Luke, I Am Your Father

The Dude makes 4!  Lukas Matthew Maio was evicted from his small but cozy residence at 10:39 a.m. on November 3.  He weighed in at 7lbs 12 oz and is 20.5 inches.  The smallest Martin or Maio baby that has been seen in generations, we are already head over heels for this little man and can't wait for you to meet him (after you show proof of a flu shot and walk through a Purell bath.  What's the fastest way to make an infant's mom more nuts than she already is?  Have a pediatrician say flu and pertussis are on their way around already).

I call this one "Newborn in Repose with Father's Profile"

Anyway we dropped G off at school on Thursday morning and it was *so* weird to just drive on down to the hospital after that, like we were running an errand.  La la la, pick up dry cleaning, stop at hardware store, go have baby, get gallon of milk...  Yet there we were.  Everything for the actual procedure went swimmingly and I'm once again the proud owner of a track-o-staples along my abdomen.  It did not give me warm fuzzies when it took four separate tries to get an IV line and 10, count 'em TEN spinal pokes to even out the anesthesia.  Five days later I feel a little like I've been kicked in the back by a horse but even so I was easily off any meds by Monday - a definite improvement from the hematoma and sheer exhaustion of G's delivery. 

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper cute

Facebooking.  What else is there to do while trying to pass time waiting to have a baby?

Back in the suit!

Looks a little like a convict with the striped shirt underneath

Hello, little man!  We're so glad you're here

In recovery, about an hour old and already looking for food.

Glad to be out of surgery

Smooches 1 of about a million

One of his already classic Old Man faces.  Gets me every time!

Knowing what a huge upheaval this little addition would be to G's world, we chose to have no visitors on Thursday and just spend time as a family after her day at school.  She was super excited for the baby for about 30 seconds and then she realized that (a) he doesn't do much and (b) my work had sent an Edible Arrangement which was a lot more interesting.  The best part was when she held him...she looked down, said "awwwwwwwwwww!", patted his head, and turned to us and deadpanned to us, "Take him."  Sure thing kiddo.

Checking out the new addition

Happy!

Awwwwwwww.  Two seconds later she was done.

Baby's first deep thought

The parade-o-visitors began on Friday with - who else? - the two Grandmas.  One other benefit to a scheduled c is having back up on the calendar, and knowing where G was going to be and who was going to pick her up, drop her off, etc.  This included more visits to the hospital where she continued to indulge in the food and "big sister" stickers.

And it begins

Already finding things to stick in his mouth

Yeah whatever, big sister, blah blah blah.  There are COOKIES here!

Cookie done and once again a proud sister

First family of four photo

Our kiddos

Matt prepping Lukas on the Brewers run to the NLCS

I was ready to bop out of there on Saturday but they wouldn't let us go in under 48 hours so Sunday it was.  We managed to get home by lunchtime and father and son were able to sit back for their first Packer game. 

Nothing better than a newborn snoozing on you, am I right?

Chillaxing

We are so over the moon in love with little Lukas.  His little old man faces are really funny and Matt and I are trying to breathe in every second of having such a tiny baby in the house, crazy nighttime schedule and all.  One thing we keep remarking is how freakin' BIG Genevieve seems compared to Lukas.  Her hands are like catcher's mitts.  Not to mention how much he's changed in the five days he's been around.  Just more reminders of how much changes and how quickly, and more motivation to try to soak it all in.  So glad to have the four of us home!

Catching up...while we still can

October has been a super busy month for us.  Besides the obvious tasks - mudroom and getting ready for baby, of course - Genevieve has been up to lots of pre-school fun, including her first ever field trip.  Which I volunteered to chaperone.  At 37 weeks pregnant.  Even her teachers looked at me and said, "are you SURE you want to do this?".  It all ended up being totally fine and very fun, minus the 45 minute bus ride there and back (well, minus that for me.  For the kids, it was about the coolest thing they've ever done) and the sudden burst of icy cold weather. 

my little group of charges waiting for - scream it with me now - THE BUS!

 

Once we got there I realized that the pumpkin farm was way more farm than pumpkin.  Fun for the kids, perhaps not so great for my allergies.  There was no time to dwell on things like allergic reactions though, as the kids were ready to run wild and go check everything out.  They all rode a pony, went on a hayride, fed goats, caught chickens (yes, caught them), milked a cow, and we were accompanied the entire time by Tom the Turkey.  I knew G would be slightly less than enthusiastic about hopping on the pony so I stood back and let her just file through with the other kids.  She also was not wild about catching a chicken although some of the rowdy boys in her class caught them like they were candy falling from the sky.  She did hold a chicken though which seemed to be enough feathered action for this tot.  She also chose not to milk the cow.  Can't say I blame her, Polly the cow looked pretty pissed having had dozens of tiny, freezing hands on her udders all morning.  Loud and clear, Polly.  Loud and clear.

dear grandma heidi: this may not be the face of a professional equestrienne.  more lessons may be required.

hello strange man and strange animal, taking me round and round...

coming down the home stretch

this dude was about eye-to-eye with the kids and i could have lived without him.  i had visions of having to explain to the moms of my other kids "well, i just turned around for one second and tom the turkey just ran up on your kid and pecked his face".

much happier on a bumpy hayride of labor inducing proportions

chicken success!

