Playing

Much to our suprise, Sam really wears her helmet! She doesn't seem to mind it when she's playing and it makes us feel a lot more comfortable with her standing up and making her way around on our hardwood floors and out on the deck.

This is her favorite toy these days because she can pull herself up and stand there and play. She is content playing on this toy for a good 15 minutes or so.

Most toys still go straight into the mouth. She's just got her 8th tooth and she's still drooling a lot so we think she might be cooking up another one.

Here's a video of her cruising around the coffee table:

Still Loving the Swing

Sam still LOVES her swing. We had to take it down while we were showing the house but now that it's sold (more on that later) we can leave it up. She is so happy when she's swinging.

Bathroom Renovations

The bathroom was by far one of the worst rooms in the house when we moved in. As we lived there, it only got worse. Some flapper something broke in the toilet and it wouldn't stop running sometime last summer. Rather than buy the $10 part to fix it, however, we just shut the water off and turned it on to flush every time hoping that would motivate us to renovate the whole bathroom. We kept saying, why spend $10 on a new part when you can get a whole new toilet for $80 and we're going to get a whole new toilet when we renovate.

I guess the broken toilet wasn't that great of motivation because it took us almost a year after the toilet broke to move forward with the bathroom renovations. Sad huh? But with only one bathroom in the house, we were not looking forward to having it torn up during the renovations. So we left it to the last and hired a team to come in and do the heavy lifting. They ripped out the shower stall and replaced it with a tub/shower combo and surround. They leveled the floor out and put in slate tiles. They replaced our ghetto toilet with a new low flow. All that and I only had to go without a toilet for one night (the neighbors are so thankful :) Kirk then stepped in and hung beadboard to cover up the ugly wall paper. We got new hardware for the sink and medicine cabinet and hung new accessories. We painted the walls a soothing green which turned out not to be my best color selection but it works (and we had to paint the part of the wall behind the toilet before we put the new toilet in so we're kinda stuck with the color).

Anyway, here's the before:

Here's the during:

And the after:

The House is Done!

After over 2 years, we can finally declare the house RENOVATED! We are so pleased with how everything turned out and we are psyched to be able to finally live in our house!

The house went on the market on Friday. To see our listing, go to http://www.livechattanooga.com/ and click on featured listings. Scroll down to 101 E. Manning Street - it's listed for $159,700.

I've copies the pictures from the website but could only get small ones. I'll see if I can't get the better copies from my realtor. In the mean time, feel free to check out the website (there's also a great video tour). Here are the pics:


Front yard:





Front Porch:





Living Room:





Pass-through from living room to kitchen:




Kitchen:






Family Room





French Doors




Bathroom



Sam's Room




Master Bedroom




Another view of the master:







Fireplace in Master Bedroom





Back Deck




Another view of the Deck




Gazebo

The Solution

Sam's big booms (her multiple falls on the hardwood floor) and the resulting bruises prompted Kirk to search out a solution. Ebay to the rescue! Kirk found this neoprene helmet thing (aka "The Short Bus Special) on Ebay and it is amazing. It provides just enough protection that we can allow her to pull up and fall on the hardwood without too much concern about lasting damage. And it is SO CUTE! The challenge now is getting her to wear it. This was Day One and she actually didn't seem to mind it too much. How cute is she???

Big Booms

Well, we finally found the camera. Sorry for the lack of posts in the last few weeks but we've been crazy busy working on the house and we couldn't find the camera so there weren't any pictures to put up anyway. The good news is that the camera is back and we'll do some catching up over the next few weeks.

Sam is crawling all over the place now and pulling herself up on absolutely everything. Which brings us to our new dilemma... how to deal with a baby learning to walk and all hardwood floors. Let's just say the two are not that compatible. You can see why I say that in these pictures. (we call these Sam's big booms)

Chicago!

Sam and I went to Chicago this past weekend to visit some of my law school friends. Kirk was (again) supposed to come with us but the house STILL isn't ready to go on the market so he stayed home. We missed him but we had a great time! Sam was wonderful on the plane and we had a great visit with Giselle, Joe, Cheryl and Loren. Everyone loved Sam (of course!) and visiting Chicago made me realize how much I love that city. So glad to have so many great friends still there that I can go visit!

Unfortunately, I still can't find the camera so no Chicago pics for now...

Florida!

Sam and I went to Florida this weekend to visit Grandpa Rick. Kirk was supposed to join us but we still don't have the house ready to go on the market yet so he stayed home to work on it. It was my first solo flight with Sam so I was a little nervous. It was Sam's 3rd plane ride though so she's an old pro. Slept the whole way!

