A friend recently emailed to ask if everything was going OK, since the blog has been so hopelessly vacant for long stretches this spring. I told her we are fine, just doing our normal stuff and moving through a list of pre-baby house preparation projects that would make anyone forced to read about them here weep with boredom. But when you look at all those odds and ends in a lump, they are enough that I could get one exceedingly mundane blog post out of them. So get your extra-caffeinated coffee and I'll tell you what we've been doing. Seriously, put a pillow on the table in front of you so you don't get a knot on your head if you pass out from the tedium.

First off, I've been being pregnant and getting bigger and bigger by the minute. This week, Dan went on a three-day business trip, and last night when he got home, he looked at my stomach and said "Wow. He got a lot bigger just while I was gone." I didn't throw anything at him, because he's just speaking the truth, and he's not the only one. Throughout the pregnancy, Kate has been confused about where exactly Baby Isaac is, and most times when we ask her, she'll say that he's inside her tummy. On Sunday morning, Dan was getting Kate ready for church, and when she took her shirt off, she leaned back, put her hands on her stomach and said "Wow! This baby getting BIG!" which is a phrase she probably hears me say about 10 times a day at this point. Kate does sometimes have quite a little pot belly, but these days I've got her beat. Here's a photo of Isaac and I at almost 37 weeks:

I'm due on April 25, but remembering the mental agony of being six days post-dates with Kate, I've decided to just tell myself that this baby isn't coming until May 1. In a few days I could healthily and happily have baby Isaac any time, but I don't believe any such thing will be happening. My mom is coming on April 19, at which point I am sure to be so enormous that I'll be thankful for the help even if we don't have a new baby. He seems to be doing great, based on the number of rib-cracking kicks he is delivering to my insides on a daily basis. So everything is status quo there.

Last weekend a sweet friend hosted a church baby shower for me, and now we have this amazing collection of little boy clothes that are so tiny that they freak me out. I know I've forgotten how little newborns are, but looking at those clothes reminds me again. We were also given a bunch of diapers and then in my closet spelunking adventures I found this whole stash of infant diapers that we must have had leftover from when Kate was born. I had forgotten all about them, and it is no exaggeration to say that at this point in my life, rediscovering them was like finding money hidden in a closet, or maybe even more exciting. Seriously. Don't laugh at me. So we have diapers, clothes and a bassinet, which I guess means we're ready to have a baby. Funny how this time around I know that's all we really need.

Speaking of the diapers, here is a photo of the diaper centerpiece my friend and shower hostess Cora made. It's a little airplane. How cute is that?

Meanwhile I am doing what I do while pregnant: Nesting. I think that a lot of women go through an intense period of this at the very end of a pregnancy, but since I am kind of a neat freak by nature, I take it to a whole new level and nest for months. No joke. Those hormones in charge of my brain start making me see all the dirt! And clutter! In my house! So since about January I have been working through a list of projects, some big and some small, that I'll just feel better having accomplished given that they aren't likely to get done again for about two years. I've cleaned appliances, reorganized our closets and drawers, vacuumed under furniture,washed curtains, steam-cleaned carpet, flipped mattresses and gathered up so much stuff to give away that a local charity will be making a special trip to my house next week to pick it all up. I say that "I" have done all of these things, but I should give major credit to Dan, who has had to do a lot of heavy lifting, since I can't exactly be hoisting mattresses safely at this point in my life. He is being a really good sport about all the house projects considering that if it were up to him, the question wouldn't be "When should we deep-clean the kitchen?" so much as "Why would one ever need to deep-clean a kitchen?"

And speaking of our kitchen, last week we checked off one of the last major projects in our always-in-process revamp of our kitchen. When we bought this house, one of the things we fell in love with was the kitchen, because it is so big and has such a huge dining area and great light and tall ceilings. Unfortunately, when whomever built this house was considering how best to finish the kitchen, they apparently latched on to an interior decorating theme called "Salvage appliances and fixtures from a local junkyard." This is the only explanation I can think of for the cheapness. If you don't believe me, please remember that this is the same room where we had to rip carpet up out of a DINING AREA. Carpet. The other half of the room was finished in a linoleum so cheap it was peeling and broken even though the house was just over five years old when we bought it, and all the appliances were on their last legs. Over four years, we've replaced the stove, put in an over-range microwave, new dishwasher and new flooring. But the one remaining vestige of the crapiness that was this kitchen's original state was our sink.

