cb.blog

Lily has been making so many advances lately!

First, she is so proud of herself for being able to pick up her food and put it in her mouth:

Lily is excited to eat her cereal puffs by picking them up herself!
Photo © Chip Bennett, all rights reserved.

More recently, she has been trying so hard to pull herself up. The first time she accomplished the feat (this past Friday evening), it was so brief that I couldn’t get a picture. Not to worry; when I went into her room to get her up from her nap yesterday, here is what I found:

Lily standing up in her crib, exploring her nursery.
Photo © Chip Bennett, all rights reserved.

And when I called her Papaw to wish him a happy birthday yesterday evening, Lily decided she would show off for him:

Lily standing up in the living room, showing off on her Papaw’s birthday.
Photo © Chip Bennett, all rights reserved.

I haven’t gotten any pictures yet of her other new discovery: looking at things upside down. Lily loves to see anything and everything upside-down. She will throw her head - or even her whole body - backward in order to look around the room, or at the paintings on the wall, or even just Mom and Dad. She is also becoming amazingly expressive; some of her facial expressions are just adorable - or hilarious.

Steph and I marvel at what a fun and exciting time we are experiencing in Lily’s life. She is learning so much, and becoming more inquisitive and adventurous. We already know that part of moving into our house will mean installing outlet covers, cabinet locks, baby gates, and all of the other required “baby-proofing” that we’ll have to do. But we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Last weekend, we went back to our new home, to take more pictures, and get some room/window measurements.

The pictures below are part of their own flickr set.

Sorry for the interruption. I was implementing some internal changes on the web site. Everything should be working fine now, but if you notice anything amiss, please let me know!

An update on our offer for the house in Saint Ann: the owner came back this afternoon with a counter, and we have accepted their counter! We are now officially be under contract.

A little bit more about the house: it was built in 1920. The sale history indicates that it was foreclosed about a year ago, and then re-purchased by the current owner, who re-modeled and flipped it.

We’ll find out for sure after the inspection, but the house looks to be in great shape.

The front porch is adorable and inviting. We can really see ourselves sitting on the front porch a lot - perhaps even put in a hanging porch swing.

The front door opens into a very nicely sized family room.

The house has a room listed as the “dining room” but it is the walkway from the living room to the kitchen, and also opens to the stairs to the basement/side entrance. We think it would be too high-traffic for a dining room, but would work perfectly as a sitting room or library (we have several bookcases, and a ton of books). My parents have too kindly offered to give us two white love seat-sofas that they would like to replace, and we think that they will fit perfectly in this space.

The kitchen is large, clean, and open, and has all new appliances - matching Frigidaire refrigerator, dishwasher, and gas stove.

We will eventually want to change the cabinets and the counters, but that might be part of a bigger project later on. I could envision opening up the wall into the breakfast room, and adding more cabinets, and a counter/bar.

We think we will use part of the large breakfast room (21×8) partly for the dining room.

The basement has a workshop/storage area, and a large (17×20) finished area that we’ve not yet decided what to do with. It has a tile floor and plaster walls, and might make a good recreation or play room.

If we had one complaint, it would be the size of the bedrooms. The main-floor master is only 13×9, and the two upstairs bedrooms are only 9×9. That said, the rest of the house has so much room, that we can use the bedrooms as just bedrooms.

The breakfast room opens onto a small porch, with steps down to a nice, slab patio.

In addition to all the room in the house, the property has a very nice, fenced backyard with plenty of trees, and even a small shed.

We’re incredibly excited to be making this step! If all goes according to plan, we will close Feb. 15th - which will give us two weeks to get moved out of the apartment and get it cleaned. Keep us in your prayers!

We might be; today we put in an offer on a house in Saint Ann:

Photo taken from listing

We should hear back tomorrow on our initial offer. Wish us luck! (More accurately, pray that our offer is accepted, or that we can come to a mutual agreement.)

Slashdot posts about Sears installing spyware under the guise of the “My SHC Community” service. Instead of an innocuous service, users who agree to install the software get ComScore spyware, including a software proxy capable of tracking every transaction performed on the internet - from web sites visited, to login credentials, to emails.

More information from the CA Community Advisor Security Research Blog, which indicates that the spyware has been found on the sears.com and kmart.com websites.

If you see a pop-up window soliciting participation in “My SHC Community” do not pass go, do not collect $200, close the pop-up. Better yet, avoid doing business - if at all possible - with companies that would attempt to install spyware (especially companies that do so as deceptively as this).

I used vacation time for the three days after our New Year’s Eve/Day holidays, in order to have a week off from work. We’ve used the time just to spend together at home, for rest and recuperation. Lily has been especially adorable this week (maybe because she gets to spend ALL day with both Mommy and Daddy?), and I thought I’d share some pics of her adorableness:

Lily - seven months old
Photo © Chip Bennett, all rights reserved.

These are all part of the Lillian - Seven Months set.

Sorry it’s been so long since updating photos. I’ve got everything caught up, and here’s a look.

Here are the newest sets: Lily Five Months, Lily Six Months, Lily Seven Months, Las Vegas Trip, Christmas 2007.