Bunk bed

The kids need a bunk bed and instead of buying one Eric decided to make one.  I have been trying to talk him out of doing it for weeks.  Not because I doubt his abilities, but because I was afraid it was going to take forever and although I love my children, containing them while Daddy is home and they can't play with him is an altogether another story.  Nate told me it was like "daddy was at work" and he didn't seem 100% pleased.  The first day, Gwen decided to sort all the puzzles we have, which is about 8 kid puzzles and 3 puzzle books. That actually took most of the morning and the kids seemed to enjoy it, but by the afternoon they were toast, so we watched a movie, it was too rainy to go outside and Eric didn't want us to leave since he was running the saw, in case of emergency!  By the first night he had finished the bottom, but didn't have enough wood to finish the top, so he had to go back to the store for the 3rd time.  We put the room "back together" and put Gwen's bed on the bottom and left Nate's daybed together.  Eric was curious about some noises he heard and went in and found they had made a fort out of the bed and last night they slept in the fort, it was really sweet.

So, day 2 we went to Church came home and Eric had almost finished the slats and needed more stuff from the store (trip 4 if you are keeping track) so we all went and Eric struggled to finish realizing he needed 1 more run to the store (trip 5) and finally he finished.  The kids and I persevered through another day with minimal fighting and disturbance.  But, man they wanted to help and play with Daddy!  Here is a slide show of the bed making! 

Bunk bed - how to make a free slideshow

On day 2 while Eric was working we decided to work on Gwen's "landform" for school.  Can you tell what she decided to do? 

It is the desert.  I made the "modeling clay" and she helped with the colors, a little and then she designed and made the rest of it.  I have to laugh because it is so hilarious what she thinks and how she gets confused.  She told us the sun is always shining in the desert (the moon never comes out) and there is a buffalo and cacti and a snake.  She has a whole story for the buffalo, which I can't remember but it was walking through the desert and what not, who knows. She has been to the desert before, so I was thinking that should help her, but you've got to let them do what they want, fortunately this isn't for a grade, just for fun!

So now all that is left to do is buy a twin mattress for Nate, rearrange the room, paint the bed and we'll be done...how long do you think that will be?

Outside

We have a big field at the end of the neighborhood, the kids love to go there and run wild.  The husband enjoys running around with the kids, so I sat on the hill and watched. 

They would come and check on me every so often, but I was knitting and watching them, so I was good. 

It is good for them to get out in this unseasonably warm weather and run some energy out.  I know some day it might actually become winter here and they will have to stay indoors.

They are a little crazy, but man do they like to run outside! 

We like to encourage the running around outside, so they don't run around in the house and scream at each other.  Of course when they get too tired they whine more, but then they go to bed early, you win some you lose some.

New Year's Eve

We were pretty excited to have visitors for New Year's Eve. Gwen was really excited, she wouldn't go to the grocery store with Daddy and she wanted to decorate the driveway. 

I think that Eric might have helped a little. 

It was nice to my friend and her daughter.  We don't get to see each other that often, even though we live closer than we used to, and we seem to be in the exact same place in life currently.  Which you know doesn't always happen, made Eric a little uncomfortable, just the idea of what we would talk about sent him off to another room!  But we had fun, kids stayed up too late, and we saw the ball drop.  The neighbor was kind enough to make a special trip to bring over some sparkling cherry juice that she apparently had laying around, so we were able to enjoy that in Champagne glasses, like we were real drinkers!  A good night indeed!

Mother-daughter tea

Gwen and I were invited to a Mother-Daughter tea on New Year's Day. (this is why we had the big practice tea party with Grandma).  Gwen was super excited and decided to wear her Christmas dress and I asked her if she wanted to do her hair in the hot rollers.  She said yes!  She wasn't pleased with the length of time the curlers were in her hair, but I tried to keep them in for as long as possible.  One thing I know about my hair is it starts out big and then falls, was pretty sure Gwen's would do the same.  

BIG HAIR!!

I combed it out a little, and she was ticked at me, but her hair is actually cut to curl out, so I just brushed it out a little. 

Ready for the party!

She and her little girlfriends had a great time.  They got to paint a little tea pot and cup, drank hot chocolate, ate little sandwiches and put on a play.  It must have been a lot of fun for her, she asked if we could go to another one the next day.  My friend has said she would like to make this an annual thing, I hope so, it was fun to chat with the Moms and watch the girls and their "play".

The Kindergartener!

