Awww...

Unprovoked by me (or anyone for that matter), Cal has taken it upon himself to be VERY nurturing to Ana these days. He carries her very carefully, puts her down for naps, and is hanging out with her here while watching TV. I think he senses that his baby brother is coming soon and I think he's trying to prove himself to be worthy of taking care of him!! So cute!

Yeah, I'm cool.

It's been a week since Ben's tonsillectomy and he's recovering wonderfully.

This was taken at Grammy Pat's at the end of June while Eric and I were in Boston.

Calling all Mikes!

So happy to be climbing on his new swingset!

For posterity sake, video of the first slide ever on the new set!

The kids were psyched to have their very own swingset in their backyard, now we don't have to bug the neighbors so much :) I realized after I didn't have a picture of the whole thing but I scan across in the video. Sorry for the awful video quality, it looks like a home movie from the early 80s!

A quick note on my title...apparently if your name is Mike and you aren't a crazy, bugged-out sidekick to the real handyman then you missed your calling. We had "Mike the mud guy" who assisted Don in the mudroom. All he was really responsible for was the actual mudding (putting the stuff on the drywall) and then sanding it and getting Don tools. Mike had these crazy eyes that bugged way out and I think maybe he was just a wee bit slow. Then today, Mike was the sidekick to Mark who put together the swingset! He reminded me of a rat on drugs. He's the one who had to run around the house to make the trip to the front door to say, "Excuse me, Mark would like you to come out back and see where you want the swingset positioned" and anything else they needed me for!

Ben's surgery and post-op

This pic is post-op day 2. In an effort to get him to drink I tried some water in a small little cup. He just held it though, no drinking :(

So I learned the day before that we had the sucky time of an 11am surgery. I was anxious about how I was going to deal with a very hungry Ben in the car and then in the pre-op clinic since I had to arrive one and a half hours early. My child is used to eating very promptly at 7am. Well, that turned to out to be the least of my worries. We left at a little past 8am on Thursday aiming to arrive at 9:30 like we were told. I had just made this SAME exact drive on Monday for his pre-op visit so I knew it took 1 hr 15 mins tops to be parked and in the clinic. Not so much on Thursday. It was raining and I guess that slows down/causes traffic because boy did I ever hit it! At 9:30 I was no where near the clinic and I'm starting to freak out!! I called the clinic from the car, told them we were in traffic, and asked what was going to happen if we were really late. She said, "Well, they haven't called you yet so we'll see you when you get here". Ben has been awesome the whole time. He fussed a little but was better than I expected on the 2+ hour car ride, maybe he was in a hunger coma?!

I get there at 10:15am and the lady at the desk tells me they HAVE already called for Ben and she'll have to see if they are still ready to take him or if they already took someone else. ARGHHH...dumb traffic! I'm starting to panic, who knows how long this is going to take?! She says they're still ready so we get whooshed off to take a few vitals, only to find out he's got a slight temp of 99.7 - AAAAHHHH!!! I tell them that I do have a cold and so far he's been fine although he did sneeze a bunch in the car. The nurse says they'll send us up to the OR and let the anesthesiologist make the call. At this point, I'm so stressed out and the prospect that after 2 hours we might have to turn around and drive back home was a too much for me - I'm literally bawling as they escort me to the OR. I'm sure people are thinking "This lady is a lunatic" but I felt better than I was pregnant and at least didn't look so psycho considering people know preggo mommas are emotional.

We get up there, they assess him, and say it's ok, their thermometer only read 99.2. I can't go back with him to get the anesthesia since I'm pregnant and I'm just ready for them to take him since I'm still crying on and off and just want him to go so I can try to calm down. No sense in delaying the inevitable. By this time, Ben thinks things are grand. He's laughing and playing with the nurses, watching TV, lots of fun stuff. He goes to the nurse without a problem and away they go. I get sent to the waiting room to hang out for an hour until they come get me. An hour ticks away fairly fast, the doc says everything went great, and he's not got a clear airway! Perfect. They send me to the ICU clinic where Ben is spending the night. He snagged an ICU bed since I've previously witnessed sleep apnea (where he stops breathing for a second while sleeping). The ICU turns out to be a pain in my ass...more on that later.

