A break from tradition.

We have just broken a tradition. Or perhaps a streak. Molly's streak. The snowpile savant has been dethroned. However, Molly, you may retain your special powers in your other magical realms. Consider it a part of your severance package.

For your very inquisitive minds, the snowpile met it's demise sometime between Tuesday night, March 30 and Wednesday morning March 31. In either case, the new champion of the culdesac snowpile contest is Joy811, for her guess which was within a day or so.

I would say your prize would be to come to Boston and be the first cousin to meet Blake, but I'm afraid Molly's already booked the trip. Molly, was that akin to putting the cart before the horse, or putting the trophy case before the championship?

Regardless. The snowpile is gone, the tiger lilies have shot up their greens, the maple syrup has stopped boiling, the vernal pools are filled, and the peepers are out. We are nearing springtime, I can smell it! Now we just need a few leaves to clothe our trees and some bats to call our bat-house home! Y'all come by for a visit, now, ya hear?!

And then there were four.

I've been told that ye readers have banded together and are nearing mutiny if we don't post something soon.

So that being said....

We're THRILLED to announce the birth of our second son, Blake Benjamin on Friday, March 19, 2010 at 11:34pm (after a healthy 19 hours of labor...and since I--the laborer--am writing this post, I'll take my liberties and add that in). He weighed 9 pounds even and has been adorable from the very moment he was born.

We are IN LOVE.

At 4:30am on Friday I rolled over in bed and felt/heard this {pop!!} followed by a giant gush. Since I'd never even considered this happening, I wasn't prepared for it at ALL. Never the less, I'd heard enough stories about how women don't go into labor after their water breaks, so after we cleaned up a little, I told Joe, "Well, things won't start for a while, so we might as well go back to bed for a few hours."

Famous Last Words.

Not fifteen minutes later, the contractions started....and they started at 4 minutes apart. Sooooo....that's when we headed to the hospital, right?

Wrong!

Rather late in my pregnancy, we opted for a change in prenatal care. After a lot of thought, research, prayer, more research, and the advice of a few friends, we opted to plan for a home birth. And I couldn't recommend it enough. We had long been uncomfortable with the incidence of interventions that is so common in American obstetrical care, and we knew that a home birth would be the most secure, safe, and comfortable way to get baby Blake from the inside to the outside.

I don't have anything to compare it to, so I'll just say that labor was labor. But at 11:34, out came Blake in all his glory--born peacefully in a pool of water in our living room--and he was eager to show off his lungs. =)

And without further ado, might we introduce Blake.

Equinox, end of gestation, and evanescence of a snow pile.

For those of you wondering, Jen isn't really due until Sunday which happens to be the Spring equinox. Wouldn't that be lovely and pagan of us? We can welcome the season of new life with a new life! I was urging Jen to aim for some upcoming holiday, such as April Fools Day, but she said no way. I guess the extra ten days is just too far out.

Okay, so there has been somewhat of an uprising in the comments requesting snowpile information. (And YES, I used a thesaurus to select the word "evanescence".) If you'd like meteorological information on our local forecast this week, we're looking at mid-60s highs, around 40 degree lows, and rain showers Monday. At this rate, we may be looking at a three-peat by Molly. (Officially, Molly and Valerie split the win last year by book-ending the true date.) It's hard to tell, though. The first week in April is definitely possible, as the pile is in the shade for much of the day. For your perusal, here are the official entrants:

March 9, Liz Johnson,
March 25, Miss Molly,
April 1, joyj811
April 2, Sharalea
April 4, Valerie
April 6, Brianne
April 7, (2009)
April 15, Linda
April 17, (2008)
April 20, It's Me - Jen E!
April 24, Jeanette

Sorry, Liz, but your well-wishes for us to have a nice warm spell were slightly optimistic. When I went out to get the pictures I noticed that the plows brought more than just snow to our pile this year. Looks like we're up one snow-shovel and one hoe this year!

And here's the classic perspective that you are used to seeing:

The good news: we are getting an early spring. The bad news: Maple syruping season, which accompanies our annual thaw, was down to a matter of days instead of a matter of weeks.

