Thursday, September 29, 2016
Mini stories: Here's a book, Mama!
Lauren is happily playing in her room so I head to the bathroom. Of course, she mysteriously knows what's going on and crawls at her fastest speed to join me. (Again with the lack of baby-proofing, we need to get our priorities straight here!) Once in the bathroom, she heads straight for her baby bathtub, reaches in and grabs the bath book that I gave her to look at while she was on the toilet just a little while before, and hands it to me. Thanks for looking out for me, kid! I'm not sure what I would have done to amuse myself while sitting here without this book. It's pretty clear that she's my child! 😆
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Mini stories: Puddle x2
Lauren and I had a shower this morning. (Our house isn't totally baby-proofed, so I can't lock her out of the bathroom, but if she's in the bathroom, she just pulls back the curtain to get at the water or tries to climb in, so putting her in the shower with me is just easiest.) After we were done, I decided to let her crawl around the bathroom and bedroom diaper-less for a few minutes while I got dressed and combed my hair. She has a really slight rash, so I figured a little naked time would be beneficial. Once I was dressed and my hair was decent, I picked her up to go outside to our drying rack on the back deck and grab a freshly dried cloth diaper. Came back inside and while heading to the changing pad, stepped in a puddle. Ugh, she had peed on the bedroom floor (thank goodness it's hardwood!). So I put her down in the bathroom, grabbed a couple cloth wipes, and mopped it up. Come back in the bathroom to get her so I can put that diaper on her bottom only to find that she had just peed on the bath mat. Double ugh. Clean that up as best as I could (then tossed it in the laundry hamper), pick up baby, get that diaper on her, and then breathe a sigh of relief and laugh at myself for imaging that she'd be safe for a few minutes without peeing. 😆
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Our Flooring Saga
Hey all,
This is a long delayed post - the floor was finished in June - but it might still be interesting to see the differences in the floor from when we closed on our house to when we moved in a month later.
When we bought the house, we had no idea what was hiding under the carpet. We intended to simply tear it all out and replace it, as it looked terrible. First, some pictures of what the house looked like before anything was done to it:
Of course we decided to keep the wood floor and restore it rather than slapping some carpet over top of it! Next step: refinishing hardwood floors in (most of) an entire house!
The first task was to pull out staples. In every room that had carpet, there were staples from the carpet pad around the edges and across the middle wherever a joint was in the pad. Ali very kindly did most of the rooms that had been carpeted. The dining room, however, was far worse - there had apparently been some other floor put in at some point with very large staples covering the entire floor. After more than 12 hours of work, here is what I ended up with. I pulled out approximately half of the staples, the others had been sanded off and I had to set them into the floor.
Finally after all the staples were pulled I was ready to sand the floor. I started with a drum sander.
I switched to a planetary orbital sander after the first pass.
Finally, after a couple days of sanding and very careful vacuuming, I started applying the polyurethane.
Three coats later, here are the finished results!
All in all, this took way longer than I anticipated, and I think next time, I'll probably leave it to the professionals, but I was sure happy to see the floor when it was done!
This is a long delayed post - the floor was finished in June - but it might still be interesting to see the differences in the floor from when we closed on our house to when we moved in a month later.
When we bought the house, we had no idea what was hiding under the carpet. We intended to simply tear it all out and replace it, as it looked terrible. First, some pictures of what the house looked like before anything was done to it:
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| Living Room |
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| Family Room |
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| Kitchen, from Dining Room |
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| Entry and Hallway |
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| Main Bathroom |
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| Back Bedroom (Lauren's room) |
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| Front Bedroom (Office) |
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| Family Room (again) |
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| Master Bedroom |
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| Master Bedroom 2 |
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| Master Bathroom |
The first full day we had access, I started pulling out the carpet. I started in the living room, and found plywood underneath, as I expected. However, when I started pulling the carpet up in the family room, I was very surprised to find oak hardwood underneath! Here are some pictures from after all the flooring was removed.
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| Plywood in Living Room |
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| Oak in Family Room! |
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| Dining Room/Kitchen (complete with asbestos tile remnants in dining room) |
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| Dining Room after asbestos removal |
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| Hallway |
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| Entry (complete with asbestos tile) |
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| Entry after asbestos removal |
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| Front Bedroom (Office) |
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| Front Bedroom 2 (closet floor is almost completely white from baseboard being spray painted) |
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| Back Bedroom (Lauren's Room) |
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| Master Bedroom (apparently the closet area was an addition as there is not original hardwood in that area) |
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| Master Bedroom 2 |
Of course we decided to keep the wood floor and restore it rather than slapping some carpet over top of it! Next step: refinishing hardwood floors in (most of) an entire house!
The first task was to pull out staples. In every room that had carpet, there were staples from the carpet pad around the edges and across the middle wherever a joint was in the pad. Ali very kindly did most of the rooms that had been carpeted. The dining room, however, was far worse - there had apparently been some other floor put in at some point with very large staples covering the entire floor. After more than 12 hours of work, here is what I ended up with. I pulled out approximately half of the staples, the others had been sanded off and I had to set them into the floor.
 |
| Prodigious staple pile (my poor knees) |
Finally after all the staples were pulled I was ready to sand the floor. I started with a drum sander.
