Sally Says

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Tommy turned eight today.  That means I've been writing this blog for eight years.  The idea that I've been doing this for eight years is harder to believe than the idea that Tommy is an eight-year-old.  I seem him grow and change every day, so it really doesn't surprise me that he's as big and old and grown up as he is.  I can't really see all the ways he's changed because all of the changes have been incremental.  I guess that's why I have this blog!  If I look back, then the changes are obvious and amazing.

This week has been filled with lots of party plans.  We put together 24 goodie bags for the birthday party guests.  I always think you can tell a lot about a kid by what he chooses to put in his birthday party goodie bags (or I suppose it tells you a lot about the mom, if the kid doesn't have any input.)  For this movie-themed party, we used red and white striped popcorn bags.  I special ordered 24 of the Lego Series Six Collectable Minifigures - not yet available in stores!  We found packets of pop rocks, because pop rocks are cool.  We chose mechanical pencils and Mario Bros. stickers.  Finally, Tommy and I made Lego-shaped white chocolate candies for everybody.  I'm probably more proud of those goodie bags than I should be.  

We invited 18 kids to join us for the birthday party.  A few were well-loved younger siblings, but most were Tommy's friends from school and activities.  We had a couple of last-minute sibling additions, so it's a good thing I made extra goodie bags.  Between the extra guests and Charlie handing out goodie bags willy-nilly to random siblings who came to the door at pick up, we had exactly enough.  

We started the party with a movie.  Tommy put a lot of thought into his choice.  He finally settled on The Cat Returns a Studio Ghibli film that he really likes and thought most of his friends hadn't seen yet.  He was right.  I think only 2 or 3 of the kids had ever seen it.  I was a bit unsure of his less-than-mainstream choice, but left it up to him.  Surprisingly, most of the younger siblings were happy to watch the entire movie, even the slower beginning part.  Only three of the big kids (very active boys) and the lone three-year-old wandered off to play instead of watching the movie.  That's not bad for a rather obscure Japanese family film.

Do you see those snack trays?  Aren't they awesome?  They have a space for popcorn, a soda can cup holder and a slot for a candy bar.  I had seen them at the movie theater.  You would not believe how much effort it took to find them.  If you ever do a  movie party they're called "Movie Theater Snack Trays" and are available at Online Home Theater Accesories.

After the movie, I let the kids run amuck.  You would not believe how loud and enthusiastic 20+ kids, most of whom are almost as tall as me, can be.  They're all good kids though, so there weren't too many mishaps or dramas.  After a bit of playtime, they came in to watch Tommy open presents and eat cake and ice cream.

Everyone went home except two of Tommy's closest friends.  Chris and Gage stayed for a sleep over.  We ate pizza, played games, and were all in bed by 9 pm.  Poor Charlie thought he might get to sleep with the big boys, but he was too tired and had to go to bed early in his own room.

It was really quite nice to have the boys with us this morning, on Tommy's actual birthday.  We ate birthday breakfast biscuits and opened all of Tommy's family presents.  Chris played the Pirates of the Caribbean Theme Song on the piano while the other boys reenacted scenes from the movie.  They built legos, checked out all the presents, and bounced on the extra mattresses that we set out for them.  It was a nice way to round out Tommy's birthday.

We were all pretty wiped out for the rest of the day.  Tommy and Charli had a lot of news games and toys to play with.  David and I were still a bit shell-shocked from the party.  I went out once this afternoon to run an errand, and came home to this.

Somehow, this picture looks very grown up to me.  I expect to see boys sitting around a table with sodas, snacks and fantasy card-based games, coveting +3 broadswords, and discussing the merits of chainmail vs. leather armor for many, many years to come.  It's in their genes.  

We ended the day with a giant order of sushi from Sushi King (Tommy's choice.)  We ate it in front of the TV, and it was all gone in less than 10 minutes.  Hurray for boys!

Basketball Photo Conundrum

My new phone ensures that I always have a camera with me, but it doesn't take very good pictures, does it?  I wonder if there's something wonky with mine.  People usually rave about the quality of their iPhone 4s photos.  I have not been impressed.

