When life gives you lemons ask for salt and tequila!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

9 month update

Gaven’s 9 months milestones… here are a few I could think of.

1) BYE- Gaven started waving BYE! He first did it with Janet. She moved his hand in waving motion while saying bye. So when she said bye, Gaven copied. He waved his hands. He doesn’t do it on command Only when he feels like it.

2) Door- Gaven knows how to open the door!

3) Kisses- He knows to give kisses too. Actually, I wouldn’t call it kisses exactly. He puts his mouth against your cheek with his mouth open. So you are covered in all the slobber and drool… eekkk! But it’s still wonderful. He only does it when he is in a very very good mood. Most of the time, he turns his face away. Feel so rejected…. Sad smile

4) Talking - Just a a few days ago, he started saying words like “pa pa pa pa”… constantly. I wouldn’t call it his first words yet because it doesn’t seem purposeful yet. He blabbers all day long. However, I see this as an improvement to his usual high pitch scream. I can also tell that he tries to mimic our word sometimes. The other day during dinner, I said to him “mum mum” while doing sign language of eating. He studied my lips and he said “pum pum pum…..”. So seems like he is able to say words that start with “P”.

5) Drinking- He is able to hold his own bottle now. I think he learned this from Penny. I was in for a surprise when one night while feeding him, he held both hands up and took over. However, he still prefers me holding the bottle for him. He will only do it if I make him.

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My little munchkin getting into mischief….

I can’t think of anything else? He made more progress in the speech development side but I will leave that to his 10 month update since he is past 9 months and it should be listed as his 10 month update. Smile

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Garbage Disposal

Our garbage disposal failed on us couple weeks ago. We noticed significant leaking from under the sink cabinets. After some investigation, it was determined the garbage disposal was the culprit.

We did some research over the internet and decided to go with this. We initially couldn’t decide if we should go with this. After reading some reviews, we decided to get the WasteKing. Price is significantly lower and I love ordering from amazon. Free 2 day shipping and no tax?! I’m in!

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Here’s our old disposal… looking pretty bad…

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After about an hour of work, the new disposal was installed. John said this is probably the easiest project he has done so far…. probably cause the other 2 projects that he did turned into months long projects. I still need to blog about those… coming up soon, I promise!

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The old disposal had been leaking for awhile before we noticed it. The bottom shelf was wet for a long time I presume. Look at the sunken in board! UGLY! John is talking about cutting out the board and replacing with a new one…. when he finds time. Eye rolling smile

Holidays!

Holidays mean much more when you have a kid. I can't wait to celebrate little munchkins first Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas!

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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

A peek at Gaven’s room

We got Gaven his new white crib since he broke the old one. I was a little skeptical to get a white crib, afraid that it will be too girly, but most of the furniture in his room is white. Also, I think white makes the room look brighter. John agreed with my choice and so I ordered it online from target.com. It arrived very quickly.

We don’t really have a theme for his bedroom. Mainly because it is too expensive to try to match everything. I got most of his stuff either on sale or used. There’s one thing I want in his room…. colorful! I want his room to be bright and colorful. After all, it’s a kids room.

So here’s a peek at his brand new spanking white crib:

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I took the picture after we removed the mobile. It looked a lot nicer with the mobile he had. Unfortunately, it’s time to remove his mobile. He was starting to grab the toys and pull it. He loved this mobile when he was younger. It is one of the best baby purchases I got for him. I got it used from craigslist. He loves all things moving. He watches the mobile move and tracks it with his eyes. Now, instead of just watching intently for the mobile to moves, he hold his hands up and pull the toys. Sarcastic smile71IZRN ayRL._AA1500_

Source here.

We got these little baskets for his expedit bookcase from landofnod.com. I love landofnod.com stuff! But they are too too pricey for me. I waited for months for their baskets to go on sale but it never did. I finally bit the bullet and got 8 of them. The bookcase we got used from craigslist. We store his toys and miscellaneous items in these baskets. It makes it very easy for us to put things away. He knows which baskets contains his toys, maybe by coincidence. He always seems to go for the far right green basket.

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Here are some of the items on the bookcase:

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A picture frame that contains an ultrasound of Gaven at around 19 weeks. A friend gave this meaningful gift to me at my baby shower.

 

 

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Disney snowglobes- gifts from Janet. It just so happened that Dumbo is one of my favorite childhood cartoons. UP- I love this Disney animation. I actually cried watching it.

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The sailboat/ whale picture (from Homegoods store) that used to be on top of his crib had to be moved to the other side of the wall. We replaced it with Eeyore picture, also from Janet.

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You can see from the picture above, we finally put up the panels for his closet. The closet was without doors for months. My mom offered to sew the panels for me when she was here. I never got around to find the right fabric. Months after she left, I finally found some fabrics from Ikea that I like. Then because I have never sewn in my entire life before, I put the fabric away and never did anything with them. Finally… yes finally, I went and got some no sew hem strips where you can just iron on from JoAnns. We are still missing 1 panel. I was only able to get 2 fabrics that I like. Still looking for the 3rd panel that matches with these 2. You can’t tell that we’re missing 1 panel because the camera is strategically placed so you can’t see the incomplete closet doors. Smile

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I got white wooden block letters in his name and painted them. The objective is to paint them like a giraffe print. Of course, it looks nothing like a giraffe print. I don’t really like them anymore and may take them down but until I find something else to put there, it will stay where it is.Better leaving it there than having  a blank wall.

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Oh, the big huge chair! It looks so out of place, but it is probably one of the most useful pieces of furniture in there. We were too cheap to get a glider/ rocker. So we used our old piece of furniture that we have in the house. This is where we feed him and also where we sit when we hang out in his room. Until we get a new chair, this will stay. It is actually a very comfortable chair. Notice the white machine on the floor next to his crib? That’s his noise machine. We turn it on when he sleeps. It produces white noise that blocks out outside noise (a little), it also works as his sleep cue. When it’s turned on, he knows it’s his nap/ bed time.

And finally the other side of the room… (messy & unorganized)

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We are still working on updating his room to suit his needs. Nothing in his room matches because we picked up pieces as we saw them on sale and also many of the things were given to us. Hopefully, one day we will have a room that has matching items. I am already thinking of repainting his room maybe when he is a little older! Oh… one more item… one of my favorite. His personalized birthday keepsake which I got from here. I wish I got it printed a little larger though… anyway, I am planning on hanging more stuff on this wall so it doesn’t look so funny with just one picture. A bookshelf maybe.

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There you have it! Gaven’s current room… which is evolving as we find something new to put in there. It has already changed so much since we first started working on his room.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Rabbits rabbits…. go away

… at least from our lawn. Our HOA recently replaced the fence around our neighborhood. That means our old chicken wire is gone along with our old fence. This new fence looks new but the big slats allow the rabbits to come in and out very easily.

Finally this weekend, John went and got some new chicken wire and started putting it up along our back fence. Lots of sweat and blood went into it.

Here’s the sweat:

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And then the blood:

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After 2 days of on and off hard labor, the project is finally completed. Now let’s just hope the chicken wire works so the rabbits don’t come into our lawn and destroy our grass…..