Master bathroom makeover

Bobby was away in Las Vegas for work this past Sunday to Wednesday and I figured it would be my best opportunity to finish up the master bathroom! The walls dreadfully needed some touching up and a new paint color. And after going to plenty of color swatches (and I said PLENTY!), I finally picked a color called "Fog" from Valspar - a blue-ish color to match our glass tiles in the shower area. And gosh, I didn't realize how much more expensive a gallon of Valspar paint was compared to the Olympic brand! But anyhow, Bobby did like the new color (thankfully!) and the bathroom looks so much cleaner and brighter.

Here's an old picture before I painted the primer (taken back in May just before the shower stall remodeling and floor tiling). The original color in the bathroom was a taupe-like color.
And here are some other before and after pictures:

Hmm... the walls almost look green in the reflection of the mirror. How strange! Anyhow, I was finally able to put up the new fixtures as well - the towel bar, towel holders, and robe hook. I think we bought these back in January! I also decide to spray-paint the light fixtures over the sinks to match our current pendant lighting. We do have a combination of dark and chrome finishes on the fixtures. Hopefully that won't be a problem when we have to sell the house!

There's still a small to-do list for the bathroom. I still have to caulk the tub area, paint and nail back the baseboard trims, and also paint all the door trims and the ceiling. And then we'll be ALL done! Or so I hope! :-)

Graham's 15-month Doctor Appt

Graham had his doctor's appointment this past Monday. Can't believe he's already 15 months old! And unfortunately, still no new attempts at walking, but he is trying to stand more. He has also learned to sit on his chair quite well:


Graham was able to impress the doctor on his intelligence, especially when I asked him to point to his body parts - his belly button, nose, and ears. And the doctor definitely had a good laugh when I asked Graham to show his tongue and he proceeded to say "la la la" while sticking his tongue out! Too cute!

Well, here is our little munchkin:
So at 15 months, Graham is 30" tall (25% percentile) and 20lbs 9oz (5% percentile). He grew an inch and put on just over 1lb in 3 months. Haha! I wish I was only able to put on 1lb in 3 months. I think I put on 3lbs in 1 month!

The doctor was also asking me how many words can Graham say right now. I really wasn't sure so when I got home from the appointment, I started listing down things that he says right now. And it seems like a lot of them start with "na". Graham uses "na" for "no" and "more" and then of course, you have "na-na" for "banana", "knock-knock", and the most oddly thing - his blankie! He's new one is "ma-ma" - but not for "Mama". It's actually stands for ~ what does a kitty cat say? Meow-meow!

Graham can feed himself for the most part now:

As you can see, he is very good with that fork when it comes to raviolis! When he is super-hungry though with some other foods, he would just start shoving his food with his hand because the spoon/fork is just too slow!

Well, that's all we have to report right now. He's definitely a growing boy. He's been eating a lot more lately. And oh, finally! He didn't cry when I dropped him off at daycare today! That's the first time that I actually just set him down on the floor and he took off to play with a toy. He can't leave home without his "na-na" though - it's definitely his security blankie!

Baseball game

The weather seemed rather cool on Saturday night so we decided to pack everyone up and head to the Tulsa Driller's baseball game. It was a 7:05pm game and that is pretty close to Graham's sleeping time. `And sure enough, he was fast asleep by the time we parked the car!
It was about a 5-min walk to the ballpark and once we got there, Graham was still sound asleep!
And even when we got our blanket out and settled down, he was still out! What a tired little boy!
Graham finally did wake up about 5-10 minutes later. He scoped things out:
He got a closer look at the game with Daddy:
And guess what! At the bottom of the 4th inning, Bobby caught a home-run ball! Or perhaps the ball was "captured" because he actually waited for the ball to hit the ground first before getting to it! Nonetheless, Graham was happy to be able to then play catch and throw:
It turned out to be a great night and thankfully, not too hot!

Graham loves trucks!

Bobby was mowing the yard over the weekend and we thought that Graham would be afraid of the loud engine. But instead, he wanted to be on the mower!He was quick to grab the steering wheel. I think it reminds him of being on the golf cart. Anyhow, when it was time to let go, he just wouldn't!
So... we decided to get Graham a little truck of his own - with his own little steering wheel. He loves it!
He would mostly push his truck in circles around the house or up and down along the front hallway and living room. It makes babysitting very easy for Mommy :-)

And we need to stock up on some more chocolate chip cookies too!

Po...Ta... To!

This video is so funny that it deserves its own blog posting! And I can't decide who is more silly ~ Graham or Bobby!

HOT Summer!

