We Have A Tub!!!

Now those are words to make the pregnant lady very happy!!!!
We even have walls around it. There is nothing in the rest of the bathroom (everything else is studs and subfloor) but I'll take it. As long as I can be clean, life is a lot more bearable.
So far we've encountered a live bees nest in the wall, lots of rot (it was a 50 y/o bathroom - I don't think we could have expected anything less) and had to move a window (long story - but it's better in the end). We hope everything will be done by Friday so we can paint the walls a pale blue and get the outside of the house touched up. Jim is planning on painting the vanity white when Trippy and I are in the hospital (oil based paint - YUCK).
Things are moving along with the renovations. That makes us so happy! Kids love the new tub, even though it's really hard for them not to splash in it (Caroline thinks the jets are "awesome", even if Mama sings songs from West Side Story every time she takes a bath).
Sam does an adorable version of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" that I'm trying to record so I can post.
Trippy is kicking my butt. Okay - Trippy and the humidity are kicking my butt. The kid is lying on my aorta and wreaking havoc with my blood pressure. Makes it tough to do much of anything. Today involved lots of fluids. Lots of left sidelying. Lots of sleep (which must have been needed). I do feel better now, thank goodness.
And now it's time for me to take a bath!
Hooray!

Yet Again.

I'm trapped.
Sam has been a lot better about going to sleep, but tonight is an exception. I'm sitting here listening to the cries of, "I no go to bed. I stay here. I play with Thomas. No, no, no. We read book. I read about Big Bird."
At least I was smart enough to bring up my laptop. But I failed to realized I don't have any desk space up here and Trippy kicks so violently that he/she can kick the laptop right off my lap as I'm writing. This happened the other day as I was documenting sitting with a client and it nearly scared the daylights out of her.
So I guess doing paperwork is out for tonight.
I'm devastated. Just devastated. =-)

Our bathroom renovations are continuing. Sigh.
The bathroom is ripped to the studs. The joists are re-sistered. The plumbing is re-done. The center stack is straightened out. All we need now is a subfloor, floor, walls, toilet, sink, tub and shower and we're in business!
This whole being without a shower thing is for the birds. I'll be right up front and make the assertion that I would not last in a third world country. I'm also willing to say that hot showers should be a human right. We all went to shower last night at work. We didn't know there was no hot water in the lady's locker room. Caroline and I braved our cold showers as best we could. Caroline simply refused to get her hair wet (and I couldn't argue with her - it was THAT cold). I sucked it up enough to get in, clean myself and wash my hair - but I was practically in tears the whole time.
I'd like to think of myself as a strong, capable woman. But when it comes to cold water I'm a total wuss.
Since everything in the upstairs is covered with a fine layer of dust, I've also been having dreams about cleaning and being clean. Not that I can do much about it now...
I'm just trying to think about how nice the bathroom will be when it's done. We sprang for a whirlpool tub (we might as well go for the gusto if we're replacing everything, anyway). The vanity we chose is very pretty and I really like the cabinets as well. And it will be so nice to not have brown and taupe colored tile walls. AND not to feel like we're standing at the drive through at Dunkin' Donuts while we're standing in the shower (if you're at all curious about this, feel free to contact my father - it's a great story). We're praying it's done soon. AND that everyone stays clean in the meantime. =-)
Here are some before pics:


And a during picture:

Hopefully the after pictures will come very, very soon!

But we've been having fun out-of-doors recently. Here's what we've been up to...

Sam finished a whole candy necklace.

Here's Sam and Bee-pa

Here's my favorite sea-star:

And the gang playing with the sprinkler at Ria's house:





And that's all she wrote for tonight. By this time, Sam is sleeping soundly (as are Jim and Caroline) and I've been sitting long enough for my piggie toes to be swollen like little sausages.
Good night!

So.

It comes down to this.
I'm trapped in the bedroom.
We're trying to get Sam to fall asleep on his own. We've slept next to him. Sat in the doorway.
Rocked in a chair in the hall.
For months.
I can do no more.
He just has to figure this one out. He can't sleep with us. He is, shall we say, an extremely active sleeper and likes to snuggle excessively. With Mama. Only.
Sleep is such a precious commodity for me that I have to take all I can get. And I really can't get much lying at the edge of the bed (so I can prop my beluga-sized belly), on my left side (so I can breathe), hugging a pillow (so my hands only stay numb for a little while after I get up), with a pillow between my knees (did I mention how huge my belly is????) with Sam draped all over me.
It just doesn't work.
But as I'm sitting here, the Celtics are on (free) TV and my laptop is downstairs. So not only can I NOT watch the basketball game, but I can't get my paperwork done.
Because if I get up to go downstairs he's going to run to his door and start screaming all over again.
Ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
And the pregnant lady is hungry, too. Which doesn't make me any less grumpy.

