When they came upstairs (all 3 of them), Nico squealed and ran over to me to show me the doll.  He’s been watching it in progress and was eager to play with it (although he seemed to understand that he had to wait until it was finished).  I asked him what the doll’s name was, and he didn’t even hesitate before telling me it was Didi.  So thank you for your suggestions (Crazy Chester, Kenny, Pat, and Chris were the suggested names), but Nico seems to have named the doll on his own.

Why Didi?  Nico has a friend on our street who is a year older than him, and who he idolizes.  This little boy has a 4 month old baby brother, who Nico also adores.  Their nickname for the baby is Didi, so it’s no surprise that Nico wanted his own Didi to play with.

As for Didi, he’s looking forward to visiting Grandma and Grandpa Degan soon because Grandma has promised to make him some clothes that are more appropriate for summer!

Here’s your glimpse of Nico almost in real-time — the most recent photos were just taken on Monday of this week!

In terms of new developments, he started doing sign language last month, which has really opened a lot of doors in terms of communication.  His first 4 signs were nurse (as in milk), water, siren, and helicopter .  Guess that’s what happens when a boy grows up in the city!  Other signs he does include:  banana, yogurt, cat, daddy, more, bye bye, eat, shoe, bird, and, perhaps my favorite is the sign he made up for music.  We hadn’t taught him one for music, but it’s so important to him that he made his own up!  (He bends his elbows so his fists go up and down as if he’s dancing or drumming.) 

His first word is officially “hot.”  He says it consistently for the fireplace and our space heaters.  We don’t know why that particular word was so salient for him — we don’t warn him about hot things (he’s cautious enough on his own) and his babysitter’s go-to word is “careful.”  But he says “hot” any time he is near the fireplace or the space heater. Even more puzzling is that he has decided he is the household “hot” police, so if we stand too close to the fireplace or the space heater (particularly the fireplace), he pulls our pant leg and drags us until we walk far enough away for his comfort.  While this is adorable, it means I can no longer hang out in front of the fireplace to warm up. 

He can also say “daddy” and “bye bye,” but he’s somewhat less consistent with these than he is with “hot.”  And he says “moo,” “hee haw,” and “oof” (for “woof”) when he sees, or we talk about, cows, donkeys, or dogs.  

He likes looking at the family pictures hanging in our stairwell and having us identify family members as he points to them.

He still loves the vacuum cleaner.  He requests that we vacuum periodically and while we vacuum he pushes around his vuvuzela, “vacuuming” with us.  It’s very cute. 

He’s got good stamina.  His babysitter regularly takes him out for walks and he’ll walk 8 blocks or more at a time.  I had him at the zoo yesterday and despite the fact that it was well past naptime, he walked from the farm at the bottom all the way up to the reptile house — straight uphill for probably at least 1/4 of a mile (1/3 of a mile if you trust google pedometer).  People at the zoo are constantly commenting on him and we have determined that it’s because you actually see very few little kids walking around there.  Most kids under 3 or 4 are in strollers — some little ones might be in slings instead.  But most aren’t walking freely.  Nico just toddles along, keeping pace with the grown-ups and thinking nothing of it.  He must really stand out because so many people have a comment to make about him.

He’s finally eating now.  Still not a ton compared to other kids his age, but he can put away more than 1/2 cup of yogurt or oatmeal in a sitting (when he feels like it), so that’s a good start.  He seems to prefer beige foods — oatmeal, yogurt, banana, pear, bread, sometimes cheese.  He won’t touch peas or most green or orange foods.  But he likes pizza and soup (no matter the color) and, of course, chocolate.

And, finally, he’s loving the music class we enrolled him in.  After the first class he started drumming along with beats.  After the second one he started clapping along.  Now he not only requests that we play music, but he actually requests a particular song sometimes by doing the motions associated with it (rocking forward and backward like a horse or wiggling his pointer finger, for example).  Jenny may be right — his future may have music in it!  He certainly loves it right now.

In other news, our bulbs are emerging from the soil so I expect we’ll have spring photos up before we know it.  We are all eager for spring around here!

Enjoy!

We started out with a small dinner party on his actual birthday.  Jenny was visiting from CA and she brought a tradition from her family — we put a bunch of items on a tray and the first one Nico picked up was supposed to tell us something about his future.  Items included a book, castanets (to represent music), money (coin and bill), a pen (red — could symbolize teacher or writer), a spoon (for cooking), a carrot (farming?  vegetarian?  it doesn’t matter – he didn’t pick it), a pig toy (again, not sure what it represented, but it didn’t matter because he didn’t pick it).  We thought this was a Chinese custom, but our friend Sam had also told us about his nephew doing this, and they’re Korean.  And we have a neighbor who’s Chinese and her family has never heard of it.  So we’re thinking maybe this is an LA pan-Asian thing and not so much just a Chinese thing.  (Sam and Jenny are both from LA.)  Nico didn’t even hesitate on his choice and he wasn’t interested in all that much other than the thing he picked.  Can you guess what he picked?  Look at the photos to see if you’re right.

Since his birthday was on a Thursday, we had his parties on the following weekends.  The Saturday right afer his birthday we had a morning party and an evening party.  We had initially planned on the morning one being for kids and the evening one for adults, but we had a mix at both parties and having two different ones made it so we were actually able to visit with everyone at both. 

We wrapped up Nico’s celebrations with a trip to NY the following weekend where Aunt Denise and Uncle Robert hosted his family party.  Almost all the family came from near and far to celebrate with him and he had a great time with his cousins.  Grandma and Grandpa got him a cassata cake which he enjoyed throwing on the floor.  Frank’s slices ensured that the cake designed to feed 40 people disappeared in half that many tummies.  Mmmm!

Please excuse all the close-up shots and the multiple cake shots…4 parties means 4 different opportunities to show him getting cake all over his face (or not…).  Enjoy!

Christmas has been fun so far this year, and it’s not quite over for us yet.  We’ll be celebrating a belated Christmas with my parents and Danny, Morgan, and Brady this weekend.  We began with an early Christmas (combined with first birthday party for Nico) on Long Island.  We spent Christmas itself here in DC, enjoying Christmas Eve dinner with Aunt Lee, Uncle Tommy, Matthew and Carrie.  Then we had Christmas morning to ourselves and enjoyed watching Nico open his presents and play with his new toys.  And we went to Sara, Aron, Salome and Cyrus’s house for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day. 

Photos from all of our Christmas festivities are here.  The next post will be all of Nico’s various birthday parties, so stay tuned.

Anyway, we traveled up to NY last weekend to celebrate (a bit early) the birthdays of both James and Daniel.  Nico had fun, as always, playing with his cousins.  And he left with some new favorite toys that Daniel and James have outgrown.  Some of his very favorite toys were first loved by Daniel and James (remember Doggie?) — thank you boys for sharing with him!  Some photos from our visit are here.

Unfortunately there are some other birthday celebrations coming up that we’re not going to be able to travel for.  Dana turned 16 last week and she’s having a party this weekend.  And Brady is turning 2 in a few weeks, but for the second year in a row we’re going to miss his party.    We’ll be sure to have a piece of cake from afar so we can feel like a part of the celebration. 

***

As an aside, we are looking into some new software so we can do better slideshows and video shows and hopefully return to putting photos on the blog.  Thanks for sticking with us while this blog has been text-only!  I hope it will be jazzier soon.

