My life as a living Zombie

Actually, everyone's prayers for Tommy to sleep better are slowly being answered.  We're clearly not getting 8-9 hours, but even 5-6 hours of mostly uninterupted sleep feels like heaven.  Before Tommy came down with croup, he had a couple nights with around 6 hours of sleep.  Battling croup was a marathon of misery for about 10 days, but he's slowly getting back to better sleeping habits.  He's even started to nap a bit during the day!  Sometimes I thank God for just answering simple prayers.

In the meantime, we've tackled a few smaller projects.

Katie & Wizzy made huge batches of baby food for the boys, some of which is pictured here.  I made applesauce for Tom tonight too so you can see how we freeze it in ice-cube trays.

I found a decent claw-foot tub in the correct length, for the right price.  2 of the feet are off being chromed right now (the ones that you'll see).  I'll strip and repaint the exterior, and re-engineer the foot attachments.  The interior porcelain is in good shape and just needs to be cleaned thoroughly, even after about 90 years of use.  I should have it installed and working in Tom's bathroom in just a couple weeks.

Katie's Dad gave us a couple of old antique lamps some time ago.  I re-wired and put on new harps to accept a taller lamp-shade.  The sockets are really old switches that were made in the USA, but are so heavy-duty compared to the cheap chinese crap in home depot today.  They cleaned & tightened up just fine.

I also refinished this little nightstand.  I actually bought it for Katie at a yard sale in Michigan while we were still in school.  It's needed to be refinished for about 10 years...

We also replaced the hardware on Tom's dresser, but he's asleep right now so photos aren't possible.  We're hoping to get some bigger projects done after the holidays, so stay tuned.

Thomas Gordon Bakker

Photo shoot is over...

Thanksgiving part trois - (it's almost Christmas!)

Well, Katie and I are nursing some terrible cold-flu thing with lots of congestion and aches.  Tommy came down with croup this week - I really don't recommend it to any parents out there.  Poor guy had steroids to help with his throat swelling, which made it nearly impossible to sleep.  He nursed, not necessarily because he was hungry, but to have some liquid to soothe his throat (every 1-2 hours).  And he just generally felt miserable.  We're all slowly on the mend, but it's tough when nobody is getting enough rest.  Hopefully this means that we all have an illness "get out of jail free" card for Christmas...

I had some trouble uploading videos to youtube this week, but I finally have 2 to give you an idea of what geocaching is like.  There's a website dedicated to tracking caches, once you lookup a location's coordinates, you use GPS to find it.  It's kind of like a treasure hunt!

Thanksgiving part deux

Okay, I finally uploaded a couple videos of sledding.  Geocaching coming soon.  Hopefully nobody accuses me of trying to clog the blog servers...

Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving was a week ago today and I still haven't posted about it we've been so busy.  My sister and her family came up and stayed the weekend, along with Katie's grandpa Gordon.  We had 12 diners and 2 babies for the feast and it was so fun.  We made Katie's favorite pull-apart sweet rolls for breakfast with Sarah and her family.  Everybody else came over around mid-day and we noshed until around 330pm when dinner was finally ready.  We enjoyed a terrific Thanksgiving dinner, and each other's company for the rest of the day.  I took a bunch of pictures, but clearly not with my camera...  Instead, I'll have to provide you with an approximation:



It looked just like this...

On Friday my brother-in-law and I took Josh & Samantha sledding, and Saturday was geocaching - we had a ball!  I actually got some great videos, but they take a million years to upload and it's getting late.  Katie's got a bad cold, and I feel like my eyes are sinking into my head from exhaustion.  (please be praying that we all get more sleep soon...).  I'll have to take some time this weekend to post the videos.

I've been blogging poorly for a year now - last November was my first-ever post, and Tommy's first-ever photo.  I enjoyed seeing last Thanksgiving too...

Adjustments

Well, we're 5 months into parenthood as of last Tuesday.  The Bakker household has made some adjustments - some well, and some not so well.  I need 8 hours of sleep to function correctly, and haven't ever done okay on less.  However, I'm currently getting much less than 8 hours, and somehow make the commute to work each day without killing myself.  Katie has hit the realization that she won't ever get more than 2-3 hours of sleep at a stretch as she's nursing.  Together, we've established a nice bedtime routine for Tommy that's fairly realiable, so we can count on peace from about 8pm to 11pm each night.  Tommy's typically in a great mood, even though he doesn't sleep through the night and refuses to nap more than 20-30 minutes randomly through a day.  And finally, Mario has earned our trust to be near Tommy, albeit never unattended. 