I'll have to start bringing my big camera out and about with me more often.  I guess it's better to have bad photos of Charlie's Tae Kwon Do graduation and Tommy's dance class instead of no photos, but it would have been better to have have GOOD photos.  I'd hate for 2012 to be known in my family as the year of mediocre pictures.  They already think of late 2009 as the year of the missing pictures since I spilled tea on my newish laptop then and lost 6-months worth of unbacked-up photos.  It's a good thing small versions of all of them were saved on the blog!

However, it seems like sometimes I go to the trouble of bringing the big camera and it still doesn't do me much good.  Take Tommy's basketball games, for example.  I've been meaning to post something about basketball for a while now.  He's really learning a lot in the practices and is enjoying the games.  I took some videos of one game with my phone, but they're kind of "had to be there."  I'm really good at knowing what I should take pictures of.  I'm not so good at seeing the world through the lens of potential video yet.

 

TommyBBall01 from Sally Epp on Vimeo.

 

TommyBBall02 from Sally Epp on Vimeo.

 Then I brought my big camera with me to a different game, and realized I have no skill whatsoever in taking sporting event action shots.  

So then I tried taking pictures at a THIRD game with just my phone.  They're definitely not as good as the ones taken with my big camera (as you can see below.)  It's dead simple to snap a photo with my phone and then do a simple blog post straight from my phone, but then the photo isn't very good.  It becomes a lot more complicated if I want to transfer the phone pictures to my computer, edit them in any way, and then write a longer, more organized blog post like this one.  And in order to get the good pictures with my big camera, I have to plan ahead. 

Ah, technology.  I suppose it's impressive that I get ANYTHING posted, now that I have so many options.  At least we've managed to make it to most of Tommy's basketball practices and games...as well as Tommy's two dance classes, Charlie's Tae Kwon Do practices three times a week and Charlie's swimming practices.  I really do have the calendar on  my new phone to thank for that.  

Striped Belt

Charlie graduated from his Tae Kwon Do Tiny Tigers class today! He's now an official white belt in the big kid's class and has a stripe to show that he did Tiny Tigers. He's very proud of his accomplishment.

Partnering

Tommy started doing partnering in his modern dance class today! Holy cuteness Batman!

Raising Readers: Books Babies Like

This is part three in my Raising Readers series.  Part one was The Introduction.  Part two was Reading to Babies.  Stay tuned for more!

Part Three:  Ten Types of Books for Babies

There really aren't all that many types of books tailor-made for babies.  Publishers turn all sorts of books into board books, but many of them are more appropriate for toddlers than for babies.  Below, you will find the types of books that I think of as true Baby Books.  I'm sure there are a few categories that I'm missing, but these are the biggies.  

I almost always buy books as shower gifts, and I usually try to choose my purchases from these categories.  A really special shower gift, in my opinion, would be 10 books, one from each of these categories.  You never know which category a particular baby will like best.  Every baby is different.  You might be surprised by which category is your baby's favorite and which ones they don't care for, so it's a good idea to try at least one from each with your baby.

1.  Bright Primary Colors

Babies are stimulated by bright, primary colors.  They're easier to focus on in the beginning and capture a baby's attention.  I remember holding up the red page of a colors board book to Tommy was maybe 6 weeks old.  He was mesmerized, and obviously liked the red page more than any of the other pages.  

Sometimes new parents gravitate towards nostalgic, muted "babyish" colors for first books, but those aren't going to be nearly as effective as bright, in-your-face, primary colors.  There's plenty of time for muted colors later.  

It also seems to be quite helpful to have a few books around that introduce colors one at a time. Too many different colors and objects on one page can sometimes be overwhelming, so books that have one color per page are quite effective.  That's one reason Brown Bear, Brown Bear will always be a classic.

   Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle

 My First Colors Board Book from DK Publishing

2.  Photographs of Other Babies' Faces

Babies love to look at faces, especially the faces of other babies.  And for some reason, they often respond better to REAL faces instead of drawings or illustrations.  Charlie wanted only books with faces in them for quite a while.  It took him months to decide that representational art was OK.  It's a good idea to have at least a couple of books from this category in your babies' library.

