Construction update

Notice I titled this "Construction Update", not "Demolition Update". The dust has cleared, the morning has come, the tarp has been torn in two, for we are finished with the walls. This means we have sanded drywall putty for the last time. I have spent 3+ hours cleaning up after said sanding for the last time. Our vacuum has wheezed its last, dusty breath. We have moved all our clothes from our closets to Frankie's bedroom and the living room one last time.

Chris sanded and re-mudded the walls on Saturday while I painted one side of the closet doors. I learned a valuable lesson about paint and below freezing temperatures that day - they don't mix. I was working on the doors outside, freezing my butt off in the 32 degree weather (with wind chill of more like 23), and noticed that the top layer of paint in my tray was freezing a little. I forged ahead, thinking it would probably be fine. The paint froze before it dried, creating this odd crystalized pattern in places. It also went on quite unevenly. Fortunately, I only did one side, and I'm going to recoat that side which will probably hide it completely. We're also going to put that side facing the inside of the closets, so hopefully no one will notice. Jeff Murry assured me you couldn't tell unless you were really close up. I tried to get a picture of it for you, blog readers, but was unsuccessful.

Sunday Chris took Frankie and Maisy to the park, and I finished sanding, cleaned, and primed the walls with a "wallcovering primer", which seems a lot like that Kilz stuff if any of you have used it - it's basically to prevent mold and mildew under the wallpaper. Chris went to Shwartz Hardware in Watertown and ordered the door hardware, which should be here in another week along with the wallpaper!

It feels really good to get the messy phase completed. We really don't have much left, which is good, since I'm 29 weeks pregnant now (oh yeah, and about that, please don't tell my OB I was up on ladders sanding and painting this weekend - I wore a mask!). I'm hoping we can finish this by the end of April and then have May and any part of June baby boy decides to give us to really prepare for his arrival.

Completed closets, ready for wallpaper and door installation.

Note the dusty vacuum's place of prominence on the curb. RIP, faithful Hoover. You served us well. (Frankie and I picked up a new vacuum at Costco today)

And now for a picture of our adorable, beloved Frankie wearing a kerchief around her neck. I kept calling her my little girl scout. She wore this kerchief all day the other day - I'd take it off for meals, and she wanted it right back on after she was done. Apparently it was part of her outfit.

It was not a dream...

The weather really was 54 degrees, sunny, and warm just a few days ago. Sarah sent me this picture we'd taken with her camera to remind me that we did, indeed, go to the park and play without jackets on.



It all seemed like a dream when we left the house today to deliver a meal to a new mom, our friend Wendy and her new baby, Jane. What started out as a misting rain was sleet by the time Frankie and I got to the T. Sneaky, sneaky spring in Boston that most days still feels like winter.

No jackets!

That's right, folks, we just got back from the park where we did NOT WEAR JACKETS! The sun was shining, the wind wasn't blowing at the park, and we stripped off our jackets to just our long sleeved t-shirts! Praise Jesus, I really needed this day. I just checked the temperature and it says it's only 54 here in Cambridge. When did 54 feel so warm?

Engineer Pride

The sorting game

Frankie currently spends about 50% of her day moving objects from one side of the room to the other, and then back again. She will put granola bars back in the box if I take them out, likes to put her toys back in their bin (not always, don't go thinking I never pick up toys!), likes to line her bears up in one order, shakes her head, mutters to herself, and then rearranges them.

All this obsessive organizing has had me worried she's OCD. A friend tried to reassure me that it was normal, that she was "sorting" and that it was the first stages of math and logic development, but I haven't seen any logic to the sorting. Just a sort of obsessive need to move objects and then put them back where they 'belong' (it doesn't help that she usually talks quietly to herself while doing this activity).

My concerns aside (which are my problem, not hers!), I do take great joy in watching her busily play around the apartment, and it's been wonderfully fun to watch her personality emerge. She's always been a deliberate and particular child, and I think now we're seeing an organizational element to this deliberateness (and dare I say cleanliness? trust me, this is not because my house is terribly clean!). She's specific about the textures she'll eat -- icing, soy butter, black bean shells on her fingers cause her to scrunch up her face into the Do'h expression and hold her hands out to me to be wiped, although she will eat yogurt and oatmeal with her hands. She doesn't like the sand or the wood chips at the park. We usually keep the front door and the door to Maisy's closet closed, and if they're open, she'll often walk over to shut them. She picks up lint off the floor and hands it to me with the understanding that I'll throw it away.

I think it will be amazing and challenging to get to know each of our children, and to nurture them uniquely in the ways they will each specifically need to be loved, disciplined, challenged, and encouraged. Frankie may not have any trouble keeping her room clean, but may need our help understanding that life has many gray areas. I love my little girl just the way she is, and am happy that I can be home with her and get to know who she is, and get to help shape who she will become. I wonder who her little brother is going to be...

Happy Easter!

