Ok, so Michelle and Addison left on Saturday for California to go meet their new nephew/cousin Miles. While they are gone my highest priority is to work nights and weekends on painting our living room. Saturday after I got home from dropping the girls off at the airport I started doing to patching and sanding. Sunday after church (and before foot ball) I got the ceiling painted and continued with sanding and patching the walls and trim. Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on painting the trim and the plan is to cut in all the corners over the next few days so I can roll paint on all the walls on Saturday and do clean up tasks on Sunday. Ruby has been a good little helper through all of this, she just hangs out and watches. Apparently the smell of the paint does not bother her too much but at the same time she knows enough to stay and safe distance.



My project prior to this was to build Addison’s tricycle. (I actually built two, one for Addsion and another for a friends son) The question that may arise is did I actually build a tricycle or assemble it, and the answer is that I did indeed build it (which may not have been possible without the help of my dad and brother). I came up with the concept which was inspired by a photo I once saw of a Litespeed trike. But litespeed discontinued manufacturing this model back around 2002 plus it had a pretty hefty price tag of $850 which is way out of our budget. The next closest thing is made by Lynskey Performance, but it's price is even harder to swallow. So about 6 months ago I started gathering parts and made a few purchases on e-bay for basics like pedals, seats, seat posts, wheels, tires, handle bars and such. And then my dad acquired some aluminum tubing from a local supply center and during my time off over Christmas we fabricated the tubes and my brother welded the frames. Since then I’ve been working on painting and polishing the frames for final assembly. They are pretty much complete other than a few finishing touches. Addison’s trike has the polished (shiny silver) finish and the one for our friends little boy is candy apple red over a orange metallic. I was hoping the orange would come through the red a little more than it does but it’s still a great color.

Vocabulary

It seems like every day for the past month or so we’ve noticed Addison picking up new words, new signs and a new passion for wanting whatever it is she doesn’t have or shouldn’t have. Regardless, we love it all…well, we love the learning, but could probably do without the fits of rage over having to put away the laundry basket.
In spite of all the new learning and discovery going on, Addison still seems to lack one important word in her vocabulary – “mom” That’s right, still no “mom”, no “mommy” or “ma” or “mama.” A few weeks ago I was extremely excited to hear the sound “m –awe-ne” come out of her mouth until I realized that it really just meant “want it.” You see, up until this point Dan had tried to convince me that Addison just hadn’t mastered the ‘m’ sound and so she couldn’t say mommy. Now there’s really no excuse other than the fact that she doesn’t have to say mommy because she knows I’ll respond to whatever happy or discontent sounds and gestures she makes. Oh well.