But...we got more pictures of the pre-school celebration from the wonderful Dubrey family. We had a lot of fun. Caroline was certainly a ham (surprised?!?!) and loved being up on stage.
She will be in the same pre-school class next year. This may pose some challenges, since her reading skills are continuing to progress (she is taking my anatomy and physiology books from college and actually reading them - and she's getting a lot of the words, too!). We've been fielding questions recently about cells, bone structure and fetal development. These seem to be her favorite chapters. On the days I'm home, we'll be doing a loosely structured schooling program to try to continue to build on what she's learning in school and to get Sam ready to start school. We've been doing research lately on the oil spill. Both of the kids were really upset about what they had heard / seen on the news. It was pretty cool to see Jim get out pictures of the rigs and tell the kids how and why we get oil and to explain oil emulsification (and to have them, for the most part, get it). Caroline thinks we should boycott BP (which is becoming more and more difficult around here because there are so many BP stations). I explained to her that a better solution may be to walk to more places and to use our car less. But she seemed much more interested in boycotting. Fighting the man already at the tender age of four? I think we're in for it.
I took her to the OB with me yesterday and she got to hear Trippy's heartbeat. She commented that it was a big heartbeat for a little baby! I'm not sure it registered that she was hearing her new sibling, but she did seem to enjoy herself. She has recently dropped her wish that Trippy is a girl and transitioned to hoping that he/she is a boy. I think it's because she realizes that she won't have to share a room with another boy. =-)

Sam has settled down (for the time being) so I'm going downstairs to get a kosher dill (stereotypical pregnant lady, I know - but if you can tell me what I can eat to take the edge off for a measly 5 calories I'm all ears). I'm going to get my documentation done and watch what I can of the game...

Here are some more pictures of the celebration yesterday (courtesy of the Dubreys):



PS - I just looked at the Celtic's score. Maybe I'll just get my snack and my laptop and come up here and listen on the radio. All I'm telling you is that if the Celts win and Trippy is a boy, don't be surprised if we're calling him Rondo!

Caroline's Graduation...

Caroline graduated from pre-school today! She's been exited about this for days now - she has repeatedly asked me over the past few days if I was going to "be there at school" for her. Yes each time, of course (I did take the morning off to watch) and we were treated to a fun show. They all paraded in from the back of the OLA Cafegymatorium (yes, it's a semi-real word). Here is Caroline coming in almost jumping to me and missing the right-hand turn to walk up from the back up to the stage...




Caroline sat in the front, which was fortuitous, making it easier for us (and others) to take pictures of everybody's favorite ham. She was so exited to be on the stage and to see us that she'd wave to us.









When everybody giggled, she must have figured that everybody enjoyed it when she did that so she waved to everybody off-and-on the rest of the event...

They sang six songs, including Country Roads by John Denver. She did not believe me when I told her that it was one of my (and Grandpa's) favorites.



You can tell that Caroline *really* wanted the microphone as some other girl got to sing a solo for the crowd. I asked her later if she wanted the mic and she said "yeah, I wanted to sing in the mic but Miss Murphrey took it." That solo also explained why each pre-schooler has been coming come yelling "yeah, BABY!" for the past month!

Sammy was busy cheering on his older sister too:




When it was all over all of us parents had apparently decided that we needed to sugar up the kiddies, and brought cookies, donuts, brownies (we brought bakeless Scotcheroos - thanks Frigidaire!) and then we sent them to daycare so Karen and I could get to work for the afternoon. Caroline was generous and brought Sam a cupcake.




However, whomever made them had, uh, used a little too much red food coloring in the frosting...



If you tried to wipe it off it turned your hand red too!

Again.

Anybody remember this?
Yeah, well - it happened again. She came home from school with her eye a little swollen. Even after Benedryl and ice packs, it's looking like this:

I hope she can sleep tonight. Benedryl makes her hyper and after a long day (with a Crohns flare), patience is not one of my strong points.

Been a While

Okay - it has been a while.
But not for a lack of effort. I think about blogging a lot, but staying up past nine o'clock (unless the Celtics are on, of course) is becoming more and more challenging.
We've been very busy. Busy in a good way, but busy never-the-less. We've started our painting and remodeling. We have all the parts of our renovated bathroom stored in the garage just waiting for the bathroom to be ripped down to studs (I'm getting very nervous about what we're going to find behind those walls). School is winding down. My job as it is currently structured ceases to exist on July 1st (this sucks). And on top of all this, Trippy is on the way.
Jim says that the very fact that I'm not a raving lunatic with all this going on is a miracle in itself. We're all doing our best to roll with the punches and keep things in perspective. And you know what? It really hasn't been that bad.
The kids are keeping us on our toes.
Sam is wonderfully funny is his Sammy-being-Sammy, very structured, anal-retentive but cute and lovable sort of way (where do you think he gets that from???). All he wants to do is play basketball and baseball. When we go for walks in the stroller, he has to take his baseball bat with him. He is still loving his trains and Thomas. He got a new-to-him stuffed giraffe this weekend at a garage sale. His name is "Pjaffe the Giraffe." It's adorable. His language skills are coming along very steadily and he is never at a loss for words.
The kids "helped" us paint the bedroom. It's a toned-down version of Funshine Yellow. Even with it being toned down considerably, it's still very bright. But it's also a very Caroline color, which I suppose is a good thing.

The kids were more of a help when Jim was able to take them to Old Sturbridge Village so I could have five unadulterated hours full of painting fun-time pleasure! I do have to admit I was a little jealous when I heard that they ran into our friends from church there and had an even better time than expected.


Jim and Sam managed to hook up the television in our new built-in cabinets. I have to admit that it has been very nice to be able to watch the basketball games while lying in the lap of luxury on the living room couch. But since we stayed up on Sunday night to watch the game, I was asleep before the first batter of the Dodgers game last night. I think we're realizing that we need more sleep than we're getting.


Caroline got a new leotard from Nina. She loves it. And is wearing it again today. All I can say is that I'm glad that she isn't a ballerina anymore (she's keeping her underwear on). =-)


Okay - time to go get the laundry done, start dinner, clean the house and do all the other things that have been neglected recently. Oh - and have I mentioned we're having a potluck dinner at the house tonight? I think the pregnancy hormones must have some sedative effect because I'm not hyperventilating (yet).