Finished at Last! Well for now anyway.

The paint crew finally finished painting our house almost two weeks ago. They said it would take them two days, but it ended up being five days, profuse amounts of dust everywhere, paint chips on the bottoms of our feet, and camping out in the basement with Taj for days on end, not to mention that I had to cover and re-cover our furniture with plastic a bazillion times. I thought I would go crazy. Renovating a house is a lot more work than one would think. It's mentally and physically taxing. It's also taxing on a marriage--that's why we hired someone, otherwise we probably would've been divorced by now. I've only posted a couple "after" pics since Taj is taking a nap and I have to take advantage of my precious opportunity to blog. More pics will surface soon of the rest of the house. We are finally starting to feel like it is ours and it doesn't smell like "Dennis and Betty" (as Brannon would say) anymore. We feel so blessed to be able to have a home to call our own and to live in a fabulous neighborhood. I can't wait to let Taj play outside in our backyard. I know there are some good times ahead of us in our little home on Larkin Lane.

This is the flavor of "Dennis & Betty,"....the smell: stale cigarette smoke, but that too is gone now!

I tried moving this pic down, but failed many times, so here it is, right in the middle. Taj loves to push the cushions up on these chairs and then he climbs up and sits there like he's a stud because he's sitting all by himself. Taj is seriously out of control wild now. See the corner shelf in this pic, right behind the chair? Last night he pulled it down on top of himself. I freaked out, Brannon said I swore, but I don't remember that. I just remember hearing my baby cry and not seeing him because he was pinned underneath this thing. He got a pretty good goosegg from the whole ordeal, thank goodness that was it. Next, he pulled the wood molding off the wall, the whole strip! He's already dinged the new paint on our walls too. Good thing we don't have nice stuff because it's going to be trashed by this kid!

Some things about Taj (for memories' sake): His favorite words are "No!" and "Don't!". He says this whenever we try to get him out of the bath, make him eat, change his diaper, etc. Yes, we already have a disobedient child. He also says "doggie," "cracker," "uh-oh," and a certain grunt that means he wants something. If you take the time, he'll sit down and tell you his life story. All you have to do is knod and say "yes." I swear, he's just like his dad. He loves to be pushed around on his Radio Flyer, in his Cozy Coupe, and in his over-sized toy dump truck. He loves to play with cars and his boat and he makes the noises to go with it. His favorite book right now is "Doggies," which is way cute. He likes to watch Super Why in the mornings and his favorite show right now has to be Matilda, the kid is enthralled with it. It's the only movie he'll actually sit down and watch for at least 45 min. straight. He also gives real kisses now because he tries to pucker his lips (the only bad thing is that he won't give me any, just his daddy-we'll have to work on that).
I broke down yesterday and bought Taj a leash. It looks like a doggie backpack, but it's really a harness with a leash on it. I'll have to post a pic soon; it's sooo cute. Some of you may think it's child abuse, but you don't know my kid. He's half my size and he loves to cruze in all the wrong places. It's nearly impossible for me to contain him when he wants to get down and run, so now he can run, just not too far!

We are so thankful to have our little guy in our family. He really is the light of our lives and we feel so lucky to be his parents. He's teaching two people who thought they knew it all, that they don't know anything at all. We love him so much! Being parents is the best!