House Project - Pictures

We still need to hang a picture and real lights but you get the idea:

What is Down with Our Bad Selves?

I thought K was a big eater with her fierce feeds every two hours on the hour but J makes her look like a lightweight. I've never had a baby that eats so much! Mind you, I've also never had a baby that can pee on its own head so even a mother of three can learn something new.

Have I mentioned he's lovely?

Naturally we've chosen this time to do some major home construction in the living and dining rooms, including re-plastering the walls and hanging molding.

To make matters more hectic, we decided to go with a cheaper contractor, who announced he didn't feel comfortable hanging real clay molding after he'd already torn up the living room. So we had to go crawling back to the expensive guy and beg him to come while all our furniture was still under plastic.

He was actually quite nice about it, in a sardonic way. When Ralf poked his head in the shop he was greeted with: 'Your guy can't hang it, can he?'

Ralf admitted this was the case. He also expressed some doubts about the molding we'd chosen, as it looked awfully big for the room when we held it up.

'Scared of a little molding, huh?' the interior designer asked amiably.

'Actually, I'm scared of my wife,' retorted Ralf with dignity.

'Aren't we all?' (This, of course, was a reflexive question and didn't require an answer.)

Then he offered to divert two of his workmen to hang the molding, which was very decent of him, and the final painting is happening right now. . . only the first guy's doing that so it's been a crazy week of rotating workmen.

But it's almost done...

I'll try to post pictures next week.

It's Nature, Not Nurture

Now that I have three kids I feel entitled to say that their personalities come fully baked.

J, my baby, is up for anything as long as he is fed every hour.  I predict he will remain easy going and be a good eater.

L, my 5-year-old, is the same sweet mama's girl she's always been.  She's a little jealous of J but not one to carry a grudge.  The other day she walked to the store with me, 20 minutes both ways without a word of complaint.  When we got home she announced, 'I would never have let you go alone, mommy.  It's too cold!'

And K, my 7-year-old, is the same clever, opinionated being she ever was.  When I asked her if she wanted to walk with me to the store, her answer was short and to the point: 'No way. Too boring.'  It's exactly the sort of thing she would have said as a newborn if she could have talked.

Ah, I'm a lucky woman.

Love, Love, Love

The Big Unveiling

His name is.... Jonas!

Thank you everyone for your kind wishes. More pictures to follow.

Are You a Snort?

Our baby is here!  And we finally settled on a name, although we still haven't decided how to pronounce it. 

They say pride goeth before a fall.  And sure enough, after telling everyone who asked that of course I planned to have an epidural - how idiotic not to in this day and age - there turned out not to be enough time.

Yeah. Not fun.

He's a cute little guy, not that I'm biased or anything, although I have to say that changing girls is a bit easier...

The day he was born he looked right at me and got a very doubtful expression on his face, as if he wanted to say: "You are not my mother.  You are a snort!"

That's when I fell in love.