What a week!

So I've been on a small hiatus since Dan's 7-month update. I'll fill you in on what's going on, and you'll see why I haven't had many updates!

That Saturday when Dan turned 7-months-old was the same day that Jason flew down to Las Vegas to clean out his grandfather's house. Since his passing a few months ago, we are in the process of selling it. We now have a buyer so we needed to go down and clean it out. That story is another fun adventure that we're having!

I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that the weekend of the 11th, I was home with Dan and the dogs, by myself, from the evening of the 12th through the evening of the 15th (Saturday to Tuesday). That Saturday night we had our first thunderstorm of the season. Dan did fantastic! The storm didn't bother him at all. Such a happy, easy-going baby :) Sunday comes along and it's time to do a load of laundry. I get Dan into his jumper and I head downstairs to the basement. I get to the bottom of the stairs and - wet socks. Water in the basement! My goal for the few days that Jason was gone was to do the back splash in the upstairs bathroom. I tried to find someone to keep an eye on Dan for a few hours on Sunday with no luck. Now I come downstairs and get this! I had to find someone to keep an eye on Dan. I couldn't clean this up while taking care of him at the same time. Thankfully our sitter was able to take him on a Sunday. So four hours later, the basement is mostly cleaned up and dry. It turned out that the tubing we used to divert the output from the well into the floor drain coiled up into the well causing the floater to get stuck. Stuck floater = sump pump not working during the heavy rain >>> water in the basement.

Water at the base of the steps leading to the basement.

With the pump working again and the basement drying out, I figure I'm in the clear. I get the laundry done and spend the evening playing with Dan. Monday morning I ran downstairs before leaving to grab the SD card out of my camera. At this point, dogs have been fed and are put away, Dan and I are all packed up ready to go, so this is just a quick grab and run. The camera is sitting on a shelf along the West side of the house. I step in front of the shelf right into something wet. My first thought was that one of the dogs had an accident downstairs. I turned on the light and my heart sank. We had water downstairs!

I drop Dan off at the sitters and I'm stuck in my head wondering how in the world this happened, what am I going to do, how much is this going to cost to replace, etc. Mom makes a good suggestion to call the insurance company to see if they would cover the damage. The first call made it sound like this wouldn't be covered under our insurance policy. They did give me a few names of cleaning services to help clean up the mess. I called the first one on the list and within an hour (they took my info right away and had to get into their morning meeting) they called me back to tell me someone would be there between 10 and 11am. Quick, rush home to meet the cleaning guy - Javier. I thought that the water was only in the family room, but what ended up happening was that the entire perimeter was wet. Javier determined that due to the rain plus the sump pump not working for the first part of the storms, water backed up in the drain tile and leaked into the lower level. Because that was the cause, our insurance company will now cover the damage minus our deductible!

Javier took up the portion of the carpet that was soaked, set up six industrial fans and two dehumidifiers, and let me know that they (ServPro) will be back tomorrow to tear up the rest of the carpet. We did get lucky, as their normal procedure is to only take up the carpet pad and treat the carpet itself, tearing up the carpet as well would be an extra cost. Well, our carpet and carpet pad were attached so we're getting new flooring without the extra cost of the carpet removal! Anyway, so Javier sets up his equipment and heads to another job. He gives me instructions on how to care for the equipment, especially if one of the breakers blow. Not 30 minutes after he leaves, the power goes out. Not only does the power go out in the house, but in the entire neighborhood! This happened around 2:30pm. We didn't get power back until almost 7pm that night! While waiting for the power to come back on, I made countless trips up and down the stairs bringing our stuff from the basement and lower level up to the living room and bedroom. Our bedroom now looks like a library!

Our sitter has been fantastic through all this. She watched Dan until about 6pm that night when I called it quits. Plus Dan needed to eat and I only packed enough milk for a normal day at her house.

Tuesday I stay home from work so ServPro can come in and tear out the carpet. While they do this, the bridge of my nose starts to swell. I figured it was an allergic reaction to all the dust and mold flying around, so I take some Benedryl and ice it. After the last few days, Tuesday was a very good day overall.

Tearing up the carpet.

Wednesday, my eye has swollen almost half shut and is rather painful. I take the day off of work and go to the doctor. Turns out I have an infection! I thought I was done with the mess from this week. So I started a course of antibiotics with a script for prednisone to help with the inflammation if things don't start to clear by Friday. At least that night I got to spend some time with two of my favorite girls! It was great to get my mind off of the mess the week had been. While I would normally feel bad for leaving Jason the same day he gets back from being out of town, I needed the girl time.

Thursday I actually get to work all day. It was nice to get back into the swing of things. However, Friday morning, I felt awful from the infection so I stayed home and got another appointment with the doc. I knew I needed stronger antibiotics than what I was given. Before I made it to the appointment, a guy from the insurance company came in and took pictures and measurements to determine how much they'll give us to replace the carpet. I need to call them up for that number, plus let them know that we needed to replace drywall as well since it had also gotten wet.

