Friday, March 28, 2008

Going, going, and going some more


Well, potty training is a very interesting business. One of the things so, um, exciting about parenting, I'm finding, is that if one thing doesn't work you try something else. Well, bribery did not work. Waiting until Ian was sick of sitting in his own waste did not work--he doesn't care. All he did was get a chapped bottom and a rank odor (think PigPen from Peanuts). We even tried the whole "babies wear diapers and big boys wear underwear" thing. As well as the important fact that he can't go to school (preschool) if he can't use the toilet All the Time. In 3 year old logic, every time he goes on the toilet, he asks to go to school. Go ahead, give yourself a big Homer Simpson "d'oh!" and wave it in our direction. No, we don't watch the Simpsons, but some things are just pop culture. Well, we heard every "solution" in the books from parents, grandparents and strangers in the Pull-Up aisle in Walmart. Some were silly (the solution was to enroll him in a daycare and let them train him--What?!) and others were horrifying (every time he goes in his pants, take him outside and spray him with the hose. Some sounded a little excessive (just let him run around naked or just make the toilet area like a play area and stay in there until he learns). Since I have another child and the bathroom is not big enough (or plush enough) to stay in all day long, besides the fact that it is our ONLY bathroom and we all share the toilet, this didn't sound promising. And the fact that toilet ring on your bottom doesn't make you want to sit there longer than 3 Thomas books.

Another solution was to just keep him in Pull-Ups or diapers until he figures it out for himself. By the time he gets to public school, if he isn't trained by then, peer pressure ought to do it. Yeah, and that one will NEVER be forgotten by the kids at school. No way! Since waiting for him to get the incentive could take years and he turns 4 this summer, we were getting kind of alarmed at his easy acceptance of sitting in a gross Pull-Up until you caught him and pried it off. He's getting harder to catch, too.

So we went to Wal-Mart and bought big boy underwear and let him pick. Thomas and Cars won. So we went home, threw out the last day time Pull-Up and stuck Thomas on his cute little bottom. Thomas lasted about 10 minutes before we required a costume change. Underoos, pants, socks and even the shirt. At least the pants prevented a large puddle on the floor, but no one liked peeling the soggy clothing off. As the day went on, we gritted our teeth and kept changing clothes. That afternoon, we ran out of clean underoos and had to revert back to Pull-Ups. I have started doing a load of laundry every day just to keep us flush. Today was better, only three costume changes and when I neglected to put pants on him, a large puddle on the carpet/heater platform. And a big glob of grape jelly on the potty seat (don't ask).

I think he is starting to welcome bath time because that means pjs and pullup. We've only had one poop so far in the underoos (gag, gack and bleagh!) and it wasn't pretty. Every time the kid squirms or changes positions or blinks too long it pops out of my mouth. "Do you need to go poo poo?" He groans. "No, Mommy!" he answers in a longsuffering sing-songy voice. Well he'd better not go....

So how is potty training going? Hm. This is day 3 of big boy underoos and potty training is going, uh....well it's going. All over the carpet. :)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Cat Food?

Okay, I know that we haven't any commercials for about 3 years (I LOVE PBS!), but this is getting ridiculous. Besides all the toy cartoons on Saturday mornings, which we can live without, some of these are just silly. For instance, I was in the kitchen thinking about starting supper when I heard the TV in the next room. Chicken Tuscany, with wild rice and tender greens. Mmmm, I thought. That sounds SO GOOD! I wonder if I can get a recipe from online? So I go into the living room to watch the commercial, expecting it to be a restaurant or Lean Cuisine or something and it turns out to be a cat food commercial. Gourmet food for your cat. Beg your pardon? It's pretty sad when you want to kick the cat out of the picture so you can eat its canned food. Eek.

Since it's been warmer out, our attentions have turned to beautifying the yard. We want it to sell! Landscaping is one of the things to do to help your house sell. Our roses have redbuds all over them and I am so excited that they are going to bloom like nuts! The one rosebush is the one that Chris gave me when we were dating and has gorgeous purply-pink blooms on them (I think...). It has not bloomed since we moved to Oklahoma. It doesn't like it here and demands to be returned to the South. Our other rosebush is one that we sort of brought with us when we moved from the other house. We had to dig it up when the kennel concrete was put in and since it was out of the ground, we made its new house here. We will be leaving it when we move because we don't think it will like Florida. I've heard that Rosebushes are picky that way.

