One

Happy First Birthday to Isaac Raymond Wang! He turned 1 yesterday and we had a little party for him. It was so much fun and he was such a good sport, despite being tired, sick, and cranky. So many people came and loved on my little man. He (we) are so blessed. Here are some pictures.

A project

I read a lot of design and crafting blogs. This leads to obsessions over things like reupholstering an old chair, which I wouldn't necessarily call healthy. Anyway, after reading about a lot of before/after chair projects on Design Sponge, I was inspired to find an old chair and reupholster it. Since I hadn't done this before, I went in search of an "easy" side chair for my living room, to replace my husband's (broken) college futon, which we rarely sit on.

I found my chair at the Salvation Army in Moscow for $16. It had black legs and navy velour fabric. It had been recovered once, and really not well. Here is the before. As you can see, the back was falling off. Sorry for the low-quality pictures, our camera battery died, and we have a new one on order. These are phone pics.

Underneath the velour I found a layer of 60's upholstry fabric, probably the original, cream and faded red. Note all the staples on the ground!

Under the red fabric was the original padding, which was in fairly good shape, so I decided to re-use it, and just add some fresh foam and batting to provide additional padding. I also added foam and batting to the back. Sorry, I didn't take photos after I added padding.

I learned a lot in this process! Primarily, I learned that I really enjoy reupholstering chairs. This is good news, because I have a lot of leftover materials (foam, batting, tack tape, staples, etc.). So if I find another chair with good bones, I can do another one, and maybe sell it?

Here is the after. I painted the legs white, found the fabric on sale at Joann's, and tufted fabric-covered buttons, and everything! I even did a "real" upholstry job on the bottom (no pic) and the back. I'm very pleased with the outcome, and Jeremy says it passes the living-room test.

Mr. Personality

An afternoon on the couch at home. Don't mind the Christmas pajamas!

A boy and his truck

After weeks (months?) of watching the baby play with momma's makeup, hair brushes, and combs, which happen to be in a highly accessible baby-height drawer, Isaac's dad will be very happy to see him doing something manly - being totally engrossed in his toy truck. :)

2011

A belated Happy New Year!

With a new year comes a lot of little minor changes, mostly for the better!

I have a new boss (same job, just reassigned to a new person) and I'm liking the change. I also have a new, purple, android phone, which I love. I also have the free photoshop app, which I've been having fun playing with, despite taking way too few photos of my precious (TEN MONTH OLD) little man. Here's an example. Pardon the blurriness - still getting used to the camera on

the new phone.

Isaac is really fun right now - moving constantly! He's really on the go, and must explore every inch of every new environment. Which is fine at home and at daycare, but not so great when we're say, in Costco, where the floors are less than sanitary. He got a little cranky when I wouldn't let him crawl around on the floor of the bathroom and the vision center.

He's also in a phase right now where he's up one or two times a night... Not my favorite thing, but not the end of the world either. I think we're going to bump his bedtime back by a half hour, to see if being a little more tired helps. Methinks it's just a phase.

Jeremy also got a promotion (Assistant Athletic Director) which came with a small raise, which he's very modest and quiet about, owing to the budget cuts and layoffs in higher education. I think he deserves it. But I guess I'm biased. :)

Also, speaking of the husband, he and Isaac are two peas in a pod. Here's a photo to prove it:

For Your Enjoyment

I have seen bits and pieces of this new NBC show, "The Sing Off." It's an all vocal show - no music tracks or instruments behind the singing groups. So they're all acapella. This video is of a group of guys from the University of Oregon. Of course I was pre-disposed to hate them. But this performance is so much fun, and they're so talented, that I can't help myself - I love them. Enjoy.

Smug much?

I haven't posted in a while, mostly because there's a lot going on. Ha, listen to me - complaining about how busy I am even before the Holidays start. I'll be eating my words (and a whole lot of turkey) a week from now!

Things have been really fun around our house, since Isaac has started to:

- Crawl. He's still pretty slow, but gets around really well. It's fun to sit across the room and watch him crawl his way over to me.

- "Talk." He says "mama," although I'm fairly certain he has no idea what it means. It mostly happens when he's frustrated, so maybe he is trying to communicate something.

- Pull up to standing. I'm amazed at how good he is at this! I would have a picture, but the only time we've taken a photo of him pulling up, he was buck naked pulling up on the bathtub, to see the water running into it. I'm sure 15-year-old Isaac will appreciate my not posting a naked picture on public Internet domain.

It is really strange and unusual to feel so incredibly proud of my little man for achieving these things. They are of course totally normal baby developments. It would be an issue if he was not starting to do these things. But I have this complete sense of pride and joy when I see him do them, or demonstrate them for other people, or when I tell people what he's up to and learning. I'm sure this is just the beginning (wait until he WALKS and TALKS and BECOMES THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES), but I'm very smug about my super strong, genius baby.

From the Totally Unrelated Items category, here's a good post on parenthood: http://alphamom.com/your-life/postpartum/a-dozen-or-so-somewhat-shocking-revelations-about-motherhood/

I did #13 yesterday. Gross.