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.

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).  

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.

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.  

We are back

You know those movies where people stay in a cabin and there is beach playing, attempts at frog catching, game playing, laughing, eating, talking, reconnecting, a little fighting, and enjoying time away as a family?

We did that!!!  All of the above.  And it was a success. 

Greg’s family headed to Tahoe for the week with the following highlights:

1. Meeting Jen’s boyfriend of 3 years for the first time.

2. Having Jen finally meet Ivy.

3. Laughing at the drawings during Telestrations play. (if you are looking for a really fun party game – I totally recommend it).

4. Eating way too much meat (not me and my picky children of course, Greg was in heaven, he hasn’t eaten that adventurous for so many consecutive days since, oh, say 1998)

5. Watching Greg take the kids on the Waverunners.

6. Watching Dave and Eric try mercilessly to get up on the paddle boards. (sorry boys, I am exposing you).

7. Eating ice cream on a cone outside with Greg’s niece Ellie.

8. Miniature golfing twice. (which was Owen’s favorite part of the whole trip)

9. Sitting on the beach with my mother-in-law while the rest frolicked in the water (I am even less of a water person while 32 weeks pregnant).

10. Holding my sleeping baby Ivy on the beach for 3 hours making my total uninterrupted sit time in a beach chair 5 hours.  (oh was it hard to finally get up).

11. Watching Owen and Aubrie play and run around for 5 days.

12. Loving Greg a little more while he slept on the floor so the kids and I could fit comfortably in the bed.

13. Owen on the beach in his life jacket 100 feet from the water.

14. Feeling terrible guilt when my son informed everyone he has never roasted marshmallows. (I am buying a fire pit tomorrow).

15. Being so happy I had my beach umbrella.

16. Feeding Ivy endless snacks on the beach.

17. Loving Greg even a little more that he didn’t go parasailing with the rest just cause I didn’t want him to.

18. Laughing at Owen running around plugging his nose while bacon was cooking.

19. Hearing Ivy call Aubrie (who is 5 by the way) “baby”.

20. Loving it when I found out the house I found on the Internet was actually the house we were staying in.  (I was convinced we sent all our money to the latest scam in Africa and we would arrive to nothing or something much less than the pictures, giant relief!)

21. Enjoying time as a family for a long overdue trip!

Can’t wait till next year!

(And here is what we do post-vacation)

I had no choice

My little son LOVES to watch The Little Mermaid.  We watched it for the first time a few weeks ago and now it is all he watches.  He loves Sebastian the most.  We bought the movie, we listen to the songs EVERYDAY, we travel around with Little Mermaid toys. 

So, the other day, the day we bought the movie (which by the way we bought at Half Price Books for $14.99 – thanks Angie for the suggestion), he came home very excited to own his new favorite show.  He was playing out back with his friends, the twin girls from next door and the little girl from across the street, and it didn’t take long before I heard this conversation:

Girl 1: Owen likes Ariel.

Owen: No, I like Sebastian.

Girl 1: No, I mean Owen likes the movie, Ariel.

Owen: I do like that movie.

Girls (all): HA HA HA, Owen likes the movie Little Mermaid.  HA HA HA.

And then, I had no choice.  I found myself at the door joining in the conversation:

Mean Crazy Mom (yelling from the back door): Why is that funny?

Girls: (Silent)

Mean Crazy Mom: Why is that funny? I don’t understand.

Girl 1: We don’t know what you mean, but it is a girl movie.

Mean Crazy Mom: Why is it a girl movie? What makes it a girl movie?

Girls: (Silent)

Owen: (Slight smirk on his face)

Mean Crazy Mom: What makes it a girl movie?

Girl 1: It is hard to explain.

Mean Crazy Mom: Try.

Girls: We don’t know.

Mean Crazy Mom: Well, if you don’t even know why it is a “girl” movie, then maybe you should stop making fun of Owen, because I don’t know any reason that he can’t like it and I can’t see what would make it a girl show.

Overall Conversation: Done

Laughing: Gone

Owen ran over and gave me a kiss and ran back to play and that was the end.

It is just so sad, the whole story on so many levels. I hate that there is a distinction between boy things and girl things and the expectations to fit into your role.  I hate that expected role playing starts at 5 (or even earlier).  It breaks my heart to see his face question something he loves because someone told him not to love it.

I am not sure if I made the right decision by stepping in.  If I step in and say something, I am not teaching him to stick up for himself but then again, he was outnumbered and seemed at a loss of what to do.  He looked so proud when I was talking to the girls and did announce before they left that day that The Little Mermaid was his favorite movie of all movies.  We also talked later about not making fun of people for something they like and to help those that are getting picked on by other people.   