Anyway, we got some flower seeds and some cubes of petunias and pansies to plant in the front yard. We made a little bed on the side of the driveway and planted a bunch of marigold seeds that my Grampa sent to us from his very own flowers. He gets seeds from his own flowers, isn't that cool? He knows "jez about ever-thang they is to know 'bout the [gardening] bidness." As opposed to the shrimping bidness. Okay, Forrest Gump moment. Anyway, you should see his yard. It's hard to remember his grass and then look at ours. His was green.

Well, Ian has now moved to real underwear, with Pull-ups at night only. This has been a very messy transition, but if he can't tell that he's wet in the Pull-ups, they are just expensive diapers, aren't they? Too expensive.

So we bought two more packages of underwear (Thomas and Cars) and we are in business. Good thing we have lots of pants and I always have laundry to do. We are praying fervently that this will work! There is no way that I will let him remain unpottytrained (long word) when he is 4!

Erin is squealing up a storm and Da DAAAH! She said Mama on Sunday and Dada on Monday. And she has said Dada about 3.68 million times since then and Mama only three more times and two of those were when she was crying.

Well, we have company! Wow! And it's not Jehovah's Witness, they just left. Brad and Marcie are here so Chris can give them the "Buy our house" spiel...again.

Friday, March 21, 2008

T-pants



Certain things make the most sense when you are young. Say 3. For instance, if there are t-shirts, how come there aren't any t-pants?? Sometimes you just don't feel like wearing your pj shorts and only t-pants will do.

Another question is this. Did Daddy REALLY eat my belly button?

Other things are just facts. Twisty straws are SO much better than the straight ones. Unless you're at McDonalds.

That leads to the next fact. McDonalds french fries are the best. Not even Mimi can make better fries. Mommy sure has tried though.

Some things you find out by trial and error when you are three. Wet Nerds that fall into your car seat can and will stick to your butt when you get out of the car.

Boots go with everything.

Matching socks are just not that important.

Cracks in couch cushions are just waiting to eat little boys.

Vitamins taste great until you get too old for the gummy or chewable ones.

There's no such thing as too much candy.

Forks are always optional.

So are clothes.

Older brothers exist to grudgingly share toys with little sisters and also serve as built in stand-up comedians when she's in the mood to laugh.

Splashing other people is way more fun than getting splashed.

So is hitting.

It is never too cold or too hot to swim.

Everything sounds funny when Daddy sings.

Bedtime gets earlier every night, I just know it.

Every package in the mail is secretly for me.

Moving to Florida will happen when I see it; then we'll live on the beach with sharks and alligators and I will swim every day and ride boats and see all my family whenever I want.

One day the nice lady will come back and we'll sell the house today.

Little sisters are noisy.
Mommy has a big bottom and I tell her every time I see it. I haven't seen it in a while, though.

Did I mention that bedtime gets earlier every night?

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Le Pew!

Today was interesting (and it's not over yet). Chris got called out to what he thought was a dog check, where he takes Berry out to sniff a suspicious vehicle. It turned out to be a search warrant with the Drug Task Force, so he was not even dressed all the way, though he did have his vest on. This is the kind of search warrant where all the guys jump out of the cars before they stop and burst through the doors shouting and waving firearms to catch the drug-selling scum before they escape out the back door (where Chris was waiting; Berry never got out of the car; he was there 'just in case'). So by the time Chris got back, it was 45 minutes before his normal start of shift and we were at the park with Girric and 25 other kids whose families were all having a giant cookout at the park. Brian (Girric's dad) and I got to be the Park Police today. Brian happens to be the mayor, so he was yelling at all the teenagers who stuffed themselves into the toddler toys to get off. I was the referee for all the little boys who played too rough and pushed and called names. I really expected to get an offended parent come yell in my face, but I guess I'm the only one who actually watches their kids on the playground, because I never even saw the other parents within 50 feet of the playground at all. And the boys all listened and quit shoving each other onto their faces, so we managed to get along. Somewhat.


