First haircut

I have been pressured to cut Nate's hair. So today we all went to get our hair cut by my friend who also cut Gwen's hair for the first time. Gwen went first! She was excited because she got a lollipop for being a good hair cut victim.
Here are some pictures of Nate before, just so you know what to compare to.

Here we are getting ready.

Nate as you can tell was not thrilled, really I have to give Angela props, Nate did not like the hair cut. He didn't like the her spraying the water, combing his hair...really anything. And neither Nate nor I got any cuts with the scissors!

He was bouncing around too...

I thought if we tried sitting him down that would be better, because he wouldn't be able to jump around...

But he then tried to hit the scissors and still no cuts!

All done and super happy!

We tried to get pictures of the 3 of us, but it didn't work out very well!...Nate was still not very happy! :(

3 years

I don't know what to say really, I mean in some sense it seems like many, many years ago, but truly 3 years is not a long time in the overall scheme of things. I don't seem to be as affected this year as I have in years past. (if you are a new reader, check out here or here) I mean if you look at Gwen who will be 3 in 6 weeks (AH!!!) she has learned to walk and talk and grown so much. But generally it still sucks my Dad is gone. Fortunately, this year I don't have time to think much about it, I am so busy with this packing and moving, I don't have time to focus. I am thankful that this year I wasn't depressed, that's a good thing, but I can't be sure that the depression won't come back next year, I have no plans to be packing and moving next year! I can tell you, I got super excited to find an old show that Dad and I used to watch on Hulu that I am looking forward to show Eric, he has never seen it before.
I don't have any new insights, I don't have any new feelings, and I am not sure I feel any different. Sure, I don't cry as much, but I still get teary (and if you know me IRL that statement, might just blow you away!) of course having a baby and nursing for basically the last 3 years could have something to do with the hormones, not that I am trying to make excuses. I am sure this post is random and distracted, which I think is how I am functioning at this time. I suspect sometime in the next 3 months I will be less distracted. But then again, I have 2 kids, I might never recover!

Nate the Great

In cleaning up for the garage sale, I found the cord for the camera! Wohoo! How did I decide to celebrate, by doing an entire post to Nate! Nate, as I have mentioned before is a very happy, jolly baby. He doesn't really like Daddy kissing him, well, really anyone but me kissing him...I can always sneak one in!
Sometimes I really have to wonder about Nate, I think he is going to give me a run for my money, here he has figured out how to pop the top off his tray. Seriously, should he have been able to figure it out?
and now he uses it to play peek-a-boo!

Have I mentioned he likes corn?

CORN! from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Here he comes! Watch out!Nate tries to open the gate, he LOVES to go up the stairs, he also likes to watch people through the bannister.
Nate makes it VERY difficult to do any chores...he chases after the vacuum. He doesn't listen when you tell him no...he just smiles at you shakes his head and continues on...
as seen here:

Vacuums! from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

The little man has started walking, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, he doesn't realize this is a mode of transportation he can use to get from A-B!

Nate walking from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

update, bullet style

There is a lot going on, a lot I would like to document, but I don't have much time these days. Also missing the cord for the camera, so there won't be any pictures for a while!

• Nate took 5 steps today! He has been taking steps for a while, but that is the first time he tried to do more than one and maybe was conscious of what he was doing. There was much cheering and celebrating!
  
• We are cleaning out and packing. What we didn't realize is that we haven't emptied the file cabinet in months, we have a stack of papers to toss that I can not believe! Seriously, do I still need my utility bills from CA? I think not!
• We are doing the community yard sale, this is the first time we have done a yard sale and are selling stuff at rock bottom prices, ok maybe not, but we are selling stuff that doesn't fit into the next house.
• Nate is not yet sleeping through the night, but he will put himself back to sleep if something disturbs his slumber...which means if I hear him in the middle of the night I don't have to get him right away, he will put himself back to sleep. He has been sleeping to 5/6am. Nursing and then going back to sleep.
• Nate LOVES corn...and corn on the cob, you would think it is the greatest thing he has ever seen! He gets so excited and eats it all up...Gwen on the other hand, tasted the corn on the cob, still doesn't really like it, but she tried it, with no prompting, actually asked for it! YAY!
• I do not love the house that we have put an offer on, but there are several things I am excited about:

