We've arrived

Of course, that was several days ago. I should be unpacking, I should take pictures, I have done none of those things. Actually I have been unpacking, I just haven't taken any pictures. The kids are doing surprisingly well. Nate has been attacked by mosquitoes. It is pretty terrible. I have counted 10 bites on him. Bless his heart, and several of them seem to itch, he has scratched some of them and he has 1 right on his check that is infected and hard and just looks terrible! I went out and bought bug spray today. Nate has been fussy, every time I turn my back to him to grab something he starts to scream. :( I don't know if he is bothered by the bites, made because Eric and I had to leave him in the jumper while he may or may not have been attacked by mosquitoes or because until last night there was no room for him to wander around the house. And, if you know Nate you know he needs to move! Gwen is a little whiny, but she is suffering from a definite lack of sleep, so that is to be expected. She is not quite sure what she wants to do, but she never wants to sleep! (I am working on this blog while seeing if she is going to nap!)
So, how is the house, you ask? Well, first of all it was nasty. I mean seriously nasty, floor gross, cob webs, and rice everywhere in the kitchen. I guess I am just not used to moving into a house someone lived in before. I don't remember our last house being like that. Of course, that was a while ago and that place hadn't been lived in for a while. We left some of our stuff back in MD, which is a slight problem, because some of that stuff is stuff I could use, you know, like pillows and tennis shoes (seriously, I have all my shoes here, except my tennis shoes!), and assorted other things. We can not walk into the garage and I have no idea how I am going to arrange the kitchen or really anything else in this house. But, we have a long time to figure that out.
I do have to say the people here are incredibly nice. I think the lady that lives across the street from us (almost) is going to be a new friend...she has 3-5 kids (I am not quite sure how many, she didn't introduce me to any but the last 2) Her 2 youngest are the same age as Nate and Gwen, her 3 year old is 6 days younger than Gwen, I think her youngest is a couple months older than Nate, but I can't be sure, because I met another neighbor at the same time and I think the three kids are all Mar-June or maybe May-June. But, she said she would love to show us around to the parks and whatnot, (since I asked if there was a park close by) and she told me about a pool we could join for the summer that is a good deal cheaper than our neighborhood pool, maybe next year. We are in a cul-de-sac and it seems that there are 4 of us moving in, so hopefully we will have some good luck with the neighbor situation. I am encouraged that I might have already found someone to play with Gwen. YAY!

Wohoo, random & rushed!

We got the official all clear to close today! Holy man do we have a lot to do. More packing! I have reserved the truck, set up the utilities and did a little more packing. We don't know when the official close is, I know we have been penciled in for Monday! The only thing I am sad about is in waiting so long to set up the internet connection it appears I won't be able to connect to the internet until the 9th! AHHH!!! So I guess this spot will be dead for a while. :( We are going to head down to NC on Sunday, have the final walk through and praying we close Monday! BTW-Sunday is our anniversary, pretty fitting to be driving the truck down...if you have known us for a while you might know that we spent our first anniversary driving from Utah to SoCal with lab equipment from a government test. We know how to party around here.
Yesterday Gwen was bitten by some kind of ant looking thing that caused her ear to swell today (FYI-bug bites take 24-48hrs to swell!) She has been amped up on Benadryl since then. Eric came over and played with the kids and I got more packing done. I think I still need more boxes, so that will likely be my first mission of the day.
Random and rushed, that is all I have time for right now!

The craziness that is everyday!

As I have mentioned before we are trying to move, this week it is not going well. (so if you are still reading this and you pray, please add us to your list!) I have several issues with this, my own personal way of dealing with things may not be the best...I get depressed, lose all hope and then come up with an idea and things are better. Granted this doesn't sound like a problem, but the process takes several days to play out. And during the intervening time I have children to take care of (but I don't feel like cooking/cleaning, etc) and packing to do and generally just want to be left alone, which is obviously not possible. The kids have been great, super "easy" to take care of, not too whiny not too cranky, and when I have stuff that has to get done, I can do it they will leave me alone (to run downstairs get a statement scan and send off to the people). Sure, it is not all "peaches and cream" around here, but we are having a relatively good time I think, and I am no longer considering "fight or flight" scenarios. Of course, maybe now would be a good time to start a letter writing campaign to the corporations who make you jump through hoops and then leave you hanging. I have 2 that I would like to send blazing letters to...of course do companies really care about customer service anymore, I don't feel like the customer is always right, is what they promote anymore!

But onto my kids, 'cause that is what you are here to see. These are from the last 2 days, can you believe it, current pictures! I know! This first picture I think is super cute of Nate. It is getting harder and harder to get pictures of him, he wants to be right in my eye when he sees the camera. I get this look alot, doesn't he just look sinister, but so cute! I feel like this picture is fairly typical, Gwen running around in circles, Nate playing with a toy.

This one is also fairly typical, Nate, distracted by the toy he sees, forgets about the toy in his hand.

