Tuesday Tidbits*

• I just got the call from the preschool, Gwen has been accepted! I have just finished the paperwork for the financial aide forms!
• Federal tax returns come back very quickly, we have already sent in all tax forms and received our refund! The state of MD is the same, still waiting on NC...(a sigh of relief was probably just heard in several households that know our current living situation!)
• The weekend was lovely hear, 60s, a lot of time was spent outside and our kids were exhausted
• We had our last music "class" Monday, we are all sad because our neighbors who were hosting the class are moving to a new neighborhood and they will be sorely missed!
• Our washer is making a terrible noise and I'd like to take it apart and try to fix it, but am nervous about that since my alone time is so limited with the 2 little ones at home
• I have begun spending most evenings away from home, at the gym and Mom's group activities, I have lost 5lbs so far, but will not be able to continue track the weight loss since Nate broke the scale, this time beyond repair I am afraid to say.
• The bulbs that I planted after we moved in are starting to come up, seems spring is on its way here.
• I have moved Gwen's clothes off the hangers into a dresser in their room that I had been using for clothes that were still too big, Gwen for a while has been taking them out and putting them on, so now we go out in public with a child dressed in the most unusual outfits, which is a trial for me, but hopefully the ability to chose for herself will allow her to feel some more independence. I just hope I can last through this mismatch stage...
• I am quite addicted to the exclamation mark, I think I use it too much, but I feel when I am typing things out it is far preferable to use the exclamation point to the caps.

*Idea taken from Two Princesses and a Pirate...thanks Beth!

Valentine's Day

I intended to come on here and post about the cookies and the decorating on Valentine's day, but well, I was a little distratcted, so I am putting it out here today. We had been cooped up in the house for a while and it made me in the mood to bake. I thought why not invite over my new friend over and have the girls decorate cookies. So Wed Gwen and I made cookies the cookies, she actually helped me make and cut out the cookies. Then Fri my friend came over with her daughter and the girls decorated cookies. Her daughter is about 2.5 but the girls play well together and get along, so we like getting them together. I did NOT let Nate decorate the cookies, I learned from Christmas, he's not much interested in the whole decorating, he's all about the eating!

So as you can see from the slide show, Gwen just got down to business and started decorating (my Dad would be so proud well except for the amount of sprinkles!), it was going a little slow so I put a little icing on just a couple of Gwen's but really all in all the girls had fun. I orignially gave Nate a undecorated cookie, but he is too smart and demanded some icing and as you saw from the picture he was pleased to have icing on there even if it did make him look like he had lipstick on!
Eric seemed to enjoy the cookies, it didn't make very many, I wasn't pleased with how hard the cookies got, but apparently no one minded that but me! Hope everyone had a great V'day, we did!