I want to make it clear that I understand that it is a privilege to live in a part of the world where I can have such petty concerns as what kind of kitchen sink I have attached to the indoor plumbing connected to a reliable, clean water supply. I take these things for granted perpetually, but I love our house and I am thankful to have it, so it's not as if every day that we have lived in this house I have spent in a state of discontent over a kitchen sink. No, not every day. Just any time we needed to wash a really big pot. Then it was all I could do not to curse whoever put this sink in. It was, at best, 6 inches deep, with a faucet so short that in order to rinse anything of any size, you had to wedge the object in between the sink wall and the faucet and then rotate it at all these bizarre angles and just hope that water would flow over all the surfaces and wash off the soap. There wasn't even a sprayer to help you out with that whole process. Here is a photo of the horror:

Given that this project involved plumbing, we did not attempt to pretend that we were up to doing the job ourselves and instead hired a contractor friend who did an excellent job. Here is the new sink, in all its deep cast-iron glory. This thing makes me want to cook something in my biggest, baddest gumbo pot just so I can wash it. I was expressing this to my sister-in-law Kelly when we were talking on Skype, and her response was "Man, you guys are really getting old." So true, Kelly. But don't say that while you stand next to me at my new sink or I will soak you with my TOTALLY COOL HIGH-POWER SPRAYER. Take that!

At some point, I mentioned in passing to Kate that one thing we could do with a new sink is give Baby Isaac a bath in it when he's big enough to sit up. Somehow in her mind this has translated into the whole purpose of the sink being to give Isaac a bath and every time she notices it, she says "Our new sink! Give Isaac a bath!" She's also been making Isaac lots of pictures and cards, which is pretty cute.

So there you have it. I'm still pregnant and driving everyone crazy with my cleaning. Dan is putting up with me as best he can, and Kate is leading the busy life of a two-year-old. Like I said, we're pretty boring. But this is our life, or at least it will be for the next few weeks. Then we get into that limbo existence known as Newborn Land where life as you know it disappears into epic chaos. We're getting ready for that, and every new pregnancy discomfort and twinge makes me more and more ready, but we're also enjoying this. Blessed, boring normalcy. I will miss it.

Coming soon: Guess the baby's birthday and some hilarious Kate video.

In my last letter to Kate, I mentioned that she has gotten very interested in how stop lights work. This interest has morphed into a new game called "Driving." We have these big green pillows that used to be part of a whole coordinated thing I had going on with our bed. You know, on the good days, when I make the bed. But now those pillows have been declared "Kate's car," and every day she lines them up in this very specific way and then pretends that they are a car she is driving. Sunday afternoon she roped Dan into playing with her, and this was the resulting video footage. I guess at some point she decided it would be much more fun if she made Dan drive and just sat in the back seat and told him what to do, like some billionaire trophy wife. Dan puts up with a lot around here, as you can tell.

I didn't get any great photos of Kate in her Easter finery this morning, but I did my best considering that she will not stand still for anything, especially not today. There was quite a saga surrounding this dress, one mostly caused by my own stupidity. We picked up her dress more than a week ago one day when we were out running a bunch of other errands. Score one for me for being prepared, something I did not do such a good job on when it came to buying an Easter basket. I did that last night at Albertson's at about 8:30 p.m. Unfortunately, Kate saw, tried on and fell in love with the dress the day we bought it so of course she proceeded to ask when she could wear it starting from the minute we left the store and continuing for the next two days. Fortunately, my mother-in-law saved me from myself. A couple of days after we bought Kate's Easter dress I went to the baby shower that a friend hosted for Isaac and I. Not only did my mother-in-law send gifts for Isaac, she sent one for Kate -- a great little dress perfect for playing. So Kate forgot about her Easter dress long enough for it to be Easter, and I did not have to talk about her Easter dress every minute of every day for a week. Seriously, that's what was about to happen. We did tell her last night right before bed that the next day was Easter and that she could wear her new dress, and so the first words out of her mouth this morning when Dan went to get her out of bed were "I wear my dress?"

