Tag: Video

1 1/2-Year-Old Explorer

~ Heather Walter ~ Leave a comment

Started this post yesterday and then got tired of waiting for YouTube to upload my videos…
I decided to just follow Isaac around with the camera on a gorgeous, sunny afternoon Sunday.  He had great fun…


We started in the front yard…


Walking around, looking like a big boy!



Short video, but nice to see his smiling face…



Checking out the progress on the front porch…



And then quickly moved to the back yard, where most of the construction equipment is being stored.  This little gem in his hand is a magnet to pick up loose nails and screws.



He LOVED it because the handle had been lowered to just his height.



Then we moved over to the sand table, where some nails were stacked on top.  Isaac sorted some of them into the bird house.



S-t-r-e-t-c-h!



Which nail is next?



In action:



Electrical outlet around the side of the garage



Dad’s lawn mower



Gate on the other side of the yard…



Before heading back to the porch to sit for a second and a half…



Then he decided to carry around this half-full paint can and Jackson came to investigate



I can do it, Mom!



Measuring how high the grill is



Wow!  That’s way up there!



Stephanie, this toy reminds me of the tractor at the Kathy Caraway place.  I thought he was going to fall over pushing it…


Just before Daddy got home and we went back inside…

Isaac worked up quite an appetite.  Here he is enjoying some sweet potatoes with dinner:

Busy Boy

~ Heather Walter ~ Leave a comment

Isaac had quite a day today!  The windows crew returned to finish installing windows, so he got to watch them work while he ate his breakfast.  He got to have black beans, his new favorite, with lunch.



He is working on learning how to eat with a spoon, so he had a lot of fun making a GIANT mess:



Then this afternoon, we went to see Daddy at work for a little Halloween Spooktacular event at NI.  We had a great time, but, alas, I didn’t get many photos.  Here’s what we did instead:



These are the 2 photos I managed to snap:

Parks

~ Heather Walter ~ 2 Comments
We recently rediscovered parks, now that the weather has gotten much cooler.  I realized that I hadn’t posted many photos of Isaac growing up lately, so I’m posting a few pictures from our mommy outing a few weeks ago and then some from this Tuesday.

Isaac has become quite the little dare-devil and has a blast when we go to the park now.  Before summer weather made outings impossible, I tried multiple times to get Isaac to try a sliding board.  He was not much of a fan and would cry, even though I would hold him the whole way down.  We only tried it a few times because I didn’t want to traumatize him.  Apparently I didn’t.  Now, he not only enjoys going down the slides, but climbing back up them, as well.  🙂  Here he is going up a small slide from one section of the playscape to the next:



Before I made him sit on his bottom to come down the slide…  This is a smaller slide; only about 3 feet high. It is designed to go pretty slowly (like the one pictured above), so he’s tempted to just walk up and down it.



Sliding on his bottom:



Climbing up down the steps on the playscape:



Over the weekend, we went to a new park that my friend, I’ll call her “Mephanie” to protect her innocence, assured us was much safer than the other parks we’ve tried.  As you can see, Mephanie spoke too soon.  Isaac managed to land on a little rock (we think) and gave himself a nice knot on the side of his head.

As you can see, he’s really bothered by it:

He was actually perfectly fine after he cried for about 30 seconds, but several people have now asked me what happened to his head.  It doesn’t help that the night before, I’d managed to cut his chin with my thumb nail while trying to get him to sit down on the couch…  I am not going to win Mother of the Year, after all.  The park was otherwise lots of fun and I’m sure we will try it again soon, although Mommy will keep a better eye out for little rocks…


This week, the cooler temps necessitated much warmer clothing.  Isaac had a great time when we stopped at the park for a little playtime on Tuesday.  He discovered this set of “steps” to climb up to the big slide.  To give you a reference, the top of this thing is about 6′ high – it’s above my head:



Determining his next move:



Reached the top and headed down the sliding board!  FEARLESS!!!



