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'

Pirate Baby

Here are some picture of our little pirate on his way to a birthday party, post-haircut. He is wearing his new shirt from Matt and Di that says "Captain's Baby" (picked up on their recent trip to the coast! Thanks, guys!) and his supercool Vans (a hand-me-down from a friend--sorry, Mom, the baby is wearing skulls...but still he's cute!). p.s. His shirt says "Sea Pup" on the back! ha!

Baby's First Haircut!

The "Before" pictures: the Haystack



Okay, so it wasn't exactly hanging in his eyes or worthy of pigtails, but since we like Alton's hair to look neat and tidy it was time for a trim. He had feathers hanging over his ears, suspiciously mullet-like wisps in the back, and some rough waves in the back that I was convinced would lay flatter if he had a cut. I surfed around online to find any baby haircut tutorials I could and came up with nada. There were good suggestions and prep ideas, but no cut-by-numbers guide like I was hoping for. Oh well, we would wing it!
We prepped our cutting area and "customer." We decided to cut it in the dining room on the laminate floor for more space, ease in clean up, light for the video camera (yes, we have video and that will come in a little while), and the television. From asking people about their experiences with the kid haircut place in town, they said that besides having stylists who were used to cutting moving targets (some stylists clearly better than others, though...I had seen some kids with adorable little bowl cuts and some who just got what we call the "Andy Special," i.e., buzz the whole head the same short length), the only gimmicks at the haircut place were airplane-shaped haircut chairs (as if Alton would care) and TVs with cartoons for the kids to watch. Since we don't show Alton any TV, we thought that our own gigantic screen with colorful movement on it would be enthralling. We spread out the kid videos on the floor and he gravitated toward Finding Nemo. Great! He was completely absorbed in the menu screen...and then totally lost interest after that. Doh!
But meanwhile, we were ready. We took the back off of his booster seat to allow for more rear space, strapped him in and lined up our tools on the table: full-size WAHL clippers, scissors, combs, water, towel, beard-size trimmer, and brush. Andy took on the job of distracting Alton while I channeled my inner Paul Mitchell.
Here's our little Beatle, ready to go.



I started with the full-size clippers on guard #8. I had been unofficially polling moms I know who cut their own babies' hair, and the general consensus was that it's easiest just to buzz the head with a big guard and then clean up as needed. I was cool with that look (short and spiky), but was nervous about getting the "fade" right in the back, since I didn't want him to be bald, but definitely wanted to avoid having any fringe hanging out back there.



Okay, so he wasn't in love with the clippers or anything, but that's why we did those first! Get the rough part out of the way before he has zero patience left for us. Scissors came in for some trimming here and there (including his little duck tail curl on his neck--sniff!) and then I brought out the beard trimmer with an adjustable guard for that rear "fade" I was so nervous about doing. He was actually a rock star when it came to being still and quiet. You can see that Andy started out with some toys on the tray to occupy him, but eventually we had to move to the big guns: forbidden objects. We started with the cordless phone from the kitchen, which absorbed Alton enough for Andy to pick up the camera again and snap a few pictures.





You can see in the pictures how riveted he is to the phone, which made it very easy for me to take my time (relatively speaking) and cut his hair very deliberately, the way I wanted to. There were only a few moments where I would be holding a lock and he would whip his head around at the last second, daring me to accidentally hack off a chunk and turn him into Little Baby Bald Spot. Andy was great at steadying me and providing a second set of critical eyes for the process. If Alton had allowed it, I would still be there now, doing a little comb here and a little snip there. But Alton let us know when he'd had enough and I hastily wrapped things up, although I was pretty much done by that point, anyway. Here we are, post-haircut!

Mommy and Baby immediately jumped into the shower to wash off all the bits of hair and rinse off, then we got Alton all warm and snuggly in his sweatsuit and sat him on the bathroom counter to review his 'do for any last few straggly long hairs and to give a little style.



So the first haircut is supposed to be a little bittersweet--maybe Mama sheds a few tears because her baby boy is growing up, major milestone, etc. I was definitely feeling unsettled, but it was mostly because I didn't like the way it was turning out as I was cutting! In hindsight, I think that starting with the clippers was a mistake for us, because it cut his front hair a lot shorter than I had intended. Yes, he was pretty much bald for the first 4-5 months of his life, but the little hair he had was wispy, and now his hair was a little darker, coarser, and thicker. His hair seemed deceptive as I was cutting it, because his long wispy locks with just that teeny hint of wave to them turned into bristly, businesslike strands as soon as I cut off the baby-fine ends. I tried to even it out and would just end up with this humorless hairline that looked like something out of WWI. Being a stylist is stressful! As I finished up and whisked him off to the shower, I felt really bummed that the haircut had turned out so severe and Alton's face seemed both reproachful and overwhelmed as I rubbed in some shampoo.
Andy was really sweet and reassured me every moment.


Fortunately, it's amazing what a difference a shower, some pomade, and a fresh attitude will make! I got some "product" out and spiked the front of Altie's hair and we went to the playroom to have some fun (and then were lured back in to the bathroom by the siren song of the vacuum cleaner--he loves that thing!). He looks like a bit of a "big boy" now, sure, but he looks adorable!


And clock the back! My "fade" turned out great!

Sassy superstar!