Kitchen Update--and 2 more TEETH!

This is the first blog entry without pics of Fischer :(. I will report, however, that it was NOT his eye-tooth that had emerged last entry, but rather his first molar on the upper left. Now the upper left eye-tooth is indeed on its way out, as well as the first molar on the upper right! No wonder Fischer's been a little sensitive and restless.

Without further ado, here is the latest on our new kitchen.
Below is the view coming up our back steps. You can see down to the basement, now. This is something we kind of like. We're considering keeping them open and putting a piece of plexiglass behind them to keep dirt from falling below. Here is our lovely chimney that was hidden behind plaster. With a little scrubbing and a bit of touching-up, it will look nice in our new space.

This is the view looking at the basement door from the middle of where the kitchen will be. There's a big "cubby" above the steps that's behind our bedroom wall. We're tossing around all kinds of ideas for what to turn that into. We could knock out a hole in the closet wall for access...But for now it will be insulated and closed up, because we've got enough to do now!

This is the window that will soon go bye-bye. It's the wall that our stove and vent hood will be on. It's also one of 2 outside walls that we're building thicker and re-insulating.

Here's the other half of that wall. This window stays--our dining room table will be in front of it.

Standing where the kitchen sink will be, here's the view from the back to the front of the house. The majority of the space you see will be the dining room.

My dad, Grandpa Kenny ("PA" according to Fischer) showed up Wednesday afternoon and left Sunday afternoon. The majority of this progress is thanks to his hard work and guidance. THANKS SO MUCH, DAD!!!!

Below, he's beginning to cut the hole for the window we're adding, looking out on the backyard (we had only the door and 2 basement windows looking out back before).

The hole is complete. The wall is thickened, insulated, and electrified!! Below you see Grandpa Kenny supervising while our buddy Steve's using a drill outside and Joe's using a drill inside.

The window hole as seen from our backyard.

The window's IN!!!!

NOW, looking from the front of the house (standing in the living room) to the back. See our new window!?

Here's a closer view of the new window and the completed wall. One down, many more to go. We'll keep you updated!

14 Months Old, 9th Tooth & Random Summer Stuff

Since it's been about 3 weeks since my last entry (gasp!), I am offering up a nice photo-filled post for your enjoyment and for the sake of showing why I've been too busy to blog lately!
Our kitchen demolition is in full swing. I know, I know. What else have we been doing?! Demo is taking longer than we first thought--seems to be a pattern with any home project. Budget lots of time! With demo it's a matter of trying to save $ and not get a dumpster. This means a little at a time, because that plaster is HEAVY stuff! But thanks to Joe's hard work during the weekdays, and our combined efforts during Fischer's weekend naps (he naps in the spare bedroom in the basement with the radio on, so he can't hear us upstairs), the end is in sight. Remember we're doing 2 rooms and the back stairwell AND the ceilings. Some of those walls have 2 sides to strip down! Not to mention the outside walls have blown-in insulation to vacuum out! We're cleaning up as we go so as not to live in a perpetual cloud of dust, tripping over debris. To view the pre-renovation walk-through, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2uYnD2wgm8

Cooking in the basement is working out great--though it isn't a space we'll be inviting people over to eat in. It helps that it's cool down there, too. Makes cooking tolerable in this heat!
Fischer's mostly content to wait while meals are made in his little kid corral area. I change out the toys and books after a couple weeks, and though he usually complains when I set him down in there, he can watch me making our dinner and we can still talk and sing back and forth. There are lots of "don't touch" areas in the basement, so when Fischer's outside of his corral, one of us is always his shadow.

On July 31st, I picked up McDonald's for mine and Fischer's dinner for the first time. Though he didn't touch the burger or chicken nuggets he was offered, he did finish off the better part of a small fry, complete with ketchup for dipping and lots of milk and grapes. Fischer knocked my socks off each time he gently dipped the tip of each bite of fry in the little glob of ketchup I'd put on his tray. I'll put the "Fischer's First Happymeal" video on the Fisch Finder soon.

