So, how was your weekend?

Mine was busy and you know crazy. As I mentioned in the last post it started out with cleaning the bathroom, Gwen was helping me as you can see, I forget why she was wearing her towel, but sometimes she wears it when she is cold. I think she told me she was Mary (as in Blessed Virgin Mary, she has a little statue) or a princess, who knows.

Of course, Gwen helping me was not the point of this post, I just thought I should include her. This weekend, since we were home, we worked on the house, you know livable. We started Friday night rearranging the stuff in the garage so we could get to the stuff we needed to put in the attic. The next morning Eric got more plywood and the fun began again, we got more stuff in the attic, but really we need to get way more in there! I hope we can.

Then Eric started working on converting the closet from this:

He had some help as you can see...

Nate is turning into a Daddy's boy, really prefers him, sometimes, grrr! Isn't he the sweetest looking little helper.

Proof Daddy is in there!

Nate thought it was an effective way to use these tools, bang them together.

Maybe we should bang this on this other thing.

This is fun Mommy!

And look, a linen closet YAY!!!

We continued our day by making a living room out of our well, living room. Of course our living room was a box haven, so it is a grand improvement. We ended up the day by hanging up the TV, which we couldn't actually do because well, we needed more parts, so we finished that this morning. So now I can watch TV and do posts and walk through my living and have linens in a closet...now if the rest of the boxes in the garage and scattered throughout the house would disappear, and things could be organized in a way that makes sense, things would just be grand around here. We have decided to go with ghetto fabulous decorating style. (cram stuff wherever it will fit!)

My day so far, update

So, the day ended pretty well. I was not a frazzled mess when Eric got home, both kids had decided to nap and although I have been trying not to let nap for very long, she napped longer than I expected. I opened her door at around 4:30 hoping she would hear me banging around in the kitchen making dinner, but she did not wake up, instead Nate woke up and then I had to force him to go in there and wake her up (I think she wakes up much happier if he does it, even when he head butts her, which is how he gives her kisses, so cute!) So we decided to go for a walk after dinner. And we decided to let Gwen walk and at one point I let Nate walk, he was so HAPPY! He just wandered, he followed and carried a leaf, the point was to tire them out and tire them out we did, we walked about 2 miles! Gwen had to be carried for a while, and then she ran most of the way home.

Today we started out the day going to the mall and meeting some local Moms at a Moms group, we walked and then let the kids play at the play area. Then we came home for Nate's nap and I cleaned the other bathroom, with Gwen's help. Then we played with this...Gwen received it for her birthday on Sat, and we have played with it everyday since then. After nap and lunch we played outside with this...Nate's birthday present (these pictures aren't from today but at least you can see what fun we have playing with it.) Then it started to thunder and Gwen, not so fond of thunder, so we came inside, just before it started to sprinkle. Much quieter much more Mommy and kid just being time. Since this first outing with the water/sand table we have started wearing our swim suits during water table time, Nate's clothes were soaked, he loves to splash...Gwen not caring as much about the splashing, but does on occasion like to pour water on her belly. She also likes to water the grass. (today I added sand also, I think Nate got in a handful or 2 before I noticed, he had his back to me.)

I would finish commenting on these pictures, but there is a thunderstorm outside and Gwen has now come into our room shaking and scared. And since it is late and we should already be in bed, guess it is time to pack it up!

