We had a busy day today. We planned on
getting lots of chores around the house done, but instead spent
2 hours at an OR Open House at the hospital (very interesting!)
and then a friend’s 40th birthday party.

My aunt organized the (first?) OR Open House at our fancy
hospital. I had no idea what to expect from it and it was
great. They had lots of different room (20 or so, I think) set
up with examples from different types of operations
(cardiovascular, open heart, eye, costmetic, etc.) Each room
had displays about that type of surgery and nurses everywhere
to explain procedures, fancy new replacement body parts, and
what the nurses and machines all do. They also had little
things for the kids to play with, demos of surgery tools, and a
display of their (new?) training dummy that has all the
appropriate vitals and responds to input and actions by the
staff. It was really neat. Lex was tired, but fascinated as we
walked around looking at everything. We met the grandparents,
Katie, and even a woman from my old A&P; class. She’s in the
surgery technician training program now and loving it. Great
job Katie!!

After Lex’s nap we headed
out to a friend’s party. There were lots of little boys and
their house is nice and big with a circle to run around. The
kids were thrilled. They also have a nice big staircase in the
corner (where it’s hard to see) so Lex took advantage of my
trying to be social and climbed up and down the stairs
(unaided) as much as possible. At one point I found him and a
3yr old little boy upstairs. I said, “Is anyone up here with
you?” He said, “No”. Me: “Ok, I’m going to take Lex down now. I
don’t want him upstairs unsupervised.” 3yr old: “It’s ok, I’m
watching him.” …. Hmmm… somehow that didn’t really reassure
me :) Lex loved running around with all of the older kids
though. Towards the end of the night I decided to just let it
be (I’d seen him successfully maneuver the stairs several times
by this point) and hope for the best. Cake was served. It got
late. I went to find Lex to start getting ready to head home. I
come around the corner to where the stairs are and find him
sitting in the dark, on a little mattress under the stairs,
watching TV and eating cake. Fork in one hand, chocolate
frosting all over his face :) It was hysterical! The kids had
set up a little cozy corner to watch a movie and eat their
cake. One by one they had left (went home, got a drink, etc.)
and Lex must have been left alone or happened across unguarded
cake. Either way, he was thrilled. When I walked in he gave me
a brief look of “Am I being good or bad?” but it didn’t last
long as I quickly burst out laughing. So he grinned a big cakey
grin. The kid cracks me up.

Maybe
tomorrow we will get some chores done around here. We’ll see.
The best news, of course, is that our Internet access came
back. Yay!! They are still a little confused in the billing
dept, but we can work on that. For now I’m just happy to be
back in the real world ;)

This will be real quick since I’m at
Panera Bread and Lex is getting antsy. Just wanted to let you
all known that we have been without Internet access for 5 days
now and have no clear picture of when we’ll be online again.
It’s painful, to say the least. I’ve been getting lots done at
the house, but very little email or blogging done (obviously).
We are settling in nicely. Did lots of cleaning this weekend so
the place really looks good now. Still have lots of unpacking
to do, and an ever-growing task list, but that’s par for the
homeowner course. So I’m outta here for now and hopefully will
be back online someday soon.

Yesterday was a perfect
suburban afternoon. The weather was decent and Lex and I both
needed to get out of the house, so we went outside to rake and
bag leaves. We have more leaves than you could ever imagine and
apparently they are slowly, but surly, killing my lawn. Lex was
very helpful with the leaves, scooping up large armfuls and
stuffing them into the bags. He helps with the laundry this way
too. Large armfuls into the washer or dryer. Very helpful kid.
After 45 minutes or so an 8 year old neighbor boy came home
from school and asked if he could play. Of course! He played
catch with Lex and they jumped into the huge leaf piles. Then,
maybe 20 minutes later, the 20 month old next door came home
(with his dad) and they came over. The boy and the dad played
catch while Lex and the other baby fell over into the leaf
piles, found big sticks, used the sticks to drum on a big ball
I had brought outside, chased the neighbors dog, etc. All the
while I was able to keep raking and bagging leaves. It was
great. Then the 3 boys across the street (5yr, 4yr, and 15mo)
came home. The 8yr old went over to play with them and the 15mo
old made a bee-line for my yard. It was soooo nice and idylic
and suburban. We ended up outside for almost 2 1/2 hours before
Lex started getting fussy. Turns out he was starving!