So that was my week last week. We ended up not going to the cities for Easter like we normally do due to me not feeling well plus with all the mess at home. We now have the drywall replaced, the floors were sprayed to prevent any mold spores from growing, the wallpaper is torn down, and now I'm thinking we might as well do the downstairs bathroom while we're making a mess of the rest of the place. The dogs have been pretty good through all this and Dan is as happy as ever. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Dan's Easter outfit.

Dan is 7 Months Old!

Saturday marked Dan's 7th month. He weighed in at 22.4 pounds and is now 28.75 inches long. This puts him in the 95-99%ile for his age. Not only has he grown quite a bit, he's also gaining better control of his body. He's crawling around everywhere and pulling himself up on anything he can get his hands on. His "vocabulary" is also evolving. We are hearing la, da, ma, ge, and ba. When I mimic him I get a big smile and lots of laughs. He's such a happy kid!

With Dan on the move, getting his monthly pictures are becoming more and more challenging. This shot above was the best one I got with him sitting still. As soon as Jason or I sat him down, he was off crawling towards the camera!

Jason is back down in Las Vegas to clean out his grandfather's house. Normally this isn't a big deal. I just have to contend with taking care of Dan and the dogs on my own making my day a bit busier. Yesterday (Sunday) I went to go and put a load of laundry in. As I stepped onto the basement floor I also stepped right into a puddle of water. Oh no! The night before we had a huge thunderstorm so my first thought was that our sump pump failed yet again. We had hoped to avoid a pump failure this year by diverting the output from the normal output pipe to the floor drain instead. I couldn't take care of Dan PLUS the water in the basement so I called our sitter. She graciously was able to watch Dan while I worked on the pump.

Thankfully the pump was fine! The hose we used to divert the water had backed up into the well and had gotten tangled up with the floater. Since the floater got stuck the pump didn't turn on like it was supposed to. Hurray for simple fixes! I spent the next three hours moving stuff out of the basement and vacuuming up the water. I got most of it taken care of before I decided to call it quits. There isn't much left and it should dry pretty quickly with no issues. Dan and I had fun last night playing and relaxing before heading off to bed.

Dan and the Boys

Dan on the Move - Video Link

Then I got a surprise this morning. More water! Except this time it's not in the basement, but in the family room. Uh oh! Wet carpet, probably wet drywall/paneling. So today I get to make lots of phone calls to get the water cleaned up and see if we need to fix any issues in the foundation. Definitely not how I planned to spend this time with Jason gone, let alone on a Monday morning. I have concluded that our next house will not only be on a very tall hill, but also on stilts! I'm so looking forward to heading to the cities this weekend for Easter. I need a vacation!

This smile makes everything seem so much better.

Health Starts From Within

Please forgive the writing in this post. It's not quite as elegant as I would like it to be. When I get on a topic that I'm passionate about, my ideas don't flow very well from mind to paper.

I have been mulling about a wide range of topics regarding overall health for quite a long time; even more so in recent months as Dan is starting to eat solid foods. What I’ve concluded is that your overall health starts from within. Whoa, wait a minute – that isn’t new information. You’re right. Unfortunately, even though that fact is indeed correct, as a society here in the US, we don’t practice healthy lifestyles. We overwhelmingly eat overly processed foods, sit around and watch too much television, use cars to get to places even when it is 100% feasible to walk or ride a bike, and rely too heavily on modern medicine.

Now, don’t get me wrong, modern medicine and cars are a godsend to the human race. It’s when we over use them is when we find ourselves in trouble. Out of the industrialized countries, we spend the most money on healthcare, and yet we are sitting way down around the 27^th nation for overall heath (Link). What is the answer to that problem? Why spend more money on healthcare of course! Uh…wait a minute. We already spend a ton on healthcare. Why must we spend more? The reason is because as a society we want the quick fix. You can’t get the quick fix through proper nutrition and exercise. Companies also can’t generate billions in dollars in profits.

What is a person to do?

First thing is to stop looking at those magazine covers that promise “Lose 5lbs by ---“ and “7 Tricks for a sexier ---.” Those magazines are also plastered with the human figure that is so distorted either through excessive diet and exercise (and sometimes dangerous dehydration to get the desired muscle definition for the photo) and the ever-so-lovely Photoshop. Those pictures along with the headlines only emphasize that your own body is not perfect and that these bodies are the ideal. Your body will never look like those cover models. Why? Because those bodies are theirs and your body is yours. The ideal for your body is not the same as mine. Your exercise and dietary requirements are different from mine.

The second thing to do is to figure out where your food is coming from. Yes, yes…it comes from the grocery store. Oh, and the delivery guy. But where do they get their food? The best tip I ever received is when you go grocery shopping, stick to the outside of the store. There you will find all the fresh produce, meats, cheeses, and other foods that are the least altered from their original state. If you want to go a step further, be cautious about foods that have been altered using genetic modification (through gene splicing – not natural selection), go organic when you can, and try and stay away from factory farm raised meat products.

