adventures in tiling

Have you ever had a home project that you were utterly intimidated by? I'm really not sure why I ever thought that tiling the backsplash of our kitchen was a good idea. I never, ever thought I would be the one tiling something in our house, and I don't want to do it again. I think it's a skilled position - even skilled tilers can screw it up, so my inexperienced self could really screw it up.

Pre- that picture falling

When we did our bathroom remodel, we told ourselves that we would put up a backsplash. The wall behind the vanity is concaved because of where the piping is (I don't remember exactly why), so there's a little tiny gap behind the vanity in the center. To keep things clean, I thought we should add a small backsplash. This would also serve to protect our brand-new drywall in there. A month or two ago, we found penny round glass tiles half off/on clearance at Lowe's, and decided to go for it. We paid $10 for the tile, and I already had grout. The grout I have is actually able to be used as the mounting and the grouting... which I'm sure means it's not the best quality, but it's just a backsplash. Right?

Pre-tile

It was really hard to put the grout stuff behind where the faucet is. In retrospect, we should've removed it. I had issues trying to get the tile to "stick" because of that (or getting enough stuff behind the tile).

Pre-grout

Once it had time to dry, I took off the adhesive lining (like a sheet of thick packing tape) that held the tile together. It was nice to have when I was putting the tile up because it made putting the tile up a breeze, but when I pulled it off, it pulled off about 10-15 of the tiles. Not too bad, and probably a plus because I thought of it as identifying weaknesses that I could fix. Better now than in a month when it just falls off, right?

You have to wait 24-36 hours to put the grout in, so since I had waited 18 hours to remove the sticky stuff and had to re-adhere some tiles, I waited another day to add the grout. This part made me nervous because I wasn't sure how pretty I could really make this look, and, with most of my projects, I dove in before doing adequate research.

I tried using one of those tiling tools that's meant to smooth out the grout but after I was sufficiently afraid of scraping the glass tiles, I just got in there with my fingers and wiped the grout across it and worked the grout into the cracks of all those little tiles.

Grouted

Then I took a couple of wet junk towels (should have used a damp, large sponge) and wiped it down, followed by wiping with a couple of dry ones. Tomorrow, when it dries, I'll take another wet towel and wipe down any grout on the tile that I may have missed.

Before:

After:

This project turned out much better than I anticipated. What's next on my list? Painting with a sprayer. I need to paint some exterior wood and some 12-odd doors in our house. I'm also dreading this one so... any volunteers?

xo,

P.S: Check out other guest bathroom posts here.

eight months old!

In the wise words of my husband: "You've almost been out as long as you were in!"

Ethan is a BIG 8-month old, bigger than the 12-month-old babies at daycare! He's getting really close to a legitimate crawl; he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks, just before falling to the ground and army-crawling across the room. He moves so fast, too! Bear will let him get fairly close, then move across the room, and wait for Ethan to catch up to him again.

In the past month, Austin and I went to New York and D.C.

At the TODAY Show! We met Willie, Tamryn,
and Savannah.

We took Ethan to the zoo for the first time:

He LOVED it!

We took Ethan to an Astros game for the first time:

Thanks to his Uncle Sam, he also met a
pro baseball player!

Papaw had to choose between buying Ethan ice cream or a new hat.
So glad he chose the hat! I've never seen a cuter hat model.

I was in a wedding, turned 25, I started my new job, and started Ethan at daycare. He loves daycare! He gets excited when he gets there and he sees his teacher and his friends. Fortunately, one of us is usually there to pick him up before 5 pm, and I have Fridays off, so we always have the weekend together.

So far, I like my job, but I have only gone for 4 days! It's a little slow starting but I'm sure more work will come. In early August, I get to decide whether I want to stay on full- or part-time, and until then, just test the waters and see if I like it! I'm really enjoying the flexibility and my new boss is a really nice person, too.

Without further ado, our monthly photos!

Mommy is HILARIOUS.

Really, Mommy is just holding my whale.

YAY! I love my whale.

I'm DONE with this sitting still business. Adios!

And one last one: Ethan admires our art. He didn't touch it - he just looked at it!

Flashback to the last time I used that blanket for backdrop (the one on the left is a little more zoomed in):

 

He is getting so big!

xo,

seven months old!

I have my hands full at the moment - between planning a bachelorette party that starts tomorrow, doing contract work, and preparing for an interview - oh, and raising a baby - I am super busy! (And I am not complaining about it, I love feeling productive!)

Here's a brief update on Ethan's progress as we enter his eighth month:
-He can't sit himself up (go from laying down to sitting up) but he can sit up like a pro if you set him up.
-He can pull himself up if you put him in a sitting positon
-He can stand on his own if he holds something
-He has zero interest in walking
-He can army crawl! Crawling is next
-He WILL throw a fit if you don't let him have the toy he wants (your phone, your laptop, your wireless mouse...)
-He can find his pacifier - even in the dark - and put the right end in his mouth (it's a wubbanub so it took him a while!)

Here are his 7 month pictures!

Real food, real mess.. real stink.

Visiting donkeys at the Harrell Farm

Our Easter picture

Playing in the new pool after I blew it up (it eventually
went outside and he was not a huge fan)

 {wiggle worm photoshoot}

(I guess this is the keeper??
We have a wiggle worm!)

Rolling is much more fun, mom!