 Baby Faces by Margaret Miller

 Global Babies by The Global Fund for Children

3.  Songs

Many babies love it when you sing to them.  Some don't.  Tommy hated it when I tried to sing to him as a baby, probably because he associated it with "PLEASE go to sleep you stubborn child."  It was a huge blow to this choir-girl's ego.  However, he'd happily let me sing if there was a book to go along with the song.  

Books of illustrated songs just seem so appropriate for little babies.  Sometimes, if you have a baby who has no interest in books, they'll pay attention to a song book, especially if it's a silly song or a lullaby.  I think this is because it's impossible to sing-read a song book in a boring monotone.  If you're a parent who struggles with feeling self-conscious about reading animatedly, then song books can help you.  Plus, song books have a longer developmental shelf-life than most baby books.  They capture babies' attention, but continue to be interesting to older children who can practice their pre-literacy skills by matching the familiar song lyrics to the illustrations.  We love song books in our house.

 Hush Little Baby by Marla Frazee

 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star bySylvia Long

4.  Object Identification

I suspect that children who are destined to grow up to be mathematicians, scientists, librarians or engineers love these books the best as babies.  I used to think they were universal, but have since realized that they tend to be rather love-it-or-hate-it.  Tommy loved this sort of "point, identify and categorize" book.  Seriously.  He would spend HOURS with these books, pointing at things and wanting me to repeat the nouns over and over and over again.  Charlie couldn't have cared less.  He thought these books were boring.  He wanted plot and character and rhythm.  He wanted photos, but they had to be of babies doing things, not animals, trucks or objects.  Interesting, don't you think?  It's worth trying this sort of book with your baby, because they're good for vocabulary building.  Just be aware that they might not be the right sort of book for him (or her.)  

 The Everything Book by Denise Fleming

 My Big Animal Book by Roger Priddy

5.  Rhythmic Language

There's a reason so many children's books are written in rhyming verse.  Children love rhythm, meter and rhyme.  Poetic language turns a book into a kind of a song.  The sing-song quality of a good rhythmic story will capture a baby's attention.  All language starts out as a haze of background noise for babies, so when you read something with rhythm, meter, structure, repetition, alliteration or rhyming words you create order out of the sound chaos.  This builds new neural pathways, paving the way for language development.  It's good for them, and they like it too!  It doesn't even matter what the book is about -- meaning and understanding comes later.  For babies, it's all about the sound of your voice and the patterns of the language.

 Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers

 Jamberry by Bruce Degan

6.  Touch & Feel Books

Babies are very tactile.  They're learning about the world with all their senses.  Yes, putting things in their mouths goes along with this.  They like to feel and taste everything.  That's why it's important to have a few washable cloth books available.  Be sure to add some traditional books with touch & feel elements as well as washable cloth books to your babies' library.  They can finger the tags, touch the bumpy ladybugs, rub the scratchy spots, suck on the sticking out bits and crinkle the textured pages.  Touch and feel books are just as much toys as they are books, and that's a good thing.

 Fuzzy Bee and Friends by Roger Priddy

 Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth  

7.  Interactive Books

It takes a bit of practice to figure out which books fit into this category.  We adults tend to approach books in one way.  We pick one up, start reading on the first page, read each page in order, and don't pause for interruptions.  Young children don't have that framework yet, so it's good to remember to think outside the box while reading to them.  

I think that almost any baby book can become an interactive book.  Turning a book into an opportunity for interaction takes practice, however, and there are some books that help grown ups figure out how to do it.  While you're reading them, don't just read the words.  Touch baby's fingers, toes, nose, etc.  Don't just read the words "peek a boo!"  Cover your face and do it!  Babies love to play "this little piggie" and there are book versions of the very same sorts of interactive games.  Just be sure to DO IT.  Don't just read the words.

