From the doctor yesterday:
15 pounds, 10 ounces (95%)
25 3/4 inches (95%)

Cute as a button and a delightful patient!

Eli took this one.

The light in this house is so amazing.
The kid's not too shabby either!

Sunday afternoon, I put a quilt down on the porch and laid Linden down while Eli and I ate popsicles on the swing. He couldn't resist lying down with her. As previously mentioned, she loves any attention from him, so the two of them rolled around on the blanket and giggled at each other for a long time.

Eli calls Linden "my baby" and likes to dress her up in whatever he can find around the house. The bicycle helmet is definitely a favorite and he puts it on her head a lot. She pretty much adores him and will tolerate just about anything he does as long as he pays attention to her.

As promised, here are a few nice photos of our new house. I realize this isn't exactly what folks were thinking when they asked for pictures, but these are some of my favorite spots in the house.

Here are our new comfy chairs for TV watching (and computing, apparently since I'm sitting here now). Also of note is one of the FIVE fireplaces in the house. Only one of them works, but they are so beautiful, three have original tilework.


Linden and I spend a lot of time on this swing. It is so comfortable and the porch is so inviting. We have a great neighbors that stop by from time to time and lots of friendly foot traffic.

This little guy is a ceramic pie bird that was my maternal grandmother's. You bake him into a pie with his beak sticking out of the top crust and when the juices start bubbling, the bird's belly contains them so that they don't spill over. He just looks so happy in the window!


We have three beautiful stained glass windows.

The kitchen is so sunny in the afternoon. These flowers were my anniversary gift from Eli and Kevin.

These are MY CABINETS! When we bought this house, I realized that I wasn't going to have a room for all of my craft supplies like I had once dreamed of. However, with the way our furniture has worked out, these cabinets don't have any other use, so I've co-opted them for my sewing machine, paints, papers, beads and assorted other crafty stuff. I'm also sharing the craft cabinets with some of our desk supplies, but it is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. The cabinets are in the dining area, so I can pull things out and work right on the table and clean up is easy. I've already done my first project: curtains for Eli's room. I might have pictures of those someday, too.

I'm back at work these days and we're settling into a routine. So far, the routine has actually been good for us here at the House O' Rumpus. I'll speak for all of us, though, when I say we miss each other during the day. After a summer of so much transition and family togetherness, it is a little hard being apart for hours at a stretch. It seems like Linden gains three pounds every day while I'm gone and Eli is getting smarter and sassier by the minute. They are good kids, really good kids. We're incredibly lucky parents.