kudos to mike

For the amazing job he's done with the floor in Liam's room! He just put the last coat of poly on it yesterday, and we have to wait a couple more days before we can use the room, but it's gorgeous. Take a look:

In the corner of this picture, you can see the ugly, stained beige carpet that once graced this room.


And here's what we found when we ripped out the carpet:


Mike spent a whole week here sanding and prepping the floors in May. It was hard, dirty work and he did an incredible job. Here's what the floor looks like today:




I'm sure all you eagle-eyed readers can spot a few other major differences in the before and after shots, but I'll leave those for another post. We're now one major step closer to getting the boys in their rooms! We're shooting for early next week if all goes well. It'll be quite a transition for them after being in our room for a couple of months, but I'm sure they'll adjust. I know WE'LL be breathing a big sigh of relief!

storm's coming in!

our new curtains came in...

...and guess which part Liam liked the best?

have shades, will travel

a walk in the wildflowers

This morning the boys and I went to my mom's house to see the wildflowers blooming. My parents have a grant to plant one of their fields with native flowers and grasses, which is really cool. The boys were very interested in exploring and checking out the flowers. Usually it's Mike's department to teach them about plants, so it was nice to be able to give them a little something. After we finished walking in the field, Liam helped my mom plant some Black-eyed Susans around the house -- he loved having his own spade and being able to do some gardening!

liam and loni mug for the camera

breaking news: max's room livable!

I'm so excited I can barely contain myself! After months of work, Max's room is almost done. We still have a few finishing touches like covering the switches and outlets, putting the doors back on, adding fabric piping to the walls (don't ask -- it will all become clear in a later post), touch-up paint. But the bulk of the work is officially finished and we can start moving furniture in there! I'm going to post a few pictures. Well, more than a few actually, but feel free to skip it if you're not interested in the before and after.

So here's Max's room before:



Lime green and bright blue (not shown) paint job with random squares of chalkboard paint, nasty stained carpet, and badly sewn (according to the sewing expert, Dr. Mom) valances. Oh, and revolting "cottage cheese"-style textured ceiling (more on that later). Not exactly the most homey and welcoming room. Welcoming to bacteria and general yuckiness, maybe, but not much else.

And here it is today, a palace by comparison:




New cafe au lait paint, fresh white trim, beautiful textured ceiling, and, as of 30 minutes ago, soft, plush, wonderful new chocolate carpet. It looks SO good after months of being a terrible construction zone! I can't wait to get Max's things (and Max) in there.

A few more, if you'll permit. First, a close-up on the new curtains. We decided on a sock monkey theme, and my mom made the lovely linen curtains with sock monkey border as the first step (still to come, a quilt and possibly a wall hanging, among other things). Here's the detail of the monkeys. Isn't that fabric great?


And finally, before and after of the monster ceiling project. We worked our asses off (pardon the language if you're still reading), especially Mike, on it. The top picture is the yucky cottage cheese texture. The bottom picture is the result of scraping, scraping, scraping, sanding, priming, painting, plastering, more priming (this time with special stuff used by firefighters to seal in smoke and stains), painting, and painting again. A much more subtle texture.

home sick

We've all been battling some kind of cold/sore throat/fever bug for the past couple of weeks. Mike and Max seem to have successfully shaken it, but as for Liam and me, so far it's been "We fought the cold and the cold won." We spent most of last night feverishly resting on the couch in an upright position so we could breathe. Well, Liam rested anyway. I managed to watch "Shaun of the Dead" and the first installment of "The Starter Wife," which I didn't realize was a series when I recorded it. Summer TV, man. What are you gonna do?

Anyway, Liam is home from daycare today. Max went by himself (well, Mike took him) and didn't cry once, although he did ask for Liam several times on the 3-minute drive there. And Liam has spent most of the morning sleeping, which is very unlike him. Even though he's not sick anymore, it didn't take much to get Mike to join in on the sleeping fun...

celebration!