My day so far, in bullets

• 7ish-Eric's alarm goes off, thankfully with a new tone...
• Nate crying, Eric checks, back to sleep, so I think I am in the clear to catch another couple minutes of sleep.
• Eric starts breakfast, Gwen and Nate now awake, my day officially starts.
• finish up breakfast, get kids dressed
• Nate is super cranky, we are making him sleep through the night, he is used to not hearing any noises at night, but it this house, that will never happen, so he has to also get used to noises when he is sleeping!
• 9:03 head to TrueValue, sale on ant spray and we have ants in the dining room!
• 9:20 head to insurance agency, drive around, realize you must have copied down the address wrong and luckily find the name on directory as you are driving out of the huge shopping complex
• walk around building, realize numbering system makes no sense.
• pick up form that so Eric & I can get NC drivers license.
• stop to look at fountain with kids
• 10:00 bring Nate & Gwen home, put Nate down for a nap.
• while Nate is napping, clean bathroom, do a little garage organizing (wohoo, put some stuff in attic!)
• pay attention to Gwen
• 12 start lunch
• Nate wakes up, feed everyone lunch
• Gwen gets whiny, refuses to eat more lunch, I tell her no snacks today
• decide it would be good idea to just bite the bullet and get drivers license today (the place is right next to Kroger, also have to go grocery shopping and get gas, all in same place, win-win-win!)
• 12:45-have all paperwork together, realize might get picture made today, maybe put on makeup
• 1:00 get in car and drive to shopping center
• 1:05 arrive at shopping center-relinquish paper realize there is a no food or drink policy and they frown on Nate's water sippy cup.
• 1:10-realize kids are everywhere, terrible mother! And have to know what 12 road signs mean 3 of which have no words or symbols...crap! It certainly didn't say that when I looked up the drivers license stuff last night
• 1:12 realize I have to take written test, and they usually don't allow kids back there, but if I can do it with the kids and have them be quiet I can do it (HAHAHAHA!!!!) I ask are you open on Sat? NO?
• 1:13-can only miss 6 questions, Nate-wants to walk around, sit, stand, hold him, chase him, but somehow take the test and pass!
• Go sit down in waiting area-breathe!
• 1:30-realize kids are out of control and I have nothing to calm them down with, but seriously frazzled and at the end of my rope, get called back by woman who strangely doesn't talk above a whisper to complete the last steps before I sit to wait and get my picture made!
• 1:38 get called to get picture made, find out can get picture made holding Nate! WOHOO!
• 1:40 receive new license and walk to Kroger to do some shopping (even though you know it is a bad idea!) even though you still haven't had time to plan out meals or anything, just go with the flow these days
• Wild type salmon, still on sale $2.99lb pick up 3 more lbs! Now have 4.5 lbs of salmon in freezer!!! Profess your love for Kroger and all its good deals (farm raised salmon $2/lb cheaper than MD, wild type-currently $7lb cheaper!) Dude that's cheaper than meat!
• See wine aisle, venture down, pick up a bottle, see another bottle cheaper, oh what the hell, pick up both, you deserve them!
• Decide to self checkout-no lines!
• 2:20 leaving Kroger decide to get gas
• gas $.1/gal cheaper b/c of grocery store purchases-score!
• wonder why gas pump keeps turning off, you are at 1/4 tank!?
• stand outside and hold the gas handle realize if you pull up too far shuts off.
• 2:45 get home cuss out father of your children in your head as the 1 yr old runs to the sewer cover instead of the house and the 3 yr old tries to police him-which in your head you see as ending terribly. (1yr old has learned that if you walk on sewer thingy it makes fun noises, but could totally miss a step fall off hit the street and possibly fall down into sewer, no kind of protection there against that.)
• Try to get both kids and groceries into your house without losing your cool, lose your cool when Nate runs off again when you can't get your keys out and don't want to put groceries on the sidewalk because of the ants...
• get door open, yell at Gwen to get back in the house and catch Nate before he rounds the corner!
• put Nate down for a nap, and mentally decide what you can make for dinner based on the random stuff you got from the grocery store
• put Gwen down for quiet time
• wonder if you should open one of the bottles of wine and have a drink?
• lay down in bed with computer and type this post, while IMing with a friend from college!
• realize that probably should do less tomorrow! Maybe like not leave the house...

Re-connected!

After harrowing days of staring at a blank screen (and stealing internet from unsuspecting neighbors) we are finally connected to the internet. It was very frustrating and since we were unpacking another truck last night we were unable to spend the quality time needed to figure out what was going on. What does this mean for you? It means that the backlog of pictures and random posts will start appearing again, hopefully on a more regular basis.

The house is a wreck, still trying to figure out how 48ft of truck is going to fit into a 1400 sq foot house. I have some ideas and now that we have the ladder we will be able to store stuff in our attic. YAY! I will also be turning this:

into a linen closet. I really need the storage and I don't think a coat closet on the "other side" of the house is a very good idea, this closet is right outside the second bathroom, and if you saw how many linens I have you would know it is a necessity! I went and got the needed supplies for the coat closet conversion, so I am super excited to get working on that....I would totally start tomorrow, you know, if I could do it by myself without the kids around interferring, so I guess it will sadly have to wait until this weekend when Eric can work on it. :(

Also, random picture of the kids in the kitchen. This picture was taken 2 weeks ago, right after we moved into the house. These boxes are since gone. I am standing in the dining room/family room taking this picture. The kitchen faces the backyard there, so I could keep an eye on the kids if they were older. The farthest away door is my pantry! WOHOO! a pantry, I've never had one of those and it is huge, now if I could just figure out how to rearrange it! The closer set of doors is the washer/dryer.

