Framed! - by Andy

In a recent issue of the Pottery Barn catalog, Katie found a picture frame that would be perfect for displaying Alton's growth from birth to 1 year old. These frames exist all over the place and serve roughly the same purpose, but what made this one unique was that it was actually 12 small frames hanging inside of a larger frame.

We thought this to be a cute frame, but at $250 (on sale for $200) the cost was prohibitive. So we thought about how it was made and figured we could make one ourselves. The basic construction is as follows: a large frame without glass; a backing for that fame covered in fabric and equipped with hangers; 12 small frames all evenly spaced in the large frame. Seems easy enough. Once all of our pieces were gathered, we went to work and created our masterpiece!

Clearly, we chose different colors for ours. We also chose a landscape orientation, rather than the portrait orientation of the Pottery Barn model. The pictures we chose represent AJ roughly one month at a time starting from the top left corner, working across, then down to the bottom right corner. Here's a better close up of the pictures we used (please excuse the weird angle - taking a photo of a glassy photo is a lot harder than it would seem.) These pictures are in the same order as the frame.

Lastly, the best part. Making this frame ourselves saved us about $150! And we've found that we already enjoy just standing there, looking at all the Altons.

Vintage Post: Nonna's January Visit

In January, Nonna (Carnine) decided to take advantage of her long winter break from school and come up for a visit. We spent some time down in Santa Maria for Christmas, so her trip was just a casual one, but while she was here we did manage to squeeze in a big Italian meal with the Groener boys: Seth, his brother Matt, and *O (Di and *E were home sick). Matt had also missed out on Uncle Dave's traditional Christmas Eve feast, so we had a nice pre-dinner olive and cold cut platter to whet our appetites, plus lasagna and a tiramisu-inspired cake for dessert.




We also made time for a few major projects during her visit (foreshadowing for her April trip!): finishing babyproofing the house against our crawler-soon-to-be-walker, making curtains for Alton's bedroom with blackout lining, and putting up the alphabet border in Alton's playroom. In our house we are lucky enough to have an "office" space in the upstairs that is a perfect spacious playroom for Alton and his toys. The previous summer, Andy painted the lower half of the walls in that room blue (the upper half remained white) and we'd been planning on adding a wallpaper border with alphabet letters on it. But since we'd never done a border like that before, we were nervous about starting the project with Alton around: would we be able to complete it during a nap? A weekend? Would the glue be really smelly? How would we keep Alton out of the workspace and glue while we worked? The obvious solution was to wait until we had a full-time babysitter, so Nonna kept Alton occupied downstairs while Andy and I blew through the border installation. It was actually very quick, painless, and non-smelly, but definitely a two-person job! Here is the border in progress and complete in the room! (Click on pics to see detail of the border.)






Thank you, Nonna, for all your help!

Kitchen Paint!

One of the tasks that we accomplished while Nonna was here (plus a few days of work after she left) was painting our kitchen and dining room--finally! When we last left off, I had completed making our new curtains for the sliding glass door in the dining room, but the fabric was set off by hideous orange-y paint that matched our wood furniture and cabinets so closely in tone that you got orange snow blindness in our kitchen.
Here's that "before" picture.

Time to tape and prime! In this family, we like to play to our strengths, so Andy does the pre-paint taping and I do the painting (he helps with some of the painting, but I do most of the rolling). We got pretty good at our system at our condo in Oakland--Andy is very precise and painstaking with the edging, but I am more even when it comes to using the roller. A great team!



For colors, we chose our favorite cardinal red color (we use it a lot in our living room furnishings and decor) and paired it with a cool tan "macadamia" that had been painted in the living room already. We needed white primer to cover the orange before applying the tan, but for the red the paint store lady recommended something different. We had been planning on using a dark grey primer, but she said that we could take the white primer and tint it with the red color for a base coat. Cardinal red in white primer...and yes, we ended up with Barbie's Dream Paint.