 Piggies by Audrey and Don Wood

 Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox

8.  Animal Sounds

Moo!  Baa!  Honk!  It's impossible to read a book with funny sound words in a quiet, boring way.  That's probably why so many baby books have animal sounds in them.  It's not that babies like the word moo better than the word marsupial.  It's that they like the way we say the word moo better.  Besides, making a 6-month-old giggle when you quack like a duck is very, very fun.

 Who Said Moo? by Harriet Ziefert

 Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton

9.  Bedtime

Having a bedtime routine in the early days is pretty impossible, but you can do it even if they don't sleep exactly when you want them to.  Just pick a time and do the same things every evening.  They'll get it eventually.  We read Goodnight Moon every single night for over a year with each boy.  It doesn't really have to be a book about bedtime, because it's the repetition of exactly the same routine night after night that's important.  There are so many good books about bedtime out there though, that you might as well choose one of them.  

 Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

 Pajama Time! by Sandra Boynton

10.  Lift-the-Flap Books

This last category is a bit less perfectly suited for babies.  The books are great, and babies love the element of surprise and interactive process of lifting the flaps.  It's just that the flaps can become an issue.  Stock up on book tape for repairs, and consider your lift-the-flap books good practice books for treating books gently.  Hopefully you won't have too many disasters, and by the time your baby is one she'll be a pro at carfully lifting those flaps without ripping them. 

 Peek-a-Who? by Nina Laden

 Where is Baby's Belly Button? by Karen Katz

And that's it!  

*********************************

Here's a PDF version of this list - 10 Types of Books for Babies.  I thought you might need one to print out, and I'd already put the bib. together for that talk I gave at Charlie's preschool.

Download Raising Readers: Babies 

It's the same information that I just wrote about, only condensed into one printable page.  :)

Raising Readers: Babies

This is part two of my Raising Readers series.  Part one is here.  

Babies enter our lives in all sorts of ways.  Perhaps you're a new parent, just home from the hospital, exhausted and proud.  Perhaps you've returned home after a long international trip with a newly adopted son or daughter.  Perhaps you're a new grandparent, uncle or aunt, excited to hold a new baby whom you've been anxiously waiting to meet.  Perhaps the new baby belongs to a friend or neighbor.  Or maybe you're a babysitter or nursery employee who's trying to fill hours of time with a sweet little one.  No matter how a baby enters your life, one thing is certain.  You want to do right by them.  You want to make sure they're happy, healthy and have the best chance possible to grow and develop into the child they have the potential to become.  Books can help you do that.

Infants don't actually need very much to be happy and healthy.  Once you've taken care of the basics -- when they're clean, fed and rested -- then you have a bit of time to fill.  They're only awake and alert with all their needs met for a few minutes every few hours in the beginning, but you can fill those minutes with all sorts of activities that are good for them.  I think that reading books to them during those times is just as valuable as snuggling with them, talking to them and letting them observe the world around them.

You can start reading to babies really, really early.  No, they won't really have any idea of what you're doing, but they like to listen to your voice, and eventually they'll be able to focus on the bright colors of the pages.  It just naturally progresses from there.  They're awake and alert for longer and longer periods as they grow, and if books are part of their lives from day one then you don't really have to work very hard to get them to like books.  You have a few months before they become mobile, so you might as well read to them while they're trapped on your lap, in the bouncy seat or lying on the floor.  Books that have lots of bright, primary colors or photographs of other babies and familiar things are a good choice in the beginning.  

Charlie at 3 months...

 

It's even easier when they can sit up on their own.  I used to keep small baskets of books and toys in every room and would prop the boys up next to them.  Books are just another kind of toy when they're really small.  If you're consistent about saying "not in your mouth" over and over, you can even teach them not to chew on their board books.  It takes a lot of repetition, but it's worth doing.  Babies are very tactile during this time, so letting them hold and touch the books is important.  If they're never allowed to touch the books because you're afraid they'll put them in their mouths, then they'll lose interest in them.

Tommy at 5 months...