But then Chris came and we went home to watch him run around the house and get dressed for work. Erin had a great time in the stroller with her little shades on. She is just too cute and loves being in the sunshine and watching her big brother play.


Later, while I was making our chicken fried rice for supper, Ian came running into the kitchen. "There's a skunk, Mommy!" he shrilled. What?! There's a WHAT?! I followed him, running to the back sliding glass doors and peered through. "Where's a skunk?" I asked. "By the neighbor's house!" Ian insisted. Well, it wasn't a skunk. It was a cat. Thank the Lord, it was just a cat. The last skunk we saw was smeared on the road 200 feet from our house and stunk for a solid week. I told Ian it was a cat, but he didn't believe me. I guess it waved its tail funny or something. Then again, he's seen Looney Tunes. He knows what Pepe LePew (sp?) looks and acts like and that cat was just pretending. Poor deluded Mommy.


Erin has been fretful of late, I think she's teething some more. She's been steadily getting her appetite back though, which is a great thing. Chris is just convinced that she doesn't like vegetables. He thinks her appetite is fine, she just hates peas. Well, she just about licked her carrot baby food container clean today before she fell asleep sitting up, so I'm not sure it's all vegetables! All that sunshine just wore her plum out.


But we were in the tub and she leaned too far forward and took a header into the water. So bath time ended prematurely. She was ready to get out after her dunking.


A fellow officer's sister got tired of her pet rat, so the officer offered to get rid of it for her. I wonder if he told her that he was going to feed it to our snake? Oh well, it's too late now. Chris brought the rat + cage home on his 10-45 (meal break) and fed it to Sir Hiss. It's being digested as we speak. There was some kind of cotton batting/bedding in with the rat and since the rat bit the previous owner several times, Chris didn't want to handle it. So he turned the cage sideways and dumped the thing into the snake cage. Well, the cotton wadding went in with it and our either really hungry or not quite bright snake got a mouthful of fluffy cotton stuck in its mouth. It tried to throw it up, but it was all caught on its teeth. So Chris got most of the bedding out but had to get most of it out of the snake's mouth with my kitchen tongs. He got enough to where the snake was able to quit heaving and eat the rat, so I'm hoping the rest of the cotton will come up with the fur, etc when it is expelled after Hiss's supper.


And randomly, we have purchased and eaten pears this week. I can't even remember the last time I ate a pear that wasn't in syrup and mixed with peaches. But we bought Bartlett pears from Harp's and Ian, Erin and I have been eating them! Shocker! And they're really "tasty and dewishus" as Ian puts it. Gotta love Sesame Street! Without Ian's fruit requests I don't think I would have even considered them. Erin loves them in her mesh bag. She had some fresh corn I cut off the cob (I love spring!) and put in there today. She is getting a lot more than Ian did when it was his turn. I guess that's the luck of not being firstborn. There are pros and cons all around.


And if you get a chance, go to JD's blog. For today's post, he has a link to another guy, who talks about the sex scandal of that Governor, you know the one that got busted for prostitution. I haven't paid much attention to the news articles, because that sort of thing doesn't really interest me, but I like JD's blog, so I read it. It's really interesting. Let me know what you think. I will just sit here and eat pears and wait for the snake to hack up that last wad of cotton. :)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Inevitability


There are things, I've found, that are as predictable as finding freckles when I look in the mirror.

--Erin will always find a way to spit up right down the neckline of my shirt.

--Whenever there is inclement weather, the chief will not come to work.

--As soon as things start getting romantic, one (or both) of the kids will cry.

--The most perfect dinners will be eaten as leftovers.

--Chris will get called out most holidays.

--Mom will call on the phone as soon as I get in the bathroom.

--The last roll of toilet paper will be gone when you most need it.

--The library books I requested will all get in after we move.

--Chris will get great job offers as soon as we decide to move (actually there were 3 opportunities!).

--As soon as we pull out of the driveway, someone will have to go to the bathroom.

--As soon as he gets in bed, Ian will need ______ (it could be anything).