Nico had a great time with both of his great aunts.  And he particularly had fun with Lauren, who had as much fun playing with him as I had playing with her when she was a tiny little girl.  She swung him around, helped him practice walking, read to him, and kept him entertained for hours past bedtime.  He also loved playing with 5-year old Cadel, who has developed tons and tons of patience as a big brother.  He would build towers for Nico, not complain when Nico knocked them down before they were finished, and start over with a new tower (over and over and over).  Quinn is lucky to have such a great big brother!

We thought Nico might start walking before the trip, and when he didn’t, we were sure that he would take his first steps for his Chicago audience.  That didn’t happen, though.  He’s standing alone for longer and longer periods now (sometimes for the whole length of a book as we read to him).  But tonight we think he took his first half-step.  Frank was reading to him and he took one step toward the book, planting his foot before his hand reached the book.  It’s only a matter of days now, we’re pretty sure.   Batten down the hatches, he’s about to move! 

Here’s another link to the Chicago photos, in case you didn’t click that earlier one.

Nico had his 9 month visit this month, complete with vaccines for 5 diseases (diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, HiB and polio).  I had thought he wouldn’t be able to get them because he still has the sniffles (going on 3 weeks now…), but she thought he’d do fine.  And he did — he had less of a reaction this time than he did last time (no fatigue, redness, or heat at the injection site).  His stats are :  19 1/2 pounds, 29″ long, and 18 1/2″ head circumference.  Back at 7 months he was 18 pounds, 12 ounces, 28 1/2″ long, and had an 18″ head.  So he has definitely plateaued, although really he has outgrown all of the 9 month clothes and is wearing 12 month now, so that 1/2 inch and 12 ounces made a big difference.

We’ve taken advantage of this early fall weather with lots of walking trips to various libraries and parks.  And we had a great visit from Aunt Denise, Uncle Robert, and Daniel and James earlier in the month.  Nico loves watching his cousins!  We also had to say good bye to our good friends Lara and Beth and their daughters Caroline and Cassie.  Beth got a great job out in WA state and they packed up and moved out there last week.  Nico will miss having a secret admirer (Cassie) and we’ll miss the whole family.

Nico has been doing well with eating, but we’re not out of the woods yet.  His latest trick is to eat two or three slices of banana (in small pieces) and then toward the very end, choke and throw up everything he’s eaten.  We’re taking a little break from food until his sinuses clear out, thinking that maybe his throat is just too swollen for all the stress of food.

Here are photos from the first 2 weeks of September.  In the last few photos you can see him enjoying his right to vote.  He was shocked to learn, however, that the members of Congress on our ballot don’t actually have a vote.  Next up, photos of Nico demanding representation!

In terms of Nico’s developments in August…he turned 8 months old, ate some cantaloupe, and started grinding his teeth, which is a sound worse than fingernails on a chalkboard!  He also ate some peaches and rice cereal, but got pretty sick when we gave him egg yolk.  At the very end of the month he actually asked for some food by making up a sign; then he successfully swallowed some banana pieces!  That was a huge step.  (He’s regressed some again, but we’re optimistic that he’ll eat someday.) 

Enjoy the photos!

He turned 8 months old while we were traveling, and we realized that at that point he had been in 12 states already (plus DC, of course).  He did a southeastern loop in early spring, visiting VA, NC, SC, GA, and FL.  Then on this trip we did a northeastern loop, covering MD, DE, NJ, NY, MA, NH, and CT.   At the end of the month, he added PA to the list — those pictures will come soon.

Enjoy this batch of pictures.  Frank has a great video from a couple of weeks ago when we discovered Nico knew how to dance.  He’ll post it soon!

Happy summer and enjoy!

Nico made tremendous leaps and bounds all month long!  Here are some highlights:

• He started the month with 2 teeth and finished it with seven!  4 on the bottom and 3 (plus one about to come in) on the top.  Poor little guy had 4 top teeth pushing and shoving to come in all at the same time, just after 2 had come through on the bottom.  The good news is that there are only 20 total, so he’s getting a lot of the hard work out of the way early on.
• June 8th – Nico had his first babysitter this month.  I had been staying up until 2 or 3 AM writing and then getting up with him around 9 every day and trying to write if he took naps.  But I could see that there was no way I could keep up that pace and also that even with that pace I wouldn’t meet my deadlines.  So I found a babysitter to come for 4 hours a day, two days a week.  I still spent most of the month working until the wee hours, but having her here for 8 hours a week made a huge difference!  And she’s great — she is going to grad school in the fall for speech/language pathology and she knows sign language, so she’s signing with him and spends a lot of time reading to him and teaching him new things.  I haven’t worked up to leaving him alone with her yet, but it’s great to have here there while I work.  An added benefit is that I can just go downstairs if he cries or needs to eat, so I don’t need to pump or anything.  So far it’s really easy and quite a lifesaver for me.
• June 9th – Nico turned 6 months old!
• He makes a ton of sounds now, although it’s way too early for any of them to mean anything.  For a long time “guh” was his main sound.  That was replaced by “buh.”  Those are still his two favorites.  But “dadada” is now a very popular one.  And he says “kuh” “wuh” “yuh” “ha” “fuh” “tuh” “puh” “suh” and “juh.”  Now that he’s got those top teeth, he loves feeling them against his lips so he says a lot of “vuh” and “fuh.” 
• He still won’t eat any food.  At all.  If anything goes in his mouth, he gags and gags and gags until he throws up.  This proved to be a good thing a couple of times when he ended up with paper in his mouth (part of the binding of a board book, part of a paper napkin at a restaurant…).  He gagged and we swept the paper out.  But he really should be eating by now.  We’ll be talking to his pediatrician about this on Friday at his 7 month visit. 
• He crawled backward for the first 2 weeks of June, but couldn’t figure out how to go forward.  On June 14th he crawled forward for the first time.  He still doesn’t go too far, though, even though he can.  He figured out how to sit back up from crawling on June 24th, so now he likes to go a few steps and sit down, go a few steps and sit down.  Mostly, though, he just wants to stand up.  He’ll pull himself to his feet from our legs if we’re sitting on the ground or from anything that’s about 6 inches off the ground.  He climbs up the coffee table and the couch.  And he balances on his own — often just holding on with 1 hand so he can do something with the other one.  He is getting more and more stable every day and we think he’s going to forget about crawling and go straight to walking.  He always has wanted to be vertical… 
• I keep telling him about all the advantages of staying a baby for a while and telling him that the faster he grows up, the sooner he’s going to have to get a job.  But he doesn’t care.  He just pushes those teeth through and tries to stand up and forgets all about being a baby.    It makes me sad — he’s growing up too fast!
• June 14th was a big day for 2 other things too.  He seemed to understand when we said “where’s the cat?”  He’d stop what he was doing and look around until he spotted the cat.  He could care less about “where’s Daddy?” or “where’s Mommy?”  But “where’s the cat?” elicited an immediate reaction without fail, every time.  That day he also showed a real interest in reading.  I was sitting on the floor with him next to a bookshelf and we were reading his all-time favorite book, Pajama Time.  When it was done, he pulled himself over my leg, hung out on his belly on my leg, grabbed a book off the shelf with one hand, and brought the book back with him as he came back to sit on my lap.  An adorable fluke, right?  That’s what I thought until he did it again.  And then a third time.  He was deliberately selecting books and bringing them back to me to read, waiting until the end of the story, and doing it again.  Eventually he was more interested in just pulling the books off the shelf, but he started by wanting me to read to him!
• He is getting much more demonstrative with his love.   He gives real hugs and “kisses” (which are just huge slobbery messes as he puts his wide open mouth against our cheek or chin and holds it there until we are sufficiently soggy).  He’ll often hug my neck, pull back to look at me and smile, and then hug me again.  It melts my heart every time!
• He started having mini temper tantrums this month.  He suddenly gets angry if we take something away from him and cries if we don’t substitute it with something else.  He has also cried if we redirect him from something he wanted to do.  I used to have a hard time picturing him as a toddler having a tantrum (even though I knew it was coming).  Now I can totally picture it — and it scares me!
• My parents came to visit at the end of June, helping with big house projects and watching Nico so I could work.  It was extremely helpful and he had a lot of fun with his Grandma and Grandpa.
• To those of you still reading (and I have been assured that it’s more than just the grandparents who read to the end), thank you for indulging me in sharing these minute details about my little boy and enjoy the photos! 