The rest of the month involved a birthday party for Great Grandma, G's first ever ballet class (so cute I damn near fell over), pumpkin carving and OF COURSE trick-or-treating.  When I examined her bag upon return (clearly to verify there were no sharp objects, certainly not to check out the stash) I noticed that she had several whole candy bars in there.  I LOVE Elm Grove!!

notice who thinks the cake and the singing are for her

birthday smooches

time to carve the great pumpkin - this one was the happy one, the scary one was reserved for the next night

so maybe 'brain surgeon' isn't in her future...

but perhaps engineer is.  check out the dual concentration

my little carving artistes

 

 

here's the face that most people get to see from my little cupcake

and here's the face that i often get to see from my little cupcake baked by the devil

one happy jack-o-lantern, check

saturday morning - time for ballet!

showing off a few moves after class

saturday night - ready to this giraffe is ready to rock the streets of the grove

And last but not least, yesterday I hit 39 weeks with Mr. Maio so of course last-minute belly shots were required.  Fortunately I have been feeling really, really good the second half of this pregnancy - polar opposite of the first 20 weeks.  It's pretty convenient to have a c-section on the calendar, but there is definitely a fair amount of stress that comes with knowing when your baby is going to come.  It might seem counter-intuitive but it's like I'm Captain Hook and all I hear is the "tick tock" of the big day following me everywhere.  I know there's stuff yet undone but with mere hours to go before his arrival I'm going to file it all under who cares and just focus on having a successful delivery and a healthy baby.  The surgery is set for 10:15 tomorrow morning so hopefully we'll have news out to everyone by late afternoon/evening tomorrow.  Here's our kiddo at 39 weeks cooked!

oh black tank top, i am forever yours

oops, wrong belly

i think g is the biggest fan of belly shots

an outtie since about day 1.  not my best look

 

Reno A Go-Go Chapters 2-57

When last we met, dear readers, the weather was hot, the days were long, and the mudroom was still a shell.  We were well on our way to having the room done in October, but then a little thing happened that I like to call the muther-lovin Brewers.  Their success in advancing to the NLCS was awesome and had the city all atwitter.  Unfortunately for many a wife and many a reno throughout the land, it also meant losing our husbands for dozens of hours to tailgating, game-watching, and traffic congestion.  It was bittersweet when they lost to the Cardinals.  We had come SO close to the World Series...::sigh:::

But if you're looking for the silver lining, it's that I finally had my handy husband back to get crackin' on the room.  Yahoo!

The first task was to get the contractors back to button up the exterior and install the window.  This happened weeks ago and then just this week our BFF Mike came out to finish installation of the exterior lights (all new, from post to mudroom to garage to backyard).  Hey, the outside looks done!  Neighbors, you may now get off our case.  Then came the tile installation.  We chose a slate tile for its durability and variety of color to hide all manner of sand, dirt, salt, snow and general muck.  I am really not a big fan of slate but it made the most sense for the space.  After two coats of sealer though I have to admit it looks pretty sharp.  In order to save a few bucks our contractors agreed to lay the floor with Matt's assistance - a ringing endorsement of their confidence in "the homeowner" if I've ever seen one. 

We got to see the floor for about two days before it was covered up with cardboard so as not to ruin it during the installation of drywall (and subsequent taping, mudding, two rounds of sanding and priming), installation of the bead board ceiling (ever seen a 9 month pregnant woman assist at a table saw?  It can be done.  Plus only 500 nail holes to fill!), installation of the arch (looks ridiculously good, but required more mud and sanding than the whole rest of the room combined), installation of the bead board backing where the yet-to-be-identified bench will one day live, and installation of the crown moulding to make the closets look more like furniture and less like lame closets.  We had a big moment the other day when the plastic which divided the reno from the kitchen was removed for good.  Sure the house remains covered in dust despite all of our vacuuming and swiffering, but this is major progress as far as we're concerned. 

Tomorrow we'll go choose closet doors and our actual wall color can go up shortly after that.  I am starting to lose my mind (insert joke here) seeking out the right furniture, lighting, and closet systems to make sure this room looks like it belongs in this house while holding 10x its actual capacity.  And with all of five days to go until Mr. Maio arrives, the timeline on this one room has probably just been pushed back to, oh I don't know, Christmas? 

My thoughts exactly.