I don’t know what the answers are here.  I don’t know how to teach the kids to stick up for what they believe in and love while maintaining that important feeling of fitting in. 

I suppose, for now, I only know that he still LOVES The Little Mermaid, that all the girls still played with him that day and have been back each day since, and they haven’t mentioned it as a “girl” show anymore.  I’ll take my happy ending for as long as it will last.

Fan of Hardwood?

I just got my carpets cleaned about a month ago.  You would never know.  It is a stress of my life to look and see so much dirt on the floor.  It isn’t the whole house, just the main floor where we are all time.  I tried adding rugs.  It worked to protect that area but everywhere without a rug is d-i-r-t-y.  I either need to cover the entire carpet with rugs, get new carpet or add in some hardwood floors.  Emilee suggested splitting the room in half and doing hardwood on one half and leaving the carpet on the other. 

I mentioned it to my dad who has a knack for decorating and finding good deals.  He said it would look great, directed me to craigslist, found someone selling the exact amount of flooring I needed, told me what to offer, instructed that I get it and said he would have the client doing his next week come out and do mine too.  It all happened so quickly. 

I called Greg on his way home from baseball and told him to go get money out of the account, drive to this person’s house and pick up my desired hardwood floor.  The guy asked Greg how we were installing it, Greg replied that he didn’t know we were until about 20 minutes prior.  It seems every time Greg leaves, he comes home to new instructions or new projects (It is not my fault, I blame the pregnancy.  All of the additions and changes will be noted soon).

So, the hardwood is here.  The room will be split in half, half carpet, half hardwood.  The new floors will lead in from the garage, in from the back screen door and down from the kitchen. 

Please bless it is what I want. 

(As a side note to the playhouse post, it is pouring rain and has been all day.  Owen and his crew of friends have been in the playhouse for 1.5 hours.  I never realized it would stay so dry and give them a place to play for so long in the rain.  I went out to hang some tap lights for them and they had bowls of snails and slugs.  It is everything I imagined and more)

Now, if the hardwood floors can just work out as beautifully I will be happy.

And Greg will be happy when the next 10 weeks are done and I have all the projects in my head finished up by that point. 

Just what I wanted.

Ever since we moved in to our house I have been bothered by the backyard.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the backyard.  There are about 100 different kinds of plants and trees that bloom in such a way that once something dies, something else comes up, leaving us with some kind of color all summer.  The yard is really private thanks to a greenbelt behind us and rows of trees that have been growing for some time.  We have a patio table with a wonderful garage sale umbrella (best find EVER).  It is a beautiful backyard. 

The problem you ask? Well, there are two.  1. It is the most uninviting yard for the kids. They will NEVER stay in the backyard and 2. There is a huge wasted space area.  Let me explain.  The yard slopes down to the greenbelt in the back and the people before us dropped the yard down to create sort of a separate area.  There are rock stairs that lead down to the unused space.  It has flat rocks on the bottom and wonderful shrubs and plants around the edges.  But what do you do with a space like that? I suppose we could put a hot tub there.  NO.  I will announce now that I will never own a hot tub.  We could put the world’s biggest picnic table down there and host a lovely dinner party.  Nah, we won’t ever do that.  We could put some grass down there, of course it would be ten feet high cause to mow would be hard.  Nope, nothing seemed practical to put down there EXCEPT a swing set.  You see, a swing set will solve both of my problems.  It may make the backyard more kid friendly rather than only plant lover friendly and it will use this big wasted space. 

So, to the Internet I went.  I had an idea in my head as to what I wanted.  I found all kinds of big swing sets on Craigslist but they were the kind where you come and take it apart and then put it back together.  Now, don’t get me wrong, it would be possible, but the idea of Greg and Ben and Steve marching down to someone’s house with their tools and then dragging a bunch of screws, misc. wood pieces, swings and tools back to my house to assemble something that my children would climb on was just too much for me. And they just weren’t what I had in my head.  It was then the image in my head materialized and I found a guy who customizes a set to your needs and space requirements and comes out and builds it for you in your backyard. 

So, last Tuesday we started with this:

Which soon became this:

And now we have THIS!

I love the way he set it up, I love the suggestions he gave, I love that it didn’t take up any amount of space in the yard other than the space that was never used.  I love that he came out and 4 hours later it was done.   

And now, I keep finding kids in the backyard.  Just as I always dreamed. 

(Thanks Sam.  www.samscustomsets.com)