 

It does get a bit trickier once they start crawling.  If they're really familiar with books by the time they learn to crawl, then you don't have anything to worry about.  They'll crawl to the books just like they crawl to everything else.  Yes, you have to continue teaching them to be respectful of books, but that sort of repetitive teaching is just part of having a mobile baby.  They figure it out eventually.  Some parents are tempted to put all the books up out of reach at about 9-months, and I think that's a big mistake.  If you want your mobile baby to become a toddler who loves books and reading, then they must be accessible.  They'll only choose books if books are available for them to choose, after all. 

Tommy at 6 months...

 

Speaking of supervising babies, I really think books work best as an interactive toy for them.  You can set a variety of books and toys in front of an older, mobile baby and he will be able to entertain himself for a few minutes.  However, he won't really enjoy the books to their fullest unless YOU read with him.  Books for babies are meant to be read, and the more animated and interactive you are, the more receptive your baby will be to them.  Vary the sound of your voice as you read. Whisper, sing, point, clap, get excited.  They take their cues from you, and if they see you loving the book you are reading to them, then they'll love it too.  

This is important, because the days of passive acceptance are over.  The older they get, the more OPINIONS they have, and babies with opinions choose their own favorite toys.  If you've worked hard to make books available to your baby and spent time sharing them with your baby in an active and animated way, then they will stay interested in books.  Once they fall in love with their books, then you'll find them choosing to look at them on their own, stopping their mad dash across the room to turn some pages, pointing at whatever captures their interest, and mimicking the sounds you make when you read to them.  Priceless! 

Charlie at 8 months...

So what kinds of books are the most interesting to babies?  I have a list for that!  Come back tomorrow for my list of Ten Types of Books for Babies.

Congratulations David!

David applied for a new job a while ago, and they just announced that he was got it!  His new title is  "Manager of the Experimental Mechanics/Non-destructive Evaluation and Model Validation Department."  This is still at the National Labs where he's worked for the last 9 years.

 He decided to make the move from technical staff to department manager for a variety of reasons, and it will be interesting to see how our lives change with the job change.  We're all quite excited about it.  I suspect he'll still work fewer hours than he did during the big 24/7 satellite testing pushes of the past few years. 

The four of us were already planning to go out to dinner to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary tomorrow, so now we have two reasons to celebrate!  Hmmm...the boys will be with us, so I wonder how nice a dinner we can get away with?

Raising Readers: Introduction

I did a talk on Raising Readers for the Parent Group at Charlie's preschool yesterday.  I put a lot of work into preparing for it, and thought you all might be interested in the bibliographies and what I had to say (especially since way more people will read it here than the five who attended my talk.)

I'm going to divide it into parts, and will post them over the next couple of weeks.

Raising Readers: Introduction

In case you stumbled upon this through Google, I should probably tell you why I'm qualified to talk about this subject.  I have a Master's Degree in Library and Information Studies and was a children's librarian in a large public library B.K. (before kids.)  I was also a Materials Selector for the library system, and was responsible for selecting and purchasing all the children's non-fiction books for the 26 Oklahoma City libraries.  Now, I'm a parent of two boys who both love to read.  The older, Tommy, is in 2nd grade and spends hours every day independently reading big books like Harry Potter.

Enough about me.  Let's talk about books and reading and children - three of my favorite subjects.

When it comes to our children’s relationship with books and reading, we as parents have two different responsibilities.  One is literacy.  We need to make sure they know HOW to read.  The second is more complicated.  We also want to teach them to love books and reading.  In my mind, the two responsibilities are very related, but not at all the same thing.  As a matter of fact, working on learning to read can sometimes undermine their love of books (a topic I'll talk about in more detail later.)  That’s why it’s so important that you pay attention to both responsibilities.  The end goal is to have a child who loves books and who knows how to read well enough to read the books he loves.

It seems like most children love books at some point during early childhood.  Many children are lucky enough to have books in their homes and parents, babysitters or teachers who read to them.  If they don't have books at home, they are exposed to them at daycare or preschool.  We work really hard to push books and reading in early-childhood in this country and all that effort has paid off.  Find a 4-year-old and ask him if he likes books.  He'll probably say "yes."

