It's Really Happening ...

We've been MIA on Hodgson Tales for a few weeks now, but we're back with good news! We're packing up our duplex as I write and we're planning to move into the 909 House tomorrow! (This is obviously dependent on the work that gets done today: Grouting the tile, final polyurethane coat on the floors, drywall patching and a final cleaning.) But everything is on schedule now, so we hope to bring back good news in a few days to let you know that we've successfully moved in! Or, whenever we have Internet again.

Please keep us in your prayers ... that we're able to get everything that needs to be done in good time and that the work crews that are in and out of the house will do the same. Pray for good weather tomorrow as we move.

Hope to bring good news on!

New House Pictures

Here are the pictures that I promised yesterday:

Sanded Hardwoods














Upstairs Hall Bath Floor Tile & Wall Color


















Master Bath Floor Tile, Shower & Wall Color














New Exterior Columns
(these are now primed white and will be white to match the trim)

The Countdown Begins ...

I can't believe I'm saying this .... But I think it's about that time to begin counting down the days until we move into the 909 House!! While this means we have to pack our stuff up again, pick up boxes and a lot more stuff at Brad's old work warehouse (yes, if you didn't know, he has a new job ... he's now the director of stewardship at vintage21 church :), and actually move, this is an exciting time.

Our contractor was busy with a few other jobs the last 2 weeks and wasn't around too much, but now that those jobs have come to a close, he's back in full force and he's ready to knock out the punch list. This means that the trim guys were back yesterday and today finishing up interior and exterior trim, our front porch columns arrived (yippee ... they look fantastic), were installed and primed today, the flooring guys were back to continue sanding the hardwoods, the HVAC guys were back to work on piping that needs to be fixed for the inspection and the electrician came back to install lights and electrical boxes. Our painter will begin his first coat on the exterior trim this week (weather permitting) and will follow with the rest of the exterior. And the flooring guy will finish sanding this week and will return this weekend to stain the floors. Our new windows are set to arrive early next week and once they come in, we'll have them installed (will take about 2 days).

From there, we're still waiting on the kitchen and powder room countertops to be installed, along with the corresponding powder room vanity and toilet. We're having the upstairs vanities built, but those should come around pretty soon and then we can order the countertops for those pieces. The hall bathtub still needs to be installed ... it's been sitting at our contractor's house for over a month ... but once that's installed, the tile guys can come back and finish tiling the hall bathroom and the plumber can come back and install all of our plumbing fixtures that won't be installed with the kitchen or powder room countertops. And as everything begins to wrap up the cabinet guy will come back to do final touches on our kitchen and mud room cabinets and our painter will go through the house one last time to touch up.

It seems crazy that all of this can happen in 1.5 weeks, but it's amazing to see these guys work. There seems to be so much forward planning, but once it's time to get the work done, it gets done very quickly (and with good quality). So for now, please pray for good weather so that we can continue to work on the exterior of the house and for diligence and a concern for quality as the work crews come in and out of the house the next 1.5 weeks so that we not only make our inspection & CO deadline (Dec. 11), but so that we can rest assured that the work was done well and will last.

(I'll post new pictures tomorrow.)

Men at Work

We were very blessed to have my brother and Brad's dad, uncle, and brother with us this weekend to help us with some much needed manual labor at the 909 House. The original plan was to prep the backyard (clear out remaining yard debris), mark the yard for the fence and dig all the holes for the fence posts. With that in mind, Brad went ahead and rented an auger and had it on stand-by for the moment that they finished prepping the backyard. Interestingly enough though, that moment never came.

After cutting up and piling 6 truck loads of yard debris (cut down vines, branches, trees, roots, etc.), driving most of them to the dump (don't ask where the other loads went), clearing out the 4-foot pile of leaves in the back, right-hand side of the yard (a result of many years of leaf blowing from the church behind us), mulching those leaves down with our lawn mower and then scattering them throughout the yard and blowing the remaining leaves to the side of the yard to determine the amount of concrete that was really in our backyard, there just wasn't enough time to start up that auger. As sad as that realization is, it might actually be a blessing in disguise. After clearing out all of the debris and realizing how much concrete really was in the backyard (you may remember that the previous owners used the house as a beauty salon and they paved over a good portion of the backyard to create a parking lot for their customers), the guys discovered that it's going to take a good deal more work and money to dig up the concrete that goes all the way to our property line ... this is exactly where we were planning to put the fence ... and well, you can't use the auger to drill holes through the concrete. So ... needless to say, we're investigating other fencing options that may work around the concrete, or 'through' the concrete, and that may turn out to be a bit cheaper. (Not too bad.)

And plus, you should see our backyard. I'm sure it hasn't looked this good in 15 or 20 years! Thanks guys! We still have a long way to go: Some concrete removal, tilling, new soil and topsoil (if we want to even hope for grass) and plenty of hours of general landscaping. I enjoy that stuff, so that will be something we can look forward to for many years (?) to come. (Hopefully not that long, but I don't want to underestimate it.)

