Mother's Day

We had a big gathering for Mother's Day this year, what with new baby and all. The whole family was home along with Mrs. Young, Ted and Peggy. We spent the entire afternoon at Mom and Dad's. Seth went the whole day with no nap and was really good. No major melt downs. He went right to sleep when I put him to bed.

We are getting more comfortable with another baby in the house: finding the swing of things. It is still going to take a little more adjustment, but so far, so good.

Announcing!

Sara Beth was born Thursday, May 10 at 11:59 pm. She was 9lbs 8oz and 21.5 inches long. All went well with the c-section and both Mom and Baby are doing fine. We brought them home from the hospital today. It was a good Mother's day present I think.

Seth was very excite to meet his sister. He climbed right into the car to get a closer look. Then he helped carry her into the house by holding the handle of the car seat with Dad.

The Big Day!

Today is the big day. Debbie is puttering around gathering things up and getting ready to go. We will leave for the hospital in about an hour. I have the camera all ready.

Ted and Peggy are going to take Seth to Mom and Dad's for lunch. He will have his nap there and they will wait to hear from us. It is a lot different than last time when everybody sat in the hospital all day. I am getting excited and nervous.

It feels like we are setting out on another big adventure.

Into The Home Stretch

We are really getting close to the time for the new baby to come. I will work tomorrow and then Thursday morning we go to the hospital. I am looking forward to it because I am ready to move on to the "we have a new baby" time from the "we are having a new baby" time. I am also ready for a few days off from work. That is kind of a nice by-product for me.

All is Ready

The baby's room is painted. The house is generally cleaned up. Tomorrow morning I will mow the lawn. Debbie's parents arrive around noon.

Painting Progress

I made good progress on the painting today. That sounds like I am painting a picture. The walls are done. Now all that is left is the trim which will be white. Tomorrow for that. Debbie is very relaxed about the whole thing.

Ted and Peggy are in Tennessee somewhere along the Tennessee river. They will be in in a week.

No Michaelangelo

So, Michaelangelo, what did you do today? Oh, I painted a ceiling.

I got started on the baby's room this evening. The ceiling is done. Tomorrow I do the walls.

How to cut a tree

I had a dead dogwood tree. Or at least one that was so far gone that it wasn't coming back. So, last evening at about 5:15 I decided to cut it down because the city brush pickup is on Friday morning and I thought if it were done we would not have a pile of sticks in front of the house for a whole week.

Dad got his chainsaw and we all piled in the car and headed to our house. We were supposed to have dinner at Mom and Dad's.

I moved Debbie's car and dad fired up the saw. A chainsaw makes quick work of a dogwood. In about 10 minutes we had a 5 foot tall stump. That is when my neighbor arrived. He's a helpful guy and asked if we wanted him to pull out the stump with his truck. In another 5 minutes he had a chain around it and pulled it out. Then he hauled out a bag of grass seed so that I could seed the spot where the tree was. We pile up the sticks and racked the ground and spread a little grass seed.

By 6:00 we were done and back at the parents house having dinner.

Screen Door Repairs

Last week we had some very high winds, above 60 MPH, as a noreaster passed up the coast. The door on our screened porch had a broken latch, so the wind got hold of it and whipped it around. Originally I thought the hinge was bent, but Debbie looked at it a little more closely in the daylight and discovered that the problem was with the hydraulic door closer. It was badly bent.

In short, only $25 later we have a new latch and a new closer. I fixed it last evening. On to the next thing...

Staring the Home Stretch

I haven't written too much about expecting a new baby. It is interesting how much more relaxed Debbie and I are the second time around. Also, much of the uncertainty that goes with new babies was settled early for us. We know that she will be a girl, and we know her birthday. The doctor recommended a scheduled c-section because Seth was born that way and she would rather not risk tearing the old scar tissue during a normal labor. And so we have everything lined up.

I have not yet begun to paint the baby's room. That will have to be done in short order because I am running out of time before Ted and Peggy arrive. It will not take too long. It is not a large room or a complicated paint job.

Here is the color Debbie picked:



By the way, for anyone who is reading this using a aggregator (like bloglines) I have added a countdown counter to mark the days remaining until the baby is born. But you have to come to the actual blog to see that. (I think that might apply to one of my 5 regular readers...)
:-)