Pants are the new ears

Just a funny video to share today...I am planning on posting about progress in the garden soon and yes, there will be house project updates as well. For now, at least this video gives you a peak at the living room (we love our cork floors!), such as it is at the moment :)

Action shot

Protect the camera lense, cause it's about to be targeted.

In this shot, taken last weekend, Sobin sits calmly in the deck. The cat is slowly adjusting to the new house and is starting to spend more time outside, rather than moping around on the couch all day. There are more dogs and other cats in the neighborhood, and he's a fan of neither. Still, he seems to be claiming his territory and is actually acting more affectionate with his human companions than he has been in a long time.

My goal is to update more on what we are doing in the house, at some point soon. The house is a work-in-progress and although we've already accomplished quite a bit, we still have a lot more to do. It will take time...

Birthday Greetings for Grandma

Happy Birthday Grandma!

The new favorite tree

This is what Silas calls his "new favorite tree." He'd never shown much interest in climbing trees until we moved here...but all of a sudden he's been bitten by the climbing bug. Glad he chose a small tree to start out with!

Around the neighborhood: The playground

The elementary school is only a block from our house, and I can tell you, Silas is digging having a playground so nearby.

It has a REALLY big slide!
And a fireman ladder (at least, that's what Silas calls it):
But there's plenty of fun to be had at home too. Today was a perfect day for lawn mowing:
Every day we get a bit more settled, although our den is still pretty much floor to ceiling boxes of books. Silas is adjusting, but the transition hasn't been the easiest. He has been downright difficult lately, but it's hard to say how much of his behavior can be contributed to the changes brought by moving, or just by the fact that he is a typical three year-old. Whatever the cause, I think it's safe to say that we are hoping he moves past this stubborn, whiny, contradictory phase ASAP. Any ideas on how to make him the perfect agreeable, obedient child overnight?

Home on Easter

What better way to celebrate our new house than to have an Easter egg hunt around the yard. Silas was really engaged in the process this year, and as you can see, just thrilled every time he found an egg:
A view of the north part of our property. Future home of fruit trees:
Silas watched his Dad saw the gutters yesterday in order to install these extensions. I couldn't resist hiding an egg in one of them:
We dyed the eggs yesterday afternoon. Silas insisted on wearing his worker hat so that his head wouldn't get too hot while handling the eggs. Not sure what that was about...
Our stash:
The only problem we encountered was that 7 eggs was just not enough and Silas was not ready to call in quits after we'd found them all. Next year, we'll have to step it up!

I will have more pictures of the house as time permits. The Book of the Month will have to be on hiatus for April, but expect a good one in May.

Happy Easter everyone!

Here he is!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled home improvement postings for this breaking news! Silas got his first hair cut!

Silas was not overly thrilled with the process, although he's been talking about getting a hair cut ever since Drew cut his. Drew did a nice job, but Silas was a squirmy worm, and we will therefore we have to go back and trim a bit more.
When Silas was finished with his hair cut, it was giraffe's turn:
I miss those golden curls, but one thing that I am so not going to miss is Silas screaming every time I try to run a comb through his snarls.

Curls or not, he is still one cute kid.

Grab your hard hat Silas...

You're going to need it!
The first thing we did when we closed last Thursday was to tear up the new, but smelly carpets. We discovered this:
Thanks to our new neighbor, we know that the reason the original floor was pulled up and replaced with ply board was so that the previous owner could access underneath the house to replace old beams. It's a shame, but the original fir floors just aren't worth refinishing, not with the amount of damage done to them, plus the amount we'd have to replace. On top of that, we were advised to shellac all of them and seal in whatever may have been sprayed or done to the floors (there was a nasty chemical smell that didn't go away when we removed the carpets). So, that's what Drew has been busy doing...painting, removing floor boards, etc. We will be covering the front two rooms plus the downstairs bedrooms and hallway with cork flooring, which you can see pictured here. While we had the notion that it would be nice to restore the original floor, I am excited to have a beautiful cork floor. It's something Drew and I have always admired. Now, if we can just have it in in time for us to move in a week...

We will be busy over the next week dealing with the floors, painting, and packing. I may just pop in with another post or two, but you may not hear from me again until our internet is up and running in the new house. Till then...

Birthday on, Power out!

We spent the second half of Silas' birthday without power, thanks to an afternoon wind storm. We celebrated in the semi-dark, amidst mounds of boxes. It was still a wonderful day.
Opening Grandma G's cool present:Blowing out the birthday candles. We had ice cream too (raspberry--Silas' choice!):
Last year I made Silas a big, complicated play blanket. I did not have the time or energy to duplicate such an endeavor this year, but I did manage to fulfill one of his requests: about 3 weeks ago, he asked me to knit him some hoses for his fire trucks. That I had time for for sure! I also knit him a helipad for the cool helicopter we got for him. It sits atop his fire station awaiting the next "emergency."
This was a pretty low-key birthday due to our upcoming move. We promised him that next year, for his fourth, we can celebrate in style at our new abode!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Silas!

Sunny day

Today we went to the new house to take some measurements. It will probably be the last time we need our agent to open the lock box and let us in. We get the keys on Thursday!

Coming up...

We went to our house yesterday for a little visit, and found several things in bloom.

This is going to be a busy couple of weeks.
Silas turns 3 on the 16th. We close (4 days earlier than our original date!) on the 18th. My birthday's on the 21st, and we move on the 30th. Whew!

dam bones

Last weekend, Silas took me to the dam he had built in a stream leading to a retention pond, which is just across the road from our current abode. It had been raining a lot and his dam had collected a lot of water.
They don't call these boots puddle jumpers for nothing!
Earlier that day, we had been reading "Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones" by Byron Barton. Silas isn't a real dinosaur enthusiast, but he did love the idea of searching for "bones" and putting them together to make animals. So, when we arrived back home from our tour of the dam, we hunted for bones on the front lawn and put together this dinosaur:
We then found the backbone of a Tyranosaurus Rex:
With all the hub-bub of our upcoming move, it's nice to still have these sort of moments together.