Yee-haw! The Master Bathroom is done! For what I thought was to be a little project, definitely turned into something a little bigger. But now that it's done...we can finally be back in our room!
Here's some final pictures (I still have just a few minor things to do, fasten and putty the baseboards for one):
Last night we headed over to Auntie Elizabeth's for a Halloween dinner. The Great Pumpkin brought Mr. Aidan some special gifts including the cupcake below that he absolutely loved!
Eyeing up the cupcake and digging in!
Having fun with Uncle Bill
Well, that's all for tonight. We're heading to Florida on Friday for Ne-Ne's funeral and memorial so we'll definitely have some pictures from then. Plus Aidan finally (!!!) gets to meet his elusive Uncle Spencer...
Finally we were able to make it to the St. Louis Zoo! Yesterday we picked up Auntie Elizabeth and headed to "Spooky Saturday" at the Zoo. They had various vendors there handing out candy to little trick or treaters....including our little trick or treater in his costume this year....it's Aidan the Elephant!!!
So the lines were pretty long to get candy (which we weren't going to give Aidan anyway), so we skipped out and headed through the zoo. We saw all of Aid's favorites; the "beers" (bears), the "ya-ya's" (giraffes), the "nom-mees" (monkeys), the "ti-gees" (tigers), and the "yai-uns" (lions)!
The day was a little cool in the morning, but our little elephant was well warm in his big fluffy costume!
Aidan and Auntie Elizabeth in the Gorrilla World and some of the newer arrivals to the zoo; five tiger cubs that were born in April!
Mommy and Daddy with their "little" elephant!
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Dadda, Aidan and his brother, Raja!
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Our zoo is free admission, however, some attractions have costs if you want to use them. One of those that is well worth it was the St. Louis Zoo Railroad! They take you all through the park on a minature train...and this was Aidan's first ride on a train! He thought it was pretty cool, I think he was more fascinated with the dingy bells at each of the crossings we went over.
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Mommy and Aidan on the train...choo-choo!
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So, all in all, a wonderful experience at the zoo. We held off for so long, but now that Aid knows many of the animals, I'm sure that we'll be going back next year when it's warm out again!
Bathroom Update: After seeing my plumber guy JD 4 times in 5 days (since there were all sorts of "customizations" that the builder had in the house that we had to fix), we finally got the bath faucet in! It looks great! (On a side note, if any of you St. Louisan's need a great plumber that will work on his own, please let me know. JD was awesome, he saw that I bought the wrong type of faucet Friday night and was like "Let's go" and we headed off to Lowe's together to get the right one. How many hired plumbers would do that?)
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Anyways, I finished the tiling, put the sinks and faucets in and have the room prepped for touch-up painting. Just need to grout the tub, seal the tile, hang the cabinet doors and replace the toilet....all in time! Here are a few pics...I think it turned out really nice!
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The new undermounted sinks and faucets and the tiled tub...yeah!
Well folks Aidan is officially being recruited for college. See what was sent to him below:
That would be the University of Tennessee on the left and the University of Cincinnati on the right.
OK...I'm just joking. We got Aidan the UC shirt when we went back to Ohio last month and the UT shirt came today from Emmy's Aunt Dawna and family, which includes Trey (her cousin) who is a freshman at UT. Thank you for the shirt guys! When we opened it Aidan ran over to it, yelled "Elmo!" and gave the Elmo a kiss.
So what is it going to be Aidan, are you a Volunteer or a Bearcat?
My hope...be a "Crimson".....look it up...or if you don't have time or care, that would be Harvard's mascot.
Other news of the day...Aidan decided to get his cheery self up at 5:00 this morning. So we brought him in to watch some Baby Signs on Baby Einstein. Because he was so cheery, and us not so much, we had to get a few pictures.
Too Happy for 5 o'clock!!!
Lastly tonight, Aunt Natalie has passed her state cosmetology boards! Yeah Nat! Congratulations and best of luck in your job hunting!!!!
Have a great night everyone!
