Family Fuller

Thanks to all the grandparents who got Holden such nice birthday presents. He has been enjoying them. I posted some pictures on flickr of Holden opening both Grandma and Grandpa Fuller and Rodenkirch’s presents. Here are a couple recent ones:

Grandpa and Grandma Fuller got him a jack-in-the-box and both he and Colin loved it. So much so that they even made there own version - here is the video Jack in the Box.

Holden has been feeling much better since his illness last week. It has been nice here and we have been out to the parks and markets recently. Colin was on vacation from preschool all last week because it was Seattle’s mid-winter break. He goes back tomorrow thankfully While he was home Holden was sick so we didn’t get to do much and I think Colin is excited to go back and see his friends.

Here are a few tidbits of late:

• He climbed all the way on top of Colin’s toy chest, around 3 feet off the ground.
• Two days ago I was getting the bath ready and he managed to get in himself, with his diaper and shirt still on.
• This morning we went to the park and he climbed all the way up to this big, twisty, tunnel slide and just jumped in head first. I literally had to dive in to catch him. We were both going down head first and I managed to catch him just as he almost flew off the end. He is going to give me a heart attack.

Colin: Herber Hoover was a happy guy.
Me: Well, I don’t think he was all that happy. He was president during the great depression.
Colin: No mommy, not that Herbert Hoover, a different Herbert Hoover. He was happy because he just found a treasure.
Me: Oh really
Colin: Yes, but George Washington was sad because it was his treasure.
Me: What was in the treasure?
Colin: Trains.

Our little guy turned one today! Can’t believe he is already a year. We had a party last Sunday for him - just a little get together since we don’t have family out here. It ended up being just one other family - the Breedorfs - because the Dotens were under the weather. Here are a couple pics and a video of his cake:

First bites:

The cake:

A little drunk on the cake:

Post Cake Hair:

Opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa Rodenkirch:

Video of Holden Eating Cake

It was a good thing we had the party Sunday because Monday morning Holden woke up with a fever and a rash that started on his behind and face. Not to mention he has been on 4 different antibiotics for his non-stop ear infections. I know the controversy about antibiotics for ear infections, but after having them for over a month straight we had to try them. Nothing has worked and now we are going to see a specialist and he may end up with tubes. In the meantime I am also going to see a naturopathic doctor.

It was a rough week. Holden couldn’t sleep, he had a temp up to 105. Chuck and I took turns sleeping on the couch with him. We had to go to the doctor twice and get blood drawn. He is on new medicine for the rash, which spread to his arms and legs. The fever finally broke on Wed but he still has the rash, which doesn’t seem to bother him at all. I have to say that through it all he was his normal, happy self. Even at midnight, with a fever of 105 while we were frantically trying to get a hold of the doctor, he smiled at me.

Of course the day after his fever was gone he climbed up on Colin’s chair, which flipped over right infront of a table and he wacked his mouth on the table. Even though his lip was bleeding he only cried for about 5 seconds. He is a tough one - and constantly freaking me out with his climbing. He figured out the step stool in the kitchen and now can get up to the counter. He knows how to move things to get higher, which is his only goal at this point. Oh and pointing. He points at everything - oddly enough, mostly at the lights and smoke detectors on the ceiling.

Anyway, it has been a rough couple of months health wise for Holden. Colin has had the occasional cold (and a bloody nose in the middle of the night last night - of course the first night Holden started sleeping normally again) but all in all has been OK. I just cannot wait for spring. It is actually almost 60 out today and Colin wanted to have a picnic so we had a little lunch picnic on the porch:

I finally finished my built in bookshelves (minus the cabinet doors) in the living room. They turned out better than expected and since we got everything set up our living room has been a joy Here is a quick before and after:

Another view:

After looking at the pictures, seems like they don’t do it justice. The whole feel of the living room is different - I guess that could also be because it is clean now too.

When I began this project I had no idea where to start. I searched online to find some examples of built in cabinets and it was really hard to find anything. Therefore I am going to summarize what I did so if anyone else is searching for examples hopefully they will find mine.