Here are a few quick video clips of the boy on the move… They were taken on my phone, so they aren’t quite as good as the ones my camera takes.  I didn’t realize how windy it was, so you may wish to turn the sound “off” on your computer before watching.  Sorry…
Climbing like a little pro:



Going down the slide:

Isaac’s Appt & House Construction

~ Heather Walter ~ 1 Comment

Today, we will attempt to post in order.  Therefore, first up is Snips & Snails.  Here he is after eating a bunch of black beans from Chipotle and then rubbing his hands all through his hair:



Isaac had his 18-month appointment with his new doctor yesterday afternoon.  We met with the nurse practitioner, Linda, for this checkup.  Isaac weighs 21 pounds 5 ounces.  This means he has gained exactly one pound over the last 3 months.  Given the amount of food this boy consumes on a daily basis, I don’t quite understand how that’s possible, but he must be using the energy for something other than growing.  🙂  Perhaps he uses it for running, playing, chasing the dog…  He is now below the 5th percentile for weight and is at the 10th percentile for height.  I hope I haven’t done something wrong to stunt his growth and now he’s going to be a midget. ::sigh::  Now that he is able to tolerate some dairy, I have been giving him more goat’s milk and more yogurt, in the hopes that some additional protein will help him grow some more.  I didn’t mention that Todd and I both think he’s gained some weight just over the last few days (since we’ve been giving him yogurt and more goat’s milk).  She said not to worry that he isn’t speaking or signing much.  She was impressed by how well he responded when I asked him to climb down off the step he was climbing (under the table, which is why I wanted him to get down).  She said he clearly understands what I’m telling him, even if he isn’t saying much.  
Here’s a short clip of the busy boy yesterday:



On the house (Hammer & Nails), lots of work got done yesterday.  It was pretty darn exciting!  The front porch is now sporting a new gable.  It looks so nice.  Kristin thought it would break up the long expanse of the house and it certainly does.  I love it.  Especially with the roof pitch being so slight, it makes it much more obvious that there is a roof all the way up there.  😉  They got the gable mostly framed yesterday and then started putting the plywood up.  We think today might actually be the last day that this crew is on-site.  I will miss them when they are gone – they have been really nice and have really buckled down since the debacle last Thursday.  The “new” foreman that Bob brought in appears to be a permanent addition and he’s really good.  He keeps the team focused and on-task.  He’s also a working supervisor, so he’s busy getting things done at the same time.


Lunch time:

New doors to give us access to the upstairs porch to be hung sometime this week:

End of day:



The back of the house is coming along, as well.  They got a LOT of siding put up yesterday!  It is really impressive to watch these guys when they are going.  John stopped by to check it out and make sure things were being done properly.  The foreman for the siding, Nicolas, told him that they’d finish putting siding up on the bottom half of the back yesterday.  John told him he’d buy him lunch if he actually succeeded.  They didn’t earn a free lunch, but they came awfully close.  I was impressed with what they got done.


Putting siding on the back of the laundry room/garage.

Under the kitchen window at the end of the day:

The door Todd rehung for *several* hours on Sunday evening.  This leads to the laundry room.  He finished not a day too soon, since they hung all of the siding and framed around it the next afternoon.



The back of the laundry room/garage.  The foam board is covering the hole in the wall that will soon house a new window:


We Have Concrete!

~ Heather Walter ~ Leave a comment
What a week it has been with our construction!  Monday, a few of the crew came back out and finished putting in rebar along the sides of the future porch.  They still left the middle section open so that the post-tension cables could be tightened.
Monday evening:
More rebar…
Isaac and Daddy hanging out while we wait for a friend to arrive…
Tuesday morning began with a bang.  The post-tension cable team was here before 8:00 and tightened the cables.
Cleaning up the concrete around the cables:
Machine to tension the cables:
  
Powering the little machine:
 
Ends of the freshly “tense” cables:
Once they finished, the rest of the rebar was placed.  The concrete mixer arrived at 8:45.  What a sight!  I got home just in time to witness all of that fun stuff.  I am sure half of the neighborhood also walked by to see what was going on.  LOL
Determining how long the chute needed to be…
Spraying water to the outside of the equipment so it would be easier to clean off after the pour:
The first concrete pour:
 
Spreading the first pour.  The guy in this picture was here nearly every day and he really worked his tail off… 
Concrete coming down the chute!
Pouring the concrete was actually a much quicker process than I expected.  They got the concrete spread out and then let it sit for a little while to cure.  These 2 guys were talking and joking, even though they were working really hard.  It was nice to hear that they weren’t just grumbling about how hard things were (like I would have been doing if I’d been the one spreading concrete).

They used this little vibrator thing to make sure there were no air pockets in the concrete.  It was infinitely faster than the method Todd, Brian, and Arves had used to remove air pockets in the concrete entrance floor…

Wet concrete!

Then they came back to work and started smoothing the surface some more.  They used long 2 x 4’s to be sure they spread the concrete evenly, then they used metal blades to smooth some more.  Smoothing the concrete all the way to the edges:
And smoothing the edges:
Isaac carefully supervised the work.

