Happy birthday!

To Finley James,

You were such a sweet baby.  You never cried.  You never slept, either, but your awesomeness made up for it.

Birth.

One year. 

18 months, in a sink, on the couch). 

2 years, holding up favorite artwork. 

Nesting

We've lived in our home for nearly two years, and we've done plenty: installed a bathroom, tiled said bathroom, tiled the kitchen, painted the kitchen, built an entryway bench, put in a garden, put in a brick sidewalk, and redone Finley's room. 

But there are a few rooms we still haven't touched. We dumped the furniture we had (or donated furniture) into the room and called it good. 

This has been fine.

Until now.

At precisely five months pregnant, the nesting urge has hit me the way a tornado swoops up a dandelion. I cannot stop seeing projects everywhere I look, and it's like an illness. I'm currently in the middle of five different things (building a table, reupholstering a rocker, painting a room, making a nursery area, and possibly redoing part of our basement).

This must happen to pregnant women because it makes us feel like we have some measure of control over what's to come (but I've had a child before, and I know we don't).

But pretty things!  Yay to pretty things.

I found this fabric

And made it into these curtains

I added black-out fabric to these, which helps with
south-facing windows in a toddler's room. The crib
is mostly just decoration at this point, and it'll be moved soon. 

I couldn't stop there, so I went ahead and got this fabric, too.

For the baby's nursery.  I plan to put my children in one room
as soon as the little one is sleeping through the night and not needing
a diaper change in the wee hours. 

They look awesome, but for some reason this is the only picture
I got.  My seedlings are doing so-so. 

Finley now knows how all the buttons on the sewing machine work.  Really.  I say, "Push the backward button," and he holds it down while I finish a seam.

"Up and down and up and down and up and down..."

Figuring it out with me.  I am terrible at sewing.

Cheesing it up. 

April showers bring ... a new sump pump?

We've had a rainy spell.

Not just a normal spring rain, but one that our plumber called a "once in 20 or 30 years" kind of rain.  I know the plants need it and I know someone else who loves to play in the rain more than anything, but our basement isn't a fan of all this water.

It was a shock since the previous two owners have told us that the house has been bone dry since...um, always?  Well, after some further investigation this morning (actually, it didn't involve too much investigation -- it just involved looking at the overflowing, broken pump), we saw that our sump pump was broken.

As Austin put it, "How much sump could a sump pump pump if a sump pump could pump sump?"  A lot...if it's working.

Thank god and kittens for Angie's List.  I got a plumber on the phone in ten minutes with a $40 dollar coupon off our total bill, and three hours later the work was done.

Now back to serious work -- making mud puddles.

Pouring muddy water into his shoes.

The pirate smile. 

Happy Easter!

Austin and I have collectively taken three trips in the past two months (to Florida, Texas, and Georgia) so we wanted a quiet Easter holiday at home this year.

It was a lovely day, and Lane and Mandi, who live only five minutes away, joined us for roast chicken for dinner and a lemon pound cake dessert.  It was perfect.  We spent the entire day outside, which was awesome after a month of 20- and low-30-degree weather.  

I wish we could say that we have a beautiful Easter photo of all of us, but that didn't happen.  I didn't subject my child to another screaming fit on a costumed creation (those of you who saw the Christmas card, you know what I'm talking about).  What we do have is a lot of pictures of Finley on a bike ride and at the park. 

Finley ready for his ride; new 'Spidy' shades,
courtesy his Easter gift from Grandma.   

I dyed eggs with natural dye with a few friends, but they didn't
turn out quite as I expected, and I also wanted Finley to do some egg
dipping this year, so we went the traditional route with food coloring.

Eggs in jars. He liked egg dyeing and was pretty gentle with
the eggs. (He only broke two. Wait.  Three. No...maybe it was four.)

Okay, this one's not technically from Easter, but it's so Springtime-y
with the asparagus.  Finley loves to help wash veggies for me.

Two Easters ago I gave birth, and last Easter I have absolutely no idea what we did.

The bump at 20 weeks. Same size as last time at this point. 

Since it was a lovely weekend all around up here in Michigan, on Saturday we tilled the garden and planted seeds that Mandi and I ordered a few weeks ago.

Cherry 'maters, heirloom 'maters, kale, onions, jalapenos,
red bell peppers, and...forgetting the rest right now. 

Getting excited for summer!

Help Build My American Culture Curriculum!

Dear friends and family, help me out!

I am teaching a class on American Culture to my international students here at MSU’s English Language Center.  In this content-based course, they learn about American values, communication styles, family life, and US educational culture through textbook study, film, and projects. 

In the first week of the semester, I had my students help me plan the syllabus and select the topics they would be studying.  In addition to what was in our textbook Discovering American Culture, my students decided they wanted to learn more about sports, holidays, music, and religion in the United States.  I pressed them further, asking them how they wanted to learn about these topics.  One of their strongest requests was for me to bring in guest lecturers for interviews or Q&A sessions.  But flying all my friends in from around the world didn't seem feasible. 

So what I’m asking is this, if you have a few minutes, look through the questions below, and use the video interface (and your laptop’s webcam) to record short answers.   The video interface is very easy to use, but unfortunately it will not work on smartphones or tablets.  To begin, just type in your name and follow directions.  If you would like to read full instructions before beginning, you can download my full PDF instructions here (complete with screenshots).

