Keeping Up with the Keplers: Week 1: Take Me Home

After a fews days in hospital, it was great to be home. The first few weeks of baby owning were difficult. The baby part is tough, but that's only part of it. What makes it hard is taking care of non-baby life on top of it. Luckily I had 2 weeks off from work and we have lots of family that were around to help out with everything.

Before I get started with the summary of what went down, here's a little index of the grandparents:

Grandma - Danielle's Mom, Liz
Grandpa - Danielle's Dad, Bill
Gigi - Greg's Mom, Peggy
Grandpa Ed - Greg's Stepdad, Ed
Pop - Greg's Dad, George
Grandma Jo - Greg's Stepmom, Joanne
Nannie - Greg's Paternal Grandmother, Mabel
Danielle's Grandfather Bill Martin Sr.
Greg's Grandmother Lillian

And I could keep going...

After we got home from the hospital Grandma stayed with us for a few days in our guest room AKA "room with crap that we don't know what to do with in it that's not the basement". She was great. She helped keep the house clean, so some shopping, helped Danielle with figuring out the breast feeding stuff, and most importantly, was there at any hour that we needed her to just hold Lily while we tried to catch up on sleep. While she was around Grandpa was sure to make his frequent visits. He was convinced that ha was able to will himself to get over his cold so that he could come hand out with his new grandbaby.

Gigi was up from North Carolina too this week. Unfortunately Ed couldn't make it up, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from spending a week up north. After most of the week of crashing couches at Tim and Jen's place in Brooklyn and Aunt Kate's house up in Washingtonville, we let her spend a few nights with us. She was in heaven. Of course she was a huge help as well. With all this mother-hood stuff going around, I definitely have a greater appreciation for all that they do. They can and will do anything for their babies. Even when their babies are approaching 30 years old.

Besides the grandma's that were staying with us for the first week, we also had some other visitors come and hang out with us. My sister Jen was up from North Carolina for the week with her boy, Nathan. My Brother Tim and his fiancee, Jen came over a few time from Brooklyn. Pop and Grandma Jo made a bunch of trips down from Valley Cottage to oggle at the child. Danielle's brother, Chris also made it down whenever he could. Of course everytime someone was visiting, Lily was quiet and sweet and angelic. As soon as everyone was gone, her exorcist side emerged. piss and shit flying everywhere. My favorite instance was when Tim was there to witness it. I went into the non-dining room to change Lily while Tim was in the other room. As soon as he turned the corner, Lily started projectile pissing everywhere. I'm surprised there wasn't any piss on the chandelier. To this site, Tim literally screamed and ran out of the room. I guess he din't know that little girls can piss into the air either.

In addition to all of the physical help and visits that we got from everyone, they made sure we were fed for 2 week. In fact they almost did too good a job. We got so much food that when new food came, we had to forget about the old food so that the new stuff wouldn't go bad. We had lasagna, lentil soup, chicken soup, sausage and peppers, pumpkin pie, alls sort of random pastries and Grandma Jo even made us an entire thanksgiving dinner (complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing, applesauce, cranberry sauce, and eggnog).

I also want to acknowledge all of the gifts that we received from everyone. Especially all of the handmade things. We got quilts and hats and sweaters and blankets and outfits and so many nice things. And from many people that we wouldn't expect anything from. Your thankyou notes are on the way.

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