Lucy was in the right place and time the other night. I was getting repeatedly kicked in the same spot of my belly, and I had her come over and feel. She felt it and her eyes lit up – super cute. Max is waiting for his turn now…
I’m 21 weeks now, by the by. Please pray for my sleep – I haven’t slept through the night but once in the last 3 weeks. I lose 2 or more hours every night and it is getting brutal.
No sooner was the party complete than I have to finish up the little details of the renter’s room. I spent Sunday afternoon working on assembling a roll-top desk. I had the kids ‘helping’ me. They were mostly yelling and dancing and singing while I tried to decipher the cartoon based instructions. At one point Lucy said to me, "Don’t look, Dad." So of course I looked. I waited 3 beats and turned my head to see Lucy dropping trow(sers) and giving Max a full moon. I laughed and laughed.
Later, Lucy said to Toby "Mom, how big is your bottom?" I kept my mouth shut and waited to hear the answer. Toby said, "It is the perfect size for my pants, so I am happy with it." (She was wearing sweatpants). Lucy would have none of this. She said, "No, I mean how many inches around is it?" I couldn’t keep it in any more. My laughter allowed Toby to make a get away and avoid the answer.
The last few weeks have been completely focused on getting the first floor finished enough to have a baby shower hosted here for Toby’s cousin, Chelsea.
Chelsea’s mom (Toby’s aunt) Bonnie, stayed with us for the long weekend, and was a massive help. She cleaned on Friday, set up the tables and chairs Friday night and then on Saturday got all the food prepared.
The pulling of the paper off the floor and the moving of the cardboard out of the house was done in such a rush that everything was just thrown into the front yard. It was trash city. The kids and I went out early on Saturday and began the yard cleanup. We got all the trash up, Max trimmed some of the bushes and Lucy swept up the front porch. My lawn hadn’t been mowed in months, so I did a ‘pre-mow’ with the weed-eater. I was racing against the clock, but finished cleaning up with about 15 minutes to spare.
As a reward for doing a great job working so hard, I took the kids to see The Tooth Fairy. It was silly and perfect for Max and Lucy.
Below are some pictures that show the insides as the party was being set up. I think more than 30 people ended up attending.
The rats are dead and gone, but not forgotten. They have left their marks, even from the grave. Not only does my garage still reek, but they got into many things that I would not have expected, like the plastic water tubing for the ice-maker in the fridge.
When we pulled the reefer out of the garage to install it in its new home, we saw that the rats had chewed through much of the exposed plastic tubing that feeds the chilled water and the ice-maker. The lumber yard had many of the fittings and tubing to effect the repairs, so it seemed like a minor inconvenience.
“Seemed” is the operative word. Although we didn’t see any damaged tubing, there must be some, because when we turned on the water to the reefer, water started pouring out of the bottom. We found a new section of damaged tubing, but even after we repaired that, the water was dripping out.
So I’m going to have to call for service. That will be fun, explaining that the rats ate my tubing.
Also, I found another dead rat in the garage. This was was long dead from the time of the poison. Hopefully the garage smell will return to normal.
Lucy has naturally lost her first tooth. She had been wiggling the loose tooth for many weeks. On Sunday, her lips were chapped and she had a small split. When she pulled her lip to show me the split, the loose tooth just fell over. I reached up and squeezed it, and it popped out so easily that Lucy didn’t even notice it was gone. When I showed her the tooth in my hand she was so amazed she started crying (surprise, surprise).