Here are some of the BEFORE pictures of the yard after my mom and I initially cut down a good deal of the vines, bushes and trees that covered the fence line:


















Here's proof of the 'fruit of the guys' labor':
(You'll notice a gradual decrease of yard debris as the weekend went on.)









































In addition to the landscaping work that we (the guys) did this weekend, the floor guy was in on Saturday and sanded the majority of the floors. What a difference! Despite their age, I think they're going to really look beautiful! They're going to finish up around the edges tomorrow and then we'll have to pick our stain and they'll finish them up by the end of the week. How exciting

Bathroom Tile is In

This isn't really "new" news ... the bathroom floor tile was actually laid last weekend, but since I hadn't written an update about it, I thought I'd clue you in. It's amazing what a difficult task it was to choose what we wanted. There's only thousands and thousands of choices out there and to narrow it down and actual pick something was a feat all on it's own. Plus, unlike choosing paint colors, if you mess up and don't like what you have, it's not that easy to pull up the tile, choose something different and redo the entire project. But thanks to Brad's sanity and desire for simplicity and Lauren's help to verify that I wasn't nuts, the tile looks awesome and coordinates sooo well with the paint colors ... yay!

Here's a sneak peek ... but these pictures really don't do the final product justice.

This blue/green/white mosaic glass tile is now the flooring for our upstairs hall bathroom. This tile coordinates beautifully with the Sea Salt colored walls (a gray w/ a hint of light green) and the soon-to-be installed white subway tiles along the wall of the soon-to-be installed soaking tub.

Next, below the blue/green/white mosaic glass tile, we have the white, oak and gray mosaic glass tile that's now on the floor of our master bathroom. I was a little unsure how this choice would turn out, but wow ... I'm thoroughly impressed. The coloring is a little more sporadic than the blue/green/white tile and so there are larger expanses of white and sporadic oak and gray pieces.This tile also coordinates well with the white subway tile that is already installed on our stand-up shower wall and the 2x2 white tile that's on the shower floor. The walls in our bathroom are a blue/gray and really look nice and crisp with this tile.

I'm so excited that the glass mosaic tile has worked out so well. I've liked it for a while and thought it would look great in a bathroom, but originally thought that it was too expensive for us to do. But when Brad realized how much I liked the look of this material, he brought up the idea that we could just do the floor or a smaller area in that tile, and the reality of using it seemed a lot more manageable ... and he was right! Thanks Brad!

So You Think You Can Dance?

Caed does. Check out the latest video:

Beautiful Color

I can't remember if I communicated how overwhelming paint color decisions were for me .... I guess it wasn't as agonizing as choosing tile, but when it came down to the entire house coordinating, choosing paint was tough. I wanted to have a clean, crisp feeling, but one with warmth, that fit our style and that didn't reflect every color in the rainbow. (We painted just about every wall in our previous house, but it was one at a time and we had all the time in the world to choose each color, so it wasn't so bad.) Thankfully, I had some assistance this time around from some experts in this department and they made my job much easier. Thanks Lauren, Amy and the lady from Benjamin Moore ... you guys were a lifesaver when it came down to choosing paint!

Thoughts of house color have been distant the last week or so because we've been engulfed with granite/countertop decisions, but today was a beautiful today. Wall and trim priming ended and glimpses of color went up on the interior walls of the 909 House!!! Monroe Bisque, Sea Salt and a shade of gray/blue (sadly, the color doesn't have a name ... just a number) went up on the wall today and I'm very pleased! (The house was somewhat dark when Caed and I were there today, so I could be off, but from what I can tell, it looks better than I had imagined!) I'll be excited to see additional colors tomorrow! It's especially exciting to see our master bathroom semi-painted next to the recently laid, white subway tile in our shower ... it's all coming together ... woohoo!

Decisions, Decisions and MORE Decisions

Whew, what a weekend! Starting Friday, we realized that we were behind on ordering the light and plumbing fixtures for the 909 House that we've had picked out for a while. So I ended up heading over to Mom's for the morning (which turned into the day) so that Caed could tag along with her while I made a few last-minute decisions on fixtures and placed all of our orders ... like 6 different online stores to be exact! How exhausting!

Then, Saturday began nice and early as Caed woke up at 6:50 am (he usually wakes up at 8 or later), and not too long afterward, we were out the door to choose our granite slabs for the kitchen countertop and downstairs powder room. Doesn't sound too difficult, but when you're working with a tired and cranky 14-month-old, the level of difficulty escalates greatly! As we were sorting through the slabs, we thought that it wasn't a bad idea to let Caed out of his stroller and walk around a bit. (The granite is way to heavy for him to move or damage, so we thought he would be fine.) But, he is our son and has the curiosity of a cat, so leave it to him to get into EVERYTHING. Before we knew it, he was pulling on the fire extinguisher and pushing his stroller into things, so his time of freedom came to an end quickly. Lots of screaming proceeded, but we really had no other choice. Eventually, he got sleepy and just gave in ... thank goodness ... but no sleeping.

Then, as we were browsing through all of our options, we realized that the sample slab that we've been carrying around to match up with other kitchen decor wasn't the type of granite that we thought it was. We love the sample and thought it was Kashmir White, but turns out that it's Colonial Gold ... ha. So after looking through all of the Kashmir White slabs and realizing that none of the slabs look quite like our sample (slabs tend to vary based on their lot ... where they originated), so we just thought the lots were pretty different. But then we found other types that looked more similar to our sample -- Bianca Romano and River White. (Bianca Romano is pictured to the left.)

