Much and not-so-much

We've had lots going on, but I just don't feel that there is much to report. However, there are those who notice when the blog goes stale, so here's a little bit of something.
You may have seen Henry's new bed on Dad's blog. Here it is all outfitted. Henry loves it! The first morning he awoke in there I walked by to see him sitting up on his knees gazing at his little friends and books.
Also while Dad and Kathie visited, Dad helped Pete sort through some of our bathroom issues. We had hit a snag when we realized that using the first, smaller, vanity was going to necessitate tiling all the way under the piece, due to the style and the bottom not sitting flush on the floor blah blah blah. The handyman suggested we just get one that fit into the 'footprint' of the old vanity. Not a problem, except we had thrown out the box. Luckily, Lowe's doesn't seem to care about such things and they took it back no questions asked. With the help of Peter Sr. a new vanity was chosen and brought home. Here are Dad and Pete, looking manly (note the stud-finder in Pete's hand, beeping wildly) and discussing various other vanity-related issues.
The new new vanity fit into the space, but the pipes didn't fit into the back in the proper way- so Dad and Pete had to jigsaw and jimmy-jack the drawer and come up with the arrangement in the following photo. Also, when the sink top was placed on, it was higher than the old one, meaning it bumped into the outlet which the handyman had just replaced for us (the old one wasn't a grounded outlet). So that had to be moved too. In any case....we think everything is okay, vanity-wise, for now. Bert (I'll quit calling him "the handyman") moved the outlet, patched up the wall and Pete has done some priming. After he paints he will either attempt to finish the work with the sink top and the faucet installation himself, or he'll call Bert back.
While at Lowe's I picked up several color options for Prince Kyle's room. The choices are in the pale-tangerine, sage green and light chocolate milk families. I will be so glad when it is no longer Prince Kyle's room. Sorry, Kyle, wherever you are....even though you're probably 17 by now.
Henry started at his daycare this week. He did two half-days and fared pretty well. There were no tears, and he was very chatty about his experiences. His teacher did say that he was a little hesitant, or that he stood back and watched a lot. I think he's just a little overwhelmed. This is all so new for him. I can't wait until he makes friends! Next week he starts two full days a week. To celebrate his first day there I picked up this yummy chocolate-with-strawberry-whipped-cream cupcake from the organic bakery I've been frequenting.
Okay, I picked up two cupcakes. I'm not sure who finished theirs first, but we were both delighted to discover a whipped-cream filling as well!
Here's Henry standing proudly by a recent painting. I can't get over this new talent. This photo shows Henry on the left and Grammie on the right. She's not putting her hands to her cheeks ala Home Alone, that's her hair. I'm so sorry you can't see the feet Henry painted for himself in this photo, those and his hair are my favorite parts. I suppose I may need to teach him to paint an upturned mouth.
Gosh, he looks like such a big boy!

A Brand New Skill

Henry has just tonight developed an hilarious talent for drawing people that look like people. Check out his first Shmoo.
And here's a rendering of Papa:
And here he is working on Bampa ("...and here's his blue hair....").
Oh my gosh. I can't get over it! I'm just sad that these drawings were made on his little water-drawing mat, so I can't save the actual pictures.

Stalled

The bathroom work is stalled due to various things I will perhaps detail in another post. Instead I'll share some photos from the Brookfield Zoo. Grandma and Bampa wanted one more day of adventure with Henry this summer, and since the Thomas thing at the railroad museum was pretty much sold out, we went with the zoo. A great time was had by all and naps were much needed by the time we got home. Henry especially enjoyed the kangaroos and the big tiger. He thought he'd choose the tiger to ride on the carousel, but then he spotted the lion. That meant I got stuck with the warthog, and Mary rode a manatee.

Stuff

I think I've mentioned that we've had a lot going on these last few days. I feel like I'm almost constantly on my feet. It's been good that we've cancelled cable, because if we still had it I'd be vegging out at night, way past my bedtime, just because I'm too tired to get up off the couch. Instead I've been reading Bel Canto.
Last night we had crazy crazy weather. It started around 3:30 when Henry and I got back from school. It was dark and torrential rains and crazy wind and all of that. Pete tried to be careful about when he left work, but the sirens were going off here when he pulled around the corner. I kept starting dinner and then stopping again- turning off the burners and going to check on Henry who was having a late nap. There's not much of a place to hide in this house, but I was considering closing ourselves in to the hallway with Henry's mattress. Then Pete got home and the sirens ended and things seemed a little more mellow for a bit. Franklin was very very whiny about it all, and may or may not have peed on the bathmat.
In the middle of it all, Pete's dad showed up (invited) for dinner. He's been a bachelor for the last few days. We were supposed to go see bike races last night, but that didn't happen. I found myself quite humored by the table setting:
If you look carefully you will see a Mexican-themed tablecloth, a snowman trivet, flowery plates, a US map placemat and a Nemo plate. I couldn't find Henry's Lightning McQueen fork, or that would have been on the table as well. The meal was sort of Italian....just to throw another element in there. If I had zoomed out you could have seen the table flanked quite nicely by our sparkly red chairs, but I guess you've already seen those. Anyway, it was nice to have company in the midst of the storm. And when it let up a little I was allowed to drive my father-in-law's Saab to pick up some ice cream. It was a nice ride!

