adventures in remodeling

Ah summer time. At our house that pretty much means "project time." Last summer we made some major improvements to our house, including putting on a whole new roof (not just new shingles-- like an entire new roof). This summer we are putting most of our energy into adding on about 250 square feet to our master bedroom. What you also must realize is that we do not hire any of this work out. My jack-of-all-trades husband does it all himself (with a lot of free labor provided by brothers, dads, moms, and friends, of course). So in order for us to spend time as a family when Daddy comes home from work, Baby G and I go out to the project site in the backyard with him. I help with the work as much as I can, but mostly I just run around trying to keep the baby from nailing himself in the head with the nail gun, or preventing him from consuming large quantities of sawdust and soil. Here's how it goes down:

This dirt looks pretty awesome. It would be tempting for you too, admit it.

I am watching him saying, "Don't eat the dirt, Baby. It tastes yucky." He isn't really into obedience yet, obviously.
The dirt is in the mouth. He's rolling it around on his tongue because he needs to see if it is yucky for himself.
Despite the fact that he has decided that it is indeed yucky, he puts up mighty resistance when his Daddy tries to fish it out of his mouth.
This is where I am saying, "J, please put down the power tool before getting so close to the baby's face. You are about to put a screw in his ear."
Mmm... dirt in the mouth is yummy.
This is the look I got after trying to remove the rest of the dirt from his moth myself. He wasn't too happy about it.

Other days it goes something like this:

In order to maximize our time to get work done, we frequently let Baby G have food items to entertain himself. I had been feeding him some avocado for dinner and when he grabbed it and started eating it himself (including some of the peel, as you can see in this picture) we didn't stop him because we knew we'd be able to get more done while he was self-feeding.

Little mischevious grin.This picture does not do justice to the mess he made. His face, hands, feet, clothes, and the surrounding area were covered in a mixture of smashed avocado and sawdust. He was pleased.Then he decided to measure some stuff, thereby getting the tape measure covered in avocado as well.

Since he was so filthy we decided to hose him off in the front yard before we took him in to the bath. He wasn't loving it, and he displayed his anger by putting his foot in his mouth.

The water was cold and Baby G kept making this face:

Because we are mean and evil parents we kept spraying him with the cold water so he would keep making the face.

Hopefully he wasn't too damaged by the experience. He seemed to be okay.

Then it was into the bath, where Baby G has learned how to strategically place froggies for maximum modesty.

Out of the bath. Baby G was fascinated by the fact that he could see himself moving on the camera screen. He kept looking in the mirror and then back at the camera trying to figure it out.

Then it's into the jammies (which I know are too short in the arms and legs-- this baby has his daddy's long limbs) and time for bed. Working outside is very exhausting.