Ty, Emmy and Aidan
PS: Don't ask about the Master Bathroom...it's a total cluster. The Plumber dude has been to our house twice; once with out the right parts, and then once with out me having the right type of faucet for the tub. So....the bathroom renovation is in limbo right now.
Poor Pookie wasn't feeling good today so we had to postpone our big outing at the St. Louis Zoo until next weekend. There's been some bug floating through his school, and fortunately Aidan caught it on the weekend, and only had minor symptoms.
So although we missed the zoo, Mommy and Aidan definitely got some great play time in today while Daddy worked on the bathroom.
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So this is how we play now, sitting in his bus...works for me!
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It's the little things....a belt hooked up to the laundry basket becomes a "house sled"!
Daddy's started up the last tiling project of this house...the Master Bathroom! We found a good deal on some travertine tile last week, and decided that it was time to get the carpet out of our master bathroom. I mean, who puts carpet in a bathroom!?!? Here's some before, during and after (kinda, it's not done yet)
Wednesday Night
Thursday Night
Friday Night
Tonight! Tile down on the floor, grouting and the tub tomorrow!
Here's Pookie...wearing his Halloween Jammies last night...what a scary little man!
So cute...he is scary!!
Have a great night all! We have a BIG day planned for tomorrow...Aidan's first trip to the Zoo for the "Boo at the Zoo" night! He'll be there in costume...what will he be?????
Tonight, Aidan and I went to a "Parents as Teachers" sponsored event called, "Building with Daddy!" It was just for Dads and allowed Aid and I to get some good time building stuff!
We did all sorts of fun things: stacking blocks, painting, coloring, playing with playdoh, pushing around a grocery cart, matching pictures and playing with LEGOS. Aidan was such a good boy for me and even said "thank you" to the nice ladies that put it on...what a man!
Here's some pictures (I forgot my camera so had to use my phone's camera...ugh!)
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Building LEGOS and playing with the "rollercoaster block thingy"
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Building a brick house...oh no! it fell down!
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Such a big boy lifting those big blocks...what a builder!!!
It is with a heavy heart that I have to tell you all that my Grandma, Aidan's Great-Grandma Ne-Ne has passed away suddenly today from complications of pulmonary fibrosis. We are very sad....
Thankfully, we celebrate today as the day that our "Ne-Ne" has been reunited with my Grandpa Dick, her beloved dog "Joshie" and her parents, whom were taken from her in a car accident when she was only a grade-schooler.
Emmy and I really admire Ne-Ne for what she had done with this debiliating disease. Over the last few years, she was part of an extensive study at the University of Miami for experimental treatment of this condition. In true Ne-Ne style, she did things her way and as the disease progressed, she stuck through the study. We all very much hope, when the study ends, that her contribution will help treat others who live with this disease.
My "Ne-Ne", as we always called her, was truly a character. Someone who had grown up from the humble backgrounds of Mount Vernon, Kentucky...to the stigma of being married to a Jewish man in New York...then the wife of my Grandpa Dick in Northern Ohio. She had traveled long and far and seen so much in her years. Although legally, not my "real" Grandma, but she was really the only Grandma that I knew on my Dad's side.
She left such a mark on our lives; this a woman with such a strong Southern accent who (after divorcing the Jewish man and converting to Catholicism), never really stopped being a Jew. She badgered and picked and was everything that we often laughed at, because she was Ne-Ne, because she was such a character. I can remember time after time, including just 6 short weeks ago when we saw her last, where she'd just boss folks around, say "Oy Vey!", and make such a big stink about some things. She wasn't trying to be mean, in fact, I think that she was a very good person, who always thought the world of those she loved the most...My Mom, her family, her friends and us. It was her, that was our Ne-Ne. We had laughed that since she was both a "Jew" and a Catholic, that when she died, she'd have both bases covered when she got to the Pearly Gates. So, I feel very confident that all is well in Heaven tonight!
