Things around here are starting to get into a routine. I don't know if it is good or bad, but it is a routine nonetheless. We have most of the boxes taken care of, although there are somethings I am missing, that I would like to find, but they aren't emergencies. The house isn't too bad and we love having the yard. Gwen seems to not want to leave the house, which is strange, she used to always want to go places. We have been watching Sesame Street, but we have run out of taped episodes (we are not getting cable and haven't purchased an antenna yet.) The other day we met some Moms at a local museum that has free entrance for Durham residents during certain times. It was packed, but we all really enjoyed it, I think we will go back on the free days, there was a lot to see that we missed! The funny thing was Nate attached himself to a little girl who was not much younger then him (a month) and kept trying to kiss her. Seriously, so funny, that boy, trouble! The Mom and I just laughed, the little girl likes her own personal space, I have heard her freak out when other kids are too close, so she must like Nate ok. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures.
In other news, I have some weight to lose, no surprise there...we all know I didn't lose the weight after Gwen and I have 5 lbs to lose from Nate. My problem is that the normal "easy" fixes that people talk about, I already do. I don't drink sodas, I exercise, I hardly sit down during the day, but I do probably eat more than I should. It is the quantity of food that I eat is probably the problem. Plus, Gwen wants to eat CONSTANTLY, I am not kidding, it seems like at least every hour she is trying to get me to feed her. Any time I try to eat a piece of fruit it gets confiscated by a kid. So my fruit/vegetable count is hard to judge.
Both kids took naps yesterday afternoon, it was lovely, not just because they napped, but because I think they really needed it and are now more caught up, so there has been less whining and crankiness. YAY! I have given up and making Nate do 1 nap, we will just suffer through the 2 nap thing until he is ready to give it up one of his naps on his own. I just have to be more vigilant about the schedule. Oh, I have forgotten to mention, Nate has been getting in his molars. Sadly, I did not notice, all the moving I thought he was being cranky because of that, oops! Mother of the year, right here. ;) I know, we have had a lot going on. So, he has his top 2 molars completely in, his bottom 2 we are still waiting on. I hope when the finish coming in he will start eating a variety of foods again!

Afternoon fun

I promised Gwen one day that we would fingerpaint. Instead of doing that while Nate napped, I thought that would be a fun thing for them to do together, outside! I didn't take any pictures of Gwen fingerpainting, because, really not a new experience for her.

Much to my surprise, Nate did not eat any of the paint, and as you can tell, not really impressed.

I went to clean them up and noticed the sprinkler and thought that would be a fun way for them to clean off, and it was. At first Nate was very leary...and cried a little bit...

but as you can see, by the end, picking it up and moving it around! (which is when I decided to pack it up!)

(I don't know why the video is not working, I will keep working on it, Mom.)

How's it going?

How are you? We are alive, living, and much better arranged, all good news, yes? If you would have talked to me last week you might not have had such a pretty picture. But, we worked hard this weekend, and the boxes that were in my living space are now gone. The kids are, well, still my kids and still living in the house with us. As Eric told Gwen at one point in the last couple of weeks, you are lucky we moved away from W. VA, because now we can't just drop you off with the gypsies (something he's been telling her every time she is a little crazed and driving us crazy!) The nap situation around here is changing....

look at my sweet girl, she fell asleep while reading her book. Nate on the other hand, has decided to not take his afternoon nap. I have decided after a week or so of not taking that nap it is time to change his schedule, his schedule is very constraining, shall we say. He goes down at 10, so there is no time to really do anything in the morning. Then try to get him back down at 2-3, fit in lunch when he wakes up around 12ish, so that doesn't give us much time, either. So we are trying to start pushing back nap time. So far, not all that far back, 11am, but it did give us more time to play at the park this morning, which I know they both enjoyed.

Gwen is, have I mentioned she is 3! I know I used to talk about 2! this way, so maybe I should start saying !3!! to get my point across. Whole CRAP! (sorry Mom) but man does she make me want to a) drink or b)go back to work. Neither of which are things that can remedy the immediate problem, the whining, the ability for the mood to go from happy to bat crazy in 0.00001 sec. She is turning out to be a good kid, makes me proud, some of the time, and makes me bat crazy, the rest of the time. At least now when she runs in someone's way she says excuse me, instead of disregarding them altogether...a positive step in the right direction, yes? She's cute, she's funny and she I think has grown taller, she now comes up to my hip, almost my waist.