On August 2, Fischer and I met Kristy, Flora and Leo at our house to walk down to Kavarna and the Broadway farmer's market. It was a great walk and the weather was superb. On the way we stopped to appreciate some flowers in our neighborhood. Fischer was a little ornery in the stroller. When we got to an area on Broadway where there were benches to take a break on, I got Fischer out of the stroller, and he was OFF! He was trying to charm people out of their cheese curds, grabbing at random people's cups, and in all other ways exploring like a little boy should. It was exhausting for me! He didn't seem too concerned about branching away from Mom! He and Flora played a bit in the dirt and were nice and filthy by the time we set out to finish walking the market. Fischer pretty much had a meltdown just before we got to Kavarna at the tail-end of our tour of the market. He was good during dinner, but it was a feat trying to fit all of our grown up food and drink on the table with Fischer and now Leo reaching for things. We'll just have to be sure to secure our 'usual' front table from now on!
The whole week of August 3-7, my co-worker Holly was on vacation so I was working some longer days at daycare. Fischer's appetite decided to go a bit south, he got a random few hives, and he even had a slight temp one day. He was sad every afternoon watching all of his friends' parents come and go, wondering why I wasn't there yet. Poor guy! Well, late in the week, we were rewarded with the discovery of Fischer's 9th tooth! His eyetooth on the upper right side. He hasn't had a new tooth since March, so it's no wonder he had an off few days!

On the evening of August 6th, we joined family at Grandma D's and Grandpa Mike's to visit with Great Aunt Mary and her hubby Joe, whom we last saw at Thanksgiving (Fischer was so little then!). It was great to catch up with everyone, and Fischer was so excited to play a little with the neighbors' dogs along with his cousin Kaylee. He was basically running around the yard and panting (sign for dog). It didn't diminish his glee one bit when he'd get surprised by the occational doggy kiss, either! Papa even subjected him self to some doggy fun, too. After dinner, Fischer and Kaylee could be seen checking out Grandma D's daisy garden (Kaylee helped herself to a garden tomato, too).

On Saturday, August 8th, Joe discovered that Fischer likes tomatoes. It's not that he hasn't been offered them before. He's just never eaten them straight from the vine before! Joe made a good point when he said Fischer might associate the cherry and roma tomatoes with the home-grown strawberries he enjoyed from our yard earlier in the summer. Those red things sure taste good!

I've been trying to give Fischer more opportunities to use a spoon, now that he's refusing to be fed anything. We used to be able to coax the better part of a yogurt down, or supplement with some cereal-thickened baby food when he didn't eat the best for a meal. Guess he's a big boy, now! On Sunday, August 9th, Fischer fed himself 3/4 of a pudding using a spoon. Was he proud!

Afterward, we practiced walking holding hands on our way down through the Casperson's yard and into the garden. That's where I got to witness his newfound lov

e of tomatoes first hand. He had one in each hand and his cheeks puffed out chewing a third!

Now for the latest vocab update for Fischer. Trying to keep track of how many words and signs he uses is proving to get pretty difficult, as he'll try to say most familiar things, and you never know which ones will stick. Then he'll pull a fast-one on ya and bust out a word you didn't know he knew! This guy is slick! Here are the newest words he can say with his (version) and/or an * to indicate that he does the sign language for it, too.
Bib* (bub)
Push (pish)
Spoon (poon)
Dog* (dod)
Bite (bee)
Snack (nak)
Auf (uff) German for "open" (pronounced owf)
Zu German for "closed"--easier to say! (pronounced tsoo)
All done*--sign only
Where is it/where did it go/all gone*--same sign, sign only
For Itsy Bitsy Spider Fischer waves his arms up and down for the spider climbing and then does the sign for all gone when the rain 'washed the spider out'.
He tries to blow bubbles (bub-BOH) by taking the wand from your hand, dipping it into the bottle and then "blowing" at the wand (it's more like a fff-fff-fff sound).
He also "blows" on food if you tell him it's hot :)
And you learned above that he dips fries in ketchup and can feed himself with a spoon.

I think at age 14 months, Fischer knows a combination of about 40-50 words and signs! Not too shabby!

Visiting Stelters at White Potato Lake & a Few More Words

On Sunday, 7/19, my boys and I went about an hour up north to visit our friends Heather and Dirk and their boys Mason (18) and Zane (12) at their grandparents' cabin on White Potato Lake in Oconto County. When we got out of the car, Fischer was anxious to walk around and explore. He was especially excited to see that the Stelters have a dog, Satchel. He's a gentle giant :)

Fischer warmed up to Satchel more quickly than other dogs he's met, and kept gesturing toward the dog and panting (the baby sign for 'dog').
Gradually Fischer got closer to Satchel.

At times, the excitement was almost too much!

A little closer, now...

Finally, Fischer got up the nerve to pet Satchel.

After proper introductions, Satchel felt free to give Fischer a kiss or two!

When we got to the water, quick wardrobe change to show off his new swimtrunks, and Fischer was stomping through the shallows...nevermind that it was a bit overcast and the water was a tad cool!

A couple times, Fischer lost his balance and landed on his bottom. This is how he looked when he was asking "Up!"

Zane caught a few minnows for Fischer to inspect in a bucket. He was super-excited and making exclaimations the whole time. His bottom lip was shivering the whole time, too, but that didn't dampen his fun!

