"I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete." John 15:11

Friday, April 29, 2011

Thank You Grandma and Grandpa!

Andy's parents came to visit last month and they helped us so much around the house.  Even though the previous owner kept the place in great shape, we still have a lot of things on our to do list.  Between Andy's dissertation, work and the baby, it is hard to fit in projects around the house.
Andy's Dad worked almost nonstop the entire trip.  Among other projects I am sure I have forgotten, he:
  • Rearranged my entire pantry.  I wanted to move one shelf, but it required taking apart the entire shelving system.  While he was at it, he fixed a couple issues with the pantry.
  • Installed four doors!  I wanted to update two of the bedroom doors upstairs to make them consistent with the other doors on that floor.  He also put in bi-fold doors on my closet - it had no doors and just two curtains that the previous owner left.  He moved the guest room door down to the laundry room which previously had no door.  This required basically building a custom frame for that door.
  • Installed a cat door on the new laundry room door so that Herbie could get to his litter box. 
  • Painted the kitchen ceiling
  • Patched some holes in our bedroom wall
  • Added an extension to the gutter system in the backyard
  • As a bonus, he built a shelf over the washer and dryer so that I could put all my cleaning supplies on top.  This wasn't anywhere on my radar of things to do, so it was a great surprise!
While he was working away, my mother-in-law was shopping and cooking for us.  She spoiled us by making a hot breakfast every morning as well as the evening dinner.  She also took me out to Borders and we picked up some new cookbooks and a little book for Philip.

During their visit, I started thinking that things are getting a lot easier now.  Then I realized that I had two extra people around the house who were helping to load and unload the dishwasher, cook and clean up, grocery shop, and watch the baby while I ran to do some quick things around the house.  One of the best things about this was that I had more time to just sit and play with Philip - sometimes I feel like I have so much to do during the day that I barely get to spend time interacting with him.

The grandparents showed amazing restraint in visiting with Philip.  They knew he had stranger anxiety, so they interacted with him, but never tried to hold him. Grandma Susan would come up and steal kisses from him several times a day, and he thought that was really fun.  As a reward, after spending a full week with us, Philip awoke happy the next morning and actually reached out to be picked up by his Grandma.  They spent several minutes together while he played with the zipper on her shirt.  It was the longest he has been (willingly) held by anyone other than Andy or I in several months. It made my day and of course it made Grandma's too!

A momentous occasion

My in-laws left behind a special housewarming gift that we have been enjoying using - a grill!  We are looking forward to using it a lot this spring and summer.

Andy's first batch of burgers

Babies and grills mix??? We are all about safety around here!

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