Rohdesign Weblog: Kids

Here you'll find all posts file under the Kids category.

December 7, 2009

Linnea's Baby Room Design

When Gail and I found out we were going to have our 2nd child, a baby girl, we knew we wanted to hire Aga Artka to design and guide us through the process of making it Linnea's room happen.

Hiring Aga has been an excellent decision in so many ways. Let me share them with you.

About Aga Artka

Aga Artka and her husband Brian have been friends a bit over 2 years. In that time I've watched Aga make a huge transition from full-time interior design employee to an interior design business owner.

It's been exciting to watch her take charge of her life while doing great design work for clients.

The Design Process

The process began with Gail and I sharing aesthetics we liked and were contemplating for the new room design with Aga, and a visit to the space she would be designing. Aga took our input, made measurements and created a plan for our review.

The plan included colors, furniture suggestions, and drawings Aga made of the room to give us a better idea how the space would be used and look.

I created a Basecamp project for the room design, which really made it easy for Gail, Aga and I to share ideas and links in messages, to create to do lists and manage the milestones of the project from start to finish. Basecamp was especially handy for accessing information (e.g. paint color, product URLs) when we needed it most.

We took Aga's plan and suggestions for paint color and other details and began to build the room out. Initially we thought about re-using Nathan's crib but in the end decided to upgrade to a new crib and changing table/dresser with better functionality and a look that better suited the room design.

Linnea's name graces the wall, from Chatty Walls, a small company who creates custom vinyl names. They did a great job creating the lettering, which was pretty easy to apply on the wall.

Our family also added a personal touch with hand-painted art to match Linnea's bedding and window treatments. I drew out the shapes in pencil, then Nathan, Gail and I worked together to paint 3 canvases that hang above the changing table.

Why Hire a Pro?

Having Aga there to set direction and take our random thoughts and make them into a cohesive direction was wonderful to experience.

Rather than slapping a coat of paint on the walls and buying some pieces and parts, we felt there was a direction to refer to as we went along.

Also, being able to ask questions as we built the room out was invaluable. On several shopping trips for chairs or cribs, I took photos of items with my iPhone and uploaded them to Basecamp for her review and commentary.

An important detail to note: when hiring a design specialist like Aga, having her available for questions and direction through the project is in my view, nearly as valuable as the initial design thinking and work is.

Experiencing this process was especially good for me as a design consultant. I was able see the design process from the client's perspective and understand how to better serve my own clients on design projects.

The FInished Room

This weekend Aga and Brian stopped over to see and take photos of the finished room. We're incredibly pleased with how the room turned out. It's comfortable and flows well for such a small space.

We love the new space and are confident Linnea will love it as she grows up.

Read the details of the process from Aga's perspective on her blog. She shares more on the technical specs and talks about the before and after aspects of the project.

Go Hire Aga!

If you have a space that needs design and some direction from a professional, contact Aga Artka. She listens and knows her stuff. She's amazing!

Find her at @agartka on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on Facebook or on her company blog or website contact form.

Thanks Aga!

Photos: Brian Artka

Related Links
37signals Product Blog: Interior designer and client use Basecamp to collaborate on design of new baby room

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October 31, 2009

Photographing Linnea

On Friday, my friend Derek Dysart stopped by the house to take photos of our 2-week old daughter, Linnea. We had a great time working the Derek, enjoying a house call after experiencing the agony of waiting for photoshoots at Sears.

I've known Derek was a photographer for a while, but never had a chance to hire him for a project until now. Boy am I glad we brought him in! Just few hours after our session, Derek posted this amazing photo of Linnea:

Derek was able to capture Linnea in a special moment with this shot. Every time I look at it I'm just blown away with the expressiveness of her eyes in this image.

This experience with Derek also reminds why it's so important to hire people who know what they're doing. In this case, Derek has spent time building his craft of shooting portraits, and it really shows.

Derek remarked to me that this shot is one of his top 5, and reminds him why he loves photography so much.

Hire Derek Dysart

If you're looking for a photographer for portraits in your home, or other photo assignments, drop Derek an email or give him a call at +1 (262) 758-2456.

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October 15, 2009

Linnea Grace Rohde

Say hello to Linnea Grace Rohde!

She was born happy and healthy on October 15, 2009, 4:23PM at 5lbs 8.5oz, 19"

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February 6, 2008

February Blizzard in Milwaukee

Milwaukee was hit with a big blizzard today, dropping 16" of snow across the entire area.

Around 3pm, I took a break from work to clear our snow, and was shocked by just how much white stuff was in our driveway.

Our neighbors helped me shovel, and a little later, Nathan came out to play. I took a few shots of him climbing the Mount Everest pile near the driveway to give you an idea how much snow we've got up here.

Holy Cow!

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July 26, 2007

Give a Kid a Camera...

This is what happens when a 4 year old boy gets hold of your camera.

My wife and I were cracking up as we imported some of the images he made of himself and surrounding objects while we attended a Milwaukee Brewer's baseball game last Friday night.