There were others that I was thinking of, but these are the ones foremost in my mind. I'm sure there's some kind of order to all of it. :) Other topics for today were: Gack! It's Monday! Chris gets Monday and Tuesday off, so this is the first day of his work week (thus, Monday). We have decided to just register Chris for the May classes in FL that he needs to be FL certified. We were hoping that the house would have sold by now, but oh well, it's just been 6 weeks on the market. We still have time. We are expecting to sell the house while we are gone at this class in FL, just because it can't happen while we're actually HERE! Of course not! But it's okay, really. As long as it sells, we don't really care how. Still thinking that once the dopers get the word out, it's only a matter of time.

I need to go get Erin's flu booster shot and am kind of balking. Chris is talking about getting his Hepatitis B shot and charging it to the town. The only rub is that it's a 3 shot installment. The second is a month after the first and the third is five months after the second and we definitely do NOT plan to be here still in five months. Please Lord! I do not know what the future holds, only that God has it in his hands. But I really really want to be settled in with the new job and house by the kids' birthdays! That's July 23, 24. Either way, whatever happens, it will be interesting to see how it all comes about.

Well, Erin is up from her evening nap. The picture, by the way, is from middle school. I think it was 8th grade at Busch Gardens, Tampa. With me are my best friends Heather and Christine. We still talk. Happy Spring!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Eggs, Kleenex and DTV


Well, we successfully navigated the Westville Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning. It was cold (45!) and cloudy, but we went anyway. Erin did not get out of the carseat, but stayed in her blanket. Ian got Pu-lenty of eggs, enough to have our own condensed version of Egg Hunt at home, if we can put all the halves together and make them stay. He had lots of fun with his friends and we had lots of fun with their parents. Then we came home to inspect the loot. :)

We are still feeling much better, but boy are we tired of coughing up phlegm! Erin has her little runny nose and cough back, so we are yodelling back and forth to each other pretty constantly. At least nobody is having problems sleeping.

I finally went out and got our digital converter box for our tv antenna. We were all excited to put it together. I read all the instructions (a few times...) and figured out how to do the channel configuration. We waited excitedly. What? This can't be right. 2 channels? We flicked the channels. A mass of frozen pixels was all that came up. Uh.... Chris fiddled with the antenna some. Ok, that was better, but the sound was all hiccupy and every other second a blob of pixels would freeze like a Picasso painting. The second channel was no better. Actually it was worse.

We moved the antenna to the other side of the TV stand and covered the little ends with an 18-inch long wad of aluminum foil. I tried the channel scan again. 3 channels this time. Two of them were actually kind of clear. One of them was ABC (woo hoo! local weather! uh. scratch that. We don't live in Rogers, AR). Biiiiiig problem. The only channel we got without the DTV box was channel 13, PBS. Ian's little shows are all on PBS. And how will I live without Hyacinth and "Keeping up Appearances"? Or Judy Dench in "As Time Goes By"? Sigh. I made do with Cold Case instead. That wasn't too bad, but what would I do in the mornings without Curious George and Word World to keep him busy while I showered?? Oh well, we would live.


Chris had other ideas. Since his 7-day work stretch on the new schedule was over, he has 2 glorious days of weekend. His solution was to get some type of booster for our rabbit ears and try to get PBS back.


So this morning, we hied off to Radio Shack to see what we could see. We got there. The only boosters made are for outdoor antennas. We would have to come to the realization that the rabbit ears I kept from college were just not made for serious rural channel pickups. It was time to upgrade. We looked at the choices. Why get one that looks like a 14 foot bird sanctuary when we're just going to move? So we got a little plastic box that bolts to the side of the roof and then you run a wire inside. It has its own amplifier. So guess what? Now we get 11 channels. 11 beautiful clear channels with only slight pixel congestion. 4 of those channels (13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4) are PBS. Ha! Woo hoo! No more lines on Clifford's face! This is great! And we are excited about all the other channels we'll get after we move too. That is, of course, if we even remember to watch the TV. Hm.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Feeling Better

