Baby Poang

How does this go again? Maybe I have it upside down.



Good thing these instructions don't have any words. I can't read yet!



That was too easy!



Finally I have something comfortable. This chair is going to help my back soooo much. I swear this baby just eats, sleeps, and poops.

New Wheels!

Finally I can go cruising at the mall and not be embarrassed by my stroller. My parents were actually using a Winnie the pooh walmart special they picked up in Seattle. The thing was so cheap the front wheel wouldn't turn right. Mom and Dad picked up a Maclaren 2008 Quest Sport from bestbuybaby.com (they are an authorized retailer although the website doesn't look like it). For 2008, Maclaren changed the seat belt to a 1 button release, changed the foot brake, changed the wheel hubcaps, and added a strap for easy carrying.

I'm 15 months old now!

Boy a lot has happened to me this past month. I visited my first ER, gave my first hug, and was featured in a slide show on our local paper's website.

Lauren's first trip to the ER

Lauren had a high fever even after visiting the doctor earlier today so we went to the ER. After waiting 3 hrs we finally saw a doctor. Lauren had her first x-rays and IV (seen here).

Update: We finally left the ER at 2am with Lauren's fever down and the same diagnosis as our regular doctor -- a viral infection. However, we were told to alternate between tylenol and motrin every 3 hrs to control the fever better. That seems to be working.

Snip snip

We took Lauren to get her first haircut since she was starting to sport a baby mullet. Here she's watching some TV before her big cut at Snipits.


Some bubbles to help make sure Lauren is looking down.

Dog wanted!

We seriously need to get a dog! I've got better things to do like play with my peeps.

Cat and mouse

Well at least Arizona's version. We haven't seen scorpions in the house in a long time since the cats usually eat them but we did find this baby scorpion. It's probably only a 1/4" to 1/2". I wonder where mommy is at though.

I'm 14 months old now!

I can now make chicken and cow sounds whenever I want although mostly when Mommy and Daddy ask me to.

Where's the doggie?

What do you mean we don't have a dog? Who's been eating all of the food I've been throwing on the floor then?

Fancy thermometer

We just bought the Exergen temporal artery thermometer off Ebay. The thermometer scans across your forehead and so far seems to be pretty accurate. We got it so that taking Lauren's temp would be a lot easier and it'll allow us to avoid having to ever place a thermometer in that "accurate" area.

Floating Ladybug

Lauren is enjoying a little swim in her new ladybug float. She starts her official swimming lessons tomorrow.

Car wash now open

The shower glass was finally installed just before July 4th. We ended up with 3/8" thick glass versus 1/2" thick since it's a little cheaper and not as heavy. This way there wouldn't be as much wear and tear on the door hinges. We also used pivot door hinges on the top and bottom by CRL instead of side mounted hinges so that all of the weight would be supported by the bottom hinge.




Here you can see the shower in action. We have 3 separate heads; 1 fixed (the heavenly shower head), 1 rain, and 1 handheld. All three have their own volume control and I removed all of the water restrictors since I can control the volume using the valve.

Baby Dyson needed

"So this is vacuuming. You are right, this is so much fun. You mean I get to do this as much as I want."

The training has begun.....

Almost done

Do it yourself closet systems

We looked at 3 different closet system companies. California Closets and two online companies, easyclosets.com and closetstogo.com. California closets was nice but pretty pricey. One thing California closets had going for them were these pull out hamper bags. We liked these a lot better than the tilt out hamper or even wire baskets. Easyclosets and closetstogo were both significantly cheaper than California closets but you have to install the system yourself. We ended up going with closetstogo.com primarily because they had a better mounting brackets for the side panels (more like California closets hardware) and the fact that you could also get the exact same hamper bags as Cal closets minus the Cal closet label.



Here we have three drawers plus a pull out hamper. Installation wasn't too difficult but it did take a while. Removing all of the pieces from the boxes took 3 hours by itself.


Here's the exact same drawer and hamper section plus our only long hanging section.