I have to wait 10 minutes until they're ready for me to see him. When I do, he's fully awake and doing better than when he awoke from his adenoid surgery so I'm pleasanly surprised. He drank a tiny bit of water and I just hung out trying to make him as comfortable as possible while trying to convince him to eat a popscicle or have some more water. They kept asking me, "how do you think he's doing pain-wise? Are we controlling it?" I'm like, I don't know, I think he's fine otherwise wouldn't he be screaming?!?!?? It was up to me if and when we were going to the pain meds I found out. Oh and also how much we were going to give him. How do you decide this?! I'm not a freaking doctor/nurse? We started slow with the morphine to see how he'd tolerate it and ended up upping it to the full dose after a few hours of no eating and no sleep. He finally drifted off into drug-induced la-la land around 3pm.

I quickly found out that the ICU sucked for me. Think of it like an ER with curtained rooms, that's all it was folks, and we were about to spend the entire night there. Not only could I not eat in the room (I could drink whatever I wanted though?!), there wasn't even a bathroom in the ICU and I couldn't use my cell phone either. So I had to go all the way out past the main desk to go pee and turn on my phone. Au bon pain and a cafeteria were seven floors below. So anytime Ben was sleeping I rushed off to make a phone call to Eric for an update, talk to Cal briefly, pee, and eat. I scarfed down food and rushed back up in case Ben woke up. He slept for a couple hours and then we started in again trying to get him to eat or drink. After BEGGING them to find something he could use a spoon for and do by himself, they brought me a cup of vanilla ice cream. Ben was not happy with me shoving things in his face (popscicles, sippy cup, etc) so he was THRILLED when he saw the ice cream. They kept telling me, "Oh he's just irritable because his throat hurts". Yeah, well, that might be, but he was also STARVING! He downed two ice cream cups and some water at 5pm. The nurse was amazed. We had to order all other food since they only had popscicles and thankfully those ice creams in the ICU. It took FOREVER to get there but a couple hours (yes, hours) later when more food finally did arrive Ben wolfed down a pudding and 3 ounces of yogurt. Sweet! So that was 7pm...a little morphine and an hour later he was back to sleep. Again, my chance to eat! Off I went. There was a point in that 5-7pm window too where he was laughing and playing with a stethoscope for a good 30 mins. There was a TV there but he wasn't much interested in it and turned it off every time I tried to distract him with it (he could reach the buttons).

I should mention that at 7pm our night nurse came - not so thrilled about her. I had younger female nurses in their 20's the whole time. I heard this one, Kristen, say she was 26 later on and I had my moments where I thought, "Geez, I could really use a nurse who's in her 40's and had the experience of a couple of kids". It would have been helpful. Kristen didn't seem to have the knack of knowing when she was helping and when she should just GET LOST! which I had to tell her more than a few times. My favorite line of hers was, "Ben, all this crying is just irritating your throat". Umm...yeah, thanks, that's going to stop him. Nincumpoop!

At midnight, we had the unfortunate event of Ben throwing up all over the place. He had woken up and I was holding him and all of a sudden I heard that cough where you just know the puke is coming. Before I could say, he's going to throw up, he had. It was all down the back of my sweatshirt and on the floor. Janitor! No biggie, just disappointing since he'd eaten and now a bunch just came back up. He went back to sleep only to be woken at 2am with a HUGE commotion and flurry of a little girl being rushed to the ICU. In came doctors, nurses, loud beeping machines, bright lights, and shouts of all sorts of orders. Who wouldn't wake up?! After all that, she was only there 30 mins before being taken to the OR I think.

