I’m about to get heavy on one of my kids. To be read: This post has little to do with all things home.

That’s Layne. Today is his birthday. He’s turning 8. I find myself reflecting on my kids’ short but big lives on their birthdays. I’m often amazed at how much they’ve changed and grown. Today is no different.

When Layne was three years old, he was diagnosed with a sensory disorder. He was a relatively mild case but his symptoms were enough to disrupt our daily lives and affect Layne socially. On an intellectual level, Layne was way beyond his years. He was speaking in complete sentences at 16 months and was reading by the age of 3.

But, physically, Layne was uncomfortable in his body. Just getting dressed for the day was a huge, frustrating task that, more than once, ended with Layne physically getting sick. Layne couldn’t advance with his peers in preschool because he had problems with potty-training – yet he was reading at a 1st grade level. He was nearly 4 years old by the time he was potty-trained “enough” to move up but even then he had problems.

Desperate and worried, I relayed my concerns to Layne’s pediatrician and we were referred to an occupational therapist. Layne attended OT sessions and I was given recommendations for treatments and activities outside of OT to help Layne’s symptoms improve. One of the OT’s suggestions was to enroll Layne in gymnastics. I did. It was a basic co-ed gymnastics class that met for 45 minutes once a week. He learned to do a somersault and jumped around in a bounce house. That was over three years ago.

Yesterday, Layne placed 1st on parallel bars, 3rd on high bar, 5th on pommel horse and 4th all-around at a gymnastics meet in Indiana. I was so proud of him but the best part was seeing how proud Layne was of himself. He has come a long way.

We celebrated Layne’s birthday this past weekend. Per Layne’s request, we threw a Titanic-themed party for our families. He was inspired by a library book he had recently read on the Titanic.

I made Layne’s favorite meal and he helped me come up with Titanic-esque names for the food:

*Watch Out for That Iceberg! salad

*Troubled Waters chili

*Grab a Lifeboat corn muffins

*Titanic fruit salad

He chose Cold Stone’s ice cream cupcakes for dessert. {If you want to confuse the bajeezus out of your guests, ice cream cupcakes are the way to go! Yes, you eat the frozen chocolate “wrapper.” Yes, they are cupcakes. Yes, they have ice cream in them. Yes, they have cake in them. And, again, YES! you eat the “wrapper.”}

Someone on instagram asked so I thought I’d share…the black and white polkadot balloons were off the shelf at Meijer. The guy in the flower department filled them with helium at no extra charge. Wasn’t that nice?!

What would you guess an eight-year-old boy’s favorite birthday gift to be? You will never guess Layne’s. NEVER. So I’ll just tell you.

A 4-slot toaster. A 4-SLOT TOASTER! We played Heywood Bank’s “Toast!” after Layne opened his toaster. Layne made stacks of toast for everyone the next morning. He’s one-of-a-kind.

Happy Birthday Layne! I’m so happy I get to be your mom and watch you become you.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

I posted this image of HH on instagram a few days ago with the caption “scratching an itch.” The image and caption caused some confusion/hilarious comments. HH is not literally scratching an itch. The gutted kid/guest bathroom is giving us quite the tick though. And we’re ready to do something about it.

Last week we took the first steps towards making this space a functional bathroom.

HH poured concrete to fill in around the future tub’s plumbing which we had a professional plumber update back when we were in the midst of a full-on reno.

HH also removed and rehung the backerboard under the window because the drywallers did a shoddy job.

Once that was all finished and the new concrete around the plumbing had cured, HH prepped the floor for leveler primer + self-leveling underlayment. We used Henry’s brand from Home Depot. The underlayment is cement-based and helps to smooth and flatten surfaces before flooring installation. In our case, we’ll be laying a tile floor in the bathroom and the job is 200% easier when the floor is nice and level.

To prep, HH cleaned the floor of all debris then fashioned cardboard “dams” around the toilet drain and floor vent. He caulked around the toilet dam and secured the floor vent dam with masking tape along the inside.

He built another dam at the bathroom’s doorway. Hint: If you’re going to be using self-leveling underlayment, it’s important to block off any parts of the room that you don’t want to be affected by the concrete. Then the primer went on. {Sorry, no pictures of this step. It’s likely that I was tending to a blown out diaper.} The primer improves the underlayment’s bond and prevents pinholes/air bubbles in the finished surface.

With the primer dry, we tag teamed the  mixing of the underlayment. Hint: the dry powder is fine so wear a mask to prevent inhalation. It’s not difficult – you just add water and mix with a drill gadget – but the leveler sets up very quickly. You only have 10 minutes after mixing to pour and work with the leveler. We guessed we would need 2 bags of underlayment. So HH mixed one bag in the garage and took it inside to pour while I began mixing the second batch. Then I brought my bucket of mixed underlayment in {muscles!} just as HH was finishing up with the first bag.

Here’s the first batch going in. HH poured the mixture in small sections and used a hand trowel to gently move the leveler into tight spaces.

He also used a section of 2″x4″ to work the larger areas.

We set a timer for 10 minutes to keep track of how much time we had left before the cement started to set.

With ~four and a half minutes left, we poured the second bucket. At this point, HH was working from the hallway.

After 10 minutes and 2 batches of underlayment, we had a floor covered in wet cement. A few hours later, the floor looked like this…

It’s only cement but it already looks 10x’s better. Seriously. I sat in the hallway watching it dry and dreamt of a finished bathroom. It’s going to be great! I just know it. {See my plans for the bathroom here.}

But we’re not completely ready for tile just yet. The area around the tub plumbing didn’t level up the way we had predicted. Turns out self-leveling underlayment is great for smoothing out minor discrepancies but not major ones. Looks like mixing and pouring more concrete is in our future to get that corner as level as possible.

When do we expect the bathroom to be finished? I dunno. 2014? Hehe. I laugh but it’s totally feasible. We’re just working on it whenever we have a chunk of time to devote to one step of the bigger project. HH has a lot of traveling to do for work over the next three months. We only have a few free weekends coming up but every little project we tackle gets us that much closer to not sharing a bathroom with the little people in our house. I’m stoked.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking