Renovation Staycation

A few weeks ago Glenn redid our very boring backsplash. Now we have a beautiful subway tile and glass tile backsplash that Glenn did all by himself. He did a great job. The reason for all this was that Glenn had 5 days of vacation that he had to use or lose by the end of March. We seriously contemplated going to Disneyworld but about that time Robert entered an especially difficult stage and we decided a Disneyworld trip had great potential for disaster. We decided it would be "fun" to stay home and do house projects along with fun things with the boys. I think we were able to strike a good balance between work and play. My jobs were to keep the kids out of the kitchen and to paint the entryway. Not so much fun since it is two stories.

We also reclaimed Robert's sandbox that Glenn built in the backyard as an herb garden. Thanks to the Mollenkopfs for an almost new sandbox for the boys. This one is better because it has a cover and is in a spot where I can see Robert playing.

Another project was addding a big boy swing to our swingset so now Nicholas has the baby swing all to himself...

and I no longer have to try and lift Robert into that little one.

Nicholas is growing and changing. He learned to pick up puffs and feed them to himself during our renovation week, which was really helpful to me. He is not quite crawling (which caused me some dismay when I looked back and saw that Robert was crawling and pulling up at 8 months) but he gets all around through other means and I think it is just because I didn't force him to spend time on his tummy much. He does have quite a bit of weight to move around so I think he just needs a little more strength. One area where he seems to be moving a little faster than Robert is babbling. He says dada and lots of other syllables. We could really be in for it if he is even more of a talker than Robert, because currently I can't get Robert to stop talking. If he hears a word once, it is in his vocabulary for good and he can use it in context. One night, we were trying to get him to take a bite of his dinner and he looked at it and said "Hmmm.. Appetizing." Still don't know where he heard that and that happens all the time with new words.

We had a picnic by the pond at Hooks airport. We had such a beautiful day and a fun time to thank God for.




Since my kitchen was torn up, we ate out several times during the week. One night we took the boys to the Cheesecake Factory because it is pretty toddler friendly. After eating way too much food and brownie sundae cheesecake, we rode the trolley and then browsed through Barnes and Noble and bought a wonderful Richard Scarry book that I remember vividly from when I was little.