(We didn't realize that our sample was Colonial Gold until the end.) Feeling pretty confident that we had found our slabs though, we left with the intent to order Monday. However, we decided to swing by one more granite lot on the way to choose our appliances (yes, another big decision). Funny thing, we arrived at the second granite lot 5 minutes before it closed, so we didn't have much time ... but as soon as we walked in the warehouse, we saw the River White granite and loved it ... it looked a great deal better there than at the other location, so that made our decision that much easier. (I still need to go back tomorrow though, take a second look at it and choose the exact two slabs to use ... more decisions! But at least the granite decision is almost over!) I'm excited ... our countertops are going to be beautiful! (The picture below is just a sample I found online, our slab will probably look a little different from this.)

From the granite lot, we then went to HH Gregg to make our final selection on appliances: Refrigerator, Dishwasher, Range, Mircohood.
We went into the store confident that we were going to go the Whirlpool route for our range, microhood and refrigerator, and we were pretty sure we were going to get a Bosch dishwasher, but trying to decide on appliance finishes threw a few kinks in the road, so we had to deliberate a bit. But after heading home and Brad returning later in the evening to make a final decision, we stayed tried and true with our original Whirlpool and Bosch decision and decided to go black on the finish for the refrigerator and dishwasher and stainless steal for the microhood and range. (That may sound a little strange, but based on the placement of each appliance in the new kitchen, we think this will look great and emphasize the items that we want to emphasize and 'hide' the others. We'll see ....)

The sales guy, Yiuly, was really helpful and gave us a great deal in the end, so if you're heading over to HH Gregg in the near future, you might want to look him up.

Oohh, I can't wait to use my new dishwasher! We've been without a dishwasher for 1 year and a month now and it's driving me crazy! Not too much longer now!

Well, that wraps up a good bit of our decisions this weekend, now we just need to figure out what we're going to do with our windows and then finalize our granite selections tomorrow. We'll keep you posted ....

Box Entertainment

Ever since the day we opened the box to Caed's "new" car seat, he has not only had a larger, more confy seat, but a great box to play in. As soon as I realized he was interested in playing with it, I cut a few holes for windows and a front door. Then, a few weeks later, Brad added "barn doors" in the back to give Caed and Aslan a second entry point.

Caed has had this box since the week before his birthday (August) and it continues to be a great source of entertainment in the Hodgson house. Sadly, each new day brings this box closer to it's demise ... it has been flattened a few times as Caed tries to roll the box over while he's inside ... but thanks Evenflo for making such a great box. And even when you need to be replaced, one of our upcoming appliance boxes will fill your place. (Thankfully we'll be moving into a bigger home that can house you!)

Enjoy this video:

Caedmon's Dedication at Vintage21 Church

At 14 months, Caed finally had the opportunity to be dedicated at Vintage21 Church today.

For those of you that are not familiar with this process, this means that Brad and I brought Caed before the church to say that we commit to raise him in the ways of the Lord (pray for him, teach him and shepherd him well) and to ask our church family to help us in this process (to love him and us and to be a positive example of Jesus to him).

For many people, baptism is a traditional step to take a baby through at this age, but we believe that baptism is an outward sign of an inward decision to follow Jesus (Colossians 2:9-15), and we pray that this will be a decision that Caed will make for himself one day when he outwardly professes that he believes in Jesus and wants to use his life to glorify him. That is a day that we've prayed for since the day he was born and will continue to pray for until it comes into fruition.
Until then, we pray that through our own example in his life, through the truth that we teach him in scripture, through our ongoing prayer for him, and the positive example of those around him, that he's able to see Jesus and realize that he desperately needs a savior to save him from his brokenness. This is obviously a lot to comprehend for a one year old, but I believe that as his little mind develops and he begins to understand the difference between right and wrong, he'll be able to comprehend that God did not intend for us to be broken, but because sin entered the world, our hearts are broken and we can't fix them ourselves. We need Jesus, the perfect savior, to redeem our brokenness and give us new life. This is the truth that Brad and I hope to share with Caedmon as he grows, and despite our own brokenness, it is our prayer that Jesus will allow us to be good teachers of His word and be able to love Caedmon well so that he can experience this truth for himself while he is young.

Here's a picture of the new Bible that Caed received today. His buddy Mason already received one a few months ago, and he was already showing him all the cool stories that it tells.

Clearing Out the Jungle

If you'd seen the 909 house prior to last Friday, you definitely wouldn't think that I was making an understatement if I said that my new backyard was comparable to a jungle, but thankfully, mom and I had the chance to make a dent into the overgrown wilderness Friday and I finished it off (within my capacity) today. (We still need to go back in there with some heavy-duty tools, i.e. chain saw, some other tool to pull up the ground vines and masses of ivy.) Thanks to Erika for watching Caed Friday and mom for watching Caed today so that this feat could be possible!

