For any of you that have been following the ongoing saga of The Closet, you’ll know why this is such a big deal. For the rest of you, imagine this: Your master bedroom walk-in closet, completely unusable as a place to store clothes for over a year. Terrible, right?
I started working on the closet over a year ago – it was one of the first projects I tackled, at the same time as I started working on the master bedroom. The master bedroom was finished rather quickly, but I never got the closet finished. Something always ended up being a higher priority – the yard needed mowed, we needed to get part of the hallway ready so that we could put up our bookshelves and unbox our books, the guest bedroom needed to be finished so I could have office space for exams, the nursery needed to be finished so we could have someplace to put Rayleigh, etc.
I finally bit the bullet and decided to get the closet finished, despite Kelsey’s completely valid point that there were many other projects in more urgent need of my attention – but I’d had it; I had to get the closet done for my own sanity. My dad was a huge help – over multiple visits, he helped me hang drywall, prime, make shims for the closet rack system, etc., and Kelsey went to Home Depot and bought a bunch of the closet mounting gear we needed this week. I’ve got all of our clothes moved in to the closet, and now the few remaining still-packed boxes in the upstairs are confined to the laundry room (which we had been using as a makeshift walk-in closet).
This is what the closet looked like when we toured the house and it was still full of the old owners’ stuff – very cluttered and not very usable. We decided to improve on their layout.This is a photo of my dad working on hanging drywall in the closet. The old plaster walls were cracking and crumbling, so we hung drywall to smooth out the walls. Dad did the bottom 2/3, I did the top 1/3.The right hand side of the finished closet, with all shelving and clothes bars up, waiting to be filled. The clothes bar on the right will contain tall clothes (dresses, suits, etc).The left side of our closet, ready to be filled with clothes. This side has two clothes bars, spaced so that shorter items (shirts, pants folded over, etc) can fit in two rows.This is a view of the right side of the closet. You can see the middle shelves mostly filled with clothes, and the high bar on the right holding our tall hanging clothes (suits, dresses, etc).This is a view of the two bars and shelf on the left side of the closet full of clothes. The top bins contain things we don’t use very often (hats, swimsuits, etc); the top rack of clothes is Kevin’s, and the bottom rack is Kelsey’s.
The next project is going to be getting a more solid and weather-proof door on the basement entrance, followed by finishing the doors upstairs, followed by Rayleigh’s closet, followed by the upstairs hallway, followed by the guest bedroom closet.
It’s been a while since our last post, which we are both very sorry for – I know that the readers of this blog are anxiously awaiting new cute baby photos. Therefore, I decided to devote an entire post to new cute baby photos of little miss Rayleigh. We went to the doctor’s for her two month checkup yesterday, and she is 11 lbs, 15 oz (75th percentile), 23.25 in long (76th percentile), with a head circumference of 15.75 in (88th percentile). Those numbers aren’t the 97/97 we had at two weeks, but she’s still a big (although proportional) baby. I can certainly feel the difference in shoulder and back soreness from carrying her around.
Rayleigh curiously peeking out of her sling the first time Kelsey put her in it.Rayleigh looking cute in her shamrock outfit before going to Irish Fest.Rayleigh giving a sly look in her shamrock outfit.Jenn meeting Rayleigh for the first time at Dunkin’ Donuts.Rayleigh hanging out with her friend, the lullaby-playing frog.Rayleigh waving ‘hello’ at MiMi through the camera to thank her for getting her first postcard.A family photo at a cool tree on an island in Crandall Park in Glens Falls, NY.A family photo in front of the pond at Crandall Park from the same island where the tree photo was taken.Rayleigh dressed in her pumpkin kid outfit in a container full of pumpkins.Rayleigh with an apple she ‘picked’ in her hood.Our little family picking apples together.You’re too little to eat apples, Rayleigh!
We’ll post again soon with more life updates. Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already! Just use the ‘subscribe’ field at the top – enter your email address and click on the link that you get in your email to confirm it.
On Thursday, Kelsey, Rayleigh, and I attended the opening day of the Adirondack Balloon Festival, held at Crandall Park in Glens Falls. The opening day involved over a dozen balloons taking off from the big field at Crandall Park. There were a bunch of food vendors there, and they had a free concert in the band shell.
All three of us in front of one of the balloons inflating.
Rayleigh thought the whole thing was pretty cool. The contrast between the colorful balloons and the blue sky must have been pretty cool for someone who doesn’t see much more than color and contrast.
Rayleigh showing one of her sly smiles that she’s been working on lately.
They had a lot of really cool and unique balloons, and it gave me a chance to play around with the camera.