I started designing the cabinet just on paper. We knew we wanted to be able to fit our TV inside. We also needed a place for the electronic equipment below the TV. We only have one bookshelf in our whole house so we definitely needed bookshelves too. I measured all the parts, figured out the largest of our books and the average size and made the design around those measurements. The cabinet ended up being 30″ high and 20″ wide. Each bookshelf is 11″ wide (due to what boards you can buy). The bookshelves vary between 11″ high and 13″ high.

I first framed the bottom cabinet using 2×4s. I put the 2×4s together with deck screws (they don’t strip) and then attached the 2×4s to the wall where I could find studs. The bottom, sides, shelves and top of the cabinet are all made of MDF. I used MDF because it comes in large sizes, is smooth and inexpensive. The only downside is that it isn’t very strong and tends to chip out. I just left the 2×4s exposed on the inside of the cabinet because I knew I was going to paint them anyway.

The shelves on top of the cabinet are all made of MDF boards. The lumber yard ended up giving me pre-primed wood even though I didn’t ask for it - but it was nice to have. I used a router to route out part of the counter top to hold the vertical boards and then routed out a place for each shelf. I decided to make the shelves permanent (instead of adjustable) because it looked nicer and matched the rest of the house better. I glued all the shelves together and screwed the vertical boards into the wall. I had to do a lot of shimming due to bowed walls.

Then I put trim up on everything. The crown molding was a TOTAL pain. I had to buy a new piece because we couldn’t get the old trim off. The new piece was just slightly off so it was hard to figure out the angles. Plus on the one side I had to shape it to fit the existing molding that was already up on the wall. I was glad when I got that done, but then the ceiling (not to mention every wall) was not square. I used an entire can of spackle to finish things off.

Chuck and I both painted it - Chuck probably did the majority of the painting. On Valentines day while Chuck was working, I managed to get the whole living room cleaned, mount the TV on the wall myself (that was HEAVY) and get the new carpet in. It was a long day.

I still have to finish the doors. We got some antique glass from a second use center, but making it work might be tough so I haven’t started the doors yet.

Overall it came out better than I thought - I am sure in part because I bought a new miter saw and a new router. You have to have the right tools for the job as they say. See Dad and Ed - remember a long time ago when I asked for tools for Christmas? I meant serious tools Now it is on to the patio in the backyard.

Here are some more pictures of the whole thing in progress - along with the boys “helping”

Me outside with the router:

Colin helping put the base cabinet together:

This will be short because I have to run upstairs to finish painting the built in cabinet I have been working on for the past few weeks.

Holden took his first steps about a week ago. We were waiting to pick Colin up at school and someone remarked “He is getting big, is he walking yet?” I said almost but not yet. I put him down right after that and he took 3 steps on his own to get to the crayon table. It was exciting. Of course he hasn’t done much since then.

We have been doing lots in Seattle recently. Went to the zoo, the aquarium and today the Children’s museum. That place is wonderful and we will definitely be going back soon. There is a little slide there and Holden, who is a super climber, got up and had no problem sliding down, even did it on his stomach, face forward. Meanwhile Colin won’t even sit and do it, he prefers to go feet first on his stomach. It is very interesting to have two kids - they are so different. Colin was talking quite a bit by the time he was one, but slow on the physical side. Holden is the opposite - a total climber and although he talks a lot, it is pretty hard to make out most of the words just yet.

Some other upcoming things: Holden is almost one - birthday party is Sunday. Chuck is heading down to Phoenix for work and to visit with the AZ Fullers. Spring is just around the corner and then we can start work on fixing the patio out back…ugh, that should be some serious physical labor.

Anyway, just wanted to get a brief post up since it has been awhile. I will take some pictures and do a summary of my cabinet once it is finished.

Alright - back soon….Go Obama!