Ben slept from about 2:30 - 6:30am waking maybe a time or two. I can't really remember since I was trying to get some sleep myself. But for the most part he was quiet and restful. He woke in the morning, got his last shot of morphine, and ate another ice cream with a sip or two of milk. The resident came in around 8am and said we could go home since he'd eaten already. This later got confused by the ENT doc who said, "Let's wait and see if he eats one more time". Well, at this point in the morning (8am) Ben had pretty much had it. To tell you the truth, I had too, so I don't know who wanted to get out of the hospital more, him or me! But he became irrate and unmanageable. He previously would lay down with me in his crib and sleep when he got tired but he didn't want to do that now. He was crawling over me and trying to climb out of the crib! He didn't want me to restrain him in any way so he was thrashing about and just being difficult. He kept saying "All done, All doooooooonne" and trying to pull off all the monitoring stickies and the IV. Forget about trying to eat again. When jell-O and pudding finally came he was so worked up it wasn't even worth trying although I did. Eventually, he would ONLY be calm if I was standing and holding him, kind of like when a newborn has that uncanny sense of when you try to sit and hold them and wakes up and cries. Well, that was Ben except he was awake.

After two hours of thrashing and holding and just a very difficult time, especially for me since I'm 33 weeks pregnant and trying to hold this 24 lb child for hours at a time, I couldn't take it anymore. I looked at the nurse and said, "First of all, I have to pee! Second, I can't do this anymore. Either give this child some morphine so he can calm down and sleep and we'll stay here longer OR let me go home." Luckily, she totally agreed we weren't getting anywhere. This was a different nurse now, by the way, not the dreaded Kristen, her shift was over. She even though it was confusing that there seemed to be conflicting opinions on whether he needed to eat again or not. Ultimately, they said if I thought he'd do better at home eating and drinking (I DID!) then he was fine from a medical perspect to go! Hooray! It took another hour or so to get discharged but we were home by 1pm on Friday!!

Ben was SO happy to be home! He immediately ate a slice of cheese, a banana, and an ice cream, and drank some water. He was very excited to see Cal and all his toys in the playroom. For dinner he ate watermelon, pudding, and some milk and all was well! He made it until about 6:30pm until he wanted to go to bed. He actually tried to climb IN his crib that's how much he wanted to go. Miraculously, he slept all the way until 7:30pm. We woke him at 10pm and 2am to give him the tylenol with codeine just so he didn't wake in the morning in so much pain that it would be impossible to eat. I thought once we woke him up he'd be awake for a little bit before settling back to sleep but nope. It was almost impossible to wake him the first time. He sucked down the medicine and was happy for me to lay him back in his crib. That was that!

POST-OP DAY 2 - (Saturday) - He did pretty well yesterday. He can't make it more than a few hours without napping or at least laying down. So he slept from 10:15am-1:30pm yesterday. Unfortunately eating didn't go so well and all he had was 2 puddings and 1 1/2 pancakes saturated with butter and syrup. Clever on my part I must say because that made him thirsty and he drank a decent amount of milk! He took a bath and then had a rough patch near dinner time where he could only be held. Off to bed at 6:15pm and didn't wake again until 7:45 this morning! Again, took his medicine twice at night barely waking up and then right back to bed! So I can't really complain about that! He's having enough wet diapers that he's not dehydrated and I just take what I can get when he'll eat! He seems to eat when he gets hungry enough so I'm not too worried.

POST-OP DAY 3 - (Sunday) - Today seems to be following yesterday. I truly feel for any parent who has feeding issues with their children on a daily basis. I feel like a complete maniac - worried that he's not eating enough and that if he doesn't "actively swallow" that it's going to take longer to heal. I set at least 5 things in front of him hoping he'll pick at least one but most times when he sees me going to put him in his chair at the table he freaks out knowing it's going to hurt to eat. So far today he's eaten a pudding (this seems to be the food of choice) and I actually stood in the kitchen and held him while he spooned Jello-O into his mouth and on the floor and on his shirt. He ended up getting half of the cup in his mouth and down his throat so whatever it takes!! Anyways, trying to keep mealtimes light and fun. I feel like when he senses me getting stressed and really trying to force him to eat that that just makes him reject the food even if he is hungry. So we're trying to make it HIS idea to eat and generally ignore him when he starts to. Right now he's been napping for a couple hours so hopefully he'll be in a good mood for lunch when he wakes up!