I think someone needs to go shoe shopping now....maybe I shouldn't have gotten so many shelves. By putting in a pocket door, we were able to utilize the wall space for shelves. Much better use of the space than before.

I'm 13 months old now!

Can you see it? My tooth. It only took 12.5 months. I'll be commanding top dollar now once I can show my pearly whites.

No bathroom is complete without a....

I finally installed the toilet. Overall it was pretty easy although the bolt that holds it to the floor kept coming out of the flange slot. Whenever I have to tighten something I usually tighten it too much. In plumbing I noticed you usually only tighten things just beyond hand tight. They'll say something like hand tighten and then 1/4 turn beyond. However for the toilet, they said, "tighten but not too tight so that you don't break the porcelain". Can you get any more vague? You want to make sure the toilet is secure but go too far and you break the toilet.


Here's the drain with the flange on it. On a side note, our A/C is finally working again in the house. We've spent the last two nights without any A/C. The temp in the house would get up to 87.

Chow time

We are finally transitioning Lauren from baby food to table food. Here she is enjoying some salmon, broccoli, beans, and cheese. She doesn't care for the beans too much. Lauren still doesn't have any teeth although one is about to pop any day now. This is good thing since Lauren will need her teeth to protect herself. She was recently bitten by another toddler at daycare. You can see the red marks on her arm left by the attacker. I'll be sure to say hi to the little toddler tomorrow morning.

Tile, tile, and more tile

The tile is all up. With the exception of the glass mosaics in the shower (ran out of grout), all of the tile in the bathroom is done. Just need to let the grout dry for 4 days and then I can start sealing all the tile. The bathroom is probably a little more modern than what we had thought but oh well.

Lauren's first SUV/Wagon

For my first birthday I thought we were getting a new SUV with a big bow on top. This isn't quite what I had in mind but at least it has 4 cupholders and seats that fold flat for maximum storage.

Let the tiling begin

After repairing some spots in the kerdi and cutting all of the 18" x 18" limestone tiles in half, the tile is all ready to go.

Tippy toes

I'm 12 months old now!

So you want me to hold onto this string and not the bear? Why? What happens if I....


Uh oh.

Orange wallpaper

The drawers are too close to the wall, so I had to cut the end off so that it will clear the door trim. Here's the wood after a table saw.


Here's my nicely sanded and rounded edges. Just need to stain them and put them back on.


Here's the drain and shower pan kit. The rails are presloped so you know exactly how to slope the concrete. Unfortunately the hole around the drain wasn't large enough so this kit is sitting on top of the concrete base. This means the shower pan is going to be an inch thicker than it should be. I didn't realize this until the tile guy had already poured most of the concrete.


Here's the orange wallpaper. This is actually a waterproofing membrane called Kerdi. It goes on with thinset and then the tile goes on top of it. The whole shower is covered in this including the ceiling. I just hope the kerdi on the ceiling has enough strength to hold the tile.

Phoenix Zoo

Lauren visited her first zoo. Unfortunately she slept through most of it. Luckily for her we became zoo members. The membership pays for itself after 2 visits and is tax deductible.


Giraffe's necking.


Even strollers get their own train ride.


Lauren wasn't the only sleeping one.


Turtles catching some rays

Rosy cheeks

I'm 11 months old now...

...and still no teeth!

Gotta love priceline.com

Whenever we travel somewhere, we usually use priceline for the hotel and car. We haven't used it for flying yet. I start by going to biddingfortravel.com to get an idea of how much the winning bids are and what hotels they are for. Then using that information and knowing how to get free rebids, I can usually get a pretty low price for hotels and cars. Here is our latest winning bid for a rental car in Seattle from National.

Your Offer Price: $11.00 (per day)
Total Rental Days: 3 days(2 days and 20 hours)
Subtotal: $33.00
Taxes and Fees: $33.09
Total Charges: $66.09

Usually when I travel for work, I don't really care what all the fees are but when you are traveling for leisure, you start questioning how much all the airport taxes and fees are. You'll notice the taxes and fees are more than the rental price of the car.

New wheels

Mom and Dad are putty in my hands. I bet I'll have the real thing before I even have a license.