Details:

1. Don’t try to generalize about all Americans.  Just give your take on things. 
2. Your response should be less than 2 minutes in length.
3. Please speak naturally but relatively slowly.  Don't sound like a textbook.  
4. Your audience is a Low Intermediate class for adults from China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Korea, ranging in age from 19 to early 30s.  
5. Your video responses will not be made public.  By submitting a response, you are giving me permission to show your video to my class and perhaps future classes.  However, they will only be available for my students on a password protected class website. 

TOPICS & PROMPTS: 

You may submit as many recordings as you like, but please only answer ONE QUESTION in a single recording.

1. SPORTS:  What is your favorite sport?  What do you love about it?  Do you play or just enjoy watching?


2. HOLIDAYS:  What is your favorite holiday?  How do you celebrate it?


3. MUSIC:  What kind of music do you enjoy most?  What do you love about it?  Are you a musician or just a music lover?


4. RELIGION:  Are you religious?  If not, tell us about your beliefs or reasons for not being religious.  If so, tell us about your religion or what you believe.
   
   
   
   [NOTE:  I am aware that discussing religion with strangers is fairly taboo in US culture.  This is precisely why my students are curious about it!  However, please do not use this venue for proselytizing or insulting anyone else’s beliefs.]

NOTE:

This video interface is one of several fantastic Rich Internet Applications hosted by CLEAR, the Center for Language Education and Research at Michigan State University.  It is a free service that can be used by language teachers everywhere.  All you have to do is open an account.  

Finley's Closet

Since Victoria has resolved to try to start posting to the blog again, I suppose I should follow suit.  So, continuing on the DIY theme of... ahem... uh, "recent" posts, I'm going to post some photos of the changes Finley and I made to his closet.

Step 1:  Take off the old sliding doors.

Step 2:  Put in some new braces for shelves.

Step 3:  Check for level.

Step 4:  Paint the walls green.

Letting Finley play with the camera was the only
way to keep him out of the wet paint.

Step 4:  Install hooks.

Step 5:  Admire work.

 Step 6:  Quality Control

Smile!

Happy New Year!

It's been half a year since I last posted, but I hope to remedy that this year and blog more often.

Finley now "smiles" for the camera when I take his picture.
Austin's doing a great impersonation.

I bought a metal-frame baby backpack on craigslist for $20!
We've taken one nice winter hike so far.  I hope we're able
to go a few times a month.  Finley loves it for about
an hour, then he wants to get down and run around.

Tiling the backsplash

This is from a few months ago, but I thought I would share the pictures.

Prepping the walls for some tile love.

I considered the period of the house (1950), along with colors of my kitchen before deciding on a white subway tile.  Little did I know, white subway tile just happens to be vogue at the moment.  I guess the perk of choosing something trendy is that there are a million different online tutorials, which I needed since this was do-it-yerself.   White subway tile is also an inoffensive color, so even in 20 years I hope it will still look great (as opposed to something like electric-blue glass tile).

I used the 22 cent tiles from Home Depot.  That's right: 22 cents per tile.  Easy on the wallet.

Ready to go.

Tiling was really fun.  It was super messy, which I love. 

I took my time and laid it all out carefully, measuring and cutting and placing each tile one at a time.  I got in a sort of zen space while working on it.  I like it so much that I'm going to tile the floor and shower stall in our new basement bathroom.

Laying the tiles, row by row. 

Hidden messages behind the tile.

Mastic, applied with notched trowel, to each tile.  

Almost done. 

We didn't take a good "before" picture, unfortunately.  

These are from our house tour.  You can't tell, but those are actually decals that were peeling off the wall.   

Before...

And after! 

1 year

We've got some serious back-blogging to do. Several important things happened this month.

First off... the big birthday for the baby.  One year!

Banana-chocolate monkey cake and baby monkey smasher.
Delicious! Despite the illusion of the pic, this puppy was HUGE.
It served 10 people and did double duty as breakfast for us for a couple of days.

(Is there anything better than cake for breakfast? I think not.)

Tasty! 

Really going after it.

Bliss. 

Several buddies came over for the party.

Piano sharing.

S riding the wagon. 

Jim singing "Sweet Low" with baby O. 

Much cake eating with the McGills.

But before the party, something even more major happened. Better than wrapping paper.  Better than cake smashing.  Better than the sangria the grown-ups drank.

It was Finley's first steps.  He took them WITH a camera on him with ALL FOUR of his grandparents in the room watching.  It was incredible.  About four days after that he was crossing rooms, and now he is running.

Side note: Everyone warned me about how tough it would be once he started walking, as though I should dread the moment, but so far it has been wonderful.  Not only is he a lot happier, but it's a lot easier on me, too.  He can actually run around at the park instead of crawling everywhere, and perhaps as a direct result he eats less off the ground and plays more independently.  

Here we are at the park today, celebrating the long weekend and the hot Michigan weather.

Closing in.

Giggles.

Hugs.

Running back to Austin.

Austin's dad trick: throwing the baby eight feet up in the air. 

Just before Finley face-planted and thus ended the game.  

Running!  

Earlier this month we also took a trip out to Lancaster, Philly, and DC.  More on that later!