Stay tuned for photos from our visit to NJ and also for our Memorial Day BBQ photos.

Nico turned 4 months old in April and 5 months old in May.  Does it make me a bad mom to be combining 2/5 of his entire life into one slide show and bullet list?    Here are the highlights from the 2 months (It’s a long list and we figure the grandparents are the only ones who will read the whole thing!):

April

• He sat up unsupported for the first time at 16 1/2 weeks (April 3rd).  Frank sat him up — he didn’t sit himself up — but this was the first time he didn’t topple over.  You may have seen that video — it happened while my parents were in town for the Cherry Blossoms.
• Because he could suddenly sit up, we put together his high chair on Easter.  We expected to keep the high chair in its box until he turned a year old or so, figuring he wouldn’t be able to sit up.  But at 4 months he was arching out of the Bumbo seat and it turned out that he LOVED the high chair.  Actually, he loved it for a full 2 months.  We could put him in there any time we wanted to get anything done in the house.  (Now he’s on to us, though, and he’ll only hang out there while we eat.)
• He started rolling to his side to fall asleep during his naps.
• He had his 4-month visit with the doctor and weighed 16 pounds, 2 ounces.  He was 26 1/4 inches long.  He surprised the doctor by being able to sit up on his own.  (She didn’t believe me when I said he could, so she took him and sat him on the exam table and he stayed.)  He was due for vaccines at his 4 month visit, but Frank was home sick so she wanted to hold off and give them to him when everyone was healthy at home.  
• The doctor shocked me by telling me that he was exhibiting signs of readiness for solid food (sitting up, being interested in food, and maybe a couple of other indicators).  She wanted us to start giving him things like banana, avocado, sweet potato, squash, apple and pear between his 4 month and 6 month visit.
• I wasn’t ready to start him on solid food this early, but because we trust his doctor we gave him a couple of tastes.  You may have seen his introduction to banana in the videos Frank posted a few days ago.  We also gave him some apple in a little mesh bag.  He didn’t really like either.  (It’s gotten worse now — if we try to give him food he gags until he makes himself throw up.)
• I quit one of my 2 jobs and had my last day at work on April 16th.  He came to work with me at my second job for the first time on April 19th.  Of course, every time he came to the 1st job, he slept for 3 of the 4 hours I was there and was perfectly quiet and still the rest of the time.  My first day at the second job?  He found his voice and shrieked in delight for an hour straight — while I was on a conference call.  I’m pretty sure they all thought I was lying when I told them how mellow he had been at the other job.  Fortunately he’s still allowed to go back there.
• I got a job as a grant writer at another local nonprofit, which I can do entirely from home.  I kept the 2nd job, which I do for 10 hours a week — 6 from home and 4 from the office (with Nico).
• I started doing some volunteer work for my midwives, and of course Nico joins me there as well.  He has very little say in how he spends his days, when you think about it…
• He sucked his thumb for the 1st time in April.  (4/19)  He still prefers the pacifier, though — I don’t think the thumb is big enough to satisfy his need for sucking.
• When he was at my office playing on the floor, I looked over to see him grab his pacifier and pop it into his mouth, and then sit there playing and sucking away.  It was pretty cute.  It’s amazing that he can recognize the pacifier — no matter which one we use — and put it in his own mouth the right way.
• He started bringing his feet to his hands in April in classic happy baby pose.
• His first 2 teeth broke through on April 23rd — at 4 1/2 months.  He got the 2 middle bottoms ones first.  (He has since gotten the 2 next to them and his middle top teeth have been on the verge of breaking through for several weeks.)  He didn’t get fussy until the teeth broke through the surface.  Then he was less smiley and definitely visibly in pain for about a week while they kept pushing their way up into his mouth.  Hyland’s teething tablets help, as do Boiron chamomilla 30C tablets (crushed between 2 spoons first) and ice in his little mesh bag.

May

• I got to celebrate my very first Mother’s Day and it was great!  I got breakfast in bed, flowers from the yard, a trip to the Brookside Gardens (even though it suddenly decided to get cold!), and dinner out.
• He had an off-cycle doctor visit at 5 months for the vaccines he had missed in April.  He got his second round of DTaP and his first rounds of HIB and Polio.  She said she didn’t need to see him again until he turned 7 months now.
• He started getting ready to crawl.  I think one of the videos Frank posted was of him on the bed pushing over his feet to land on his tummy.  He tucks one foot, pushes off the other, briefly goes to one knee and then flops on his belly.  As the month progressed, he got better and better at getting himself into position and started doing a plank pose or a mini downward facing dog.  But he hasn’t figured out how to go forward yet — he just goes in reverse or rolls over.
• We went to my parents’ house in NJ and Frank’s parents came to visit as did Uncle Danny, Aunt Morgan, and Cousin Brady.  The boys had a great time together and the grandparents got their fill of the grandkids.  It was a nice weekend.
• He caught a cold and we had to bring him to the doctor for his second sick visit (the first was in the winter when he got RSV).  This time he acted much sicker than he did that time, and the doctor thought it was that his sinuses were putting pressure on those top teeth. When we started treating the teething pain with the homeopathics, he returned to his normal self right away.
• When he babbles, he consistently makes a “guh” sound.  By the end of the month he had added “kuh” “tuh” “fuh” and “puh.” 
• By the end of the month I couldn’t count on Nico being in the same place I had left him.  He spins, moves backward, and rolls and it’s always a game to find out where he’ll be when I come back.  We have installed outlet covers and know that our days of a non-child-proof home are numbered.

I’m still loving being home with him and feel extremely fortunate that I’ve been able to find jobs that are flexible — both in terms of when I get my work done and in terms of bringing Nico with me.  It’s amazing that I can find such joy in being home all day with a boy who can’t say a word to me.  But he makes me laugh all the time and we have a lot of fun at home, going for walks, and meeting up with friends.

We got to celebrate a bit with Matthew and Carrie too — they recently got engaged and are planning a November wedding at the foot of a waterfall  in Hawaii.

Photos from the dinner are here.

You can see photos from their visit here.  The magnolias were in full bloom at the garden behind the Smithsonian Castle.

Once in FL, we went to the beach, the baseball stadium to see a Cardinals pre-season game, and the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary.  Nico had 2 sets of grandparents spoiling him and he showed off for Grandma Schipani by rolling over for her for the very first time.

