Dapper Dan

In the midst of the crazy house updates, I suddenly realize that my kids are ill prepared for winter weather. We have to get the boy a coat, at least. Socks might help, too. So we zip out to our local kids' clothes consignment store and have a look. We end up with a coat, winter shoes, warm PJs, and a couple winter dresses...still no socks *sigh*. I get lucky, though, and find a nifty vest and tie just right for my little man. Couple them with pants and a shirt from a cousin and ta da! Fancy-dressed man.

 

I love to see him gussied up. I never got into dressing Alice fancy (probably because fancy girls are usually frilly and froofy), but I can't get enough of this boy in dress clothes. One drawback: all of these items are sized 2T, and yet his neck is still too large to button the top button on the shirt.

Kitchen Floor Progress

Three solid days of mistakes, frustration, and figuring/locating/purchasing the right tools/materials for the job and we FINALLY got some of the new floor put down in the kitchen. Then we experienced a few more mistakes and quite a bit more frustration before Bobby found his rhythm and performed this amazing transformation:

That's the kitchen floor half done. Good man! Stove moved, fridge in the entryway (tight squeeze!), kitchen table in the middle of the living room (an emotionally exhausting disruption, no matter how necessary and temporary it may be), and lots of dust everywhere. Most of the dust, thankfully, is in Bobby's make-shift workshop:

 

While the kids and I were at the Halloween party on Saturday, eating good food, playing with friends, and trick-or-treating, Bobby pounded out the rest of the kitchen floor project. It was critical that we (I mean "he") finish on Saturday because the glue takes 12 hours to cure. If he had to do more on Monday, the glue wouldn't cure until Tuesday and we'd never get all the furniture moved in time for the carpet to be installed Wednesday. So he did it.

The kids and I played there all morning while Bobby was at his pre-church meetings. It is literally the only open floor space in our house larger than 3'x3'. See how this home remodeling can be so emotionally exhausting? Here's a snippet of the fun:
























I hear, "Mom, look at Robert!" several times a day. Sometimes it really pays off to look at the kid :) In this video, he's reaching for the dishwasher cord and the natural gas pipeline for our stove. I promptly moved the stove back into position.

Alice invented a new game on our new floor this morning. She dances around and you try to hit her feet with beanbags. You only win if you hit her six times out of six. This is gonna take some practice on my part.

Halloween Celebrations

Halloween started a week ago at our house. Our church had a "Trunk or Treat" last Saturday. The red princess dress Alice had selected was not yet complete, and it was 2 sizes too big anyway, so she went to the party as a turtle...with a Tinky-Winky headband and red, sparkly princess shoes. Bobby posted picts last week.

Then came the Costume Parade at a local nursing home. Alice opted to stay in preschool for their Fall Celebration, so it was just me and the boy. We had invited several friends from church to attend, too. I'm glad we did. In the picture below, 7 of the 19 kids were our invited friends :) Can you see my little Chef/Pillsbury Dough Boy in the front? He was really interested in the kitty cat sitting next to him. He tried to get her attention by squealing and flailing his limbs. She ultimately decided he was too young for her and toddled off.

FYI, also featured in this photo are Robert's cousins Will (Cat in the Hat) and Kayla (turtle), and several friends: Justin (blue dinosaur), Esther (Tigger), Caleb (fireman), Mary (ballerina in snow boots), Spencer (fireman). Not pictured are Spencer (cowboy) and Isaac (pumpkin). I love having so many people I like to hang out with. Really. It's a blessing.

Later that afternoon, Bobby's work hosted a "Ya-Boo!" event where kids could trick-or-treat at all the cubicles. Alice wore her red princess dress this time, and it was terrible. It's WAY too big for her, so we had to pin up the skirt while the bodice was sagging off of her shoulders. I'll put it away for a year or so and then slip it into the dress up box. Sewing a princess dress was quite the learning experience. The biggest lesson was humility. Second was gratitude for sewing friends who could help me through it. I will not be tackling anything so complicated again for a long time. A long, long, time. I didn't take pictures...it was that bad.

Then on Saturday, we were invited to a neat Halloween party with friends. I love my friends, even when I'm too frazzled and tired to make much party conversation. Alice threw on her purple tutu leotard, some thick tights, and a pair of white shoes and called herself a ballerina. I'm cool with that. (It's taken me some time to be cool with Alice's periodically frilly and froofy femininity. My main concern was that she would dive into the frilly, froofiness without exploring other options. It turns out that she enjoys many kinds of play and many kinds of dress-up, so I'm okay with exploring the frills when she feels like it.) I didn't take pictures at this event, either. I was juggling two kids, a couple plates of food, and then trick-or-treating. Bobby stayed home to make progress on the kitchen floor (see the next post, woo hoo!).

