Category: kittens

the kittens turn 1!

for those of you on facebook, this post and the wedding post may seem redundant. but in case you missed it, the kittens had a birthday party!

their evite card.

i hand-knit their favorite balls and bones as favors. most of the guests were cat-people so they went home with toys and tuna. but for the non-cat-people there were other options. 🙂

our first guests were marisa, arthur, their three kids and marisa’s parents, lynn and philip. the kittens are still not good with small children. they both hissed at trevor when he arrived! and sadly this is the only photo i got of marisa’s family! arthur on the lower left, lynn at the upper right and one of the kids on the lower right. my parents are on the other side of the table.

i wasn’t very good at taking photos of the humans at the party. 🙁 i missed some really cute photos of kyle with arwen downstairs, and my dad having a quiet visit upstairs with arwen and bella.

marisa did me a HUGE favor and picked up the cake at prolific oven in palo alto. this is THE BEST cake and kind of the whole reason for throwing a party… originally i was going to have them draw two little cat heads on the cake, but i chickened out when i placed the order.

even though i said “the kittens like paper bags, gifts are not necessary” people brought gifts! here is bella with a lovely bag from uncle larry.

bags!

more bags! and fun gifts!

while bella was loving all the gifts and attention, arwen was upstairs (passed out from too much catnip) completely oblivious that there was a party happening downstairs.

(left) christina and mathew. (right) larry and janeen.

what’s all this?

(left) another bag! (right) bella finally realized it was nap time and took a nap next to uncle larry.

(left) bella loves her uncle justin! (being silly…) (right) arwen and uncle larry!

is this for ME???

after everyone went home we took the girls outside.

i can’t believe how big they’ve gotten. arwen is now over 11 lbs. and bella is just under 10 lbs.

remember how small they used to be?

my birthday present to them: BUBBLES!

they loved the catnip bubbles.

thank you everyone for coming to visit and for bringing all the birthday loot!

the girls have been enjoying all their new toys.

Back Stair Footings

We started to ‘pour’ the footings for the back stairs last weekend. Well, it was more like I got lots of blisters on my soft engineer’s hands by shovel-mixing concrete.

Because the back stairs are the second exit from our upstairs unit, I don’t want them to be out of commission for a long time. I’m leaving the old stairs up until I’ve got all the footings done for the replacement stairs. I’ll also pre-cut as much of the framing for the replacement stairs as I can so that once we tear down the rotten old stairs, I’ll be able to replace them quickly. That’s the plan.

Digging out footings for new stairMole using electric jackhammer

Figuring that the concrete that’s all over the back yard would be thin and easy to break out, I first tried to chip the concrete out with a sledge and cold chisel. Two hours and two blisters later, with only one footing chipped out, I learned the error of my ways: The rented electric jackhammer did the remaining eight, and the concrete in a corner of the garden, in the same amount of time.

Rebar bent into tricky shapesTieing rebar cages

Being an engineer is a handicap when it comes to foundations. Once I started with putting reinforcing steel in the footings, well, I started figuring out how I could bend the bars so that they would hold their position. Hence the funky shapes!

Rebar placed into hole (no dobies yet)Formwork for footing

Test-fitting the reinforcing (left), and with the formwork made out of plywood. OK, they didn’t need to be sloping, but I like it.

Inspectors show upNot sure if the engineer likes this one

And then the inspection. Bella seems to see something wrong on the footing: I think she thinks I don’t have enough concrete cover between the soil and the rebar. Or maybe she likes the smell of the string. Difficult because she never wrote a field report.

Shovel mixing is hard on the back16 sacks = 3 footings

So after my fun experience with chipping out the concrete, I’d planned to rent a concrete mixer. But it doesn’t fit in the car. So I got more blisters, and an aching back, by shovel mixing 16 60lb sacks of concrete to pour three footings. I’m going to see if I can strap the mixer onto the car somehow…

Starting on the back stairs

I was going to use this post to show the completed front steps and porch. But I forgot to take photos. Next time.

When we first looked at the house, the major thing that worried us–and actually almost held up the sale–was the condition of the back steps. So it’s a bit ironic that we just passed our four year anniversary here, and I’m finally starting on the project of replacing them.

Here’s a nice view out of the downstairs kitchen window. When my Mum was visiting, she tried to improve things by getting plants to put out there. On the right is the view at the outside of this window. Pipes everywhere, and paint  in rather poor shape. It’s hard to imagine, but this actually looks better than when we got the house (I’ve removed two pipes already, and a cable tv wire).