Enjoy the photos.

• Nico’s first night alone with Daddy while Mommy went out with the ladies to celebrate Sara’s birthday
• A trip to FL to see the grandparents (those pictures are coming tomorrow)
• His first vaccine – DTaP #1
• His first board meeting — he came with me to PreventionWorks to discuss important things like fundraising and board development
• His first day at work — he came with me to NYAC and was a perfect angel, sleeping for 3 of the 4 hours I was there every time he came
• His first time sitting up for a few seconds unsupported
• A visit from Aunt Marie and cousins, Tara, Nick and Dana (those pictures are coming in a couple days)

I’m going to post a new slideshow every day this week so you can see them all in bits and pieces rather than being overwhelmed.  Of course, if you want to cheat you can go to our website and see everything there — they’re all up.  Otherwise, enjoy your daily blog posts from us this week!

Today’s slide show is from February.  It’s (thankfully) hard to remember what it was like to be buried under all that snow, now that I’m sitting here in a tank top with the windows open.  Nico, too, is much happier in the warmer weather.

Highlights from February include:

• Lots and lots of snow (did I mention that already?)
• Nico’s first visit to the pediatrician since he was born (for his 2 month visit).  He was 13 pounds, 12 ounces and 24 1/2 inches long.
• Nico’s first serious illness — he got RSV but fought it really well.
• Lots of time spent in the Botanic Gardens, soaking up the humidity to help him breathe easier.
• A visit with Cousin Ruth and her whole family at Cousin Matthew’s house
• Nico discovered his feet when we were at Suzanne’s (sweltering hot) apartment.  It was the first time it had been warm enough for us to have him sit around with no socks on!
• With all the snow, our trash hadn’t been picked up for over 3 weeks.  I was feeling very smug about using cloth diapers since our trash wasn’t really piling up….until our washing machine broke, that is!  Fortunately we got a new one delivered within 24 hours and it works like a charm.  So we were not buried in diapers…just snow.

We’ve gone shopping, taken the bus and the metro, and met Daddy for lunch.

On Tuesday this week, we went to Daddy’s hockey game.

We’ve also had some friends over.

And, of course, we’ve taken lots of close-ups at home.

We’ve put together a little slide show with a whole bunch more close-ups and other photos.  It’s overkill in terms of the number of each kind of picture, but it’s so hard to choose just one of each!  This photo set is really for the grandparents (and anyone else who can’t get enough of Nico).

I haven’t put any up from the hospital — his birth photos are here, you’ve seen a couple of videos, and really, the time we have spent with him at home is so much better.  Plus our camera malfunctioned on the last day there and we lost lots of the pictures we had taken.  In fact, when we got home, Frank jumped out of the car and ran inside to get our other camera while I hopped in the back seat to get Nico ready to come home for the first time.  Good thing we had a second camera!  So anyway, these photos start with Nico’s arrival home and move forward from there.

Nico’s Homecoming

It seemed like he was in the hospital for an eternity, but really it was just a week.  We were thrilled to bring him home on December 15th.  And if you look closely at his face, it looks like he was pretty happy about it too!

Nico’s First Week at Home

We spent most of the week staring at him, but we did manage to take a few photos.

Christmas in DC

I wasn’t feeling up to a car trip and we were worried about exposing Nico and his fragile immune system to a lot of people, so for the first time ever we spent Christmas alone in DC.  We weren’t lonely, though!  We spent the afternoon with Billy and Joe and their brand new (one year old) twins.  (For those of you following their story, the adoption is final and the boys are officially theirs!!!)  Then we enjoyed a scrumptious dinner with Gina, Chip and family.

Nico Meets the Family

Since we couldn’t travel for Christmas, Nico missed out on meeting his aunts, uncles, cousins, and other grandparents.  So everyone convened at my parents’ house in NJ because it’s closer for everyone than driving from NY to DC.  Danny, Morgan and Brady came down from Poughkeepsie.  Marie, Frank, Nick, Dana, Denise, Robert, Daniel and James came from Long Island.  And my mom outdid herself cooking for crowds of baby admirers.  It was a great way to spend New Year’s.  On New Year’s Day the 3 of us left NJ and met Frank’s parents in DC. They stayed with us until the 4th and got to spend a lot of quality time with their newest grandson (and their favorite son).  Earlier than this, Nico’s Great Uncle Tommy and Great Aunt Lee came to visit with Cousin Matthew.  Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos of him with them.

We celebrated all of these great things with friends and family this year.  First we had our 13th Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Feast.  Jeff was here again, keeping his title as the only person to have been at every single Feast.  They are about to move to NH, so next year will be the real test…will he make it back down?  We hope so!  Ed, Genta, their sons, and Sara were all new to Pre-Thanksgiving, and we were glad to have them join us.  Gina and Chip were supposed to be here, but she had her baby a mere 17 hours before the party started.  (Mom and baby Archer are doing well after an extremely short and exciting delivery!)  Charlie and Co. were out with the flu.  And we had a couple of other last minute switcharoos.  But we were very glad that Baby Schipegan held off and did not arrive to cancel the party or turn it into a potluck.  We were also thankful to have Suzanne’s help beforehand — she did a ton from helping move furniture to making the cornbread and several other things to helping with clean-up.  All so I didn’t have to.  Thank you Suzanne!!!  And thank you to the rest of the clean-up crew:  Amy, Katie, Sara, and anyone else I might be missing.  Photos from the Feast are here.

And then, a few days later, we celebrated Thanksgiving with both sets of parents.  I couldn’t travel so we were extra glad that they could all make the trip to come be with us here.  Frank’s parents arrived on Tuesday and spent all of Wednesday getting us organized and rearranging furniture in our bedroom to accommodate the new furniture they brought to us.  We should have had them arrange all the furniture in our house — our room looks fantastic now!  My parents arrived on Thursday afternoon and stayed at a relatively new B&B just up the road.  I’m glad we’ve got a nice option in our neighborhood — just a mile up the road and accessible by the bus.  We ate too much and played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan on Thursday.  Then on Friday we went to the American Indian Museum and had a nice dinner out in Chinatown.  And they all headed out on Saturday.  Photos from their visit are here.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Frank and I were both able to take off from work, so we traveled to Chicago to be with Aunt Nita for the viewing and the funeral.  We took advantage of our time in Chicago to also visit with all of our other family out there — family we hadn’t seen since our last Chicago trip two years ago.  It was a sad occasion to be in Chicago but I have to think that Earl would have been very happy to know that his passing had brought so many family members together.  We also took the train out there, which was an experience in itself.  I would definitely be up for taking the train again, even though it’s an 18 hour ride.  Having a sleeper car made all the difference in the world.

We have some photos with my mom’s side of the family here.  Below is a photo of us as we said goodbye to Aunt Nita.  She’s an amazingly strong woman but we’re sad that she has to use that strength yet again.

This year we went apple picking at an organic apple farm called Liberty View Farm.  They only had one kind of apples and they were kind of ugly, but they were quite delicious.  And they have a farmer’s market and a petting zoo there too.  It was nice to know that they were a farm that didn’t spray — we’ve been looking for a good one for several years now.

May / June

We traveled to Pittsburgh in mid-May to visit the Shar-Bars.  We didn’t take many photos, but we loved seeing their new house and doing all the fun things we always do when we visit PGH.

