Parentheticals

I don't know if I even need to say it, but this last week was a busy one. We had grandma Julie over for most of the week, which was a huge help to us. She kept things under control while Mike went back to work. On Monday Grandma, Mike, and the kids went hiking up Bell Canyon to pick Serviceberries. It was a total bust this year. We got 6 berries total, so even though the hike was fun we didn't end up making anything afterward. During Mike's paternity leave he scheduled Gideon's surgery, so on Tuesday he took the day off to get the surgery done. The surgeon was apparently running super late, because the surgery took all day and though they left at 10:30AM they finally got home at 6:30PM (the surgery itself took about half an hour). Gideon was very brave, and the surgery went without any real complications, so hopefully his recovery is quick, and he is back to normal pretty soon. Alison is also still recovering, so Mike is trying to make her take it easy. It is

Ultimate baby wrestling This week Mike worked half a day on Monday and Tuesday, and he worked all day Wednesday, but he had the rest of the week off. This was part of his paternity leave package that he agreed upon with his employer. Alison and the kids did a good job of holding down the fort while Mike was gone, although the house did get pretty messy since Alison spent a lot of time taking care of the baby, which took away some time from her taking care of the rest of things. One thing that happened early in the week was the conclusion of the light install in the front yard. Mike was able to finish putting everything together, and the lights were easy to install. They look good, however they are not bright enough to be the sole source of light in the room. On Tuesday we picked the "last" of the strawberries on strawberry hill. On Wednesday during the day, Amy offered to watch the kids, so Alison dropped them off, and napped. When mike came home we had pizza at A