I can't even begin to imagine when the last time someone pruned the shrubbery, trees or vines in this backyard. They were all over the place. There were even random shirts, shoes, a toilet and unmentionables. If you would have peeked into the backyard last Friday afternoon, you would have seen mom and I practically swinging from several of the vines to pull them down from the trees and yank down all the other garbage that was attached to them. It was quite comical ... and impressive, if I do say so myself. With our joint strength, we took care of quite a bit of work!

Here's a few pictures after our work on Friday (Brad cut down a decent bit of the overhanging branches a few weeks ago):

And here's one of Caed climbing up the stairs on Saturday:

He LOVES his new house and all the exploration that's involved. (Climbing stairs, hitting boards on the floor, clanking the pipes, opening and closing doors, you name it ... what more could a 14-month-old boy want?)

I'll take a few more tomorrow to show you the progress I made today.

Cabinets and More!

909 is really transforming. The cabinets are almost completely in place. The tile guys are set to lay mud room tile today. The trim is completely done, and the painters will be on their way early next week to paint the interior and exterior of the house! (Yikes ... we have to make quite a few more paint decisions!) Shelving is being built for the pantry and plans are coming together for the shelf and desk nooks. I can't believe it ... everything is REALLY coming together!

Here are some of the pictures I took yesterday while Caed and I were deciding on paint colors and working out the details with the kitchen cabinets:

The Back of the House

The Front Door

 The Dining Room

The Kitchen

Upstairs pictures will come in a later post!

By the way, Brad had to run back down to Ikea Wednesday night to pick up more cabinets. Our measurements were apparently wrong and we still had some space to fill (thank goodness it wasn't the opposite problem!) So ... it actually allowed us to have the cabinet configuration that we wanted all along ... with a few glass cabinet doors and all! Although it was a pain in our butt, the contractor's butt and the cabinet installer's butt, it will work out for the best in the end, hooray!

Preparing for Ikea Saturday

Tomorrow's the BIG day .... We're heading down to the Charlotte Ikea to wrap up final details on our new Ikea kitchen and make our purchases. So, in preparation, I'm running through their website today and creating our online shopping list. We plan to get our kitchen cabinets, mud room  cabinets, mud room countertop, shelving for our built-in desk nooks, one bathroom vanity and a few other odds and ends. We hope to take it all home in the Volvo ... ha, just kidding. We're borrowing mom's Trail Blazer and we're renting a trailer, so hopefully that will do the trick. And as you may remember, mom and Judy will be keeping Caedmon Saturday, so we'll be able to have the full day to do this. Sounds exciting and exhausting all at the same time. Wish us luck!

909 Progress

Life's been busy, so I haven't had the chance to give you as many updates and pictures of the 909 progress as I would like to. In fact, I don't even have many pictures of each work stage. It seems like every time I go over to the house, it's for a specific purpose, and with that goal in mind and Caed (usually) on my back in the backpack, pictures are not the priority. But here are a few that I got about a month ago:

Looking at the picture to the left, the new construction on the right will be our future mud room with a glass door leading to the future deck. The area boarded up in the middle of the back of the house is now a glass door into the new kitchen, and the window on the top right is walled in for the master closet. (I'm sure this doesn't make much sense now, but once I can take and show more updated pictures, hopefully you'll get a better idea of the house.) It's all really starting to come together!

Funny story ... a weeks ago, we met our contractor and architect over at the house to run through fixture ideas in each room and as we got upstairs, Caed's patience level was non-existent. So, being the bright parents that we are, we let him walk around in our future master bathroom, where the plumber had recently been testing the plumbing, I'm guessing, and Caed decided to take one step into the shower stall with his brown suede shoes. We pulled him out immediately before he decided to take a swim and both shoes and pant legs, past his ankles were soaked with nasty, stagnant water. And to top it off, we also let him walk and play on a stack of drywall that was laying on the floor afterward, and so needless to say, our little boy was just as a little boy should be when it was all said and done. He was covered in dust from head to toe, and his little 5-pocket carpenter jeans (how appropriate) were caked with drywall and dust. Luckily that was bath day!

But to get back to the progress of the house ... I am happy to say that all general plumbing and electrical work is now complete. (We won't add in fixtures until close to the end, but the pipes and wires and outlet boxes are all in.) We now have a complete HVAC system, all interior and exterior framing is done, and the drywall crew should be finishing up this week. This now means that we need to submit our tile and cabinetry selections in the next day or so, so that they will ready for install the second week of October.

Brad and I are also heading to Ikea for the second time in three weeks to place our kitchen cabinet order and other household paraphernalia, and we'll be hauling it all home with us Saturday night. Thanks to Nana and Papa Tony for hanging out with Caed last trip and to GG and Aunt Judy for babysitting this time around. Caed's not quite up for an all-day Ikea shopping trip yet. But according to Nana and Papa Tony, he is very good at moving and rearranging display furniture!

Oh, and if you haven't heard this from us in person, (it happened back in July) the City of Raleigh finally bulldozed the house next door and cleared the lot. We heard that the lot was sold and that there were plans to rebuild, but we haven't seen any fruit of that information yet, so we'll see. It would be nice if they just decided to leave it an empty lot ... but we'll see.