My parents came to DC for my birthday and helped us paint the trim in the guest room and bathroom.  It’s so nice to have knocked something else off our list of projects to complete!

We traveled to NJ to celebrate a belated Father’s Day with my parents and Danny, Morgan, and Brady.  We played some bocce, had a great dinner, and spent most of our time oohing and aahing over Brady.

Frank and Seda enjoyed making sushi in June and cherry pie in July.  These photos are guaranteed to make your mouth water.

July

We had a 4th of July BBQ on our deck, even though it was little more than a platform at the time.  As usual when we unveil something new, Gina, Chip and Eloisa were here to celebrate with us, along with Sara, Aron and Salome, Eva, Jaime, and Jen.

Eva turned 40 and had a fabulous dinner party for several friends.  (I’m still not sure what we did to deserve a delicious, gourmet meal prepared by the birthday girl herself!)

Tara graduated (and so did her Uncle Frankie) and we traveled to NY to celebrate with her.

We traveled to Sperryville for the weekend with teams Somobright and Hjeltak.  We don’t have pictures of the blackberry picking, but we spent part of one day picking blackberries with the kids and it was great!  The rest of the time we hung out at the cottage and just relaxed and chatted and watched the girls play.

Debbie, Tim, and Gwen came to visit us in DC.  We were very proud of Gwen’s mommy for overcoming her fear of travel without a car seat and letting Gwen ride both the metro *and* the city bus.  Gwen loved both!  We also went to the sad little aquarium in DC.  They have some pretty fish and Gwen seemed to enjoy it.  But it’s dark and small and plus it’s not free.  I’m glad I’ve been once, but I don’t think we’ll go back.

August

Oshapalooza (see below).

We hope to add our completed deck to the August photos.  Mike finished up yesterday but there is still a LOT left for Frank to take care of.  The whole deck needs to be stained/sealed.  Two of three fans need to be installed.  Some sort of screen needs to be devised.  And all of the lattice pieces for the 1st floor railings need to be nailed into place.  It’s looking good, but we’ve still got a way to go before we can take any “after” photos.

The flowers in this photo are the ones that we’ve dubbed Brady’s Garden.  We got the bulbs at my sister-in-law’s baby shower and we were putting them in the ground when we got the call that she was in labor.  They are gorgeous!

Photos from the weekend are here.

And with that, we’re all caught up!  Yay!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

The slide show of 46 (many of which feature their crazy kitties) is on our website here.

Dinner

Brady got a little tired of us taking so many pictures.  First he gave us the finger (though he hasn’t mastered it yet…)

Then he stuck his tongue out at Grandma!

I hope to have all of our December pictures up on the site before 2009 arrives.  In the meantime, enjoy the photos of Pre-Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, and Nick and Dana’s visit to DC.

And here are a couple of photos from our own Christmas at home.

We’ll write more soon.  In the meantime, have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

(Pre-Thanksgiving photos are on their way soon…)

K&F

I’ll post a picture as soon as I get one.  In the meantime, here are photos from Morgan’s baby shower 3 weeks ago.  Good thing her mom had it early!

Congratulations, Morgan and Danny.  We can’t wait to meet Brady next weekend!

I count myself very fortunate that my friend and my roommate shared their stories with me so I’d know what to watch out for. My friend threw up all night and was sicker than she had ever been in her life. My roommate, too, was throwing up during the night. They both ended up with abdominal pain and both ended up with a fever. My story is similar, and I hope it will help someone else recognize the symptoms early so they can have an easy time of it like I did.

I started feeling nauseous around noon on Sunday. We had just had a big Uzbek party the day before, and I was thinking it could have been the greasy food or the vodka that did it to me. But no one else felt sick. I had also had food poisoning a couple of weeks before, so I thought maybe that was it. But again, no one else had any signs and we had all eaten the same food. So, I went on a picnic, where I didn’t eat much, and generally tried to wait out the nausea. Around 5:00, I started to get some pain on my lower right side. It was right around my right ovary, so I thought maybe it was related to ovulation or something. And I had no fever. But I still couldn’t eat and still couldn’t get very comfortable. At around 9 PM, I called a friend, just so I could be distracted from the nausea and hopefully not throw up. (I never did actually throw up.) Around 10:00 PM I got off the phone with her because I was feeling worse and the pain was increasing. I took my temperature and had a very slight fever — just 99.6. But the combination of the three symptoms set me in motion, and Frank and I took off for Georgetown Hospital.

We got there around 11 or 11:30 PM and the place was empty. I wrote “abdominal pain – appendicitis?” on my admit slip and they brought me back immediately. By this time I was having a lot of trouble walking because of the pain on my lower right side. I couldn’t really lift my right leg up, so when they admitted me to a room, Frank had to pick my right leg up onto the bed. When I was immobile, the pain wasn’t too bad. But sitting up, walking, and generally moving was really painful, and I found myself walking doubled over to ease the pain. They gave me an IV with fluids since I hadn’t eaten or drunk much that day and since, if I was going to be getting my appendix out, I wouldn’t be able to eat or drink until after the surgery. They offered IV painkillers but I didn’t want them. They did, however, talk me into an IV antibiotic as a precaution, just in case my appendix ruptured. Strangely enough, the antibiotic actually seemed to help relieve a little bit of the pain. For a minute I thought they had given me the wrong thing — I had asked for the antibiotic but they gave me the painkiller by mistake. Turns out that was not true — they had given me the antibiotic. So, I definitely didn’t need the pain meds. As long as I had Frank to lift my leg up (and, by this point, pick up my hips to move my whole body to the middle of the bed), I was fine.

Frank and I hung out in my ER room and played cards. We got a lot of attention from the ER docs and from the surgeon because it was a really slow night. Around 3:30 AM I had a CT scan done and 10 minutes later the doctors came in to confirm the appendicitis diagnosis. They weren’t able to take it out then and there because there was no anesthesiologist available. So that meant that the surgeon that had been consulting with me wasn’t going to be my surgeon. But they scheduled me for 7:30 AM and assured me that the new doctor would be good too. Frank and I tried to get some rest, and around 5:30 AM I was admitted into a room to wait for surgery.

7:30 came and went with no sign of me going anywhere. The nurses on the floor didn’t seem too interested in getting me out of there, but we pestered them enough that they finally called surgery. Around 10 AM a surgeon came in and said that because I was an “add on,” I needed to wait for an opening in the schedule. He said it could be as soon as noon, but would more likely be 2 PM. I told him that was fine, but that the onset of my symptoms was noon the day before and that we were hitting 24 hours. I also told him that I had no plans to stay in the hospital overnight, so I needed to get in and get out so I could get home. He told me that people don’t generally leave the same day, but I reiterated that I wouldn’t be staying overnight. He left, saying that it would probably be 2 PM, and Frank and I started playing cards again. About 15 minutes later, the nurse came in to tell me that transport was on the way to take me to surgery.