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| The "big machine" as the pros call it |
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| Sandpaper for days |
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| Family room and dining room done |
I switched to a planetary orbital sander after the first pass.
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| Orbital sander |
Finally, after a couple days of sanding and very careful vacuuming, I started applying the polyurethane.
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| First coat! |
Three coats later, here are the finished results!
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| Living Room (not much different yet, we'll be putting oak in here as well, eventually) |
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| Dining Room |
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| Dining Room and Family Room (That patch by the patio door will be replaced with tile eventually) |
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| Hallway/Entry |
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| Front Bedroom (Office) |
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| Back Bedroom (Lauren's room) |
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| Master Bedroom |
All in all, this took way longer than I anticipated, and I think next time, I'll probably leave it to the professionals, but I was sure happy to see the floor when it was done!
Friday, January 22, 2016
First foods
I first learned about Baby-led weaning a few years ago from a blog that I follow. The blogger, a mom with two young children, wrote a post on ways their family saved money while their children were babies and toddlers. One of the ways she mentioned was Baby-led weaning, which she described in her post. I was fascinated, and immediately went on to do some more research of my own. The practice very much appealed to me for more than one reason. (See below for links to learn more about BLW.) So once I had a good idea of what BLW actually was, I decided it would be a perfect way to introduce solid foods to my kids.
While in BC over the Christmas holidays, Lauren - then not quite 6-months-old - had her first few tastes of food. As BLW suggests, I had been planning to wait until she was at least 6mos before starting her on solids, but she has been interested in watching people eat and reaching for food and plates for quite awhile now that it just seemed unfair to make her wait much longer when she was very obviously ready to try solid foods. While out to eat at a Taiwanese restaurant, I saw Roiboos tea on the menu and, on a whim, decided to order some and let Lauren have a taste as it's supposed to be great for soothing babies with gas, even from a young age. We offered her small tastes from a spoon and she loved it and kept sipping it down until we decided she'd probably had enough. The next week, my mum bought some baby rusk crackers (the melt-in-baby's-mouth kind), so we sat her in a high chair at the table and gave her one. She was very eager to reach for it and put it straight in her mouth. She gave some interesting (dubious) looks as she tasted it, but kept on putting it back into her mouth for more tastes, and even tried sucking on the bib where it had dropped when she lost hold of the actual cracker. In the end, she seemed to be a fan of the taste, if not the soggy, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
When Lauren and I got back home the next week, Jonathan and I spent an evening ordering a few items that we needed in order for Lauren to begin eating solid food in earnest. In hindsight, we probably should have gotten them before Christmas so we could have already had them and been right ready to jump into solid foods as soon as we returned home. The items came quickly enough, though, and when they arrived on Monday afternoon we quickly opened the boxes, set up the new high chair, buckled Lauren in, snapped on her new bib, and gave her some cucumber sticks to gnaw. She loved them! She chewed on them for quite awhile until she had sucked off all the soft seedy parts and wasn't interested in the rest of the cucumbers anymore. She still seemed to want to chew on something, though, so I found a silicone Food Hugger for her to chomp on for a bit since we didn't have any other baby-appropriate food items in the house right then. She was quite happy to munch on that, too, even though it wasn't real food.
I think it's safe to say that our first couple dabbles into solids went well, and that Lauren is more than ready to explore the world of food and is loving the start of her BLW journey!
Links to learn more
If Baby-led weaning sounds interesting to you and you'd like to learn more, here are a few links you can read to begin your research into BLW.
RapleyWeaning.com & BLW leaflet.pdf & BLW guidelines.pdf
What is babyled weaning - BabyLed
Baby-led Weaning: Helpful resources - Live Renewed
Baby Led Weaning public Facebook group
While in BC over the Christmas holidays, Lauren - then not quite 6-months-old - had her first few tastes of food. As BLW suggests, I had been planning to wait until she was at least 6mos before starting her on solids, but she has been interested in watching people eat and reaching for food and plates for quite awhile now that it just seemed unfair to make her wait much longer when she was very obviously ready to try solid foods. While out to eat at a Taiwanese restaurant, I saw Roiboos tea on the menu and, on a whim, decided to order some and let Lauren have a taste as it's supposed to be great for soothing babies with gas, even from a young age. We offered her small tastes from a spoon and she loved it and kept sipping it down until we decided she'd probably had enough. The next week, my mum bought some baby rusk crackers (the melt-in-baby's-mouth kind), so we sat her in a high chair at the table and gave her one. She was very eager to reach for it and put it straight in her mouth. She gave some interesting (dubious) looks as she tasted it, but kept on putting it back into her mouth for more tastes, and even tried sucking on the bib where it had dropped when she lost hold of the actual cracker. In the end, she seemed to be a fan of the taste, if not the soggy, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
 |
| (Photo credit: Glenda Quiring) |
 |
| (Photo credit: Glenda Quiring) |
When Lauren and I got back home the next week, Jonathan and I spent an evening ordering a few items that we needed in order for Lauren to begin eating solid food in earnest. In hindsight, we probably should have gotten them before Christmas so we could have already had them and been right ready to jump into solid foods as soon as we returned home. The items came quickly enough, though, and when they arrived on Monday afternoon we quickly opened the boxes, set up the new high chair, buckled Lauren in, snapped on her new bib, and gave her some cucumber sticks to gnaw. She loved them! She chewed on them for quite awhile until she had sucked off all the soft seedy parts and wasn't interested in the rest of the cucumbers anymore. She still seemed to want to chew on something, though, so I found a silicone Food Hugger for her to chomp on for a bit since we didn't have any other baby-appropriate food items in the house right then. She was quite happy to munch on that, too, even though it wasn't real food.
