October 09

Ah October, a beautiful time in New England. This month, we started on the home renovation project, got more baby shots and graduated Sox from Intermediate puppy school!

As for the renovations, Mike is going huge and really tapping into his inner contractor with 2 room redos - neither is a nursery! We're updating our formal living room with new paint, floors and a more open floor plan. The family room is also getting redone, with a new doorway, new walls and floors. Mike is building a set of stairs connecting the two rooms, which required literally cutting a hole in the wall. Before the hole could be cut, the wiring had to be moved...but he needed to figure out where it was going first!Once the wiring was moved, Mike could cut the hole. Doing so also required a hole in the ceiling because the rooms are at different levels in the house. Surprisingly, this hole and ceiling part only took a day or two! There's still plenty of space left for the existing skylights to let the light pour in.

The view from the other room down into the family room.

As I'm updating the blog, Mike is now taking down the unfortunate popcorn ceiling in the green room. The walls are skimmed, just in need of sanding, priming and paint. The green will remain similar on top, but below the chair rail, we're going with a darker green. The colors are picked, but just in trial colors to make sure. We should have after shots by the end of November!

Mid October, we got our first shot of the bean that actually looks like a baby! I had some integrated screening tests that all came back negative, meaning there is a very low chance that our little one has any chromosomal abnormalities, spina bifida, etc. S/he measured at exactly 13 weeks, on the day I was 13 weeks. Mike said the baby was just like his mom. :)

One of the most amazing shots was a close up of the hand - it was a bit of a wave...or a high five!

And finally, Sox graduated from Intermediate puppy school. Since I've been pregnant, his behavior has been a bit more protective - and somewhat aggressive. He even got testy with some of his classmates. He did end up doing enough to pass, learning to heal, come and a few tricks like spin around and roll over. He enjoyed a graduation treat of doggie ice cream and then reluctantly donned graduation duds for a photo op.

I think he was actually eyeing another dog's ice cream dish that still had some leftovers. :)

Lastly, as it was Halloween this weekend, Mike and I carved our pumpkins on Friday night. Mike took a break from scraping the ceiling (that's joint compound in his hair...he's not that grey!) Sox watched dutifully, as he is a *huge* fan of pumpkin! This year we hardly had any trash...I separated the seeds for roasting, and puree'd the rest of the innerds for Sox! He absolutely loves it...and it makes a good addition to his morning foodies. The pumpkins came out good, and we even got some compliments from the neighborhood!

Happy Halloween!