Remember the Free Playground?

Some of you may remember when we brought home a playground in May we found for free on Craig's List.

David has been working on it little by little over the summer. It needed some reinforcing, some sanding, some paint stripped off, priming, staining, and reconstruction.

Here are the BEFORE photos.

Now, here is the AFTER!


Andrew has thoroughly enjoyed playing on it, and he LOVES the slide. He is so excited to have a playground in his backyard.

One day, Andrew and I came home from shopping while David had been finishing the project. We walked over to the sliding patio doors, and walked on to the patio. We did not prompt Drew - yet as soon as he saw his playground, painted and put together, he exclaims: "Daddy, you did it! You did it! You made my playground beautiful!" Priceless words out of his mouth, and Dave was so touched by Andrew's sincerity and excitement.

I am continuing to make slow but steady progress in the nursery. Most recently, I cleaned out and sorted one large memory box (photos, keepsakes, memorabilia). You would not believe the trash I was able to get out of that thing! Oh, it felt so nice to purge all that 'stuff'!

Then, I found another one... yikes. But, I started on that one this afternoon during an unusually long nap for my little boy.

We also picked up the rope-styled decorative moulding for the chair rail in the nursery today at Lowe's. PRICEY - I was not happy about it, but other options would be more expensive and take too long. Thanks, Laurie, for the idea on what to use as our division for the chair rail! David is going to try to get it installed this week after work.

Drew and I pulled out all the newborn baby clothes (those we saved from Drew, those we recently purchased, and those we received as gifts). We sorted them and washed them so that tomorrow we can start putting them in the dresser.

Baby Projects

I don't know where to start about the long list of projects we had on our list to complete this summer while Dave was home. However, now that he has gone back to work, I am working on getting Drew back on his 'normal' routine (although I know in a little over a month it will all be disrupted again).

There are also various projects left on my list I need to complete before the baby comes. Some are directly related to Baby himself; others are just items that need crossing off before he arrives that don't really have anything to do with a new baby in the house.

Drew and I completed two of those this week that are kind of exciting. We washed all the bassinet linens and assembled the bassinet. Of course, Drew keeps asking to go for a ride in it, and we have the long conversation over and over about how he is too big, but he did 'go for rides' in it when he was a little baby. He has been practicing rocking his big teddy bear in the bassinet, and he likes to sing while he does it. Very cute.

Another accomplishment (especially in the heat and when your belly is out to ........... here), we washed, re-assembled, and installed the infant car seat in the van. Again, Drew thinks he is the baby and that he should fit in the seat. After I let him have his turn in it, I think he realized how uncomfortable it is for him. So, now, if baby comes at any point, they will let us leave the hospital with him because his seat is properly installed. That is always a good thing (to be able to leave with your own baby)!

So, the list goes on, but we are making progress, one item at a time, one day at a time.