100% Whole Milk

*Sigh*, today marks the first day that Caedmon has not nursed. We've been working toward weaning for a little while now ... we were holding steady at 3 feedings for a few months, but as of last week or so, when we dropped his afternoon feeding, the other 2 (morning & night) seemed to be less important too. When thinking about weaning, I was always concerned that the night feeding would be the most difficult to drop, but none of them lived up to that fear at all ... praise the Lord!

So, even though this is not quite by the book (not many things we do are by the book really), we took the plunge and dropped the night feeding Sunday night (that went well), and when he showed very little interest in his morning feeding the next day, I knew that it was the ideal time to drop that feeding as well. So, we tried it out this morning and it worked like a charm. Caed went straight to his sippy cup, drank his milk and about a half hour later, he ate a hearty sausage, egg and cheese sandwich with a side of kiwi for breakfast. I couldn't ask for anything better. And strangely enough, his milk-drinking skills have improved tremendously over the last few days. It was like pulling teeth to get him to drink much at all before, but now, he's a real champ and will gulp it down like it's nothing!

I feel like there was always a fear in me about weaning -- the fear that it would be difficult physically on Caed and emotionally tough on me -- but now that we've done it, I see that God just worked it out pretty naturally! I didn't really plan that today would be the day ... Caed was just ready. I'm definitely a firm believer in Parent Directed Feeding (PDF) -- do what the parent feels is best by watching your baby's cues -- so I was ready to set a date and say, "ok, we're going to drop this feeding," and give it a try, but at the same time, there is something to be said about giving into the ebb and flow of a baby's natural development and needs as well. God made us and knows exactly what we need, so when the time comes that we don't need mama's milk, He'll make it happen. I definitely need to be on my toes to catch those cues and instill my "wisdom" on how to best meet his needs, but in the big picture, God's the one who works it out. Pretty cool!

And it's funny, pediatricians say that kids shouldn't try cow's milk until their first birthday because their systems can't break down the protein in the milk, even though they can handle the protein in cheese, yogurt, etc. But even with that advice, I didn't think it would make much difference if Caed had whole milk a few weeks before his birthday. How much could your system really change in the matter of a few weeks any way? So, I started giving him a little whole milk here and there in preparation for the Coldplay concert at the beginning of August (he needed to be in a place where mom could put him to bed, and he certainly wasn't nursing enough for me to pre-package the good stuff). He ended up doing pretty well that week, but then a week or so later when Brad's mom, Nana, babysat it didn't go so well. He either couldn't handle the protein or had a bug because his little tummy was not happy. He couldn't go to sleep and when he did, he'd wake up shortly after with terrible gas and a full diaper. This went on for about 24 hours (probably telltale signs of a bug), and so we stopped the milk all together to prevent further pain ... especially since his birthday week was quickly approaching, and we didn't want him to be sick for all the festivities. At that point, I thought that he could very likely have a milk allergy or be lactose intolerant, despite the fact that he could eat all kinds of cheeses and enjoyed yogurt on a daily basis, so I did my share of reading on the topic and explored milk alternatives because I was determined to wean Caed fairly soon to give Brad and I more freedom to go out at night and possibly allow him to have another slumber party at GG's sometime.

Interestingly enough, we didn't try the whole milk again until last week when I needed to have GG put him to while we went out, and thankfully, this time, Caed had no problems. So, even though it was only about 2 weeks after the first incident and less than a week after his first birthday, there must really be truth in the pediatrician's advice after all. (Who would have thought! :) Or, we just caught him at a bad time when he was getting a bug. Either way, it doesn't make much difference now, I'm just thankful that the weaning process was not difficult for us and like everything else in life, if we trust God with it, it's going to be good.

In Memory of Courtney F. Snyder, My Grandma

Sunday morning we learned that Grandma Courtney passed away. We've been anticipating this for a while now, especially within the last week, but when it actually comes, it's still hard to handle. She had been in a nursing home for about 3 years, and after Grandpa passed away in November, her health steadily declined. I guess that's only natural after 72 years of marriage!

Courtney Snyder, my namesake, was 96 and definitely lived a very full life. She spent the majority of her life in Ohio and enjoyed some of her childhood years in Washington, D.C. when her father worked closely with President Harding, a long-time family friend. Grandma told stories of how her dad would play poker with Harding and the boys, and how she and her family would have picnics on the White House lawn. What fun that would have been!

Grandma grew up playing tennis and was apparently quite the player. She even used a real cat-gut racket. She gave it to me about 13 years ago and I hope to put it on display in our new house.

Grandma was also a wonderful poet, wordsmith and "Grammar Queen," in my book. Whether we liked it or not, she was always on the look out for proper word usage, and thankfully, some of that rubbed off on me and aided in my love for writing and proper grammar use. (I'm not sure what happened to that grammar in my speech sometimes ... but that's another story.) Thanks Grandma!

Come to think about it, Grandma was actually very skilled in many things, even as she aged. She was quite the shark with a hand of cards, Bridge in particular, and she played the organ so beautifully! Birdwatching was a dear passion of hers and you might have even called her a "hummer-charmer". She would take the hummingbird nectar that she would make and stand in the bushes as she held it and the hummingbirds would come right up to her and eat. She helped me do it once and it was very cool! And I believe on one occasion she even nurses one back to health. A baby had broken its wing or something like that, and she made it a little nest in a box and fed it with a syringe until it was healthy enough to return to the wild.