Nate! I know I just posted about him, in his own separate post, but I found these pictures, ok this one I found (edited out his junk, since i feel a little weird about posting that, since he's not a newborn) I think the unedited version might come in handy when we want to threaten to embarrass him in the future, but I have a feeling, he won't really care, but just look at that face! I was actually trying to get a picture of him applying lotion, he is getting really good at that. It is hilarious to watch. (The lotion applying explains why he glistens). There is just something about the way he holds himself that cracks me up, he sticks out his belly as if to say, look at that budda belly...

Do you remember how I described the I want what you've got face? Here it is:

This picture was taken today, by Eric. I have realized that Nate is definitely my boy, he might not look a thing like me, but I handed him a piece of cheese and he threw down the rest of his food and grabbed it up...my boy, makes me proud!

4th of July

Yes, I know it is about 3 weeks after the 4th, but you know, I've had other pictures I would like you to see more. So, here are the pictures. We decided not to do much, mostly because with the kids we had had several late nights in a row and we thought it would be best for them to not have much craziness going on, especially since we didn't actually know the area and what to expect of the stuff that goes on in the parks and whatnot. So, what did we do?

Well, we put together my dresser, Eric and his little helper (who refused to co-operate but I am still posting the pictures).

We ate in doors with food that I thought was "all-american" and finished off with blue cookies that had "all-american" themed sparkles!

Here's what Nate thought!

Then, I ran outside to watch some fireworks and we could see some over the tree tops and I think if we would have walked down the street farther we could have had views of more fireworks, but the kids were sleeping inside, and I felt weird about that. All and all a good day, but not really feeling like a holiday.

Nate!

I wanted to do a post about how Nate has grown in the last month, for his 13th month, you know a couple weeks ago, when he was 13 months, but we are past that now, but better later than never, right! So, how has the little man changed? I would say there must have been a lot I forgot to report last month, which is always possible, since it seems like every time I hit publish on one of these milestone things I think Crap! I meant to say this.
I guess on to the important stuff, milestones. Nate, TROUBLE! Oh, he has a sweet smile, a twinkle in his eye, as he climbs or hits or doesn't listen to what you are saying. And he knows what you are saying, even though he won't always admit it. But, little does he know, I have dealt with this before, his sister was much worse!

He has the cutest, sweetest little voice. And he is a very good mimic, I could swear he already says "Thank you" and now sings along with us he especially loves to sing "old mcdonald" because he can do the "e-i-e-i-o", he loves that part. I know he can't communicate on a grand scale, but it doesn't seem to bother him, he gets his point across and as of yet doesn't get irritated when you don't get what he means. BUT, take away something he wants, that is a whole different story, involving anger and irritation!

The little man, if he wants something, he just puts out his hand like that or he just opens his mouth and you better watch out, he will bite you, as Gwen found out one day, when she tried to feed him. Why she didn't hand him whatever he wanted, I don't know, but he just bit her hand. (not on purpose, I am sure!)

We call him "bubba" and a "bruiser" because he just doesn't care. He will bang anything on anything and like to hear how it sounds. He will walk over anything and walk through anything and sometimes looks where he is going, but oftentimes does not. We laugh because he is so funny about moving and his chubby little legs are so cute to watch walking over stuff.

These pictures show his laziness (and why Gwen probably got bitten) if you hand him food he won't take it from you, he just tries to eat it, without using his hands! Nut case, but funny!

He loves diary at this point, but is not really into eating anything else. He tries stuff, but if he sees cheese he will come after you and eat it. He also loves grapes. And deserts, he seems to like anything desert wise. I am hoping he will start eating a variety of food again, but I suspect it will be a while! :(

One of his current past times is putting things in something else, taking them in and out. He will sit there for quite some time seeing if things will fit, where they will fit and sadly, he loves to put stuff in the bathtub. I forgot this obsession when Eric wasn't around to give baths, I had put his clothes in the bath room and then couldn't find them, when we started the bath, I found them! He doesn't seem to have his sister's OCD obsession of having close doors behind me.

I don't really remember where I was going with this post, since I started it several days ago, but suffice it to say, Nate is a cute and sweet little guy at an age that I really enjoy. He is so cheery and happy and generally fun to be around. You should see how he charms people. People stop and try to get him to smile, and he usually obliges with those blue eyes and chubby cheeks (and the cute sister) he is a charmer.

