Month 16

Eli is famous!

Eli and I have been going to a stay-at-home dads play group for a few months now. It's been really good for me to meet other dads that are in the same place as me. We go to parks, museums, play centers and sometimes each others' homes. It also has be nice to get Eli out and socializing with other kids.

A few weeks ago we went to the zoo. We had all the fun. Before Eli and I headed home we decided to go pet the goats. This film crew was hanging out, and I was trying to ignore them, but they could not ignore Eli. As it turns out they were doing a story on family and the camera loves us.

This producer came up to us after they took some film of Eli and gave me his card. He told us that we may be on this tv show 24/7 Chicago in a few weeks. It is some odd show on at 12:30 am, early Sunday morning. When I got home I set the DVR. Well guess what? We made it on the show. We show up around the :45 second mark. Enjoy the link below.

The New Ladies Room

I kept waiting for us to be totally, all the way done with the bathroom before posting the "after" pictures. I have since come to the realization that we may never be totally, all the way done.  In any event, the room makes me very happy.  The closest I have to before pictures are these taken before we moved in.

The floor tile was crappy looking.  The bathtub tile was grout-less in many places.  The bathtub had been poorly refinished and was peeling.  The pedestal sink was fine but offered no storage.  

Many, many painful weekends (of Kenny working long labor-intensive days and me taking care of Eli while taking care of the rest of the house and laundry) later, I have my happy room.  

We did a simple white subway tile for the bathtub.  This was Kenny's first ever tiling work, and I think he did a lovely job.

We contemplated doing hexagon mosaic tile for the floor.  We wanted something that fit with the era of the condo.  We settled on this mosaic that we thought  was unique and could maybe read vintagey or moderny.  

After moving in, we had painted this room purple.  For the remodel, we painted it the same purple but one shade lighter because I am crazy.  We got this vanity at Ikea.  It might be my favorite new feature.  The drawers are deep and functioning and have wonderful organization systems in them.  Kenny spent 2 hours on one of 4 trips to the hardware store to make the frankensteinian plumbing work.  He loves me.

We (and when I say "we" here and in other places, I usually mean Kenny) framed some pictures of the Alhambra (the place Kenny proposed) to hang over the toilet.

The medicine cabinet door is still a work in progress.  It was an old flakey-painted window.  The look did not go with the new direction of the bathroom.  For now, I slapped some gray paint on it and painted the glass so I don't have to look at all of my bottles and the like.  One day we may get some glass frosting film or Kenny might build me a new door.

Video of the Week: Eli can read!

My baby can read! It's true. I have video evidence for you all.  Eli has become a seussoholic. He makes us read all of his books over and over again. This does come in handy when you need Eli to come to you. 

Its nice to be needed... until you're not.

I took Eli to the park today. This park is right next to the red line L tracks. When the trains go by it can get loud and scary if you happen to be a baby or puppy. The 1st time the train went by Eli was in my arms. The 2nd time Eli ran back to be held. Same for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th times. The 6th time he could not get back to me in time, he had wandered to far. He just looked at me and then when the train was past he went on his way. Becoming more of a grown boy every minute he did not come back to be held after that. He no longer need to be held. I however desperately wanted to hold someone. The world is too big.

Month 15

The reason they made weekends

Today was just lovely.

If you know us, you know we like to eat.  We like to cook.  We like to entertain.  We like to go out to fun restaurants.  Correction: We used to like to go out to fun restaurants.  We're done with restaurants.  For the first few months of his life, Eli was pretty easy to take to a restaurant.  The noisier the better.  He'd usually sleep through them.  As he became more aware of his surroundings, things got more difficult but were usually manageable if I nursed him.  Then bed time got to be more standard and if we were out for dinner, he was often angry and screamy.  There was a small window in time where he was semi-content in the high chair.  Now that he can walk really well, he really wants to walk around the restaurant and attack other guests and their tables.  He does not respond well to detractors.  He goes boneless.  He screams.  At an ill-advised trip to a sushi place last week, Eli managed to get pour out a kettle of soy sauce at an empty table before we could stop him.  Going to a restaurant now is like paying somebody to stress us out.

Entertaining at home is usually fine.  It can be challenging to time things right and make sure I don't spend the whole evening in the other room putting Eli down.  Today, we had friends over for brunch, and it was awesome.  We got to be sociable and eat good food.  Fixed!  There are so many important things they just don't cover in those parenting books.

This afternoon we met one of Kenny's daddy friends and his wife at a playground.  Eli spent most of the time stealing things from other children.  Kenny calls it teaching the older kids how to share.

And to top it all off, I took my first bath in my completed bathroom.  I shall write a separate post about that later this week (the bathroom, not the bath ;-).