I know I’m a little behind on updates and
photos and the like. Life is busy. Lex’s naps are unpredictable
and I try to spend every free second I have finishing up the
house. We still have no doors/drawers in our cabinets (those
low-cost cabinets are soooo not worth it!!), there are boxes
everywhere and our to-do list grows longer every day. Needless
to say, I don’t find myself with much free time to sit around
and blog :( Things will settle down someday though and I’ll be
back to frequent updates about the little man (and little one
inside). For now, enjoy these photos and happy November!

Pictures from top to bottom.
1. Lex
and Julie making calzones.
2. Playing in the
leaves.
3. Cool dude in his dinosaurs and
shades!
4. Snack time on the job site (raisins and
milk, his favorite!)
5. Little Devil
6.
Oh, there he is again.
7. Chillin’ with some
friends.
8. This cabinet is just his size.
9. Hanging wall cabinets takes three strong guys!
10. New stairs – thanks Dad!

Installed, I mean, not just in boxes in
the basement. I’m so excited! Now we can start putting stuff in
them and we don’t have to live out of boxes anymore. They are
huge too. Dad, Barney and Alan did one heck of a job lifting
them and securing them to the walls! I took pictures (to be
posted someday).

Life is busy. We moved into our new house
on Sunday. Lots of people around and it was hectic. Now Dad and
Barney are here for the rest of this week finishing up with
some of the remodeling. It’s all quite stressful, but the place
looks great. They are currently hanging the wall cabinets in
the kitchen. Those suckers are heavy!!

We are all getting tired and cranky and ready for this
project to be over :) Alan’s parents are coming up this weekend
to do more. I’m exhausted already and ready for some winter
hibernating.

Last night was Halloween
(as you all know) and we got tons of trick-or-treaters. The
neighborhood really gets into it. I borrowed a devil costume
for Lex from the woman across the street and he was adorable. I
didn’t intend to trick-or-treat (he’s only 1 after all), but we
went outside and played. He loved seeing all of the kids. We
ended up visiting 3 houses that had brightly lit
jack-o-lanterns. Lex loves pumpkins, like a moth to a
light.

Finally, happy November! But more
importantly I have I bunch of photos that I’ve been trying to
post for the last hour and a half, but it’s just not working
and I’m too tired now. Sooo… I’ll try again later. Stay tuned
for cutie Devil Lex pics.

Like when you are facing a sink full of
dirty dishes and dreading the fact that you have to unload the
dishwasher first. Rough life, I know. So you procrastinate
until the very end, then open the dishwasher and… it’s empty!
Yay! Of course I unloaded it earlier in the day, but I forgot,
so it was a nice little surprise :)

But
what I really wanted to mention (again) is how amazing it is to
watch Lex learn. He’s getting really good at categorization.
For example, whenever he sees something resembling a frog,
he’ll do the frog sign and look at me questioningly. This is
impressive to me. It’s not always a frog, but most often it is.
He recognizes real frogs, drawings, puppets, abstract things,
toys, etc. All very different looking, but all frogs. He also
is very good at finding clocks. Anything that’s round with
numbers and hands. But the other day he started pointing out
the square and/or numberless clocks. It’s just amazing how
rapidly his brain is working and processing all of this
seemingly mundane information.

Anyway,
Alan is home now so I gotta go. PS – the carpet and paint is
done upstairs. The house is really looking great!!

Lex and I went apple picking
this morning. It was beautiful out, sunny and cold. We picked
two whole bags of apples. I picked from the tree, but Lex
preferred to pick from the ground :) He wore his big boots and
the grass was tall, so he had a little trouble moving. But he
had a great time. We saw dogs and tractors and lots and lots of
apples. Then we went to the house to give the guys a bag of
apples (to balance out the giant bag of Halloween candy I gave
them the other day!)
The pics ended up big
instead of small, but I’m too lazy to change them
now.

The house is coming
along well. They have the lower cabinets in place and are now
painting and working on the bathrooms. Everyone is tired and
stressed because we couldn’t reschedule the flooring guy, so
it’s crunch time trying to prepare for that. I think next week
will be better though. Once the flooring guy is there are they
are able to figure out how best to work together. I’m
frustrated on my end because there is so much to do and I can’t
do anything. I try to stop by every day to say hi, but can’t
stay long because Lex is into everything (not good on a
construction site) and very distracting to everyone. So I’ve
resigned myself to the fact that it’s out of my hands now and I
just have to hope Alan, Barney and Dad can handle it all. I
have trouble letting go. It’s a weakness. So I’ll keep packing
and maybe whip up an apple pie. You know, do all the homemakery
things I’ve gotten so good at.