The birthday post

It's hard to believe it's been a year already. Nicole's grown so much. So has her hair. And her vocabulary's catching up. She says dada and mama (dada came first, so it's not just because I'm the one writing), banana (well, just nana), book, nose (at least the no- part), more, bye bye and hi. We swear she also says "What's that?" when she points at things, but we're not kidding ourselves.

Nicole's birthday celebration got off to a great start. Not only was the day before her birthday the end of a little stomach illness, but she welcomed her new friend Genevieve Sala into the world. Then for her birthday, Uncle Howard, Uncle Neil, Aunt Lauren and BFF Maggie were in town. You may remember what happened the last time Nicole and Maggie got together in Arizona, but this time was much more civil. By the end of the night they were having a great time playing together.

Nicole enjoyed playing with her birthday cake. It was coconut, which was delicious, but white frosting and a pale baby don't make for great pictures. We'll do chocolate frosting at her party. That'll show up much better.

Other than her words, she doesn't have too many new tricks. She still won't walk on her own. She does great when holding on to someone, and she'll stand up on her own. But then she just sits back down. She loves to climb, which keeps us on our toes. And yes, she's still crawling by dragging one leg across the floor. Keeps us from having to sweep, though. She started swimming lessons last weekend. She's had two so far and has cried for about 58 of the 60 minutes. She spent one of the other two minutes pulling out Daddy's chest hair, and the remaining minute swimming. Hopefully she'll start warming up to it soon. She has to; we live in Arizona. And she's spending most of the summer in the pool whether she likes it or not. Speaking of pools, Nicole fared much better in the NCAA tournament this year. She was 7th out of over 900 at one point after a few rounds. But her Final Four teams of Michigan State, Louisville, Xavier and Georgetown (based on her visits to East Lansing, Louisville, Cincinnati and D.C. this past year) didn't come through for her.

For those that are concerned with Nicole's parents and their residence, the repair work on the house begins tomorrow. We hope to have the first floor work (carpeting, painting and kitchen cabinets) done by the end of the month. The upstairs carpeting and painting will follow, and more pictures will follow that.

I hope that by holding off the links to the pictures until the end that you've read this update. I'll try to write more frequently so the updates won't be as long. Meanwhile, here are some pictures we took in late March that we have not yet shared. And here are the pictures from her birthday.

Productive night

Here are the "before" pictures of the house. The captions should explain what you're looking at. Hopefully the repairs, painting, carpeting, etc. don't take too long and we can get the fixed-up, furnished "after" pictures done soon.

Click for the pictures.

Finally some pictures

We take a break from Flood Watch '08 to bring you some long overdue pictures of Nicole. These span from late January through yesterday. You can definitely see the changes in her even since the last batch of photos, which were around Christmas and New Years.

Nicole seems on the verge of walking and talking. She stood up once or twice on her own, but usually has to hold on to something. And she'll take steps if you're holding on to her. She says da da and bye bye and plenty of other things we can't make out. It's hard to believe she'll be one in a few weeks.

Click here for the pictures of Nicole.

We'll keep you posted on the flood aftermath. I will soon post some of the pictures we have of the house. We'll call these the "before" pictures. They are from before we moved in, but it will give you a sense of what it looks like. After all of our repairs are made and we're fully situated, well give you the "after."

We shall build an ark!

We awoke to quite a flood yesterday. Seems the supply line from the toilet in the downstairs bathroom burst sometime Tuesday night / Wednesday early morning, spraying water throughout the first floor of our house. After a few hours with a wet/dry vac Kevin got most of the standing water out of the house. We got a plumber out ASAP and the insurance company sent over a disaster clean up crew who got to work. They attempted to salvage the carpet in the living room & dining room, but after a while they gave up and decided to remove the carpet along with the kitchen cabinet & bathroom vanity "kick boards". We're living at Hermvy's house for a few days while de-humidifiers and fans try to dry out the house. Anyone have suggestions on paint & carpet colors? Oh wait, you probably want to see pictures of the house to decide, and maybe even some of Nicole too, right?! Well, I'll try to remember to pick up the camera & computer at the house today and see if we can't squeeze that on to our (i.e., Kevin's) to-do list.

Slight delay . . .

But when we have to spend the morning with a wet/dry vac to clean up a huge flood in the first floor of our house, it might be a little while longer until those pictures get posted! Ahh, the joys of being a homeowner.

Just a quick post to say

I'm sorry. I've been meaning to post pictures of both the house and of Nicole. Who knew working and moving and parenting would leave so little spare time? Anyway, with the NCAA tournament coming up, I have a self-imposed deadline to get pictures posted. Because if I don't get it done before basketball starts, I won't get it done until April. Maybe this weekend? Hopefully. Stay tuned.

Home Sweet Home

Wow, what a whirlwind 24 hours it has been. First Bubby and Grandpa arrive from Baltimore for their "grandkid fix" (we have no delusions that it's the warm weather or even us that's attracting them to Arizona), then we find out the offer we put on the house (on January 14, mind you) was accepted! It's going to continue to be a crazy few days, since the deal is contingent on us closing on February 25. So we'll drag Bubby and Grandpa along with us as we do the house inspection, look at appliances and who knows what else. I'm sure that's exactly what they wanted to do during their visit with Nicole.

Soon we'll have over 3,100 square feet of space (most of which is located in the mater bedroom), plus a gigantic backyard (with pool and built in BBQ!), which is mind boggling given in the tiny space we've been living in since July 1. We can't wait to start entertaining and have everyone over. And for you out-of-town folk, it's a 4 bedroom, so we have space for you, too!