I had this post started awhile ago . . . the event seemed drastic at the time, but as I finish writing up the post, it wasn't that bad . . .
May 25th was Nick's birthday and it will go down as one of the most hectic, worst birthdays. And for a guy who is not all about his birthday to begin with, it may have made him decide to never acknowledge a birthday again.
May 25th was Nick's birthday and it will go down as one of the most hectic, worst birthdays. And for a guy who is not all about his birthday to begin with, it may have made him decide to never acknowledge a birthday again.
To really understand this birthday, one needs to understand the last month for Nick, particularly the last week. Greta was born during finals week, which gave him a week to grade many lab reports, final exams, and a few straggling assignments. After that he started on a grant application, had upwards of nine students doing research for him, oh, and trying to figure out an infant and helping a three-year-old adjust to being a big sister. The week before his birthday, his grant application was due on Monday and Friday he had to give the Last Lecture. The student body votes as to which faculty member they would like to hear give their "last lecture," or if they were to never give another talk again, what would their last one be. No pressure. Oh, and it is graduation weekend, so it is attended by faculty/staff, seniors, and their parents. Again, no pressure.
Those hurdles jumped, he woke up on his birthday morning and spent it with Lilly while Greta and I slept. The morning and early afternoon of his birthday was just fine. Lilly was incredibly excited about his birthday, wanting to sing him happy birthday a handful of times. It was after her nap when the birthday took a turn for the worse . . .
Nick and Lilly went to wash some dishes. I was upstairs feeding Greta. The water wasn't heating up. Nick went downstairs with Lilly to figure out what was going on - and discovered three inches of water covering the floor. He brought Lilly upstairs to me to keep an eye on her while he started to figure out how to deal with the situation. What happened? The bottom of the water heater rusted, fell out, and the water then poured out.
Nick discovered the drain in the basement was plugged and once he unplugged it, the basement fairly quickly emptied of water. However, there was still much water to be dealt with and the wet/dry vac we had in the basement just wasn't doing the job. Convincing Lilly to go with him by adding in a stop at the park, Lilly and Nick headed to Walmart to buy a new shop-vac. They had a nice time at the park but Lilly refused at first to go into Walmart (she's never been there - we avoid shopping there when possible). Promises of zooming in the cart convinced her to go into the store.
Meanwhile, back at home, I spent my time with an inconsolable Greta. No bouncing on the exercise ball, pacifiers, nursing, diaper changing, swaddling, playing could calm her down for more than a few minutes. It was a super long hour . . .
We decided to break our pizza only once a week rule and put frozen pizzas in the oven. Nothing says happy birthday like a frozen pizza.
Nick needed to get water out of the basement but Lilly and Greta were behaving in such a way that made it difficult for me to watch both of them, so the basement had to wait. It took awhile but we managed to get the girls in bed and Nick was able to spend his birthday evening cleaning water out of the basement.
We had brownie sundaes and Lilly had to have a candle on hers too. They weren't allowed to blow out the candles until we sung happy birthday.
And adding to the stress . . . it was my last evening of maternity leave, I was heading into work the next morning. That meant we were trying to figure out how the morning was going to go (feeding Greta, getting Lilly up and ready to go, and Lilly and me out the door by 7:45 to get to day care, drop off, and then me to work by 8:00), making sure I had everything set, and that I was not in the happiest of spirits, knowing I was going back to work. I also went over to our friends Tim and Elizabeth's house to take a shower, rather than taking a freezing cold shower at home.
The plumber was booked all of Tuesday but had some time on Wednesday to come over. So by Wednesday evening we had hot water again. Tuesday though Lilly really needed a bath, so we warmed up some water on the stove and Lilly took her bath in the kitchen.
Those hurdles jumped, he woke up on his birthday morning and spent it with Lilly while Greta and I slept. The morning and early afternoon of his birthday was just fine. Lilly was incredibly excited about his birthday, wanting to sing him happy birthday a handful of times. It was after her nap when the birthday took a turn for the worse . . .
Nick and Lilly went to wash some dishes. I was upstairs feeding Greta. The water wasn't heating up. Nick went downstairs with Lilly to figure out what was going on - and discovered three inches of water covering the floor. He brought Lilly upstairs to me to keep an eye on her while he started to figure out how to deal with the situation. What happened? The bottom of the water heater rusted, fell out, and the water then poured out.
Nick discovered the drain in the basement was plugged and once he unplugged it, the basement fairly quickly emptied of water. However, there was still much water to be dealt with and the wet/dry vac we had in the basement just wasn't doing the job. Convincing Lilly to go with him by adding in a stop at the park, Lilly and Nick headed to Walmart to buy a new shop-vac. They had a nice time at the park but Lilly refused at first to go into Walmart (she's never been there - we avoid shopping there when possible). Promises of zooming in the cart convinced her to go into the store.
Meanwhile, back at home, I spent my time with an inconsolable Greta. No bouncing on the exercise ball, pacifiers, nursing, diaper changing, swaddling, playing could calm her down for more than a few minutes. It was a super long hour . . .
We decided to break our pizza only once a week rule and put frozen pizzas in the oven. Nothing says happy birthday like a frozen pizza.
Nick needed to get water out of the basement but Lilly and Greta were behaving in such a way that made it difficult for me to watch both of them, so the basement had to wait. It took awhile but we managed to get the girls in bed and Nick was able to spend his birthday evening cleaning water out of the basement.
And adding to the stress . . . it was my last evening of maternity leave, I was heading into work the next morning. That meant we were trying to figure out how the morning was going to go (feeding Greta, getting Lilly up and ready to go, and Lilly and me out the door by 7:45 to get to day care, drop off, and then me to work by 8:00), making sure I had everything set, and that I was not in the happiest of spirits, knowing I was going back to work. I also went over to our friends Tim and Elizabeth's house to take a shower, rather than taking a freezing cold shower at home.
The plumber was booked all of Tuesday but had some time on Wednesday to come over. So by Wednesday evening we had hot water again. Tuesday though Lilly really needed a bath, so we warmed up some water on the stove and Lilly took her bath in the kitchen.
Ugh. It does make a good story, though... :)
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