Someone loves her soccer ball

Abby was practicing sitting up tonight and was really having a blast with her little soccer ball. Of course, all that comes to a halt when the camera comes out. But instead of just stopping and staring at the camera (the usual) she stopped playing but hammed it up a bit. I think I see some potential goalkeeper skills floating to the surface ... did you see that dive?

Packing the Rochester house, Halloween and Election Day

Last weekend, Melissa's mom came up to watch Abby so that we could do some packing. We have most of the house ready to go. We need to do some packing in the office, but otherwise most rooms are down to just the essentials. The moving truck will come on the 14th or 15th (just over a week). We will then leave in the two cars with Abby and Melissa in one and me and Neko (our cat) in the other. Between the two cars we need to bring our clothes, Abby's Pack'n'Play and the remaining food. The movers should drop off our stuff early the following week and we will stay with my folks until that time. There is a slim chance that the house won't have it's certificate of occupancy when the stuff arrives. We are slightly concerned about fitting the last minute bits in the cars, so in an apparent fit of efficiency, Melissa explored the option of packing Abby in a box.

If you haven't seen our niece Sarah dressed up for Halloween, you should check it out because she is adorable. We didn't plan on dressing up Abby until Melissa found a bandanna in a box of clothes from our friends Chris and Laurie. So Pirate Abby wore it out to dinner on Friday night. We promise, she actually liked wearing it ... for a while at least.

Lastly, I was in D.C. for work on Monday and most of Tuesday. I got back in the afternoon in time to vote. It was a gorgeous night here (71 was the high for the day), so Melissa, Abby and I walked down to our polling place so I could vote (Melissa waited in line at 7 AM before work). I hear about people taking pictures each year on their kid's birthday, or the 4th of July, or some other repeating day. I thought it might be cool to take a picture of Abby each Election Day when we vote. Is that nuts? Can you tell we have been running ourselves ragged between work and moving? Anyway, here is Abby on Election Day 2008 (note, she has her "I Voted Today" sticker).

Yummy! I think....

Well Miss Abigail had her first taste of solid foods this weekend and seemed to like it overall. We've started with the basic rice cereal and so far so good. Of course we did get a bit of a shock when we went to the market to buy it and found out that the Gerber cereal contains soy products - which Abby is allergic to (along with Dairy - much to Melissa's sadness as eliminating dairy and soy from your diet is difficult to say the least!!). But we found that Beech Nut is soy free and so our passage into solid foods has begun. Later in the week will come something new - probably sweet potato, but with her allergies we are taking things slow. Our first few feedings have gone well and she got to try out her spiffy high chair (Thanks to Sean and Lucy for the hand-me-down!) and vinyl bibs (easy clean up is a must). Should be an interesting journey to be a part of.


On other news it is COLD here in Rochester with possible snow forecast for tonight - shouldn't have any accumulation at our house, but still not quite ready for the white stuff. Here is another picture of Abby in her pretty sweater that Debbie Tate made for her - keeps her snuggly warm.

The Big Move ... it's coming soon

I was on the Cape this past weekend to work on the house with my Dad. I was in New Jersey for work and on Friday night I drove to Falmouth. That was a miserable experience. It took me almost 3 hours to go 40 miles thanks to NYC traffic. Anyway, I got to my best friend Crissy's house (in Woods Hole) around 11 PM, we talked for a bit and then I crashed on the pull out. This saved me driving up to my folks house (40 miles away) just to drive back in the AM. In the morning, Crissy, her husband, their kids and I walked over to the coffee shop in Woods Hole. We had some morning beverages and snacks before I headed over to the house. It will be so nice to be living close to them.

