Long time, no blog

I haven't managed to blog in over a month, for reasons that can be summed up in one word: Lucy. I have her in the Baby Bjorn right now, where she's alternately sleeping and nursing. I'm taking a break from grading to do a long-awaited blog update.

Obviously, things around 83 Durant have changed enormously. Every room in the house is in complete disarray. We did manage to get a Christmas tree while Jessamy was visiting. It's pretty funny looking, but I like it.

In other repair news, we had to get a new kitchen faucet after my mom discovered a substantial leak running under the sink. We didn't know how old the faucet set was, so we ended up getting a new one installed (back on December 5th, for future reference). The faucet head pulls out to be a sprayer hose, a feature we like a lot.


We had another kitchen failure this week: the oven stopped working. We were a bit distressed by this, particularly when Jake discovered it when he was about to put a batch of cookies in the oven, and while we had a whole chicken in the fridge that we had planned to roast for dinner. The stove is pretty old, but we like it, and in any case, we weren't exactly prepared for such an expenditure or the researching of the right stove.



So we did the usual: turned to the internet. If you google "Magee Stove" you'll find very little useful information. You will find this hilarious link, which is to a letter to the editor of the MIT newspaper announcing the candidacy of a Magee stove for student body president. Follow the link -- it's really funny.

Jake thought this link from a do it yourself message board was promising, and he actually called a guy's home phone number to ask for help. Jake will hopefully fill in the details here about the exchange, but after a few back and forth phone calls, the guy talked Jake through how to fix the stove! It was awesome!

That's all for now. I imagine our home projects (and the blogging about them) will be slowing down. We'll try to keep getting the pictures up on Flickr for your enjoyment! Happy Holidays from 83 Durant!

Weather

Eating at home again

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Originally uploaded by Jake Bridge

We're all back at home today.

We bring you... Lucy!

Did I mention that we had a baby? Well, here's the official blog announcement.We had a baby! We had this baby! She's wonderful and healthy.

Lucy Margaret Bridge

Right now, Bridget and I are in Boston and Lucy's back in Lowell. This stinks. We're hoping they'll let us return to Lowell and Lucy tonight, but right now we just have to wait, and wait for the tests.

UPDATE: All is well! Bridget aced her blood test and is going back to Lowell.

Everybody's in good hands. The good folks at Saints are reportedly fighting over who gets to hold Lucy next. And they've set aside one of her blankets for us to take home to Carter so we can get him used to her scent.

Here are Lucy's stats: 8 lbs 6 oz, 20.5 inches, 3-0 2KO.

And here's some very early footage:





Mom, watch this only so many times. Sleeping's good for you.

Re-Arranging and Decorating

We got a lovely new piece of furniture for the pink room today -- a TV cabinet. Thanks, Tony & Stacy, for passing along this great piece! It does wonders at hiding the clutter of the TV-related stuff!

We moved things around a bit in the pink room to make it all work. Check out the room:

This is no doubt the last time it will be this neat, ever. As you can see, Carter is enjoying it all. He does seem a bit confused by all the activity around the house. Just wait til later this week, pup.

Here are a few more shots of the finished baby room. It too is probably the neatest it will ever be:



We'll let you know when there's something to know!

Decorating

Today we added a few special things to the baby's room. First, for something old: a mobile -- it happens to be the one from my own crib! I really love the retro plastic barnyard theme:

And here's the something new: this nifty cable wire setup from Ikea (it's called "Dignitet"). It will provide ample room for hanging artwork; for now it holds cards and some other decorations we're going to put on the wall eventually:

Countdown to New Arrival

We've had very little time to blog, or do much that's bloggable, lately. Our regular readers will want to know that we head to the hospital on Monday morning to start having the baby (no word yet from said baby on how soon he/she will arrive after that). We'll keep you posted. We're relieved to note that the room is ready for his/her arrival. Check out our crib:

And thank you to Tony, Stacy, Adelaide, Zoe, and Emma for passing it along to us!

Jake also got a Diaper Champ today -- someone had put it out for free and he spied it while walking Carter. Score! We love hand-me-down baby stuff!


UPDATE: We discovered the next day that the Diaper Champ came with an unexpected accessory: some dirty diapers. No kidding. So it got a thorough washing. I mean, it's going to be filled with dirty diapers eventually, but we thought we'd wait until they actually belonged to a resident of 83 Durant. No need to import dirty diapers.

We also got this nifty lamp at Target, since the only fixture we had was the overhead light.


So we're (mostly) ready for our new resident at 83 Durant.