Preview

Not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but we are officially weaned over here. It's been a couple of weeks and though I miss the close and quiet moments with Sam, I must say it's nice to wear a supportive bra for a change. So I'll have my body to myself (well, as much as that's possible with a 18 month old grabbing onto you every 5 seconds...oh, and don't forget that I'm actually incubating a person in my body...so well, not really) for the next 4 months until baby #2 shows up. Then back to the nursing bras, blech! Oh, I enjoy the act of nursing, but really, is it that hard to make a bra that actually holds things up above the equator?

In the next few months, wow, strike that, few weeks we have a lot of stuff going on. This weekend we are headed to a wedding about 6 hours away. A wedding that we just recently found out Sam is not invited to. I must say this put a kink in our plans. Thank God I asked J to call the bride to double check! Soooooo, my poor MIL is now skipping the reception to babysit. I am filled with guilt. I should just stay at the hotel with him and skip it. But a bought a new dress...and I kinda get the impression that she's not too upset about bowing out of the festivities. After all, if Sam isn't welcome, how much fun could it really be right!?

Then J's sis and our nephew are coming to visit! I just pray we have nice weather. It seems whenever we have people come from out of town, it rains. Hopefully not, otherwise we will have some bored kiddos on our hands, and that won't be fun for anyone.

THEN, we start our renovation. Our complete destruction and resurrection. It's going to be a mess. I still haven't really figured out how it's going to work. Worst case scenario, if it turns out to be completely unlivable, then we head south to J's folks condo for a week here and there. But that's 3 hours away. Luckily Sam and I are headed for Florida at the very onset of it, so we'll miss the initial ripping apart phase. But Lord knows what we'll come home to.

So that's my next month in a nutshell...busy, busy! I'm worn out just thinking about it.



(that pic is from a couple weeks ago when Sam had a stomach bug, and then after puking on me approximately a zillion times, I got it. We were pretty miserable...cozy, but miserable. Oh, and do you see his black eye? Dancing to the Pietasters, Sam took a header into the coffee table. Too bad he won't be showing off those moves at the wedding this weekend).

Oh, and we find out if it's baby boy or baby girl this week!! I'll be sure to let you know.

Lordy, I'm a slacker. How are you!? I'm good. All my vegetables are dead, but other than that, things are grand. I'm not sure I have the patience for vegetable gardening. Flowers and perennials I can do. Veggies are a little more work. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm sure your on the edge of your seat.

So, what's new?

This week we went to Shelburne Farms, an old estate and model farm built by a branch of the Vanderbilt family. Over the last few decades it has been converted into a non-profit educational center, hotel and working farm. It is breathtaking.




There is so much to see, but we stayed at the barn where the kiddos could run around with animals and check out the tractors.







Things are going well here on the home front. We are still waiting to hear back from the contractor with a final estimate on our renovation project. We're 90% sure we're going to do it, not sure if we really have a choice with little baby on the way. But it would sure be nice to know what it's going to cost us! Not sure how we're going to handle the mess and craziness that comes with ripping your house apart. In Northampton it was just us and the dog...and it was no picnic. This time we have Sam and little baby TBA making mommy uncomfortable and tired. I guess we'll just take it day by day and hope for nice weather so we can escape outside.

So Sam is beginning to talk a little bit. A VERY little bit. So far his word count is about 5...let's see..

Mama
Ball
Dada
Bath
No

and whenever he sees a dog, he says "BOW!" (as in bow-wow, not bowtie). Not really a word, but it's communication nonetheless.





He's begun to show a little imagination and pretends to eat things and makes little vroom noises as he pushes around toys. And as you can see, he has taken after his father with a love of LEGO.



Sam's also one big bruise, it seems. Everyday there's a new one. He enjoys climbing and jumping and pushing over heavy objects. The park is a whole new adventure. It used to be just a swing, really. He was too little to do much else. Now there are steps and slides and platforms in which to dive head first from. I dread his doctor's appointment on Monday. They're gonna think I beat him with a stick.



Oh, and he's also learned how to take off his shirt. So we are now topless approximately 70% of the time.



but we're pretty cute 100% of the time.