Grandpa Rick moved to "The Villages" in central Florida after Christmas and we hadn't visited his new home yet. Both Aunt Kim and Aunt Christy met us there for a long weekend - a much needed vacation.

It was amazing! The Villages is so cool - what a great place to retire! My dad has a golf cart that you can drive everywhere. There are cart paths everywhere that go under the main roads so you don't even disturb traffic. We took the cart down to Publix to get some supplies for Sam (sunscreen, swim diapers, etc. - the Florida necessities). I put Sam in our new backpack carrier and we were off! She loved having the wind blow through her hair on the golf cart. It put her right to sleep.

Our next piece of business was hitting the pool. Sam LOVED the pool! She laughed and splashed all over the place. It was awesome!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find our camera before I left Chattanooga so I had to rely on my sister to take pictures. Now I just have to get her to put them on CD and mail them to me so I can put the pictures on the blog. Stay posted. The pictures and the videos are really amazing!

Fun in the Sun

Finally a nice spring day! We've had such a wet spring that we haven't been able to get out near as much as we would like. With the sun shining today, we took the kids over to the park. Rosco and Kirk went swimming in the river while Sam and I played in the grass.

Fun with clothes pins

Guess Kirk got bored at home one day while folding laundry. Fun with clothes pins! Poor girl :(

Yo Gabba Gabba

Let the bad habits begin! Sam is now officially addicted to Yo Gabba Gabba. She likes to sit in her swing about 3 feet away from our 42" TV and watch DJ Lance Rock and the crew. She just totally zones out. It's a 25 minute respite and who can complain about that!

She also likes the Backyardigans (though it's a distant second to Yo Gabba Gabba). Here's a video to show you how chill she is when she's swinging and watching TV at the same time.

Pulling Up

We walked into Sam's room today and were greeted by this sight. Guess Sam can pull herself up now.



Problem is, she's not really sure what to do once she gets up! I think she really digs her new perspective though. She likes being up close and personal with the monkey on the mobile.

First Baseball Game

We took Sam to the Chattanooga Lookouts game this past Friday night. The Lookouts are our local AA baseball team (affiliated with the LA Dodgers). The stadium is just across the river from our house so we can walk over to the games. Plus, tickets are only $3 for general admission. We went a game our first summer here but skipped last season since I was pregnant and I don't do baseball without hot dogs or beer.


Anyway, it was a great night for baseball - about 70 degrees at gametime. Sam was decked out in her KC Royals onesie for the occassion! Here are some pictures:

Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone!

This morning we got all dressed up and went to the park near our house where a local church was having a big easter egg hunt. Sam was a little to young to really participate but I found a quiet little corner and a couple of eggs that she could scoot after and play with. Here's Sam with her first easter eggs!

After the "Hunt" we went over to the fountains at the park (which are still turned off for winter) and climbed on the animals.

Then it was back to the house to get easter presents. An easter book from each Grandma, a couple of bunnies (fake of course) and some candy that mom and dad will eat. Sam might get a special teething biscuit for easter :)

We found this cute bunny made up cupcakes (and LOTS of icing)!

Then we put up Sam's easter present from Grandma Hughes - her very own porch swing. She loves it!

Hope you all had a great Easter too!

Eating the Camera

I want to eat.....the camera!

Gearing up for Summer!

We ordered Sam a great sun hat and sun glasses from Australia! When I studied abroad down there in law school, I saw that Australians do not mess around when it comes to their kids and the sun. So when I saw an Australian company advertising sunglasses and sun hats, I knew they would be good. And they were so cute! Now we just have to get Sam to stop pulling the sunglasses off her eyes and trying to eat them...

First Sippy Cup

We got Sam her first sippy cup the other day. She can't quite figure out how to drink out of it yet but she loves to hold on to it and chew on it (both the spout and the bottom of the cup).

Drinking from the hose

Sam loved when dad gave her water from the hose. I tried to get some on video but once I turned the camera on, she got mesmerized. She finally drank towards the end.

Frustration and its sister, the fake cry.

Sam is at an interesting age right now. She can't quite crawl yet (though she makes her way around quite well). She can't quite eat yet - but she loves to put everything in her mouth and try. So her days involve a lot of frustration. Mainly when she can't fit a whole toy in her mouth.



She's developed a great fake cough/cry. And then she'll belt out with the full-on cry....but upon careful inspection you realize there's no tears. Yep, she's already manipulating her father. Got him wrapped around her little finger. One of her finest performances:

Playing with Dad

Just playing