6 months

Well Layden you made it to 6 months. You just keep getting cuter but more excitingly you get more and more interesting. You understand more of what is going around you and are really starting to like your daddy. You always have a smile for your daddy. You may be fussy and teething for mommy but daddy comes home, you sit up, smile, and then lay down with him and take a nap.
You are so close to crawling it is scary. As it is you might as well be crawling, you move at a pretty good clip. Whenever I set you down you quickly scan the room and as soon as a non-toy object crosses your line of sight your direction is chosen. Full speed ahead. You will scoot right on past any toys. Toys are only any good after you have totally ransacked a room for any non-toy objects. Papers is great, boxes are better and if you really shouldn't be chewing on it that is best. It is quite impressive how you can find even the smallest object of interest a room.
You have an ever increasing repertoire of facial expressions. You have also learned how to use them at will. I expecially like your grimace. You look so mean and angry but you are just having fun. You also have started screaming and yelling like a banshee in pure excitement.
I love it when you laugh, it is such a happy sound that I can't help but laugh. When you are hurt it hurts me too. When you were born 6 months seemed so far away and I was so excited and impatient for you to grow. Now I am not so sure because now the day when you aren't my little one anymore seems not so far away.

Death to popcorn

Layden had us up and out of bed around 8:00 this morning and we made it out of the house by about 9:00. Then on the way out of town we saw a yard sale and they had a jogging stroller so we stopped and had a look and bought it. New it would be about $275, they wanted $100, I got it down to $90, haggling isn't my strong point. Now I don't have any excuse not to go jogging or hiking. It took us til 10:30 to get to the house because of paint issues. We had to wait in line to get ours mixed and the guy dropped and spille a gallon of paint on the floor (the same kind we would later need more of but that was the last pail).
Here you can see pictures of our work today and it is where I will be putting all pictures of the remodeling process. If you have hints, tips, advice, suggestions, dire warnings, or other such things please comment. I am pretty sure we will need all the help we can get.
The kitchen feels much bigger after ripping out the upper cabinets. Oli first tried to rip them out intact so they could be used elsewhere but sadly the cabinets were sturdier than the wall. Hence they hole you see in the drywall. So he went and got a big hammer and relieved some stress. He managed to cut his palm on a nail but I 1-upped him and stepped on one. No it did not go through my foot. Yes, my tetanus shot is up to date, so is Oli's. We did move all those boards and Oli bent all the nails over so they aren't so dangerous anymore.
We have tried out two colors for the kitchen walls so far and both are bad, the first was too yellow, the second too orange. Hopefully the third times a charm, I tried a more brown shade this time. The green we chose is looking really good though.
Popcorn ceiling is devilish to paint. Pure evil. One gallon managed to cover about one third of the ceiling and I will probably need to do two coats. Oli went to get more paint from the Ace in Colfax but they were out so I had to go over to Moscow this evening to get some. A near constant rain of painty ceiling chunks falls on my head as I paint.
Our real estate agent, Melinda, stopped by on her way home. She also likes the linoleum floor in the kitchen. Maybe it is a girl thing, or maybe the two of us are just wierd in the same way.
Layden is more and more mobile. His motivation seems to be reaching new and interesting things to gnaw on, like bushes and paint chips.

Off to work

Today I paint the living room, oli rips out cabinets and we shall see.

Our House

Today the house officially became ours and we have been busy ripping out cabinets and testing out paint colors. Sorry no pictures, we forgot the camera, hopefully tomorrow. There is something that we thing maybe a 70's linoleum under the vinyl in the kitchen that I actually kinda like, what I can see of it any way. Oli doesn't think much of it. And the wood floor may extend some into the dining area so that vinyl floor may get ripped up, we shall see. Layden is still cute. Bed time.

Closer

As you can see we just get closer and closer to crawling. Today we spent far too long reading and signing papers for the house but we can pick on the keys on Friday afternoon. So Friday we will probably go over and get to work. Rip out some cabinets, get ready to paint and such. Then we have Saturday and Sunday to hopefully get the painting done and maybe get the carpet ripped out. I may be being a bit optomistic but this way we won't be caught with nothing to do. We will also most likely start moving some stuff over. The tools for sure and then anything else handy that we won't be wanting to use. I also think we may go with cork floor in the kitchen. It will cost a bit more than the vinyl tile we originally planned on but will be ever so much nicer. I also think (stress on think) that we will go with yellow walls in the kitchen, dark sage cabinets and a light sage in the living room. So exciting, I have been looking forward to non-white walls. The ceiling won't be much fun and will take a ton of paint because of the popcorn junk but it turns out that we don't have to use a sprayer, as we had thought.
Layden is quite the charmer and amused everyone while we signed papers. Scott from the realtor's office was there and I think he wasn't quite sure what to think about him. He seemed nice and got some smiles but he just wasn't entirely sure.

Neighbors

We went into Colfax today to look into choosing paint colors so we would be ready for this weekend. We decided to stop by the house while we were there and the guy was installing the panel. It turns out that "the guy" is our neighbor. So on one side we have the hard of hearing guy (our neighbor, Sarah, calls him the "creepy guy") and on the other is the electrician, his wife Sarah, their two sons (2 and 4 years old), Tristan is the four year old and there will be a daughter in late September, early August. Tristan's favorite outfit is a Buzzlight year sweatshirt with his name on it and bob the builder sweatpants. He wears them every day. She is a stay at home mom and seems shy but nice. Her husband is not as shy he showed us his yard and where his lawn mower has bent up the siding on our garage. They both seem nice and are from the area.
Laydens new face is this lovely grimace. It is often accompanied by growls or even bashee-like shrieks. Quite ferocious really. And when he finally gets hold of a power cord he always holds it like he is sizing it up to strangle some one.