1. Although the house is smaller it is on one floor, this excites me because less space to clean, but means that when a child is crying in their room, I will be able to hear it.
2. Although I don't like that the front door is on the side and so therefore a side door, I will likely be able to open it during the day and still have privacy but be able to have a breeze.
3. The washer and dryer will be more accessible during the day...it is nice that laundry is upstairs by the bedrooms, it is a pain to get to during the day with the kids around...someone little man tries to eat the edge of the washer (it is a front loader) and will NOT be distracted from his target!
4. A YARD! small that it is, it is our own space

• We have a lot of packing to do. I have almost finished the kitchen of non-essentials, things we can live without for a while...I hope no one visits that wants coffee!
• Gwen is starting to remember her letters and recognize them, if she thinks there is a reward involved.
• I love having Eric home, but I am looking forward to doing some deprogramming, I kind of feel like he is cramping my style. This will likely be a time we look back on fondly and say remember when you were unemployed and we could run to the store and pretend like we only had one kid...do you remember that, it was lovely?
• Gwen is T-2 months from 3!
• Nate is T-1 month to 1!!!!!
• We have yet to finalize the details of the move...do you know crazy this makes me?!?!?
• We have yet to find out if we will get the loan...this does not drive me crazy, it makes me nervous!
• I have been reading a book that discusses interpersonal relationships and how to deal, it is fascinating to me and I hope that I am able to learn from it.
• Nate appears to be getting in 3 teeth, 3! That seems bizarre to me, shouldn't teeth come in pairs, this will bring his grand total to 7, 4 on top, 3 on bottom.

Off to get more stuff done on the house. We know how to live it up!

Swim lessons

Swim lessons are over now, which makes us sad. :( We love Miss Michelle. I think Gwen has made some great improvements, look at her, in the pool, without me...touching Miss Michelle! I can't believe it! These pictures are from a couple weeks ago. Here she is swimming with her little friend and some other girl. There are only 6 kids per class.

Gwen, messing around on the ramp, which she should not be doing! I think she is practicing "monkey walks".

Sitting on the steps, avoiding the splashes...seriously, if she was having a "cranky" day she would cry any time someone would splash her. I just wanted to say, seriously, you are in a pool and they are not drenching you, just little splashes, not even your face!

Here Gwen is doing her monkey walks, she loves those things and would probably do them around the whole pool...

getting out to jump in, Michelle teaches them how to pull themselves out of the pool using their upper body strength, straight up...I guess that is something they wouldn't do naturally.

JUMPING IN!

I don't know what is going on here!
I don't have any pictures of Nate in the pool, because I am in the pool with him. Needless to say he LOVES it! He just kicks and kicks. He also drinks some water, but really the thing he LOVES the most is watching me blow bubbles and trying to catch them, he just laughs and laughs. Completely different from his sister's first experiences, I had to devote whole blog entries to the lessons! I guess that is what happens when you have 2 everything is completely different.

No name

We have been incredibly busy around here. I mean super busy, we have put an offer down on a house, thanks to my Mom she watched the kids while Eric and I looked at houses and we found a house. We put down an offer, haggled and have a contract. Now we have to secure a loan and figure out what to do around here. My Mother also packed up the house, and would have gotten a lot more done, if we had more paper and boxes, and we had a lot. Fortunately today I got a lead on more (free) paper and we will just keep going back to the liquor store and the grocery store until we get enough boxes to continue packing.
So now we are catching up around here, Nate is causing some havoc to my sleep schedule. I am tired, it is all his fault. He is waking up and not settling, well I am done! I don't know if he needs to start sleeping through the night, but I am tired of this and that is usually all it takes to start training. Nate is such an eater during the day, I don't know that he needs the night time eating, we will see how it goes! I might be up late again tonight writing blog posts. Don't hold your breath, I will likely be upstairs reading while he is screaming/crying. I forgot to mention Nate now has 3 more teeth, 2 on the top, 1 on the bottom, do you think that explains the chewing on anything and everything!?
Gwen, well I think she is suffering from a lack of sleep I think, acting not quite herself, tomorrow she WILL be going down for a nap. Remarkably both Gwen and Nate were both very good on the trip (baring that incident where Nate decided not to sleep at night, see sleep training!) we were very proud of them. I am sure Grandma enjoyed her quality time with them while Eric and I were gone...no meddling parents to bother with. Grandma could teach Gwen wonderful things, like "Nate's got a Mullet" (which I contend that he doesn't, but I guess I will have to take a picture and then upload it.)
Ok, well that is a small update, maybe one day I will upload pictures again. But I don't know if you can count on that being anytime soon!