Today was a big day for us, the oldest started Kindergarten! She has been so excited to start Kindergarten. I think she's been ready since the day after preK ended. The husband wasn't sure we should send her to preK, but on days like today I was totally sure it was the right thing to do. Gwen was already to go this morning, about 15 minutes before we had to leave, she confidently got out the car and held the 8th graders hand and went into the school.
We had a Meet-the-teacher on Sunday afternoon, where Gwen met her other classmates, her teacher and I took some pictures. Next to the birthday board.
Next to her cubby.
With her crazy brother.
On her first day of school, in her uniform!
On the way to the car.
With her brother, but who's the crazy one now?


Walking out with the eighth grader-in the background in red is her preK teacher, chatting with the Kindergarten aides. I saw her turn, spot Gwen, catch herself and turn around. It was until then that I held it together and I am going to blame her teacher on that.
Gwen only had a half day today, so Nate and I ran some errands, came home, started some laundry and went back to pick her up. You can see her in the picture walking to the steps.
She apparently had a good day. They read a book, and she talked about some stuff that happened, I think we are on par with a good day again tomorrow. She was super nervous and excited about school today. As a matter of fact we apparently decided to have a party last night between 2 & 4am. FUN! Oh wait, not fun at all, we are all exhausted. I was not pleased at all, since I had to get up and run this morning! I am going to try and put them to bed in about an hour or so. (Heh, just kidding) I did enjoy the one on one time with Nate. He was terribly clingy today, but I suspect the is the exhaustion, well that with a side of Momma's boy. I could tell he missed Gwen terribly. I don't know what I'm going to do with Nate all day, I guess I'll find out tomorrow!

New bike

Today I am going to post the videos I took of Nate riding his new bike. I seriously can't keep up with him, I had to run next to him! I am noticing his balance, if the bike begins to tip to one side he can usual compensate for it. Today he had his first hit the pavement with his chin spill. He was ticked, but he hopped right back on. To watch him "fall" off his bike is something kind of funny that I can't describe, one day I hope to get them on video. Gwen had the idea to attach her stroller to her bike so her bear could go for a ride, so I took some video of that also, because I thought it was so sweet.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Happy 3rd birthday!

Today is Nate's 3rd birthday! It is so hard to believe he is 3, mostly because he's talked like a 3 year old for several months now. He's also now day potty trained, which you don't often see in 3 year old boys. He is much improved this year. We are still suffering through a boy who does not nap but probably should, but who would want to nap when there is so much fun going on during the day with Gwen home.
He is quite a sweet boy. He has his favorite people and he gives them leg hugs and such. He still gives a good hug and kiss to all of us, he loves to cuddle for sure.
As I've mentioned he is a very good talker and seems to be very smart. It will be interesting to see if that translates well to book smart. He is a very active boy and has to be watched all the time! He also seems to be very musical. He always wants to listen to music and often plays the piano or the guitar or whatever.
Today has been a very good day for the birthday boy. We decorated the house up and woke up to the sounds of Gwen yelling about balloons. Nate has been walking around all day declaring "it is my birthday!" He seemed to love all his presents and is so aggreable and happy that we all had a lovely day. His godmother and her daughter were able to come up and join us for the afternoon, which was lovely. And although we could not find Nate's "Speed" car to put on his cake, he loved it nonetheless! He is currently camping outside in the new tent he and Gwen have received for their birthdays! Here is a slideshow from today. Enjoy!

