Wordless Wednesday - sick kiddo

Tam's fighting some type of infection this week.

He's been waddling around wanting to be cuddled for the past few days.

Having his favorite blanket helps, I think

Taxes (sigh)

Due to an economic crunch, I elected to do our taxes myself this year instead of tax guy. (He took the news well, and said he would ask us again next year).

3 hours spent last Saturday night deep into taxcut.com and paperwork...

Federal taxes done; I just need to copy and send them.

State taxes started, but I don't want to pay to e-file so I'll do them via snail-mail.

Local taxes not even thought about yet; this is because we usually have to pay (Brian's work doesn't withhold local tax).

Sigh....

My (sad) reward for this task was to watch a few episodes of America's Next Top Model. I'm so addicted to this show for how unreal it is...and how crazy the host Tyra Banks appears to be.

Sigh...

Hopefully I'll accomplish finishing all the taxes this next weekend so that I can gloriously wait for that refund check... to pay bills.

Sigh ...again.

Finished sink in bathroom

Our downstairs bathroom is just a little closet turned into a 1/2 bath. When we bought the house, the walls were a pale dirty yellow and the sink was a HUGE pedestal sink. We loved the idea of having a bathroom on the first floor, and we knew that in the future, we could change the decor.

Well, time has told us that having this bathroom is great. It is so easily for our guests to access it without having to go upstairs to answer the call of nature. As to redecorating, we started this process when we were redoing the kitchen in the summer of 2008. The crappy vinyl floor came up, and the same ceramic tile as the rest of the kitchen went down (thanks to Brian). The walls became a slight off-white color with chocolate-brown trim. In the process, we ripped out the gigantic sink.

We knew we wanted a smaller/narrower sink bowl to better fit this small area. However, it took me nearly a year to find what I wanted at the price I was willing to pay. In the the year-gap, Brian re-installed the beast sink temporarily. Eventually, Overstock.com was our friend and we both agreed to a frosted brown glass bowl and a oil-rubbed copper fixture.

Brian, a man of many talents, built a shelf to hold the bowl. He then tiled the shelf for protection against water drops. Then he installed the bowl and faucet. With this shelf, the pipe-work underneath was left exposed. I wasn't sure if I liked this industrial look or not and I decided to find some fabric to make a skirt to hide the plumbing.

Finding fabric took another couple of months. We needed something that looked similar to the cream & brown color in the room and something not too "girl-ly" (according to Brian). Here we struck gold at a local fabric store's discount racks. The fabric on the left went in the bathroom...the fabric on the right became kitchen curtains.

Now we found the fabric in August...and I FINALLY finished the project this weekend. I just made a simple tucked skirt with a hemmed edged and staple-gunned to the sink shelf. (The staple-gun is my new favorite love even though it was technically Brian's Christmas gift (lol). To hide the staples, I hot-glued a bit of trim to the top.

A project finished and checked off the list!

Bath time adventure

Tam has been intrigued with the faucet in the bathtub. He loves to play with the water as it is pouring out and filling the tub. This usually keeps him quite entertained as I am attempting to scrub all his rolly-polly toddler body.

In the past, he has tried to pull up the knob that changes the water from squirting from the faucet to pouring from the shower-head. Usually, he is just not strong enough to pull the knob up when the force of the water is working against him.

Until this week...

Our boy again tried his darnest to pull the knob up. Having failed at this procedure yet again, our brilliant son realized he could PUSH the knob from below.

Success...

Which led to the shower commencing and dousing our boy (and me). Tam at first was thrilled with his accomplishment. However, this quickly changed to minor wails as the water rained down on his head and into his eyes. Silly kid.

We'll see if he tries this trick again during his next bath.

15 month check-up

This past Monday, Brian and I took Tamlin to his 15 month wellness check-up at the pediatrician's office. It seems like forever since we've been there, but it has only been 3 months. All and all, he's doing great.


Tamlin's current stats:
32.5 inches tall, which is in the 80th percentile
23lbs, which is in the 30th percentile
19in circumference of his head, which is in the 80th percentile.

With this length, no wonder he isn't fitting into any of his 18 month onesies. Just a little bit taller and he'll be able to reach the door knobs. (Hopefully he won't figure out how to turn them just yet). His weight seems to be holding steady at this percentile. He's eating 3 meals and 1-2 snacks a day, so he isn't starving...but he is on the GO all day long! What a bundle of energy.


We did bring up that Tam's oral language skills aren't growing very quickly. He still only says Mama, Dada, Mooo, but he makes many noises, including motor sounds for trucks. Doctor isn't worried too much yet, especially because Tam is communicating in other ways, like signs and gestures. He did say that he would like to hear that Tam's got 6 words by 18 months and to let him know if he doesn't hit this average minimum. On our end, we are really trying to talk directly at Tam and to try to get him to mimic more letter sounds.


Additionally, Tam got three shots, which is the most our doctor will give him at one visit. These were the MMR, the chicken pox, and diphtheria/tetanus. Yes, I FIRMLY agree that vaccinations are important for children to remain healthy. The Doctor warned us that he might get a rash from the MMR in 2-3 weeks and to watch out for it on his legs. (Usually 1 in 10 have a reaction). I'm just glad that he won't have to go through the discomfort and misery of chicken pox. Man, I even had them under my tongue and in my ears!

Tamlin did great in the office; all happy smiles and giggles... until after the first shot. Then he let out wails of pain and confusion. I could just hear his little mind whirring as to why the world and his parents had intentionally caused him pain. Poor little man. Luckily, the doctor is a smart man and bribed him back to happiness with a new little ball to play with.


He's a healthy boy!

Wordless Wednesday (late) - Car magazines

A fellow faculty member recycled some of his old car magazines our way...

Tam's fascinated