Frank and I went down to the surgery staging area and met a really great team of student doctors and nurses. Everyone seemed to find it funny that I was so excited to get my appendix out. But the excitement was genuine and I wasn’t afraid at all. The surgeon came in to introduce me to the team and have me confirm — with everyone listening — that I was getting my appendix out. Earlier I had joked about writing it on my stomach and he got all serious and said that they are very careful and they make sure everyone understands what is being operated on while the patient is still awake. Then the anesthesiologist gave me some knock-out medicine and explained that I would stay awake and be working with them for a while, but that I wouldn’t remember anything. I didn’t believe her, but it was true! I remember Frank saying good bye and “I love you” as he headed off to the elevator. I couldn’t say anything back and my eyes teared up. A nurse sympathetically put her hand on my shoulder and smiled, and the next thing I knew it was 12:00 and I was waking up in recovery. It’s so strange!

I actually do remember struggling with the team when I was coming out from the anesthesia. I had a breathing tube and I remember that I couldn’t breathe and I panicked. I remember fighting with them and trying to get them to understand that I couldn’t breathe. They wanted me to cough, but I didn’t want to. And that’s all I remember. But my very first thought as I was trying to open my eyes in recovery was that I owed everyone a huge apology. Through half-lidded eyes I was searching for any member of the surgical team, but I didn’t see a single one of them. A nurse saw that I had woken up and she came over. I asked her to apologize for me and then I asked her for some water. She gave me ice chips and I couldn’t eat them fast enough. I was SO THIRSTY!!!

They wheeled me back to my room and Frank was just coming back at the same moment from taking a shower and feeding the kitty cats. I drank over a liter of water and 5 little juice containers, went to the bathroom all on my own, and told them I was ready to go home. A surgeon (not my surgeon) came to check on me around 7:30 or 8 PM and I told him I was ready to go home. He said my surgeon would be happy to see me after his case and I said that if everything had gone according to plan, I didn’t need to see him. I said I’d catch him at the follow-up visit. So, he went away, prepared the discharge instructions, and around 8:30 he came back to let me go home. I had one more dose of IV antibiotic and then I was out of there!

It was around 9:30 PM, so I had been in the hospital for less than 24 hours. And despite the surgery, I was feeling better than when I went in. We stopped at Whole Foods on the way home and Frank loaded up on liquids for my liquid diet — juice, soup, and of course, lots and lots of ice cream. It was so nice to be home and on my own couch (until Little Girl Cat jumped up and landed smack on one of my holes!). We went to bed around 11 or so, and the next morning I was feeling really great.

The recovery was extremely rapid — every morning I felt better than I had the night before, and every night I felt better than I had that morning. The progress was dramatic. Frank and I took a walk up and down the street on Wednesday and then went up and down the street twice on Thursday. Friday we walked several blocks for me to do a restorative yoga class. And I went back to work on Monday. Now it’s exactly 2 weeks later, and I’m almost back to normal. Last week I plateaued a bit, with walking several blocks still very tiring. But now most of the puffiness and swollen belly look is gone and I can walk just as much as I used to. I have my follow-up visit on Wednesday and then I imagine I won’t have to think about any of this again.

Here’s a picture I had Frank take on Wednesday before I took my bandages off. I meant to post it right away to reassure everyone that I was fine, but alas, never did that. So, here it is…a little bit late for reassurance.

]]> http://www.schipani.org/blog/2008/09/02/ode-to-the-appendectomy/feed/ 2 http://www.schipani.org/blog/2008/07/21/close-up-shots/ http://www.schipani.org/blog/2008/07/21/close-up-shots/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:21:41 +0000 Frank http://www.schipani.org/blog/2008/07/21/close-up-shots/ These are for an art project my Dad is working on.

http://www.schipani.org/sitev2/family/2008-05%20Closeups/pages/_MG_4263.html

You can also see his prototype website here: http://www.schipani.org/paintings/  Only works from several years ago are included, until we get a chance to scan in some of the newer ones.

The funny thing is that we didn’t even know this was on. Someone in his office saw Frank on the TV in their lunchroom (which is always tuned to CNN).

The next weekend (actually, Monday and Tuesday of the following week), we were on Long Island, celebrating a belated Mother’s Day with Frank’s parents and his sisters and their families.  On Tuesday we went out to the eastern tip of Long Island (the north fork) and had afternoon tea at a cute tea shop and tasted wine at one of the Long Island wineries.

• A Capitals game — the Islanders won and Nick tested his vocal cords (and the patience of the Washington fans) following the lead of a fellow Islander fan and yelling “Let’s go Islanders” as we walked down the 4 flights of stairs to the street.
• Going to a college class and then work with Uncle Frankie — Nick got a taste of what a real college English class looks like at 8 AM.
• Visiting the Spy Museum — Nick and I did that while Frank worked that afternoon.
• Mongolian BBQ — we were told that this might even rival Chinese food, the former Nick favorite.
• A winner-takes-all game of Risk — although we quit before anyone won.
• Weekday bowling at Lucky Strike in Chinatown — probably the fanciest bowling alley we had ever seen and pleasantly empty at 2 PM on a Friday.

We’re looking forward to his next visit — perhaps this summer!  A few pictures from his visit are here.

So, finally Presidents’ Day weekend came and we were ready.  We spent the week assessing our equipment, ensuring that we had enough primer and paint, and making a plan.  Saturday morning, we got up and started the final prep work.  Frank patched long cracks that had emerged since we last worked on the walls.  And I spackled parts of the wall that had never been filled in and washed off the sawdust.  Then, all of a sudden, I looked up and saw Frank scraping away the wallpaper near the baseboard.  Evidently it had gotten loose farther up than where we had originally scraped.  But he kept scraping.  And kept scraping.  And suddenly, in one smooth motion, the putty knife and Frank’s arm had traveled up as high as he could reach — scraping off the wallpaper and paint in one clean 2″ wide stripe.  Uh oh.

So, he kept scraping, vowing that he’d stop as soon as the wallpaper seemed to be really solidly stuck.  But soon it was apparent that he needed to go all the way.  Now, we both saw a silver lining in this — there had been huge overlaps in the wallpaper, which left several seams that showed through the coats of paint.  We had tried sanding them out and patching them, to no avail — they were still going to be visible. So, at least this way those seams would disappear.  And it wouldn’t take too long.  Right?

Well, a short while later we noticed that there were actually 2 layers of wallpaper.  Now things started to make more sense.  This house was so solidly constructed that we thought it was very suspicious that some of the wallpaper pieces overlapped by nearly a foot.  It turns out that that was a shoddy job on top of a nearly perfect original wallpaper application.  Our faith in the original workers was restored.  We were shocked to see that we could make out a faint pattern in the original wallpaper.  Suddenly this daunting task became very exciting!

As Frank scraped, I started washing the wallpaper backing off the wall to expose the original wallpaper underneath.  I felt like I was uncovering ghosts as I worked, and revealing a piece of history.  It was actually quite fun.  (Yes, I did just write that.)  As I washed, whole sections of the pattern would emerge and the details were quite evident while the paper was wet.  We decided to preserve a small section, and the rest got scraped off.  So now the wall is down to bare plaster, which is pretty cool looking by itself.

But, as exciting as old wallpaper is, we did eventually tire of this project.  So, on Monday we went out and bought a new car.  Some people might just sit and watch TV or maybe go for a walk.  Us?  We bought a car.