Random

I have not had much opportunity to write on here. I have been super busy, well, maybe not super busy, but it seems to me that I have a lot of things pulling at me during my "free time", I have been working on Eric's quilt, and going to the gym. Lately though my thoughts are on the tragedy in Hsv and reading everything that is written about it. I used to work on the same floor as one of the professors that was killed and spoke to her many times. Several of my good friends worked with her. She was a super hard worker and gave me a plant that sadly didn't make it through our many moves. Randomly early this year I was speaking with our neighbor and we talked about the same plant and how I wanted to get more of it. It is surreal to know someone who was killed in such a manner and well, Maria was such a sweet person, very driven and sometimes difficult to work for, but she always wanted the people she worked with to be the best they could and that can often cause challenges when you in that situation.
On to happier things, I think. My Mother always says that one thing about my kids, they are never lacking in imagination. I don't let Gwen watch a lot of TV-Sesame Street while Nate is napping, but Eric likes to let her watch movies occasionally, so she has now seen many Disney movies. When people used to ask her name she would tell them "Belle" all the time, but she'd say "it is ok if we still want to call her Gwen", that kid! She has recently moved onto Briar Rose and Ariel. Although come to think of it, she doesn't call herself Ariel, she calls herself the mermaid and she goes to the sunken ship (in our bedroom by the closet, where she brings "treasures"). What is funny about it is when she is Ariel she puts both of her legs on the one side of the pants and hops or crawls around the house. She will do this all day! I had some pictures of it on the old computer, but I lost them :( I have some I recently took, but I don't like them, actually, I do like them, but I feel they are showing too much skin for the internets...so for now you will just have to live with the image in your head.
Nate is still quite the character, his words are very clear. He is speaking 2-3 word phrases, maybe even sentences. He is quite smart I think. I find myself qualifying his intelligence when we are in public. I don't want people to feel bad because Nate is so smart. I don't know if that makes people feel better when I say things like "he has an older sister and that makes a difference". I don't know that it does though, certainly he wants to keep up with Gwen and they spend an awful lot of time together so she teaches him a lot of words. He is also quite humorous right now because his favorite animal is "a duck". So hilarious, anytime we sing a song about animals and ask him what animal he'll ALWAYS without fail say "a duck!" This has been going on for at least a month. Have I metioned yet he can sing his ABCs and count to 10?
We are definitely at fun stage with both kids. I have started to let Nate walk more and hold hands, previously he would lean real far forward when you tried to hold his hand and then try to get out of your grip. Recently he has started to calm down and hold my hand and then also hold hands with Gwen, I so wish I could get a picture of the 3 of us walking around holding hands I feel like it is so cute and it warms my heart! Although sometimes just to be funny when Gwen and I are holding his hand he'll go down on his knees and then we will all laugh. Stay tuned for pictures from V'day cookie decorating, hopefully I will get to that soon!
Oh and if you were paying attention to one of the last slideshows with the snow, it may have looked like Nate was going to be run over by the Jeep, he was not in fact run over by the Jeep or was the Jeep even on, just a product of the "fade", I sadly don't watch the slideshows after I make them!

An overdue update

Hello, how's it been going? You good, I'm great, thanks for asking. Things have been rather different around here. I haven't had my laptop for a week or so, the back hinge broke, fortunately we have the accidental warranty on it, so I got the email today, they decided to replace it instead of fix it! WOHOO! The process of getting the actual computer was quite INVOLVED! I am telling you, it took 2 hours, should it have taken that long? I think not. But the kids behaved remarkably well, as did Eric! It ended up being an upgrade and we had to pay some money, and we repurchased the extended warranty, but it was way less than buying me a new laptop even when we included the warranty! YAY! I think that laptop was about to die anyway, and well, now I hopefully won't have to worry about that for a while! I have also been going to the gym with my new friend. Man am I glad I met her, the gym membership is also probably the best money we ever spent. It is so great for me to get out of the house in the evening meet with my friend (most nights) and get some exercise. I get some much needed girl time and I am so energized and happier. We are going to try a Zumba class which I suspect is going to be hilarious, us 2 old farts and a bunch of college girls is what I am picturing! I think we are going to be in the back giggling, but we'll see!
So, thought you would like to see what else has been going on around here. A major case of the cabin fever. We haven't seen much of people you know people we could talk to, or really been spending much time outside in the elements, it has been rainy and today I was hopeful until I stepped outside and felt the frigid air. UGH! I am hoping for better days to come, I've heard the spring is lovely. Of course if I was in MD I would be under 3+ ft of snow. But I don't think that would be that bad for us, with the Jeep and the walking distance to grocery store we probably would have been able to get out and at least we could have played in the snow.
I digressed and didn't get to the actual pictures, so I'll try again. While I was getting ready to take the kids to the grocery store this is what I found:

Yes, that is my son using the chair as a slide. Would you say he is really into sliding right now? We went to the play area at the mall the other day and he was going down that slide like a pro...it is rather step and he has been avoiding it for a little while, and yesterday he went in, slid, ran back around and would go again, this was at least 5 minutes, maybe more, and if you know 20mon olds, this is a long time! One of the other Mothers even commented to me about how he seemed to be enjoying himself and how her 17month old wouldn't go near it.

