A New Project

We decided to paint over the horrid orange bathroom, and in an effort to still keep it interesting we decided to paint it with vertical stripes. Sounds easy enough right? We're two days in, and the stripes are very straight and all but one is the same width. Hopefully, when we pull the tape down it will look good, but regardless it's not getting changed again! Fletcher tried his best to be helpful as usual. He definitely enjoyed the ladder!

My Little Genius

I will preface this with saying Fletcher has a lot of shortcomings. He's a terribly picky eater, and he won't feed himself anything but cheerios and potato chips. Mark teases him by saying his mommy will have to come to the cafeteria when he's in high school and feed him. He also doesn't speak, but he communicates everything he wants through a series of gestures and grunts. He will only say mama when he's mad or upset, but otherwise he refers to me as UH. That said, he understands everything. Yesterday, it was close to nap time, so I told him to go get the book Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you see? and we would read it. My mom was here (painting of course), and she laughed and said "I'll be shocked if he brings it." Well, he went to his basket of books and got it. I knew he would, but she was sure that it was a coincidence. So after we finished I told him to go get Where's Baby's Bellybutton?, and he did. I can tell him to do anything, and he understands perfectly. Go get your shoes, get your sweater, close the door, are you ready for a bath? It amazes me. He also loves to read, and for this I have one person to thank, Dean Schneider, a friend and former colleague. I asked him for advice after Fletcher was born on things to do with him especially how to make him a lifetime learner. He gave me a book called the The Read Along Handbook by Jim Trelease, and it changed my life. I recommend it to all parents and teachers. OK, I know book titles should be underlined, but I can't find that icon?

I didn't hear him for a few minutes and then found him like this

I took this first, but he quickly realized it was upside down.

Holy Orange Batman!

OK, so we hit a bump in the road with the renovations. We wanted to recreate a bathroom we had in our house in Nashville that was sponge painted this great terra cotta/burnt orange color. It was like that when we moved in and one of the few rooms we left alone. Well, we got two different colors one lighter than the other and mom painted the half bath the lighter yesterday. It's not even close. It's so bright orange it hurts to look at and the darker color looks like a bad version of Clemson colors. Mark came home yesterday after a long drive and got a headache just looking at it. We quickly decided to drop our quest to recreate the look and went back this morning for two shades of brown. This has left me uneasy about picking any more colors. We may have to take a break for a few weeks.

New Tricks

We have been working on learning body parts with Fletcher, so far he has a few mastered. He does not want to learn his nose, but Mark thinks that's because it sounds too much like NO.

Picture Day

I finally got around to taking a few new pics of Fletcher for our Happy New year/change of address cards. It was a little chilly, but he didn't seem to care. He was pretty enthralled with the pine cone...and with running into the road. YIKES! We live in a very kid friendly neighborhood, but we're going to have to work on that. Here are a few pics that didn't make the card.

Renovations have begun

Well, thank the lord for my mom. She pulled down the horrid wallpaper in the kitchen (apples and pears) and painted it a soothing green. We accented the bay window and the island in a darker green, and I love it! She's moved on to the half bath, but that wallpaper (think green and white prison bars) does not want to come down so easily. How the people who lived here before could live with that stuff for 10 years is beyond me. Mark and I are still "discussing" the colors for the rest of the house.

Settling in

Well 98% of the boxes are unpacked (the garage is going to have to wait), and so far we are only missing one box. I guess that's the norm, but it does have some stuff I want. Fletcher has adapted quickly and likes his new play area (what will someday be a dining room). He's ready for boating season and for grandpa to start teaching him the ropes in the water. As for Beau and Reese, they think we are just visiting and move toward the door everytime we get up. Hopefully, the nice weather and the abilty to go for a walk straight out the front door will persuade Reese to like this new place. Beau barks at every little sound, and I doubt that will end anytime soon. We celebrated Mark's birthday yesterday with shrimp and grits and red velvet cake. We are getting used to this new house, but I still go to the wrong cabinets in the kitchen a lot.

We finally made it

Well the movers delivered all of our stuff yesterday (i think?). I have A LOT of boxes to unpack, so I'm not completely sure everything made it. Fletcher was great; he spent most of the day playing with a broom in the driveway. He's been such a trooper over the last 7 months with all the traveling, so we have promised him 6 months of normalcy. Beau and Reese are going to the new house today. They too are ready to see their new backyard and home. As for Mark and I, we are looking forward to a low stress 2009.