As impulsive as this might sound, it was actually the result of a month-long shopping process.  We found out in early January that the Jetta was finally giving up the ghost.  The check engine light came on, indicating that the car needed all sorts of valves and filters and repairs — to the tune of $4,000 or so.  Plus the $1,400 for the air conditioner that we never fixed last year.  Plus the windows that didn’t go up and down any more.  Plus the numerous plastic parts that had broken off the interior and were lying around on the floor.  Since the car was only worth $3,500 (in perfect condition), and since its registration was due to expire in February and we didn’t think it would pass inspection, we had to say good bye — and fast!  We squeezed in several car shopping trips in January, and finally came home with a new Toyota Matrix on Monday.  We can haul a lot of wallpaper paste in the back of the new car. 

So, our front entry way is still a mix of green, white primer, and raw plaster.  And now the stairwell is raw plaster and old wallpaper.  And we have no idea when we’ll patch the walls (again) and prime (again) so we can paint (finally).  Maybe we’ll just try to find a reproduction of that original wallpaper and restore the hallway to its former glory.  (Probably not, though…) 

But at least we have a car I can drive!

You can see pictures of the wallpaper discovery process here, along with photos of the curtains we made at Christmas and our fireplace (just to break up the monotony, in case you don’t find old wallpaper as cool as we do).  Pictures of the car to come…

On Saturday night we had a delicious dinner at a place called Seasons 52 that serves low-calorie dishes made with in-season ingredients.  The menu changes with each season, although there is something new added each week (thus the 52 in the name).  The atmosphere was great too — the restaurant was right on the water and the inside was decorated in an arts and crafts style with rich woods everywhere.  It was a fabulous dinner and I look forward to going back there on our next visit. 

We were scheduled to fly out on Sunday night, but our flight was overbooked and we volunteered to give up our seats so we could get free tickets another time.  I negotiated round-trip cab fare as part of the deal so Frank’s parents wouldn’t have to come pick us up and drop us off again at 5 AM.  Turns out we rode in a stretch limo — both home that night and back to the airport in the morning.  It was fun in the evening, but I think the effect was lost on me Monday morning.

It was great to be in sandals and shorts — even for just a few days.  And it was really hard to hear the pilot say that it was 19 degrees as we flew back to DC at the crack of dawn on Monday.

A few pictures from our trip are here.

The next weekend, Frank’s birthday weekend, his sister, Marie and her partner, Frank came to visit. Marie brought a birthday cassata cake all the way from NY. We can’t get that here, so we’re always excited when we can eat it on Long Island. mmmm! Again, we spent a lot of the weekend just catching up and relaxing. But we did squeeze in some touristy things too. We went to the Botanic Gardens to escape the cold, wintry weather and get a breath of tropical air. We also returned to the American Indian museum, although this time we took a tour. We had a fantastic dinner at Agraria, one of our favorite restaurants in DC. And we went to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and were amazed by the elaborate murals and mosaics in each tiny chapel around the enormous central space. And how could I forget — we spent an evening trying to figure out whodunnit in a rousing game of Clue. Photos from their visit are here.

We headed out on Saturday morning to go to my parents’ house in NJ.  We got a bit of a late start because, for the first time ever, we had a very rough time getting the cats into their carrier.  So we had to stop at a pet store along the way and get a bigger carrier so they could ride together without being smushed into their old carrier.  (They have always had separate carriers, but are much more relaxed if we stuff them into the same one.)  After a small pet store detour we set off for NJ.  We spent the weekend at my parents’ house with Danny and Morgan and the kitty cats — who were much less freaked out than they were last year.

On Monday morning (Christmas Eve), we drove up to Denise and Robert’s house in Long Island.  We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Schipanis, Pizzis, and Steigerwalds. We stayed there on Saturday night because we wanted to be with Daniel and James on Christmas morning after Santa came.  That was lots of fun (but we went back to bed afterward…).  Then we all drove to Julia and Michael’s for a delicious Christmas dinner and — everyone’s favorite — Secret Santa!

We left Julia’s and drove back to my parents’ house so they wouldn’t have to be alone for *all* of Christmas.  Then we stayed with my parents for an extra 5 days because we were sewing curtains for the house. We had planned to just have my mom help us with one test panel, but it went so quickly that we decided to stay and finish the whole project.  The only thing left is sewing the trim and hemming the bottoms — both of which had to wait until we had hung the curtains so they’ll be at the right level.

On Sunday, December 30th, we came back home and got ready for Bonnie and Tom to come over to ring in the new year with us.

We ate well, played a rousing game of Mexican Train Dominoes, visited the Air and Space museum out by Dulles airport (but forgot the camera), and even finished up some house projects! Photos are online here.

In between pre-Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving we moved the final truckload of stuff out of the condo, patched and painted some final holes in the condo walls, salvaged a bookcase that NYAC was going to get rid of, and unpacked all of our books to make room for another houseful of guests.  We closed on the condo the day before Thanksgiving.  In hindsight, perhaps we shouldn’t have been so hasty to move our closing date up.  My dad tore his plantar fascia in the bottom of his foot before coming down to DC and had to hobble up and down stairs on crutches in order to use the bathrooms.  Had we hung on to the condo, at least he could have relaxed there on one level…  Fortunately he survived the weekend with no accidents on the stairs, although he was very relieved to get back to his one-story house!

September 29th — We decided to sell the condo.

September 30th — Kristen left for Little Rock, where she helped her colleagues put on their annual conference.

October 1-4 — While Kristen is in Little Rock, Frank gets started packing the condo so we’ll be ready to move.

October 5-6 — Kristen and Frank finish packing.

October 7 — Mike, Sam, Chip, Hussein and Nashua helped us move the majority of our stuff to the house, leaving only the big furniture in the condo to help it sell.  Unfortunately we have no pictures from the move, but we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help.  It took us 5 hours from start to finish.  Afterward, we had our first dinner in the new house, with Chip, Gina and Eloisa here to enjoy it with us.

October 8-11 — We prepare the condo for sale, finishing all of the nagging little projects we had never had a chance to complete.

October 11 — The condo is officially on the market (link to the listing is below).

October 12 — We sleep in the house for the first time (but leave the cats in the condo)

October 13 — The cats join us at the house and Charlie holds our first open house.  Cousin Matthew is our first official post-move-in dinner guest.  (We bought food at Whole Foods and promised that the next meal would be homemade.)

October 14-17 — We unpack the kitchen and start living in utter chaos…digging through boxes constantly and showering in the basement.  On October 16, Amy, Sam, Jenny and Lauren come over for a housewarming / thank you dinner.

October 18 — We try to leave for Chicago, but are thwarted by bad weather and drive back from BWI to sleep at home.  The kitty cats are very happy to see us.

October 19 — We successfully fly to Chicago and have a great time at Diana and Bill’s wedding.

October 20-21 — We spend the weekend with family in Chicago and have nice visits with Auntie Ro, Aunt Nita and Earl, and Kathy and Kenny.  Frank leaves for DC on the 21st.

October 22 — Kristen flies to Minneapolis.

October 23-24 — Frank unpacks and settles in a bit more and Kristen goes to an anti-tobacco conference.

October 25 — Frank’s parents drive down to DC for a visit en route to FL.  Kristen returns home at 11 PM.

October 26-28 — Frank’s parents work hard from early in the morning until late at night.  With their endless help we manage to get the kitchen completely unpacked, the garden ripped out and ready for winter, the dining room, living room, and office painted, bulbs planted for next year, and a lot of the house cleaned up.  Thanks again!!!  We also got an official offer on the condo on October 27th, which we accepted, so we became “under contract” about 2 weeks after listing the condo.