We have been somewhat off our game when it comes to posting, sorry about that. If you haven’t checked Flickr recently, we’ve got all of the December pictures up there, including many from our trip to New York. Here’s one of my favorites:

Our trip back east was a lot of fun, a bit on the crazy side, and a bit rough on the immune system. Some of the highlights:

- We took the kids to the city to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show. I believe it was a first for all of us, and the kids (mostly) enjoyed it, although our nephew Curt lost it by the end. Colin was mesmerized by most of it, but he refused to wear the 3-D glasses they handed out, and thus missed one of the legitimately cooler portions of the show.

- Christmas morning was an absolute whirlwind - Jess and I could barely catch our breath as all of the kids 3 and older tore through every present in a matter of minutes. Unavoidable at this age I suppose, but we’re all hoping to reach a slightly more sane tempo in the future. Probably won’t happen.

- Colin and Curt had a blast together, and bonded over a mutual love of superheroes. Curt has progressed beyond Spiderman to include Power Rangers, but Colin is still firmly in the Spidey camp.

- There were a lot of pennies in this pool (it was a fundraiser, I believe they said there was over $1M worth)

- First class is the only way to fly. Thanks to American Airlines miles and my Dad’s generosity, we were able to fly it both ways. On both flights the 4th seat in our row opened up, which meant we had another 1st class seat for Holden coming and going. Colin was incredibly good on both flights (thanks buddy).

- I came down with chills and a fever the second we got home, and was laid up for the entire weekend after we got back - sweet!

All in all a fun trip. We’re trying to figure out our summer travel plans now, which should be the next major Fuller family journey, but we’ve got some smaller trips on the horizon as well - look out, we might be descending on your locale any day now (insert evil laugh)…

Lastly, our February resolution is to be more diligent about posting…promise.

Alright we stink at posting on the blog lately - but I have a good reason. Colin hasn’t been taking naps and the computer is in the basement, which flooded and is messy and cold, so I haven’t had much time down here.

Colin and Holden have been getting along great lately, even with Holden into all Colin’s stuff. Yesterday we went to the zoo and Colin said “Holden sits right next to me mom” and last night Colin said “Holden is my best friend.” It was very sweet although I have to admit that Colin has a different “best friend” every day.

Holden turned 11 months yesterday. I can’t believe he is almost a year, it went so fast. He is still cruising, not walking yet. Babbling, mostly saying “dada”. He loves to brush his hair, mostly with the brush but also with a spatula yesterday. He is a pretty good climber, up on to top of the train table and a couple weeks ago I found him up on top of the toilet. He is a good eater, although he doesn’t really like us to feed him with a spoon much anymore. He also does this super cute thing when you ask if he is cozy he will lay his head down on something soft and go “awwwwwwh”. He got pretty sick over the weekend, had a fever of 104.3 and we basically held him for 72 hours straight. I felt so bad for him, he was moaning and everything. When the fever would come down he would get down and play but over all it was rough.

Colin is doing well. Very much into preschool now and loves to go. He has made lots of friends and is always asking to have people over - everyday he tries to arrange something. He goes up to his friends parents and tells them he is going to come over to their house. He is also such a funny guy at home. The things he says and does just make us laugh. He sings all the time. A couple of days ago he wasn’t listening to me so I said no TV all day. He kept begging, but I said no, so at lunch he started singing to himself all sad “I wanna watch TV….but mom said no….daddy would say yes….” I said are you singing blues?

As far as Chuck and I go, Chuck has been hard at work, although I have to admit, I don’t know at what Seems like he gets home, we eat, play with the kids, get them to bed, clean up and then we go to sleep. I never get a chance to talk to him about work - so here I publicly apologize. We have a babysitter this weekend so hopefully we can catch up then - having kids is a bit time consuming.

I have been working on a built in shelf in our living room. I have the bottom base cabinet in and hopefully will get started on the bookshelves/TV unit this weekend. It takes a long time when Colin is “helping” me. Chuck and I have agreed that we feel like a lot of the home organization hinges on getting this thing done. We have no bookshelves or good storage places right now so we can’t wait to get this settled.