So, three Halloween events and three costumes for the girl. Robert was his charming chef-self every time. He was quite a good sport with the hat and all. He had a great time at the final party. He loves kids. Spencer Bair (almost 3yrs) got a little close with his sucker and Robert took it from him, popping it into his mouth with glee. We retrieved the sucker but Spencer didn't want it anymore. All was forgiven quickly, though, since Spencer only had to look at Robert to make him burst into giggles.

And today, on the "real" Halloween, we're just eating lots of candy :)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been a crazy one. We have has so many Halloween parties with Alice, including the trunk or treat last week that we have much more candy then she could ever eat on her own. Robert went to all of them as well, we just didn't encourage him to ask for candy. Add to that the new floor we are putting in the Kitchen, it has been very crazy. Happily the kitchen floor is almost done, and we should be able to finish it in time for the new carpet next week. After that hopefully life starts to get closer to normal again.

First tooth! First pacifier!

He did it! He cut his first tooth! Like Alice did, Robert tends to get awfully snotty the couple days before the tooth pops out. We thought he was getting sick...again...then the tooth came through and all the snot disappeared instantly. The second tooth won't be far behind.

This has also been an interesting week with the pacifier. Baby Bob has never really liked them. We tried really hard at first to get him attached to them, but he just gagged and cried harder every time. Well, with the teething and the off-and-on sickness, he started to use me as his pacifier. No go, bub! I pulled out the pacifiers again and gave it another go. Success! It didn't take him long to get the hang of it this time.

But now I have mixed feelings. The pacifier has made bedtime, ouchies, and the "witching hour" much, much more pleasant for all of us. At the same time, I know I will be taking it away from him eventually. And I kinda miss all his random babbling noise. You can't see his smiles as well, either, from behind the pacifier. Was this a short-term gain for a long-term loss? Hmmmm.

Alice had unlimited pacifier use until age one, then it was restricted to the bed. When she started asking for it by name ("deet-do") at age two, I felt it was time to get rid of it altogether. Her relationship with the pacifier evolved naturally and none of these transitions was terribly traumatic. Each parent has his/her own philosophy about this issue, I know. And there are great parents on both sides of the issue that I deeply respect. I understand both sides. So, I have mixed feelings. My impulse is to allow pacifier use as long as it continues to make our lives and relationships better/easier. If it becomes "absolutely critical" to the boy's happiness, out it goes.

Let's see how this goes.

Still Catching Up

Bobby told you that my friend Julia came to visit, and he even showed you pictures of things we did WITH Julia, but failed to connect the two events. Here are a few pictures from that busy, but awfully fun, weekend.

Individual shots of all 5 of us in the car. I'm in the back seat, crammed between the two car seats. It's technically legal, and the kids absolutely love it, but it's not very comfy:

The girls at Negangard pumpkin patch:

We were trying to get a shot of just me and Julia but Alice kept popping in. She picks strange times to suddenly like getting her picture taken.

The boys at the patch:

Bobby had Robert on his shoulders quite a bit. Robert kept grabbing Bobby's hair and burying his slobbery face in it with giggly gusto. That is the main reason that all of the picts Bobby took of us girls happen to be askew.

After the pumpkin patch, we painted our hallway. Julia went to pick up dinner (at Holy Land! Woo hoo!) and Alice begged to go with her. Unbelieveable. I had to take a picture of it.

Then on Sunday, Robert wore his first fancy Sunday suit (thanks Evanses!):

It was also the last time he would fit into this particular outfit. Oh well. It did whet my appetite for more "little man" clothes, though. I'm fashioning some Big Butt slacks for the boy now and dreaming of vests, little ties, and shiny shoes in our near future.

Julia left Sunday evening after a quick batch of raspberry coconut milk ice cream. Alice sobbed. We were all a little sad, but it was good she left when she did. I came down with some nasty gut bug the next day. Ugh. The coconut milk ice cream was an unfortunate casualty. Any thought of coconut flavor now makes me nauseous. Bye bye Thai curries and peanut sauce, but only for a while. I hope.

Playing Catch-up

Two of Bobby's Sunday Summaries in a row...wow, I'm behind. Plenty of excuses: Bobby's been out of town, we've been sick and then sick again and then teething (adds up to no sleep), and I'm just plain uninspired these days with all the other work to be done in the house. Home improvement is lots of work and it's not the kind of work that makes me happy. The whole process is a long, tedious learning curve coupled with a headache. You have to mess up your WHOLE house for a LONG time just to make it look better in the unforeseen future. Not my cup of tea.

But the end is actually in sight these days. We've trimmed our "to do" list significantly by completing a few projects and just plain dropping most of them from the list.