Gwen and Nate have been playing really well together, Nate appears to be getting used to the fact that Gwen wants hugs and today when he got up from his nap he let her give him a hug. This is a big step for us, Nate doesn't really like Gwen to touch him. I think she has been rather pushy and pully with him, he's not fond of that at all.

Can I tell you now nice this new computer is, dude all the keys work! (some of them would require more work to get them to type)

Well, going to bed now, more later.

Snow day

Well for once the meteorologists got it right, it snowed last night and we appeared to have gotten 5in or so of snow, "soft" snow, so we couldn't do any snowman building or snow fighting, but we did keep the kids out in the snow entirely too long. I hope that they do not have any of the frostbite and lose function of anything, I would hate for them to have loss of function in a toe or something. I have compiled a slideshow of pictures from the day.

You may wonder why I have been doing so many slideshows, I am running low on space for pictures, so slideshow are the answer, for now!
Also I'd like to send my love and prayers to some family today. Love to you all!

Carpets

The last couple of days have been pretty terrible for me. Not in a crazy way, but I just had started to get out and meet people (and be social!) and then Gwen came down with a cold. A rude shock indeed! I have enjoyed the company of my new friend and enjoyed getting out and making friends. And now, to be sure with the snow we are going to be snowed in! Eric and I have been laughing about it, we figure we might be the only people in the city with a snow shovel. We will likely be snow shoveling tomorrow just for kicks, to remind us of the old days! Of course it is likely to be only a couple of inches but since this area has none of the equipment to take care of the snow, we could actually be "snowed in". Fortunately this week I planned well, ok, maybe I didn't plan well, it just worked out that I go the the grocery store early in the week so I didn't have to go out this time when there was going to be a run on milk, bread and TP. Also fortunately I am quite the milk and bread hoarder. We go through 2 gallons of milk a week maybe more. And our grocery store has quite the deals on bread and I can't quite help picking it up at $0.25/loaf, whether we need it or not.
But I digress, we have been staying in and not getting out and meeting people, much to my dismay with Gwen's cold I thought it best not to be out and about in case she wasn't feeling well, at this age I still don't think she can understand or communicate when she is feeling unwell. For weeks after she threw up last time, every time she needed to cough she would run to the bathroom thinking she was going to throw up. It was quite humorous, to me. And I digressed again!
The last several months I haven't really been able to be present with the kids, in the moment. Moving to a new place, getting a feel for the area and getting into a routine have been quite difficult for me. Getting a new exercise routine and our family effort to keep the house up have certainly helped my attitude and my overall health. (I might recommend my Mother take a moment and sit down when she reads this next statement.) I hate to live in a messy house, it makes my brain hurt. I hate the clutter but once it starts to get to messy I get to overwhelmed to do anything about, it becomes a downward spiral for me. This also affects my want to let the kids do certain things like take out the finger paints or other such crafts. But today, I threw caution to the wind and let Gwen paint with the finger paints. It was going well, Nate was napping, it wasn't really all that messy and then Nate woke up and sadly Gwen eventually invited him to come in and paint with her. That is when all hell broke lose. If you'll recall, the last time we tried the fingerpainting Nate wasn't interested. (if you don't you can check out here.) Well, this time Nate became totally involved, sadly now the paints are all the same color, as demonstrated here, I guess I won't have to worry about letting them fingerpaint anymore. I think not that all the colors are black/dark green, it is time to toss! There is this really cute smile Nate gives us but I haven't been able to catch it on camera. I hope that I can one day, because it is so charming, sadly he knows it.


