The Family

We’ve been planning this family room for almost as long as we’ve been planning for a baby. Faith’s words were something like, “Ok, but if we are going to have a baby I want a GARAGE first!” What was that, three, four years ago?

It’s been quite the ride since then: emotionally, physically, and constructionally(?). The garage was finished a year and a half ago. Kirk flew out last year to help work on the family room and just as we started Dad died and everything got put on hold for the rest of the year. I resumed work on the family room sometime around January. You can see an early view of the old garage space (which is now the new family room) and an in-progress picture here, here, and here. Big thanks go out to Mr. & Mrs. Henricksen, Brian, Paul, and John & Heather for their help (and/or tools!) along the way.

Next goal: furniture!

Meanwhile on the “family” front little Zane finally reached 11 lbs! I first measured him hitting eleven on Saturday night (fully dressed) and then confirmed again last night after his bath. The funny thing is that in between weighings he ate 26 oz of milk (a new record!) and I don’t think we saw that much coming out (but who’s counting?). How did he stay at eleven pounds? Then again, I cleaned a diaper this morning that may account for a sizable amount of that. So far the magic 11 lbs hasn’t resulted in the completely magical 5+ hours of sleeep. Saturday night saw some 3.5 to almost four hour naps, but last night he was back down to barely eking out three.

An hour after Zane had his first bath (in the bathroom sinks) last night he joined me for his first bath in the big tub. The water was about five inches deep and I laid him on his back with only my hand on the back of his head, the rest of him floating … quite nicely too. It reminded me a little of a scene from altered states. Zane LOVED it! He floated with a little bit of face and chest above the water, the rest of him suspended in warm liquid, with a look of complete bliss on his face.

I’ll have to see when/how he can start learning to swim. We are shooting for nirvana.