NO NEWS IS...WELL...NO NEWS

Inside Baby must know that we still haven't picked a name for her because she refuses to join us. I am now three days overdue and this kid is no longer a comfortable passenger. I've been really lucky with how easy this pregnancy has been so I really shouldn't complain... but come out already kid! Every night for the last week, Matt has predicted that she will be showing up. When I pointed out that he has said that all week he replied that one of these days he will get it right.

Until the past 3 days when I've adopted beached whale status, I've spent most evenings trying to get projects (and laundry) done so that I don't have anything outstanding in my mind once Inside Baby becomes Outside Baby with no name. (Poor girl.)

The most exciting thing that I've done is to make a playhouse for Lauren. One night when I couldn't sleep (again, thank you Inside Baby), I came up with a plan for a PVC frame that I would cover with material for Lauren to play in and call a house. In the morning, I went over to my dad's to chat with him about my plan and we got around to chatting about the playhouse that I had when I was a kid.

And then my dad said, "I wonder if I still have that." I don't know why I was surprised that he might have a thirty year old toy, but I was. Moments later he showed up in the room holding the box and frame for my old playhouse. The plastic cover had long since ripped but he always thought that maybe he could use the frame for something (why not, right?). And here we are decades later and it is being used again.

I brought it home and set up the frame during Lauren's nap. Using material that I already had in my stash, that evening I created a cover for the frame with a roof portion, windows that can be tied open and a sliding door.

When I first brought it out for Lauren, she screamed at the top of her lungs for an extended period of time (she's not usually much of a screamer so I knew this was good). We placed her reading couch inside the house and every day she spends some time playing in there, pulling my books in with her to flip through or dragging Matt in there with her. It is a bit of a tight fit with the two of them squashed together but that doesn't stop her from insisting that he come.

While I can't believe that my dad kept the frame for this playhouse, I love that Lauren now gets to enjoy something that I loved so much myself as a child. And the best part is that having used my own material, the house actually matches our living room - no more of the original orange roof and door of yesterday. One day, if she ever decides to join us, Inside Baby will get to enjoy this updated playhouse as well.