Gwen went ahead and painted her whole top half, I went ahead and gave them a bath, at like 3:30, then I went ahead and spent the next hour getting the spots up off the carpet. (ok maybe it was 30 minutes but dude I really had to scrub and it all hasn't gotten out all the stains, if anyone has a recommendation for a carpet spot cleaner let me know)

Museum of Life and Sciences

Like 6 weeks ago we went to the Life & Science Museum in town. It is free on Wed afternoon for residents, so one day when Eric was off during the holiday we all went. It was great fun! We took the camera and saw more of the museum then we ever have on our previous trips. The kids really love it and we had to pull them away from almost all the exhibits, especially the outside ones, their poor hands were cold, but they couldn't wear gloves and "work". It was rather cold that day so not many people were outside, which was nice for the kids. I took some pictures which I put in a slide show for you. But sadly as I looked at the pictures they were all blurry. My kids don't really stand still for long.

I have more pictures to download off the camera and since it actually snowed here like the weather people predicted I hope to have more pictures in the upcoming weeks! ;)

Intelligence

I have mentioned here before, I think, about how smart Nate is. Not that Gwen isn't smart, she totally is, but she has a different kind of intelligence, one that isn't a mischievous as Nate's. Nate appears to be quicker on his feet, this likely comes from the fact that he has her to watch and learn; and watch and learn he does. But, he also certainly teaches her some "tricks". Nate will do things that would never even occur to Gwen to do. I think she tends to be a little lazier, Nate is more of a go getter, which is definitely something that makes raising him more of a challenge, he sees something he goes and gets it. Doesn't ask, just does! As in the case of this slide show!

He saw the diaper bag sitting in there with the snack cups, couldn't find any snacks, set a chair in front of the pantry door, got the snacks, took them back to the living room and as you saw proceeded to get himself snacks. It was at this point Gwen realized, hey, he's got some snacks! Gwen would never have considered doing that, but Nate thought, I'm hungry, I'll get myself some snacks! And I guess I think that is a pretty amazing that at 1.5 he had the thought process to do the whole thing and I watched him, snapping some pictures. I did let him eat some of the rewards before I gave him something else instead. As I've said before, he is one you definitely have to watch, because he is always doing something you don't really expect!
In other news, I met up with my new friend and I feel like we've really hit it off, based on the fact that we got kicked out of 2 coffee shops and probably could have continued to talk! We then met up with the kids this morning and have plans to meet up again next week. We have a lot in common and I think we will eventually get the husbands together also to see if they will also get along. Which will be kind of funny since her husband is a professor at Eric's school, in a different department.

Dangerous

Today I decided to go to a new Mom's get together. The kids got to meet some other kids, I got to meet some other Mom's new to the area, win-win. Now I just have to decide if I want to join their group, there is a yearly membership fee. Also, since the weather has been nice and it sounds like it is the last nice day for a while, I took the kids outside to play. I have to say, Nate is going to be the death of me, just watch this slide show and see what I mean!

The boy is just asking to go to the ER, he just climbed up there and has figured out how to push the peddles but is just a little too short, plus I don't think he can get the whole around motion yet, but he will have it figured it out soon, he is entirely too smart!
It is funny how the second one seems so much smarter, because he watches everything Gwen does and tries to do it. I don't feel like I have as much to report about Gwen these days, at 3.5 she isn't doing much new. I mean sure, we saw a 5 week old baby and was "helpful" to the Mom, giving her the blanket for the baby and the "binkie". The Mom humored her and that was cute, but certainly doesn't give much for the blog.

Warm afternoons ahead!

Since yesterday was warm, sunny and no wind, I took the kids outside with their strollers. (Nate got his own, non-pink, boyish stroller for Christmas!) I thought they would just play in the cul de sac with their strollers, boy was I wrong, Gwen decided we were going on a walk. Which meant we walked around the entire neighborhood, about a 3/4 mi, took us 30 min. Probably would have taken longer if Nate had anything to say about it! He kept picking up "STICKS" (mulch) and putting them in his stroller. This is what Gwen did as she was waiting for us... She kept running ahead and had to be in the lead, Nate didn't much care! Here she goes, running off again!

Nate was pretty fun to watch from behind, I think he is just a smidge too small for running with his stroller and he would do it on tiptoe. He also looked at the ground the whole time, so funny!