But nothing compares to this! These stairs are held together with paint and caulk. And the paint is seriously peeling. On the right you can see the temporary shoring I put in four years ago (I was thinking it would be there for six months max).

Last weekend mole and I measured, and I drew up some plans for the new stairs. My goal is to change the alignment slightly so that it’s not in front of the kitchen window. I’d also like to make a small deck out in this rather dingy space.

With a level, string, a tape measure and spray paint, it took me most of the day to lay out the locations of the new posts, and where their footings will be. Using a concrete saw blade, I saw cut around the outlines of the new footings. In about two hours of hand chipping, I dug one of the footing holes. There’s about five inches of concrete, then soft, dark, beautiful soil. On the right above you can see the footing hole.

I’m gonna rent a jackhammer next week–there are nine more to do.

…and some kitten photos:

Left, Arwen on the about-to-collapse-deck. Right, kitten cooking assistants (they are watching Janeen cooking).

 

June Rain

The highly labor-intensive work continued on the front porch. The weather has been sunny and warm, but there’s a weather forecast of rain…

Mole primed all surfaces of the balusters before I put them in.

Ever since I changed the wiring for the porch light, the marks left by the previous electrical conduit were an eyesore on the ceiling of the landing. You can’t see it clearly from the photo, but it also looked as if someone had started stripping the paint, but never finished.

So I put plastic over the door and landing, put the ladder on the landing, and did some overhead paint stripping. Really tiring on the shoulders.

Sorry, not photos after the stripping, but here it is with primer on. I’ve started to sand and prep the beautiful decorative wood posts. At some point, a really thick coat of paint was put on that did not adhere. In lots of places, it’s come loose, so there are voids under the paint. Other areas, the paint is showing cracking, as if the paint underneath is shrinking. It’s got to get ugly before it gets pretty.

Well, even though I didn’t believe it on this beautiful sunny weekend, I’ve been caught before: With rain forecast, I had to get primer onto all the exposed wood. Here you can see the new railing and balusters installed.

The rain did come. The following week rained almost every day. On the weekend, Justin came to visit. The cats loooovvve him.

We bought this electric fireplace back in December because my mum thought the downstairs living room was dingy. Our plan was to install it into the bookshelf space to make the room a bit more cozy. I took out some of the bottom shelves, and installed a new receptacle inside the alcove. But we’ve liked the heater so much upstairs that we never got round to bringing it back down. A rainy summer weekend is the perfect time.

Above right: Arwen and Bella inspect the test fitting.

Above left: Bella asks which screwdriver to use. Above right: I think Arwen just really likes getting into bags. She’s really curious and doesn’t scare easily; she hung around even after I started sawing, and got sawdust in her fur.

I had to trim off some of the top of the fireplace to get it to fit. But now it’s built-in.

Stair Painters

I think I’ve pointed this out before: Part of what takes me so long is I have to do much of the work more than once. When laying out the stairs, I was aware that it’s very important to keep the dimensions of each step identical. I waited to build the stairs until I’d bought the tile for the landing. I measured it, and included an estimate of the thickness of everything that goes under the tile. The building code requires the variation be less than 3/8″.

After building the stairs, putting on the Kerdi (same as in our shower) waterproofing membrane and starting to lay out the tile, I realized there was a problem.

(Above right) I was doing a last minute check that the stair heights were consistent. OOOoops. As you see, the top step is almost an inch higher with the tile installed. I’d not realized that the tile I bought has varying thicknesses. The pieces that are at the nosing are twice as thick as the tile I’d measured. Also, the combined thickness of the thinset under the cement board, under the Kerdi, and the membrane added up to almost 3/8″. Lesson: Assemble a mock up of the entire assembly including any waterproofing membranes and the actual tiles that will be used if the thickness of tile is important.

I had to tear out the landing and lower it. Fortunately I had John to help (above right).

After a full weekend detour, I was back to the start. Above right shows the waterproof membrane attached to metal flashing that goes over two layers of building paper under the cement board.

Using John’s tile saw, mole cut out the tile for the landing. Here it is all laid up, before sticking it down with thinset.

Thinset time! The little diamond shapes are hand made tiles from Mexico that a friend gave to me three years ago.