However, if you ask your average 4th grader if he likes books, a large number of them will say "no."  What happened?  Why doesn't every child grow up to be a person who loves reading?  I think there are a few possible answers to those questions.

1.  They lost their love of books and reading when they had to learn to read.  Learning to read is HARD WORK, and if you're not careful, all that work can suck the life and fun out of books for kids.  For most kids, it takes a lot of guidance and intervention for parents for them to come out on the other side of the 4-year (or more!) learning process with their love of books intact.  This is a big one, and I'll devote a whole section of this series on the topic later.

2.  The books available to them don't match their interests.  Children are unique individuals, and books are not one-size-fits-all.  This means it's important to expose them to a variety of books throughout their childhood, so that together you can figure out what lights their reading fire.

3.  The books available to them don't match their developmental level.  Children are constantly growing, learning and changing.  It's great that your 9-month old loves all those board books, but she'll outgrow them earlier than you might expect.  You need to have the next sort of book available to take their place.  Think of it this way.  You have to buy new clothes for your children all the time.  Providing them with appropriate books is just like keeping them in clothes that fit.  

4.  If the parents don't like to read, then it will be harder (but not impossible!) for them to teach their children to love reading.   Reading is like any activity, really.  We choose to spend time doing the things we enjoy and value.  If you enjoy exercise and physical activity, then it's very likely that your children will enjoy staying active too.  If you always have a stack of books on your bedside table, then it's very likely your children will too.  It's easy to teach your kids to love something that you genuinely love and value yourself.  It's a lot harder to teach them to love something that you really don't care for.  I really hope that it's not impossible though.  I hate to exercise, so it takes a lot of mindful effort for me to keep the boys active and engaged with sports.  They like sports, but it's so HARD for me to remember to provide them with lots of opportunities to be active.   I'm sure it's the same for parents who dislike reading the way I dislike exercise.  We know the thing we don't like is good for them, and we want them to grow up differently, but it's hard.  Keep reading to your children and encouraging them to enjoy books even if you don't.  Just be aware that it's going to take more effort for you than for a parent who really loves reading.

It's not all doom and gloom though.  If you start encouraging your children to love books and reading when they're babies (or at any age!,) and continue your efforts as they grow and mature, you will see spectacular results.  In this series of posts on Raising Readers, I plan to give you lots of suggestions for every stage of development.  If you want to raise a reader, then your goal is to get them to the time when their reading ability exactly matches their interests with their love of books and reading intact.  Then you can say "my job here is done" and watch TV all evening while they're in their rooms reading on their own.  (I'm only kind of kidding!)

This week we learned that if you buy a new mattress, you really should go with a place that allows returns with no re-stocking fees. The new mattress hurts our backs and one side visibly slopes away from the middle. It's pretty, but flawed, and will be returning to Sears on Tuesday. We're eating all their fees, and have learned a valuable lesson.

A new-new tempurpedic mattress will be coming on Friday from the most helpful, awesome Mattress Firm shop ever (Paseo & Ventura.) If we don't like it...no problem! We got free pillows, mattress pad and delivery. If we don't like it, we can return it 100% back. I'm confident that I might get some sleep by next weekend. And since our room will be bed-free for three nights, I'll have a chance to paint over the purple wall.

Proof That We Really Ought to Paint that Stupid Purple Wall

Squee!  It looks like a real, put-together bedroom!  No, we don't actually have any furniture (no dresser or headboard,) but we've manged for 16 years without any.  Luckily, we have really large closets.

Now here's the question.  I'm planning to paint the white walls  the same taupe/cream color we have in most of the house.  Do I paint the purple wall the blue that's in the comforter or the greenish-teal that's in the comforter?  Can I get away with painting the other color on that tilted area of the ceiling?  It would make a ring of color around the room, but all the flat bits would stay white.