They took a break, hard work all that walking in the fresh air!

I think they had a good time. Even though the cranky-panky 3.5 year old rebuffs all plans we make. She never wants to do anything we ask her to do anymore, unless it is sit at home or go to the bookstore. I am also wondering if something is going on with the little one, for the last month or so she has been sleeping without a diaper and I would say maybe once a week she'd pee in the bed, but the last 3 nights she has. I am thinking it is time to put her back in diapers and be done with it. She has also been quieter, maybe a little moody?

This morning we went to a play-group thing at the airport, they have this observation area, but sadly it is poorly marked, or not marked at all, until after you take the first turn! It took us 20 minute to find the outside observation area and then found out how to get to the other place, that was inside. There was another Mom in the wrong area also and we headed over together. After we found the place I got talking with the other lost Mom and found we have a lot in common. Her husband also randomly decided to go back to school for his PhD and she is also not into girly-girl things and has a daughter into princesses! After the playdate we decided to get together for a MNO, hope she emails me! It would be nice to meet people I can talk to locally! Sadly though I think my house would start being messier, I have lots of time now to clean and the last couple weeks, it has been clean! Oh well, I guess you can't have everything!

Delurking day!

Well, it's that time of year again! Delurking day! If you don't remember what that is, read here. If you've been reading my site and you haven't commented or told me you read this please leave me a comment. Thanks so much, hope you are having a great day! Back to the kids and their loud playing!

Scenarios

Scenario 1:
You come home and find dinner on the "warming" in the oven, house clean, kids super excited to see you and everyone happy.
Scenario 2:
You come home and hear the fire alarm going off, dinner on the stove, possibly burning, kids screaming, and house messy, but kids still super excited to see you.

mid-Jan?

Well hello there, how've you been, we're great, thanks for asking! I guess I have been busy/lazy/procrastinating. Its not like I haven't thought about you, I have, I have even had several posts in my head that actually haven't had an opportunity to get things out. We have now painted the living room/dining room, its all the same room, so we had to do them both! It took a little bit to adjust to the color, but I think we like it. It is so nice to have it painted, this house has not actually been painting since it was built 10+ yrs ago. And, since you know it was the builders special, it was just flat paint and scuffed. And then, to be crazy, we started hanging stuff on the wall, like we actually want to live here and make this place our home! Eric is now addicted to the prettying up of the place and wants to do more. But, since school starts today and we don't have anymore gift cards, we are out of luck for a while.
I think I also may have mentioned that Eric and I were given the opportunity to get out of dodge without the kids! We played it cool and were like whatever, if you want to stay home with the kids Grandma, good luck to you! I don't know who enjoyed themselves more, Grandma, the kids, or us? It was fun being without the kids, we drove several hours to the Biltmore. Eric's never been there and so I thought it would be a nice place to go. They had the place all decorated up for Christmas, apparently it was the busiest time of the year and there was a LOT of waiting at the winery, and elsewhere. And since we didn't have the kids, what did we care if we had to stand in line!? And when we were standing in line we found out a "wine & chocolate" special tour thing they do, so we signed up, and it was fun learning about the wines and chocolate pairings. Eric, being an overachiever tried all the wines from the winery, well, except for the "premium" wines, you had to pay for those! (If you are counting that is 20 wines!) I on the otherhand am not that dedicated, mostly though because I don't like white wine at all! But I had several of the reds 2x! We did the special candlelight tour and the regular tour. It was fun! We even met this couple that took our picture: we took their picture for them. But, I kind of like this picture of us better.