Drama?!

We had a little drama here last weekend when my mom drove herself to the ER on Saturday night after not feeling well for a few days. She ended up having a barrage of tests, including spinal tap, to find out what was wrong. They admitted her and started treating her for lyme disease but didn't confirm that suspicion until Monday. Meanwhile, she got one of those nasty spinal headaches and they won't let her leave until it resolves. She was slated to leave today (Wednesday) but I haven't talked to her yet to see if she is, indeed, home yet. Luckily, the lyme disease is completely treatable with antibiotics which they pumped her with and she should be fine!

The funniest thing about this picture (besides Cal trying to play dress up with my bra) is that Ben is in the corner sayings "Chee!! Cheeeee!!" for cheese because he sees me with the camera!

I had an ultrasound to check on the baby today. He's still a boy....haha...Good fluid around him and good movement which I know already!!! They estimate him to weigh just under 4 lbs so he could be a little guy. I'm guessing a birth weight in the 6's based on the other boys' late-term ultrasounds.

In between family health scares, Ben's pre-op appt in Boston and upcoming tonsillectomy tomorrow, and all our other daily craziness, we've still had ongoing work done at the house. Above is the almost done painting in the mudroom and the nice tile floor. Grampa Jim also completed the back rock wall and has started on the circle in front! Great job!

It's a Miracle!

After two months (I checked the last time I posted on this when I had first started), I finally completely finished painting the baby's room! Please excuse and ignore the now non-matching bedspread. That's only in there until we need to rearrange furniture and put the crib in. It is, after all, still the guest room until the baby gets here! Although we were against painting any room in our house blue, I'm loving this eccentric shade we picked out! Very bright!

We decided that we needed to establish a date to start saving some money, so July is the last month we get to spend all "extra" money for things for the kids/house. Get ready to see an onslaught of new things as we (me really) attempts to spend all I can before the "big save" begins. What are we saving for you ask? For Eric to retire at 50! No, I'm not even kidding.

So here's the first purchase we just made. This leather couch and recliner chair happen to be a bargain! It's true!! There's a posh little store downtown that's going out of business and everything is 50% off. Of course, I don't settle for JUST 50% off so I made the man sell me this furniture for as low as I possible thought he'd go. Trust me, it was an excellent deal. We got a free warranty and leather repair kit too! He's got a couple of end tables that he's not willing to part with for bottom price yet so I told him I'd be back next weekend (his final days) to TAKE them from him when no one else has bought them!! The furniture is really for the room with the fireplace but since that room isn't really ready for furniture yet they're just going to hang out in the living room for now.

There have already been a couple more purchases but since I don't have them yet I'll keep them a secret :)

In other news, Ben had his first speech therapy session yesterday with Denise and I think it went well! Miraculously, Ben said "pup-PY" for the first time ever instead of "puppa". He says puppa at least a 1,000 times a day and try as I might I've never gotten him to say puppy but for some reason he did this time!! Woo hoo. We're making progress already. We learned some new techniques to get him to be aware that he's keeping his mouth open and drooling and to shut it and a few things to help tonal muscles in his cheeks/mouth. Plus she gave us more hints on encouraging him to talk and say different things other than what we've already been doing. Unfortunately, we have to have a little break in therapy since Ben's tonsillectomy is this coming Thursday but I think he'll make quick progress once we get into the weekly routine of it.

