New Projects and The Fair

As usual, we kept ourselves busy again  this week.  Saturday we started the first of two projects in our home - getting the upstairs bathroom into a condition that would be usable for storing stuff (bathroom elements to come at a later time.  The room has been blocked off since we moved in, short of our looking around and dreaming a bit a few years ago, and we've done nothing with it.  Still in the condition we found it when we moved it, I had forgotten what a mess they left and all the work we have to do.  We removed the temporary wall we had put up to help insulate our bedroom and peeked inside to find this... Yikes!

We spent a good part of the morning hauling out all of the junk, old pieces of drywall too small for anything, patching holes in the floor and just generally surveying the room to see what we have to deal with.  The plan is to at least insulate and drywall the room, having all electrical and plumbing mostly in place already, so that we can use it to store some things (extra furniture, etc.) that need to move for a time while we have another baby and all the extra gear in the house.  Hopefully next year we can get the storage space added into the attic space and complete the bathroom project, but at least this is a good start!

When Ezri wasn't surveying the mess, digging in and getting dirty, or watching Daddy with the saw, she was happily occupied with the iPad and a stash of graham crackers (which she would not share with Tucker much to his dismay) :)

At the end of our morning work session, we were able to at least get the room cleaned up and made much easier to work in...

Sunday, after a long morning at church (Alex ran sound and I sang both services), we met up with Andy (whose name Ezri now says - "Dee Dee"), Mike, Kerri, Aubrey and Wesley and headed to the Allegan County Fair for the afternoon.  Ezri was excited to see all of the animals and really enjoyed herself!

 That is... until we made it to the area where kids could pet and feed some animals.  She was quite interested in the goats, talking to them like crazy, but as soon as they started to get near, try to sniff or touch her she was done with it.  She would go right back, but wanted nothing to do with them touching her, which was funny to us as she had no problem sitting on or petting pigs, cows, sheep, etc.   Silly girl!

She was also very into the children's area where there were cars set up and a road where little children could ride around.  For taking a few spins around the little road, she got a certificate for a free coloring book, which she has already put to good use :)

Tuesday, Alex, Ezri and I went back to the fair in the afternoon so that Ezri could ride a few rides and see some more of the animals as it was quite crowded on Sunday.  We anticipated that there would be several rides for her...wrong.  Too short or too young to do any on her own, she could only ride a few with a parent.  Oh well, she thoroughly enjoyed the carousel and as a result we went on it several times :)

She was also able to go through an obstacle course and down a slide as long as she was in Daddy's arms.  She had fun with that as well, though it was much more difficult for Daddy to maneuver through obstacles with both hands occupied :)

Again in Daddy's arms, she went through the house of mirrors, though I'm not sure how much she really got out of that one...

Alex was able to get in on some fun with a ticket we had left and took a spin around on the bumper cars.  Lucky for him, he knew one of the riders and his son, so he had some targets :)  I got to stand aside and watch... not too many rides I could go on that were not Ezri appropriate - something about being pregnant and spinning, dropping, etc that just wouldn't be appropriate or safe...  

And then we found the tractors and Ezri was in heaven!  It was pretty hard to drag her away to go and eat... she kept migrating back that direction, wanting to sit on and ride the tractors :)  I think she almost had Daddy convinced to take this one home!!! :)

Wednesday night we tackled the second of our house projects - expanding the opening to the closet in what will become Ezri's room.  The closet inside is close to 6 feet, but only has a 2 foot door on one end, leaving a good half of the closet inaccessible and pretty much useless without emptying the front half to get into it.  So, we're knocking out part of the wall and putting in bi fold doors, in essence making the closet much bigger and much more user friendly.  We were able to take out most of the thick plaster wall that needs to be removed for the opening.  Now, Alex's next task is to finish opening up around the studs inside the closet (less cosmetic work to be repaired there as it will not be visible vs. the outside wall that is textured) so we can move studs, re-support the opening and install doors. 

The before...

And after of this week's work...

Wednesday was also Ezri's 18 Month checkup with her Dr.  Everything was great, as expected.  She is a towering 33 inches (80th percentile) and 19# 9oz (yeah, we won't even talk about percentile as she's off the bottom of the weight chart and as of such has no percentile).  Still, the doctor says she is in great health, doing well, developing appropriately and that he has no worries as she is extremely active.  So, we keep feeding her "cheese" - whatever form she will take (Mac N Cheese, Grilled Cheese, Cheese Quesadilla, etc) and work in other options for fruit and veggies hoping she'll eat at least one bite, and we get in the protein with scrambled eggs.  Not a lot of variety, but Oh well... at least she is eating :)

Thursday evening Ezri was able to see her Uncle Mike (Alex's brother) for a while.  It took her a few moments to warm up, but once she was comfortable, it was no big deal :)

Hoping for some warmer weather this weekend and next week - it was in the 30's this morning - brr!!!  Some days barely topped 60 - I'm ready for fall activities, but not quite ready for the cool weather yet!  We take what we are given with gratitude, however, glad for each day we are given together as a family.