We stayed in a B&B and I spoke to my first Canadians, I think. They were heading for FL and they weren't pleased with how cold it was! For breakfast we had creme brulee french toast! YUM!!! It was lovely, so if you ever need a name of a place, let me know, I'll pass it along.
But, fortunately for everyone who lives with me I came back refreshed, and better able to cope with 2 kids and 1 husband. I even called a neighbor and scheduled a play date, that we went to yesterday! We had a nice time, I got to speak with the Mom, the kids got to play with some new toys, we will have to have them over to our house to play.
I have been procrastinating on Gwen's preschool forms. :( The pre-K is part of a K-8 school so their forms are a little intense for the 4 year old set (I think!) Seriously, it has made me ignore it, until Sunday, when I sat down at Church (next to the Principal!) Yesterday I made some phone calls and today dropped off the medical form before grocery shopping, which the practice had finished for me by the time I finished grocery shopping! Awesome! So now that's done.
I have also started looking into more of the Moms groups here, my Church has 1 and had some info in the bulletin, so I have contacted them and another group. I have learned one thing in recent weeks, I need someone local to talk to that isn't Eric! I also need to get exercising in, but have realized that it is too cold for me to take the kids out. They had so much congestion in the beginning of the winter, but now that I am no longer running, they are not having that problem. I have been doing indoor exercising, not necessarily a lot of fun, but I have got to start being more active.
We have also started working as a family to keep the house cleaner. I don't make resolutions, it is too depressing to fail at something at the beginning of the year, but we decided that if we work as a family to clean the house, it doesn't fall to 1 person always picking up. So far, 2 weeks in, I think it is going well, the house is staying cleaner and we aren't stepping on things and neither Eric and I are angry at each other for things being left out and messy, I hope this trend will stay, because our quality of life has improved, which is always a good thing! ;) Hopefully it won't be another 10 days before I get to updating again! I guess I should pull out the camera and start taking pictures of the kids again!

Christmas Eve

Sadly, we have been sick here since my last post. Gwen and Eric with the same sickness, I won't go into specifics, but needless to say, Nate and I are lucky to not have that. I had a different sickness involving sore throats and lots of sleeping. Today though, Eric went back to work, we went to back to our "routine". And I was busy today doing laundry and Nate went ahead and sprayed it in his eye, so that was fun.
But, onto the next posting about Christmas, I know it is already 2010. Here are pictures from Christmas Eve, we went to Church, and all survived a miracle really, because Nate was with us, but no pictures from Church. We came home, had our traditional "shrimp, Uncle Gary style". Made some reindeer food and let the kids open 1 present from Eric's Mom. Then everyone went to bed to wait for Santa and the kids to awaken...

Decorating cookies

I have many, many pictures to update you on so I'll try to start at the beginning. My Mom just left this morning, Eric drove up to MD to take care of some of the stuff on the house, but I am getting ahead of myself. My Mom arrived from FL last week. I thought this would be a good time to decorate cookies, our family's tradition. I haven't had such a good luck getting the cookies to work out right, so I was glad that Mom was coming so I could watch and learn. Watch and learn I did! Now I hope I can remember to next year. Here are the pictures:

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas eve, the presents are wrapped and under the tree, stuffing made, cake made, ready to go, I suppose. Now all we need to do is go to bed early, there is much un-wrapping to do tomorrow. I forgot to remind Gwen that she is not to get up and un-wrap presents tomorrow until everyone gets up! I hope she just doesn't get up and start un-wrapping. We went to Church today, the children's Mass, had our tradition, close your arteries shrimp. Currently Eric and my Mother are discussing www.noradsanta.org it is a pretty intense conversation. I am beginning to wonder if they are going to stay up and watch the whole thing.
I have realized yet again, I have a backlog of pictures to post. So here are some from our "Christmas photo shoot". We tried to take pictures on the campus, but it the kids were not super co-operative and this picture, I wish I was better positioned for and I wish I would have gotten the sweet one right after it where Gwen kissed Nate, but alas, I didn't! :( This picture actually made the Christmas card, I think. It was I think the cutest where we could see there faces.

I loved this picture, but I didn't feel like it would work on the card. And really, can't see Gwen's face.

I also wanted to include these pictures of the kids "helping" us put up the tree.

Well, goodnight everyone. Merry Christmas! I hope you have a happy and blessed holiday surrounded by friends and family.