This was our favorite balloon from the festival, because it was shaped like a huge strawberry.A balloon decorated to look like a giant jack-o-lantern.Glens Falls’ sister city is Saga, Japan, and a Japanese balloon was flown in honor of the sister city.This balloon looked particularly awesome from the ground view.
We’re looking forward to going again next year. We went home for the Bloomsburg Fair this year, so we weren’t able to see the rest of the festival.
Over the Labor Day long weekend, we drove down to Delaware with Autumn and Wes and their adorable baby girl Ailey. We stayed in Bethany, and went to Bethany Beach and Rehoboth Beach.
Wes, Autumn and Ailey in front of the ocean
We enjoyed the boardwalk and ocean for a few days away and some great end of the summer weather. Although Rayleigh was too young to take swimming, Kelsey did put her feet in the water and let the waves splash her legs, and she loved it. She even pushed her feet down into the sand. We will turn her into a water baby yet!
Kelsey holding Rayleigh at the ocean
The weather was great all weekend. We enjoyed several afternoons of beach bumming along the Delaware coast.
Kevin, Kelsey, Rayleigh, Ailey, Wes and Autumn at the ocean.
On our way back, we took the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, which was Rayleigh’s first boat ride.
Kevin and Rayleigh on the deck of the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.
The next weekend, we decided that we should take Rayleigh on her first camping trip before it got too cold. Mind you, it was still pretty cold – the overnight low was about 45 – but we figured we could all bundle up and we’d be fine. We dressed Rayleigh in a couple of layers, the topmost of which was a cute pink and orange job we got from somebody.
Rayleigh in her camping outfit. She missed the 80’s sweatsuit era so we allow her to enjoy the comfiness on camping trips.
We camped out at the Hearthstone Campground in Lake George, about 25 minutes north of us. There was a classic car show in downtown Lake George that weekend, so we ended up having to fight the traffic of hundreds of old muscle cars in order to get to the campground. We set up camp and built a fire, which Rayleigh enjoyed, because the contrast of bright fire to dark surroundings is captivating for someone who can only see shapes and contrast.
Fire lit photo on the Lake George Camping trip.
We all packed into the tent for the night, and shared two zipped-together sleeping bags for warmth. Although the travel crib we bought was for the purpose of taking camping since it will fit in our tent, the fact that the temperature was in the 40s convinced us to share sleeping accommodations.
Ready for bed, all snuggled in the sleeping bag between mom and dad.
In the morning, we all got up and put on hooded sweatshirts and trekked into town for some breakfast at the Bank Cafe.
Family Portrait- all of us in the camping "hood". Morning after her first night of camping.
We came back Sunday after breakfast, and went to Hudson Falls’ annual heritage celebration, Sandy Hill Days. From 1810-1910, the village of Hudson Falls was called Sandy Hill. In 1910, the name was changed to Hudson Falls. (I argued that since it is 2010 they should change the name again, but apparently people rather like the current name.) Anyhow, the two parks in town are lined with food and craft vendors, so we walked around and got some food and bought some stuff. There was a pair of folks doing free balloon animals, so we got Rayleigh a giraffe.
Rayleigh got a balloon animal giraffe at Sandy Hill Days, August 2010.
This weekend we went to the Irish 2000 Music and Arts Festival at the Saratoga County Fairgrounds in Ballston Spa. We went with Natasha and Jim and their daughter Rory, who live in Saratoga; Jesse and Jessa and their daughter Eily, who came up from the Philadelphia area; Andy and his son Liam, who came up from Virginia, and various grandparents to the little ones who came in to visit. The festival was incredibly receptive to parents with small children – we were able to bring in a stroller, diaper bag, and camp chairs, and no one harassed us about it. All four kids had noise-dampening headphones to protect their little ears from the blaring Irish music. The festival was Friday and Saturday, and Saturday we left a little early to head back to Jim and Natasha’s place to sit around a bonfire for some “adult conversation” while the little ones slept.
Over the past week, we have been getting ready for Kelsey to go back to work. She starts her first day back tomorrow morning, bright and early, at 8AM. I will be home with Rayleigh all day every day, and will be taking her to campus with me on Wednesdays when I go down for class and meetings. I will be running her out to Kelsey at work probably once a day in order for her to breastfeed, and otherwise I will be giving her bottles of pumped breastmilk. We’ll post back again soon with how all of that is going.
We’ve stayed strong on the cloth diapering, and have even convinced Autumn and Wes to try it with their 7-month old daughter Ailey. Rayleigh seems to like the cloth diapers, and we haven’t had much diaper rash, other than when mom and dad let her go too long between changing.
The girls are in bed now, so I’m going to go and get Kelsey’s pumping supplies packed up and get a lunch ready for her for tomorrow, and then turn in myself.
Well I’ll start with an apology and excuse… Sorry no posts but… we had a baby!
