This Little Man is just shooting straight for the stars. His four month check up with this past Monday and we’re gaining some poundage. 14 pounds, 12 ounces and 25.5 inches tall. We’re catching up to you, Uncle Jesse!
Mimi Love!
I just see this little hand getting so much bigger….
We visited with Auntie Rackie and Miss Carla for lunch last week. Little Man and I devoured this homemade Cherry Poptart. Yum! 
Monkey’s got nothing on me…..
It’s been a busy week here at Casa Weintraub and things are looking good! We’re keeping our fingers crossed that our original completion date of August 27th is still good. We’d love to be in and settled for Pablo’s birthday mid September.
Our master shower – wonderboard is up and we’re ready for some tile!
The hardwoods getting pieced together
Our newly graded driveway. Weather permitting, we’ll be laying it out on Monday and pouring the concrete towards the end of the week.
Doors to the addition.
Image via Wikipedia
I read Diet for a New America and Healthy at 100 about two years ago and fell in love with John Robbins. He is the son of Mr. Robbins from the Baskin Robbins ice cream fame, but shunned the ice cream world for health and he’s been writing about health ever since. Sadly, all of my reading has not recently been put to good use, but am slowly making my way back to top health. Tonight I walked out the grocery store with 2 bunches of spinach, 1 bunch of broccoli and two cases of sprouts for some green juicing. I can’t wait to have a garden in our new backyard so we can grow this ourselves.
I’ve recently come across his website and blog and LOVE LOVE LOVE what I’m reading. The post that excited me today was the post about kids and how they’re always watching you. Today’s parents are showering their kids in things, videogames, technology and not what they should be showering them with – love and attention. I have to agree with him. I recall many a memory in which my parents were actively involved in our lives: bouldering at Mohonk, family camping, the car ride to Niagara Falls, making pancakes in the morning, picking berries in the Catskills, staying up late to see the Thanksgiving Day parade floats being blown up and so many more. Most of these activities cost nothing, if anything, and I know that it’s the time we were together that was worth more than gold.
Reading the following poem from John Robbins’ blog made me teary in both recalling my childhood memories, but then also in thinking about the future and hoping that we’re able to make these memories for our children.
When you thought I wasn’t looking,
You hung my first painting on the refrigerator,
And I wanted to paint another one.
When you thought I wasn’t looking,
You fed a stray cat,
And I thought it was good to be kind to animals.
When you thought I wasn’t looking,
You baked a birthday cake just for me,
And I knew that little things were special things.
When you thought I wasn’t looking,
You said a prayer,
And I believed there was a God that I could always talk to.
When you thought I wasn’t looking,
You kissed me goodnight,
And I felt loved.
When you thought I wasn’t looking,
I saw tears come from your eyes,
And I learned that sometimes things hurt
But that it’s alright to cry.
When you thought I wasn’t looking,
You smiled
And it made me want to look that pretty, too.
When you thought I wasn’t looking,
You cared,
And I wanted to be everything that I could be.
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I looked,
And wanted to say thanks
For all those things you did
When you thought I wasn’t looking.
This poem was written by Mary Rita Schilke Korzan, in gratitude to her mother, Blanche Schilke. She didn’t thank her mom for the money she spent on her, for the presents she bought her, or for the advice she gave her. She didn’t thank her mother for sending her to the best schools or for making sure she had designer clothes.
But it’s a poem that I think any parent would be grateful and happy to someday receive from a grown child. May it remind us all that the example we set for our children by the way we live is our real message to them.
With all the technology surrounding us today, it’s important to put down that phone, close the laptop and spend as much time as possible with the kiddos. As for me? Nothing means more than seeing our Little Man light up.
I’m very excited about our cabinet choices. Here is our inspiration for our kitchen.
TA – DAH! This is our kitchen. Pay no attention to the coloring of the cabinetry here, see the above inspiration for that! Our island is 10.5 feet long and will overhang on the back side for bar stools. The stovetop is in the island so I can cook while watching the kiddos in the living room. The window faces out to our screened porch and I’m uber psyched about our pantry. Just to the left of the double oven is our 6x3 pantry to store all of our goodies. We are finishing the hardwoods off to run the full length of the house and will likely go with a light color like the picture above. We went with the same stainless steel rod pulls and for the bathrooms did a small stainless knob. Can’t wait to see what they look like when we’re done!
Pablo and I opted for a clean contemporary fireplace to go with our kitchen. The mantle will be painted the same color as our cabinets and the base and sides interior to the mantle are going to be brick, painted white.
We have a small space at the end of the hallway where we’re going to build in this bookshelf. Who knows what’s going to be on there, we may even close it in to be a linen closet, but for now – this will do.
We’ve also had fun this weekend planning out our locker room. This is the laundry/locker/mud room where the kids shoes, coats, hats, etc will be stored along with the washer and dryer, coming in from the garage.