I can't tell you all how happy I am that we were able to see and visit her back in August. For her to meet our pride and joy, Aidan, was maybe the most important thing that I've ever done. As many of you know, when someone close to you dies, you always wish for that last moment to say goodbye and tell them that you love them. I really didn't think that she'd pass so quickly, but I feel that my goodbye to her then was exactly what I needed, if I never saw her again. And I'm so glad that I had that chance.
So today we celebrate the life of Carol Ann Frost, our Grandma, our Ne-Ne!
Here are some pics that we took in Florida in August, as well as a video of her and Aidan being fun...
We'll miss you a lot Ne-Ne...we'll never forget you...keep watching over us...watch this blog to see your great-grandson (and future great-grandkids) grow and become the pride of our lives, just like we are the pride of yours.....
With Love,
Ty, Emmy and Aidan
PS: Ne-Ne, I know you're reading this...we read the book you got for book to Aidan tonight, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", because we know that you wanted him to be the smartest little Frost boy out there...and I promise, we'll do our best help him be everything that you dreamed for him!
Like both his Mommy and Daddy, Aidan definitely loves coloring. Today, we were in church trying to keep him good, so we pulled out the crayons. To our shock and surprise, he picked up the crayon and started writing just like they teach you in elementary school! Later, we caught him again....look at the perfect thumb and pointer finger position!
It's amazing since neither of us taught him this (maybe his school did?) and it is equally amazing that it's somewhat uncomfortable to hold a crayon, pen, etc. like that, especially since it's so much easier to "Caveman" hold it and just go to town. So that's a pretty cool thing, I must say. Who knows maybe he'll be doing cursive writing soon!
What do you think Aidan about your drawing and writings?
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A look of shock....
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....and a Funny Smile
Not much going on this weekend...it was pretty warm here. We so took a quick walk on Friday. I'll have to take a picture/movie of this guy down the street from our place. He really goes all out for Halloween, complete with moving tombstones and caskets and a new thing this year that pops up and sprays compressed air and water at you! Pretty sweet.
Anyways, hope you all had a great weekend.
Have a good night,
Ty, Emmy and Aidan
PS: Congrats to our friend's the Amrine's who bought their first home today!
Throughout our busy days and nights, there is always one constant...every night, no matter what. We always sit down and read some good night books to Aidan. He really enjoys them, and we really enjoy his excitement! And now, he's gotten pretty darn good at picking certain things out in the books that we read, which is hilarious (Note: wait until he sees the pigs in the video).
Also, an absolute favorite of Emmy and mine, is the "I love you" and kiss after all the books are done. He just started doing this well in the last few weeks and in the video below, you'll see...it just about melts our hearts when he does this. It's probably the most spectacular thing that he does...ahhh....amazing!
So with that, enjoy our book time, as read to him tonight about an hour ago.....
Aidan got to check out some fire trucks this weekend, how fun! Our Parents as Teachers instructor told us about the National Fire Safety Week event at Home Depot down by our house on Saturday and, they had REAL fire trucks there! Aidan was absolutely beside himself (you can tell by his face in the pictures). We started up a conversation with the nice fireman and he asked, "do you want to sit in it?". Aidan didn't answer but I said, "Heck ya!"
So we got to go up into the firetruck and see all their switches and lights and chairs and everything...it was pretty cool if I may say so! I was asking all these questions about how many fires that they go to a month and what this does and what that does...all while Fireman Aidan just checked it all out. He was infatuated. I couldn't get him to look at the camera and smile because he was so intrigued by it all or making the "Roor-or-Roor" siren sound! How funny!
Sitting in the "jump" seat...ready to go fight fires!
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Who's Drivin' this thing? It's Captain Aidan that's who!
It was a very nice weekend weather-wise, so next we headed up to a nearby school's playground. Aidan showed us some pretty cool tricks that we hadn't seen before. 1. Walking up stairs (note: we live in a one-story and Aidan never uses the stairs down to the basement) and 2. Going down the slide without any assistance or coaxing...he just goes!
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Crusin' across the bridge (doesn't he look like one of the goombas from "The Sopranos" with that outfit? So funny!)
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Scooting up to the edge and giving one last look to Momma and Dadda...then...