So I’ll briefly get everyone up to speed and share some of the all important photos along the way.
We survived the first week at home with great sleeping stretches, lots of naps and a ton of help from family and friends. Rayleigh seemed to adjust to the breathing world and is sleeping at least four hours at a stretch in her cradle.
After our company dwindled down we had fun acquainting ourselves with our new love- which included all the normal new parent things- starring, holding, watching with baited breath (for what I’m still not sure) and of course all the “firsts”-
Bath (in the Kitchen Sink)- (August 19)- Her umbilical cord fell off on her 1 week birthday and we bathed a somewhat unhappy baby the next evening in the sink.
Rayleigh’s First Bath in Kitchen Sink
Walk to the park-(August 21) In Daddy’s arms with Uncle Karl and friends Wes and Aily- while Mom and Autumn took in a concert
Restaurant Outing- (August 23) To Samantha’s Cafe for brunch- also where we tried out the Sleepy Wrap- to which her Dad is now addicted!
Brunch with Rayleigh
Trip alone with Mom- (August 25) To a doctor’s appointment while dad worked and stayed home to receive our freezer -special thanks to Mimi and PopPop for this amazing gift that will get years of use!
Trip to Daddy’s School- (August 26) Kevin had a welcome BBQ for Graduate students that she and I attended as well, Kevin even “wore” her during the meeting- she was a pro at this learning thing, slept the entire time.
Kevin with Rayleigh on the first day of his Semester at RPI
County Fair experience (August 26) Our little family went to the Washington County Fair – Again, Kevin wore her- which although she was dressed warmly added a layer of warmth and helped trap heat from Dad! We enjoyed much fair food and played the ping-pong fish game and won 6 fish- which we traded in for 2 larger fish. Sadly we are now down to one- as Rayleigh had another first today, the death of pet when one of the fishes had to be “buried at sea.” On a side note, I was thoroughly impressed with this fair- across from one of the bathrooms was a “comfort tent”, which had separate areas for changing babies and breastfeeding moms- complete with rocking chairs!
The three of us plus fish at the Washington County Fair
Second Doctor’s visit at the 2 week mark revealed her stats to be(August 27): height 21.5″ (97%), weight 9.2lbs (97%) and head circumference 14″ (90%). The moral of the appointment- we are feeding her just fine as she is growing like crazy!
First Road Trip-(August 27-September 1) We left Hudson Falls on Friday and drove to Riverside, Pa for a two day visit with family and friends from our home town. Saturday we enjoyed a brunch with Kevin’s family.
On Sunday we went to a special church service for Kelsey’s Church at the Catawissa Boat Club- there we got to visit with a lot of Kelsey’s family friends and her Uncle Darrel. After church we visited with Kelsey’s Aunt Kathie and Uncle Dick and then headed towards New Enterprise, PA.
In the “cove” we visited Sunday evening with her brother Kevin and his family. Rayleigh met some more cousins- Kyle and Keyan. Monday we visited with Kelsey’s other brother, Shawn, and his family including cousins Mason and Tristin.
Monday night we visited with Rayleigh’s other surviving Great-Grandmother Lois, Kelsey’s maternal grandmother and uncle Rory and his wife Nancy who were visiting from South Carolina. Tuesday morning we headed off to Meadville for the last leg of the trip.
In Meadville, we met Kelsey’s sister and niece for a delightful lunch. Later that day we visited many of Kelsey’s cousins who live in the area, including Mike, Andy and Linda and their boys Teddy and Steven as well as Kelsey’s Aunt Marcia and Uncle Calvin. Rayleigh was getting a little tired till then but at this point we’d done about 700 miles in the past 5 days so we couldn’t be upset with her! We left there and headed towards home. We stopped outside Syracuse and spent the night in a hotel, Wednesday morning we drove to RPI for Kevin to start his first day of classes! Rayleigh and I hung out and took naps in the lounge while he got “learned”. On the way home that afternoon we stopped and visited with friends in Saratoga Springs- Natasha and Rory.
We arrived home Wednesday evening on Rayleigh’s 3 week birthday, she had traveled a total of 1,200 miles in the previous 6 days like a trooper. We are so excited to have such a wonderful and precious baby. If you didn’t get to meet the baby girl on this trip rest assured there will be more or if you feel adventurous- or a little out done by the baby- PLEASE COME VISIT!
Yesterday (September 4) we set off for Bethany Beach, DE for Rayleigh’s first beach adventure (and another 420 mile car ride) She took the 10 hour trip wonderfully and we are excited to try out the ocean later today. I will post more pictures and another post about our holiday weekend in a few days. Until then we hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday!
Here are some more photos just for good measure, Enjoy!