A couple things

So, how's it going? We're fine, busy, feeling better and getting this house in order. Eric has been working hard, I have been taking the kids out, so he can work hard. I still seem to be pretty tired by the evenings, not tired enough to go to bed, but too tired to move. I have found that if I go to bed too early and I get awakened in the night I can't get back to sleep! I guess that must be why my Dad used to snooze on the couch before moving to the bed for his real sleep! (please excuse the mountain of laundry in my closet! Eric thought the kids were being cute, so he took some pictures.)

They were actually playing together, looking at the toy together, you know sharing, like they liked each other!

Nate is getting more and more into things, babies like him are why they invented baby locks! He is everywhere and he thinks when you move him from something he is not supposed to be touching while saying no, that is a fun game! Suffice it to say, it is not going well, this no thing! Gwen asked me today if I was going to put him into time out! He is a mad man, crawling around on the floor, he can really come after you quickly, I totally have to start cleaning, i.e. vacuuming and laundry while he is not around, he totally gets all up in my business, and have I mentioned, he doesn't really think no means "NO!" This is one of the toys I purchased that is one thing that would totally get put in the trash, but both kids love it! It has the most sensitive switch and it can be very LOUD. I tell you that is the worst thing about buying the kids toys used at these large sales, no perception of how loud something really is!

The problem with this toy, apparently Nate has figured out how to stand on it and I went to get a picture (like a good Mom!) and then he got excited I was taking his picture and fell down, and this is the picture I got! You can see, rather upset...

Gwen is still adjusting to the boundaries, she is really having a difficult time understanding that she isn't allowed to do something Nate is and she is trying to tell him what to do and take stuff from him. I do have a funny story about Gwen, have I mentioned that she is a mimic? Well the other day we were at Barnes & Noble and Gwen had me help her take off her jacket and then she picked up a "baby" and lifted up her shirt to nurse and then put her jacket over the baby. The reason why this was funny, is because there was a someone in the store nursing her baby! She's never actually tried to publicly nurse a "baby".
The other day I took Gwen outside to distract her from the fact that she wanted to be with Daddy while he was trying to work. She seems to have figured out how to blow bubbles without actually trying to drink the liquid; a big step!

Feeling better, but not 100%

It has been awhile since I updated on the real day-to-day around here. Of course I don't know that there has been a real day-to-day around here in months, especially since we came back from the big RV trip and all got sick! :( I think we are all on the mend, so I hope we can all get the ball moving on this moving thing.
Did I mention that Nate has learned to crawl up the steps? So we definitely have to stairs up gates closed now. While I am speaking about Nate I should mention that he is a super fast crawler now, if he sees something he wants, he is out of here! I have also not mentioned Nate's swim classes, he LOVES them. They are little too close to nap time, but he kicks the whole time, he loves chasing after the ball and he loves get his face wet and he loves when I blow bubbles and he tries to "catch" them. Today I tried to get him to be upright, and he got "mad" and flopped himself back down so he could be "swimming" again.

Gwen is getting to be a challenge. We imagine that is becuase she is 2.5! Difficult age, I have been told by many people. I hear that 4 is a good age! And it is not that she isn't sweet and loving, oh she has her moments, she is quite funny. Her conversations are quite humourous, when we know what she is talking about, but the thing is you must know what has gone on in the last couple of days because she often picks up our conversations and adds them into hers, so you don't always know what she is saying, unless you are in the trenches, so to speak. But, she is definitely very trying these days, she does not like to share any of the spotlight with anyone else! Especially Nate! She does not want to share with him, she wants to have our attention, postive or negative, all the time and she doesn't care if she sits in time out (if she is especially ornery). I think we will make it, but I tell you she really knows how to test our patience...but she's usually still good in public, these are only home battles!

