And then there were four

With the utmost pride of a mother, I'd love to annouce Truman Daniel Gilbert's arrival into the world. He came "down, down, down" as Harrison says at 7:09 am yesterday (Tuesday, September 11) and has been blessing us ever since. A little bit smaller than H-man, Truman was 8 lbs, 1 oz and 21 1/4 inches long. Everything went fantastically; I'm feeling very well considering. I'm keeping this one short, with just a couple pics. I'll add some sweet video tomorrow. Thank you to all the friends and loved ones who have reached out to us since we're not close to family. We are so blessed.

Who's the prego?

Dan and I always crack a smile when someone mentions "nesting." We first heard the term in our pregnancy and delivery class we took before Harrison joined us. The idea is that a pregnant woman will have all these urges to "nest," like cleaning, organizing, preparing the home for baby, etc and it's usually a sign that labor and delivery are close.

We smile because Dan and I both know I'm not much of a nester. I think I am probably nesting a little more this time than last. I have had urges to complete several things hanging over my head, like scrapbooks and the purging of a lot of extemporaneous possessions, but on the whole, not a big nester.

But as I laid awake for the last two hours in bed (it's five AM now), it occurred to me that Dan's been the one that's nesting. Check out his list of completed projects for the last few weeks:

• added more track lighting and pendant lighting to the kitchen
• fixed drywall problems and nail pops in the stairway and upstairs and then repainted
• added a ceiling medallion and fixed the height to our breakfast nook light fixture
• reupholstered my rocking chair for me
• turned our back deck into a covered porch (this was a much bigger project than anticipated)
• tightened all our toilets (??? I wasn't even aware they needed this done, but Dan suddenly got it in his head he couldn't rest until they were all tightened)
• majorly assisted with the dresser, including figuring out how to make the old hardware usable
• lots of mopping and cleaning for me

Anyway, I hope this doesn't count as total bragging up my hubby. If it does, so be it. I'm just SO appreciative of all the work he's been doing to try to make this place feel ready for the new guy and I want to put it on record that I know how blessed I am to have such an amazingly supportive husband, not to mention how smokin' hot he is. Thank you, Danny. You rock.

How do you like me now?

I'm not sure that the relationship my mother and I have is totally normal, but I have a feeling it is not super unusual. The aspect of it I'm pondering right now is my mother's reaction when she heard through the grapevine that I was painting an antique dresser that had belonged to my great-great grandfather. I got one of those voice mails that didn't mention the REAL reason she was calling, but when I called her back it didn't take too long for the truth to come out. She was concerned. Why not just stain it, she said. Well, I can't get into everything, but it would have been a VERY tedious job to strip and stain this thing. It had already sustained enough damage that I knew it didn't have any real "antique" value, and I just wanted it to look nice enough and function well enough that it became something I enjoyed owning, instead of a rickety thing that sat empty in my bedroom (which has been its function for the last year).

Anyway, I knew mom was a doubter. She tried as gently as she could to change my mind. Granted, I guess she has cause to worry. I have shown in the past a love of flamboyant color. I'm sure lots of people would not paint their child's room the shade of green that covers Harrison's walls. Maybe she thought I was going to go purple--I don't know. But anyway, today Dan and I finished up our little dresser project. After a couple of trips to Lowe's and the Depot, Dan was even able to rework the original hardware so that it was sturdy and usable. We're both pleased as punch at how it turned out and wanted to show it off here. I'm hoping, Mom, that we did you right and you find it an improvement.