At the house, things are really starting to come together and we will move there sometime in the next month. All the exterior work is done except for the stone needs to be delivered and spread for the driveway. Inside the house, more painting needs to be done. My Mom plans on spending a lot of time painting the rooms we didn't get done last month when Melissa, Abby and I were there. I will never be able to repay her for all that painting. I don't mind a day or two of painting, but this will be a solid week. Super-Mom status for sure. A picture of Abby's room is below (currently lacking a little boarder between the two colors) which we were able to paint last month.
This weekend, my Dad and I worked on installing kitchen cabinets and other projects that are "fussy" in nature. You plod along on them to get something to fit just right and before you know it the day is half gone. But when I left on Monday afternoon, all the appliances had arrived and it was really starting to look like a house.
Most of the finish electrical work is done and the finish plumbing will start any day now. The carpeted areas will get installed in the next week or so, and that is one of the last items. I promise, many more pictures when we get in.

As for the Rochester house, we have been slaving away to get it ready for sale. We currently have it on the Rochester Craig's List site and I made up a snazzy brochure that we will post over at U of R and some other places. If we don't get any bites soon, we will bring in a Realtor. But, we thought we would take a stab at it on our own at first.

Watchin' Abby Grow

I can't believe it has been over a month again already. So, here is a quick one to get everyone up to date.

Abby will be 6 months old next week. And that is just nutty to think about. As you can see, she is a healthy little one. She's about 17 lbs these days and has gone from the tiny little one when she was born to the kid that is bigger than other kids her age. We think she is slowing down now.

She loves to giggle and smile. The picture of her outside was at the yard sale we had to get rid of stuff before we move to the Cape. She is very easy going and likes people (waiting for that "stranger danger" phase to start).

We take her everywhere we go. She went to all the Rochester Rhinos games with us and liked to watch the other people and even seemed to watch the game sometimes. The picture of her all bundled up was at the last game of the season (the playoff semi-finals, and we lost). She had a good time even though it was in the 50s.

She is learning to sit on her own. She has discovered how to bounce in her "jumper" (combination exer-saucer and jumper). She would bounce before, but she figured out the timing to get it really going the other night and now she doesn't stop bouncing and giggling. And, she got to the point where she figured out she can put her feet in her mouth. We guess it was only a matter of time.

A visit from Grandmom

I'm a little late getting this update up, but a two weeks ago Melissa's Mom (Grandmom) came up to babysit Abby the week daycare was closed. Grandmom was a big help in taking care of Abby and the two of them did lots of fun stuff. A trip to the mall, a trip to the Zoo, and her first portraits were taken at JC Penney (we'll get those out in the mail soon I hope).

Other than that, Abby continues to grow quickly, she is now 15 1/2 pounds and 24 1/2 inches! One of the nurses said she looked more like a 7 month old than a 4 month old. We went to our Day Care open house this week and Abby is much bigger than the new girl in her room, Caitlyn, who is only 2 weeks younger than her. She is about the same size as the new 5 1/2 month boy in her class.

No real other news, she loves her jumper and has discovered that making "ppppbbbttt" sounds is fun, she gets giggling if you mimic back at her. We'll hopefully have a good house update soon, but our plans for getting to the Cape keep getting changed due to many schedule conflicts in September. We are about ready for interior paint, kitchen cabinet installation, hardwood floor and tile installation, trim, and any other interior details that will need to be done. House is really coming along and we can't wait to see it now that drywall is done!

A Quick Abby Update

Miss Abigail continues to grow at a rapid pace. Last Friday she was up to 13.7 pounds and 23 1/2 inches! She is enjoying day care and the interaction with the other kids. Mom is happy to be back at work, but really likes that she now has Friday's off to hang out with Abby (and usually lunch with Daddy).

Abby is getting very chatty and often babbles through our evening walk through the neighborhood. She loves to be outside and enjoys looking at everything. She's also been to several Rhino's soccer games, which she also finds fascinating with so many people to watch. We think she is going to roll over very soon, she's got all the individual motions down, she just needs to put it all together. While we are excited that she will soon reach this milestone, we do realize that baby mobility brings all new challenges :).

