Monday, August 22, 2011

Gross!

Owen was outside playing this evening and came in to eat dinner.  On his way in he took off his shoes by the back door like a good son should.  A little while later he was instructed to put on his shoes to go to the store with Greg.  A few minutes later Owen ran over to me to tell me that he went to put his shoe on and felt something slimy, he took off his shoe and looked inside to find a slug.  (Slugs here are big in case you don’t know).  

It was one of those episodes where you sort of find it funny, but that is only because it is so gross and unbearable and it clearly only remains to be funny because it wasn’t you. 

And furthermore, call me what you will, but you know how as a parent you always say you would do anything for your kids, or you would take the bad things happening to you to save them the heartache, etc., etc.  Nope.  Not this time.   I don’t feel that at all.  In fact, if a slug was going to crawl in any of our shoes, I am quite thrilled it was Owen’s and not mine.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

2, 6, and 33 1/2 weeks

Ivy turned 2 on June 30th.  Owen turned 6 on August 5th.  Little baby turned 33 1/2 weeks today.

IVY:

Ivy had a party for her birthday. Emilee was in town and we stole an idea from a friend and had an ice cream party.  She knew she was getting a bike as she told my dad to buy it for her.  She also knew she was getting a helmet as she tried it on in the store and leaving it there would have been equivalent (or maybe even worse) to leaving her alone at the store.  She loves that she is two, she shows everyone by using the first two fingers on each hand and putting both hands up by her face.

She still loves her binky (she calls it a mimi), she will rarely wear anything other than a pink shirt and leggings (whether they match or not), she adores her cousin Evan and Owen, she loves pushing things around the house in a stroller (in fact, at this very instant she just came down the stairs with the double stroller she got for her birthday, pushing her jammies in it), she acts out a lot of what she says instead of using words, she is obsessed with my stomach and it has nothing to do with it being big, she loves to rub it while she sleeps, she growls when she wants a drink, and her hair often looks like a cross between Doc from Back to the Future, Einstein and Willy Wonka (and she refuses to let me do it).  

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OWEN:

Owen didn’t have a party for his birthday, but he had something he loved even more – 2 full days with his uncle Rob.  Robee agreed to be the one guest at Owen’s party.  (The only other option this year was a party with Owen and 6 girls, I just couldn’t do it).  Rob came over and they played, went swimming, ate at the Olive Garden, watched a movie until they fell asleep, went to a movie the next day, played on the slip-n-slide, and played all night with toys.  I cannot thank Robee enough for making Owen’s party perfect.

He loves to play, I can name what he eats on one hand, he loves his day with Kiki (so much in fact that he almost gave up on a birthday party the other day), he needs to be asked to do something at least 4 times before it ever gets done, he is still working really hard on saying his “s” sounds, he still has a food phobia and is very stern with Greg eats something he doesn’t like, he gets frustrated easily when he can’t do something (but he gets that from his dad – that is a story for another day), he would rather sleep in my bed than his own cause he gets lonely otherwise, he loves watching Martha Speaks, he always likes the villain in all the shows he watches, he claims the new baby is his, and he likes to hold my hand when he falls asleep.

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LITTLE BABY:

Little baby is on the home stretch and we are both surviving.  It seems as though she moves much more than these other two ever did.  I ate snacks popsicles all the time to make them move, this one is always moving.  I failed my one hour diabetes test and PASSED my 3 hour test.  Pregnancy wise things are uneventful which means all is well. 

This last little while is the part of the pregnancy that I actually start to enjoy – so much for living in the moment, I have 6 weeks left to enjoy being pregnant. 

Can’t wait to talk about this one’s birthday and post pictures of her!

The new floors

They are in and I am in love!  My floors were installed all day on Monday and all day on Tuesday.  I could not love them more, but here is a list of the surprising things I learned about laying hardwood.

1. It takes way longer to glue hardwood than nail it.  My dad’s job was bigger but he had wood floor rather than concrete on the bottom.  The whole thing was done in a matter of 6 hours.  Mine took closer to 24 hours of actual work.

2. Transitions, stair noses, the padding for underneath, and the glue are VERY EXPENSIVE.  I needed 25 feet of transitions to put between the doors down the hall and in the room where we were separating the carpet and the flooring.  I also needed three of the front of the stairs to make the stair edge.  I was totally expecting these few boards to cost oh say around $100.00 – $420.00 later, I was trying to decide if I had lost my mind in this project.  Then, I knew I had after  it was too late to turn back and I needed a 5 gallon bucket of glue for $150.00 and a roll of padding for $109.00.  So much for the good deal on the actual wood. 

3.  Hardwood laying guys don’t tack the carpet back down (at least my guy didn’t, and I couldn’t be mad, cause he did an AMAZING job and I am not even sure he ate or drank anything during the 24 hours he was at my house).  So, here I am with this amazing wood floor and carpet that is able to be lifted up and is fraying all over the place.  Now, the only reason I could see this as a good thing is to be able to lift up the carpet to sweep all the dirt under, but since I didn’t think this really should be left this way, I realized it must be fixed.  I thought I would just do it myself until my dad informed me that I needed to find a carpet guy to do it.  Greg and I have a rule: if my dad will do it himself, we may think about it and may actually do it; if my dad would outsource the task, we won’t dream of doing it.

To Craigslist I went and found an ad for a guy that does carpet repair and stated no job was too small.  I called him and he said he could come out that night to do the job.  I called Greg to assure he would be home before us as I was sure I was going to be killed that night.  I said my final goodbyes to everyone just in case, and went home to wait.  I kept the kids close and right on time the car pulled up and out jumped Rick.  I recited that saying in my head – Don’t judge a book by its cover, and let him in.  Rick looked a little scary and I kept thinking maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.  We agreed on a price, well, he told me his price and I didn’t argue as something about him screamed out that he could use the money.  So, an hour and $150.00 later, the carpet in the living room and at the end of the hall was secured down tight.  A half an hour after that, he was back to do the door I forgot about.  On my own choice, I paid him an extra $20.00 for coming back he told me that he really appreciated it and that he could really use the money and work has been very slow.  He looked so happy as he told Greg and I that this particular day was a “blessed day” as he had a job with a friend in the day and then I called for this job.  Ok, scruffy or not, I was so happy and every cent was worth the cost. 

4. The room doesn’t feel less cozy, smaller, like two rooms, etc.  All my fears were unfounded.

5.  And the final surprising thing about the floors is that Greg and I actually love it so much.  

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