Mother's Day Surprise and Boot Camp for New Dads

Nicole went to see her family in Erie over Mother's Day. Since she stayed through Sunday, I remained at home. With a few friends' help, that was all of the time I needed to get the nursery done! Thanks to Dave & Cheryl Murray-Miyamasu, Mark & Lorien Boyer, and Rob & Cori (Winter) McCabe (well, they will be McCabe in 2 weeks!)



We're probably going to do one more coat of paint, and have lots more decorations to do. We also still are going to get a glider of some sort. We haven't picked it out yet, but will add it to a registry when we decide. Anyhoo...there it is! Can't wait until you can come over and see it - with a little baby in it!

27 Weeks as of today! Time is going super fast! Nicole has Dr. appointments every 2 weeks now. They say she's doing really well.

Classes are all scheduled for June & July, except for Boot Camp for New Dads, which I went to on Saturday (in the middle of the construction chaos!). There were 6 'rookie' dads there. Mark Boyer and a co-worker of his went along with me. The other three guys were from Zanesville. Two were due in the summer, but one had just had a baby girl. There were also 3 'veteran' dads. One was the director of Forever Dads. The second was the facilitator of the morning. The third was a new 'veteran.' He brought his 5 month old girl in for the morning.
We talked about everything from diapers and feeding, to adjusting sleep & hobby time, to car-seats and diaper bags, to how the moms will change and how we can be good dads and husbands. One of the most fascinating things was watching most of the guys (including Mark) sit in a room with a baby 2 hours and watch how the 'veteran' dad took care of her while she got hungry, got tired, got scared, played, laughed, cried. Most of the rookies probably hadn't seen a baby away from their mother, or another woman, for more than 15 minutes, if ever.

Well, that's about it for now. We have a huge garage sale this weekend and next weekend we head out to Chicago for our anniverary, and to visit Granny and the Prinkes and to go to a Cubs Game!

Love you all!
John

New Carpet

Hey Everyone,
Well, things are moving right along! We've got new carpet in the whole house except the nursery. For some reason they didn't have the last roll to finish the house, so they're coming back today to lay it. It's like living in a new house! We ventured to IKEA for the 2nd time in a month on Wednesday to pick up our crib and a few other things. If you haven't ventured to the new store, block out an afternoon and just wander through. It's a really fun place! Anyway, now I'll have some more furniture to put together. Our bedroom looks great with the new dressers, bed, and night stands sitting on our new carpet! (That's 15 drawers to assemble!) After we paint the nursery, I'm sure it's going to look even nicer! We're going with a Farm animals theme (Farm Friends from Babies'R'Us). The furniture is all white and the walls will be yellow.

Enough about the house, Nicole is doing great! I'm starting to see how Chilibean will act - Mom is tired and hungry all the time! But she's doing well. 24 weeks along and strong. We'll get some pictures up soon. There's no denying that she's pregnant now! Sarah said Chilibean is more like a Chili Dog now, and that's true. at 24 weeks, the baby is about a foot long and weighs a whole pound!

For those of you that were curious, we did not find out if Chilbean is a boy or a girl. It's going to be a fun surprise. We'll keep you posted!