Out of this….
Evolved this… off the right is where our brooms and vacuums will go.
We had a fun email when we returned home tonight. We bought the house from our neighbor, who built a new house on her sister’s property about 3.5 years ago. Her son worked with her to sell us the house and this is what he had to say:
Hope this finds you well. My wife, Susie, and I were visiting Mom this evening and walked through the house. We think you're doing a great job on the house-opening up the kitchen/living/dining area was something Susie tried unsuccessfully to get Mom to consider when we renovated her kitchen. We hope you don't mind us letting curiosity get the best of us and walking through the house unescorted and we hope we'll be invited to take a look when the project is complete.
Pablo and I are so lucky to have such warm and friendly neighbors and we’re definitely going to have a have them over for a meet and greet, oh – and a tour of the new casa.
My girlfriend Rachel had this quote on her facebook page today. I love it!
We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. — Pema Chödrön
New bathroom with sheetrock on the walls.
It gets awfully messy with sheetrock installation. Can you imagine the dust in here?
View from our front door. The door on the left is our pantry and the one on the right goes to the new bath and bedroom. I love love love our new elevated ceilings!
View from the hallway door look at the front door and the other hallway.
Little Man has discovered his fingers. Well, he did quite some time ago, I’m just now documenting it. We’re going in for his 4 month check up on Monday and the next round of vaccines.
Sleeping? Well, he has his moments – some nights are great and there’s peace for 11 hours. Other nights there’s a wee woken hour at 4 or 5am, especially after he doesn’t want to eat before he goes to sleep. He’s been rubbing his eyes when he’s tired and rubs his face in your neck/shoulder – which is SO cute!
We’re excited about having lunch with Auntie Rachel and Miss Carla tomorrow downtown.
We passed the framing inspection and the insulation inspection this week and are excited to see some sheetrock installation this coming week. Once the sheetrock is in, we’ll sealing this puppy up! Doors are being installed in the mudroom, back from the dining room to the porch and a new door for our now, very dry, basement. This week we hired a crew to come in a remove the mold, they scrubbed the wood where it was evident and cleaned all the floor boards on top of the crawl space after pulling out the insulation from the basement. It’s a tough job and I’m glad we didn’t have to do it. Now all we need to finish off the basement is a dehumidifier and a door to close the envelope.
Our new front stoop. The new concrete driveway is going to come up so that there will be one step into our front door.
Pablo and Little Man enjoying the fresh air. We were held in the house for a moment while a little rainstorm came by.
Our new insulation. Below is a couple boxes of spakle for our sheetrock installation this week.
Little Man had a big weekend. He spent both mornings jogging with Dad in his running stroller. On Saturday, he was keenly watching his friend, Anna B. splash around in the pool with her father.
He napped while we nibbled on some Buckhead Pizza Company pizza.
Pablo were pleasantly surprised, almost shocked, when we peacefully woke at 830am this morning only to find our little man still sleeping. We need to have Miss Anna B. over more often!
Little Man enjoyed flying today on my knees. My father used to do this all the time growing up and I remember loving it. Pablo and were both laughing as Little Man proceeded to drool all over my shirt. With a face like this, who would complain? 
Waiting the car while Dad checks out the house, we play with our blankie and sometimes fall asleep on the way home. Little Man has been discovering his hands and often holds one with the other, like he’s contemplating the theory of relativity. It’s cute. Unfortunately, for me, he has not quite come to understand the depths of sucking on his fingers. Today when I changed him, I must have not been paying attention, for not only did Little Man decide that he wanted to pee, but just 10 minutes after that, immediately after his bottle, he was sucking on his fingers and….cough cough, gag, gag – formula all over Mommy’s chest. Thank goodness Dad was home to help, otherwise it would have been a mess! Dad had his fill of laughter and Little Man? Well, he didn’t think anything of it.
Things are really moving along! We passed the electrical, plumbing and HVAC inspections last week. Next week is the framing inspection.
We decided to take down all the remaining sheetrock in the house and discovered that there was no insulation on the original house (built 1952). It’s amazing that the heating and cooling bills were not through the roof! Regardless, code now requires R-13 minimum on all exterior walls and with the estimates back from the insulation guy regarding bat (itchy pink stuff) or the cool-new spray insulation, we opted to go with the spray. With the insulation alone, I think we’ve got enough for our $1500 tax credit from the good ol’ US of A. T
he new brick actually doesn’t look too bad with our orange/brown brick, but we’re still aiming to paint the whole kit and caboodle.
%5B5%5D.jpg "2010 07 10 statewood (2)")
A shot of our master shower, lined and ready for sheetrock and tile! 
Plumbing sealed up all the pipes. Notice the old style of laying floor boards. My Daddy says it was a waste of wood back in the day, but I think it’s character.
%5B3%5D.jpg "2010 07 10 ilan drool (5)")
