Baby Grodack # 3

Yes, there's another Grodack bun in the oven.  It's still early on, only a little over 10 weeks, but these things get kind of hard to keep on the down low so we're letting the cat out of the bag so to speak.  Actually, it's been out of the bag for awhile now but I'm finally getting around to posting it on here.  Other than our parents, we didn't tell anybody about it until we had the first ultrasound which was two weeks ago today.  Obviously the main concern, due to my history, is whether there's was an actual baby and clearly, there was.  I was pretty sure there was because the morning sickness started at four weeks and it was HORRIBLE.  Way worse than it was with Calleigh. From the moment I woke up in the morning until the moment I fell asleep I felt like throwing up and I would do so several times a day.  With Calleigh I would throw up and feel better.  With this one, I would throw up and still feel the exact same.  The doctor recommended some over the counter stuff like Vitamin B6 and Emetrol but they didn't work at all.  After a few days, I called them back and they fortunately gave me a prescription for something stronger...Zofran which I take every six hours.  Boy, what a difference.  It's a real miracle.  I started feeling like a real functioning person again.  Anyway, other than that, I feel great.  The due date is June 15 but because of the scheduled c-section, it will most likely be June 8.

We didn't tell Calleigh anything about the pregnancy for fear she would blab it around.  We ended up bringing the girls to the ultrasound and then telling them as they looked at the pictures.  Calleigh's first comment was "Is it a girl baby or a boy baby?"  And then a few moments later she stated, kind of bewildered, "But Daddy only has two arms."  I guess she couldn't figure out how Daddy would carry three kids around.  We'll have to ask Allen about that.  Later on in the day she told me that "if it has a penis, it will be a boy and if it has a vagina, it will be a girl."  Since then, she really hasn't said a whole lot about the baby.  It's a long road and I'm sure it won't be of much importance to her until my stomach is really big and we start buying some things for it...and maybe not even then.  Aubree, of course, doesn't really have much input on it.  She doesn't have a clue that she's going to be de-throned as the baby of the house.

Day before the trip.  Calleigh decides to make some weirdo outfit based on the new pink tights she got.  It's so hideous and mismatched, Aubree can't even look.

Now that we have that out of the way, there's been a lot of other stuff going on, namely my trip up to Boston. My intentions were to post something up there but you know how things go.  You just plain don't feel like it.  But on to the trip...Our flight left at 11 am on Wednesday (10th) morning.  The girls were great on the flight.  Aubree slept for only a little bit but between the snacks, the TV, and some toys for Aubree, the time flew by.   The only thing that would have been nicer was having the whole row to ourselves but a nice lady sat in the aisle seat so it worked out fine.  My parents both picked us up and then it was on to their house for the rest of the day.  Since Calleigh is no longer sleeping in a crib, and hence, a pack-n-play, we had to come up with new sleeping arrangements for her.  Enter the cot that I found on Amazon for $20.  I also got her a sleeping bag to go with it.  Well, they were both giant hits.  She opened the boxes when we got to my parents house and she was very excited.  The cot is really nifty because it folds up in like two seconds and fits into a bag like a beach chair.  As it turned out, the first night she didn't even end up sleeping in the sleeping bag...she was just kind of curled up next to it.  But she eventually got the idea and realized how cozy it was in there.  I think she's looking forward to going back to my parents just so that she can have her cot and bag again.

Thursday morning saw us off to Alison's house to see the baby.  My mom was able to take time off work (she's been working like a dog so it was well deserved) and Ricky came with us too.  It's about a two hour drive and Calleigh was easily entertained by movies while Aubree took a nap.  This would the best car ride of the whole time for Aubree...the rest of the time, it was anything but good.  Kelly had the day off as well as Shannon, Leigh, and Mia so they were all there along with Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry.  Boy, is that baby tiny.  He's the tiniest thing I've ever held, for sure.  He's back up to his birth weight of 5 lbs, 8 oz.  It's only about a pound less than Aubree was at birth but a pound definitely makes a difference.  His little legs are about the size of a pencil.  But he's so adorable.  He barely opened his eyes while we there but did come around right at the end.  Alison looks really great for just having a baby three weeks prior.  Our crew went out for lunch at a local diner and it was there that I made my little announcement to the group.

On Friday, we went in to the Boston Museum of Science.  My parents are considering a trip to Australia in 2012 and there was an IMAX movie showing of it.  I went in a little early with the girls (we have the free passes) so we could look around a bit first.  In the end, only Calleigh went to the movie with Papa and Gigi and Aubree and I continued to look around.  It was actually nice spending some alone time with Aubree.  It doesn't happen that often that you're alone with either one of them.

Watching Papa do his 150 sit ups.

Science Museum

Friday night my parents had the usual gang over for supper, the Rondinelli's and the Irrgang's.  Bruno was there, of course, and Jessica and Kervin came with Lily and their three month old baby, Lucy.  Calleigh loves hanging out with Bruno (who is six) and she was quite happy to follow him outside (despite the dark) and play around in the leaves.  There were a few moments of strife when they bumped into each other which prompted Calleigh to tell my mother at the end of the evening (when Cal was sitting on the pot, no less) that "Bruno is not a nice man."  But despite that comment, she did have a great time with him.  Lily, who just turned two, seemed to be better suited to interact with Aubree.

It was hard getting all five of them in the picture.  Calleigh did NOT want to be in it as if you couldn't tell.

Sabbath we went to the Norwood church (I prefer to go there because it's a better Sabbath School), ate at home, had naps (despite my mother hoping Calleigh wouldn't so she could take her to a baptism), and then met up at the Natick Mall.  My mother and I both felt pretty dumb because we had brought a double stroller with us (a used one my mother's boss had given her) and for the life of us, we couldn't figure out how to get it open (the next day, I had Ricky help me open it but then we couldn't get it closed.  Hence, it's probably still sitting upright in my parents garage as I write this).  Calleigh was quite perturbed at having to walk but as soon as we got into the mall, Gigi found a little red "rental" car that Calleigh could sit in and get pushed around and all was well again.

