My family

I know I've complained about my family and their reactions to me being pregnant again. Comments throughout my pregnancy about us having another baby have really upset me. Having another family member upset about my son's name (she wanted to use Harrison if she ever had a boy) was upsetting...just a bunch of different things have bothered me and honestly made me wonder, "Will they love him when he gets here?" Well, I shouldn't have.

On Sunday, Brad called my aunt to tell her we weren't being discharged; as well as to put her on alert that my mother was sick and my sister was going to have the girls. I heard him saying, "Oh, you didn't need to do that. Really. That's just too much...you really didn't need to do that." I looked at him and he's teared up (very little makes this man cry - but obviously something she was saying brought out the tears). After he hung up I asked what was going on and he wouldn't tell me other than to say it was a surprise for me. I said, "They must've done all the laundry then."

On Monday, he ran home to take a shower and shave once it became apparent that we weren't going home on Monday, either. My aunt had to meet him at the house to let him in. When he came back to the hospital I asked him, "What did they do?" He said, "I can't tell you, it's a surprise; but I will tell you that the stuff she told me they did only scratched the surface." I knew not to ask again.

On Tuesday afternoon when we came home, Brad turned onto our street and said, "I want to do a drive-by and look at something, okay?" We live on a cul-de-saq and there are five other houses on our street...kind of weird, but okay... We drive by and I notice our front door is black (it was white when we left for the hospital) and there's a little spring decor set-up on the front porch.

My family was busy while we were gone! Then he reached down and grabbed something - I realized it was a garage door remote - up went our door. The fly wheel on our garage door opener went flying off a few months ago and we've not had time to get a new one and install it -- way too much going on around here. So, my parents got one and my uncle and cousin installed it.

We came inside and my kitchen had been scoured, I had a cute basket on the counter for mail. There were new linens on the table. Walk into the family room and see a couple of baskets, freshly vacuumed family room, clean laundry in the baskets and new coat hooks in the entry way. Wow. Brad said, "Oh, you've not seen anything yet."

I walked into what used to be Annie's room - walls that were pink when I left are now a color called Cotton Whisper (Behr paint). Above the bed, which they left a toddler bed, is Harrison's name. His bedding has been ordered and should be here shortly:
I can't wait to put it on his bed! We'll convert his bed to a crib again when it arrives. Bippie and MiMi chose it. (JCPenney - "Green Paisley Splash" by My Baby Sam). They also put up a sweet sign in the room "I am a dream come true" - it's a funky little spot on the wall where the AC venting runs across to the hallway and it's a perfect spot for the little sign.
They put a little train shelf over the changing table and hung some of his little toys from it. My aunt told me that my uncle is in the process of building a couple of little shelves to put in Harrison's room as well and we're going to put some of the little decorative things on it that they found as they were cleaning up all the junk around here -- a pair of baby shoes that had been Brad's, a little wooden cross that was Elizabeth's, a few other things. That may be where I end up putting the crib medal as well. As I stood in the room trying to take it all in, sobbing, Brad said, "Now, would you like to know who was responsible for this room?" I nodded because I couldn't talk. He said, "Abbigail did this." Abbigail - my cousin's girlfriend who has met us once and who I later found out was in on the planning of this from the very beginning and came up with many of the ideas. She painted and decorated Harrison's room. The waterworks really started then. Brad said, "And you haven't even seen the girls' room yet!" I'll take you over there in the next entry. I can't figure out what these photos are doing... :P