We did also talk to her a lot this week about what Easter actually means aside from new dresses. Last week's Palm Sunday service and Sunday School lesson helped her grasp the ideas, I think, as did this Sunday's festivities. But it's still really hard to explain the concept of resurrection to a two-year-old, mostly because they are so literal and immediate about everything. Right before church started today, I was telling Kate again that today was a special day, that we were celebrating because Jesus rose from the dead and is alive. Her response to this was "Yes! And we see Jesus at church today!" She was looking around the sanctuary, like He was going to walk through the door any minute. So then we had to explain that umm, no, probably we won't see Jesus at church today because Jesus is in heaven and we don't know when He's coming back.

But it got me thinking that my two-year-old might have a little better grasp on how I ought to look for Christ's return than I do. When I tell her that Jesus is coming, she looks around for Him. She believes it with no trouble. I hope she always does.

Having learned from our mistake with the dress, we did not tell her about Easter eggs this morning. But we've got a basket and have hidden some eggs filled with candy, so it's time to go introduce her to that part of the day as well. Based on her joyous reaction to special Easter cupcakes in Sunday School today, I think she's going to be pretty pleased. Happy Easter everyone. Christ is risen!

Sometimes on weekends we go out after dinner for what Kate refers to as "special treats." This phrase is pronounced "sepple tweats" and in her world, it means ice cream. After a long stint at Cold Stone Creamery, we were getting bored, so lately we've been heading downtown to 66 Diner, a 1950s-style diner with fabulous milkshakes. Kate is impressed. The only problem is that once she latches on to the straw, she doesn't want to let go. It's like she thinks someone is going to take it from her if she doesn't drink it all in one giant slurp. We have been working on teaching her how to take breaks so she doesn't freeze her brain. But look how happy that face is! It cracks me up. (Photos taken with Dan's i-Phone.)

I like this little family tradition.

With ten days left until Isaac's April 25 due date, I thought I'd open up comments for your guesses, wagers and predictions as to when this little guy might make his appearance. Feel free to guess how much he weighs too, but when you do, please be kinder than my husband, who has consistently been predicting a nine-pounder for months now. This is not nearly as funny as he thinks it is.

Speaking of Dan, he's convinced that the baby will arrive this week, as in before the end of Sunday, April 18. I have no idea what he's basing that on other than my general hugeness, but at least once every day he looks at me and says "Yep. He's coming this week and he weighs nine pounds."

My midwife, meanwhile, is offering me no such assurances, but certain things are happening that would lead one to believe that we could have a baby sometime in the near future. I'm not a big fan of posting information about my uterus online, but let's just say things are more progressed now than they ever were until I went into active labor with Kate, She Who Was Six Days Late. My midwife also believes that the baby weighs somewhere in the average 7-pound range. On the other hand, that's what my doctor with Kate said too, and Kate came in at 8 pounds 8 ounces. Ask me. I was there. If I get to 41 weeks, my midwife and I will talk about induction options, so I suppose the outside limit on guesses would be sometime around May 3.

Kate, by the way, predicts that the baby is either coming in "two hours" or "two weeks" depending on when you ask her. This may be because these are the only two time-related phrases she knows, but it's still disconcerting, given that we're in the time frame when it really could be two hours .... or two weeks. I have stopped asking her. She is freaking me out.

If you ask me when I think he's coming, I don't know what to tell you. I have contractions all the time, and some of them hurt, but they don't seem to mean anything much. Some days I feel pretty good and other days I feel terrible and absolutely convinced that I cannot stand to be pregnant for another five minutes. I believe this is the average mental state for a nine months pregnant woman. I'm trying not to think about it too much, which is to say that it's all I can think about, but I try to stay busy, and that is easier this time around. Kate and I are hanging out with friends and getting ready for my mom, who is coming on Monday the 19th. That will be fun, and I'll be thankful for the help with Kate. It's amazing how much more being pregnant requires of you physically when you have a small child to keep up with.

So there you have it. We are waiting for a baby, and there isn't much more to say about it. Your prayers for the four of us would be appreciated. If I don't have a baby by Cinco de Mayo I'm going to go to the crazy all-night party our neighbors always throw and do the limbo.