I recently watched a seminar that was given by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, on one of his recent books entitled Cooked (Link) In this 20-minute video, he makes an amazing statement that he was given by a person who works in the food industry. The quote is as follows:

"What mattered most about ones health was not necessarily the nutrients, good or bad, that you were consuming or staying away from, or even the calorie counts. But what predicted a healthy diet more than anything else is the fact that it was being cooked by a human being, and not a corporation."

This fact is stunning! Not only has it reenergized my desire to cook more, but to do more cooking from scratch. I’ve already been making my own taco seasoning (Link) and recently I’ve been working on getting pre-made pancake mix put together so all that is needed are the wet ingredients.  We are not long for this Earth so it is imperative that we treat our bodies with respect. Our health begins with how we take care of our bodies. One aspect of that is our food. Treat your body with respect; eat good food.

I have many more ideas in regards to overall health. Once I get my thoughts written down, I’ll make another post. Until then, go out and cook yourself a delicious, healthy, well-rounded meal.

Catching Up on Videos

With this new format for relaying life as a family of three, I can now show you some of the things that we've been working on lately. Dan has been on solids about once a day for about a month now. His first food he tried was sweet potatoes. The link to that first encounter is here:

Dan's First Food - Video Link

A week or so later, we ventured into new foods. As we have been working on feeding solids, Dan has been wanting to become more involved in the process. Here he is trying to feed himself. Needless to say, we don't feed like this too often as it is rather messy!

Dan Feeding Himself - Video Link

Funny story from yesterday. I was a champ and got four loads of laundry done yesterday, including our bed linens. Nothing better than climbing into freshly laundered sheets! Roughly 15-20 minutes after the last load went into the wash, Dan of course had one of his blow outs. Lovely! He went straight into the bath with that one.

Speaking of baths, he is really starting to enjoy splashing around in the water. Two weekends ago the three of us went to Madison for a football coaching seminar. Dan and I hung out in the hotel while Jason went to the various talks. The hotel had a pretty cool pool so I bought Dan some swim trunks and we both hopped in. It was rather overwhelming for him at first with all the activity. After 10 minutes or so he really started getting into it. We swam for just over a half hour before heading back to the room where we both took a 3 hour nap! I'm planning on signing Dan up for swimming lessons this summer. We have to go through the YMCA as they have classes that fit our schedule. They are twice as much as they are through the rec department, but apparently the rec department thinks that parents with young children don't work during the day. That's a bummer. I'm really looking forward to getting Dan up to the lake this summer and taking him down to the beach. Let's hope the water is warm enough to do a little swimming. Either way, I hope he has fun playing in the sand. So many new things to experience this summer! I'll leave you with this picture. It certainly looks like Dan is ready to take on anything!

Tackling Stairs

With Dan becoming more and more mobile, crawling just isn't enough anymore. This video was taken on Mach 31st. We certainly need to be much more careful about where we leave him. So far, Dan seems to just want to crawl to me. Once he's there, that's when he wants to stand and walk. He is quite a determined young man who is not satisfied with his current limitations. He is even working on tackling stairs! I can only hope that the same drive flows into all areas of his life.

Dan Standing Up - Video Link

Here I go with some help from Dad!

Are you sure this is okay?

Checking in on Dad.

Pretty proud of himself!

We got a little bit of snow from yesterdays storm. Who said that spring in the Midwest wasn't interesting! We attempted to go out for dinner last night, but ended up spending the evening at our neighbors down the street. She used to be a stay at home Mom while her kids were younger. Now she works at the high school. Her husband is a firefighter for the city. Awesome family! So while we didn't make it to dinner, we did have a wonderful evening.

In other news, I'm going to start a small garden this year. So far I'm thinking bell peppers, tomatoes, and spinach. With a growing boy, and increasing food prices, this should help cut down on food costs. It will also be great for Dan as he gets older to learn how to grow food and take care of things. The biggest challenge for me will be to actually grow things starting from seed. I have yet to be successful in that endeavor. Wish me luck!

Let's see how this goes...

Alright, let's see how this goes. With Dan moving and grooving there will be many more videos taken. Since videos are much too large to send over email, and not everyone has a Facebook account, I'm trying this out.

Dan started officially crawling last Tuesday, March 25th. Up until that point he was able to get himself onto his hands and knees, sometimes his hands and toes, and rock back and forth. He kept on getting really upset because he was working so hard and yet he wasn't getting anywhere! Now he's on the move!

Dan's First Day Crawling - Video Link

Not only is he crawling around like a bat out of hell, but he's also pulling himself up to a standing position! I'm still working on getting the video for that one. Jason filmed it on his phone instead of the camera so I've been having issues downloading it for viewing outside of Facebook. So while I wait for that video, here's a picture from today. This is at the sitter's house. Checking on his buddy O. He seems pretty proud of himself!

So within two weeks, Dan has mastered crawling AND pulling himself up to standing! The kid isn't even 7 months old yet! I have a feeling he's going to be walking by 8-9 months. It's a good thing that Jason coaches basketball, baseball, and football. With Dan being on the move, we'll have to do a lot more to keep him entertained than before!