We have hammered out the details for the coming weeks of house moving/hunting and whatever else. We are definitely starting to get our act together so hopefully we can make this as painless as possible? Ok, who am I kidding, this process will have some pain, we have 2 young children to work around! But, at least Eric is unemployed so we can tag team house projects and watching kids. That is to say, this might not be updated much, if not at all in the upcoming weeks. We will see how it goes! Eric was able to get a picture of Nate's teeth! He loves scrunching up his nose and smiling. We think he is soon going to have 4 top teeth and 2 bottom, but I haven't seen or felt the proof yet.

Kites

A couple days before we left we decided to try to fly kites, we weren't 100% successful, but we had fun!

RV day 5-7

Ok, so I guess with day 5-7 I should announce that we have decided to move to NC. Sorry about that AL friends, we decided to go with the better school and the more poor route. This will really test what I have been telling Eric, I don't need lots of things to be happy...but it is a nice area and we are looking forward to the new surroundings.
So, on to the RV trip: We visited with my goddaughter and her family and then went to Chucky Cheese for dinner and met with some other friends. It was a long evening. I am quite amazed the Gwen & Nate did so well. The next day we left to drive home and this was the day I about flipped out. It was a long day, we stayed that night in a real live RV campground, all I can say is WOW! The lady that was running that place, WOW! She kept calling the kids, "little humans" does that bother anyone else? I mean sure they are little humans, but they are children, and did you know that they charge extra for the children, what's that about? On the next day we drove home, put the kids to bed, cleaned the RV and slept in our own beds!!!! AWESOME!

So now we are home, the decision has been made, is anyone else stressed out and frazzled? Ok, actually I am not stressed out and frazzled, I am just having a problem figuring out what day it is, we have been unable to have our exercise group due to illness and I think Gwen is also either coming down with something or is having seasonal allergies. So in case I don't get back on here before Sunday...Happy Easter!

Evening Day1-Day4!

Here are days 2, 3, & 4 and a couple of shots from the evening of Day1.

So, I guess I haven't really discussed the trip yet. It was a pretty good trip. We looked at houses in both NC & AL. The kids were good, despite having late nights every night. Eric did all the driving and I did all the entertaining. Eric says he doesn't want to do any driving for like a week, I think that means I shouldn't have to do any entertaining!
Day 1 we picked up the RV and then drove the RV to a questionable park in Chapel hill, we were in the overflow lot, next to the dumpster and some kind of construction site. Day 2 we saw some houses, most pretty nice. Then we drove to Jess's and hung out briefly with her and the kids.
Then, day 3, we drove to Birmingham and stayed with John & Liesa. The only problem with these pictures is that I forgot to bring in my camera in when we were there, I was so tired after that 7hour drive! I must apologize to Liesa's Mom (Hi!) who reads this blog and I should have pictures of her Grandkids on here, sorry! I wish I had my camera because Gwen was so funny, she just wormed her way onto the couch right in between them. We all had a pretty good laugh about that (us parents!) This was also the first night I got a really good night of sleep because John & Liesa & the boys were kind enough to let Nate and I sleep in the house, while Gwen and Eric slept in the RV.
Day 4 we looked at houses in Birmingham, and then drove to Beth's house. This concluded the "business" portion of the trip (the looking at the houses, which was the whole reason for the trip!) We played a fun game with Brian & Beth while the girls played all played together and watched TV!

Decisions, decisions!

We are in the mist of decision making, Eric has until tax day to notify his school of choice, so I hope he will make that decision soon! But, really that is a post for another day! Today we are here to discuss the fact that we are safely home from our RV trip. We returned the RV and have I mentioned we all arrived safely. The trip went well, I only had 1 day where I demanded Eric get me out of the RV before I threw myself out the window...I would say that is a good trip! Eric did all the driving, which meant I did all the entertaining. I don't really know who was more tired!
So, I leave you with RVing, day1...when I find my camera, I will likely update with more pictures...ENJOY!