my luck

I have been thinking, it is time to do a how my kids have matured post. My kids are at the age that is really great. At this point they genuinely like each other and I used to separate them for quiet time, but it is working better to keep them together. Nate would just trash the bedroom and Gwen would be bored and keep bothering me. They would be whining and fighting in the car, so I thought maybe they need time apart...apparently not, they need time away from me. I am cool with that, Gwen is enough of a tattle tale that if Nate gets into something she lets me know. It is a good system!Gwen has blossomed, as her teachers at school tell me. She is quite the sweet little girl. She is becoming more independent and often makes lovely conversation, for her age. She is coming along in the writing department. I think she has a long way to go, but as a right hander I keep out of it, so I don't confuse her poor left handedness. She is in a lovely phase where she will ask me to spell things out for her and she will right them down. She knows some "sight" words, I was rather shocked to see that, but very proud of her. While she was on spring break I brought her to Bible Study and she had all those little boys playing games and being quiet and mostly out of trouble. She has no problem being in charge. But, I think she sometimes just watches a lot especially if someone else is in charge and she doesn't want to do what they are doing. She seems to not always stand up for herself, if no one has taken the lead she will, but won't always defend herself, so we will have to work on that a little. I don't want her beating up on people, but I'd like her to learn not everyone will do what she wants to do all the time so she's not such a sore loser. I am sure that will come in time!
Gwen and Nate are definitely in a lovely phase of getting along, it certainly makes my life easier that they genuinely like each other and want to hang out together. I have noticed that now that Nate has gotten older the playing is getting a little rougher, plus Nate's I don't care attitude about bugs/insects is really having a good influence on Gwen the "AHHHHHHHH A BUG" screaming phase is tapering. She doesn't always love the insects but she often says "oh what a cute caterpillar...." I am afraid we might have bugs coming into the house, because my children bring them into the house! I am not looking forward to that at all.
Nate is something else; a real charmer! He has all the ladies fooled. He is mostly potty trained, unless he is particularly tired, (apparently like today). He only seems to have accidents at home though, so I am pretty happy about that. Well not really happy about it, until I just typed it out just now and have to say, if he's going to have an accident anywhere I'd rather it be at home then when we are out somewhere. He is a talker and he loves music, if he could sing and listen to music all day, he would. He is a little crazed sometimes, but he seems to be pretty smart and sometimes follows directions the first time you tell him...that is of course if he isn't tired, hungry, or has to pee! He is sweet and affectionate. He gives anyone he knows hugs and kisses.
In other news, my kids are obsessed with pets. They pretend to be dogs and lap water out of bowls/cups, whatever. They walk each other on leashes. It is quite cute. I guess one day we'll have to get them a pet. Probably won't be for a few years yet.

The marathon

The epic battle, potty training. It is not that terrible, the problem is that while I have a urgency to get done with the potty training, Nate doesn't care, he is 2 after all and to him so what Mom is always doing laundry and is washing the floor more than usual. He doesn't care. He is not trying to be ugly or contrary. I am convinced he can do it and he knows what he is doing, but as with everything else, as he starts to get tired and hungry all of our training goes out the window. He does awesome in the morning, it is in the afternoon we have all our accidents. Of course as with everything with Nate it is a rather humorous prospect, I am sure lucky that Nate is the second child and Gwen broke me in to the whole epic nature of the "potty training experience". I am not as frustrated and take it all in stride. I think we are getting close, we only had the one accident and he apparently pooped in the potty today (unlike yesterday when he pooped on top of the potty). But we have all learned that when Nate poop on the potty come get Mommy because Mommy needs to help wipe. (she doesn't want to continue to wipe up poop from places that aren't your butt). I have also learned that boys need way more underpants for "practice" than girls. Nate is pretty good about sitting on the potty and pointing, but man the aiming thing doesn't always go as planned. I don't understand why and I am not sure I want to, but needless to say, we change underpants A LOT even though we don't have that many accidents. He only has that problem at home though. So this weekend we got another 7 pack, Nate is pretty excited.
He took them all out and put them on his head, and told us he was Mater! This weekend we helped with the Used book sale at school, this is Eric's type of activity. I signed him up to clean up and we went a little early and he bought a lot of books and talked about it all weekend. While we were there we looked at Gwen's classroom, I don't know if you can read her praying hands...
it says "I pray for Lana's dog Chewy and my family and my Uncle Eric". What is funny is we do special intentions everyday and we pray for our friends and their dog who has been deceased over a year, they've never met the dog, but we pray for him, everyday!
I think I have previously mentioned my free tulips and I think it is kind of funny that I planted all these tulips and I got all the pink on one side and all the yellow on the other. But these last to pop up are so pretty I made the kids pose in front of them. I think you can see we chopped off Gwen's hair! She wanted it to be short like her friend's I am pretty excited about it, she looks cute and so much easier to maintain!

Big Day

We aren't that far from Raleigh, so one Sunday after Church I suggested we drive there and take the kids to the museums and the Capital. The kids have been begging to go the museum, so we went. A couple weekends ago. We brought the carrier with us, the kids enjoyed it, here are some pictures from the Natural History Museum. Here they are listening to facts about great NC sports figures.
Here is Nate riding in the canoe, who knew he was allowed to climb in there! Gwen was too chicken to do it, but a museum employee said you want to get in, Nate said sure!
We went to a guided tour of the State Capital. Eric didn't think it was that impressive. But we did get to sit in the seats.
Apparently the Capital building burned down, but one of the things they managed to save was this picture of George Washington, I think it is one of 3 paintings of him. She said it was very heavy!
This was a the other side, I don't remember which side was which! We got to go upstairs and see from top...we thought it was interesting because 2 newspaper reporters sat right up front.
I took a picture of where people could come and sit and watch. It looks fairly uncomfortable.

