6 Month Step Stool

not too long after jonah's first bath, i realized that kneeling at the edge of the tub was not going to be the most effective way for me to stay close by while he was playing in the tub. so, i designed this little step stool to serve two functions. first, erin and i can use it to sit beside the tub while jonah plays and splashes around. then, once he gets a little bigger, jonah can use it as a step to get up to his sink.

now, if you do the math, from jonah's first tub bath until now... 6 months. i'm pretty sure that that might just be a woodworking record. that's 3 months per step. God help me if i ever decide to build a ladder!

i'd like to send a huge shout out to my buddy adam king for his help perfecting the finish for this piece. adam is a studio furniture craftsman based in souther illinois. if you're in the market for a unique piece of furniture, adam is your man!

ps.

i'm hoping to have some professional photos taken of a few of my pieces to get a bit of a portfolio started. i'll update them as soon as i can.

turning green

i think having a child has already started to change the way i look at things. in particular, i find myself trying to ride the "green" bandwagon lately. erin refers to it as "living with ed" but, i figure, what better thing to do for my son than do my part to make the world a little cleaner. so, in my next few blog posts you may see the eco freak in me start to emerge.

my first step was a simple recycling station at home as well as paper and cardboard recycling at work. though we don't have a recycling pick-up service, it's pretty easy for me to run our recycling to the community recycling center in spring arbor.

jonah's first live concert

while in the hospital, our friend john surprised us with a little live set. i can't even begin to explain how cool this was. here's a little of the set...

thank you so much JVo. i can't begin to tell you how much that moment meant to erin, jonah and me.



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i can't use the dog crate?

what i don't know...

well, we've finally got the baby's room ready. we're stocked up on diapers and onesies, i've put the stroller together and even tried installing the car seat in erin's car. i'm feeling pretty relaxed about the whole thing. infact, i'm starting to get a little nervous about not being nervous. and that is getting me to think that i must be missing something. what don't i know?

the obvious answer is "a lot." this being my first child, i'm sure that there is a lot i don't know but i'm still feeling pretty ok with that.

starting to prepare the nursery

in preparation for our first baby we're having to do a bit of moving to make room.  what was previously a guest bedroom/erin's painting space/place to store miscellaneous stuff will now become the baby's room.  that means it's time to do a little cleaning out and moving.

luckily, we're keeping most of the 'guest room' furniture and turning it into baby furniture.  however, there was still a lot of moving to do...

the queen size bed was passed along to friends, the existing furniture all had to be rearranged and all of erin's painting stuff all had to go into the adjacent office space.  however, there was a love seat in the office that had to go before any of the other moving could happen.  it's good to have two cousins in college.  my uncle was more than happy to take the love seat off of our hands.

now if i could only get the time to finish that darn crib...

grateful

i'm feeling very grateful lately.

with the forthcoming birth of my first son, i'm nowhere as nervous as i thought i'd be.  sure, i have my 'holy crap, i'm gonna be a dad' kind of moments, but they're pretty few and far between.  my feelings are really heading in a different direction than i would have expected; toward gratefulness.  as i think about the state of the world and the state of affairs in jackson, michigan, i keep coming back to this same feeling. i'm grateful.  grateful for good health (can't think of the last time that i made it to january without some kind of illness), grateful for a healthy wife and baby (finally!!!) and grateful for the freedoms in my life.

running a small business isn't easy, especially right now.  but today i'm most grateful for the freedoms that this business gives me.  so far, i've been able to be with erin for every one of her prenatal appointments.  that's huge.