Here's a photo of some of the work our handyman got done yesterday. This is our new bathroom vanity. The mirror is up too, but I wanted to point out the tile with these pictures. You can see here that this vanity is a bit smaller than what was there before. That was sort of an accident, but it makes the bathroom feel a little bigger, which is nice.
Here's the tile that was probably original in the bathroom. I quite like it, actually. The handyman should be showing up again any time this morning....I hope. He'll be patching in some tile and hopefully cleaning all the old tile up to make it look shiny and new again. He'll also put in the new faucet. Then we've got a new towel bar and paint and whatnot to take care of.
Other home improvement projects on the horizon: installing new outside lights, mailbox and numbers, new entryway light, painting the bedroom (sounds like Dad may be here to help- hooray!) new knobs for the bedroom cabinets. And down the road: surface improvements to the other bathroom and possible closet knocking-out and baby-making-room in Henry's room. Of course, the third bedroom is still Prince Kyle's room....so we really have to get on painting that soon too!! Something about Fall puts me in the mood for home improvements!

So busy

We have been very busy these last couple of days. Running errands, getting ready to have the bathroom fixed up (waiting on the handyman right now!) cooking freezable meals to prepare for going back to work, and spending time at school trying to get the classroom back in order. In the midst of it all we had an appointment yesterday for an ultrasound and to meet with the midwife. Everything looks good. It's a big baby. Our due date has been Dec. 31st, but the ultrasound tech. said if she were just judging by what she sees in the pictures she would give us a due date of Dec. 23rd. For various confusing reasons we'll be keeping it 'officially' at Dec. 31st. What struck me most, though, was the pose the baby took for the photos. I have vivid memories of Henry with his fist raised (defiantly? triumphantly?) in his ultrasound. This baby has its hands visible too, but out in front, a little more gentle, maybe holding its own hand. Henry is still steadfastly convinced that the baby is of the female persuasion.
If you can't make it out- the head is on the right, facing up, you can see the profile of the nose and mouth a little bit. The dark spot is the eye socket. The arms and hands are to the left. I could be totally wrong about the gentle hand position, now that I look again it could be that the baby has it's hands up in a ready-to-box position.

Warning: Long Post

I should have maybe split this into a few posts, but the photos are uploaded, so I'll mostly let them do the talking.
Saturday 8/11:
Drove to Iowa.
Sun. 8/12:
Family reunion in Clarence. See Rob's and Dad's blogs for more details. After the reunion we took off for Minneapolis. Had dinner with Sandy.

Mon. 8/13:
Left Minneapolis, drove up to Grand Marais. Stopped for pie at Betty's. Made a couple quick stops in Grand Marais, then kept on driving up to Kemo lake where Will and Sandy have their property. Mom, Tom and Alexandra were still up there with Will. So much work had been up there since our last visit, we hardly recognized the place. Again, see Dad's blog or old posts from mine or Will's if you want to compare. Will, Pete and Tom knocked down the rest of the house that had been there. Alex entertained Henry. Will built an outdoor water-heating tub contraption. Mom cooked dinner. I'm not sure what I did. When the boys were done they celebrated with some cans of MGD. That night we slept in a tent up at Kemo. Henry had a blast. Pete didn't appreciate the flash in his face. Franklin loved the idea of sleeping bags. Me? 4 1/2 mos. pregnant and sleeping on the ground don't mix very well I guess.




Tues. 8/14:
Spent some more time at Kemo. Mom made pancakes for breakfast. Mom, Tom and Alex took off a little after noon. Henry, Pete and I drove back in to Grand Marais in the evening, just in time for pizza at Sven & Ole's, threw some rocks in the harbor, then checked in to our little cabin, #16 at Trailside. It was very tiny, about 70 years old. Had a main room with kitchen and a futon for Henry, then a little bedroom for Pete and I. Slept like a log.

Wed. 8/15:
Woke up, ate some cereal in the cabin (have you noticed those little mini boxes, that we always used to get for road trips, are bigger now?) then moseyed down to World's Best Donuts. They don't do sprinkle donuts, so Henry had sugar. Franklin posed in the Viking cut-out. Then we wandered out to Artist's Point, hiked around a little bit. Saw the inukshuk, built one of our own. Walked part way out to the lighthouse. Did some other piddling about town. Napped. Had lunch at the Crooked Spoon. Spent more time throwing rocks in the harbor. That night we built a little fire and Henry had his first s'more. It sprinkled on us a bit, but we didn't mind much.