She was even quite a good cook and baker. Mom recently passed down her infamous chocolate cake recipe and gooey chocolate/pecan icing ... emm, so delicious. (But gracious, it definitely wasn't easy to get a hold of that recipe ... I think mom only got it in like 1995 or something like that!) But the meatloaf that I make is her recipe, as well as her peanut butter cookies, cut-out cookies and I'm sure there are many more. The thought about compiling her recipes into a cookbook has crossed my mind ... hopefully if I have time one of these days, I can begin that project.

And wow, Grandma really enjoyed traveling. She did most of it alone, later in life either because of Grandpa's OB/GYN practice or because of Grandpa's bad back, but I believe that she traveled to China on several occasions and brought back all kinds of beautiful memorabilia that decorated their home.

I'm sure that I could go on and on, but when I really think about it, some of the fondest memories I have with Grandma (aside from taking showers with her when I was a little girl and getting to use her scrub brush, and shrieking when Grandpa would "sneak" in and pour cold water on us ... time and time again) were the times late at night, right before bed, when she'd thumb through old pictures or trinkets or jewelry, and share the stories that went with each item. She spoke so sweetly about her life and about her love for Grandpa and her family. Thanks for such sweet memories, Grandma! I love you. I miss you. And I'm so glad that you had the opportunity to meet Caedmon last December. How you lite up when you held him and saw him smile!

Two Adorable Dudes

Erika, Mason, Caed and I went shopping at Target today. Check out what a cute picture I got of the boys:

Caed's Birthday Festivities

I posted briefly yesterday just to make sure that I had a chance to wish Caed a happy birthday on the blog, but now that I have a little more time, I'll share the fun that we've had over the past couple of days celebrating Caed's 1st birthday.

To begin with, we had a birthday party with some of Caed's little friends and our family Saturday. This is when he got his 'Blueberry Studmuffins' and enjoyed some fun in the turtle and hippo pools. What a special day for our special little man!


Then, on Tuesday, on his actual birthday, Brad and I took him to Marbles Kids Museum. (Brad took a half day so that we could enjoy Caed's special day as a family! How special!)

Caed hadn't been to Marbles before our trip yesterday, so it made this trip extra special. We'd thought about going on several occasions, but it never worked out, so in honor of his first birthday, we thought that it would be a fun place to go to celebrate ... and indeed it was! Caed's at just the right age to begin to enjoy all of the fun activities ... especially all of the "vehicles" that he can drive -- the bus, the ambulance, the boat and of course the little red car. Wow did he think they were something special! Take a look at this video:

Then, I would have to say that his next favorite activity was the little splash pool. He loved the funnels and turtles, but especially the water. He splashed and splashed and splashed, and we had to get him out of there quickly so that he didn't drench himself and create a pool around himself on the floor.

Here are some other fun photos of him playing:

(Caed looked strangely at the little baby, but little did he know that he wasn't much bigger than this doll last year at this time :).

What a fun afternoon ... and to top it off, we concluded our afternoon of fun at Crema, where Caed got to try ice cream for the first time. How delicious! He thoroughly enjoyed sharing a vanilla ice cream cone with mango and banana with me. (I think he's a natural ice cream lover, just like his mama.)

I can't believe that Caed is 1 now! It seems like within just a few weeks he's morphed from a baby into a little boy! His hair is filling in, he's growing taller, getting more coordinated in his walking ability, and he's "talking" a whole lot more. *Sigh* I just pray that I can savor each moment, because I'm sure that he'll begin to grow and change even more quickly from here on out and before we know it, he'll be in his next phase of life. Oh, I am so thankful for this little boy!

Caedmon is 1 Year Today!

Happy Birthday Caedmon! Can't believe that it's been a year!

Look where we were last year at this time!




























Today's a busy day, so I'll have to continue this post later this week. But until then, take a trip down memory lane.

Proof

Last week I mentioned that Caed is making great strides in the walking department, but since our camera and video camera are on the outs, I didn't have a video to show the proof of his progress. But now, thanks to Brad's phone, we do have the proof! The quality is obviously low, but at least it's something. Enjoy!

Getting Back to Business

Brad called just a few minutes ago to let me know that we're back in business at the 909 House. The plumber, HVAC guy and I think a foundation guy (so technical, I know) were at the house today with our contractor to look it over before they begin another round of work tomorrow. (The weather is suppose to be great for most of the day too!) Plus, the house next door, which burnt down a few months back, was "officially" bulldozed and the construction crew will come to pick up the pile of rubble tomorrow.

One problem that we were dealing with was trying to figure out how we could economically dig out the scattered pavement and stone in the backyard without having to pay $1500 to get it hauled away (including the dump charge as well). Since the demolition next door and our next round of work will be happening on the same day, our contractor is going to try to pay the construction crew next door to haul it away with their rubble!!! Cross your fingers and pray that this works out. It'll save us a lot of money and trouble later on!! (It's amazing how God works things out like this!)

