Americanuck

I was in a LOT of pain. Yes 14 years ago today I was induced 6 weeks early and 14 years ago tomorrow Sean was born into this world a squalling feisty preemie. He was 4 lbs 10 oz and all guts.

14 years later I’m still the luckiest Mom there is. My tiny little preemie is a strong growing teenager. He was loving on getting his presents a day early so he could enjoy them on a day off instead of on a school day. Tomorrow is dinner at the Olive Garden, as it’s our family tradition to have one’s birthday dinner at the choice of the birthday celebrant.

Oh how he’s changed!

Sean 2 weeks old (and 4 weeks before he should have been born..)

He was so small he hated being in his bed so he slept in a laundry basket.

He got bigger and started smiling…

He and his Brother were best pals.

Proud Momma

I started breathing easier when he got some chub on him! Of course it’s long gone on my gangly!

Sean has recently discovered the joys of photoshop. Both of our Boys are ‘arty’ and this is just another medium for him to play in. Usually he’s sketching stuff but being the little techno-gamer-geeks we are raising adding the computer into the art mix isn’t a stretch. Sean’s dream is to be a computer graphic artist.

He’s only done a few full on computer drawings so far but he’s lovin’ on the whole make mutants out of the family deal in P-shop. I’ve been spared so far.

For anyone that doesn’t already know about it, there is a Live Eagle Cam with live streaming video of a bald eagle on it’s nest here in BC. It’s been all eggs up until now but the egg dwellers are due any day now. The site even has sound.

You have to be patient and on a high speed connection. The site is getting millions of hits a day so it can be laggy and slow at times.

There are a few things around the Condo that need some fixin’ partly for our own sanity, partly because they are things we KNOW we need to take care of before we put this place on the market. Tom calls them his ‘job jar’ items.

We had purchased a new kitchen faucet to replace the rather gross wobbly leaky thing that came with the place a while back and Tom hadn’t got around to installing yet. He he decided (after my gentle needling) that he would psyche himself up to do the job yesterday. I told him to enjoy the rest of this last day off together, but he figured if he didn’t do it now it may be a while again, and it would be less ammo for me (heh)

He pulled out the new faucet and read the instructions which seemed straight enough forward. He’d done this before down in LA so it wasn’t like it was something he hadn’t done before. He said he hates dealing with water though, and the potential disaster that could accompany such work so it did take some psyching up to do it but he pulled out his tools and started to survey what needed to be done.

After pulling out the cleaning supplies (and countless plastic store bags we keep down there) he found to his surprise that there were not any spigots under the sink, in fact to change the faucet he would have to shut off the main water supply to our condo. Needless to say there was a rush to go pee first!

I offered my assistance if needed and headed into the office to goof around on the ‘net. I could hear clanking and muttering and the odd exclamation. After I said “HUH?” a few times and Tom explaining he was talking to a pipe/tool etc I told him to call my name first when he needed to talk to me so I know he wasn’t talking to himself (double heh)

A few minutes later I hear “OH BOY!! ummm BELINDA!!! umm can I borrow you please!” in his calm (panicked) voice. Water had spurted out of the hoses from the back pressure which was more than he expected and it had filled up the container he had on hand for it and didn’t seem to want to stop. It ended up spilling a bit under the cupboards so I ran and got some dirty towels to soak it up. He was a bit more prepared the second time around when he pulled off the other one. It did look like a geyser when it came out so I can understand why he was calmly (freaking) calling for me.

After much clanking and twisting and talking to himself he had the faucet on and asked me to come and check for any leaks when he turned the water back on the main. I sat with a flashlight and stared at the connections waiting for some action (hiding behind my robe in case yanno) and he turned it on a bit asking if there was any leaks. “nope! It’s all good!” I called to him. He came out and said “Well here goes” and turned on the faucet. YAY!!! It was working! Water came out!

Unfortunately water didn’t stop coming OUT. Hot water in fact.

He goes over to the instructions and under trouble shooting this was covered. It said to remove the ball and check the joints and seals to see if they are dirty or damaged and if so to clean or replace. Uh. New faucet guys! Piece of crap!!

After a few moments consideration it was agreed that we would just spend the money and get another one, a BETTER one. The one we had bought was kind of a cheapie OBVIOUSLY not worth it, and the receipt was long gone.

Tom ran over the Home Depot and picked up a new faucet along with some spigots (yanno those fancy things that SHOULD have been there in the first place!) along with new hoses.

He turned off the water main again and set to installing the spigots first and then got the new-new faucet installed without any problems. Yay!! Go Hon!!

Ta-da!!

After telling him how AWESOME he was, He asked me if he would have some reprieve before I started my gentle prodding (needling) for the next ‘job jar’ item (which is to put in a new ceiling fan in our master bathroom.)

He’s got two weeks (ooops less a day) -Wooopahhh

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today so we took advantage and hit one of the local parks. Tom gave Sean a lesson in juggling. Sean isn’t the most patient student in the world, I think he was kind of hoping he would somehow master it in a few tries. He gets frustrated quickly. He doesn’t realize that it takes PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE to get good at it. The balls spent probably more time on the ground than in the air, but at least he gave it a shot.

Tom is an old hand at juggling, although it’s been a long time since he’s been able to practice. It’s not like we have a yard here, and there isn’t any park that’s super close to where we are.

After the juggling practice, we tried our hands at badminton and played some frisbee. The breeze was up a little to high and made the birdie go in some interesting directions (nothing to do with how well we play.. NOPE!)

It started getting a wee bit too warm to run around so we went for a bit of a walk before heading back to the car. In the park there is a small metal chapel like structure, I guess for people to marry in the park which is a cute idea. I know I’ve seen couples in there getting their photos taken in the park, but I didn’t realize they had something to be used for the actual ceremony.

Here is the Right Reverend Sean at the pulpet (hah!)

Here is what they did to him for mocking this sacred space…

All in all a great day! (and we had icecream!)