anything in the garage but hang a few hooks (but they didn't put them in the studs, so they were coming out of the drywall).

I guess you could say I had garage envy. Recently, though, that all changed. My dad came to visit us at the beginning of this month, and while he was here, he finished our garage for us.

My dad added several more coats of mud and then painted it. Our garage is now a very pleasant light yellow (I couldn't stand the idea that he'd do all that work for just a white garage, so I chose yellow, instead). We painted the door into the house a dark blue, so we almost have a maize and blue garage in honor of being MI Wolverine fans. With the help of my uncle Hughy, Dad also added a hole in the ceiling and an attic ladder so we can access the space above the garage for storage. We even have baseboards! Yup, that's right, we probably have the only garage on the block (maybe in the whole town) with beautiful white baseboards. If there was any heat out there, you could lay a carpet and add a couch for another living room -- that is how nice our garage is now.

Now Vivek and I just have to hang some hooks -- in the studs, of course -- and add some shelving. But we are light-years ahead of where we were before Dad arrived. Thanks Dad; you are the best!!

p.s. I am too new to blogging to have thought of taking a before picture and an after picture for my "audience." Oops! I will take an after picture and post it when I can, though.

Four Month Doctor's Visit

This is long overdue, but here goes anyway. On September 12th, we went to the doc for Kiren's 4 month visit. He weighed in at 18 lbs, 13 oz, and 28 and 3/8ths inches long. That means he is still 2 standard deviations above the 95th percentile in weight and more than 2 standard deviations above it in height, so he hasn't slowed down yet. The doctor said that Kiren is going to be one of those kids that wants to walk as soon as possible, so he'll just fall down as often as he has to in order to figure it out; he won't be one of those kids who waits until 15 months when the muscles are all in place so that he doesn't have to fall down. He concluded that Kiren will be a "needs to achieve" kind of baby. I believe the doctor on this. For the last month, Kiren has been doing everything he can to reach whatever item he sets his sights on. When he is on his tummy, he'll push off and launch himself forward if we hold his feet. He can also slowly turn himself in a circle to reach new items; with Vivek the other day, he completed a 360. In the last couple of days, he's even been trying to put his knees under his butt and chest. Vivek calls it his inchworm move. So far, it is ineffectual, but it won't be long before he's propelling himself across the room with it.

So far, we've been really excited to see each new trick, and we are anxious to see what Kiren will do next. But I have a slightly foreboding feeling that we are going to look back at stationary Kiren with some nostalgia as we treat his many bumps, cuts, and bruises.

My Boy Needs Product

Kiren looks like a big boy now because he had his first haircut last Wednesday (10/3). Vivek offered to cut his hair, but when I asked him what he'd use, he proposed to use regular kitchen scissors. I quickly forbid him to go anywhere near Kiren's hair!

Instead, we took him to my hairdresser, Deanna, Wednesday evening after work. She has a studio in the basement of her house, complete with the swivel chair that pumps up and down and the comb cleaning jar with blue stuff in it. She had me hold Kiren on my lap while she quickly trimmed all the long stuff on top of his head and shaved his little sideburns. Kiren wasn't still, of course, but he didn't fuss or mind, either. Deanna did a great, fast job even though Kiren was turning his head all around; she'd obviously cut the hair of many babies before. Vivek took the pictures, and when we were done, he took Kiren home so I could stay for a haircut of my own.

While I was quite pleased with the end result, I was hoping Deanna would be able to do something with Kiren's cowlick, but no luck. As someone told me the other day, "that boy's going to need some product."

I'll post some haircut pictures as soon as I get a chance.

During:

After:

I was right, by the way...

I was right about Kiren being in danger of bumping his head on the wood floors. Last Sunday (Sept. 30th), about a week before the carpet was delivered, Kiren strung four rolls in a row together and hit his head. It happened SO fast. I was sitting on the rug with him, I blinked, and he was across the room and crying.

My dad was visiting, and he was on the couch above where Kiren landed, so he picked him up and comforted him. The crying didn't last long, but I sure was happy to see the carpet delivered last Friday (the 5th). It looks great, and it should help (some) to protect my rollin' boy.

Poop and Carpet

We have lots of wood flooring in our house, in the entryway, living room, dining room, on the stairs, and in the upstairs hallway, but I don't quite understand why. The people who lived here before us put the wood floors in, and they had three small children. So far, I don't see how wood is compatible with kids. I can already tell that Kiren is going to bump his head and fall down quite a bit on his way from rolling to crawling to walking, and the wood floors seem like a spectacular way to cause larger than necessary bruises. Yes, the floors are pretty (well, they were before we let our dog scratch them chasing her toys), but they are fairly impractical.

That said, I am definitely not replacing them. I get that they are really expensive, and desirable, and replacing them is just silly. Instead, I decided to replace the 5x8 rug in our living room with a larger rug or piece of carpet. I wanted something neutral, bound on the edges, and I wanted it to be 12x15 to give Kiren more carpeted space because I anticipate his attempts at being really mobile are just around the corner.

I struck out on the internet, so a couple of Sundays ago, I set out to find a carpet or rug at a local store. Against my better judgment, I decided to take a slightly fussy Kiren with me so Vivek could get some work done.

As an aside, it was Kiren's first ride in his brand new, big boy car seat. We bought a convertible Britax Marathon because he is now too tall for his infant carrier type car seat (it was his second seat, which had a 29 inch limit; his first maxed out at 26 inches. Luckily we borrowed both of them, so the britax is the first one we've had to buy).

When we arrived at the carpet store, I started to get Kiren out of his car seat, and I smelled something fairly nasty. But he was wearing navy, and I didn't see anything amiss, so I decided to chalk it up to farting. And then, I held him against my shirt, and I found the source of the stinky-ness. By then it was too late; I had a huge yellow poop spot on my shirt. And Kiren managed to inaugurate his new car seat too, of course. By now, Kiren was crying very loudly, so I set up for a backseat diaper change. I am not sure how I did it because I was trying to hold him as far away from me as possible, but somehow I managed. Approximately 17 wipes later and after a whole lotta screaming, Kiren had a new outfit on, and I had done all I could to minimize the shirt spot (not much). I contemplated going home, but I decided that I'd come this far. Rather, I walked all over the store and just held Kiren over the poop spot. I don't think the salesman noticed, but my arm was killing me because I couldn't change sides.

All's well that ends well because I did manage to find a great carpet remnant that the store agreed to bind and deliver a couple of weeks later. But I have to say I could live a long time without being pooped on in public again.