Finally finished, we can bask in our lovely new paint, and our lovely new dining room table! New chairs are on their way (we like these, but wanted white chairs to go with the white of the new table and cut down on the wood grain overload).

Steady As He Goes!

Here is Alton walking around on Sunday, April 19th. The heat wave we're experiencing in Oregon (great summery weather!) led us to pull his summer clothes down from the top of his closet--they are a little big because we weren't expecting to use them for another month or two! Andy calls this his "little Dutch boy" outfit. We were just playing upstairs in his playroom and decided it was time to get some more footage of him walking before he becomes so proficient at it that we say, "aw, remember when he would still fall down?" (He is eating his whole grain Goldfish crackers. Cheddar variety.)

I am going to post two versions of this walking video. The first one is the shortened version for easy viewing. The second version is the full-length version for the grandparents, especially the grandfathers who haven't seen him walk yet in person! I figured that they would want to see several minutes of baby steppin' footage.

ThisssssSSSSSSS

One of Alton's most recent verbal accomplishments is the "S" sound. Ssssspecifically, when we are trying to figure out something that he wants, we point to an object and clearly say, "This?" He has picked up that sound/word and responds to our questions by pointing and saying, "Ssssstttthhhssss!" He smiles broadly the entire time and could not be prouder of the way that he has figured out how to press his tongue against his front teeth and hiss at us. Having his friend *B at our house last week (see this post!) definitely encouraged him to chat more, since *B is very talkative and has a vocabulary that would rival those of children two or three times her age. We have gotten a clear "Ba-na-na!" from him a couple of times, and when I put on his shoes he makes a definite "Aaash!" sound. We've got him hooked on the phonics, so to speak, and he knows the meanings...now we just need to string 'em together into words!
The video below was from last Sunday. Andy and Alton were playing together in his playroom, which happens to be right across the hall from the laundry room. When Altie saw me putting clothes into the dryer he couldn't resist and rushed across the room to get a better look. He decided to stay and help me change the clothes, and toward the end of the video you can hear the clear "Sssssstttthhhssss" sound!
He is walking 100% of the time now, no crawling, and has learned to stand up on his own (without assistance from furniture or people) by planting his palms and feet on the ground, hiking his butt straight into the air, and hoisting his weight straight upward. What a champ! Video of this coming soon.

More Walking Alton

Here is Alton walking on Wednesday, April 15. Note how much he is falling and asking for Daddy's help to get back up again, and now less than a week later he doesn't fall, he can get up from the ground on his own, and he is gradually looking less like a drunken sailor when he walks and more like a little boy! He can even run now!

Fun with *B and more...

Our friends Chris and Elizabeth were blessed last week with a baby boy, younger brother to Alton's little friend *B. *B came to stay at our house while her mama was in the hospital, and so for two days Andy, Nonna and I played "this is what it would be like if we had twins." Alton and *B had a blast and we were lucky enough to have some really nice weather for a trip to the park. We got to say hello to the whole family and meet Baby *F, named for his great-grandfather and his father. He is a little doll and loves to eat and sleep! Having *B around was terrific incentive for Alton to walk a lot!

I got to have fun with little girl hair for a day, giving *B pigtails!

Wagon Train!

Little walker!

Strutting his stuff--it was warm enough for sandals!

Spotting a plane waaaaaay up high with his Nonna.

Hungry for dinner after the fun park trip.

The happy family: Chris, Baby *F, *B, Elizabeth

*B says "goodbye!"

Alton's Easter Photo Shoot

We were a little busy on Easter Sunday and the weather wasn't cooperating, so we staged Alton's Easter photo shoot a couple of days later. We snapped some pics of him at the end of our street around the landscaped flower beds and such, and gave him some eggs and his Easter basket as props. Pottery Barn catalog: eat your heart out.

Bye-Bye!

We're working on Alton saying "Bye-bye." Here he is being cute at the front door.

Shoppin'