Alright before I go I will just leave a few tidbits over the past month or so since we haven’t blogged in so long:

• On the plane to NY I said to Colin “are you going to give Grandma a big hug when you see her?” Colin replied “No, I only give hugs to Tracy. Tracy likes hugs.” - How do you like that TSinclair?
• Also for TSinclair another poop story - The other day I had to change a diaper and Colin’s poop was bright, I mean bright, green. I thought he was sick for a minute and then I remember he had eaten a cupcake with a huge frosting Christmas tree on top.
• Here is a video of Colin and his cousin Curt dancing: Dancing video
• And a video of Colin and Curt looking through a toy train brochure and getting excited about trains: Toys Video

Sorry, it has been awhile since we posted. No excuse really - aside from the two kids, holidays and sicknesses.

We are back from a great trip to New York for Christmas, aside from the fact that everyone was sick. Colin and his cousins had a great time playing together. We got plenty of pictures and lots of hilarious Curt and Colin videos. The pictures are posted: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckfuller/

We might have to wait a bit on the video.

Holdey-Boldy (as we call him) is doing great - already over 10 months. Still cruising around. Standing up in his crib. Babbling a bit of Mama, Dada and Hi. The boy loves his carbs. We made the mistake of giving him some pasta and there is no turning back now. He also just had beef last night for the first time and loved that too - you should be happy to hear that Mom and Ed.

Colin seems to be growing up so fast to me. The way he speaks now and everything he can remember just astounds me. Over Christmas he would be missing for awhile and I would find him watching “Hairspray” with Grace and Lily. Once we got back he did something in the kitchen and goes “Hallelujah” (really more like “Hal-e-ooh-yah”) - I said “where did you learn that” and he replied “Grace and Lily’s movie. I also learned to dance.” Nice. He is very into Spiderman at the moment although I don’t think he has every really seen Spiderman in anything. He also loves trains and Thomas. Santa was very kind to him so now he has trains all over the place. Of course his little brother is into everything and that is driving Colin a bit mad.

There is a lot more to post about Christmas but I will let Chuck tackle a bit more of that.

Happy New Year to all. I will try my best to post more in 2008!

Sorry we haven’t blogged in awhile - I wanted to give Sevi her dues. The week after she died was hard on us. It always felt like something was missing - in fact it still does - but it is getting better and we know we made the right decision. It is hard to go from having a dog to not having one. Like Chuck said he (and me) had to walk her morning and night for almost 13 years. I keep thinking of her, especially when we cook and eat - there is no one to clean the floor and eat the scraps. She was a great dog and where ever she is I am sure she knows we miss her!

So back to family life. Holden turned 9 months a week ago. He is very busy cruising all around the living room. He really does not want to be held very much right now. He plays on our train table “coffee table” all the time. Walks around it, goes to the couch, to the table next to it and back. He doesn’t fall much any more, but still has a hard time figuring out how to get down. He is trying hard to keep up with Colin, much to Colin’s dismay. He always wants what Colin has and that gets Colin pretty frustrated. Of course as soon as Holden is playing with something, Colin wants to take it.

Holden likes to play tag/chase with Colin who will get down and crawl around with him. I don’t really like it when he comes in the kitchen because lots of time the floor isn’t all that clean (the back door opens into the kitchen). I tell them to get out of the kitchen because it’s not clean. So today Colin says “come on Holden. Get me. Let’s go into the dirty room.”

Everyday they play together more and more. I think Colin is really starting to enjoy having a brother.

On to the house - let me give a brief run down:

1. Fireplace - we knew when we bought the house that we need to replace the tiles at the top. We got $ at closing. The guys does it and then right after I asked if he could take a look at some cracks in the firebox. He says they aren’t a problem but the one outside the firebox in the mantle looks bad and we shouldn’t use the fireplace…great.

2. Sewer line - we knew this also needed to be fixed and got $ at closing. They had to dig out part of the patio to get to it. Right after they filled it in the furnace broke.

3. Oil tank - so it turns out we needed a whole new oil tank. We briefly entertained the idea of going to gas, but the energy company never got back to me. The oil guys had the best customer service and it was much cheaper to just replace the tank. We ripped out the entire patio this time (which was all cracked anyway) and now we have a new tank, a big muddy pit out our back door and a new project for the spring!