Thurs. 8/16:
Had breakfast at South of the Border (not Mexican, South of the Canadian border. Smoky, cheap greasy-spoon) to fuel up for a hike at Judge Magney State Park. With Henry and Franklin we hiked up to the Devil's Kettle. The hike is about 1.25 miles, but with lots of ups and downs. It was quite enough for a toddler, a pregnant lady and a dog with very short legs. Devil's Kettle is this cool waterfall that goes into a hole in the rock. Local lore is that no one knows where the water comes out. An anniversary hike seems to be becoming a tradition for us. Weird.
After Henry had a nap we drove back up the Gunflint trail a bit to pick up Will. Rather than making us drive all the way back up to Kemo, he paddled across, left his canoe in the woods and hiked a bit up to the road to meet us. Saved us about and extra half-hour each way in the car. We took him back to our cabin where he and Henry played (or went on the Baton Death March if you ask Will) and gave Pete and I chance to relax and read. Then Sandy arrived from Minneapolis (she had had to go back and fly out to PA or somewhere for work) and we all walked down to the Angry Trout for dinner, where we all ordered the fried trout. Will seemed appalled at the idea of me asking the waitress to take our photo, so no shots of that. And, sadly, I didn't get any pictures of us back at the cabin enjoying the joint-anniversary celebration cake. Oh well, it was still delicious. Will and Sandy drove back up to Kemo. We stayed in our cabin one last night.



Fri. 8/17:
We picked up some donuts for everyone and drove back up to Kemo, where the temperature was considerably cooler. I helped screw down the deck while Sandy did some staining. Will and Pete worked on various other jobs, including fixing some windows and stacking lots of wood. Henry and I went out raspberry picking. He enjoyed playing 'Blueberries for Sal' and kept calling Franklin 'Little Bear'. After spaghetti dinner we all piled in one canoe and paddled over to pick up the one Will had left in the woods. Sandy, Henry and I paddled back and enjoyed watching some very energetic loons on the way. Will and Pete did some trout fishing. Henry and I were already in bed, but not yet asleep when they came back with two keepers Pete had hooked. I guess they got 6 altogether. You'll have to watch Will's blog for photos of the trout, because they couldn't find our camera and I wasn't about to get out of my sleeping bag for anything other than peeing. It got down to the mid-40's that night.




Sat. 8/18:
After a stop in Grand Marais for lunch, and a donut for dessert, we all headed back to Minneapolis. Pete supervised Will's de-boning of the fish. Will fried it up with onions and I don't know what else, but it was delicious! The two fish were more than enough for all of us to eat. Henry had a much-needed bath, then went to bed. The rest of us ate the rest of the cake (still delicious!) and looked at some photos.

Sun. 8/19:
The drive back home was long long long. I thought I was going to go crazy in the car. We did have a stop in Osseo at the Norske Nook for lunch, so that was good. We got home to a stale-smelling house around 7PM, heated up some freezer food and went to bed.

Today: Still haven't started laundry, and I don't want to disturb Henry's nap to start gathering up clothes. I did go in to school for about 4 hours, and Cari and I were able to get some stuff done. Henry played with Nancy's 4th grade son from the classroom next door, so that worked out great! Still on the agenda: laundry, grocery, catching up on email.....

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

It feels good to be home after being away for 10 days or so. Now we just need a little time to decompress, wash clothes, buy groceries and so on and so on......
I will try to post some photos and stories when Henry naps later today. Here's a family photo of us in Grand Marais ("Grandma Ray") harbor...Henry had been throwing rocks, of course, but paused long enough for us to take advantage of the evening light.

Pulling the plug

We're finally doing it! For all intents and purposes, we're getting rid of t.v.. This is the time for us to do it, as the only show we really care about right now (and do, in fact have the season premiere on our calendar already) is The Office. And we can get that on the computer. We can listen to the Cubs on the radio, we may miss football and the occasional awards show. Pete called to cancel the cable. They haven't turned it off yet, but if they don't do it soon we'll be unplugging the t.v.. We plan to leave it where it is so we can watch DVDs when we want to....we're not totally crazy. Henry only watches about 20 minutes a day, but what good is he getting out of it? And best to do this now before the new baby comes! The plan is to not spend more time on the computer, but I'll keep you posted. Maybe I should start clocking my computer time.

Pickles and Ice Cream

Amber's been asking for some belly pictures. If you didn't know I was pregnant- you do now! What's in there? A medicine ball? Horizontal stripes and maternity clothes don't exactly camouflage the bulge. Not even due until Dec. 31st, but at this rate....
If you can get past the glimpse of giant belly, you may notice new short hair and the pesto pizza Henry and I made for dinner. His favorite part? Poking fingerprints into the rising dough. And eating the cheese, of course.



And yes, I have sort of been wanting ('craving' seems strong) pickles lately! Rather than ice cream I had a Frappucino yesterday....perhaps my first since before Henry was born? Not to say that I haven't been abusing Starubucks. Oh! Which reminds me!
I'm making the official announcement here, so that you all can hold me accountable....

I am giving up plastic cups and plastic water bottles. If I don't have my reusable cups or water bottles with me, I will just go thirsty. It's out of control the amount of plastic we consume, and my feeble excuses are just not holding up anymore. This is it. If you see a plastic (or paper) Starbucks cup in my car, please, feel free to verbally abuse me. If you want to jump on the bandwagon, let me know and we can keep each other accountable!