Well, after logging everyone else's sicknesses so faithfully, I have been very lax in cataloguing my own. Oh well. It's been quite some time since I've had a 102 fever, painful cough and enough phlegm (don't you love the way that's spelled?) to....well, I'll spare you the gross word pictures. I am very happy to report that the fever only lasted for one night and the next day. Yesterday and today has been simply the aftereffects of a yucky cold. Just in time for Erin to be fever (again!) and start hacking, poor widdle munchie. But she slept pretty good last night, so that's good. Chris has been great, letting me get extra rest and running herd on our herd (Ian is active enough to be plural). His shift from 3-11 is starting to show some deja vu because he either gets home hours late or gets called out to assist. The guy who has the night shift is uncertified and uncertain.
But I forgot to mention before that I finally got some guts and shot Chris's handgun (.45 Glock) at Jeremy's house last weekend. I only shot 4 bullets, but it was definitely an experience. Can we say recoil? There's a lot of power in that little thing and definitely not something to mess around with. I managed to hit the target too and I have to admit, it's a whole lot harder to aim with a stubby gun than it is for a .22, which is just way too much fun to shoot for target practice. I am not a great fan of handguns, but we still have one in the house (and chill out everyone, it's not like we let the kids play with it!) and I feel better knowing as much about it as possible. The hardest part about it though, was the fact that I'm left-handed and everyone else is right-handed, so I felt unbalanced and a little awkward, but that also could have been the newness factor. Anyway, it was exciting to me and Chris, so there. :)

Ian actually asked for homemade pizza. He was upset that Chris and his Explorer ate all the leftovers and asked for some the next day. So one day this week I get to make another one. :)
This time I think I'll mix in some garlic or seasoning in the crust. Cooking is so much fun, except for those times when things just flop and everyone has to eat sandwhiches. But we won't mention those much.

Ian has just joyfully announced that he pottied in his potty chair. I went in there to look and along with a whole lot of splattered pee (Why won't he sit to pee on that thing?!) there is the tiniest little splat of poop I have seen in ages sitting in there. But a bargain's a bargain, so Ian is now kicking up his heels because he gets to play video games for the first time in weeks. Fingers are tightly crossed in hopes that when he decides to finish the rest of his potty time, it will be sitting on the chair (it has been cleaned and rinsed and is now dismantled and drying in the tub).

Another interesting thing that happened while I was sick. We got our coupons in the mail for those TV converter boxes. I signed up a few months ago for 2 coupons because we have 2 tvs in the house and then kind of forgot all about it. It would be a travesty if our one channel (PBS) went out, even if it is fundraising month and they interrupt the shows every 10 minutes with a fumbling plea for pledges. So I have two $40 gift card look-alikes for our converter boxes. Now the only thing left to discover is how expensive the boxes are. We'll see.


Ian is asking for toast. I'd better get on it before Erin wakes up.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I'm Makin' Waffles


Well, I caught the cold that everyone else has had and am very coughy and runny (no Blue Beast for me, thank the Lord) and bleary-eyed.

But we got our waffle iron yesterday from UPS. While I was racing around the house trying to find some pants (hey, it was early!), Ian calmly opened the door, received the package, said "Thank You!" and brought it to me, wildly flailing about in my room trying to stuff both my legs in the same leg hole with no success. Baffled, I looked at Ian with the box in his hands and then looked out the window to see the back side of the UPS truck as it drove away. Uh...okay. So we have our waffle iron and this morning, fever or no fever, we had waffles! And just to be clear about this, Ian ate 3. I made a bit of a mess, since this is the first time I've used one of these (just the one at CCC in Cathcart and those waffles are huge). But we are slowly making our way through our 2 half gallons of Mrs Butterworth that we got from Sam's.

For house selling news, we are still trying to keep the house clean just in case Coldwell Banker calls about showings. Chris and I joked last night that we would have 2 showings on the day when I was the sickest and didn't feel like doing anything. We'll see. I feel somewhat better after showering. Good thing, because tonight is our group trip to Golden Corral in Fayetteville and I need to be able to eat my money's worth. :) Gotta review my spanish though, because all the grillmasters and buffet workers there are spanish and you need to know how to convey medium, rare, etc or you'll get a rubbery, overdone steak.