Liam's birthday party turned out to be great fun. He loved being the center of attention all day long. First thing in the morning, Liam and I took a special Max-free trip to the grocery store to pick up his Elmo cake and some doughnuts (his breakfast request). Then my mom came and picked up the boys around 10. She took them to a Fourth of July parade (starring Aunt Loni and Klaudia, of course) and then back to her house for naps so we could finish the party preparations in peace. Thanks, Mom!

The party started around 3. We had a cookout with burgers, dogs, and polish. We also made way too much potato salad and pasta salad (we're still eating it! for every meal!). After the meal, it was time for cake and presents. Liam was very excited by all the fuss. He hasn't quite made the connection between birthday and presents yet (thank god!) so it was a nice surprise for him to get so many wonderful things. The highlight for him was the Nemo sandbox my parents got him. He discovered it out in the yard before present time and stopped dead in his tracks. "Whoa!" he exclaimed. Then when he realized what it was and that it was his to keep, he was thrilled. The boys played in it all afternoon, then wanted to go back again first thing the next morning. I'm sure they'll ask for it again as soon as they get home from school today.





The only blight on the day were the numerous injuries Liam sustained, probably excitement-induced clumsiness. In the morning, he fell on his face and scraped his nose and split his lip. Then in the afternoon, he fell on the sidewalk and managed to scrape off half of his big toenail. Yikes! Needless to say, he's forgotten all the pain of that in the face of extra attention and special medicine (neosporin) and bandages all for him.

Max had a great time too. He got a couple of presents himself, and was especially fond of the cake.

happy birthday, liam!

Here's Liam ringing in a whole new year. While he slept peacefully, dreaming of what it will be like to be three years old, his parents toiled away finishing the painting in the boys' rooms (more on that to come). We're sure that Liam will have a wonderful day, and we'll do everything we can to make sure the year to come is his best yet.

max thinks he's people too!

welcome to the circus forticus nature preserve

double trouble

So Mike and I were in the bedroom, trying to figure out how to remove the evil Kodak Easy Share from our computer in favor of something like Picasa that doesn't crash the machine every single time we look at an image, when we heard a suspicious rustling sound in the next room. Odds were 1:1 that there was trouble. We looked around the corner and found this:


These guys are getting a little predictable in their mischief!

too hot to cook

...so the boys decided to do some grilling.

a nice change

New curtains in the kitchen! My mom made them and they're beautiful. Too bad the walls are still bright yellow, but in time that will change too (the kitchen will eventually be green).

Here's a close-up of the pattern:


And in case you were wondering, here are the old aprons .... I mean, curtains. They're on the counter because in my excitement over putting up the gorgeous new curtains, I forgot to take pictures of the old ones "in situ."

which describes how you're feeling all the time

Liam is working on learning how to express his emotions in words and expressions rather than, say, hitting or kicking anyone who gets in his path. At dinner one night, we were talking about what it feels like to be happy, sad, and angry, with accompanying facial expressions. This one was supposed to be "sad" -- see how his lip is sticking out -- but he kept breaking up laughing while showing us how sad he was.


Guess which one this is?

max takes a walk

There's just something about this picture that I really like...

cousins meet

Today, for the first time, Liam and Max met their cousin Gabriel. The boys had a great time playing outside, inside, all over the place. Liam and Gabe bonded very quickly by pushing a toy tractor back and forth to each other, and then it was off to the races. Sidewalk chalk, hot wheels, stump climbing...you name it, they had fun doing it. We all had a nice dinner (shish kebabs, yum!) and the boys even got to sit at their own special little table (they're not old enough yet to recognize or resent the implication of sitting at the kids' table, thank goodness). After dinner there was more playing, then Gabe, Matt, Kelly, and Grandma and Grandpa had to leave. We threw two tired, grubby, and happy litle boys into the tub, scrubbed them off, and once they laid down they fell right asleep from exhaustion. I guess that's the REAL trick to sleep training! Anyway, they all had fun, and nobody was hurt, except for Max, who took a header down the side of the big stump and scraped his little face. All in all, a very fun visit! The boys can't wait to go to Chicagoland tomorrow to see their new best friend Gabe again.