I've been impressed with Nathan's eye with a camera. He's very serious when shooting, and often seems to deliberately frame shots, though many times his shows seem less than intentional.

I quite liked his set of blurred and gradated background images, which I might come in handy for future design projects. I especially like the blue gradation background shown on the left. Those make me want to set him loose with a digital camera and a 2GB card just to see what he comes up with! :-)

I'm planning to work with Nathan on his camera skills, so he can better understand what he's doing. Whatever the case, I find a deep, unexplainable enjoyment as I watch him explore his world and express himself through a camera lens.

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December 5, 2006

Only from the Creative Mind of a Kid

"Weeeyeeoo weeeyeeoo weeeyeeoo weeeyeeoo weeeyeeoo!'

I turned around to see what Nathan, my 4 year old son was up to on the PC behind me. There he was, rapidly whipping the mouse around in circles, while a blue-white blob vibrated at the center of his screen.

"Weeeyeeoo weeeyeeoo weeeyeeoo weeeyeeoo weeeyeeoo!'

"Nathan, what are you doing?"

Without even turning to face me, he replied:

"Playing Google Earth, dad!"

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June 24, 2005

The Applesauce Boy

This morning, while I was in my basement office working, Nathan was upstairs, having breakfast. He'd finished his morning oatmeal, and had been given applesauce in a kid-sized cup as his fruit course. Gail went to another room, leaving Nathan in the kitchen with his applesauce for a few moments.

By the time she returned, Nathan flipped his applesauce cup over, and had spread applesauce on the entire tray of his highchair, on his arms and even worked some into his hair — eeewwww!

Gail asked Nathan if he knew what he had done with his applesauce was wrong. Nathan said:

"Yes mommy, I know."

Her next question was the kicker. Gail asked Nathan why he'd spread applesauce across his tray and in his hair. After a few moments of thought, he replied in a quiet voice:

"I'm just a little boy, mommy."

Gail wasn't pleased with the answer (and who knows where he picked that up from) but had to stifle her laughter, because it was an incredibly funny reply! But after some thought, I realized that's a tough question for a little kid. What else could a little applesauce-covered boy say? He's a little boy exploring his world, sometimes to the chagrin of his parents.

This story reminded me how sponge-like all kids are. I mean, how did Nathan know to use that phrase, and use it in the correct context? Does he understand the idea of an excuse? I'm not sure if he does or not, but for a little kid, he often amazes me with little things just like this — both good and bad.

Oh, the life of a parent. I wouldn't trade it for anything. :-)

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December 13, 2004

My Christmas Wish for Nathan

My wish is to fulfill the quote I read today on Teri Martin's wonderful Quote A Day email list:

“If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.”
— Brian Tracy

My parents did this for me, and I can tell you it is a great gift. I plan to, and hope to pass this same gift of encouragement on to Nathan and any other children I have an impact on. Its the least I can do. :-)

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April 15, 2004

The Kid Speaks

Nate Something has been developing with our son Nathan lately — he's starting to speak more and more. As I sat this morning thinking, that fact crept up on me. Now, often his pronunciation of words isn't terribly clear, but I can hear his intent.

When I consider what he is doing, I can't imagine what it would feel like to speak words without any previous idea how to use them, except through immersion with us and others. The idea of learning a language completely from scratch, with no prior language experience seems quite amazing.

It was hard enough for me to learn German through a few classes and by immersion on several trips to Germany — but I knew English already — quite different than learning from scratch. I often don't consider the difficult task facing Nathan, until this morning anyway.

It makes me realize that he's an amazing little guy. He's an expert babbler, often jabbering for several minutes at a crack, espousing his views on preferable sippy cup design, or the reasons why he prefers red Matchbox cars to other colors. Well, we have no idea what he's really saying, but it's so humorous to hear him talking, using inflection, facial expressions and hand signals to speak. He's literally a sponge, copying our way of speaking and tone of voice in own his experimental chats with us.

We've been teaching Nathan sign language for a while now (since he was 2-3 months old), which might have some impact on his language skills. If so, that's just a nice side effect. Our idea behind teaching Nate sign language was to give him a way to communicate during the so called terrible twos. Rather seeing his frustration levels rise, we decided having a simple way to share his thoughts could make a difference in his behavior. He's doing very well with sign too — using signs all the time to tell us what he wants or thinks. It's really amazing.

But back to the speaking... I'm just amazed that he is now trying to mimic what we say. So far he can say car and truck, and choo choo among other things. In his attempts to speak, I can see how his mind works a little bit... how he hears and then repeats what he hears. It's right about now that I sincerely wished I knew a second language well enough to teach it to Nathan as he grows. I know enough German to be dangerous, and even less Spanish.

I'm wondering if I could learn a new language with Nathan, once he's at the point of really knowing how to speak. It could be fun to learn new words with him, giving us both a new language. I'd choose to learn Spanish, because my good friend Carlos is a native speaker, it's relatively easy to learn and would be a useful language to know.