We needed a musical interlude, apparently.

Back to the corn popper, or as Gwen calls it the "vacuum".

Trying to turn the popper around.

He's got it worked out!

See, more running.

This is Nate's new game, well Gwens also. Putting something on the head and he smiles and giggles and walks around with it.

Gwen is putting on "sunblock", I know, they are stickers, she was kind enough to put some on me also. We had to walk around like this. She decided today that she would use stickers instead of sunblock. I did get her to put sunblock on her before we went for our afternoon "constitutional" to the "big old playground."

Nate still playing with the cake topper...actually this was after our walk, and nap. I think the kids are really enjoying the plasticware that I haven't packed yet.

Hi Nate!

He is so much fun right now, he blows kisses, gives kisses, and is always so happy, he is trying to be the death of me and I am looking forward to moving somewhere with a lot less stairs! He also loves to say "hi" and we are teaching him new syllables, which he will repeat incessantly.

Routines

The problem I have had with the last couple of months has been the routine is off. I don't like that not that I like routines, but what I have found with kids is everyone is happier if their is a routine. My current problem is that I have them napping too late so it has them going back to bed an hour later than I would like it.

This picture is from the other day...I was laying on the floor and Nate tripped over me and landed on his back, and just laid there for a long time...long enough for me to stare at him, turn on the camera and take his picture...and he was completely unphased by the whole thing.

Now we have "outside" time mid-day. I think this must be why Gwen has started to take afternoon naps again...I am wearing her out.
We have been going outside from 1 to 2-2:30ish (as long as we don't have errands to run).

Today we took out some toys and played out front so I could take care of some yard work Eric left for me.

Look, Gwen pushing her brother

she makes me far too nerous though because she has the ability to push up on it and get a wheel off the ground...

but at least I am not the one pushing him around!

Here is a video of Nate playing with the bike himself. You can tell he is torn, play with the bike or go get the chalk from my sister and the neighbor, chalk is something I am not supposed to have, but I like to put it in my mouth!

Nate and Gwen talking to the distracted by the neighbor girl...

The neighbor was trying to teach Gwen how to climb a tree...good luck! Gwen's strong suit is not climbing! I just missed the picture of Gwen swinging from the bottom limb. :( (Sorry watching Nate, what can I say!)

the deck

A couple weeks ago we heard the ice cream man. Apparently this is a great big deal, if you could see how Eric ran out the house and down the street with Gwen, and you know what, they brought nothing for me! :(
But onto the rest of the post, as you can see we were taking stuff off the deck and putting in storage, and letting Nate play outside while Gwen ate her ice cream, he first decided to play with the hammer.

As usual he had to taste the hammer to see what it actual is.

Oh, just realized I was taking pictures...

Ew, what's that!

What's in there?

Eric just making sure Nate doesn't bonk his head.

I'm in!

Well, now what?

Now how do I get out?

Daddy let me back in!

Hi Mommy!

Maybe I should try this again, it was fun last time!

Well, maybe not...

Packing

packing and more packing. I wish I could say there was an end in sight. I am beginning to wonder if there will ever be an end date. Of course, it would help if we were going to make our closing date. :( It appears the cards are against us. We have had several things stand in our way and it has been many ups and downs and frankly I am not sure my heart or stomach can take much more of this. But through it all the kids have been very good. They have played well by themselves so I could endlessly be on the phone and pack and do whatever else I have had to do. One day this week while Nate was napping I thought I would pack, I set Gwen up with some painting, but she didn't last long and thought she should "help" me!

She made a train of boxes.

When we paint around here, we take of our shirts (when we are under say 5) that day she was wearing a dress, all day I looked for it, couldn't find it. The next morning I found it.

along with some books she apparently wanted to pack up.

Dr. appt

Here are the vital stats:
Weight: 22lb 7oz (50%)
Height: 28.3/4in (25%)
How does this compare to his 9 months stats...that is a 1lb, 15oz. and 1/4in.
Today's Dr's appointment was rather hectic. It shouldn't have been, I was there early, they were apparently running late, which meant they ran too close to Nate's nap time. :( Also, they have the hardest time measuring his length. Everytime they measure his length 3-4 times, basically, at some point he shrunk...ok not really, but I suspect when they orignally measured him at the hospital it was wrong and since then they are having a problem getting him in the right percentage. The CRNP was talking about getting him back in, in a month to check him out, but we are moving, so I won't have to do that. Nate is hitting all his milestones and so I am not sure that he is having a problem weight/height wise. Some kids don't adhere to a chart! So, maybe when I start seeing a real Dr (or someone I actually like in NC), we can discuss such things, but measuring someone who doesn't stay still, is very subjective and since I had the issue with Gwen "not gaining enough" when she was a baby, which I think is attributed more to scale variablitly than actual true numbers I don't put much stock in the whole thing anymore. (But, that is just how I feel!)