Of course, we probably wouldn't appreciate who he is or what he is like if we didn't have a child who is going through the terrible 3s! In 1-2 years these posts will probably be different.

The cleanup; the packup

We thought we could get everything in one truck, well let's say I thought we could get everything in one truck...that wasn't possible. So we had to go back to MD to pick up the rest of our stuff. I thought we were going to go back the weekend following our move, 4th of July weekend, but we ended up going back the weekend after. Since this is what I prepared for, I had not brought enough clothes and stuff for more than a week, so by then I was pretty tired of the 4-5 outfits I had for myself and the kids.
So back we went the following weekend and packed up the remaining things and cleaned the house and whatever else needed to be done. Thankfully a good friend came over and watched Gwen in the morning so I could pack and then came back. In the afternoon, Eric and Brooke came over to help. Saturday we got almost everything packed up and then Sunday we cleaned and packed up the rest of the house. Eric came back over to help on Sunday. As you can see I had a little helper.

He sweeps he dusts, he provides musical interludes, what else could you ask for?

He loves banging things (and if you are reading this and think drums would be a good idea, they would NOT!!! This place is too small!)

We also had a helper when moving stuff out...

who may or may not be a little too dramatic about helping.

We made it out, only 2 hours after I wanted to be out. Sadly there was a LOT of traffic for about 10 miles that we sat in for 1 hour. Just a lot of traffic on 95, so we stopped off at Bass Pro Shops we stopped walked around and had dinner. I seriously considered driving the truck back so I did not have to be in the car with Gwen anymore, but I suffered threw it...and we made it! (obviously!) We did have fun at some point on our trip. I have many friends that travel with their kids and they get all geared up to go, sadly, since I had the big move and I was trekking with the kids alone, I was unable to plan big things. I could hand food back, but Gwen had to pass the food back to Nate (which she did). I have no DVD player or any other such device, but that didn't stop us from talking and singing. As a matter of fact the favorite part of our trip was the "sing along". Gwen would tell us songs and then tell me to wait to so she could turn it up and then we would sing the requested song very loud (because that is what she requested!) When we got back I ran into our nice neighbor who offered her husband to help us. He came over the night after we got home and he and Eric moved the remaining stuff into our house! YAY! I will be moving stuff around and hopefully sometime in the next six months I will have this place livable. (My Mom will be here in Oct, so whatever I can't accomplish I know she will help me finish and organize, she LOVES doing it and I will enjoy not having to think about it anymore!)

While I was packing the weekend before we moved Eric watched the kids. Gwen seemed to enjoy playing with the bubble wrap. Apparently she enjoyed it as a wrap dress.

I went back upstairs to continue packing and Eric snaps some pictures.

All this playing with the kids causes tiredness in a parent.

The ear

So a couple weeks ago, before we moved, Uncle Eric came over. Just before he arrived I realized that Gwen's ear was swollen.
You can see it better in this picture, I think.

I gave her some benadryl, which stopped the swelling from getting any worse. But, it didn't take the swelling down. The day before when we had gone to the park, she was scratching her ear and I asked her if it was bothering her and I checked out her ear and got a bug...I don't know what kind, because it was crawling and what not and I just crushed it and didn't want to over react in front of her. I thought it was over, they say it takes 24-48 hours for the swelling from a bug bite. Who knew, I sure didn't.

Eric took the kids to the park and played with them. Gwen read stories with him...

I packed.

Spaghetti Dogs

I need to run some of the pictures that I haven't run what with the packing and the moving and the unpacking. So, while Eric watches a movie, I will sit on the couch with his and do some posts, which I won't all post today, just so you have to come back and check.
A couple weeks ago, likely a month ago, now, I read this post, that sent me to a blog, that I now read regularly, I got hooked when I saw this. I talked to Eric about it and he wanted to be around for the "fun" so we did it on a weekend. So, Gwen and I one Saturday for lunch we decided to make spaghetti dogs...
Here is Gwen showing you her technique.

She would only stuff the hot dogs with one thing of spaghetti per hot dog, I upped that for her and made it more in the center.

But then she finally got the hang of it.

Here are the pre-cooked version. We cooked them until the noodles are al dente.

Here are the finished product.

They weren't actually all that bad, to eat. Gwen pulled the spaghetti out, as best she could, when Nate gets older, I think we will likely make them again.