A Quick House Update

I promised picture of the back of the house with the deck and enclosed porch area. This was one of the big things on our wish list. My grandparents always had a screen porch at their house and used it as an family room in the summer (they even had a little TV out there). I can't tell you how many floor plan ideas we dreamed up before we found one that integrated this enclosed porch idea well enough. The double doors leading to it are on the eat-in end of the kitchen and the kitchen sink is behind the bank of windows in the small bump out. You can also see the small 2nd floor porch behind it, which is off our bedroom and over the garage.

Hopefully by early next week all of the important inspections will be done and the insulation and interior walls can go up. Meanwhile, the septic system was dug in this week. This was done closer to the end of the project rather than the beginning so that we could clear a minimal amount of trees but have access to the foundation and house from all sides. If the system had been installed early on (which is the usual practice) then there would have been a fairly large area where trucks would not be able to drive or park.

It looks like we will be back there the last week in August or the first week in September to help out with a lot of the finish work (paint rooms, install the kitchen cabinets, lay tile in bathrooms and the mudroom, install all the interior trim, etc.). If things really move along, I guess it could be ready for occupancy in early October. When we actually move will be a function of our various projects at work, but we expect to be there by Thanksgiving at the latest.

House is almost ready for interior walls

As promised, a little bit of status on the new house in Falmouth. This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago when we were their for the 4th of July. As you can see, the roof and sidewall shingling has been completed. So you get a good feel for the texture of outside of the house.

If you look closely, you see that wires are hanging out of the light blocks on the garage. At this time, all the interior rough electrical is complete which is to say that all the ceiling lights, outlet boxes, switch boxes, etc. are installed and wire pulled to them. Tim (our electrician) also pulled data, video and speaker wire to various places we wanted, and gave me a nice set of empty conduits from the basement to the attic (we have a low ceiling attic over most of the upstairs) so that I can easily add stuff to the second floor in the future and connect it to all our infrastructure in the basement.

The heating/cooling folks finished up their rough work last week. That means all the duct work and the air handlers to drive it was installed. We are using a "hydro-air" that leverages a central boiler (in the basement) and delivers that hot water to remote units that use the water to heat the air. In our case, the second floor has two of these units and there is a third in the basement for the first floor. These air handlers also have A/C coils in them to cool the air in the summer and slightly fancy air filters.

Yesterday, the plumbing crew came in. We are using PEX for all the supply lines in the house and traditional PVC waste pipe. I am looking forward to the PEX since you run it like wire back to a central distribution panel (which has a cool, central system, nerd quality for me), it installs very quickly and it costs much less that copper. The two guys working the plumbing will most likely finish all the rough work (pipes to every location) in 3-4 days.

Once the plumbers are done, we should be ready for the framing, rough electrical and rough plumbing inspections. This is an important milestone because it means that the walls and ceilings can get insulated and covered with wallboard (in MA, we use "blue board" with "skim coat plaster" over the entire surface rather than drywall and seaming with joint compound). Once the walls are up, we will really get a feel for the space.

The one thing that has changed fairly significantly from the original plan is the covered part of the deck on the back. Everyone had a little bit of contribution to this change, but Dennis (our framer) had the main idea to reshape the roof over the screened area and extend the deck to create more usable space. As a bonus, the new roof line improves the look of the back of the house a lot. Melissa and I are really looking forward to enjoying that space. I will make sure to include pictures next time.

We have been making the final decisions on a lot of the interior bits. The kitchen and bathroom cabinets were just ordered. We have picked out the tile and wood flooring products for the first floor. The second floor will be wall-to-wall carpet except for the bathrooms. We expect to be back there sometime in late August to install flooring, install the kitchen cabinets, paint the walls in most of the rooms, etc.

People keep asking "When are you going to move?" and we are starting to sort that out. I expect we will be there by Thanksgiving and maybe as early as Halloween. But, we should get a better feel once the walls go up and we know the lead time on the interior elements (cabinets, trim, floors, etc.).

Abby Update at 11 Weeks

My sister posted a little video of her daughter Sarah and it made me realize that we should do that too. After all, many of you have never seen her, or haven't seen her in some time. This was a few weeks ago one morning after she got dressed. She was just starting to learn to smile, which she does all the time now.