Rain stopped. Bring on the next adventure!

For those of you who think rainfall and weather drama is interesting, it looks like our total is just over 7 inches here. By our charts, at 8 PM it all stopped. We were spared of much excitement, but I did think the basement bubbler was kinda cool (in an annoying way).


From a guy new to New England, I would have much rather had the winter version of this Nor'Easter, because 6 feet of snow would have just been AWESOME! Floods? High water? We can do that in the south just fine! But blizzards are a new frontier for me.

We do live next to a swamp, but not with an outlet to a river like our friends the next town over. This is my good friend Peter going to buy some sandbags to try to protect his basement as the water was lapping at all four sides of his foundation. I'm hoping the water recedes for them tonight. They only have inches of leeway before reaching evacuation levels. They aren't likely to sleep very soundly tonight...

From their kitchen porch.

Next adventure? Bring it on. I've met my deadline at work today, so I'm ready to cheer on the birth of our second. I'm certain Jen is eager for this new baby, ***** ******** to arrive, too.

March Showers brings... panic?

Yeah, I guess that's about right. Jen was home sick from church today, so she didn't hear the prayers over the pulpit for everyone to get their basements dried out and for the rivers to calm down. Seriously, there is flooding everywhere. Ian and I got to splash through puddles the whole way to church. We knew it was serious when we went on our normal route and there were cops directing traffic into a single file down the center of the road where the water depth was the shallowest. (Still several inches, of course). The Shawsheen River looked bound to overflow the bridge next to the Playground Museum (a sales office, I guess), and lots of folks were missing from church because they were holding vigils over their sump pumps.

I found this picture on Boston.com of the "Playground Museum," retrieved March 17, 2010.

For fun, Ian and I camped out Friday night. Not because we knew this was to be a rainy weekend, but because we had been hoping to camp with the scouts, but the Pregnant One needs loving watch-care from her in-town men. So Friday after dinner we retired to a chilly backyard, snuggled into our sleeping bags and watched Shark Tales on the netbook. (We were camping in the backyard, after all!) By 10:30, it was lights out and we went to bed. We got up at 5:30 cause the birds were chirping like crazy, took advantage of a reason to visit a nearby tree, then went back to bed until 8:30. Then it was BONFIRE time! (A March tradition for us). All this before the rains really started to come down.

But when it rained, it poured. We're looking at like 4 inches. We got most of the wood burnt by 10 am, then cooked our foil dinners and ate them by 11:30. Marshmellow s'mores through the drizzle until about 1, and we achieved the desired result! We smelled like smoke, burnt up a winter's worth of deadfall, and had some quality Father/Son time. Everytime I came inside to check on Jen, she was sawing logs upstairs. I guess that was another desired outcome.

For those of you interested, here's the chart for today (from a local hobbyist's backyard weatherstation) that continued to exacerbate the flooding around Boston. Note that the rates of rainfall are per hour, and the bars are each one hour wide. Therefore, we accumulated ALOT of rain. Normally round these parts, an entire rainstorm will only leave us with as much rain as ONE of those bars represents. And now we're getting it nonstop!

Don't worry about us. We rent. :) Everything in our basement is up off the floor, and the burbling brook downstairs comes in one corner and out the other. We're not accumulating any water.

More Nesting.

We're just over 1 week from our due date, and the nesting reflex continues to swallow me whole. For some reason, I was sure my brain would not allow me to go into labor until I scrubbed and organized every inch of my refrigerator. And for a long time, I sort of ignored the not-so-gentle urgings, since, you know, I wasn't terribly interested in going into labor.

Yeah, but...then I got to that point everyone told me about--the point where you're sure having the child out is going to be easier than having him in. So, in my non-logical-pregnant-brain, I decided that the only thing keeping me from having this baby was the state of my fridge. So last night I tackled it.

Good News: The fridge is fantastic.
Bad News: Pregnancy logic is clearly flawed.
Good News: It sort of makes me happy that Baby Boy likes me so much. I must be comfy.

And, as if I needed another reason....but let me present yet further evidence why I love Ian. This afternoon, when I asked him what he wanted for lunch, here was his request:

Green Apple, Strawberries, Yogurt.