I had another check-up for baby #3 and it seems I'm measuring a little small even for me. This happens to me every pregnancy but I don't think I've been THIS off before. I think the OB said I measured 26 and I should be measuring around 32 since I'm 32 weeks pregnant. So no biggie, really, the baby does seem very low to me and she said that that might be causing my fundal height to be a bit off. Of course, they want an ultrasound anyways so I get to get my usual third round of ultrasound! hehe...It'll probably be next week sometime so I'll keep you posted. Baby boy is very active and had a good heartbeat at the appt so I'm not worried.

Can anyone else NOT believe I'm about to give birth to my third child in just 8 weeks!!! Aaaah...

PS. On a side note, if you have HBO and/or Netflix (the first two seasons are on instant viewing)and can watch the show Weeds. I highly recommend starting from Season 1 - love it!

We love Storyland!

First let me say that we made the best decision ever to opt NO on a Disney vacation in May and instead take a solo Boston weekend and a family vaca to Storyland in Glen, NH. Having said that, no family vacation can ever be complete without impending doom before it even gets started. Cal came down with the coxsackie virus (otherwise known as hand, foot, and mouth) on Sunday. I didn't realize he had it (just thought he had a fever and a sore throat) so silly mommy sent him to camp Monday and Wednesday to spread around this highly contagious virus. Lovely. He complained of a sore throat all week and true to form by Tuesday afternoon Ben had a fever too. Cal hadn't eaten much in a couple days but was functioning pretty well so I didn't realize he had actual blisters inside his mouth until my sister-in-law, Jill, called to say that my nephew Colin had them and, since they'd all had coxsackie before, knew that's what it was. So now I'm freaking out because it's Thursday and we're leaving the next day and Ben is miserable. We eventually decide he'll be fine once he gets there and sees Storyland! Friday morning Ben gets his finger shut in the door and I think we're never going to get to Storyland without a major injury, but we eat lunch and take off for the 2 1/2 hour ride. FINALLY!

Next stop, Storyland! We get there and it's a cool 75 degree and looks like rain. There's an "after 3pm" deal where you get the next day free if you get there after 3pm the day before. So we arrive at 3:05 just in time to have lots of people leaving because they think it's going to rain. Hahaha...the sun peaks out 30 mins later and it never does rain! So we stay until almost closing at 6pm and head to Applebee's for dinner. Ben ate his first full meal in days and we all ate the first of lots of ice cream over the whole weekend - yum! We've still yet to check in to our hotel and it's getting late and the boys are getting tired (no nap for Cal and only a 1 hour nap for Ben that day). We got checked in and to our suite and I was thrilled! The room was HUGE and couldn't have been more perfect. I'm psycho about everyone getting proper sleep so this was a major deal that the room was so great!! There was a little kitchen area with a eat-in bar type thing that set off the living room area so we set up Ben's pack n' play there and pulled out the sofa in the living room area for Cal's bed. Then we had a separate room with a door that shut for us. The boys did SO well sleeping in the same room together - Cal was super quiet so Ben could sleep and they slept as good as they would at home! Mommy was pooped that first night too and was asleep before 9pm!

Cal was excited to get up and eat breakfast at the hotel (which was free, another plus!) and then get to Storyland when it opened. We packed in as much as we could including a circus show and train ride. Cal's favorite ride was the spinning turtles (think tea cups). Mommy went on it with him the first time and couldn't stop laughing because it whipped around more than I expected for a kiddie ride. Cal LOVED it! Daddy had to go the second time because it was too much for me! There was a farm follies show with a dancing scarecrow that both boys thought was great. We ate a late lunch at Storyland and then decided it was time to head back to the hotel - the boys had had enough. On our walk back to the car Cal said, "Mommy, I'm so tired, can Daddy drive super fast so I can get back and sleep!" Poor thing. After naps they got to splash around in the hotel pool and then have a messy dinner at Friendly's with ice cream of course!