For those of you that haven't been following our house sauga off-line, here's a quick run-down: Not too long after initial demolition, we felt that God was leading us to change the scope of the house project and take the addition we had planned to add on to the back of the house out of the project -- giving us a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house instead of 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and an extra living space in the back. Typing this out makes the previous plan sound excessive, but the plan was to have this house be a long-term place for us, where we'd have room for guests and additional kids down the road. Now, our new plan doesn't change that hope too much, it just forces us to get a little more creative and ultimately trust that the Lord knows what's best for us. The process of changing this plan was tough. It took us going back to the bank, the contractor and the architect and pleading our case. (All of the paperwork had already been submitted for loans, contracts, etc.) But to make a long story short, God was good! He gave us favor with all of the parties involved, and although we still have a long way to go before we can have a final product and see how God worked everything out, we know that He will provide for us ... regardless of what that looks like. And through it all, God has strengthened our faith and our dependence on Him and has grown our marriage like never before.

Even though growing hurts, we're thankful that we've been able to go through this process. We hope that this will be the last road block in the completion of the house, but if it's not, we'll get through it and just trust God.

We'll look forward to keeping you posted on the house.

More Steps ...

Caed has increased his mobility by several steps over the last few days. We were at church for a little while last night, 1) To meet with our contractor about the house, and 2) To participate in the "Pray for Favor" evening. While we were in the back room talking with our contractor, Caed decided to step away from the comfort of the wooden benches and venture off into the middle of the room by himself. Then, he just stood with a slight wobble, saying "ohh, ohh" and sat down. It's so crazy how quickly he's progressing! Sadly, we haven't been able to get any of this on video because our camera is broken (we've sent it in for repairs) and I can't find the battery charger for our video camera (Caed and I are going to buy another one today). I'm hoping to capture some of this in the next few days so that we still have some 'first steps' footage. (Actually, I take that back, we do have some early footage of him lunging toward Brad or me a few weeks ago, when he'd take one step or two steps with his arms out wide and lunge for us. I'll have to find that one and post it soon. But it will still be fun to capture some of his latest developments as well.)

A Tongue Like Mommy ...

Caed has been using his tongue a lot more this week, and as of yesterday, he started sticking it out when he's concentrating on something. Sounds strangely similar to someone else you may know .... And no, it's not Michael Jordan. He'd have to watch old VHS of the Dream Team or Chicago Bulls for that. (That may be where his mama got it though :).

Coldplay Concert Raleigh

I was waiting for this for almost a year (and at the time I didn't even know they'd be coming to Raleigh) ... yep, it was the Coldplay concert last night ... what a great show! I definitely have a place in my heart for Coldplay, especially since almost a year ago, little Caed entered this world to the tunes of Viva La Vida streaming from our iPod setup in our labor & delivery room ... and to kick off his birthday month, we got to go see them in concert, how cool!

Caed stayed at GG's last night, so unfortunately he didn't get the chance to experience Coldplay first hand, but it sounds like he had a fun evening just the same hang'n with GG, Champ and Tucker. He even ended up having his first slumber party ... what more could an 11-month-old want? Brad and I had planned to pick him up after the concert and just transport our sleeping baby from GG's back home. But when the concert traffic didn't allow us to get home until after midnight, we decided to let Caed just stay over, and it worked out great! (Except for the fact that he woke up at 6:30 am ... meaning that I had to drive over to bring his breakfast at 7:15 this morning and then take him home.) Oh well, all in all, I don't mind a bit ... this slumber party opened doors for many new possibilities and marked the 2nd successful night that I didn't have to nurse him to sleep ... he just drank his milk from his CamelBak and went to bed (well ... and with a little cuddling on the couch with GG and a few minutes of TV.)

But back to the concert ... we had a really great time. We went with Jason and Amy and then ran into Jumbo and Lisa, so the company was great, and we even got pretty good lawn seats (well, until we found out that the 2 people sitting in front of us were saving seats for 5 more people, all of which had lawn chairs to sit in ... but we ended up standing for the 2-hour Coldplay show any way, so it didn't really matter.)
I haven't been to too many concerts in my life, but I think this one has been my favorite so far. The music was obviously great,Chris Martin is a great entertainer, and the videography and lighting effects were really neat. Plus, we even got a free CD, Left Right Left Right Left. It's a great compilation of the songs they're singing on this tour.

Here's some of the footage:














A Sneak Peek of Viva La Vida (my camera isn't working correctly these days, so I couldn't zoom ... just enjoy the music (and the girls singing next to us):



A Sneak Peek of Lost:



A Snippet of Billy Jean Cover (they actually played at a remote stage half way up the lawn for this one and a few other numbers ... very cool):

A "New" Play Area

So ... I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my previous post or not, but Caed is in to EVERYTHING. The house has been baby proofed for a while now, but there's only so much you can do to keep him away from floor lamps and electrical cords ... especially in our small place! (I even rearranged the living room furniture to barricade off the lamps and cords, but he was still squeezing by!) So, toward the end of last week, I was at my wits end ... it was 7:30pm, Brad and I had just finished dinner and Caed was hanging on our legs to get our attention as we finished eating (between this and chasing him from lamp to lamp and taking him away from the entertainment cabinet) ... I was exhausted! Brad and I came to the conclusion at that moment (thanks to suggestions from my mom) that Caed needed some boundaries, and we couldn't agree more.
Brad immediately scoured the Raleigh Craigslist and Amazon.com for good deals on super play yards. We had priced them out about a month ago, but didn't think they were totally necessary ... so we didn't get one. It may have been a good idea then! As I was on the phone with Erika to get the name of the brand they have (they use theirs outside while they're doing yard work), she mentioned that since they were heading out of town, we were welcome to use theirs for the week ... what a blessing!!! We drove over immediately and picked it up.