Today, April 19, is our seventh wedding anniversary. Since we've got some pretty all-consuming stuff going on this week, we agreed a while back that we wouldn't be doing anything elaborate to celebrate. We did seize the opportunity to go out on a nice date a few weeks ago and on an overnight trip to Santa Fe in February, back in the distantly-remembered days when I could still get in and out of a car without major physical contortion. Still, I wanted to observe the day here on the blog, so I've been thinking about how best to do that. At first I thought I could finally get around to scanning some of our wedding photos and posting them, but our scanner is way up in the top of our guest room closet right now and this does not seem like a good time to break out any stepladders. Also, our wedding photos are great, but they don't tell you a whole lot about us aside from the fact that we used to be a lot skinnier than we are now. So I gave up on that idea. Then I remembered that recently, a friend passed along a CD of some pictures he took of us during a birthday party for a friend of Kate's back in August. These photos actually do justice to what our relationship is really like if you hang out with us on a regular basis. We don't stand around in formal clothing smiling with our relatives, like we are in our wedding photos. There is, however, a good bit of this:

(All photos courtesy of Bob Podgurski the Great.)

Oh, look honey, we took a nice photo together. Awww.

Five seconds later, Dan has a child's hula skirt on his head. (The birthday party was a luau.) Commence wifely eye-rolling.

Oh, look, we took another decent photo! Awesome! We should go get Kate and maybe one of these could be our Christmas picture!

Or not. (And no, I have no idea what was going on in this photo.) Well, now I remember why we never send Christmas cards.

Whatever it was, it did make me laugh, which is one thing I can say for us. We have fun.

And we still love each other very much. So happy anniversary, Dan! You are a wonderful husband, and I am glad I am your wife even if we don't take very many good photos together.

Haley and I are proud to announce that Isaac Daniel Wachdorf was born on Friday, April 23rd at 5:22am. Isaac weighted in at 8lbs and 5oz and measured 20.9 inches in length. Mom and Baby are doing great. We returned home from the hospital yesterday. Once Haley gets some sleep she'll post more information. For now, pictures.

Some explanation is needed here. Kate is not trying to baste Issac. She saw all the doctors and nurses wear gloves anytime they handled Isaac. She felt she needed hers.

Hi, everyone. When Dan ended our last blog post by saying that I would post again after I got some sleep, I kind of had to laugh. Because, seriously, we have a newborn. I might not blog again until the next presidential election if sleep is the deciding factor. But then last night Isaac actually put in some decent chunks of sleep -- nothing to go out and run a marathon on, but enough that today I find myself able to think in complete sentences. Meanwhile, family and friends are sending me increasingly edgy messages demanding photos. I really am trying, but I keep having this moment where I think "I want to take a photo of that!" and I'm on the couch with the baby and the camera is nowhere in sight, so I just have to let it go. That's actually what life is like a lot right now, which I seem to recall is normal with a new baby in the house. So here are a few of the shots I have managed to take of our adorable baby boy. Hope they get you your baby fix for the day.

Since we have a two-and-a-half year old paci addict, we thought we'd just go for broke and give Isaac one too. Maybe next year we can send them both off to paci rehab.

One of the freakiest things about new babies is how much their appearance changes in the first few days. With Isaac, every day we think he looks a little more like Kate did as a newborn. This photo in particular reminds me of some we took of Kate in her first weeks. He's not her carbon copy, but he's definitely our kid, as I reminded Dan when he made some crack about contesting paternity when we were filling out birth certificate paperwork in the hospital. Hilarious.

A rare eyes-open shot. Isaac so far is a very laid-back baby. Obviously, at one week, it's hard to say what his long term temperament will be like, but so far he is just the sweetest, snuggliest thing ever. Unless you take his clothes off and he gets cold. Then he pees on you. I should know.

Kate has little sessions with Isaac a few times a day, and she is so careful with him.

Several of you have been kind enough to inquire as to how Kate is adjusting to her new sibling. I have to say that the first two days after we came home from the hospital were really, really rough. She wasn't upset about the baby -- she likes Isaac and is super sweet and gentle with him. I am thankful for that. But the amount of my time he takes was really upsetting to her and there were a lot of meltdowns in the first 48 hours, both hers and mine. Yesterday was a much better day, and today has been good so far as well, so I'd appreciate your prayers that we can continue to improve.It helps a lot that my mom is in town and has taken Kate on outings and then handled the household stuff so that we can spend as much time with Kate as we can during the rest of the day. If you want to tell me your stories of how your oldest totally adapted to the new baby within a few weeks, please go ahead. If your oldest freaked out every day for six months after the new baby, please don't tell me. I am trying to think happy thoughts here.

One of these days, I am going to blog about Isaac's birth. But right now, I think I have the opportunity to go eat a sandwich if I play my cards right. Thank you so much for your love for us. I shall endeavor to do a better job of documenting our new little man.