"Do we really need to repaint the ceilings, too? They look pretty good to me."

"You're right, let's just go to bed."

Lately, I find comfort and sanity in the fact that this house in this neighborhood is only worth so much, even if we deck it out with all the latest and greatest luxuries. No one buys a $200k home in a $100k neighborhood.

We've finally purchased the Pergo laminate flooring for us to install in the kitchen over the next week. Then the carpet will be installed next Wednesday and TA-DAAAA! We'll have a party in our "new" place.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was a crazy week. It started out with us going to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins, and to carve a jack-o-lantern.

We ended up with a 2 faced pumpkin. One Alice drew and one I did.

Alice is addicted to candy. Last night our ward had their annual halloween party. Alice got a fairly good haul of candy from the Trunk-or-Treat part. Well in the car, and the entire time she has been awake she has been interacting with the candy. She has been planning out what she will eat and when she will eat it, because she doesn't get to eat it all at once. She has gone through the basket several times asking about the flavor and type of each of the candies so she knows all about them when making the proper decision on what to eat.

The party was more then just a trunk or treat, there were also some games, and lots of fun costumes. Robert was supposed to be the Pillsbury Dough Boy. But we were too tired from out temple trip that day to finish it, so he was just a baker.

Alice was a turtle. She was originally going to be a princes. But she decided that she wanted to be something else, and put on things from her dress-up box.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was very busy. I was in California all week for work. I left early Monday morning and didn't get home until late Friday night. Susan spent the week at home with two sick kids. At least the second half of the week was with sick kids. On Friday our friend Julia showed up for a week end visit too. So it was an eventful but tiring week end as well. Happily everyone seems to be mostly better. Susan still has a cough that will not go away. But we are still going to be very busy. We are doing some touchups to the house, so this week will be filled with painting.

Mmmmmm

Bobby's been out of town this week and I've had to get (more) creative with the kids when they are the most fussy: 4-6pm. Yesterday was funny.

Robert's fussing. He's tired of the walker, tired of sitting on the floor, and tired of every single baby toy in the house. I sit him on the table for a change of pace. He's way back by the kitchen window so he won't lunge off the side. It works! He's happy and flailing his arms again. Whew. Alice is at her seat, munching on scrambled eggs and listening to "Stone Soup" the gajillionth time on the CD player (thank goodness for books on CD!). I'm washing dishes at the sink trying not to memorize the story. My back is to the kids. Robert starts fussing and straining a bit and I can tell that he's bored again. I rack my brain for a novel "toy" to hand him, "Wire whisk? Measuring cup? Tupperware? Spatula?" The fussing suddenly stops and I hear a smacking noise punctuated only by excited panting. Curious, I turn around to find Robert with nubbin of bacon poking out of his mouth. He has a big smile on his face and hickory-smoked drool dripping down his chin.

Exasperated, I ask Alice, "Did you give Robert your bacon?!"

"No. Bacon? What?"

I pull the bacon from his mouth. He had crammed half a slice in there! Apparently, he was lucky enough to steal the bacon off of Alice's plate while she was mesmerized by the story.

Alice wanted the bacon back, by the way, and she ate it all. Goofy, goofy, bacon-loving kids.

Check out Robert's hair halo:

Oh yeah

Just a preview of our next Saturday Family Fun activity:

Noise Shmoise!

Robert doesn't mind loud noises. It's a radical departure from his dear ol' sis who STILL must run into another room whenever I need to vacuum, mix up some batter, or grind a few nuts. He's also a far cry from empathetic. The sweet boy actually finds Alice's melt downs amusing. Maybe he can't tell noisy silliness from noisy tragedy? Admittedly, they sound pretty similar, coming from Alice.

Anyway, here's Robert watching a neighbor of ours mowing our lawn. The screen door is open, so he's getting the full volume of the mower. Doesn't phase him. He watched this neighbor back and forth, back and forth until he was done with the lawn.

In case you were wondering, Robert's hearing appears to be normal in every other way. He wakes up in the morning within seconds of hearing Alice's cheery (though whispered) voice in our room :)

Check out his new Big Butt jeans! I made him 2 pairs at once in 2 different sizes (didn't take as much time as 2 pairs created subsequently would). The smaller ones, 12-18 months, didn't fit and now they belong to a cloth-diapered baby twice Robert's age and a few pounds shy of Robert's weight (23 pounds and counting!) *sigh* Robert did get to keep the 18-24 month size with lots and lots and lots of rolling in the hem.

He's only 6 months. The idea (hope?) is that Robert will stay about 25 pounds as he learns to crawl and walk. His pants can then be lengthened before he "outgrows" the waistband again.