We also thought this was interesting, apparently they wanted a sculpture of George Washington, they asked Thomas Jefferson who he suggested. He suggested a guy from France who had never met George Washington, and the portrait that was sent never made it, he found a bust of George Washington and was inspired to make him look like Mars, the god of war.
Apparently the men tried to get this out, but it was too large to fit through the door. Fortunately, they were able to re-create this gem for our Capital!

Update

We have been very busy around here the last couple of weeks. Nate showed an interest in potty training and like Gwen I think like Gwen he would do much better if I just let him go with it. It seems to me if I ask him to go and he goes then he forgets to tell me. But then I have issues now like today when he pooped in his underpants (again) and he tried to clean it up. He pooped in his pants yesterday and fortunately I noticed almost immediately. But, sadly today he pooped during quiet time. I made him go potty before we went for a walk this afternoon and today he peed on himself during dinner. So I put him in a diaper! I know that is the wrong thing to do, but I can't handle any more laundry. He is totally able to be potty trained and he has the desire and most of the signs and I want to get it done, but I am tired of the laundry. I don't have any patience for this part of the process especially since he has days when he has no accidents. I just don't know what to do. We will be gone most of the morning again tomorrow so I haven't decided if I want to just let it go with underpants or if I am going put him in diapers and wait until later. This is the part of parenting I am not fond of, maybe I should have read up on a parenting book or something on potty training, because I am obviously no expert.
I seem to be having a random bad week where I break dishes and I get peed on and it generally makes the week frustrating. Sure they have been great moments but generally things just aren't going my way this week. Which happens to everyone on occasion. So, we will see what next week brings, it is going to be a quieter week, I think.

New bike

The other day, ok maybe a couple weeks ago I saw my neighbor throwing this out in the trash.
I thought why let that go to waste, so I picked it out of the trash. (It was on the top) I thought even if it didn't work for Nate we could give it to one of my friends' kids. Nate loves the thing and uses it all the time. He uses the pedals unlike the other bike we have, so I guess we will keep it. He won't even let Gwen use it.

New trike from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

A conversation

Gwen: Can you share the book with me?
Nate: NO!
Gwen: If you don't share it with me I won't get married to you or play with you at bedtime.
Mom: Gwen, you have to make the consequences something more attainable.
Silence
Gwen: Nate can I have the pirate book?
Nate: This book?
Gwen: Yes!
Nate: YES!
Gwen: Thanks!
Nate: Will you still marry me?

I guess they still like each other...

Spring!

Have I mentioned my husband loves living here? He thinks that the early spring we get here is awesome. This year I was able to secure us some free tulips and I planted them last fall. They are really pretty. It is supposed to be a random assortment and it seems I have put all the pink ones together, at least of the 3 that have bloomed so far they are all pink.

I think they are very pretty, the best free thing I have secured...

St. Patty's Day

I have been incredibly busy, so busy, I've been exhausted and haven't had much time to blog, but I have pictures and things to talk about. Today is the first day in my recent memory that Nate and I had nothing to do this morning. It was lovely, we ate breakfast, first for one of us, second for one us, I'll let you guess which one. So we read some books, sorted some laundry, and this is where the problem began. Our house is tiny, so I can see him from the bedroom in the kitchen. He was playing with the closed vitamin bottles, shaking them while listening to the music, so I was keeping a pretty good eye on him, but what I didn't realize is there was a marker attached to the refrigerator, that he could reach and then he yelled look 2 red ones, and I freaked out thinking he figured out how to get the last 2 (red) vitamins out of the bottle. I saw this:So then we took some pictures of his "work".
Then I decided maybe we should enjoy some outside time. Nate was in agreement so we went for a walk. Nate went for a little run down the hill and in the field. He had a good time. Here you can see more of the "damage".
I decided to do something fun for St. Patty's Day. I am not a huge fan of beef...and the other day we were at a grocery store that was giving samples of corned beef, neither of the kids liked it, I thought why make a meal they won't eat anyway. So I decided to make an all green meal. I was even going to make green cupcakes, but changed my mind...maybe some other time. So today I made green noodles, cabbage and green smoothies. The green smoothies were a hit, although Eric was doubtful. Seriously could not taste the spinach, just tasted like a banana smoothie and I got some spinach in Gwen...score! Man who knew you could sneak veggies into smoothies and you can't even tell!
The kids were distracted by the ability to sit outside and eat for the first time this season.
And, Nate asked to go to bed at 6:30! You can tell that I might have had him outside too much today. He even took a nap. I guess drawing all over yourself with permanent marker will tire a boy out...(and no I didn't wash it off him, I mean if you go through that much effort, you might as well wear it all day with pride)