What? Think I can resist putting destructamonkey photos on the blog? Bella figured out how to jump from the bathroom counter onto an open door. Arwen can destroy a toilet roll in under 15 seconds.

Above left, Janeen’s family came to visit to celebrate birthdays. Above right, Misha came to stay for a week; so I put him to work…

Grouting and painting the front steps.

After much indecision on my part, we decided to paint the fronts of the steps (risers) to match the main house color, and we’ll paint the tops (treads) in a brownish caramel. I didn’t have any porch paint in that color, so to fortify the steps before the oncoming rain, we put a coat of the blue on them.

Before Misha’s visit was over, Reirin, Leo, Dan and Dad showed up. Dan is allergic to cats – he looks a bit pensive being the subject of Janeen’s test of our cats’ hypoallergenic qualities.

On the last morning of Misha’s visit, we met up with my “older brother”/friend/mentor Bob for breakfast at San Francisco’s best – and snobbiest – coffee place: Blue Bottle. Misha ran there in his North Brooklyn Runners shirt.

Three cuties working in the office…

new stairs and other stuff…

Other stuff: Janeen ordered carpet tile from flor which we put into the front lobby.

The kittens helped with cutting the tiles to size…

And Arwen was in charge of inspections.

The front stairs for our unit have been in sore need of replacement for quite a few years now. Engineer friends of mine won’t even walk on them (wise). I finally got round to replacing them over the last few weeks.

My goal was to pre-fabricate as much of them as possible so that we don’t have to go without a front door. Above, I’m cutting the stringers (structure that supports the steps.) This has to be precise, as any variation in step length or height is dangerous: People are much more likely to trip. The building code restricts the variation between any two steps to 3/8″ at the most.

We also cut out and painted (above right) all the parts for the steps themselves. The stringers and steps are made from pressure preservative treated wood, and I’ve also treated all cut edges.

The top landing was the most derelict of the whole stair (if that’s possible). Once I’d chipped out the mortar under the tile, the wood was completely rotten and just fell away.

This was Janeen’s view out of the front door. And the black hole is where I would have gone when I walked through the front door if we’d waited much longer…

We completely tore out all the stairs and framing underneath; it was too rotten to save. Above I’ve got the framing for the landing back in place, with help from John (sorry no action photo).

When the stairs were built, they were built right over windows in this area. Above left is the view out of my workshop; it’s never had daylight since we’ve been here. One neighbor told me that he’s lived here over sixty years, and has never seen this window from the outside. The window on the right I filled in so that it did not interfere with the new stair framing.

Our neighbor’s son helped me tear out and rebuild these stairs in two days. It helped that we’d already cut, assembled, and painted most of the stair parts (just the bottom riser was cut to fit). Still more to do: I need to seal all the edges, and put a couple more coats of paint on the stairs. I also need to lay tile on the landing. More about that in another post 🙁

Bella liked the new tile for the landing. Here I’m laying out pattern ideas to include hand made tile that a friend gave me years ago.

Visit from baby brother Elijah (well, he’s getting closer to seven feet). He and dad are comparing methods of cheating in scrabble with your iphone (what’s the point?)

Breakfast time neck-warmer anyone? This was a once-only performance, but it really did warm up my neck nicely.

These cats love watching fish almost as much as they like eating them… Sadly our fish Ludwig died last week after thirteen years. Above left, Bella is wondering where the fish went. Above right is what happens if you let the kittens into the closet with Janeen’s dresser: they get into it, and clothing gets pushed in and out as they scramble up and down inside it.

I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to lie down for a nap (above left): The kittens came to investigate. Above right: They are helping to (dis)organize the paper recycling in our office.

Arwen has turned into a rubber band thief. And she does not care if it’s attached to a roll of drawings.

Happy Easter!

turtle and mole go to england!

maybe i should change our blog tagline from “home in progress” to “life in progress”..? i know it seems like all i ever write about these days is kittens or social events, but sometimes they just make cuter photos! don’t worry, all you home DIYers, more “gritty” house stuff coming soon.

i thought i would cry saying goodbye to my kittens for a week, but they had so much fun with uncle larry, they hardly noticed us packing and leaving.

our first stop: king’s cross station to pick up train tickets. of course i had to visit platform 9 3/4. we didn’t see harry potter or the hogwarts express but it was fun anyway. (note: because the station was under construction, they had this (left) temporary fake display. (right) this is what it normally looks like.)

after an hour on the train we arrived in brighton. stella and chris were busy-busy as usual, unloading puppets from the van. we got to see darren and meet beccy and returned later that evening for indian take-away. because of the plane flight and time change i finally got some sleep after 32 hours of being awake!