I think everyone living in the New England area should take a weekend getaway to Storyland. It was hassle free - easy parking, no long lines, decent food and at good prices, you name it, they had it! Very happy with our trip and our Holiday Inn Express sleeping arrangements. See pics below of Storyland and our Day with Thomas before we left North Conway.

One of the ball pits!

The flying fish!

Whale ride

Hey Humpty!

Ben was fascinated by this talking tree. We had to physically tear him away from it both days or he might have stayed there all day!!

Still Storyland...

Sliding at the playground

Come here spider I'm no Miss Muffet!

The boys with Cinderella.

Running through the mist tent while Daddy went to fetch the stroller. They were like little maniacs going around and around and around.

Enjoying a tasty treat! We tried to get ice cream at 10 and were told they don't start selling it until 10:30?! What? What amusement park doesn't sell ice cream all day?!

Storyland cont...

The boys are in Professor so and so's loopy lab in the pics below. Cal confirmed this was one of his favorite things in Storyland. They were like happy little goofballs in here and didn't stop grinning the whole time. It was just a free for all of spongy balls that you could shoot out of guns from the top, put in machines that bubbled them up and out, or into hoses that vacuumed them up. Eric and I spent quite a bit of time just seeing how many balls we could bounce off their heads.




Ben and I played in this little waterpark while Cal and daddy did a big kid river raft ride. Ben fared a little better than Cal. Cal came off the ride soaked and crying. Eric said he didn't like the fact that the raft spun around and half the time he was facing backwards and didn't know when the water was going to hit him!

Day Out with Thomas

Before we left North Conway today we stopped and took a ride on Thomas the Train! Unless ALL your kids are old enough to understand this, save your money folks. We could have seen Thomas and taken pictures and done all the stuff minus the actual train ride (12 mins one way then 12 mins in reverse to where you started) for free. So the "ride on Thomas" was kind of a waste. Ben could've cared less and I think Cal was bored - he was just excited to SEE Thomas.

Above and below: Cal and Daddy on the train and Ben and mommy

Cal and Ben with their "ladybug and turtle" balloon animals made by a clown. Here they were listening to a nice little folkie couple play some music.

Early intervention

Seems like that's the theme of Ben's life these days - early intervention. Mom has been a stickler for things that seem "not quite right". The ENT confirmed on Monday that we should go ahead with the tonsillectomy and he might even take out more adenoid tissue too. So we're forging ahead with that even though we know recovery is going to be harder this time around.

Today was Ben's speech evaluation and hooray! due to some finagling they managed to make him eligible for services. He needed to be 33% delayed which means speech at a 13-month-old level. He is actually at what they deemed "a 15-month-old level" but they qualified him on "quality and production of sound along with tongue protrusion and drooling". Sweet! I'll take what I can get. Not that I've noticed but apparently Ben keeps his tongue forward a lot and that's why he drools (the drooling I have noticed). Anyways, I'm ecstatic to have someone come to my house once a week for a whole hour to work on speech with him and it's all FREE!!! So maybe with a little work we can get him talking like the 19-month-old he is! All the people were really nice. He had a full evaluation of motor, sensory, development, social, and speech so he got to play with and have the attention of four adults this morning for a whole hour and let me tell you, he was in his glory, social butterfly that he is. He is normal or above average on all other aspects so that's nice to know!

Mom is happy that answers and/or help seems to be flowing in our direction...just hoping all this surgery and therapy helps!!

Boston trip!

We had the best getaway you could ask for in Boston last weekend. My mom took the kids on Friday and off we went. The worst part of the whole trip was driving in a torrential downpour all the way to Boston. We literally couldn't see in front of us and it was one of those moments that you think, "Good thing I have a will." But we made it to the Park Plaza alive and both agreed if that was the only rain we got that we'd be thrilled. By the time we got settled in our room the rain had stopped and it didn't rain again!! Very lucky since thunderstorms were called for each day - gotta love New England weather.

