Dipping His Toes in the Sea of Solid Food

Pictures of the Month

Spring Is Coming

In honor of the snow melting and the crocuses popping up in our front yard here are a few things I'm looking forward to in Eli's first spring/summer. :: Taking him for his first bike ride. I've heard if you do it right you can secure car seats in a pull behind trailer and I'm looking forward to letting him feel the wind in his hair (however thin it may be). This weekend we'll introduce him to bikes at Madison's annual Bike-O-Rama. :: I've already started, but running with him in the stroller will be great. It's a great way to put him to sleep and lets me run in the middle of the day when it's light out. :: Taking Eli out and about without a coat or hat. No hat and coat will make putting him in the car seat much easier. :: Letting Eli lay around the house in his diaper. I'm convinced he likes life in his underwear better than with clothes. Also, if he never wears clothes it's less laundry! :: Planting a garden with him. He can sit and watch us plant, weed, and harvest. Maybe we'll even grind up some of the veggies for him. :: Making our first family visit up to Duluth and of course a ride on the back of Grandpa Cole's lawn tractor. :: Taking him to an event at the farm we buy vegetables from. He could pick corn at the corn boil, basil at pesto fest, peas at the pea pick, or maybe a pumpkin at the pumpkin pick. :: We're ready summer.

New footage: http://www.youtube.com/user/graceshannon1

Practical Creations

Since having Eli I've had more of an excuse to pursue one of my new favorite hobbies; making useful items out stuff (left over junk) lying around the house. I think I enjoy the challenge of taking what I have and figuring out how to turn it into something useful. The cheap skate inside me also takes joy in it. I also like the fact that you can make things custom to fit your needs. Here are a few of the 'creations' that have come about since Eli's arrival into the world.

When Eli was first born we had to move our bed closer to the door to fit a co-sleeper on Shannon's side of the bed, which meant my old night stand had to go. Nothing a couple 2x4's and plywood can't fix. cost - $0.

You might have guessed cloth diapers tend to get a little 'discolored' over time and sunlight's the best way we've found to bleach them. It's amazing how white they get from a little time in the sun. I figured neither of us was going to walk out in the frigid cold to hang diapers on the clothes line. With the help of a couple hooks, wooden dowels, and the edges of the sheets we bought at Goodwill to put on our bed for the birth we made contraption to hang them in front of our big pictured window. The neighbors may wonder what we have hanging in our front window. cost - -$3

As Eli grew longer our changing supplies was getting a little crammed on the end of his changing table so with the help of shelf board I bought I was able to add a little extension to his changing table, giving him a little room to grow. cost - $5 - note: the dresser in the picture we bought used, repainted and added some trim around the edges to hold the changing pad.

The latest installation was a shelf to add a little organization to Eli's closet. Used a couple 2x4's I had left from another project, some left over plywood, and a couple shelves we found at Habitat Restore. Then covered it all with some paint. It's not pretty, but it will do the job and it's in the closet so who's going to see it? cost-$6

One note of honesty. Many of these projects happened because I was sitting at home during the week or weekend with nothing to do and they provided good, cheap entertainment to keep my hands busy. I also have to thank my wonderful wife for allowing me to put my not so elegant 'practical installations' around the house.