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I guess it's obvious that my pictures lately are derived from our little walks around Campwoods. There is a lot of history still here in the old campground. Two of the common buildings have been condemned and are slated for demolition since they haven't been taken care of over the years. But the 100 year old barn from my post 2 days ago and these buildings are still intact.

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Tucker is on the weird side of cat strange. He is, always has been, obsessed with the shower. He waits all morning for one of us to get in the shower since when we both work from home, which is the case a lot lately, we don't run into the shower right out of bed. We tend to wait until we get good and day 2 stinky, like say after lunch? But Tuck just sits there, waiting. And when Keely finally gets in, he actually stands in the back while Keely has her standard long pregnancy shower routine, licking his favorite spot on the tile. I haven't figured out why this particular joint in the tile is so good for licking. And for some reason he doesn't like to shower with me. Homophobic?

Anyway, if I don't open the door immediately after turning off the water from my shower, he starts clawing at it. He must get that first steamy lick before it all runs down and out the drain. Here I am watching the stock market go down the drain, but to Tuck it's those dirty water drops that are crucial to lick up. No matter that he and Po have a running water bowl in the kitchen with fresh, filtered, water, cleaned regularly and filled up daily. It's that soap scum run-off thats the real treat.

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Keel has turned me on to a couple photo/design sites recently and inspired me to do something similar. One is a crafty mentor of Keely's, SouleMama, who is doing daily photo posts for a month. The other is a daily photo project by two friends from Portland, OR and Portland, ME who post together but live 3191 miles apart (see also port2port). After more encouragement from Shannon at the greenhouse today, I decided I would try one month. The most important reason being to simply take more photos. However, I can already predict I'll miss a day or two. And, I am a poor enough editor that I'll probably not be able to post only one photo. And so, today there are two photos from our visit yesterday to the Stone Barns greenhouse to catch up with Jack and Shannon and their boys Sedge and Ojiah. Photos will be posted in the morning on the following day.

nursery updates

We finally found a piece of furniture we badly needed to keep all those great baby party and christmas Oona gifts. We are only a few weeks away from her arrival (maybe only days?) and the pile of onesies and blankets was calling for a little dresser. After giving Ikea a legitimate try and then going to our local high dollar antique store, we finally made it back to our old town, Hastings-on-Hudson, to find this little 1930s oak piece. It goes nicely with the old cast iron bed.

The seahorse is my personal favorite.

The stain was boring and so were the simple original oak knobs. Nice, but why not jazz it up for the kid room? Keely found some fun knobs at Anthropologie (they go for a buck or two during the post holiday sale) and gave it a paint job. This is our second effort at the whole shabby sheik look. The first one was a certified disaster, probably because I was in charge. That failed project now sits in the basement as a work table.

Keel says the dresser still needs some touch up, but I like it already. I think she managed to take a pretty boring dresser from a cluttered but friendly store, Suburban Renewal, and make something perfect for the small corner we had left in the nursery/guest room. A little more silicone on the drawers and Oona will be able to pull them open in no time.

I can't wait to package her in this kimono onesie we found in a Brooklyn shop.
Yes, the shelves did come from Ikea, but you have to cut corners somewhere. If you look closely you will see a big pile of cloth diapers on the floor. The diapers have arrived. I think that means we are officially ready.
I know Keely can't wait to get her old body back, but I like Her Bigness.

having a kid, soon!

I don't write here much about the fact that Keely is pregnant and we are eagerly awaiting the imminent arrival of Oona, as we are currently calling her. That is mainly because we have a separate blog for Oona related items. So, if you have not been invited to read the Oona blog, feel free to email us for that link. I'm not so keen to post it here for what I assume are obvious reasons.

mcphearson christmas

For Christmas this year we tried something different. Just the kids. To just about everyone we mentioned this to it sounded, well, weird. But hey, we had a great time. The next generation in New York just doing what comes natural. For Teague and I this meant building a Lego race car. I found the tailfin in the backseat of the car today. Go figure.

Mika joined us for Christmas day dinner, which means that technically this family extended from McPhearson to Baltzer to Nelson. You also get a sense of the size of that Oona belly here. Read, food coma.

Who's happy?

We skipped presents for each other this year and concentrated on spending quality time. This meant lots of cooking, baking, eating, and drinking. I opened a number of bottles of wine and Keren and I headed up the various meals that ranged from a Thanksgiving day repeat, to an all indian meal to super duper desserts.

The parents did still make themselves felt with a load of wonderful gifts.
Abby immediatly tried on the fingerless, not sleeveless, gloves.

Reading Mom's Christmas note:

We took Teague to the American Museum of Natural History on Christmas Eve Day. Sounds like an insane idea I know. As a former employee of AMNH, I was a little concerned about the crowds, but they weren't that bad. The combination of riding the bus and subway was definitely fun for the 4 year old Teague which we all adopted, trading on and off hourly.

Click the video below for a taste of the craziness.

nelson christmas

The Nelson family Christmas naturally has a strong central element; her name is Zoe. Like Teague in the McPhearson family, she'll be Oona's older cousin. Someone to teach Oona how to sweet talk the grandparents. Zoe obviously held sway this Christmas.

Mom and Grandpa admiring Zoe's present opening skills.

Mika, like myself, finds a glass of wine the perfect way to mellow all those presents.

Could anyone be a happier Grandpa? Maybe with more grandkids. Don't worry John, help is on the way. So soon. Very soon.