Whew, he made it to TWO!

There have been some close calls...Arlo is a wild child! We, very gratefully, celebrated his 2nd birthday last Friday. It does seem like yesterday that he was born and was this tiny (errr, not so tiny) little baby boy.

However, in two years he has blossomed into a fantastic, explorative, and expressive little toddler. Running and climbing everywhere, talking up a storm, eating like a champ and asking so many questions...he really is a joy (and a lot of work) to be around.

Arlo has a wicked sweet tooth, likely inherited from me! He LOVES candy, especially lollipops. We hosted a play group on his birthday and had cupcakes with lollipops on top! Quite a splurge on my part, but you only have one birthday a year, right?

We had a wonderful weekend filled with holiday family events. The university hosts Santa every year in the arboretum and it is filled with poinsettias, including a huge poinsettia tree. We braved the crowds of families with 2, 3, and 4 year olds and managed a quick photo session. Not an easy task with two wiggly boys.

Arlo wasn't sure about Santa and if you ask him about seeing Santa he'll say, "Santa cary Arlo", meaning "Santa scared Arlo". Sam told Santa he wants a Spiderman truck for Christmas and Arlo felt a little better about Santa after he gave him a candy cane...which disappeared in a matter of seconds!

Over the weekend we began a new family tradition of building a gingerbread house. The boys loved the entire process, especially our little sweet tooth who kept eating the candy decorations. 

All weekend Arlo kept asking, 

"eat ginger house, please, please, please?" 

When he was told that we don't eat the house right away he wasn't too happy as you can see below!

We've been seeing this face a bit more these days between Arlo's recent new fears of moving toys and Santa and his assertion with independence. The two's have hit and though he usually takes these developments in stride, we're definitely seeing more tantrums.

Where are we at?

Specifically, we are in the very beginning of another Michigan winter! It has been snowing every couple of days over the last week or so and most of it is sticking around. We got another inch or so this morning and more is expected this evening and into tomorrow. Being that we LOVE winter, we're all pretty excited. I took this photo at our house last week during the first snow.  I just had to go by and see what our space looked like with the first blanket upon it. So beautiful. We miss being there.

Along with the winter weather comes more time inside....it's inevitable and we find lots of fun things to do! The boys were sent a cute little gift package from a dear friend in Kansas including gummy Army men (her husband is in the Army) and lots of stickers! Arlo entertained himself for quite a while with his book!

Winter also brings some great capitol area activities including the Silver Bells in the City celebration. We went last year, as well as this year, and loved the electric lights parade and the lighting of the tree with the fireworks. 

So cold, so fun, so worth it.

The house work is moving right along, too. Below is a photo of the bathroom when we bought the house. You can see the octagonal window and the HUGE vanity and double sinks.

We opted to put in a regular double hung window and replace the large vanity with one pedestal sink. You can see the basic changes below, though it is still hard to visualize where things will be. Once it is all done I'll post before and after pictures.

The house has now been fully smoke cleaned and sealed, which is the white powdery looking stuff all over the walls. We have all the new windows in upstairs and it is nice to have the plywood removed from the window spaces. It makes the house feel more like our home. Below is the master bedroom.

And the dining room all sealed. You definitely don't smell smoke anymore...now it just smells like sawdust and paint! Smells I much prefer!

Of course, when ripping apart an old house there will be surprises and what you see below are the remnants of a fire from possibly 30 years ago that began in our mud room wall and then smothered itself. The previous owners likely had no idea the fire ever started and were very lucky it didn't progress. The cause of this little surprise was taken care of...an improperly sealed 220 wire. Ugh. It was a little scary to find this, but the contractor has assured us that it is all being dealt with appropriately. 

Next week the new plaster walls will begin going up and by the end of the week the new siding will also begin going on. It is beginning to feel like we'll actually get back in by February 1st....

Are you Two or Four??

Saturday we were driving in the car. Matt was talking to me about something random.  I can't even remember what and Arlo pipes in and says," Daddy, why?"

Matt responds, "I don't know why. Why do run around the house and destroy things?"

Arlo is quiet for a few moments, then says, "Mmmmm, ahhhhhh, wanna touch, Daddy."

"Why?" is the latest word/question/phrase and we're hearing it all the time. He'll even ask Sam and Sam's common response is, "I can't know why, Arlo."

Big Steps

When I remember the potty training process with Sam it seems like it was such a long, rough road. He really resisted and thanks to my blog posts I can say with confidence that it took us the better part of a year to get him officially potty trained!

Arlo has been much more interested in the potty and the whole idea. 

He watches Sam and though he rarely asks to go or tells us when he needs to go, he doesn't fight it when I take him. Last night I sat him on the potty before bed and he pooped! Then again this morning he made a little deposit on the potty. I think if I am persistent and regular about taking him, he could be fully potty trained by the time the new baby comes. We'll see how this winter plays out, but I am going to shoot for that.

Happy Halloween...err, Voting Day!

Rebuilding

We are rebuilding! (And I found the cable to upload images from my camera to the computer, so now I can share...)

The first image was taken this summer and is a reference point for what the roof line looked like before the fire. There is a gable in the center of the roof that was a part of the original structure of the house. I never really looked closely at the roof line before all this, but now when I see it I think it looks funny. The contractor asked us if we wanted to replace it; there is no structural purpose and is an energy sink. We decided to save some money and energy we wouldn't have then rebuild it.
This picture was taken about a week ago after they had removed the shingles (that we just had replaced in June!) and all the sheeting and are in the process of replacing the trusses. Most of the trusses were damaged by the fire or the construction was not up to the current building codes.
And here is the roof with the shingles replaced and the gable removed! I really like the new roof line. It is very clean and simple. It was amazing to see how fast they removed and replaced the roof...all in about 4 days!Once they finished the north roof they had to deal with another building code issue in the south part of the house. Apparently the three dormers were not supported properly and three HUGE beams had to be craned into the side of the house.

You can see they had to cut a hole in the side of the house to fit the beams in! I haven't been up there to see them installed, but I am hoping next week to get inside and see the progress there. They have been soda blasting the rafters and framing to clean the smoke and soot. Click the soda blast link to see a Youtube video of the process...very cool!

And last, but certainly not least, this photo was taken yesterday morning after they had removed the south roof shingles and were preparing to replace sheeting and put on new shingles. Smoke damage was significant in the south side and thus the replacement will be faster than on the north side, but still time consuming.

I will keep updating as I have more to share. Next week the smoke removal team will be inside all week hand cleaning every inch of the house to remove the smoke and then shortly after that they will start rebuilding the insides! Matt and I have a lot of decisions to make in the next couple weeks!

3's Company

3's company and 4 is a crowd? Is that the saying?

I had hoped to post ultrasound pictures along with this, but we still have no scanner or printers here at the temporary Grieshop homestead...words will have to do.

We'll be welcoming another Grieshop BOY into our family in mid-March!

We weren't going to find out, then I decided as we walked into the ultrasound room that I needed to know and I feel much more relaxed knowing the sex. We're excited...and a little scared!