I'm 2 months old now!

I'm not sure you can tell but I've broken double digits for my weight -- 11 pounds. I can also smile now but only if I fancy you.

Push ups

Lifting up your head may not seem to hard but for a 7 week old, my head is probably close to 50% of my body weight.


I just hate it when my head comes crashing down.

Monthly Outtakes - Bear hug

After 2 years of taking monthly photos of Lauren, we have taken over 600 pictures just to get the 24 monthly ones. Here are some outtakes from those photo sessions. I never realized how much she liked to eat the bear.

3 months

6 months

7 months

9 months

10 months

childhood memories

Lauren is enjoying some quality time back in her old school bebepod.


Here's her at almost 7 months.

Light at the end of the tunnel....

Got this surprise today from daycare. I just hope it continues. We've been practicing at home but with no "output".

Mr Maytag

May was a very strange month where it seemed things were failing left and right.

Things that failed were

1. Water heater (I just replaced this 2 yrs ago)
2. Dishwasher (3 yrs old)
3. Car battery (2 months old)

Our water heater started having problems where the thermal protection would trip and shutoff the water heater. After a few days of continuously resetting this (not recommended) I figured out why it kept tripping. Basically the water heater wouldn't shut off at the preset temp and would keep heating up the water until it got too hot and tripped the thermal protection. After searching on the Internet how to troubleshoot a water heater, I determined that the lower thermostat was bad. Basically no matter what temperature I set it to, it was sending voltage to the heating element.


Here you can see the old thermostat and the heating element (in green) just below it.


Here's the new thermostat from Home Depot for $9. The water heater is under warranty but Sears only covers the parts. You have to pay for labor to fix it. They charge $70 just to come out to see what the problem is. Now granted $70 would have been a lot easier than me troubleshooting the problem and then buying the part and installing it but at least I know how to fix this if it were to go bad again.


Our dishwasher let out this awful loud noise one night and then I noticed the door wouldn't stay open. First thought in my mind was that the spring snapped.

Here you can see the dishwasher pulled out and the spring that is used to counterbalance the door.


Here's a closeup of what actually failed (the end of the rope that attaches to the door) and the replacement parts on the floor.


Here you can see the old design (left) and the new design (right) of the pulley. The old design had one pulley fixed which I guess caused additional wear and noise when you opened the door. The new design has both pulleys spinning now.


I just couldn't help but add some foam insulation to try and lower the noise from the dishwasher.