Zach Attack

We finished the renovation back in October but I never got around to taking final photos and blogging about it.

The old bathroom, seen here was completely gutted. We removed the walls, reconfigured and ran new plumbing and electrical. Doorways were also changed to make a more convenient layout. Everything was replaced from floor to ceiling. Some of the features include new tile, a marble vanity, whirlpool deep soak tub, bead-board wainscoting, and crown moulding.


Here is the final result:

You can view all the photos of the various stages here.

Dear Zach,
Recently you turned 11 months old and you weighed roughly 27lbs and were 32.5 inches long…
I say ‘recently’ because it is now well into January – your birthday just a blink away – and it’s taken me this long to

shake the holiday fog and finally get down to writing your 11 month letter.

Shame on me!

In my defense the holidays were both busy with travel and general holiday-ing, and you were busy achieving all kinds of “firsts”. So my previous freedoms have dwindled considerably, which definitely includes my already limited internet activities.
The last month feels like forever ago. I suppose the influx of activity both around the house as well as with all the holidays and trips we took had a lot to do with it. We started out the month with your first Thanksgiving and ended it with your first Christmas, a White one at that, at Donner Lake. You were quite the patient little traveler as you and I laundered, packed, unpacked, and prepared for two road trips and one cross-country flight all within 30 days. We fared pretty well, and were only bothered by one cold in the very beginning of it all, which you battled bravely, and

have yet to get sick again. Knock wood.

I mean…KNOOOOOOOCKKKKK WOOOOOOOD.

Early on in the month we received news from your doctor that you had an iron deficiency. Nothing all that horrific as it turns out. Although it does mean that we have to give you a daily dose of some pretty vile tasting vitamin nastiness. I actually don’t know from personal experience that it tastes vile. I can just tell from the look on your face after we administer it.

And I’ll probably go to a special place in hell for bad mothers for doing this, let alone admitting it, but I sometimes giggle at the expressions on your face after we give you your vitamins. Especially when the expressions are accompanied by disgusted noises.

Seriously. It’s hilarious.

I do feel really really really really bad that I have to give them to you. Really. I do. I’m not being sarcastic here. I realize that it sounds like I’m being sarcastic. And the more I try to deny any sarcasm, the more sarcastic I sound. But I’m really being genuine here. I HATE giving you that crap. But the expressions on your face are just priceless.
(continue reading…)

Dear Zach,Today you turned 10 months old and you weigh 26lbs 13oz and are 30.5 inches long…So either your shrinking since your 9 month newsletter where I reported you were 32 inches long, or I can’t work a tape measure right.And I would like to just take a moment to pat myself on my back for posting your monthly newsletter ON TIME. This is HUGE. I will be proud of this for DAYS.This month we started off with a little Halloween activity which was probably way more entertaining for me than it was for you come to think of it. We spent the morning at Suzanne and Sylvia’s house where we ate one of the tastiest potluck brunches I’ve had in a long time and stuffed you kids into hilarious costumes. You were a plush little turtle. This would be the part where it was probably more fun for me. You seemed pretty neutral about the whole thing, only swapping neutrality for confusion when we lined all of you up on the couch and then started simultaneously making cooing, buzzing, and clicking noises to get you all to smile and look at the camera together. Not as challenging as herding cats, but not easy either. In fact, combing through our collective pictures from all four cameras I don’t think we got a single picture with all of you smiling.We spent the rest of the afternoon running errands at which point (much to your relief) I changed you into your second costume for the day which was a simple skeleton PJ set courtesy of Grandma Carola. By night time we were home and ready to greet trick’or’treaters – something I was skeptical we would have given our track record of only one last year, and that was the neighbor we’re friends with so it was more out of pity than anything else. But this year we had over 10! I’m convinced it’s because the new neighbors have fixed up crazy old lady Rena’s house quite nicely since buying it. And by ‘nicely’ I mean ‘nicely, considering they chose to paint it a god awful shade of orange and I’m still upset about it 3 months after they did it.’ My theory is that the house was downright scary looking before, and on a such small cul-de-sac not many people felt compelled to wander around knocking on doors near a freaky dark house where a crazy old lady is rumored to live. But she’s gone and so the treak’or’treating ensued with much merriment. (continue reading…)