I got my Wubbanub and I'm on the move

He's attempting to get my laptop again so this is all for today...

Oh - and our latest project - painting all of our interior trim white - is DONE! The doors are up next, as well as replacing some rotted exterior wood. So fun!

He couldn't get the laptop so now he has my phone. Can't let him out of your sight, folks!

xo,

6 month checkup

We are 93rd percentile for height (28"), 80th percentile for head size (17.5"), and 50th percentile for weight (17 lbs 11.4 oz, which will change the more real food he eats). Tall and skinny and a big head to boot! Wonder where that came from!

Ethan can sit up unsupported, roll both ways, pull himself up (only with his parents' hands, fortunately no inanimate objects yet). He's on the brink of crawling - once he can get coordinated we will be at an army crawl, soon followed by the real deal!

Unfortunately, Ethan does not just have a cold. It looks as though there is fluid in his ears. He is one step shy of an ear infection; if bacteria enters the ear, it would become pus, which would mean that he has an ear infection. We are praying for no bacteria and NO ear infection! We think the essential oils we are using are helping, and hope that continues.

We love our long lanky baby and are so glad he is doing so well - sickness aside.

xo,

six months old!

I just looked over my list of posts and was a bit embarrassed that I've only posted one time in the last month - but of course, we have been battling a sickness, which threw us completely out of any semblance of a routine.

It all worked out in the end, though. After two weeks of terrible sleep (compared with his norm) we finally have a working routine, which we haven't seen since February! I'm even trying to make it more of a schedule, so we know what time Ethan goes to sleep (9 PM) and wakes up (7:30 AM) each day. We keep him up late so he can get in more daddy time, but if I go back to work (which is an option right now), that would shift to about 7:30 PM and 6:00 AM.

We're just starting these standard bedtime/wake times today, so we'll see if my plans work well! :) Our general schedule during the day is 3 hours of wake-time and 2 hours of nap-time, so he eats every 5 hours and I get nice, long breaks. It's heaven!

We've also stopped feeding to sleep, which we were only doing before Ethan went to bed at night, anyway. We did this to prepare for the future (not eating right before bed; brushing teeth) and make going to sleep quick & easy. This means we lay him down, give him his pacifier and blanket, turn on the noisemaker, turn off the lights and leave the room... and miraculously, after only crying-it-out ONE time, he gets it, and goes to sleep!

Because he can now put himself to sleep, we know he can put himself BACK to sleep at night when he wakes up. He's sleeping so well now, and while we believe some of that is the result of these new sleep training methods, we know that it is also owed partly to our introducing rice cereal to his bottle, and some baby food during the day, too. This keeps his little belly fuller, longer!

We haven't made much progress where crawling is concerned, primarily because of the cold we were still battling even a week ago, so he spent most of his time being held and sleeping. He loves his bouncer/jumper (whatever that thing is, we love it!) and he spending hours in that thing every day. Training him up for basketball already!

He did NOT want to stretch out - he wanted those feet in his mouth!

I don't have any stats because we don't go to the doctor for his checkup/shots until next Monday (the 31st), but I know he has grown out of his 9-month clothes and into the 12-month clothes! it's amazing how quickly he is tearing through them, though it has slowed down compared with the first 3-4 months of his life... thankfully!

So far, 6 months is my favorite age. He thinks "no" is a game, but he understands us a little better and picks up on things quickly. He also loves to play and we rotate out his toys so he isn't overwhelmed with too many options.

We also got a swing for the front yard, and for a whopping $30 we have lots of entertainment. Ethan loves Bear (we are convinced "Bear" will be his first word) and he loves that Bear is running around while Ethan swings back and forth. It's one of our "resets", or toys/games we use to "reset" Ethan's mood if he is cranky. These things typically buy us about 30 minutes to an hour of happy baby time, even if we don't spend that much time on the swing itself.

I'm off to clean out the fridge and hopefully read a couple of chapters of a book before Ethan wakes up!

xo,

EDIT: I just made this sweet collage of Ethan's monthly/weekly photos, too.

getting over our first cold

We ended our streak of no baby sickness last week - at 5.5 months old, Ethan got his first cold! We think he caught it at church. He is a very strong baby, though, and after about 9 days of cold symptoms, we started to see relief! Today he is asymptomatic, aside from a few little boogies.

I got very little done while he was sick, because there was snuggling and healing to be done. I had to make sure he was propped up on his mattress, swaddled, warm, had his humidifier on, had his baby eucaliptis/spearmint rub on his chest and feet, and suck out more boogies than I care to recount. Do all babies hate that snot-sucking thing?

Since I'm not working from home, we've decided to transform the back office (4th bedroom in the back of the house) into a man cave for Austin (plus my sewing machine - so masculine) and make the would-be dining room - which is attached to the living room - Ethan's play space.

It's safe to say this little boy is without want.
He has never even touched half of those toys!

That play mat was $13.50 after a coupon at Garden Ridge! It helps keep Ethan off the carpet when he scoots, which is great because there's an endless supply of Bear hair in the carpet since he is shedding his winter coat.

Next on my list is painting all of our trim white, which I started when I recently painted the dining room and the entryway, beginning with the living room trim and then the kitchen, followed by the hallway, bedrooms, and then - finally - spraying all our doors! We all know how much I hate painting doors...

Happy to have a healthy baby boy again! And here's this gem, too - three generations of Haynes men!

xo,