Flibbs.com

Apologies to anyone who has had the misfortune to ring our phone between the hours of 3pm and 7pm for the past three weeks. That’s our witching hour and I have no business answering anyway.

What have I been up to? Here are a few things:

• Transitioning two little guys into daycare and preschool. Associated hanging out at school, leaving and returning quickly, pumping, and dealing with two little guys who didn’t nap nearly enough.
• Reading the latest Harry Potter. With all the waiting in the cafe across from the preschool and nervously sitting by the phone at home, I busted out a 700+ page book in one week.
• Editing the Rookie Moms Handbook with Whitney. Yep, it just happened to be all in this same couple weeks that we got a hard copy proof to review with lots of major and minor tweaks waiting to be discovered. I think it’s coming along nicely and we can hardly wait to see it for reals.
• Biking hard with Olivia. Yesterday, we did 35-mile Tour d’Organics while Alec drove Holden and Milo from organic farm to organic farm to play and wait for us to pedal our sorry butts up and down the rolling hills. It was his first time taking them both on an outing and it was a biggie.
• Starting a new job. Today was my first day at a Berkeley Internet start-up. I’d like to say more but I’m so darn superstitious after my last couple forays into working that I’d like to see how this plays out a little before sharing more. Suffice it to say that I’m trying to be professional during the hours between screaming tearful drop-offs.

Before — This is our kitchen all emptied out and waiting for the demolition:

During — This is what we came home to after Thanksgiving in NYC (from the same corner):

The construction guys have made really good progress so far, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for “After” pictures. Everything is down and out, plumbing and electrical are in (inspections passed), walls up, mud/stucco is up, Alec primed the walls and ceiling, Alec started painting the ceiling, the dude is patching our wood floor as I type, and the cabinets should arrive today. Wheee.

In the meantime, we’re all scrunched up in the back of the house, enduring the official beginning of both the Terrible Twos and the Icky Third Trimester. Enjoy our photos of November fun.

I know it won’t be installed for another couple (painful and dusty) months, but I can’t help but get excited about this little development. When we first decided to live together in SF, we had “dishwasher” on our must-list. But we found a charming little apartment in Cole Valley that had everything else going for it (including a window that opened from the kitchen to the bathroom!), so we cheerfully did dishes together.

When we looked for houses in Berkeley, again we added “dishwasher” to the must-list — it’s such a great appliance and can prevent so many messes and subsequent squabbles. When shopping for houses, most had dishwashers or at least hook-ups; we didn’t think we’d have to compromise again. Ahh, but again, we found a cute little bungalow in the more affordable part of town that didn’t have a dishwasher. Instead of cheerfully doing dishes together, we had a baby and made up a schedule. Alec does the odd days and I do the even days. That also means that about 5 times a year, Alec does dishes two nights in a row.

But yippeeeeeeee, it’s coming this afternoon!