Dear Zach,On Saturday you turned 9 months old and you weighed 26lbs and were 32 inches long…Oh my little peanut, this month came with it’s challenges. Nothing we were not necessarily prepared for, just a few things were shaken up and I’m left yearning for not that long ago when we had a fairly normal routine.The greater part of the month was dominated by a minor virus that you have been plagued with. Still are, in fact, as I write this. The first week you had it I didn’t even realize it – noticing only that your sleeping was off, you wanted to nurse more, and you seemed to be developing a rash on your legs and arms. Concerned about the rash I took you to your Doctor and he informed me that sometimes viruses show themselves in the form of little bumps and it’s nothing to be concerned about. Glad to hear that my mothering instincts were right, and that I had nothing to worry about, I took you home thinking we were half way through the virus and you would be on the mend soon.Only to find you developed a bad case of diarrhea a day later.Now, one might like to think that she could go on about blogging on the topic of her infant son without mentioning diarrhea at length. And truthfully, if I was really devoted I could probably achieve that goal.But I have just spent the past 8 days changing an average of 6 diarrhea diapers a day. That’s 6 diapers on a squirming, almost 9 month old. An almost-9-month-old who has started rolling like there’s a pile of tivo remotes on the other side of the room.I’ll explain about the remotes shortly.And let us not forget what happens when a baby poops a lot during the day and consequently gets wiped a lot? Diaper rash happens that’s what. Ugly, swollen, angry diaper rash that sneaks up on you. So next thing you know you’re not just changing a diaper. You’re preparing wet paper towels to clean the bottom (because baby wipes sting and make a baby scream like their toes are being chewed off), you’re smearing Desitin on after each diaper change (which is near impossible to completely wash off of your fingers), and your washing each and every diaper pad you change on because your rolling tyke has roll/smeared poo all over it. And as a result of all this effort you’re also doing laundry every day to keep up with all the poo-tastrophes (read: wardrobe changes), and let us not forget the twice (sometimes thrice) daily baths to soothe and help clean the poo-smeared angry baby.And as I write this I can almost see the collective all-knowing head-nods of all the parents who’ve been there.It’s not pretty.And we’re on day #9.Ok, so enough about poop.This month you started rolling with some real intent. One day you were no longer content with just rolling over onto your belly. You decided it was high time you start rolling around to grab an object, or just to relocate yourself from point A to point B.And much to our dismay you took your first fall off the bed on to the not so welcoming hardwood floor below. You ended up with a goose egg bump on your little forehead and a nasty looking fat lip – you learned that night a little bit about gravity and how your teeth are not just for chewing cheerios with.As for the tivo remote…You have developed an unusual fixation on the tivo remote. You always seemed very interested in it, but this month your interest has blossomed into something a little more concerning. When you see it nearby you get a look in your eye akin to that of a drug seeking junky who came across a stash in his dresser drawer he had forgotten about. You lunge, roll, grab, and squirm with all your little might in order to get the remote into you little palms so that you may suck on it. Once in your possesion you hold onto it like it’s the most precious of all toys – never even coming close to dropping it.We typically take it away from you since your playing with it usually wrecks havoc on our tivo – deleting shows we had yet to watch primarily. And up until recently you didn’t care all that much. But then one day when I went to take the remote from you it ellicited a reaction I had yet to encounter – your face wrinkled up, turned red, and you started hiccuping little upset cries.You, my darling little boy, were upset that you had something taken away from you.For the first time ever.While admittedly cute, I’m sure the cuteness will wear off. But for right now I find it adorable, so my sanity remains intact.And you still don’t get to play with the tivo remote.In the spirit of the fall season starting and Halloween soon to follow we took a day off from working on the bathroom and traveled out to the coast for your first trip to the beach. We started in Halfmoon Bay to do a little (soon-to-be) traditional pumpkin farming, and then we drove up north on Hwy 1 through San Francisco and took you out on the beach for the first time at Baker Beach. Well, the first ocean facing beach you’ve been on – as we’ve been to our bay front beach in Alameda plenty of times.It was windy, but you didn’t care as you were snuggled up against me in your Ergo.It was a fantastic day – just our little family taking time to be a family. Something I think we should try and do more of.All the love and kisses possible,Mama