I think it's safe to say that our first couple dabbles into solids went well, and that Lauren is more than ready to explore the world of food and is loving the start of her BLW journey!
Links to learn more
If Baby-led weaning sounds interesting to you and you'd like to learn more, here are a few links you can read to begin your research into BLW.
RapleyWeaning.com & BLW leaflet.pdf & BLW guidelines.pdf
What is babyled weaning - BabyLed
Baby-led Weaning: Helpful resources - Live Renewed
Baby Led Weaning public Facebook group
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Swimming class
Lauren had an adventurous couple days. Yesterday morning, she and I went to a Music Together demo class (we sat in on a class currently in session to see how it worked). It was a fun 45 minutes of singing, moving to the music, and "playing" various baby-safe instruments. Lauren intently watched the other babies - all older than her and most of them quite mobile - and took everything in. She especially loved the parts when we all stood up and moved with the music, and she grinned through most of those times. I didn't take any pictures since we were active and involved the whole class, so you'll just have to imagine her little smile. :) I think it was good to visit the class, but I'm not sure I'll sign up for the 10-week spring session. Even though the classes say 0+, I think Lauren would get a lot more out of it if she was more mobile and could do some of the actions and activities. Also, I think the class is geared more for parents who don't have much musical experience or training, and both Jonathan and I have quite a bit between us, so we could probably do many of the same things with Lauren at home. I did love the socialization aspects of the class, though (for both Lauren and me), so I will think about it, but likely will just try to get to story time at our local library instead, at least for the time being.
In the evening, we had our next adventure of the day; Lauren went to her first swimming class. She has always enjoyed the water (well, except for her first sponge bath in the hospital when she was a day old) and loves wiggling and splashing in her baths, and in the pool or hot tub the few times we've taken her in at our complex. I thought it would be fun for her to have some more time in the pool, while also getting to see other babies and kids and interact with them. I found a couple parent-tot swim classes in the area and checked out their websites before deciding on one. I signed us up for an evening class that is just after Jonathan gets out of work so that he and I can alternate going in the pool with Lauren and both get to experience the class with her. This week Jonathan took her in. They were the only parent-kid group in the class, but apparently there are several others who come most weeks. Lauren loved being in the pool and although she wasn't able to do all of the activities, she seemed to enjoy looking around at the others in the pool and interacting with the swim instructor. I snapped a couple pictures and took a short video, but unfortunately for some reason the lighting in the pool area is really strange and the photos and videos are a terrible colour of green. Jonathan was able to edit the pictures to lighten the colour, but the video is as is. Hope you enjoy it anyway. This evening we had a make-up lesson since we missed last week due to not yet being back home from Christmas travels. I took Lauren into the pool today and again we were the only ones in the class. Lauren had fun again, but hopefully next week there will be more people in our class so she can watch the other babies and toddlers and learn what she's supposed to do for the various activities.
In the evening, we had our next adventure of the day; Lauren went to her first swimming class. She has always enjoyed the water (well, except for her first sponge bath in the hospital when she was a day old) and loves wiggling and splashing in her baths, and in the pool or hot tub the few times we've taken her in at our complex. I thought it would be fun for her to have some more time in the pool, while also getting to see other babies and kids and interact with them. I found a couple parent-tot swim classes in the area and checked out their websites before deciding on one. I signed us up for an evening class that is just after Jonathan gets out of work so that he and I can alternate going in the pool with Lauren and both get to experience the class with her. This week Jonathan took her in. They were the only parent-kid group in the class, but apparently there are several others who come most weeks. Lauren loved being in the pool and although she wasn't able to do all of the activities, she seemed to enjoy looking around at the others in the pool and interacting with the swim instructor. I snapped a couple pictures and took a short video, but unfortunately for some reason the lighting in the pool area is really strange and the photos and videos are a terrible colour of green. Jonathan was able to edit the pictures to lighten the colour, but the video is as is. Hope you enjoy it anyway. This evening we had a make-up lesson since we missed last week due to not yet being back home from Christmas travels. I took Lauren into the pool today and again we were the only ones in the class. Lauren had fun again, but hopefully next week there will be more people in our class so she can watch the other babies and toddlers and learn what she's supposed to do for the various activities.
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