Finally, they used a thing that reminded me of the fan on the back of a swamp boat to smooth the surface.  That was Isaac’s favorite part…  

They finished off the edges and again gave the concrete a little more time to harden.  They were able to remove the wood surrounding the new concrete by afternoon and then filled in most of the area around it with previously displaced dirt.

The “finished” concrete portion of the porch.  They filled in the surrounding area with more dirt, but I was more excited to see the actual concrete.  🙂
The finished product at the end of the day yesterday:

John, our contractor stopped by yesterday afternoon to check out the progress.  He said they will allow the concrete to cure the rest of this week before starting on the framing next week.  Stay tuned!

Porch Update

~ Heather Walter ~ 1 Comment
Lots happened in a positive direction on Friday and over the weekend.  Friday, the guys came to cut the post-tension cables, the house did not implode, and most of the rebar was placed to be able to pour concrete early this week…  maybe even Monday if the post-tension guys come back early enough!  Here’s a shot of the “team” approach to cutting the cables:

They used a concrete saw and just went right through the cables.

Then, they used a jackhammer to chip away around some of the cables to be sure they were still in good shape.  They were, thankfully.

Todd came home for lunch and checked out where the cables were cut.

We had lunch and I ran a few errands, hoping to miss the jackhammer.  My timing was off.  I got home just in time!  They brought an enormous generator, parked it in the front yard, and hooked up a huge pneumatic jackhammer.
OMG – LOUD!!!

Breaking up the pieces left by the jackhammer:
Isaac, Jackson, and I took refuge in the back yard.  Jackson found some sticks.

Isaac found a digger of his own…

Then he helped the dog find some more sticks:

I had an appointment that started at the same time the guys wrapped up the evening on Friday, so I didn’t get to take our “end of day” photos.  Unfortunately, the guy had already loaded up the trencher by the time I snapped the shot on Saturday morning.  We had large pieces of equipment multiplying in our yard all week last week:

Discussing the electrical runs:

Todd mapping out the electrical with the view from our front door behind him:

Isaac wanted to help Daddy dig.

Trying to run conduit under the sidewalk, digging the hole…

Hooray for DIRT!

Little Helper supervised from inside in the afternoon:

No more equipment storage in our yard!

Progress at the end of Sunday, including Todd’s electrical conduit runs:

Todd’s handiwork (the grey and white PVC tubing):

Our new lamp post, complete with electricity!

A little help to get the wiring to the lamp post set up from inside the house.


Ready to start the new week (though no one has been here yet today):

Outdoor Adventures

~ Heather Walter ~ Leave a comment

Isaac and I have started to go on little “adventures” outside in the mornings (before it gets too hot). We don’t do anything terribly exciting, but it’s a chance for Isaac to explore the front yard and a little of the neighborhood on his own two feet, rather than on his tricycle while Mom and Dad go for a walk.  I got some great photos and a little video from this morning.



I know I owe the blog a more substantial update on our house projects and some other things, but this will have to suffice for now.  Enjoy the video!

Isaac the Walker

~ Heather Walter ~ 2 Comments

I have been meaning to post videos of Isaac walking for some time.  I will get some new ones this week, too, hopefully, but these are from last week.  They were taken last Wednesday, our anniversary, and were a fun addition to our celebration.



This one is from earlier in the day on Friday.  Isaac is now exclusively walking, though, and gets steadier every day.





Todd got me a new camera for my birthday.  I am still trying to figure everything out, but wanted to share a few of the first photos from it:



Hopefully you will be able to view this last video.  It’s much higher resolution due to the new camera…


Fun Days

~ Heather Walter ~ Leave a comment

Todd pulled out Isaac’s Legos for the first time last night.  By the end of the night, Isaac was having great fun bringing me all of the different pieces.  He also enjoyed pulling them off the big red “mat” as soon as Todd would put get them stacked.  I think he’s really going to have a lot of fun with them as he continues to figure out how they work.  They aren’t quite as foot-friendly as the foam blocks when you step on them, though.



This morning, Isaac needed a bath after breakfast.  He succeeded in smearing quite a bit of his fruit into (and through) his romper.  I decided to give him a quick dip in the tub before his nap.  In an effort to make it quick, I let the water run in the tub while I undressed Isaac and got him ready to get in.  As a result, he had much deeper water than usual.  Clearly, he thought this was wonderful!