Take that, childhood obesity epidemic.

The future looks fuzzy...

Just a few quick things from the husband here.

First, we're a week away from the due date, and I am getting pretty excited. The scouts are going to New Hampshire to camp and work at our favorite Maple Syruping operation. Since we're under strict "Stay-clost-to-the-wife" orders, Ian and I are going to camp in the backyard tonight, and have our annual bonfire in the morning. Should be fun. It might even be a bit drizzly for us. Sweet! Whether the baby comes a week early or a week late, we'll be near enough to be supportive participants.

Second, have you ever reached a crossroads where you realize that you're at the tail end of your prime? I've got friends breaking their backs and getting knees scoped and hearing aids installed. (Note: Poetic license taken, but injuries are happening to my fragile buddies!) Recently my wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles have all been popping. When I go walking through the hallway at work people call to me for a bag of popcorn. (More license...) Seriously, I don't know why bodies make such noises, and I don't feel any pain. Maybe it's like the squeal of a fan belt or the low-brake pad indicator telling you something terrible could go wrong if you don't go in for servicing. I've heard of people lubing up with fish oil for joints, but I don't think rubbing the capsules against my elbow would really contribute much help. Another example: Today I was issued a reimbursement check for a business trip I had a couple of weeks ago. Everything checked out. My name, the amount, the dates. I read the security features on the back and the check was legit. Except one thing.

The Mircoprinting that I used to be able to read under the signature line? It looks more like a discontinuous line with gaps and wiggles. It USED to read "Authorized Signature Authorized Signature Authorized Signature..." Maybe I should make a trip to the accountant to get him to issue me a check using a LEGIT checkbook. Maybe I should just schedule an appointment with the optometrist. *sigh.

Three Pictures

It's been a long week. Somehow I managed to catch another cold right on the heels of the one that sidelined me last week...with the notable difference that I actually have things to do this week that couldn't be postponed. Nesting has fully taken over my brain, rendering me quite useless to anyone (that is, unless they want me to come purge their house of something...or rearrange their furniture...or clean their fridge.)

Suffice it to say, everything has been relegated to the realms of FUNNY. Not sad, not exhausting...just FUNNY. Because that's the only way to react to it all, I think. (Even though laughing sends me into violent fits of hacking and sneezing. But you know, whatever.)

So here are three pictures from our week....starting at the very beginning (because that's what Julie Andrews says to do. It's a very good place to start, you know).

Here is yours truly at the obligatory 37-weeks pose in front of the hall mirror. I'm down to about 4 shirts that actually fit...so when I got cocoa powder all over shirt #1 on Monday, I had to explain to my mother why I wasn't changing said shirt when I took Ian to the library. All shirts must last until the end of the day, no matter what their condition. So cocoa-covered though I was, I hid it well and ran several errands. I believe pregnancy has turned off the valve in my brain that controls proper decorum in public. Oops!

I know I mentioned I was busy this week. There are things on my to-do list that absolutely must be done before I go into labor. The project above was not one of them. But I did it anyway, because Nesting Brain said that it must be done. And all must bow to the will of Nesting Brain. I'd discovered the tutorial a while back and had it bookmarked, but didn't make the attempt until Nesting Brain gave me the go-ahead. Mod-Podge therapy is always a welcomed treat. P.S. Don't look too closely. Pregnant Jen is slightly craft deficient. Side note: this project also involved me going to Lowe's all by myself. Also: being sent on a wild goose chase around the store by an employee who didn't know the difference between the "tiny hooks" I needed and the "8-inch hooks that could only be used to hang your saddle" I didn't. And at just-shy-of 38 weeks pregnant, I'm not terribly interested in chasing wild geese.

Yes, I'm that mum. I had a conference call to take, so I set Ian up with The Jungle Book in my bedroom. He gets really excited about The Jungle Book. I especially love it when he giggles and belly-laughs even though I can't hear what's going on in the movie. It's hilarious. I tried to catch him here (mid-conference-call) during one of those belly laughs, but I wasn't fast enough. My reflexes these days are.....um.....lacking.