And here's big-boy Tommy's room.  He's very excited about sleeping in the Queen-sized bed tonight.  We have better space for company now, so come on down!  If one person comes to visit, we'll put the guest in Charlie's room and let the boys sleep together in Tommy's bed.  If a couple come to visit, they can have Tommy's room and Tommy will sleep on the extra twin mattress in Charlie's room.  David's half finished with the bunkbeds he's building for the boys and they'll go into Charlie's room.  Then Tommy can decide if he wants to bunk in with Charlie permanently, or if he wants to stay in his own room.

Big

I'm imagining Crocodile Dundee saying, "That's not a bed. THIS is a bed."

Projects Begat Projects

David went back to work on Tuesday, January 3.  He had been home since Friday, December 16th.  We had 18 days of glorious Daddy time. 

He started to get itchy after a while, so we came up with a list of around-the-house projects.  Some of the projects begat others, as one would expect.  I've even started up a little follow-up list for myself, because some of those ornery buggers begat in my direction.  I'm not complaining though.  Accomplishing stuff is always good.

Here are all the things David accomplished in the 18 days he was home (with the rest of us alternately helping or hindering him.)

1.  He sorted through all the toys in the house - both Tommy's and Charlie's rooms - and hauled a massive amount out to the garage

2.  Which begat me lining up new homes for said toys

3.  Which begat a scheduled deadline of this coming Friday for taking them all to Goodwill

4.  He also bought and installed a new line of coat hooks in Charlie's room because there's space for one now

5.  He started detective work on the mysterious water-running sound that we only heard in the middle of the night.  After $1000 and a few dicey hours when we thought we'd have to pay to run a new water line from the street to the house, the plumbers found the leak and repaired it. 

(Unfortunately, an illegal French Drain hid the leak from us for a very long time.  It was installed by the previous homeowners, discovered by the hole-digging plumbers, and drained all extra yard water directly into the sewer.  There was no catastrophic damage or sink holes in the yard because all the leaking fresh water was going straight into the sewer.  The only hint of a leak was the faint not-quite-right sound in the middle of the night and a higher-than-usual water bill that we've lived with for a Very Long Time.  If we were the kind of people who file lawsuits...)

6.  Which begat a project to replace some parts in one of the toilets to stop a leak there that the plumbers found

7.  And also begat a broken and replaced water shut-off valve under the sink in the hall bathroom

8.  Which begat the installation of an access panel in the wall of the master bath

9.  He tackled the slow-draining sink in that bathroom too.  He replaced parts and everything!

10.  He hung a handy-dandy white board in the kitchen, and we've all decided to write down what we eat on it and discuss the day's food choices as a family every day.

11.  He realized that our mattress has crossed over from wearing out to WORN OUT.  We bought a new California King sized mattress after many trips to various shops.  It will arrive on Friday

12.  Which begat a mad scramble for me to find bedding to fit the new matress.  I'm desperately hoping that the gorgeous and oversized new comforter that I bought on super-sale this fall will fit on the new bed.  I love it, and don't want to pay the not-on-sale price for exactly the same thing in California King size.

13.  The new bed purchase also begat a plan to finally move forward with painting our bedroom.  We've never painted it, and I'm very tired of the lilac wall that the French-drain-installing former owners left for us.  It doesn't match anything we own.  I haven't actually done this project yet, but it's in the plan for next weekend.

14.  The new mattress also begat a plan to move the old Queen matress into Tommy's room.  It's certainly worn out and lumpy, but having an extra bed for company is better than what we have now.  Charlie's planning to have both of the bunk beds that David is building for his room.

15.  And it begat a 1/2 day of bedroom carpet steam cleaning.

16.  Speaking of Charlie's room.  The string on his window blind finally broke.  The cheap blinds that we install ourselves keep breaking, so I called The Blind Man to come out to our house to give us an estimate for sturdier new ones

17.  Which begat a purchase of new, cordless blinds for all four bedroom windows.  Tommy's has always been wonky and our won't match the new paint.

That's quite a lot of projects!  Our house is going to be so SMART after all is said and done.  And we'll probably have to take a year off of travelling and buying stuff to pay it all off.  Worth it!

Sleepover

Tommy's at a friend's house for a sleepover tonight, so we're having our own sleepover with Charlie in our room. He's very excited to get to sleep in our room.