He is risen indeed! (or My, what large, shiny teeth you have)
 

Child Scientist

Frankie participated in a scientific study this Wednesday (as a test subject) at the Harvard Laboratory for Developmental Studies. We had a great time! They had a nice playroom, and all the grad students were super-friendly. She had to watch a video in which a square, triangle, and circle "communicated" with one another, and they measured her attention span to gauge what she found more interesting when they switched up the video. Before they switched the video, though, they looped the same movie over and over again until she looked away for at least two seconds. I was in the room, holding Frankie in my lap, and this seemed to take forever. I had moments where I thought "Oh no, my child will sit and watch TV for a really long time. We're going to be in here all afternoon..." The researcher said that there is a max number of times that they loop the video, and while she didn't quite reach that limit, she was almost there. That's my little couch potato.

Child Scientist - Who me?


And now for this month's photo of "Frankie looks just like Chris"; milk and cookies with Daddy.


This is a face that Frankie has been making quite often lately, which cracks us up. Usually she says "Dooogh" along with it, much like Homer Simpson's Do'h! It can mean anything from "I don't want to eat that" to "Whoops! I fell down".

In other happenings this week, we had a few friends over for a crafty playdate. Elizabeth helped her mom and I make some t-shirts for her coming-soon baby brother, including "disco hippo". Elizabeth decided the black silouhette of the hippo her mom cut out needed some glitter paint added. It's ready to boogie with the disco penguin and disco octopus she made him as well.

Elizabeth led Frankie and Hannah in a sing-along. This is actually one of Frankie's favorite activities right now - anytime she hears music she "sings" along - mostly dah-dah-doos that don't sound anything like the tune. Hopefully Elizabeth will be able to continue her lessons with Frankie.

Swinging at the park

We're feeling much better, and were able to enjoy the 40 degree weather yesterday by going to the park with Sarah, Nell, Hannah, and Macai. Frankie went swinging for the first time in a long time! To prove we're alive and well, here's a video that Sarah took!

Neck Brace

We're feeling better, definitely on the mend. Thank you for all your loving support as we recover from the great Stomach Flu of 2008. We were all able to successfully eat dinner tonight, which is a vast improvement.

Since my posts have been on the bleek side, I thought I'd cheer you all up with this picture of Frankie in her "neck brace" (which is actually an ear muffler she wanted to wear as a necklace). Chris told her she needs to keep it on until the settlement.

Poor sick Mama and Daddy

I knew this day would come - the one where I felt so sick I felt incapable of taking care of my child and wasn't sure how I was going to make it through, and it is here. Frankie's tummy ache is probably not from her antibiotics, seeing as Chris and I have come down with it. Chris might have something different, but we are all very sick. I spent yesterday throwing up and making trips to the bathroom. Poor Frankie stood there and cried while I threw up for the first time - I think it scared her.

Frankie's diarrhea has stopped, fortunately, and she seemed in better spirits yesterday. God gave us the grace to take care of her, and gave her the grace to be a sweet, independent girl yesterday afternoon while I waited for Chris to get home from work (he was able to stay home in the morning, but had to go in the afternoon). She played pleasantly on her own while I laid on the couch and read her books, held teddy bears, and helped her put on "necklaces" that she brought me.

I haven't eaten anything since Sunday (well, I did try and eat a few bites of Lipton's noodle soup last night, which resulted in another round of vomiting about 2 hours later), and have been trying to sip water and juice slowly. I'm feeling better this morning, but I'll see how the day goes. It always takes so much longer to recover from episodes like this when you're pregnant.

These are the days when I feel particularly sad that we don't live near my parents - I just wanted my mom yesterday. My Nana said that she still misses her mom (who died many years ago) the most when she is very ill.

Poor sick baby

Frankie's had diarrhea since last night, and has been lethargic and clingy all morning. I'm tossing the sleep schedule out the window and letting her sleep at will today. She watched Sesame Street this morning with a glazed over look, and finally fell asleep on the couch next to me. We were going to head to the pool this morning with Heather and Elizabeth, but I didn't think we'd be allowed back if she had squirts in the pool, so had to pass.

She been drinking lots this morning, which is good. I talked with our Dr's office this morning, and I don't think she's dehydrated. Just tired and not feeling well.

Home Improvement update

We worked and worked and worked this weekend, and have made signifigant strides in our home improvement project. The inside of the closets are now complete, thanks to Chris and Topher working more than 12 hours on them on Saturday. They framed the new doorways and mudded over the cracks in the drywall. I finished sanding the drywall mud in the living room, cleaned up, and started painting. Ellen and Jason watched Frankie in the morning, and then she went to Camp Murry in the afternoon.

After a dinner at All Star Sandwich Bar, we put both Hannah and Frankie to bed in Frankie's room, and the Murrys helped me finish the painting in the living room. It feels so good to be done with the messy work in the living room, and I love the blue walls. We still need to put up shelves, and possibly install a gas fireplace, but the bulk of the work is done. Probably at least one more good Saturday on the closets will finish the messy work in the bedroom too. Our poor vacuum cleaner looks like a wheezy old man with an oxygen tank - it's got dust in every crack and crevice. I bought a new filter for it after this is all over, but I'm a little worried he's not going to make it that far.