Whatever happens, it is very interesting to watch Nathan grow and learn. I can see in his eyes the feeling of pride when he says something well or uses the correct sign and we praise him for it. That's one of the joys of parenthood — having a positive role in my child's learning experiences and being there to see development happening right before my eyes.

Very cool. :-)

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April 13, 2004

Family Photo Flashback

Steve & Mike

Heh! Last night, while spring cleaning, I came across a cache of old photos my dad took back in the mid 70s with his Minolta SRT-101 35mm SLR. The photo to the right really cracked me up — it's a shot of my brother Steve and I, when we lived in Chicago. I have no clue what we're holding up in this shot... some kind of box as far as I can tell. I suspect it was a box of candy, but I can't quite make it out.

What cracked me up was our fashion... check out the stripes and plaids there! That patch on my poplin jacket is a Road Runner patch (I had to enlarge the shot massively in Photoshop to read the patch). Steve's hat has some sort of baseball motif going on — so stylin!

Check out our glasses: molded industrial grade plastic, heavy duty glass lenses, all designed to withstand a nuclear blast — very important for rough and tumble 5 and 9 year old boys.

This is one of those reality-check pictures — the kind that reminds me no matter how cool I think I am, I can't avoid the fact that I was once a 9 year old wearing striped pants and geeky horn-rimmed glasses. ;-)

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January 30, 2004

A Lighter Look at Winter

Lobsterboy! Generally I'm Ok with wintertime, colder temps, snow and so on. Well, these past few weeks of very cold weather are testing that belief right now, so as a way to combat the negatives of winter, I've decided to do something fun this Friday.

To the right is a photo of my son Nathan, taken last week. I was about to head out and shovel the snow (again) last Saturday, when this crazy idea came into my head, to put my knit hat on Nathan's head and my big leather shoveling gloves on his hands.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... Lobsterboy!

Nathan loved it! In fact, we had a hard time catching him on camera, because he was running around the house in this getup. I caught him on camera as he ran about and finally, he stopped at the fireplace for a photo session, where I got this shot.

So, if you're cold and getting a little tired of winter wherever you might be, I hope this little lighthearted photo and story brighten your Friday. :-)

Have a great (and warm) weekend!

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November 13, 2003

Nathan Turns One

Nathan's Birthday For our family, today is a special day: our first son Nathan, turned one year old! You can see a photo of Nathan digging into his Personal Birthday Cupcake©, lips first, at his Big Birthday Bash™ on Saturday. :-)

I'm amazed that a year has already gone by and even more amazed at how much Nathan has grown in that year. He came home as a shrively little dude who was completely reliant on us for everything, to a little boy who can cruise on the furniture, can stand up by himself (can't quite walk yet though), knows several sign-language signs like milk, all done, eat, and more and knows how to bite the heads off of Goldfish crackers like a pro.

I suppose other parents will tell me that this "wondering where the years went" feeling is going to be the norm now and for the years to come. That's ok though, because I get to enjoy seeing my son grow and learn while being a part of that process. Cool.

Happy Birthday Nathan! :-)

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April 25, 2003

Gawwwleee Paw!

Bucktooth Nate
Sometimes it's the simple things in life, like bucktoothed binkies for babies. :-)

Have a great weekend!

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March 14, 2003

Nathan at 4 Months

Nathan 4 months old My little son Nathan just hit the BIG 4 month mark yesterday, in case you were curious. We held back and didn't have the 4 Month Mongo Birthday Bash we had planned. The Russian acrobats and Guido's Troupe of Dancing Elephants were a bit disappointed, but those are the breaks. Oh well. :-)

Fatherhood is a wonderful thing! It's great fun seeing my son growing up and learning in leaps and bounds. Lately he's been exercising his vocal skills in Baby Jibberish, often quite loudly! He's mimicking our modulated speech, shaping his mouth and even using facial expressions. Amazing.

Nathan's hand-eye coordination has also greatly improved in the past 4 weeks. He's been able to grasp things on his own and hold them long enough to shake them around a bit. He's also got powerful legs for a little spud -- what a kick!

But the most fun of all is seeing Nathan becoming aware of his surroundings. He's now much more aware of people and can respond in kind to their smiles. He seems to understand the tone of voices and is reacting to noises he hears. He's also more aware of shapes, colors and other bits of the environment he's found himself in.

It's amazing to think that this tiny little boy has come as far as he has in only 4 months. His growth excites me, since I'm privileged to see, first hand, just how he continues to adapt, learn and grow. Lucky me!

Have a nice weekend!

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February 25, 2003

Say Cheeeez! It's aweome being a Dad!

It's aweome being a dad! Even taking into account the overall lack of sleep and extreme changes in my life's schedule, I just can't get enough of my little 3.5 month old son Nathan, especially when he gives me smiles like this! Life with Nathan is even more fun now, since he's starting to develop a personality. He's smiling and laughing much more, though I should mention he had the pouty lip face mastered within the first month. :-)

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