For our neighborhood excitement for the week, the next door neighbor's pitbull snapped his line again and had some sort of altercation with the trash guy. So Chris was summoned and almost got to tase the dog (which is better than the family getting sued for the dog messing someone up), but the dog was picked up by animal control before he got to. Ms Geraldine, the old lady across the street, called to tell me about it, since Chris had to leave to deal with an accident involving a Rent-a-Center truck backing up over someone's car. Ms Geraldine told me first that the dog bit the trash guy, but changed it to "he like ta bit that trash man" so I wasn't sure what exactly had happened. This isn't the first time the dog has snapped his line and he is very territorial, as we have found because we live next door. Eek.

We also got Buddy's Frontline and I'm excited about having a flea-free dog, since he will be in the Jeep with us on the trip down to FL. And he will then be outside at whoever's house, so flea-free is a great thing, with spring/summer coming on.

Well, we've got errands to do today. The usual bank, post office, KK's (Kwik Kountry) for gas, the library if the books I ordered are in, etc. I told Chris last night at bedtime that if we move too soon, I'll have to cancel all my book requests (sob, sob!). He didn't look very disturbed or concerned by this announcement. I don't see how he can be so unfeeling. I've been waiting since December for a couple of these books, since I'm #2 in the queue. Hmph. But that's okay, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Oh, and yesterday, while Chris was serving warrants, one of those interesting citizens, reeking of interesting odors, asked Chris if our house really was "fer sell." Chris told him that it was. "So where ya movin' to next then?" "Florida!" That got his attention. "Really now?" Chris assured him. "Yes, as soon as our house sells, you won't have to deal with me any more." The man practically jumped into Chris's arms. "I KNOW SOMEONE WHO'S LOOKIN' FER A HOUSE!" he shouted. "Well, we've got a sign out front with a number on it," Chris told him. Chris is very confident that the house will sell soon, even if all the dopers get together and everyone puts 1,000 bucks in. I am very amused by this prospect and we are waiting to see what will happen.

There's always the joked about option of putting a jar in the local gas stations "Help Goforth Move!"

Friday, March 7, 2008

4 years ago today...


...Chris and I were on our honeymoon, freezing away in Cedar Key. Eating some REALLY spanking good seafood and getting great views of the Gulf. And freezing. And nibbling on great leftovers from the wedding supper. And freezing some more. But it was beautiful and one day we will go back when it is not freezing and do all the fun things that we would have done had it not been 35 degrees the whole time. Like chartered boats and fishing and lying on their beach in the sun. Sigh!

Still hoping for nibbles on the house so we can experience that chilly Florida brand of winter (if we were to go today to that same previously chilly weather, we'd probably BE on the beach because it wouldn't feel that cold to us after all this time in OK).

But our big anniversary fun was grilling some steaks (even though it was 20-something out), sticking Ian in bed early and watching Mr. Bean's Holiday (Erin didn't feel like going to bed early). We laughed and laughed and laughed. I really like Mr. Bean.

Chris got called out this morning to assist with a pursuit; so much for sleeping in.

As for anniversaries in general, I had always thought that it was between the married couple unless your kids throw you a 25th party or 50th or whatever else. I cannot tell you how many MySpace comments and emails and phone calls we got yesterday (yes, phone calls!) to congratulate us. So far we have not gotten any cards yet, but we got 3 last year. I am still mystified about this. This is clearly a "Dear Abby" question that has yet to be addressed.

And for the curious, Chris got me a waffle iron (chill out, I asked for it! I LOVE waffles!). Because now is not a good time to get a dishwasher...he he. I asked him what he would like and he answered very simply, "Waffles." Men are so funny.

Chris's hours are changing again, due to some upheaval in the department. One officer is going to CLEET (we'll miss you Jeremy!) for 3 months and another officer is pregnant and on dispatch until who knows when. So we are down to skeleton staff AGAIN and Chris will thankfully be going to straight 3-11s. We are not complaining (much). We are too grateful that he's not being stuck on night shift again. Our friend Google has been promoted from dispatch and Reserve Officer to Full-Time and we are all happy for him. Since he was already a dispatcher, he does not have to take a paycut to $7/hour (the norm for uncertified officers), so he is happy about that.