Standing where I am, to the left is the door to outside to the right is the aforementioned coat closet, bathroom and Nate's room is on the other side of the pantry and laundry. We are eventually planning on putting them in the same room, I am hoping soon! So I can organize the third bedroom into a guest room/storage for my scrapbooking and sewing and other assorted hobbies. We are waiting for Nate to start sleeping through the night to make the change.
All for now. I hope you can get a better idea of our new arrangement, those of you who have been to our old house, know what a change this kitchen is from the last one!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Gwen!

Today Gwen turns 3. I would like to say that it is shocking to me that my baby is 3, but really isn't. I don't think of her as a baby, I don't miss those days, and if you have been a long time blog reader, you know why! I like who she is, most of the time, but lets face it, 2-3 terrible adjustment period thrown in with huge family changes=chaos, for all concerned! We have some work to do with her, but I think overall she is cute and sweet and pretty darn funny.
Gwen is turning into quite the character. The first thing I have noticed about her is that when we go to cross the street, she puts her hand up, so as to stop traffic, people thing she is waving, but I don't think she is, the way she puts her hand up and her mannerisms make me think she knows what she is doing. I do not put my hand up to stop traffic like that, but when we attended our stroller group, our fearless leader did. It cracks me up, this morning she did it to a semi, who was parking to unload and he's waving at her, thinking she's waving at him.
Gwen loves babies. When she sees them she goes up to them and talks to them and pats them on the back, will return toys they drop and is generally standing near a mother and her baby when she needs a break from playing. She is still very good with Nate on the whole, but she would really like to carry him around and hold him, but he really doesn't want anything to do with that. She is still struggling to understand not everything is hers and we are working on trading, i.e. taking advantage of the fact that Nate will hand her anything and gets bored with things very quickly.

Gwen seems to be getting too smart for her own good. The other day I was doing some last minute house stuff, things we needed to get to the mortgage company and I think she was getting a little impatient to go outside, actually I know she was, I told we could go when I was done. I was in our bedroom and she was in the living room, waiting, Nate was napping. I heard the door open (the previous tenants had an alarm system that beeps when the doors open, quite handy when you need to make sure everyone stays in the house!) she knew I would come find out what was going on. She was just standing there by the door trying to explain to me it was time to go, she didn't go outside, just opened the door so I would come and take her.

All Gwen wanted for her birthday was a pink cake with sprinkles...I obliged! (I might have gone overboard, but there were no complaints from anyone, the cake might not be pretty, don't look too close Amy, but if I do say so, it is the tastiest cake I ever made!) I couldn't just leave it at a pink cake with sprinkles. I made a chocolate cake with strawberry cream filling and pink butter frosting! YUM!!!!

Waiting anxiously for me to bring the cake in!

Blowing out the candles! (Gwen actually sang to herself and then wanted to blow out the candles, I think Eric got it on video I will upload, eventually!) We sang to her and then let her blow out the candles, mercifully I didn't let Eric record us singing, I hope!

Gwen walked around the cake blowing out her candles.

We let her cut the cake for herself.

Here I am getting up to help her get a better piece, she is licking the cake cutter (she's my girl, after all!)

It was taking Gwen so long to eat her cake, we decided to call break and give her her presents...Nate was done and rather impatient to get out of his high chair, and if we let him out, he is going to forage for more food! Gwen was super excited to get out side and play with her toys!

Here she is with the requested lawn mower "pink and blows bubbles"!

On her new bike! She is pretty excited about it, but gets rather impatient and starts pedaling backwards, which puts on the brakes...so she'll take a break, as she says.

Gwen has quite the vocabulary and memory. She still loves to read books and always wants to do that, but now she remembers most of her books and reads them back to you, which is quite cute. A couple times I think she has been laying in her bed during quiet time and fallen asleep while reading. She also loves to sing songs and has started recognizing letters. And she can almost spell her name. (she knows it starts with a "g-w".) We think she is going to be left handed, which is making teaching her to write letters challenging, since I don't know which hand to give her the pencil to.

All-in-all I think 3 is going to be quite the interesting year, she has developed quite the love for pink and knows the princesses by name, but loves to be outside or reading her books. I just hope I can keep up with her!

***You might notice that this post contains pictures you would expect to happen later today, (all the pictures were taken yesterday) but we are heading to Frederick tomorrow, so as the birth mother, I decided that I should change the day (ok, not true, Eric and I decided), but we felt that since we were going to be in a car for 5 hours today, during dinner time, it would not be a good day to celebrate, I mean when would she eat her cake, not for breakfast, as she proposed, so we changed it! We figure she won't know the difference at this age, well we hope she won't care! I am just happy that we will be getting some much needed things from the old house, you know like the dining room table, and pillows and trash cans and well, the list goes on...

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!)