Calleigh and Bruno did the offering for church.

She actually let Aubree take a ride.  Or maybe we forced her to let her take a ride.

Sunday morning a couple of guys from the church came over to rake the billions and billions of leaves that were literally covering every inch of my parent's yard and driveway.  Calleigh very much enjoyed playing in them and sitting in the blanket with the leaves as they dragged them to a pile in the back.  Such fond memories of that as a kid.  After naps, I met my parents at the Braintree Church where they were having their church Thanksgiving potluck.  From there, the five of us left to drive up to Shawn and Camille's.  I hadn't been to their place in West Lebanon, NH (where they've lived for maybe a year or two???) which is just about on the border of Vermont.  We got there at about 8:30 which was just in time to watch the Patriots game on the computer since they don't have a TV.  It was a slightly smaller screen than I'm used to but it was fun being with the family.  The highlight of the whole thing came at midnight.  The next day, Monday the 15th, was my dad's birthday and as is our tradition, we start listening to our Christmas music on that day.  Well, wouldn't you know but the football game ended at exactly 11:59.  One minute later, my dad and I were listening to Bing Crosby croon "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas."  We made a memory.  

Calleigh did not want to take a nap on Sunday.  She finally came downstairs and I left to go print something off.  When I came back two minutes later, here she was.  Of course, this was like 10 minutes before we had to leave.  Go figure.

They live in a two bedroom townhouse with a finished basement and the place it really cute.  On Monday morning we drove around their town a bit (which contains Dartmouth College) and I was impressed that they have a lot of good stores.  I can't help but that everyone who lives in New Hampshire/Vermont is living in the boondocks with nothing around so it was nice to see a lot of civilization.  In fact, I was a little jealous because they have a Rite Aid pharmacy in addition to CVS and Walgreen's.  From a couponing perspective, that's pretty nifty.  After a really nice breakfast spread from Camille, we all went to the community center where they had a bouncy house in the gym and some other activities.  It was quickly apparent that Calleigh did not have a good night of sleep (took her a long time to fall asleep) because she cried about four times over stupid things.  After the much needed nap, we went out to an Italian Restaurant for my dad's birthday celebration.  It was definitely an early bird special...Shawn had a meeting at six so we had to adjust our schedules accordingly.  We had a great time despite having three toddler wreaking havoc on things.

As for Camden, I think he got even cuter since we last saw him in September.  His talking has really improved as well.  He can say quite a few things and even said my name right at the end without any prompting at all.  I know he had a really fun time playing with the girls and I can hardly wait for them to be together for more than a week during Christmas.  Due to my downright laziness, I barely took any pictures while we were there.

Tuesday morning it was time to head to the airport since we had a 2 pm flight.  This plane was only two across in each row so we didn't have to share our row.  Nonetheless, Calleigh declared that she likes the three seats in a row better.  Not sure how it makes any difference to her but whatever.  I was hoping for a nice long nap from Aubree since it was precisely nap time but alas, I only got about 30 minutes out of her.  Calleigh probably slept for an hour but that's not the one I wanted sleeping for longer!  Even though Aubree didn't cause a problem, this flight just felt so much longer for some reason.  Maybe I was just anxious to get home and plus, I had a headache coming on.  Duncan picked us up and as we arrived home, to my surprise, all the lights were blazing in the downstairs.  I had assumed her had come directly from work so I was very confused.  And then I walked in and I was just amazed.  The downstairs was completely clean and shiny (thanks to his scrubbing the tile and wood floors).  The far wall in the bathroom at been painted.  He had built a dog crate into the end table.  The refrigerator had been fixed so that the water and ice dispenser worked.  The kitchen had been really cleaned and re-organized.  And then, the biggie - - a brand new 55' inch TV and entertainment center!  I knew that one was coming eventually but didn't know when.  All in all, he had completed like a 32 point Honey Do list.  It was something he came up with all on his own.  I had not left any such list.  My hope was just to find no dishes stacked in the sink so to say I was surprised and thrilled would be an understatement.  What a guy!!  What a nice ending to a great trip.

The last few days have been getting things back into order.  Yesterday I took the girls to our Finance Thanksgiving lunch at the church.  That's always an adventure.  But it's always nice to see all my friends from the office.  Today we did our yard sales and I finally hit a good one for clothes for Calleigh.  In addition, I also got her an almost brand new sleeping bag for $4 (I figured that since she likes them so much, it will come in handy some day to have one here).  Ron and Elaine took us to lunch at Macaroni Grill, one of my favorite.  And then it was home to await the fridge repair guy.  In what could only be described as some really bad luck and an extraordinary coincidence, on Wednesday (the day after they came and fixed the water dispenser and we paid $340), I noticed that the fridge section didn't feel very cold.  In fact, my milk was only lukewarm.  I turned the temp up all the way but it made no difference.  I'm thinking that they definitely must have done something to it when they fixed it on Tuesday.  The guy came out today and discovered that it was the defrost heater in the freezer that caused the problem...the same thing we had fixed in April of last year (as it turned out, we weren't using the same company because they don't do fridge's any more but they did refer this company to use).  This guy said the part should have last at least five years so who knows what happened.  Fortunately, he was kind enough to only charge us $45 which was just for the part and not for any labor (not that it took long anyway).  That was a relief because I was going to be really upset if we had just spent all that money and then had to pay a bunch more (obviously I would have just bought a new one if this had happened all at once.)

Okay, I think I'm just about out of gas so I'm going to sign off here.  Happy Sabbath!