Something New All the Time

All relaxed with Great-Grandpa.

I’m supposed to eat it, right?

Cutie-patootie!

What just happened? 

Hey!  I like standing up!

When it Rains...

It pours! This weekend is our major "get the house in order" weekend. But as the day goes on my to do list keeps getting longer and longer. (And more expensive.) All of these are little things, but added together it's starting to get funny ...or frustrating.

• The diaper pail needs a new lid.
• Fridge door rack broke off. It had been super glued. Hmmm.
• Dishwasher leaks.
• Toilet paper holder was pulled out of the wall and now we have some huge holes to patch.
• The car has a headlight out.
• The licensing office was closed today so we couldn't get our WA licenses.
• Thought we could at least get the car registered, but it needed emissions testing... and failed. Grrr.

The Move and a Desmond Update

We moved to Vancouver on January 4th, and I finally feel like I can catch my breath a little bit. Thank you to all who helped out! With the youth group there we had everything out of the house in an impressive 45 minutes. We're managing to get everything in half the space we had before. We just have to organize things well so it all fits. I've unpacked a little here and there during Desmond's naps, but with Jr High Wintercamp last weekend this coming weekend will be the first chunk of time Davin and I can team up together to hopefully finish unpacking.

Desmond gave us a little bit of a scare early this week when he started gasping and squeaking a lot when he breathed. At first I just thought he was playing around. We took him to the doctor twice and at the second visit they said it was croup. Thankfully he's getting better already. Through it all he's kept his (mostly) happy demeanor so that's good.

Desmond also had his 6 month checkup and everything's great. He's still off the chart for his weight and height percentiles checking in at 22 lbs 0.5 oz and 28 inches long. (When does that become tall instead of long?) Anyway, he's wearing 9-12 month sizes now and enjoying his big boy car seat. He still doesn't have any teeth although the bumps have been there for about 6 weeks now for his bottom two teeth. They're getting close but taking their time. I think he's going through a growth spurt right now or something because he's been extra sleepy. He'll sleep 10 hours at night (whoohoo!) and then during the day he'll be up for only an hour or so until he's ready for another nap. Some of his naps are 2 or more hours long. Sleepy boy!

Barnyard Bath

Today we got a new book in the mail from Grandma Linda.  It was one of the Christmas gifts that she sent for Desmond.  I told her before hand that we were wanting books that he could chew on, because frankly he likes to stick stuff in his mouth.  So, Grandma gave him two books.  One is called Fuzzy bee and friends, and the other is Barnyard Bath.  Melissa started reading the Barnyard Bath book to him right before we got him ready for bed.  This was his reaction, and boy is it a good one.

Christmas for Three

 

It was Desmond’s first Christmas, and he woke up bright and early even though we fed him late last night hoping he’d sleep in.  (Guess we’d better get used to early Christmas mornings.)  We had a yummy bacon and eggs breakfast and a delicious turkey, stuffing, and potatoes with gravy dinner.  Due to the piles of snow outside, our plans to visit family changed so we enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home - just the three of us.  We all caught naps during the day and watched White Christmas.

     

    

Desmond was just as cute as could be and enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper.  By the end of the day he was all tuckered out and fell asleep drinking his bedtime bottle while Mommy hummed “All is Well.”  Merry Christmas!

Artic Blast!

Portland has been hit hard with snow and wind and freezing rain! I have enjoyed 7 snow days in the last week and a half and now it's Christmas break. We've had ice on the inside and outside of our windows. A large branch fell off the tree in our front yard, but it was the only casualty. I enjoyed taking a daily walk in the snow to see how deep it was and to take some winter pictures. Some drifts were past my knees! We dug out the now-I-wish-it-wasn't-so-long driveway and the sidewalk... my back is still sore. The only disappointment has been that the snow has delayed our Christmas packages. I think they're sitting in a post office somewhere. Oh well! We've stayed warm and snug enjoying Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate.

Windows Live Writer and Picasa Playing Nice

Melissa and I use Picasa to sort all of our digital pictures. It’s a pretty good image cataloging program. One of the cool features that Picasa has is a button at the bottom that says “BlogThis!”. It’s pretty handy. All you have to do is select a photo or multiple photos and hit the “BlogThis!” button. It will then copy the images up to blogger and create a new post based on those images. Well, recently Melissa and I switched to using Windows Live Writer to create our blog posts. Sure, we could use Blogger’s interface, but honestly I can’t stand it, and Windows Live Writer has a pretty slick interface. Also, it will hook up to most of the major blogging engines (Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, etc).

Well, the only problem is that I could not find a button for Picasa that would open the images in Windows Live Writer. Bummer! So, I decided to make my own. It was a fun project. I’ve never made a Windows installer file before, so it took a bit of learning, but here is the final product. If you use Picasa and Windows Live Writer and would like to have a button in Picasa for creating blog posts in Live Writer, then click the below link. I copied the button into the Live Writer Gallery, so that everyone can create blog posts easily from Picasa.

Also, if you download this and find it useful please leave a comment on this post. It would be nice to know if people find this plugin helpful. Thanks.

Windows Live Gallery - Live Writer button for Picasa

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Me and Mommy in the snow. It was falling heavier, but it takes so long to get bundled up that it was just lightly snowing by the time we got outside.

My first time to play in the snow. It feels so plasticy!

Sitting next to the first snowman I built... ok, Mommy built and I watched. She's much more excited about all this than I am.

Brrr!

We're having our first real cold snap in Portland.  This is when I really don't like this old 1906 house we're living in.  The oil to run the furnace is expensive and with no insulation and drafty single-pane windows, it could run non-stop during this below freezing weather.  We turn on the space heaters and curtain off the living room to keep it warmish.  (We're up to 66 degrees right now.  Whoohoo!)  Plastic is up on the windows, and we definitely keep the closet doors closed. Our bedroom closet was 34 degrees last night!  We have to pull out what we want to wear the night before so we don't have to turn into an ice cube getting dressed in the morning.  Speaking of ice... here are a couple pictures of our kitchen window this morning.  Yep.  Ice on the inside.  Good grief!  I don't even want to think about all the mold problems this moisture creates.  Friends like the chilled glasses from the cupboards, though.  We're moving in three weeks.  Yay for dry windows and warm closets!  Time to make some hot chocolate.

 

Ready or not, Christmas is Coming!

I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that it's December!  With the upcoming move and trying to wrap up work, I don't feel like I have time to get into the "Christmas spirit".  Christmas stuff just becomes one more thing on the to-do list.  We put up a <gasp> fake tree!  It was easier and much quicker than going to chop down our own like we usually do.  I also ordered all my family gifts online so I didn't have to leave the house and fight the crowds with a teething baby.  The presents will come to me.  Hurray!   

  

Desmond has put a whole new perspective on Christmas for me.  Thinking of Mary giving birth to her firstborn son who would later be killed for the sins of the world takes on new meaning with a son of my own.  I cry when I think about the innocence of a baby and what Mary must have felt.  What an incredible gift for the world!  I don't think it's something I would ever be willing to give.