(left) this is where we stayed in brighton, with stella’s 87 year old friend magda. (if you look closely at the top, right balcony, you can see magda waving.) you’d never guess she was 87, this woman has more activities and social engagements than most people half her age. (right) this is the view from our room on the 8th floor.

the day after we arrived the weather turned surprisingly sunny and warm, even hot by california standards. these are views of brighton beach. mathew visited a couple years ago but i hadn’t been here in 20 years!

(left) we wandered around brighton and found a cool graffiti cat, then took the train and arrived in london (right) and found some very unusual looking cats on a window sill. they looked like show cats, slightly creepy but still cute. my brother thinks mathew and i often meet cats when traveling, i guess that’s true.

(left) the very blue building and door of the apartment we rented in fitzrovia, near soho. (right) a very cool bridge between buildings? or is it art? this building was just to the left of the royal ballet school in covent garden.

(left) everywhere we went, people crowded the sidewalks and pubs, enjoying the warm weather. (right) priscilla queen of the desert, i’m sure it makes a good broadway show, since it was a great musical, visual movie.

(above) our night walk by the thames.

happy birthday to me! (left) on my birthday we had sushi for lunch and (right) various baked goodies around london.

(left) later in the day we wandered to hyde park where lots of people were enjoying the sunshine. (right) a chocoholic birthday pig out. various cupcakes, a whoopie pie, a brownie and a triple chocolate cake. honestly, all a bit disappointing (by san francisco standards) but a fun way to celebrate my birthday.

the next day we took the train to hassocks and stopped into a pet store beccy recommended, not for their supplies, but for their free-roaming animals. there were more cats than we could count, rabbits, guinea pigs and a parrot who could say “hello,” meow and “bock” like a chicken!

(left) sleeping kittens that reminded me of arwen and bella. (right) the largest black cat i’ve ever seen, sleeping in the scale on the counter. does mathew look concerned?

the reason we were in hassocks was to help decorate and set up the wedding reception hall. (above) mathew and his cousins, jethro and darren testing the sound system and listening to misha’s cd!

they liked it!

taking a break from the prep work.

after we finished with the hall, we met up in brighton for an indian dinner with beccy’s family and friends. (left) beccy! (right) brothers, darren and jethro, trying to demonstrate their facial similarities…

the next day was the wedding day! (left) here we are all dressed up and waiting for the bus with magda.

darren and beccy are thespians so the wedding was held in a theater and felt very much like a once in a lifetime performance. guests were asked to dress theatrically, and that was definitely open to interpretation.

darren is a puppeteer, so his friends gave a puppet show. there were poetry readings and also songs where the audience was asked to sing along.

it was a beautiful ceremony and probably the most unique and creative i’ve ever attended.

(left) darren’s mom stella with someone’s baby. (right) mathew’s mum, sue flew back from thailand to be there with everyone.

after the ceremony mathew, sue and i went out to lunch. little girls stopped and stared at me on the street. most brighton visitors don’t dress up like princesses. i definitely felt like i was wearing a costume that day.

(left) after a short train trip to hassocks, we were greeted by singing tigers at the reception. after a while darren and beccy looked like they had had enough of the singing tigers, but the singing continued as the tigers crowded in on the bride and groom. (right) dave, sylvia, mathew and i seemed to be the only ones who found this hilarious and slightly disturbing; we couldn’t help our laughing fits.

a happy bride and groom.

happy parents of the groom.

(left) darren’s brother, jethro gave a hilarious yet touching best man’s speech. (right) apparently darren found it hilarious too.

since we missed the official family group photo after the ceremony (we were catching up with relatives from sweden) we did our best to take some photos during the reception…

…but it was difficult to gather everyone together at once.

(left) mathew with his aunt karin and cousin sylvia. (right) me and sylvia.

(left) there was a really great band that played swing music. (right) and of course, it wouldn’t be a party without DJ jethro. here he is posing with cousin aaron. mathew says we wouldn’t have had music at our wedding reception if it wasn’t for jethro; he was the only one who knew how to work the professional sound system we rented.

(left) sue and jethro. (right) mathew and karin.

it was a late night followed by an early morning as the brighton marathon was starting just below us at magda’s. as many as 15,000 people were running in the race and it was amazing to see all those people warm up on the field then queue up for the start.

