After The Tenth..... When The Fun Really Begins

Hi, my name is Scott and I'm a sloppy blogger.

I'm guilty of slopping blogging, a new and  crippling phenomenon in my life. In my haste to get our Halloween post published, I ignored the fact that Annie and I had spent a perfectly good Sunday morning running around with the girls to get a pumpkin and to take some themed photos. So instead of having a nice post about how excited we were about the upcoming holiday and the cute photos we took during our photo shoot, and then providing some "night of" shots, I just blew past the first portion.

Not only am I guilty of bad blogging, but I'm also guilty of not paying attention to my surroundings. After we took the pictures you'll see below, we scoured the pumpkin piles for just the right pumpkin..one with a nice round shape, perfect for carving. Now there was nothing wrong with our pumpkin selection and there was still nothing wrong with having a few of the neighbors kids over to watch me carve out my carefully marked up Jack-O-Lantern. Macy even assisted in the scooping out of the seeds. Where I failed in this task was in overlooking that we live in balmy South Florida. Sunday morning we carved up the pumpkin and set it out for display; by Wednesday morning I was wearing kitchen gloves and holding my nose, as I scooped our now rotted pumpkin into a garbage bag. You'd think after 16 or so years down here that I would know that leaving a freshly punctured pumpkin outside in the elements was a recipe for disaster. By that Tuesday, Annie called me at work to tell me that the bugs had had such a feast with our offering that the rotten pumpkin flesh had caused our jagged tooth jack-o-lantern's mouth to close. I've since been told that I should have sprayed it with bug spray first, but I think next year we'll just keep it inside to enjoy.

I can't promise you more posts or even more timely posts, but I can promise you that I will try harder to provide you with more accurate informative posts that are occasionaly even interesting. It is the least I can do for you, my loyal readers.

I'm a big fan of the color orange. I'm a proud graduate of Syracuse University, whose official color is ORANGE. I have orange t-shirts, orange shorts and my sneakers have orange trim. I've even been told that I "bleed orange."

I like everything orange except for one thing - Laney. We are currently battling a case of jaundice, which has given her a look that changes from "just got back from a relaxing day on South Beach" to "for Halloween, I'm going as a carrot." Every morning for the past 6 days we've been running to the doctor for a bilirubin test. The doctor isn't too concerned yet, but I would like to see her levels drop quicker. With each passing day, her ability to ward off any issues related to her elevated levels grows as well, but she is still a bit too lethargic and sleeps way too much. (Did I just write that? Am I really complaining about a new born that sleeps too much? Something tells me that there will be a sleepless night in the near future, when I'm going to look back longingly on these moments) So each day the doctor monitors her condition and we keep waiting for her numbers to drop.

Even with her current discoloration, I still think she's one of the cutest babies ever. To prove my point, here are a handful of photos taken  on and around "Homecoming Day."

This pregnancy has felt real for a while now, but the concept that there would another set of feet in the house still felt way off and a bit of fantasy. Until this past weekend.

Last week we had the arrival of the stroller and the car seat but this was the last full weekend to prepare before the big arrival. I've been working feverishly on the outside of the house these past few weeks, knowing that the yard and outdoor items would be abandoned as free time will quickly diappear.

At the same time, we are reconfiguring the inside of the house a bit. "Macy's room" is now officially ready to be "The Girls' Room." Next to the crib we've added a toddler bed. While Macy won't be evicted from the crib for another few months, we wanted to try and ease the transition by giving her a chance to play on the bed and get used to it. As an added bonus, playing with Macy on the floor of her bedroom has become easier, now that I can sit and lie on the mattress. I think my knees are appreciating it the most.

Besides the nursery, my office/guest room needed some work, allowing the "guest" portion of the room to be active again.  I don't want to say there was pressure to get the room ready, but I am typing this post while watching the clock. I only have 30 minutes before I shoot off to the airport to pick up Grandma, who is flying in to take care of Macy while we are in the hospital. She's clearly doing us a favor, but something tells me that she's not going to complain about getting a week of up close and personal time with Macy.

I almost forgot. I've just updated the Progression video again and this time it goes all the way to week 34, which means there will only be one more update after tonight's version.