We did a 4pm Fenway tour which surprisingly neither of us had done before on Friday afternoon. Then we headed back towards our hotel and chowed down at the California Pizza Kitchen (I know, it's a chain and all but it's one of my favorites and VERY unrated if you ask me, you should really try it sometime). Then we went to see Al Madrigal at the Comedy Connection. Supposedly, he has some show with Jay Mohr coming up on CBS. He was pretty funny, definitely worth it since the host was also good. Madrigal did a few bits on his two kids which happened to be around Cal and Ben's ages so we definitely laughed the hardest at that.

Saturday we headed off to the Christian Science church area in search of the mapparium. I was told about this by a friend but didn't have many details...very cool! It's this huge stained glass sphere and you stand on a bridge right smack dab in the middle of it. They have a little recorded thing you listen to while the recording and watch as all of the 603 panels light up. It's the largest, most acurate representation of the earth there is or something like that. Given that it's a perfect sphere if you stood in the exact middle and talked your voice was in perfect surround sound. Also, if Eric and I both stood at opposite ends of the bridge and barely whispered we could hear what each other said and the people standing in the middle couldn't hear us at all. Neat! After that we learned about what Christian Science actually was, all about the lady who started it, and took a tour of the church. Very beautiful! After that we were surely hungry so down Boylston Street we went to gorge on an Indian buffet. Then we walked around, did some shopping, hung out in the Common, etc. Saturday night we satisfied my months-long craving to eat at Boston Beerworks (one of the few times we took the T too - who knew that damn thing costs $2 per ride!) It was cooler that night but we braved the chill to take a walk to the North End and see the newly constructed parks and whatnot after the Big Dig. Neat to see the changes since I've last lived there, oh about 8 years ago now. Can't leave the North End without having dessert so canolis and peppermint gelati it was!!

By Sunday morning we're seriously in need of a diet since we figure we've gained an enormous amount. We lounge around most of the morning but go out to get Starbucks for breakfast and then to PF Chang's as our final meal before heading back home to the boys. The boys were ecstatic to see us when they woke up from naps! They both did very well for Grammy while we gone - no problems aside from the fact that Ben took a nose dive on the driveway and had a huge egg on his forehead and a pretty scraped up nose. Cal had a matching nose scrape from what we think was the edge of the pool. Ben was like a baby gorilla once I got back and clung to me for the rest of our stay at Grammy's. He had a hard time sleeping there on Sunday night. I think he thought he'd wake up and I'd be gone again. Poor little thing - he cried for an hour until he finally fell asleep. Then he sobbed while I packed up the car on Monday and got ready for our departure back to NH. All returned to normal once we got back home though :) Hard to come back to the norm but we're very grateful to get the chance to getaway and spend some time together before baby #3 gets here!!

Here it is!

The mudroom is done...almost! We are doing the painting and tiling ourselves and we still need the electrician to come back to put in the light fixtures but all construction has been finished! The contractors will come back once we do the tiling on the floor and put the base boards down and voila! new mudroom. We ended up deciding that we should wall off the door through the garage where we used to enter...it was now or never since we figured we'd never get around to doing it if we didn't now. So the first picture below shows the new entrance through the garage.

To the far right of the pic there used to be stairs going up to a door which is now just a wall. The door in the middle you are seeing is actually the one that goes from the mudroom outdoors since the door is the garage is open.

Once you go in the door through the garage to your immediate right is these stairs that go up to what is actually an existing exterior door which used to go out to the back yard.

This is the view from the door in the garage. It shows the stairs to the right, the window straight ahead and you can kind of see the closet door over the half-wall.

View from the door to outside.

Outdoor view with siding finished. Of course, now it needs to be painted.

So not the most exciting pictures for some of you but I know others were anxious to see! If all goes well it will be totally and completely finished by August 1st. The bench is ordered and we have things to hang on the walls even. I think that might officially be the first room that we can say is completed in the whole house!