Dear Zach,A while ago you turned 8 months old and you weighed 25lbs 7oz and were 30 inches long at the time…I started this blog on time…and then the tile came in for our bathroom floor and all things got dropped. So you can imagine the laughter that ensued as I sat down and reread the draft I had started working on a few weeks ago, specifically the following:“The mere fact that I’m actually getting this month’s entry done on time might be an indication of a few things – 1) your nap times have condensed dramatically so that rather than taking 73 thirty minute naps a day you take two 1-2 hour naps a day and 2) we’ve almost finished remodeling the bathroom which has freed up my time dramatically.Oh the hilarity of it all. I particularly like the part about having almost finished remodeling our bathroom. We’ve “almost” finished our bathroom now for about 2 months. This pretty much sums up the largest lesson that your momma has learned about remodeling, and construction in general – when you think you’re close to done, i.e. you just have the “finish” work left, you’re only halfway there. This is why so many people don’t actually ever completely finish projects – they get to this part and throw in the towel because there are so many other enticing things to do with your time (read: drinking heavily) and why spend it painting baseboards or filling holes with wood filler when you already have a working toilet, sink, and tub?But your dad and I are dedicated to seeing all our projects through to the finish. Literally. Every hole will be filled, every item painted, sealed, or stained. So ever since the tile came in I’ve spent every free moment when you’re asleep up a ladder painting, sanding, filling, sanding, and painting. And when I’m not up the ladder I’m on my knees tiling, grouting, sealing, caulking, and more caulking.Isn’t it nice how I’ve spent so much of your monthly newsletter on the topic of our bathroom? A room you don’t even use?Oh my little monkey – you will use it soon if I have any say in it.And on that note…here’s the rest of what I wrote, on time, back when you were just turning 8 months old:This whole napping thing – oh let me tell you – has been the greatest thing. And to think, I was just writing mere months ago at how excited I was to just be able to put you down for a nap and walk away. Who would have thought I’d eventually have up to TWO HOURS to myself more than TWICE a day!?It’s insanity.I mean, I knew there would eventually come a time where I would get a little more time to myself, that your naps would become more consistent as well as nice and looooooong. It seemed clear to me that at some point, by the time you were at least 20, I would have that luxury. So imagine my surprise when little by little your naps stretched out. As I’d be puttering around the house I would check on you, confused by how long it had been since I’d last tended to you. Eventually I would just check on you every so often to make sure you were still breathing because god knows there could be no other explanation for your sleeping for so long with out me RIGHT there next to you.But I’ve adjusted. I’ve now learned that not only does this mean you have not stopped breathing, but it also means that a whole new world of opportunity has opened up for me. Quite timely I must say too, as we were in the throws of renovating our bathroom when all this started – it didn’t take long for me to take advantage. Now while you nap during the day I spend my time drywalling, painting, tiling, and generally busying myself with lots of detailed finish work that is – quite frankly – driving me up the wall.And to be honest?Sometimes I look at you lying in that cozy bed and I yearn for the days of when I had the excuse that you wouldn’t nap without me – just so I could go and lay there with you.But that’s only on the days when it’s peaking 95 degrees and I have been up a ladder with nothing but joint compound, a drywall knife, and my sweat to keep me company.And all this sleeping is going to good use I can see. You continue to put on weight, keeping you steadily just off the charts – you’ve turned into quite the little Michelin baby to be frank. And this week you worked on two more teeth. Bringing us to the grand total of 8 teeth.I think you’re going to be eating corn on the cob before you start walking at this rate. Although, that being said, you’re still not the hottest about eating solid foods. We still try new things, and you continue to humor me one or two bites. But even your favorites you’re not that excited about. Most of the time you look at me as if to say “what is this? why are you shoving this stuff in my face? I’m a boob-man mom, would you just accept it?Like with all things parenting I stay patient about it, keep persisting, and assume that one day you will suddenly figure out that this whole eating solids thing is pretty damn cool.And then we will go broke feeding you.All the love and kisses possible,Mama