Its not real snow

We have been kind of busy around here, I have been scouring to do the last minute Christmas things and making caramels. I have delivered candy to all of our neighbors. I've been busy, I tell you.

Today we went to a little shopping center with the kids, we didn't know anything about it, but we thought we'd give it a go because it was decorated pretty. It was a little hoity-toity for us, and mostly had place to eat and no shops. I tried to get pictures of the kids in front of the tacky decorations.

Well, Gwen cooperated for like a minute.

You might notice in those pictures there is snow. Apparently, if we wouldn't have moved from MD we would have gotten snowed in. Yesterday when it started snowing, I showed Gwen that it was snowing and she said "Mom its not real snow, it isn't on the ground and we can't play in it". So, last night we got some snow, that stuck to the ground, we bundled the kids up and took them outside to play.

You can see Nate really enjoyed himself, well I don't know if he really cared so much about it, he was trying to sneak around the car.

We could make snow balls, and then I tried to make a snow man, well, I succeeded in making a snow man, but then it was crushed by the children, who probably wouldn't have crushed it until Eric said something like Nate-chop! Which is Nate's newest trick, he loves to walk around and say "chop, chop" and then knock stuff over or hit things, great, thanks Eric!

A good time was had by all, we had hot chocolate after we came in and then I made caramel, which takes forever! It was a lot of stirring...

Dr. appt

Here are the vital statistics:
He is 25lb 4oz (50%)
32in (50%)
It seems he grew about a pound (15oz) and 1 inch. Also his head is at 50%, so he is all around average! Everything went well, he got all the shots, and now is done with shots until preK! YAY! Also, he has a bump on his wrist, which is apparently a cyst, that is often hereditary. She said that it probably will not be a problem for him ever, but we will keep an eye on it, and if it does cause problems (like when he is weightlifting!) or get bigger it can be drained. All-in-all good visit, on schedule, back in 6 months!

Gwen

My almost 3.5 year old is going through a rather trying time, apparently. Eric says that he kind of feels like she has PMS. She is quite the emotional one these days. Some days I get this, where she is cooperative and sweet and will do what I ask with very little questioning...other days I get this, where she won't even turn around for the camera....I had to get the picture following this one on the fly, which is why it is so dark.

She is a study in contrasts, some times she's up, sometimes she's down. You never know which one you are going to get. Many things I wonder about...why is she sleeping on the floor?

Why does she refuse to nap, but anytime she sits still between 3-4 she falls asleep, like in my car, in the stroller, or next to me on the couch this afternoon. She is a mystery. It makes me think of a silly little movie that I saw where the character says "I love you, but I don't really like you very much right now". I love her dearly, but she makes me question my sanity.

Here she is climbing the rock wall at the local museum.

We have had some issue with Gwen and her peeing. Not really a problem so much, she just won't go as often as I should think she should, like 1-3 times a day, usually she doesn't pee until mid-afternoon. I had discussed it with the Dr at her 3yr appointment and she told me I should make a routine out of it, and I've tried, seriously, I've tried, but its been 6 months and I have to beg and plead with her to go, not worth it to me. I feel like at this point, I am just training her to go when I tell her, and not actually go when she needs to, so then if I forget one day to remind her she is going to have an accident, which I don't want to happen. So, I'm going to let her be for a while and go when she needs to, and see how it goes. Today she went during quiet time and she didn't flush "because it is so loud and she didn't want to wake anybody up"! She is so considerate. We have tried to night train, but we are staying up too late (E & I) so we aren't getting up the instant she gets up, which I think we are going to have to do to night train her. So as soon as we quit being lazy, that will go well, I am sure.

FYI-that little boy in the picture is not Nate! I took the kids to the Museum the other day on a Mom's group thing, they had enough members that we could get in for free. I haven't done anything else with these Moms because their activities are not convenient for me, and then Friday I hardly got to talk to any of them, but the kids had a super fun time, and that is all that matters!