Here's a quick vocab update:

Joe's been starting to teach Fischer a German word here and there. He knows the German word for car, which is Auto (out-oh), and Fischer says it pretty close, but mostly it comes out "toto". He also says here and this when handing you something or asking what something is while gesturing towards it, but they sound more like "he" and "diss". When we step outside he says "side", and while putting on his shoes OR referring to Joe's cat Schmooze, Fischer says something that's like "sooze". He's also taken a liking to turing lights off and on, especially the pull-string ones in the basement. Although we articulate on vs. off, he calls them both "opff". :)

First Haircut & a Few New Words

Fischer had his first haircut on Thursday, July 16th. A teacher at daycare, Ms. Amy B., is also a cosmetologist who works part-time for a children's salon. We had Fischer sit in a chair at the table in his classroom while his friends watched. Everything began well, and Fischer didn't seem to mind the cape.
When he began pulling on the cape, Amy offered him a comb to look at and play with.
When Fischer began to get even more restless, I handed him the case for my camera, hoping that would keep him busy for awhile longer. He was getting frustrated that he couldn't see what Amy was doing. He kept trying to turn his head to look and her hands and tools kept moving out of his sight--how frustrating!
Finally he started crying. We were about half-way done with the haircut at this point, so it was a sad few minutes for Fischer. When Amy was done, and I took Fischer's shirt off to change it, he was so upset that he did that thing where he doesn't breathe for a few seconds and then lets out a huge wail. By then I'd gotten his other shirt on him, and we stepped outside to distract/calm him and shake the hair out of the shirt he'd worn during the 'ordeal'. He was fine right away, and we were able to return to the classroom without anymore tears. An update on Fischer's vocabulary: he can now say pretty ("pree") when referring to flowers or classroom decorations, hat (says it perfectly), and he knocked our socks off the other day when he began saying bubble ("bub-BOH"--with emphasized 'oh' lips). So cute! He tried to imitate words you say, too, sometimes close and sometimes way off, but he's well on his way :)

4th of July Weekend

The following takes place from Friday 7/3 to Sunday 7/5:
With our pending kitchen renovations, we wanted to keep our holiday weekend low-key. Daycare was closed on Friday, so we spent the day as a family. On Saturday, we ventured north to Tomahawk (our usual destination for the 4th) to visit Grandpa Kenny and Uncle Nate.

When we arrived, Fischer enjoyed playing in Grandpa's sandy driveway. It's not visible in the picture, but clamped securely in his right hand, Fischer's got a bobber Joe bought at the baitshop on our way into town. Joe camped overnight at the river, and Fischer and I stayed at Grandpa's friend Grace's house. Joe got to fish [caught a big northern that escaped from the holding tank :( ]and partied a little with some of Nate's friends, and didn't even have to worry about food because Fischer and I would bring him a plate every time we visited :)

Fischer loved playing in the sand on the shore and didn't mind the cool temperature of the river.


It's so much fun for him, now that he's walking, to explore everywhere! He had a ball splashing in the water, and grabbing handfuls of sand.


Fischer absolutely LOVED being in the tent. He played endless games of peek-a-boo with us and occupied himself without toys or books in there!

Traffic was pretty heavy on the water (jet-skis and boats pulling kids on tubes going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth again--the river in front of our landing must be the best stretch to do that...), but Fischer was still able to fall asleep in the tent to take his later nap (he'd napped on our way up north, too).

Because of his later nap, I thought he might be able to see some fireworks, but both of us were too tuckered out by then and went to bed.

When we returned home on Sunday afternoon, it was time to dive back into renovation preparations. While Joe worked on some stuff at home and later went to work for the evening, Fischer and I went to visit our friend Kit and her little girl Delainey at their house.

Fischer loved Kit's laptop (Delainey was snoozing in her swing), her kitty, and playing with regular household objects he found in her livingroom. It was a nice visit, and it was good to see Delainey getting even bigger, though she's still itty bitty :)

The beginning of this week (7/6-7/10), Joe got a sink and section of counter with a cupboard installed in the basement (replacing a disgusting old one), so we have a nice place for food prep and dishwashing while we're renovating upstairs. The next step will be consolidating and moving around basement stuff so we can actually pack up and move the food, some dishes and appliances downstairs.

While Joe's been busy with basement/plumbing stuff, I've been shopping around for the best loan rates--it's not easy! Today we also had a guy come out to measure for Home Depot so we can get an estimate from them and compare it to Mendard's, and we got a second estimate from a heating company to change out our big radiator in the kitchen for a smaller one that fits under the cupboard.

We'll keep you posted, and will also post photos of our progress as we go along. When it's all done, I'll be ready to host Pampered Chef and Tupperware parties--ladies, keep an eye out for date/s! :)