Look at me, I'm a drunken sailor!
 

 

bath remodel continued...

I did a pant-load of work on the bathroom this weekend including some trim work, staining the concrete countertop, installing the countertop and some plumbing work (with some initial help from my dad). Things are finally getting there, now its just a matter of sealing the concrete, installing the sink and faucet, tiling the backsplash, finishing the trim work, painting the walls and trim, installing a new floor, new cabinet doors and drawers, light fixtures...

Before

After

Still lots to do.

A chip of the ole block

Wednesday night was Marcy and my 4 year anniversary so to celebrate we were going out to dinner at a restaurant in Brunswick called MJ’s (awesome food by the way but 100 clams for the two of us).  Grammie Nelson agreed to watch B-Girl for us while we were gone so we scheduled her getting there early enough that Brynna could get comfortable with her again before we left.  In typical fashion Brynna started out a bit shy and quiet with Grammie and hid in mommy’s chest.  Quickly though, she began to give my mom quick, coy smiles before quickly nuzzling back into mommy.  After about 15 minutes she began to come out of her shell and started to play and dance at her activity table and soon discovered she had a new fan for her to dazzle and amaze.  With every moment that passed Brynna ramped up her display to the point where we were a bit afraid that she would spontaneously combust.  As her final act before we left, she set up at the end of her chair, turned around and reached back to be sure Grammie was watching and then repeatedly and forcefully rammed her head and body into the chair.  Marcy and I have never been proud!

Swim lesson photo blog.

Hide and seek!

Brynna now loves to play hide and seek with me and she also loves to be scared. Check out the video.

Caramel covered marcies

This past weekend, the DAMNelsons got together with the Brownes in Freeport for some grubbage and shopping.  We were looking forward to Brynna and Calia being able to crawl around together on the Gritty’s deck but the weather conspired against us so they had to make due with staring at each other from opposite sides of the table.  During the meal it became apparent that roles had changed between the two.  While both (from what I can remember at least) have been good eaters from the start, it was always Brynna who chowed the most but B-Girl has gone from eating just about anything to being picky as hell.  Its gotten to the point that we need to trick her into eating the first bite of just about everything, even her favorite foods.  Once the first bite is done we’re good to go but that first one can be a doozy.  Calia, on the other hand, was a ravenous hollow leg.  She ate everything put in front of her, including a pickle!  It looked like she was sucking on a giant tree slug.  Brynna just looked on in amazement as she shook her head no to everything.  How Calia can be so bean pole skinny is beyond me, that metabolism must be screaming.

We followed up lunch by boosting the American economy for a couple of hours in the mad house that is Freeport in the summer.  Busy as hell but manageable.  

Once we were good and tired, it was back home to continue the death march bathroom remodel.  Nine months and counting…  Being the master craftsman that I am I managed to take a large chunk of skin out of my finger while trying to use a coping saw.  Good move since I had a mountain bike race on Sunday and its always nice to have a nice open wound on your body when you’re going to spend 2 hrs playing in the mud.  It bled so much when I first cut it that I was forced to ask for Marcy’s help bandaging it up so that I wouldn’t get blood all over the bathroom.  Unfortunately, Marcy gets a bit woozy when it comes to blood and cuts, two days later and I still can’t show it to her without her getting faint.  This is a bit of the mystery that is Marcy.  She can dissect and boil a dead, rotten, bloated seal without any problems but when I get a fairly minor cut it gives her the “vapors”.  I love that word, it sounds so southern belle-ish.  Anyway, Marcy is a conundrum wrapped in a riddle drizzled with a caramel sauce.  Yummy.

couple quick pics

Chance swimming

For your viewing pleasure, here is a video of Chance swimming in circles. He will literally do this for hours at a time given the opportunity. He used to also bark the whole time but I've finally beaten that out of him!

video

 

Any room in there for me??? 

Photo blog

Brynna's new favorite toy.

Chance being Chance.

Brynna's other favorite toy.

Proof positive that cheese goes straight to your hips! 

Don't f' with me!

Why does she remid me of Billy Idol here?

I like to carry things...

...in my mouth.

In the lake

Marcy and I took Brynna to Marcy's mom's place on Sheepscot Pond this Sunday. It was so nice out that we decided to see how B-Girl reacted to having her feet put into the water. Here are the resulting pics.

The first tentative steps. Its kind of cold and the rocks feel funny.

Not so bad now.

Time to do some kicking.

At this point, Brynna was so excited and splashing so much that we had to start stripping her down. We eventually got her all of the way down to her diaper at which point Marcy decided to give up fighting the little nut case and let her go into the water, completely filling her diaper.

Afterwards, to celebrate her first swim, Brynna sampled some of Mimi-Jo's wine.

Photo blog

A little cuddle time with mommy.

Looks at me! I'm so sweet and innocent...

Until the time is right to strike that is...

This last picture is of a face that Brynna has perfected in the last week. She'll scrunch up her nose and narrow her eyes and give you the most evil little look ever. I believe that she's preparing for when she gets married and needs to give her husband the evil eye. You gotta start practicing for that when you're young. If you look carefully, you can see the beginnings of her devil horns forming in her hair...

9 Month Weigh In

Marcy took B-girl to the doc's today for her 9-month check up. Things are progressing well and apparently she has two top teeth ready to come through and two more bottom teeth on their way which would explain why she hasn't been sleeping well recently and keeping us up all night. And here we thought it was our poor parenting that was the problem...

Anyway, here are the current stats:
weight: 20.4 lbs (80%)
length: 29" (95%)
head: 18" (95%)

The lollypop head continues. 

Must...not...let...go...of...spoon! Who needs hands to drink from a sippy cup anyway?! 

Flippity floppity floo

Have you ever noticed that if you wear flip flops to work, it hardly feels like work anymore?  

Danger is my middle name

I laugh in the face of danger.  Yesterday (6-6-06), while painting the house, I walked under a ladder.  Twice!  Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Bedtime Story

Big weekend.

This past weekend was huge renovation wise for us. Because of the rain all weekend (and maybe a little bit because of the death stare I was getting from Marcy) I decided to spend most of the weekend working on the bathroom remodel.

I picked up the new tiles for the backsplash. These were so ungodly expensive that I considered crushing them into a fine dust and snorting them.

I also did the unthinkable, I actually poured the concrete countertop. I've been working on the form for well over a month, slowly picking my way at it an hour at a time. We'll know the basic results in a few days at which point I'll remove the form and do any necessary repairs (apparently not uncommon) and prepare it for the acid wash to color the surface. Pretty exciting stuff. Here are a few pics of the process.

5 sides and ready for the knockouts and for the joints to be sealed.

Sealing the seams with black caulk.

The pour is complete. You are looking at the bottom side of the counter. All of the exposed surfaces are within the form.

Sadly, not porn.

Here are a couple of pics, just in case looking a pictures of cute little babies doesn't make you want to vommit.
I've been thinking about this recently and its interesting to think that 9 months ago, I wouldn't have even considered looking at a blog like this for fear of my testicles shriveling up and falling off but now it seems perfectly natural. To be honest though, I'd still much prefer checking out porn sites.

video links

I'm too lazy to write anything today so here are a couple of videos of Brynna doing her thing.

link 1

link 2

Do you workout?

Check out my biceps yo, I'm jacked!