She had a checkup this week and she is almost 13 lbs. Considering she was barely 6 lbs over 11 weeks ago when she was born, this boggles my mind. Instead of being in the 5th percentiles for size, weight, etc. she is now up in the 70s and 80s. Considering Melissa and I are 5'10" and 6'1" respectively, we expect she will be a tall girl once she catches up.

She started day care this week. She will be doing 4 days a week (Mon - Thurs) since Melissa is returning to work at a 30 hr load with Fridays off to take care of Abby. Surprisingly, she likes day care. I know that sounds weird because she is (only) 11 weeks old. I mean, how can you tell? All I can say is that I drop her off and pick her up and she is happy as a clam. She likes to look at the other kids, likes to play on the various play mats, etc. They have commented how easy and happy she is to care for. She has slept very well this week, including last night where she did 8+ hours. We are real excited about that development. With Abby at day care the past few days, Melissa has been doing projects around the house before returning to work next week. She finished painting the garage that my folks started when they came out. She fixed up and painted our stairwell, too. We are going to finish up the bathroom this weekend with new paint and baseboards.

So there we go. New pictures of the house will be up soon.

4th of July Parade, Cape Cod Style

In a somewhat growing tradition, the various elements of the Brown family converged on Cape Cod for the 4th of July. My sister and her family were up for the entire week leading up to the 4th. Melissa, Abby and I arrived on the 2nd, and my cousin Jeff and his family came down on the 4th and 5th. And, of course, my Mom and Dad were host to all of us.

Frankly, the weather was not fantastic this year. The 4th itself was very cool with random rain showers. On the morning of the 4th, we went into town to watch the Orleans 4th of July parade. We have done this a few years in a row now, and it is a great little town parade. Everyone gets out the old cars, or shines up their company vehicles (you will never see dump trucks so clean!). Many organizations create floats (some more fancy than others) and hand out candy and popsicles to the kids. One of my favorite parade groups this year brought their dogs and dressed them in lobster costumes.

Everyone had fun at the parade. My cousin Jeff and his wife Sadhna's kids Vrinda (pictured above with my sister Wendy) and Rohan (who got to sit on a float while the parade stalled for 20 minutes due to a minor accident further down the route) had a good time at their first Orleans 4th parade. Abby sat in her stroller and napped a lot. Sarah (my sister's daughter) seemed to remember this gig from last year and was ready to receive treats.

Later in the afternoon, we all went over to the Bay beach near my folks house. Eventually, all the kids were in the water. This included Abby, who got her toes in the water for the first time.

Next year, we will be well settled into our new house in Falmouth (about 45 minutes away). Hopefully, we will be able to get Mindy and her family to make it from Toronto, ON to the Cape for the 4th. Having all 4 of the Brown grandchildren and the our associated children all in one place at one time would be great. We were able to do this at Christmas this past year (Abby wasn't born yet, of course) and it was very nice.

A Growing Baby and a Growing House

It has been almost a month since our last post and so much has happened in the mean time. First up is the little one. Abby will be 8 weeks old in a few days. She is growing like a little weed and is over 10 lbs now (she was only 6 lbs 2 oz when she was born). She is healthy, strong and doing great. It appears she has a sensitivity to milk protein, so Melissa is off dairy for the remaining months that she is nursing her.

Two weeks ago, we went out to the Cape and stayed with Mom and Dad Brown (Nana and Pop). I had a conference to attend in Lexington (outside of Boston) on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we drove up the Friday before to get away and to check on the progress of the new house. The house is very far along now. The pictures are almost 2-weeks old now. As you can see, the principle framing was almost done and windows were being installed. All that has since been completed.

We did a walk through with the electrician and mapped out all the lights, switches and outlets. The electrical and plumbing install will start next week, and I think they start to shingle the roof next week too. When we visit again on the 4th of July, the roof should be done, the basement and garage floors should be poured, the electrical should be well underway and the rough plumbing almost done. They might even start on the side wall shingles (natural cedar) by then. We have been planning this house and move for years and to finally step into a structure was pretty exciting. Some rooms were felt bigger than we thought, and some felt slightly smaller.

