A Super Halloween

This year, our Superman and Super Girl joined forces with their little Super Baby -- who wasn't quite up for trick-or-treating or costumes -- for a Super Halloween, complete with candy, new toys, door-to-door hijinks, and birthday cake for Daddy!!

Cousins Megan, Bridget, Annie and Tessa joined the super hero ranks, too, and for the third year in a row, the whole troupe got to celebrate with Mop!

Happy Halloween!

Trooper

We're thrilled to update that Molly May sailed through surgery, and is wowing her doctors and nurses with her recovery.

Her surgery was delayed almost three hours, which means she had to fast from 6:30 a.m. until they wheeled her into the operating room at 3 p.m. I don't know of very many babies who would be as content as she was... Here she is making do with her fingers and her binky, sometimes at the same time!
















Our sweet little trooper tried to smile as she was coming out of anesthesia, started nursing immediately ("better than Tylenol," according to her surgeon), and has been busy sleeping, gazing around her hospital room, and playing with her toes ever since.

She's had some brief moments of frustration when she attempts to put her thumb in her mouth, and can't because of the arm braces she's wearing. Instead of crying, though, she stares intently at that thumb - in the hitchhiker position, ready for action - as if she might will it closer to her lips.

I think she senses that things could be much, much worse, since we're sharing a room in the hospital with a brave little 8-month old who is waiting for a liver transplant and has been in this hospital for almost half her life.

It may take a few days for us to get used to Molly's new smile, and we'll be sure to debut it here. In the meantime, here she is, sleeping as soundly as a little angel.




Thanks again for all the well wishes, and we're looking forward to being home this afternoon!

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A Brand-New Smile

After a week of strolling and sightseeing her way around the nation's capitol with Mommy and Daddy - who were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary!! - Molly checked into UCSF this morning for her lip repair.

Here she is, resting up in the Bjorn and enjoying her binky for a few more hours, blissfully unaware that she hasn't eaten since 6 a.m., and that she's about to get a brand-new smile!




Thanks to all who are keeping her in their thoughts and prayers

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Pumpkin Time!

We ventured out to Clayton on Wednesday for some pumpkin picking fun. We started out as a mellow little foursome -- I even managed my coffee along with all three kids! -- but the trip quickly veered into the category of "Things Not to Do When Flying Solo with Kids" when a couple of rowdy busloads of kindergartners arrived on the scene. Throw in a seriously elaborate hay maze, a seriously uncooperative pumpkin wheelbarrow, and a seriously bad Port-a-Potty situation, and you have the complete picture.

Here's the last I saw of Joey before he disappeared into the bowels of the hay maze -- not to resurface for at least a half hour.

The kids succeeded in getting beans into every crevice of their bodies, which made our Port-a-Potty adventure even more fun!

Pumpkin hunting was a crowd-pleaser!

Taking pictures of three kids while flying solo might have been the most challenging part of the day!

Luckily, they all do seem to like each other, which makes it all worthwhile!

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Clara summed up the day with a contented sigh and these wise words:

"It's a beautiful day to be awake, Mommy!"

Vices

We made a quick, classy pit stop at 7-11 en route to a Giants game get-together on Sunday. While Tim ran inside to pick up beverages and snacks, the kids and I waited in the car - where our most fascinating conversations always occur, it seems.

Chatterbox Clara pointed at a giant banner inside the store, featuring a cup o' joe, and squealed, "Look, Mommy! It's coffee!!"

I can't say I don't share her excitement. I turned around in my seat, and said, "Yep! Coffee! Is that Mommy's favorite?"

"Yes!" Clara shouted, while Joey piped up from the third row, "Yep! Coffee and beer."

What??

For the first time, I'm glad that his preschool teacher's deal with parents is: "If you don't believe everything you hear about me, I won't believe everything I hear about you."

Drumstick Watch 2010

Things used to be so different. Our firstborn, Davis, used to be our number one subject, the star of so many stories, the butt of so many jokes, the object of so much attention. He did so many memorable things in that murky pre-child life... fetch beers, swallow underwear, consume 35 pounds of kibble in one sitting, rip bathing suits, chew shoes, tear into boxes of microwave popcorn.

But lately, his comings and goings haven't garnered as much interest as the pesky kids who now require that we go to the kid park, not the dog park. They stampede around, tug his tail, jump on his back, and "walk" him around the house, but the minute he wants to engage in a friendly game of keep-away with Superman or the football, he's somehow the enemy. And don't even get him started on the food scraps... one minute he's a hero for serving as the thrice-daily vacuum, and the next, he's banished to the dog run for going the extra mile and making sure dangling food doesn't even touch the floor.

Well, Davis decided to take matters into his own hands on Friday evening, and became the star of the show once more. What was supposed to be a relaxing end-of-the-work-week family picnic (ice-cold beers included!) turned into an old-school Davis anecdote when he snatched an entire chicken drumstick out of Joey's hand and inhaled it one gulp, in the way only a Lab can.

Unfortunately - or fortunately - we've been to this rodeo before. We packed up and tore down the freeway to the nearest after-hours vet clinic, where Davis promptly got his stomach pumped. The stubborn drumstick didn't come back up, so we have our fingers crossed that it will navigate through Davis' steel system safely over the next day or two.

In the meantime, Davis is relishing his moment in the sun once again.

The Perils of Arts and Crafts

I should have known that having easy access to scissors to make projects like this...










...would lead to grooming projects like this.








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Before and After

It should be criminal to be this giddy about a blog post, but as a diehard HGTV fan, I've been looking forward to doing a virtual "before and after" tour for an embarrassingly long time.

We've finally reached a stopping point with our renovations to the new house, and we thought it would be fun to take a look back at where we began. We bought my grandmother's house, where "Mop" and her six siblings were raised, so moving in and transforming this house that has so much personal history has been a fun and interesting challenge. Every step of the way, I found myself wondering what "Ma" would have thought of this paint color, or that furniture arrangement. I hope she would have approved, and I have a feeling she absolutely loves seeing new babies put down roots and grow here!

The house hadn't been lived in for several months when these pictures were taken, and most of my grandma's furniture and artwork had been removed, which is why it has a bit of a deserted and abandoned look. When my grandma was alive, she was a meticulous housekeeper, with a warm and comfortable home. But the house did have a lot of deferred maintenance, as you'll see!

Front of house BEFORE

Front of house AFTER (just missing black shutters!)

Front entry BEFORE

Front entry AFTER

Living room BEFORE

Living room AFTER

Dining room BEFORE

Dining room AFTER

Family Room BEFORE

Family Room AFTER

Front Guest Bathroom - BEFORE

Front Guest Bathroom - AFTER

Guest Bedroom - BEFORE

Guest Bedroom - AFTER

Girls' Room - BEFORE

Girls' Room - AFTER

Joey's Room - BEFORE

Joey's Room AFTER

Master Bedroom - BEFORE

Master Bedroom - AFTER

Kitchen - BEFORE

Kitchen - AFTER (more changes to come here, with new countertops, floor, sink, and some appliances)

And finally, the backyard BEFORE!

The backyard AFTER

And that's a wrap (for now)!!