Thursday, September 30, 2010

Welcome, Rowan!

My cousin Hilary & her husband Noah welcomed their baby Rowan on Friday. He's happy, healthy, and has a nice shock of brown hair. Welcome to the world, dear baby! Hilary and I were born 3 months apart and grew up together. It's amazing that our babies were also born 3 months apart in the same birthing center, and will be able to grow up together too! Susannah is thrilled about her new playmate.

Susannah, Charles, and I got to meet him yesterday for the first time. It was incredible to see how much bigger Susannah is compared to a newborn. We see her every day so we don't notice the growth, but she is hard at work growing fast. She's still eating like a horse to fuel all that growing.

I haven't downloaded the pictures of Rowan yet, so here's a gratuitous picture of Susannah in her new legwarmers, arms a-whirring as usual:

Construction Supervisor

Susannah decided to supervisor installation of the first floor:


We've been getting lots of lumber deliveries, and Charles is pretty much done framing up the rafters and decking for the first floor.



I'm getting very excited to watch the walls go up next.

Baby's First Trip

Susannah and I returned from a week-long trip to Massachusetts. We left Charles at home to frame up the house in peace and rented a house in Ipswich near the beach.

We had wonderful trips to the beach and got to see a lot of dear friends. We spent a lot of time at Crane Beach breathing in the salty air and playing on the sandbars at low tide. Susannah even got to dip her toes into the ocean for the first time! She curled up her legs at the last minute and I ended up dunking her bum instead. Oops!



On the down side, both of us got colds, I got food poisoning, and we were attacked by ticks while lounging on the lawn. Still, all in all it was a really nice week. Susannah enjoyed meeting lots of new friends. She's very alert now and no longer seems like a newborn. She's at least 12 pounds now and 24 inches long. She's gained 3.5 inches since birth! She has also (knock wood) been sleeping through the night most nights, about 7-9 hours straight. Here's hoping that continues, because it's really helping us reclaim our sanity and ability to do higher-lever reasoning.

Hanging out with Alicia and Z:


And auntie Beth:


Z loved meeting Susannah:


We also spent time in Rockport:


Susannah really enjoyed spending time with her grandparents too:




Crane Beach is really beautiful:


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Two Months Old

Sunny is growing so fast now. She's up to 11 lbs 10 oz and somewhere between 23 and 24.5 inches long, depending on which measurement you trust. That puts her in about the 75th percentile for her age. She's developing really well so far. She does a lot of social smiling, can hold her head up very well, and is even starting to roll over. It's way early to be rolling over so it's possible the times she's done it so far were a fluke. It's really fun to be getting to know her personality, which so far seems to be happy and energetic. She flails her little arms and legs around constantly, even while breastfeeding.

We've enjoyed some great visits with family and friends over the past few weeks. Her aunt, uncle, and cousins came up from New Jersey over Labor Day weekend, and we had so much fun with them. We explored Stowe and the Montpelier farmer's market. I also gained confidence taking her out to eat in restaurants. I figured out that if I walk around with her, she will fall asleep in the Moby wrap and sleep through dinner! We had a great meal at Frida's in Stowe.


Little Robin was excited to meet Sunny:


And we had fun at the farmer's market hanging out with her future friends that are still in their mommies' bellies:


All that activity tuckered her right out:

The Foundation is Finished!

Charles has finally finished the foundation! It is superinsulated to R-30 and consists of ICFs (insulated concrete forms) plus 2 inches of foam board on the exterior. It has bituthene waterproofing below grade and will eventually have structural skin above grade down to 6 inches below.

Charles was a busy bee doing a lot of earth-moving equipment work, which is hard on his back.


Finishing the last bit of fill:


Now onto framing! Charles ordered lumber today. I'm excited to see the house begin to really take shape.