Babies, Beans, Basement

Wow! We have been busy! Hold on, I have a lot to tell you! The biggest and most important news first: William has new cousins! William would like to welcome Alexander Richard and Elena Marie! They were born today just before 5pm. John was able to talk with Mike and got a great report! Both mom and babies are doing well. Alexander was 5 lbs. 3 ozs and Elena was 6 lbs. 3 ozs. I'm sure pictures will follow shortly (as well as corrections if I made any mistakes). I will post pictures as soon as I have permission from the parents! William can't wait to meet them and start making trouble together. CONGRATULATIONS Aunt Tien and Uncle Mike! Welcome Alexander and Elena!

It's all downhill from here folks. That was the most exciting part of the post, and now it is over. Feel free to skim to the rest of the post for the highlights. I haven't posted much in the last few days for a good reason. We have been running around here the last few days trying to spruce the place up for some very important people to come and visit! On Saturday, Great Grandma and Grandpa McGarry came with Don and Lola to visit our house for the first time! All the way from North Dakota! We enjoyed their visit very much. We didn't take any pictures (not sure why?), but we had a great time seeing everyone. Then, we went with everyone to have lunch with cousin (not really my cousin, but we'll call here that because it is less complicated) Jaime at her house! We have been living in the same town as Jaime for almost 5 years now and haven't ever gotten together. We had wonderful raviolis with everyone for lunch. It was great to see everyone together and visit!

Saturday afternoon, we were joined by Mr Kaushik to assist John with moving our monumental pile of drywall from the garage to the basement in prepration for the visit of the Grandparents McGarry. They carried lots and lots of drywall. Mr Kaushik arrived at 4pm and didn't leave until almost 9pm. That was a LOT of drywall! THANK YOU for your help!!! I think we would still be moving drywall if it wasn't for his help.

The finished piles of drywall. There are piles behind them, in front of them and some behind the other piles as well!

While John was moving drywall, I fed William his last step one vegetable :green beans. After our last doctor appointment, I got the feeling we needed to step up the introduction of our veggies to move on the fruits. I was dreading the reaction to green beans after our experience with peas. All my worry was for nothing! William ate them up without even making a face! The pictures didn't turn out so great because I was trying to feed him AND take the pictures at the same time. Baby food and cameras are not a good combination, so I had to be careful with the camera and careful to hit his mouth! I sure am a talented woman! Next week we can finally start introducing some fruits - should be exciting (oh NO! I can't believe I just wrote that. Look at what our lives have become...the main event we are looking forward to next week is watching our son experience his first taste of a mashed up, strained banana. We wouldn't have it any other way - and I really am excited!)

Before: All clean and impatiently waiting


The green beans

One of the first bites

Q: Green bean reaction or camera reaction? A: Camera


After cereal, green beans and sweet potatoes. I had the sweet potatoes waiting in the wings in case we had a horrible green beans reaction.

And we continue on! Saturday night, the Grandparents McGarry arrived for a visit. They came mostly to see William and also to help us hang the 48979754654654651 pieces of drywall in our basement. Oh yeah, and to see us (the parents also). We played a cutthroat game of Phase 10 upon their arrival and admired the piles of drywall in the basement. Today, we spent the day drywalling (is that a verb? Someone help me!) in the basement. John and Grandpa Kevin did most of the physical work and Grandma watched William and helped out too. I mostly got in the way and stubbed my toes. Here are some early pictures of the progress we made today.

The first sheet of drywall

Mudd supervises the measuring and cutting of the drywall

Grandma Kim feeds William his morning cereal (and sweet potatoes). Yes, he is also playing with a can of Diet Coke. Don't ask, it's a long, boring story.


More drywall being hung



Grandpa and Grandma also brought William a SANDBOX! from Aunt Kaye! How fun!

William, AKA "Wild Bill", hangs out with Grandpa Kevin before dinner tonight. Wild Bill loves his grandpa (and grandma), especially his glasses! Can you believe we went out for dinner and they are back in the basement working again?