And me? I am busy trying to keep the house clean to Get Outta Here! But until then, we are enjoying life and love and the pursuit of pottytraining. :)

Monday, March 3, 2008

It came!


Okay, let me just let out one more whoop and I'll settle down some. Remember that big packet of stuff (and big chunk 'o' change) that we had to send off to see if Chris's academy hours would transfer to FL (so he won't have to go through academy alllll over again)? Well, we got our packet that says it transferred and he is free to take his 2 week course whenever (just as soon as we sign this paper and send it back...)! After all this fretting and doubting (at least on Chris's part) we finally got one more thing check marked on our Moving List. Now if only the house would sell....but now it can, because everything is happening in the order it should. Can't think of anything else that needs to happen before we sell (besides finding boxes from somewhere and packing everything up....), so NOW we're ready to MOVE! WOO HOO!


Everything else, however is just as normal as ever. We had a lazy weekend (pj day!) where I didn't even cook and did some laundry and general cleanup. Ian had a friend over to play on Saturday and we only had to separate them once (a fistfight over something or other). Ian is a formidable guy, even though he's younger and smaller than poor Girric, who is not as aggressive and is happy doing quiet things, but will defend himself if necessary, if the cause is important enough (usually he is just aggravated by Ian, though). It was interesting to watch them interact.


Ian has finally moved along in his play! The next stage! Role play and using his imagination. Before everything had to be concrete and literal. Now, he makes his trains do noises, talk to each other and the normal boy thing of horrific crashes and life-or-death scenarios. Last night though, he fell off the chair backwards (horsing around) and hit his head on the floor. After sufficient rocking and sympathy, Chris told him that he knocked a 'hole' in the floor, don't you see it? And pointed. Ian looked at him incredulously and inspected the floor from my lap. Chris proceeded to walk over it and 'fall' in the hole and roll around on the floor, as good as any stunt work you'd see in Indiana Jones. Ian laughed so hard he almost fell of my lap. Chris did this a few more times, until Ian decided that he was going to brave the 'hole.' He did his own version of falling in the hole and it was our turn to shout with laughter. Between me and Chris, we've got quite the actor in training. All those camp skits have really spawned an interesting next generation. Can't wait until Ian starts rewriting song lyrics, though Chris has already started and Ian is fascinated (we'll save that for another post). Ian fell in the hole for the next ten minutes and rolled all over the place. Then he wanted me to try it. I am not much for stunts and I told him that I didn't want to get a boo boo by falling into the hole. Ian's solution? "Fall slowly, Mommy. Fall very, very slowly." So I got up and did a slow motion (with the appropriate sound effects) fall into the hole, complete with bouncing. Ian didn't laugh, but Chris did! This is the real reason why it's good to have a partner while raising kids, so somebody will actually laugh at your jokes, because Mommy is never very funny. Not like Daddy, anyway (no fair!). So our two guests last night were warned about the hole when they came in and no one else was hurt. ;)

Not to be generic or anything, but I have to remark on the weather. Saturday was gorgeous. Windy, but it actually got up to the high 60s. Beach weather, baby! Everyone and their grand kids were at the park, so we didn't go. Nothing like having to wait in line for everything and not even get to see Micky Mouse, so we stayed home and Ian did some manly yard work with Chris outside. Sunday, it was supposed to rain some, but it still started out warm (72! Wonder of wonders!), then went downhill. Big old winter storm hit us last night with a bunch of rain and a rapidly dropping temperature. It stormed all night long, with rotating clouds, a flood warning, tornado warnings (tornadic activity, ahem), and thunder and lightning. We lit all our kerosene lamps in preparation for possible power outage. This morning, it was still raining and the temp was Still dropping. Now we have a wintry mix outside (rain/ice/snow) and it is a whopping 32 and Still dropping. We are supposed to have 4-8" of snow, but we'll see. Chris and I would love to get 8" of snow, at least to see, once. And we could make snowmen with Ian and take a bunch of pictures. But we have been assured constantly by the locals that it Never hits us. (is that an invitation or what?) So we are left to hope. :)