4. Immediately following the oil tank I tried to wash a rug and the washing machine broke. It just wouldn’t spin. We new we wanted to get a new one but we figured with everything that had to be fixed we would wait, ah but that isn’t what our house had in store for us - so now we have a new washer and dryer. Of course on the VERY first load we accidentally through a disposable diaper in the washer. All the clothes came out with little gelatinous balls all over them and all over the washer. We managed to get them off after wiping, rinsing and washing things a few times.

5. Rodents - the day after the disposable diaper mess I noticed mouse droppings and heard little feet scurrying away. So I guess we now have a mouse too.

That is the current state of affairs. We are waiting for our humane mouse trap to arrive.

Maybe we should have rented for a while longer

It’s with a heavy heart that I report that Sevi is no longer with us. Over the past few weeks her condition drastically worsened; the weakness in her rear leg led to further weakness in one of her front legs, and for the past week or so every time getting up off the floor/ground (which wasn’t often) was a heart-wrenching ordeal. Combined with the fact that her breathing became very labored, Jess and I knew that it was time.

I can’t adequately describe how hard it was to come to that decision, but in our hearts we know it was the right one. She hadn’t been herself for some time, and after almost 13 years with her I could tell she was getting no joy out of life at this point.

I feel unequal to the task of describing how special she was.

I can’t think of anyone who likes dogs who didn’t fall in love with Sevi. She even made dog lovers out of some non-dog people (and probably contributed to a few people getting dogs who might not have otherwise). It feels like just a short while ago that I brought her home from the pound in Chapel Hill - hard to believe she came into my life when I was 22. While I know she lost some of her star status once the kids came along, I believe she had a good, fulfilling life.

From the email my Mom sent me this evening: “We will always miss her, but in my mind’s eye is a picture of her on the front porch at Block Island–so graciously in her element, gazing out over the front lawn.” Thanks so much for that Mom, it sums up so much about her.

We’ll always love you Sevi girl - we’re sure you’re chasing squirrels (and catching them) wherever you are.

We went out to dinner tonight because our house smelled like oil (long story - we got a broken sewer line fixed, suddenly had no heat, turns out to be a oil fuel tank full of water and it is buried under the patio - related ??? who knows, but in any case it is going to cost us $$). The boys were great at dinner. Colin played with his little toys and Holden was just full of personality…which leads me to the blog about Holden.

Lately he has been waving, kind of saying “Hi” and “Dada”. Today though it seemed like something just clicked and he became so interactive and just full of life. On the changing table he was playing peek-a-boo with me. He would pull this blanket in front of his eyes and I would say “Where’s Holden? Where’s Holden?” and then he would wait a second, pull down the blanket and start laughing. We did it about 10 times - it was amazing. When Chuck got home tonight, Holden just lit up. He cruised towards him along the table and started waving (his little grab wave). Chuck would wave and then Holden would start doing it again. At dinner he was bouncing all around his chair and give me a modified cute face. It was the best.

Colin has been doing well aside from the constant colds (that we all have.) He is going to preschool 4 days a week, from 9 until 11:30. He is making friends and having play dates. I think he is really enjoying it. He is ALWAYS singing songs, most he learned from school. He also just started counting in Spanish the other day - also from school - took me a second to figure out what he was saying. He has started really pretending and has a great imagination. He has these long thoughts that kind of go all over the place, but he just keeps talking. If you listen closely and try really hard to figure it out they almost always have some connection.

Here are some good pics with explanations:

All the kids kind of have longer hair so we are letting Colin’s grow a bit (you will be happy grandma). This is his hair after a particularly sweaty nap one day:

One of my new favorites of me and Holden:

Colin the giant

Polar bear attacking the penguin - I know, I know polar bears and peguins don’t live together and are on opposites sides of the world.  Colin also reminded me (right before I finished his costume) “Penguins don’t have orange feet, they are black.” - He was right but the orange feet were already made so this little penguin had orange feet.