Hurry - winter's coming!

Here's a little video of my last 2 outdoor projects before winter arrives.





I took a vacation day Friday - Katie's grandpa is in town and we finally installed Pat's patio. Tommy had his 4 month checkup this week too. He checked out okay - 75% for height, 50% for head circumference, and only 25% for weight - long and lean. He's been fighting a little cold, and got some immunizations this week too, so he's not himself in the next video. He's ahead of many milestones - rolls back & forth both directions, cooing (melts everyone's heart, I'll have to catch on video if I can), passing toys from hand to hand, laughing (non-stop). He's just shy of 13lbs. He's had a few rough nights because he doesn't feel well, but slept almost 2 hours today. This is a big deal because he typically doesn't sleep but for catnaps during the day.



That was Thursday night. We managed to stake the bed down with line levels to establish a sense of grade.



Pat bought a really cool cast aluminum fountain a couple years ago on sale. We're going to install on the patio once it's finished.







Dropping the sand on top of the road bed turned out to be as big a pain as I thought. You generally don't want stones in the sand - makes screeding a little tough.



Alan came over to help Brandon, Pat, and I. Patrick had a great time playing in the sand all day.



Well, the patio turned out fairly nice. After sweeping some sand in the joints, I ran the compactor over the top to settle everything a bit. I didn't think it would hurt anything, but the stones in the sand pushed some of the bricks askew - oh well. As Gordon pointed out, now it looks like it's been there 100+ years.

Tommy didn't sleep well last night at all. Because Katie's sick, I tried to take care of Tommy more than normal. Usually after feeding he's good for about 3 hours, but he really fussed and still isn't feeling 100%. The best sleep I got was about 2 hours on the floor of the nursery. Therefore, today I tried to rest and didn't start fall cleanup at home. I understand my sister-in-law is proud that I was able to flex my plans to accommodate life - whatever that means...