Blog Blitz

It's been a very busy, hectic week since my last post, so I'm going to give the quick rundown of the highlights all in one condensed post:

1) Dad and Sharon arrived on Thursday for my birthday and to celebrate Lainey's upcoming birthday. (Lainey is getting three celebrations, so I'll do a full post on all those once complete.) The big outing of the weekend was Brookfield Zoo on Saturday. Lainey loved it! Although it's not free, I much preferred being there to Lincoln Park Zoo. The exhibits are way better, and it was much less crowded, so we could give Lainey a little freedom to run ahead and explore. Dad even commented that he thought it was better than the Columbus Zoo--and that's BIG kudos for him. He LOVES the Columbus Zoo.

2) Nick hit three months on Saturday! He's all smiles these days, but has regressed on his awesome sleep habits, getting up multiple times at night. I'm hoping he's just going through a growth spurt! He's seems to have adjusted to daycare okay. I feel bad just giving him a line-item update for his three-month brithday, considering I gave detailed accounts of Lainey's first year, but I had more time. Should the future Nick feel slighted, here is my message to him -- "instead of writing a post about you, I've been spending my free time talking and playing with you. You very much enjoy playing 'Super Nick' right now, and I like getting a little tricep workout during it."

3) I made it out for the Bachelorette Party Saturday night, but dropped out at 12:30am. And glad I did! I kept the alcoholic drinks to a minimum and drank lots of water, but I still felt hungover on Sunday. Of course, I only got 3 hours of sleep, because the kids were up and at 'em at 4am, so drinks or no drinks, I would have been miserable. Mark had to work Sunday afternoon, but I still managed a nap thanks to Sharon (and I guess Dad, but really Sharon did the work). Once I got Lainey down to sleep, Sharon took Nick and a bottle and I headed off to bed myself. Not a great hostess move, but I really didn't care at that point. Thanks again, Sharon!

4) We closed on the house on Monday! Hooray!!! All went smoothly with no surprises. We are officially home owners! The next-door neighbor boy, Leo, came by with his best friend, Garrett, to welcome us. They just got out of the fourth grade and I think were a little disappointed that our kids are just babies. We briefly met Leo's mom, Meghan, on Tuesday when she came over to introduce herself (couldn't chat because we had contractors at the house).

5) We met with the chimney repairman and bathroom contractor Tuesday. Not so hooray. The chimneys are in worse condition that thought by our inspector and are going to cost A LOT of money to properly fix. Booooo!!! The bathroom is going to take about double the time as estimated over the phone and of course cost about 1/3 more than we thought. The money is a bummer, but not surprising. The real pain is the timing. There is no way to get it done before we move, so at some point we're going to be without a shower for 5 - 8 days. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. On the bright side, there is now no hurry to get that project started, so we can take our time picking tile and finishes instead of rushing into decisions.

So, there's my quick 15-minute post so I don't fall too far behind on things. Lainey's birthday is tomorrow and then we head down to O'Fallon Friday night to celebrate with Mark's family. We'll also be celebrating Ben's birthday and FINALLY meeting sweet Eleanor and attending her baptism on Sunday. The car ride should provide some opportunity to catch up on blogging...or catch up on sleeping...I might opt for the sleeping.