One of the current struggles in our house?  Mario has given up on overt aggression towards the baby, in favor of passive-aggression. 




Passive–aggressive behavior
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Passive–aggressive behavior, a personality trait, is passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following through with expectations in interpersonal or occupational situations. It is a personality trait marked by a pervasive pattern of negative attitudes and passive, usually disavowed resistance in interpersonal or occupational situations.

It can manifest itself as learned helplessness, procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, or deliberate/repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is (often explicitly) responsible.[1]

For Example, "Stay out of the #@$% trash, Mario!"

I installed a reverse-osmosis filter under the sink, so our trash can currently sits out in the kitchen.  It started about 2 weeks ago - he'd raid a greasy wrapper from the very top of the trash can.  Next, he'd fish that same wrapper from farther down in the can.  Next, he raided a messy diaper.  Tonight, we came home from grocery shopping to find Mario had strewn every last piece of trash all over the kitchen.  I'd throttle him, but he refuses to acknowledge his responsibility...

Weekend Update

Tommy's at the age where he doesn't play well with toys on his own, and he hasn't cared for his swing, play mat, vibrating chair, etc.  And since he doesn't nap cosistently, we're kind of desperate to find something he enjoys so we can steal 10-20 minutes to do the dishes, etc.  We didn't have a bouncy seat, but somehow knew he'd like them better than anything else.  I found a local 2nd-hand store called Kid-to-Kid and found the following:

After Tommy went to bed that night, we stayed up late disassebling and scrubbing them down so they'd be dry for the follwing morning.  They've turned out to be a hit!  I'm also hoping they exercise his leg muscles because he seems to have everything ready for crawling from the waist up...

We spent much of Saturday cleaning up and getting ready for winter.  Hoses & patio cushions were stowed, AC condenser was covered, lawns mowed one more time, leaves inhaled by my gas-powered vacuum, and all the powered yard tools were tuned up for next season.  Of course, nothing could be stowed for winter in our shed until it was re-organized and dejunked.

Even though I've been carefully putting garden tools away all summer, it somehow ended up looking like a bomb went off.  I must have squirrels or something getting in there when I'm not looking...

While I was trimming hedges and raking out the gardens, Katie had Tommy all bundled up while she reorganized the shed.  Mercifully he fell asleep for a while.

It's a little big, but Katie found this really warm snow suit at TJ Maxx.  It kind of reminds me of A Christmas Story...

Katie in her element - cleaning out and organizing.

And because nobody's complained about too many pictures of Tommy - here's a few more for fun.  This is his Bumbo which I refer to as his "Captain's Chair".  From his perch on the counter, Captain Bakker can survey the preparation of food items in his kitchen.

Captain Bakker approves.

I think this is actually a couple weeks old, but just came accross it tonight.

Tommy also really enjoys the Moby wrap - so much that he sleeps in it sometimes.

I noticed a flock of starlings in my poplars on Sunday.  I wish they'd carry all my leaves away...

Big Weekend

My mom came up for a visit this weekend to see her grandson (and us, but mostly her grandson). 

We went to a craft fair Friday morning in Ogden at Washington Heights Church.  It was crafty, but actually had some interesting things (not pictured here).

Tom had a good time.

I don't know this cute little girl, but had to take a picture of her with her baby dressed as a chicken.  Her mom said it's normally dressed as a chicken, and that it wasn't just for Halloween...

Later this weekend I converted Tommy's stroller from a "Pram" to a seat.  He's no longer satisfied seeing the sky, overhead power lines, and the occassional tree on our walk.  He's much happier being able to see the world at large - he's growing up!

My poplar trees are are turning.  I think they look like big torches.

This was also the first weekend Tom fit into his coveralls.  I have a couple wrenches just his size.

Having a good time!

Properly lubricating the wrenches - an old mechanic's trick.

A proud dad.

Checking the timing.  A good mechanic can tell a lot about an engine just by feeling it.

Helping Tommy with a little extra leverage.

We got it all tuned up!