busy week

I know I've been slow updating the blog the last couple of weeks. We have been really busy, and traveling a lot. Last week, after getting home from the lake on Monday, I set to cleaning the house quickly. My mom graciously agreed to come to KC and help me with my gardening. I've discovered that I have lots of free time during the day, but because I'm trying to cram things in while 7 naps, gardening and getting full of dirt and mulch isn't that easy to work in. So she came up late Monday afternoon, and stayed with us until Thursday morning. We managed to completely tear out all of the plants/weeds around the screened porch, and transplant the few plants that were worth saving. So now the north side of our house (which borders the garage) has a line of transplanted lirope plants, instead of weeds and dirt. Lowe's had a great deal on decent sized boxwoods, so we planted 6 along the east side of the porch, and planted 3 rose bushes and 2 transplanted hostas on the south side of the porch. I also extended the bed in the front yard, moved a bush that was growing too close to another, and then we planted about 4 dozen annuals all around the front and back yard beds. 18 bags of mulch later, and it looks like a whole new yard! I couldn't have done it without her help, and she got to spend a few extra days with the baby, which is never a hard thing to deal with :)

I have pictures on my camera, but I'm working at Panera (more on why later) and left the camera at home.

Friday we all headed to St. Louis, as we had Joseph baptized at the church where we were married on Sunday. Most of my parents' relatives, their kids and some close family friends attended the ceremony and party we had afterward. 7 did really well, no crying at all (once he was fed....)! Again, pictures to come.

Our friend Kyle made the trip in for the baptism as we had asked him to be Joseph's godfather, and he had a horribly early flight out Monday morning. Joe and the dogs took Kyle to the airport (leaving my parents' house at 5am!) and then headed for KC. I'm staying in St. Louis this week with Joseph because (a) the grandparents were thrilled to get extra time with Joseph and (b) Jennifer graduates from SLU on Friday afternoon. I'm already traveling back to St. Louis for the next two weekends for kayak demos, and didn't really want to have another trip back and forth across the state. So we stuck around.

Last night we had crazy severe storms come through. Luckily, they rolled in right after Joseph had gotten up for his 2:30am feeding, so he had fallen back asleep before they really hit. At about 3am they were right on top of the house, and I was awoken by the flash of lightning and crash of thunder immediately following, so loud it sounded like it had struck our house. Once I realized we were ok, it took a while to fall back asleep. Turns out, lightning had hit our next door neighbor's house - well, their chimney, and blew the whole top off. No wonder why it sounded like it was so close!

The storm seems to have done something bad to our router, so we don't have internet access at the house. Knowing I needed to get my data entry done for Joe, I packed 7 up this morning and took him on a quick errand, then parked us at a Panera Bread Co, where I've been working and he's been napping for the last two hours. Thank goodness for free wifi!

As soon as I get internet service again, I'll post a bunch of pictures. Most excitingly, 7 is getting really close to rolling over! He's gotten really strong, and has no trouble holding his head up. While on his belly, he can kick his legs out like an airplane, and can get up on an edge, but can't quite get over his shoulder. He also rolls onto his side when he starts off on his back. Pretty soon we'll have a rolling baby! He's becoming a very happy baby, giggling and talking at anyone who talks to him and smiles. It's so cute :)