I couldn't advocate more for boundaries now. The "new" play area or cage (ha) is wonderful and Caed does really well with it. He's obviously not in it all the time, but when I'm in the kitchen cleaning up or getting a meal ready, it's perfect. He can just sit down or stand or scale the walls of the play area and play with his toys, and I don't have to worry about the things he's getting in to. Or, even when I'm eating my breakfast or he's finished with his dinner and we're not quite done yet, it's a great place for him to go to have his space. But even last night, we had about an hour to play before he went to bed, and the two of us (Brad's in California for work) just sat in there and played. We'd play together for a bit and then he'd venture off into the corner to play by himself. It's so wonderful and I don't have to constantly pull him away from the things he's not suppose to be in to or be on all-day "NO" patrol. This way, I can save my "no's" for the times when it's really important and as he gains a deeper understanding of what "no" means, and how he's suppose to listen and obey his parents, we'll be able to make greater strides and not get frustrated over the things that he doesn't quite get yet or that we can't figure out how to communicate yet.

Plus, I think the play yard, in addition to his morning reading time, will help him develop a sense of independence and reduce his "clingyness" in this stage of life right now.

By the way, Caed's wearing his new soccer jersey in the picture above that we got him the other day. I think it's sooo cute ... and he and Brad wore their white jerseys to church on Sunday. :)

Happy 11 Months Caed!

Good grief, where has the time gone! As I was filling in the most recent pages of Caed's baby book last night and looking through each month's milestones and pictures from birth to now, I'm amazed at how he's daily transforming from a baby into a little boy. His face is thinning out, he no longer has 3 chins, he's growing taller and his mobility, coordination and baby babble is increasing every day! He can go from laying down to sitting up to crawling to standing in no time ... and then when he wants to reverse, his sitting skills are becoming more refined. (Well, he still just plops right down on his boo-tea, but it's a lot more graceful than it use to be :) ... that's more than I can say for myself sometimes :).

With all that said, I can't believe that Caed's 11 months. (He actually turned 11 months on Saturday, but this is the first time I've had a chance to blog about it since then.) At 11 months, as I said above, his mobility, coordination and babble is increasing all the time. One moment he's sitting right in front of you and then next minute, he's standing up scaling the wall, shouting "ba ba ba" on the opposite side of the room ... and to get there, he either crawled, rode his tractor (which he can get off and on for the most part by himself these days) or pushed his little mail cart. Fortunately, our living space is not too large, so he can't get too far without me realizing where he is ... but because everything is fairly compact, it's very easy for him to try and pull the floor lamps down, yank the hanging blinds down, try to climb Aslan's perch or "sneak" into the entertainment cabinet and pull out all kinds of surprises (cables, batteries, who knows what else ... it's kind of a catch-all cabinet right now), so he definitely keeps us busy ALL the time!

One fun thing that we like to do now, is to sit in the hall, close all the doors and roll or throw the ball back and forth. His coordination is getting much better ... he even threw the ball with one bounce yesterday ... and we can keep that up for a few minutes consectively. He gets so excited when he sees the ball and if I grab it and crawl toward him, he crawls toward me in full force and laughs the whole way until he bonks you in the head (Brad taught him that ... it's cute now, but just wait until preschool or something when all he does is bonk kids in the head with his noggin!)

As far as what he's eating these days ... it's become a lot more fun because up until now, he hasn't had any food allergy issues, so we bend the 4-day wait rule a bit and give him new things a little more often. Let's see, he's eatting black beans and kidney beans, apple sauce, cashew butter or tahini toast in the mornings and leftovers for snack, prunes, blueberries (he LOVES these), pieces of fresh cherry, sweet potato cupcakes (thanks to Mason's 1st birthday ... see picture to the left), whole wheat, blueberry pancakes (don't ask Brad about these ... they didn't taste so great on our end), cheese quesadillas ... oh and sweet potato & spinach quesadillas, and he tried a few bites of my vegan oatmeal raison cookie yesterday at Whole Foods (I don't think Caed will have a problem with sweets).


And finally, in the middle of all his babble, he has finally associated "ma ma" with me (yay!), as well as communicate "all done", "more", and maybe "please" through the sign language that we've been teaching him. I think we confused him on the "all done" sign though, because we realized that he associated "all done" with taking off his bib ... that's why we taught him that sign to begin with because he would just rip off his bib any time throughout the course of a meal. So, we tried to teach him that he could take off his bib when he was all done, but after a while, we realized that when we said, "all done", he would rip his bib off. Over the last week, we've made progress to correct it, but at least he understands the concept, and he's much better at keeping his bib on throughout the duration of a meal.

Oh, and one last note, Caed has 7 teeth ... yes, 7 and I'm sure that the 8th one will be on it's way soon! The picture above gives you a pretty good view of most of them ... including the soggy Cheerio.