I think we've basically given up counting as to how many days we've gone beyond 100F! It's been so crazy hot here, it's not even funny. And our plants can definitely tell you that!

Our Christmas tree that we planted in December...

Dead!

Our blueberry plants...

Dead!

(Well, they really never did much, so I guess maybe it was time to move on to something else?)

The tree and shrubs on the side/front of the house...

Quite dead!

The shrub by the back deck that was green and full this past Spring...

Almost dead!

Our maple tree out front...

Half dead!

The only thing that actually grew was...

our Aloe Vera plant!

Look at the new baby aloe shoots! I think next year we'll just transform our garden into a desert! That should definitely survive these hot summers!

And since there is a voluntary water restriction going on in our county, we decided to just shut off the water to our vegetable garden. The deers are probably really happy that I've taken the fence down - although it didn't really stop them too much from eating my tomato and green bean plants!

And with the heat too, we've been wearing our hats a lot and I can never figure out where to put them! So I finally decided to just make a little hat hanger for our laundry room.
Not too shabby, I guess. I basically just used some wire and twisted it around. If anything, it was a cheap solution!
I used a wine cork for the center of the flower and I shaped the end of the stem into a hook. I think it serves its purpose quite well, for now :-)

Silly Graham!

Graham was in such a goofy mood today! He had finished his meal and was eating his oranges (or more like squeezing the juices out of it!). He then started laughing for no apparent reason. Well, at least not a reason that I was aware of!


Here are some other pics of Graham's silliness today:

Look at those squinty eyes!

Such a goof!

Graham's (fake) sneeze & new gestures

So you thought that Graham was good at fake coughing, here he is fake sneezing!


And what would you do if you had a stinky diaper?

Phew!

And... what do you say when you're done with your meal?

All done!

Busy Graham!

Graham has been really busy since being back from our recent road trip. He loves to climb:
And obviously loves to point to what he's NOT suppose to touch, while trying to say "No touch", of course!

He continues to try and feed himself:
And obviously still gets most of his food on his face!

Graham loves climbing (wait, I already said that) and enjoys sitting in boxes:
And most of all, Graham LOVES his chocolate chip cookies!
By the way, Graham may have escaped the clippers during the hair donation event last week, but he didn't escape Mommy's scissors yesterday!
The tricycle was a great prop! So, okay... I may have cut his bangs too short, but he is still so adorable - especially when he's playing with his animal crackers:Graham started dancing as well to "twinkle twinkle little star". I guess in some way, daycare is paying off!

I assume none of you paid any attention to my singing. Ha ha! :-P
And finally, Graham is now tall enough to open the piano lid all by himself!

He just has to be more careful not too bump his head again!

A week in Harrisburg, PA - Part 2

Staying up in the lodges on the hill by the golf course had been an interesting one. Apart from having weird insects by the door of the room:

(Do we want to guess which one is male and which is the female?)

... we also had to deal with a snake that was curled up by the long grass just outside the room:
I was not around to encounter the snake but according to Bobby, it was (of course) a poisonous one and he was 1-up on the count in saving Graham that day. Well... honey, I saw a snake in our garage this morning! It had fallen onto the ground when I opened up the garage and then, it decided to curl up on broom by the side of the garage. I kept looking behind me when I was putting Graham in his carseat! Looks like we're now even on the count :-P

Anyhow, back to Harrisburg,... since I did not get to play in the golf tournament, we decided to drive out to Hershey, PA to visit Hershey Park.
It was so busy by the theme park! And since Graham isn't old enough to get on any of the rides, we decided to just take a quick free tour on the making of chocolate. Graham enjoyed pointing at everything!
The town of Hershey was quite nice. Guess you can't go too wrong when you have street lights the shape of Hershey Kisses!
We left Harrisburg on Saturday and my housing in Lima, Ohio (from 5 years ago!) let us spend the night at their place. While we were there, Graham got his first taste of being on a motorcycle:
And then of course, Mommy and Graham got to sit together on a Harley!
5 years ago, Charlie and I posed on his motorcycle. So this time, we figured - why not do it again :-)
Unfortunately, Graham was too busy playing with the fuel cap!

Just as we were pulling away from the house, my car reached 10,000 miles. And we were going to put about 800 more miles that day.

Graham slept:

And played:
And sucked on his thumb:
And slept some more:
And played some more:
But I think by the 13 or 14th hour of the drive, he was quite done!

We arrived at the house in Tulsa after 11:30pm and needless to say, we were all ready to just crawl into our own beds!

It was a long way to go and not play in a golf tournament, but it was definitely worth the trip. I was able to donate my hair and have other players participate as well in the Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign. And I also got to spend time with the 2 favorite men in my life!