(left) we spent 4 nights at magda’s and every morning we sat down together to a breakfast of cereal, toast, fruit and tea. (right) here i am watching the start of the race on the balcony with magda.

we spent that afternoon with mathew’s mum, aunt karin, cousin sylvia and sylvia’s boyfriend, dave. the visit was over before it really began so i’m lacking in photos, but i got to snap a few of interesting buildings and design. (left) i love the contrast between the old and new that you see everywhere. (right) this shop window was filled with cool antique sewing machines. the display even continued around the corner on the left.

that night we had dinner with stella and chris as they were winding down and just starting to relax after all the wedding festivities.

the next day we packed up our bags, left a surprise thank you gift for magda (she was out being her busy self) and headed to london. (left) we spent the entire afternoon catching up with sylvia in a cafe. it was a really nice visit. just before we left, the rain started pouring down, signifying the break in the amazing weather we’d had. (right) we got on the tube and headed north to visit phil, a high school friend of ours who now lives in england with his wife, hannah and daughter, lily.

after a nice indian take-away dinner (did i mention how much indian food we enjoyed on our trip?) we sat around talking until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. the next morning phil left for work much too early and we got to spend a little time with hannah and lily before they rushed off to work and daycare.

next we were subjected to very grumpy flight attendants and sat uncomfortably on a plane for over 10 long hours. i’d never been so excited to get home, i couldn’t wait to see bella and arwen. and i think they were happy to see us.

destructamonkeys!

“destructamonkeys,” that’s mathew’s new nickname for the kittens…

their favorite bag. or what used to be a bag. now it’s two pieces of mangled, well-loved paper. this is after they climbed into the recycling to rescue it.

bella figured out how to climb up onto the fish tank and stick her paw in! ack. we put tape, sticky-side-up on top of the tank to stop her from doing that.

now they can both get up onto the refrigerator…

another one of their bags. this one lives downstairs, and still resembles a bag.

a quiet moment. (left) bella in the cat tree. (right) arwen hugging the heater.

(left) they love playing in the closet. i’ve been avoiding figuring out which garment they’re climbing up (destroying), to sit on the hangers… (right) bella jumped from the closet onto my shoulder. that dark thing in the bottom right is my head.

(left) classic arwen. how did she get her head stuck in the head massager? (right) she soon discovers the fish tank and figures out how to knock the lid off. we’ve since taped the lid down and put tape deterrents around the tank…

bella loves watching oprah with me. arwen couldn’t care less. i find this hilarious.

the girls helping to put away our organic box delivery. what are they looking for? kale stems! broccoli leaves are also fun.

bella having a second go at the space above the closets. the dismount was a little scary.

(left) trying to sleep together in a basket that is too small for both of them together. (right) arwen up above the cabinets in the downstairs kitchen.

arwen playing with another one of her favorite toys, a metal coil. she will run, jump, chase and carry this thing all over the house.

(left) arwen and mathew “going to work.” (right) i framed misha’s lost puppy flyer and put it on mathew’s desk.

mathew decided to help the girls out by adding another shelf. now they both can play “upstairs.”

my parents have been coming “to visit the kittens” quite often. (left) my dad “telling them a story.” (right) my mom hugging arwen.

mathew and bella

bella and mathew.

turtle goes to new york and other adventures…

a couple weeks ago mathew flew to new york to visit his brother misha and to attend a party celebrating misha and aja’s birthdays.

siblings! (left) misha, mathew and leo, visiting from harvard. (right) leo and mathew.

(left) misha and aja. (right) misha and mathew.

(left) pretty snow covered trees. (right) a snowy, mathew-made eight two.

eight two and misha. (misha, you can download the original photos by clicking these photos. xoxo)

(left) someone putting up a lost puppy, eight two, music flyer.

(left) mathew and misha. (right) aja, misha and mathew’s hat.

(left) when mathew returned home late one night, bella was so excited she jumped onto a shelf then up above the closets! but she needed mathew’s help to get down. (right) the girls playing with our organic delivery box. can you see bella peeking out?

