Tummy Time and Vast New Floors

As he does most days, today Alex had some quality tummy time, an opportunity to exercise his neck muscles and upper body. That big, heavy monkey-man head isn't going to lift itself, you know! (Well, in fact it is now)

Olympic swimmer?

Now, once you've mastered carpet crawling, obviously you need a brand new, wide open stretch of carpet to call your own. Here's where the new bedroom remodel is really going to shine. Take a look at that carpet pattern on the floor -- it is an absolute dead match for the existing carpet upstairs, right down to the petals on the flowers.


Thanks to the brilliant interior decorating intuition of Dana's stepmom Moira, and the good, consistent folks at Milliken Carpet, we now have a new room full of carpet. For those who know, this is the Rosalie pattern in the Emerald color, the heavier-weight 32# stuff.

This is the stage where all of my projects actually begin to get rewarding -- and very quickly, at that. Now that carpet is on the floor and paint is on the walls (Kelley Moore "Harmony" zero-VOC paint; walls in eggshell Creme, ceiling in eggshell Greek Villa), this new bedroom upstairs is actually beginning to resemble a real, live bedroom. It now becomes a lot easier to visualize and place the finish trim work! It's (mostly) all clear vertical grain, or "CVG", douglas fir to match the original woodwork in the house. The bookshelves are done with 3/4" MDF core A-A CVG doug fir plywood (shhhh, don't tell the grandkids, they'll never know), and that stuff is not cheap.

And for fun this week while recovering from a very sore throat I picked up in Cupertino, I installed this classic brass shower riser & enclosure for the clawfoot tub downstairs. I can't wait to try it out!

Emerald City Emigrees

It's now official: we will be spending June and July in Seattle, as Dana's company has permitted her to take a legal internship at their Seattle offices. I will be telecommuting from there, and my Mom has graciously volunteered to help out with baby duty. We have a very nice condo rented for the 2 months, right next to the Jackson Park golf course, with plenty of room for all of us. Persistence has paid off. Now we just have to pack!

In other fantastic news, Dana got grades back for 2 of her 3 classes this past semester, and they are both A's! She aced both her LP (Lawyering Process) and Property Law classes. We should find out about the third class in another week or two. I don't want to brag too much, but bear in mind that she pulled this feat off WHILE having a baby!

More good news of late -- we now have wall-to-wall carpeting installed in the bedroom project, and the walls and ceiling are fully painted. A carpenter friend is now working on the finish trim work, so by this time next week I expect we'll be just about ready to move in. Yup, just in time to move out for 2 months!

And yesterday I took an hour or so to finish installing the new vintage shower enclosure downstairs. It looks great, just needs the water lines hooked up and a new shower curtain and we'll be all set.

No photos for this post since I'm at work, but I will add photos shortly, including some of Mr. Alex.

Dad Goes On A Business Trip

I am traveling this week on a business trip. An opportunity came along for a software training class that was just too good to pass up, so I'm in the Silicon Valley for the week.

Unfortunately it did not come along at a particularly good time: Dana has her last final exam, in Torts, on Thursday. We are almost locked in for going to Seattle this summer, so we have to find a short term apartment, stat. And the carpet is going in in the new bedroom on Tuesday. Fortunately for us, Dana's mom is helping us out this week staying with Dana and taking care of Alex so the attorney-in-training can finish studying.

This reminds me of when my Dad would take business trips when I was little. I remember thinking how lucky he was to get to jet off somewhere on a fun adventure, while we had to stay at home. While I always enjoy traveling, and learning new skills, it is not nearly as much fun without Dana and Alex around. Unlike previous trips, I really feel like I'm missing out on a lot. The "action" is somewhere else this week.

On the plus side, I finally made time to work out this morning. It has been several weeks now since I had exercised regularly. I plan to use this week to re-start my aerobic workout regimen. I have two personal "projects" now -- getting up routinely at 7am every day (including weekends), and working out regularly. I have not yet found the right recipe for keeping at it for more than a few weeks at a stretch, or the right number of workouts per week. I'll keep trying.

Baby Times

It was a busy few days for Alex this week. First he went to the doctor...
He weighs 12 lbs 5 oz - that's nearly twice what he weighed at birth! Unfortunately for him, it also meant that it was time for his first round of immunization shots. He got two shots in each thigh. The first two went fine, but the last two really hurt. He won't lie to you -- he did cry, just a little bit.

But nothing that a little milk couldn't fix:

This guy is a nut for Mom's milk!

Then he had a nice long soak in the hot tub to relax after such a hectic baby day...

It's tough being a baby!