October 29-31 — Mary and Ben finally come to DC at the same time and visit us.  We also ran out of candy on Halloween because we had so many trick-or-treaters, so we turned off the lights and went out to dinner.

And if the past week is any indication, November will probably be more of the same!  The good news is that every day we make a bit more progress toward making the house liveable.  There have been some set-backs (more to come on those), but each day we can see marked changes that help keep us motivated to do more.  We haven’t been taking house pictures lately, but we’ll try to do that soon.  At this point, once things change they’re going to be that way for a long time, so we’re not in such a rush. 

It’s a bittersweet moment for me (although Frank is very happy about it).  I am relieved about what this means for our finances, but the condo holds a lot of very happy memories for me.  Nine years ago, as Frank was sitting at the settlement signing all the closing documents, I was on a plane on my way to Uzbekistan.  (Well, given our delays, I was probably sitting at TGI Fridays in National Airport, but you get the point.)  In the few letters and emails we exchanged during my first months of Peace Corps, Frank wrote about settling in to the condo and I thought about just how different our lives were.  Three years later, we got together and shortly thereafter I started thinking of his home as an extension of my own.  In the early stages of our relationship we chose paint colors together and spent sleepless nights around Christmas 2001 painting the condo those nice warm colors.  A couple years later he solicited my opinions again as he re-did the kitchen and bought our oh-so-comfy couch.

We have hosted countless parties and meals at the condo and have some really great memories with family and friends there.  Before the wedding, we lovingly built those fabulous bookcases into the master bedroom (and unfortunately painted the bathroom that bright blue…but even that has a story to go with it).  And of course, there’s the infamous spice rack!

The condo was quiet, cozy, sunny, and most of all, home.  But there were no more projects to take on, no potential for composting or creating a huge garden (although our tomatoes last summer were incredible!), and it was time to move on.

We’ve spent the past two days at the new house with Frank’s parents, eliminating the dust and getting rooms painted.  And slowly this house is starting to feel like home and the condo feels like the past.  I didn’t expect that to happen so quickly, but I guess since we’re both here (and so are our kitty cats), that’s what really makes our home.

So, we’re looking ahead and already scheming for countless parties and ways to welcome you all here.  It’s a bit rough around the edges right now, but we’d love to have you come by or stay over.  And soon we’ll start filling up the memory bank with lots of happy times at the house to add to all those happy years in the condo.

I know we are behind in our pictures — and right at the most exciting part.  Soon we’ll have our desk and computer back and will be able to get pictures up.  But we hope you’ll come visit soon and see for yourself what we’ve been up to.

This is bound to be a strange process.   

DCRA (the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs) is the agency that issues permits.  They have an on line application thing on their web site.  When I tried to do that it said there was a hold on our address.  So I called, and they said that I need to call Metro and speak to Jack XXXXX.  I said, OK, who is Metro? Is that a DC agency?  They said, you know, Metro, the subway.  I said That Metro?  What’s that about?  She said You must live near a Metro station or bus stop.  I said Doesn’t everyone?  She said I guess so.

So I called Jack.  Jack was surprised to hear from me.  He said to tell them that my work will not affect the Metro.

And that’s as far as I got.

In other news, Frank’s sister, Denise, was just recognized on the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC (NYC’s NPR station).  An essay she wrote on breaking up made it into the top 20 in a contest.  You can see the title (though sadly, not the essay) here.  It was a great birthday present for her to see this listed today (her b-day).

As far as the house goes, we are *still* stripping paint.  Frank’s nephew, Nick, is coming down from NY this weekend to give us a hand.  (We’re also hoping to go see the movie Sicko and to go to the Folk Life Festival while he’s here.)  The contractor has moved the 2 fireplaces, divided the closets, and hooked up most of the electrical.  Next up is the plumbing, and then he can start on finishes.  We expect to move by the end of July, so if you know of anyone who wants to rent an awesome 2-bedroom condo in a fabulous location, let us know! 

We spent last weekend in NY and NJ, visiting Frank’s family, celebrating Mandi’s 30th birthday, and visiting my parents.  The 19 hours we spent in the car were worth it because we felt like we finally got to catch up with everyone…something that has become quite a luxury for us these days!

Frank’s parents came to visit last weekend and let lots of light into the house by washing the windows for us and getting rid of a lot of the plaster dust.  They also revealed the wood floor that was underneath the linoleum in the kitchen and managed to break up enough of the concrete in the backyard that much of the chain link fence came out.  Unfortunately we have no pictures of all the work they did while they were here.  However, we do have some pretty pictures that Frank took while he and his parents toured the Hillwood House gardens.

Behind the scenes, we’ve chosen a designer (Mathilda Cox, who was our friend Rich’s designer many years ago) and a contractor (Mike Phoenix, who comes highly recommended by Frank’s boss).  We’ve been meeting with Mathilda regularly and are waiting for the final quote from Mike so work can begin.  In the meantime, we’ve picked out all of our appliances so we’re not holding up the process.  I have to admit that I am glad that the appliance selection process is behind us.  I hate shopping and shopping for appliances is almost as bad as shopping for jeans!  We still have to shop for things like faucets and shower fixtures, but we’re putting that off because it won’t hold the process up for us to wait a bit on that.

We’ve also made decisions on our cabinets.  Cabinet Discounters is definitely the place to go for cabinets!  Their service is excellent and their cabinets appear to be extremely high quality.  We’re going to be getting cabinets made of “Lyptus,” a fast-growing plant that looks great as a cabinet door.  Apparently the plant can be chopped down and within 10-15 years it will have completely re-grown. 

This weekend we spent a bit of time back at the house.  On Saturday morning we went to a neighborhood clean-up day and helped pick up trash on 14th St. near our house.  We got to meet some neighbors and learned about a government program that will give grants of $25,000 to businesses on 14th St. to fix up their facades and attract more customers.  We are looking forward to seeing some of the stores move their security bars inside as that will really improve the look of the street.  There are also grants for technical assistance to help business owners respond to changes in the local demographics so they can weather the changes rather than go out of business.  We should be able to see some of the results of the program as early as this summer.

After the clean-up day we went to the house to strip paint and remove some molding.  We did that for a few hours and then had to go home to take a nap.  We had every intention of going back to do more work at the house, but ended up going out to dinner with Mary instead.  (She had been staying with us all week and was due to leave Sunday morning.)  On Sunday we got up to say good bye to Mary, then went to the house and spent a couple of solid hours stripping paint and taking down the old French doors.  Around noon we left to go to Frank’s cousin’s British antique car show.  We then went to visit a “green house” in Takoma Park and then returned to Schipegan North to strip more paint before going out to dinner at Temperance Hall with Tani and Rich.

All in all it was a busy weekend.  We’ve got a lot of paint stripping ahead of us, but after that (and before we start painting everything), the majority of the work will be left for the professionals.

We are excited to post that Seda will be arriving on November 25th!  We have been communicating with her back and forth for several months now in preparation for her arrival and are very happy that she’ll be here soon.  We hope to introduce her to you during the 2 months that she’ll be staying with us. 

Unfortunately you can’t print or save the records without becoming a paying member.  But, you can write down the microfilm numbers and visit the National Archives in DC and print a copy.  You can, however, make a family tree on ancestry.com and contribute links to the worldwide family tree map.  We’re planning to do this with both of our families over Thanksgiving weekend.

He came in at 8lbs 7oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.