(left) bella loves to jump onto us, climb onto our shoulders and try to get onto doors! ack. she’s extremely ambitious. before mathew left for new york he made the mistake (?) of helping bella get on top of a door then letting her explore an overhead bedroom cabinet. ever since then, whenever she has the chance she will jump onto our shoulders, chests and heads in the hope that she will be allowed to explore that cabinet again. unless we’re wearing sweaters, it can be quite painful!

and the work continued that weekend. here we are priming steps that will become our new side entrance stairs. the weekend before going to new york, mathew and my dad cut these together.

the following weekend mathew decided to try out a crazy plan for getting a new rain water collection barrel into the back yard. it’s bigger than our other barrels and didn’t fit through the door leading to the backyard. so the obvious solution? hoist it over the fence! (left) here’s the ladder ready for me. (right) mathew on the other side of the fence with the barrel. fortunately no one was parked in that spot that afternoon.

(left) my view from the ladder. (right) can you see me in the shadows? i’m holding that huge barrel up with rope! of course there are no photos showing how the barrel got into that position… if there were photos, they would show mathew on the ladder pulling the ropes up while i held them tight. after he took this photo he carried the ladder around the block to the other side of the fence where he pushed the barrel up and over the fence while i gently let the barrel down into our yard.

(left) the last bit wasn’t so gentle as it landed with a thud onto some plants… my dad and our neighbor thought we were nuts for attempting this! but it worked! (right) clothes line poles!

we decided to swap out my grandmother’s daybed with this very modern and comfortable convertible sofa bed. we got it at a local furniture store, the box called it “click clack sofa bed.” it clicks up to form a sofa and clicks down to form a bed.

and over the last few weeks mathew has been finishing a box to hold my dad’s tile saw.  the wood box replaces a cardboard one and also supports the tile saw when in use. we’re gotten some good use out of this tool over the years. mathew had me design the top. only after he finished routing and carving it did he tell me that originally he was thinking it would just have some simple letters or words. of course mathew is always up for a challenge! my parents were really pleased with the end result.

now who’s the turtle?

progress has been happening on the house, i just haven’t been very fast about documenting it. all i can say is: the kittens sure take a lot of my time!

in january before mathew’s mom left, she helped mathew paint his workbench ORANGE. sue also did some planting in our garden.

we’ve been working on lots of miscellaneous things around the house. but finally it was time for the NEW DOOR! i think we’ve had it sitting in our garage for 12 months. mathew was intimidated by the idea of working on it, getting it to fit into the existing door frame, making sure it seals well, attaching the new hardware, staining and polyurethaning it… the whole process took about three weekends and some week days.

(above left) it started with carrying it upstairs. (it’s HEAVY.) then taking off the old door and pushing the new one into place, planing sides to make it fit and checking the fit, over and over again.

(above right) after that was done mathew chiseled out spaces for the hinges.

once the door fit into place, the hardware (pretty!) was attached and then the door frame was reworked, sanded and repainted.

next the door was taken back down to the garage, sanded, stained and polyurethaned. i think mathew said the exterior side got 6 coats of poly!

ta-da! (right) mathew even installed this automatic weather strip on the bottom of the door. it involved cutting out a groove and inserting this metal contraption that when you close the door, it actually pushes down on the floor. mathew had to plane down the hardwood floor threshold because it was interfering with the weather strip. of course, that involved sanding and re-polyurethaning that section of the floor…

since mathew is self-employed again, it leaves some weekday afternoons to do things like… tear up the sidewalk! the city of san francisco has been going around tagging sidewalk squares, encouraging homeowners to repair cracks themselves. if they choose not to do the work, the city will do it and charge something like $80 per square! (i thought sidewalks were public, not private property.) we had quite a few tagged with white paint dots. mathew repaired the cracks and even went to the effort of renting a jackhammer and chipping out and refilling some squares. a lot of the dots are gone now and it makes us wonder, will the city approve of his work? will they even know which squares were once tagged?

meanwhile inside the house, the kittens are growing fast! here they are “helping” mathew change the fish tank water.

they get along the best when they’re asleep…

(right) arwen has now learned how to play fetch too! her toys of choice are bones i knit for her.

these little girls get into plenty of trouble! (left) we had this plastic film on our living room window, to act as a double pane until we install the new window. one day arwen figured out how to cut into it and step into a see-thru tunnel… (right) bella has proudly learned how to jump up onto the handrail above the stairs…

(left) and that also means she can jump onto counters and the fireplace. the big orchid had a bad fall but is recovering well. (right) bags and boxes are endless fun. and one night while we were watching a movie they even figured out how to push the chair cushions around to make forts and tunnels!

hope everyone is having a fun february!