We also spent some time with my best friend from high school Crissy and her family. They live down in Woods Hole (the other end of town). Crissy gave birth to Kate in February, so her and Abby are the same age. Being able to move back home and still have a friendship like the one Crissy and I still have is very nice and raising our two daughters together is going to be a lot of fun. Kate is Crissy and her husband Billy's 3rd kid and I must relay their very helpful advice to first time parents. "Have your 3rd kid first, it is so much easier".

After I was done at my conference outside Boston, my parents came back to Rochester with us. They came in to help us do a bunch of projects around the house which will make it easier to sell. We have been in this house 10 years, and some things have needed some updates. They (essentially by themselves) power-washed and stripped the garage paint, prepped it for new paint and got that first coat of new paint on. It looks so much better and matches the house now. My Dad and I tore apart the bathroom, laid down a new vinyl floor and installed a new sink and vanity. That and some fresh paint and trim will make the bathroom 10x nicer. It was 3-4 days of hard work, but we got a lot of big things and some little things done. We then loaded up their truck with 20+ boxes of books and other assorted items (Xmas decorations, etc.) to take back to MA for us as part of our "trickle move" strategy. We will see them again in a few weeks for the 4th when my sister Wendy and her family are on the Cape too.

Falmouth House Update

A few weeks have passed and everything is good on the home front with Abby. She is three weeks old today and the time is flying by. She is eating extremely well and growing like a weed. Some of the preemie cloths we grabbed when she was first born (slightly small) are starting to get tight. Melissa is doing great, too.

This post was originally going to be a Falmouth house update, but we don't have any recent pictures to share right now. This picture was taken the weekend before Abby was born when I made a quick run to the Cape to shuttle some stuff out of the Rochester house and visit with our friends Crissy and Billy (Crissy and I went to high school together). I was standing in the garage when I took the picture. The large holes in the foundation at far end are for large basement windows where our home office spaces will eventually be. Since then, they started framing and the are so far along now that they started to assemble the roof this week. My folks took some pictures last week, but they don't have their internet connection active back at their summer residence yet.

One of the questions I get asked a lot is where is this house we are building? It is in East Falmouth, MA which is my hometown. In fact, this house is about dead center between the house I grew up in and the elementary school I went to (3/4 mile to each, as the seagull flies). The two images from Google Earth below give you an idea where we are (or will be). The first image gives you an idea of what Cape Cod looks like (click on the image to see a higher res version). Falmouth is at the "base" of the Cape in the lower left.

This image is a blow up of East Falmouth. We are the marker in the upper center of the image. The house my sister Wendy and I grew up in is the marker closer to the center. We are about 1 mile from the beach and 700 ft from the pond (which is connected to the ocean).
So that should get all the non-Massachusettes people situated. I will make sure to get some pictures of the house up here as soon as we get them. Trust us, we want to see them too!

Our First Week as Parents

It has been a busy week for our family. Melissa's Mom (Grandma) was one of the first "out of towners" to arrive on Tuesday night (the night Abby was born). Melissa and Abby were released on Thursday around lunch time to come home. Melissa's Dad (Grandpa) arrived on Saturday after a long journey from Florida. He left on Monday to work in Syracuse for a few days before heading back to Philly. Melissa's Mom has stayed around this week to give Melissa a hand around the house. Melissa was supposed to minimize lifting heavy things (even as small as Neko, our cat) and going up and down the stairs due to some minor birth complications. Grandma has been a real life saver by helping our with the wash, making some meals, etc. But, she will head back to Philly this weekend too, and then it will be just the two of us. Until my parents drop in for a quick visit next week. They are currently baby sitting their other grand daughter in Richmond VA while my sister Wendy and her husband Greg take a short vacation out west.

