Walking!

Clement walked for the first time today - we were on a walk at Mt. Auburn and stopped to cool off under a tree, and Boom! he was off, for about 4 steps. Then he fell down and crawled back to me, gave me a hug, and started crying. Then we did it again! I tried to get a picture but this is all I could capture. He did it again at home for John, and seemed pretty proud of himself. Will post video as soon as we can get it.

Kitchen Floor

Ahhhh, at long last - the cork flooring! It's 1' x 3' tiles that snap together. It's about 1/2" thick, so our low ceilings are getting a little lower but the overall effect will be worth it, unless Clement grows to be extra tall; we're good until about 6'6", anything over that is asking for trouble. This is the view from the living room to the dining area, I'm still figuring out what to do with the shelf. You can see the paneling inside that used to be on all the walls in this room. I'm torn between keeping it an open bookshelf (painted some coordinating color of course) or to put doors on it and hide the inevitable mess that shelves invite. Anyone have thoughts?

Footie Jammies

 

With the weather so cold and rainy it has been necessary to get extra warmth for Clement in the form of footie jammies, which I love. Here he is modeling his current ones, ninja-style!

Also, practicing climbing a lot.  He climbed into the wagon in a jiffy and was obviously wondering why it was not moving.

Our trip up North

We took our first family trip this weekend to Swiftwater NH, where John's parents have a little house.



This is where all the toys went on the drive up!

In the field next to the cool barn

Chilling on the front porch

Nose biting

Getting ready to challange Dad at  table top hockey

Wading in the river

Being silly on the long way home

Hawk!

This guy was just hanging out in Waltham Common when Clement and I took our walk this morning.

New Kitchen again

Almost there!  Need handles and to finish painting, then install flooring too.  Can't wait to remove the plastic from that stove and get to the business of making cookies.

The back of the island with one of the stools.  The fridge will go to the left of the left wall cabinet.  This picture was taken from where the dining table will be.  Just got some cool slate tiles for the backsplash, they should ariive in a few weeks.  For now I taped some plastic around the sink to minimize staining until I get around to sealing the countertops.

The view from the doorway to Clements room. 

Oh no!  So much mess!  This is where I hide it all when I take pictures.  But once the walls here get painted and I just clear out the junk (it's mostly recycling at this point), we can put the flooring down and it will look like a real dining room.

Oh!  A sink in the bathroom!  The bathroom is fully functioning, but not grouted yet.  I am a little afraid of grouting but mostly it's the big block of time you need to do it, and that simply does not fit into nap time, so it will have to be a weekend project. Still deciding on tile for the sink backsplash, a little late of course but it's nice to have a spare bathroom.

Lunchtime with Dad at the park

Yesterday we took a trip to the playground in Arlington to meet John for lunch.

Swinging is awesome

On the big slide

Can't get enough swinging!

                   

Fun was had by all (especially Dad)!

Striped Bandit!

Tiny Soprano

Clement channeling his inner gangster. This is John's favorite outfit for him. See above for my favorite outfit and how our tastes must necessarily clash in the coming years...

Lookin' Fine

Clement admiring his great-grandfathers medecine cabinet. I admire his robot pajamas.

My mom is awesome!

Here is the cake that my mom made for Clement's first birthday. It was another in a long line of wonderful cakes that she has made this year for family birthdays. She has recreated John's hot rod, replicated half my library, and staged an Auburn football game, all in cake form, and now has taken inspiration from Clement's first book ever "That's Not My Dinosaur!" He did not seem to want any cake but we have been eating it for him.

At Russos

Clem loves Russo's grocery store. Thanks to the narrow aisles, there's always something yummy within reach. He's only a few ingredients away from guacamole.

Kitchen then & now

This is the biggest project in the house so far: embiggening the kitchen. Here's the old one - tiny, with about 16" of counters. Plus a chimney that was taking up valuable space and a huge pantry filled with dust. Lots of windows to nowhere - the pantry had one going to the staircase, and the kitchen had these two going to the porch.  The only things in this picture that survived the renovation are the outer walls and windows.  Even the floor of the kitchen was completely removed and replaced with a level, structurally sound one.  I can't forget what Peter said as we were taking up the third layer of flooring this summer, "You get a heavy kitchen island and 20 people standing around it on those terrible joists, and someone's gong to fall through the floor."  Not anymore!

Old floor with fancy new joists!

Not a great picture, but taken from almost the same place as the old kitchen photo. Those columns are in line with the old wall, and the doorway from old kitchen to living room is gone, with a fancy wider doorway in place of the old porch-to-living room one. The island in the foreground has the stove (it's covered in plastic, and you can see the sink in the countertop on the wall. The big hole in the ceiling foreground is the exhaust fan left over from the original kitchen - the cover is cool so I wanted to keep it. Next step - sealing the countertops with tung oil and finding a coordinating paint color for the dining area on the left.

Post-checkup walk

We had Clems 12-month checkup today - everything looks good, except we did not get lead levels checked yet; he has to go to Childrens' to get those chubby arms poked. Post-checkup we went for a walk at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, where Clement sampled some leaves.

The adventure begins!

So here we are, Clement is 1 year old, we are working on our house, and all is going well. We'll post some pictures of the house and the first birthday party soon...