Soooo big

Layden has a new love in his life, down comforters. The joy and excitement written on his face when ever he is placed on one or near one or one is placed on him make me jealous. Though he does turn towards me to smile as if to say "Mommy, you wonderful, divine, jewel among mothers, thank you for giving me such a wondrous toy." Right now he is watching Porco Rosso with me, his attention span is definitely lengthening.
I realized that he will be 6 months old in just 10 short days. At first I never thought I would regret him growing older but just thinking of him being 6 months old makes me somehow proud and sad at the same time. He is getting so big next he will be crawling, then walking and talking, then talking back, then I will be crying at his high school graduation.

The Best Things II

Well we thought that chairs were cool but it turns out that boxes are even better. Not only are they a fun toy for Layden but they are fun for mommy too. This is the box that our new tea press came in. We seem to be in the habit of breaking teapots in this house I have broken two so far and Oli has broken one. The box was a bit excessive for the size of the contents but we will be moving soon enough and it will come in handy. One more week then we sign on the house. Then we can begin to enjoy the joys of home ownership. The repairs, the painting, the replacements, the gutters, the surprise repairs and so much more.

The Best Things

One of Layden's most important jobs is reminding us that the best things in life are free. For example today he became more excited and had more fun with a dining room chair than I think most kids have with their video games. I was moving the table back agains the wall and had scooted the chair in front of where he was in the jumper. He became incredibly excited and jumped as close as possible. Grabbing it, trying to eat it, growling at it and hitting it. He was just so incredibly excited that mommy had put such a cool toy within his grasp. His joy knew no bounds, at least until mommy took the chair away. Then there were bounds. The best toys in his view seem to be grown up toys. Anything we use is far more interesting that his specially-designed-to-stimulate- young-minds-future-world-leader toys. A library book placed within possible reach is immediately lunged at and previously interesting board books are ignored. If the laptop is reachable that is also good and the capslock key is often pressed. Power cords are tasty, DVD cases delectable and don't get me started on paper. Textiles are also exciting, he loves dishtowels, diapers and clothing. One baby targeted thing he does love is the jumper, it was worth every penny my mother paid for it and more.
He is being a bit grumpy tonight and threw a little hissy fit, but just a little one. He didn't persist too long. I think he was hungry but got so worked up about it that he wouldn't eat so we had to calm down a bit before we could nurse. Now he has nursed and seems to feel much better.
Our old pans were wearing out so now we have new cast iron ones. It will be an adventure for me since I have not used them before but you get the non-stick without any worries about canary-killing fumes. They also should last long enough for our grandchildren (postulated grandchildren) to use them.

Lucky Mommy

Today Oli had the day off so we went for a walk to campus, visited some people then a little picnic lunch. We have discovered another person who scares Layden, my old office mate Callie. A very nice person. Don't know what it was about her, she doesn't have a beard so that's out.
Layden has gotten into the habit of taking a nap around 7 or 8pm and tonight we have decided to try to change it. Poor guy he nursed and fell asleep so I woke him and sat him up. He kept drifting off and wobbling about. Oli took pity and took him away. Now he is happily playing on the floor. I am so lucky.

Inconsolable

Dieter was back last night and this morning. He found a place to stay in Moscow and will be able to start moving his stuff in before August 1st.
Night before last Layden woke up in the middle of the night screaming. So I tried feeding him, no go. So we walked, we patted his back, we sang, Oli walked, Oli patted his back, Oli tried singing with me, no go. So on a whim I tried feeding him again, he attempted to suck the nipple off and then fell asleep. Maybe he had a nightmare and then realized he was hungry, who knows, I had only been asleep for an hour or two so I wasn't really clear on what was going on.
He is getting closer and closer to crawling. At the moment though he mainly travels by rotating around to face what ever looks closest and most interesting. Books and other paper products are at the top of the list, followed by power cords, then his toys.
Oli is out mowing his lawn again. The sun has almost set but I guess there is still enough light. Now he is back in because the mosquitos are out in force.

All grown up

Today we walked downtown and had dinner at Basilio's. We had some wine with dinner and I felt very grown up in a good way. We got some dessert, they said was tiramisu, but it wasn't. It was more of a chocolate layer cake, but still very good. Very rich so we brought half of it home. Of course what they gave us was about 4" x 4" x 4". Then we went to get some tea and sit for a bit to settle our stomachs before walking up the big hill home. Layden seemed to enjoy himself. He sat between Oli and I on the bench and that worked quite nicely so both of us had our hands free but our legs kept him from scooting off. He sits up so well on his own now it is quite nice. Occasionally he gets a bit excited and falls backwards, then he looks at as if to say "Is this something I should cry about? because it was a little unexpected and I am just not sure."
I have been having far too much fun with my camera recently. The flowers are just so pretty and they hold still so nice. I wish that I were talented enough that I could somehow make money with photography. It would be a fun way to make money. Maybe with a bit more practice and the practice is fun on its own.