Thanks to all our gracious friends who have helped us on this project, we couldn't have done it without you!

The new closets


The new "cake stand blue" (a Martha Stewart color from Lowe's) living room. This wall used to have a closet door on the left and a mantel in the middle.

The sleep rollercoaster and antibiotics

I know that most of you are on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next to our fearless heroine and her adventures in an unpredictable sleep schedule. Little angel slept for 3 hours yesterday afternoon, and woke up at 7 this morning! She's currently down for what I hope will be yet another 3 hour afternoon nap. That would make three in a row. Who-rah!

In other news, she is starting her first ever round of antibiotics today. She had a boil on her leg this last week, and the doctor wanted to give her some antibiotics just to clear up any remaining infection that might be there. It's apparently overkill, but they said since she was so young they wanted to be sure. I feel terrible; I didn't call for about a week because I just thought it was like a huge zit and would go away on its own. It didn't, and got bigger and bigger, and finally I helped drain it to relieve the pressure (which turns out was the right thing to do). Sarah mentioned yesterday that it was probably a boil, and I did some research last night and figured I should call the doctor.

I apologize for the grossness of this post, but thought it might be helpful to other parents in case they come across something like this - it wasn't even on my radar to be concerned about or call the doctor about! For more information about staph infections (probably the cause of the boil), check out: http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/infections/bacterial_viral/staph.html

Children's Museum

After that nice long post about how well Frankie slept yesterday, and how we're on a roll, today she woke up at 5:45, had a melt down at 8:15, and fell asleep in my arms at 9:00. I let her sleep for 30 minutes, and then we had to get up and go, because we had big plans to join Kristen and Nathanael at the Children's Museum!

Frankie loved the fish tank:


Hard at work at the light display learning about colors and shapes:

Hello, Nathanael!

Trying to catch a butterfly

Checkmate

Goofy grin at the water table

Hello, Grandma Thora

All tuckered out after a morning of play

Sleeping Beauty

We have been transitioning Frankie to one nap a day for about three weeks now, and it hasn't been easy. Mind you, I knew this, I was warned by several loving friends that this can be a month-or-more-long process with some frustrating setbacks.

She'd been napping from about 9-10:15 and 1-2:30 most days, with her night-time sleep going from 7:00 pm to around 6:00 am. Sometimes the morning nap would only be about 45 minutes, and the afternoon nap a little longer, so I thought at about a year she might be ready. Selfishly, I was also looking forward to the one nap a day (most kids when they go to one-nap a day take a 2.5-3 hour nap in the middle of the day) because I wanted to be able to run errands and go on play dates in the morning, and a 3-hour chunk of nap time is infinitely more useful than two 75 minute chunks of time (which sometimes were only 45 minutes). I'm 6 months pregnant, I'm tired, it's nice to have a full nap in the middle of the day if I need one instead of a 20-minute nap that would leave me feeling more tired than less.

I'd also heard from several friends that their little bundles of joy started sleeping later in the morning when they switched to one nap a day. For my little early riser, that seemed like a dream come true.

For the past weeks we have struggled, and have had overall much less sleep than the hoped-for more. Frankie started waking consistently at 5:30 (sometimes 4:30) and despite our leaving her in her crib until at least 6:00, would not go back to sleep. Some mornings she makes it until noon, and sleeps anywhere from 90 minutes to 2.5 hours (the good days), and then be back to sleep by 7:00 or 7:30. Other days she would not make it all the way to noon, and would sleep for 30-90 minutes in the am, and then another shorter nap in the afternoon. This past Sunday, she actually went up to the nursery worker at church who was sitting in a chair, laid her head down on her lap, and practically fell asleep standing up. All this inconsistent sleep has left my child over-tired, cranky, and needy (read: wants to be held by momma 24-7, cries if someone looks at her funny).

The last three days, however, have been a turning point. I'm beginning to think we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. She's woken up at more like 6:30, and has taken 2.5 hour naps. This afternoon she actually napped for 3 hours straight! Cue the triumphant, joyous background music!

Here's hoping that now that she's broken two more teeth this week (we're up to 6!), and is well-rested, my sweet independent girl will be back.

Nothing ever happens on my block

Until now! We recently got a community advisory notice from Meredith (our neighbor) warning us of a rogue canvasser:


"Roy Tucker has been going door to door in the Cambridge area for the past several months posing as a Greenpeace fundraiser and collecting cash and checks. Detective Grassi has been been informed by Greenpeace attorney Tom Wetterer that Roy Tucker has no affiliation with Greenpeace. Please immediately notify the Cambridge Police Department if Mr. Tucker attepts to raise money in the name of Greenpeace. Warrents to be soughts for Larceny by false pretense."

It's the perfect crime for Cambridge, no?

Also, speaking of nothing ever happening on my block, I think I forgot to blog about the fact that the mob boss is gone! His family moved to NH right after the new year. It's been much quieter, and we like it that way!