Master bathroom makeover

Well... right now it's more like a bathroom demolition!
I found some not-so-nice "stuff" by the outside of the leaky shower door and come to find out, it had spread under the baseboard and flooring too!
So, I managed to convince Bobby that we need to just tear the whole thing up. When I pulled out one of the shower stall walls, it looks like there was some mold in there too. YUCK!
Unfortunately, two weeks into the project and I still haven't gotten very far!
Bobby was sick over the weekend and then, now Graham is sick as well although improving a lot quicker than his last cold/cough. And.. the contractor was suppose to call/come by today and still nothing yet. After some research online (what would we do without the internet), I told Bobby that I could re-do the whole bathroom all by myself - installing the shower pan, tiling the shower and the floor too! He said that if I do pull it off, it's a trip to Orlando for all of us!
In any case, I hope the bathroom makeover gets done before the in-laws comes by next month. Otherwise, it will be 4 of us sharing the tiny guest bathroom!

Graham's new milestones at 11 months

Graham continues to surprise us with his new tricks!
- Getting Cheerios out of the container
- Trying to feed himself with the spoon. He obviously gets more food on his face, clothes, and tray!
- And feeding himself his own milk bottle... with one hand!
- And lastly, holding a "conversation" with Mommy.

It's obvious that Graham understands the word "No"!

Garden update - Part 2

The raised-bed garden is finally ready! We now have 4 tomato plants of different varieties - a couple of big boy hybrid tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and grape tomatoes:And Graham of course was supervising all the way!The roses are starting to bud. I can't wait to see them in full bloom!
And can you believe it, the blueberries are flowering as well. They sure looked dead all winter long and it was just last month when I started seeing leaves on those scrawny branches!
And by the way, the irises are blooming now too. I confused them with the hyacinths the last time. It's pretty neat seeing those veins up close in the light:
And oh! In conjunction with Earth Day, the local improvement store (Lowe's) were giving away trees today. And I have one in a million of them! :-)
You can register the plant (this one - a Western Yellow Pine) on their website and once you've done so, you can check out to see who else has done it too... in the entire nation! That's pretty cool! Right now, the plant has to stay in a pot. I can only plant it once the roots are establish, which will take a whole year!
Based on the specs, this pine tree can grow up to 50' by 60'. YIKES! Good things we have a big yard and PLENTY of time to figure out where to plant it!
By the way, I got a little creative the other day and made some topiaries:
It's suppose to look like the shape of a heart at the top. We'll see how long it will take for it to all fill in!

Garden update

I finally had a chance to start on my garden. I didn't get to plant anything yet as there were other "Mommy" and "Wife" duties that I had to attend to. So this is all I have for now:
I decided to plant in a raised bed this year. It's my first attempt at it. I used some of the lumber from the old dog fence that Bobby had taken down a couple of summers ago. Thank goodness for an electric saw!
I am buying potted tomato plants this year instead of planting from seed. Hopefully I'll get some tomatoes this year!

Graham has been having some fun in the yard as well:
I'm not sure what kind of face this is!His walking is improving, with the occasional fall. But, soon enough he'll be running around! That's if he'll stop eating grass as well!

Graham LOVES bananas!

After Graham's first experience with bananas, I wasn't sure if he would ever like them! He definitely didn't gag this time. Instead... well, just watch. The video is a little longer than what I would normally record, but I just couldn't stop recording! He was too cute! ;-)



Graham also started playing with things that I wouldn't expect him to. For instance, his pants! He loves to take them off and fling them all over the place!


And... Graham has also learned how to point. It's amazing how they can imitate!
If they can only learn how to clean up though! It's getting so difficult to keep him occupied while I'm cooking!

Graham's new milestones at 10 1/2 months

Apart from being SUPER clingy and wanting to be rocked to sleep and of course, cuddle with Mommy in the big bed, Graham has been learning quite a few things lately!

Graham started "walking" with his new walker:

In case you're wondering, the walker is set on "Spanish" mode :-)

And of course, Graham continues to give hugs:


And loves to dance and shake (with Barney)!


And other than that, he's just a little mischief!

And after a couple of attempts, he finally did figure out how to get his Cheerios and Puff-puffs out of his new food container/cup!

Graham's (fake) cough

Since Graham has recovered from his cough and cold this past week, he has been fake coughing just for fun! No, there's nothing wrong with your computer, the noise in the video is just the washing machine running in the background.

New investment property

Since my golf has taken a step back after Graham's arrival, we decided to take advantage of the great interest rates and purchased a second home in Phoenix, Arizona! It took us 3 trips to Phoenix before we finally found the right one and being a short-sale, we had no idea how long the home-buying process was going to take. And fortunately, it only took a month and once all the paperwork was settled, we finally had a chance to see the home again this past week!

We decided to get rid of all the carpet in the house as the previous owner had a dog, so when we arrived on Day 1 with our new air-mattress and pillows from Wal-mart, we parked ourselves in the bedroom on the concrete floor.
There really wasn't much we could do in the rest of the house either:
Or... in the weed-infested yard!And oh, did I mention about the cactus too??!
Thankfully, the toys at IKEA are really affordable!
And the new place needed cleaning:And Graham's been busy learning how to drink from his sippy cup:

We were able to have a few things taken care of during this first trip to our new place here. We had new carpet installed in the bedrooms. Here are some before and after pictures:
As you can see, we got a brand new bed as well... King size bed! It's super-comfy and Graham got to sleep in it first!
We picked out berber-style carpeting. It looks really nice but it gives terrible rug burns! I only realized that when I had to put together Graham's new crib:

We also got the yard taken care of:Ah... so much better!

During the rest of our trip, we spent lots of hours at IKEA:
Graham had his first experience (and taste) of crayons:And we've invented a new game to play with Graham at restaurants to keep him occupied while waiting for our meals to arrive:


And my cactus finally got a new home! When I had left Phoenix in 2005, I had left my cactus (which I think I actually named Bob!) with my friend whom I was renting from. I think "Bob" looks quite happy in his new spot!
And crazy enough, one of it's pads (I just had to look up the anatomy of a cactus on Google!) had broken off and more baby pads started sprouting on it!
Graham has had so many flights now in his first 10 months of his life. And just when I thought I was running out of ideas, I'm going to start going through the toolbox to entertain him during the plane rides!