So how has it gone so far? Abby has been very good so far. At discharge she was down to 5 lbs 10 oz (the typical after birth weight lose) but at here first checkup on Friday she had already gained an ounce or two which was great news. We will see if she is still gaining weight this Friday. Everyone has commented how strong she is, especially for a little one. She has very good head control and strong push in both her arms and legs already. Good news for a Dad that wants a pro soccer star in the family. She nurses well (Melissa and her are quickly becoming pros) and she sleeps decently. I get up for feedings with Melissa and do things like get a beverage for Melissa, change diapers, fill in the feeding and output log (everyone knows I love taking data), etc. Just another time that the Dad feels pretty helpless to help out.

By Monday, she was becoming more alert and opening her eyes more. This also marked the time when she started to stay up after her mid-night feeding. She is getting more play time during the afternoon and that seems to help. Some nights are awesome and some are pretty sucky. Overall I think we have had it pretty good so far, but we are prepared for it to get worse.

Neko (the cat) has been very funny about Abby. We figured when she started screaming he would freak out and run away. Instead he is very curious and will come over and see what is going on. He sleeps with us and when we get up to tend to Abby, he comes over and hangs out for while we do that. Then he comes back to bed with us. And for those freaking out, no he is never alone with her.

I took off all of last week, but I have been back at work for pseudo half days most of this week. It seems I never leave after a half day, which will shock almost no one. Melissa is taking her 6 week leave offered by Xerox and then another 6 weeks unpaid after that. When she goes back to work in July it will be at a reduced load for a bit (4 day weeks).

That's all for now. In other news, the Falmouth house construction is moving along real well. I will make sure to post some news on that next. And for all those asking, I will also do a post about progress on finishing my Ph.D.

Our Family Grows by One

Around dinner time last night, Melissa decided that the little pains she was feeling were real contractions and that our family was about to grow by one. By midnight, the contractions were strong and regular (5 minutes apart). So, we called the Dr. and went to the hospital soon after. Although her contractions were strong and frequent (as short as 3 minutes), she was not progressing very quickly. Melissa was interested in being open about her pain management, but she is also a early to bed and early to rise person. The folks at the hospital thought she would get worn out from the contractions before the labor really progressed, so they gave her some morphine at around 2 AM to help her rest between contractions. Before we new it, she was progressing rapidly and by 7 AM it was time to start pushing. At 9:31 AM out came a beautiful little girl whom we have since named Abigail Lina Brown. Since she was born about 12 days early, she was a little small at 6 lb 2 oz and 18 3/4", but she is very strong and has a full head of long soft hair. Dad is mighty impressed that Melissa did the whole labor without any real pain medication.

Many thanks to the staff at University of Rochester Medical Center (Strong Hospital). More news and pictures to come.

A House is Born

So I get hassled that I posted something, what ... a year ago ... and nothing since? I think both Melissa and I will try to remedy that.

So it is April and the next few months will be crazy for us. Melissa is due to give birth to our first little one in a few weeks. I am trying to finish my Ph.D. We started to build our new house back in Falmouth, MA. Then we will be moving into the new house later in the year and transitioning to tele-commuters for our current employers (RIT and Xerox). Oh yeah, and sell the Rochester, NY house. Piece of cake.

But this post is about the new house. Where did the plans come from, you might ask? My Dad built a house with a similar external shape a few years back in Wellfleet. We liked it, but it was a little too generic and "spec" house for our taste. So I worked on a rework of the inside for some time. Lots of good input from the family architects (thanks Sadhna), other friends in the trade and lots of books (especially books by Sarah Susanka). I'm sure it isn't perfect and I am sure that our architect friends and family will find some faults, but we are genuinely happy with what we came up with.


And thanks to lots of hard work by my Dad, we are underway. Most of the trades are lined up and we cleared the lot and dug a hole around the first of April. The footings were put in shortly after (picture below) and the foundation shortly after that. They should start framing next week.

I am hoping to squeeze in a trip back there soon to move some stuff out of the Rochester house and to (hopefully) be on-site and swing a hammer for a day with Dennis and Mark (the framers). We will keep everyone posted with pictures when we can take or get them.

Next big project to kick-off ... raising a little person.