A Mexican friend of ours took one look at Robert and exclaimed, "Bien gordito!" I know enough Spanish to figure that one out on my own. Somehow, "bien gordito" seems infinitely more charming than "big fatty." Also, it was spoken lovingly, not in amazement or pity, which makes a big difference. I get a lot of amazed exclamations and a few pitying ones. One mother even asked me, in all seriousness, if his doctor had put him on a diet :(

Silly Siblings

I couldn't choose just one picture. The whole series has a way of capturing their personalities better than a representative photo. I love, love, love to see Robert's hair sticking up in the back. When he's sitting in my lap I just can't help but bury my face in that little forest of baby hair. I'd probably do it to Alice, too, if she'd just sit still for a few minutes ;)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was a long one. We had a reorganization happen this week. I still have a job, but the team I am a part of was split up. Which was very frustrating.

Robert has also been sick this week. He has had a cold and has had a very hard time. He will not sleep more then two hours without waking up and screaming. This has been especially difficult on Susan, as the only thing that seems to make him go back to sleep is nursing.

We also spent much of Saturday painting, or I should say I spent about 4 hours on Saturday painting while Susan went to a meeting. Luckily we had a friend who helped us out by watching Alice during the meeting.

All in all it was a very long an tiring week.

Field Trips

I was a chaperon on Alice's field trip today. We visited Lincoln Square for a few fire safety demonstrations and a "puppet" show put on by the Urbana Fire Department. You can learn a lot on a field trip:

1. As Alice clearly demonstrated the whole car ride over, silly rhyming sounds and "kid Spanish" will always get a giggle out of your preschool classmates. Always. I stifled both the urge to calm her down (I really want her to be friends with this girl and being silly is no way to build lasting relationships) and the urge to join in (maybe I could be a "cool" mom for once). Neither urge was actually rooted in Alice's best interest, so I kept my mouth shut. I won't even go into how much I wanted Mrs. Strom's approval. Sheesh. It's no wonder where Alice gets her "pleaser" tendencies. 
2. There is a WHOLE lot of difference between preschool kids and Kindergarten kids. How they line up, how they answer questions, how they interact with adults, and how they interact with each other is so different. Practice helps, I guess, but the older kids just "get it" better. They kinda know how these things work.
3. We don't have enough fire danger in our home. There was a game "Hot or Not" that the kids got to play. The firefighter would hold up something and the kids had to say whether they should play with it or not. When he held up the cigarette lighter Alice was dumbfounded. She'd never seen one before. Then he held up one of those long lighters that light gas grills or candles. Uh, no clue. Then he held up a book of matches. What's that? (We use boxed matches, not matchbooks) Then a scented candle. We don't have those at our house. And finally, he pulled out a curling iron. Huh?! I laughed and laughed and laughed, wishing for someone to laugh with me. *sigh*
4. Very, very, very loud hip hop music sells anything these days. Even "Stop, Drop, and Roll."
5. When you have a REALLY cool activity, please let everyone get a chance to try it or else you will get tears. Quiet, obedient kids don't always get a fair chance at such cool activities, either. It's the ones hopping all over the place and getting up and asking loudly that end up with the attention...and the turns. Doesn't seem fair, but perhaps that's my bruised mom-ego coming through. 

I can't wait to hear what Alice has to tell Bobby about this field trip today. What stood out to her? What will she remember? I'll post her description when we get it :) 

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been mostly normal. Susan has had a lot of things in the evening, but Susan has already talked about that. At work there have been some reorganizations going on, but we still don't know any details about exactly what our next project will be. There is no fear of me being laid-off, hey need people too desperately for that to happen. Just curious what I will end up doing.

Today I decided that I wanted to make scones for breakfast. But just so you know these are Utah Scones. They turned out a lot more like fry bread then the big puffy fried bread balloons that I remember growing up. If you happen to know a good recipe for them please let me know (Dad). We will probably not try them again until next year though.

Alice wanted to include that we read lots of books this morning. She is starting to get into chapter books a bit more. Not that she reads them herself, but that she likes to listen to a story that is a bit longer then a picture book.

Castles and Characters

Bobby has taken the kids three evenings in the last week. Good man. I love that baby Robert is old enough to leave home between feedings (i.e. much lower maintenance than he used to be, so it's not bad taking both on at once). Bobby has done a great job getting Alice excited about this Daddy-Daughter time. He called each of the evenings a "party" and they did something special. Most recently, they made a castle (and a camera, of sorts) out of recyclables. This girl loves crafts with the glue and the beads and the cutting stuff out. She also likes to draw. Here are the characters Alice created to accompany their new castle:

Top row: "Princess with Really Long Hair", "Prince with Freckles", "A Really Tiny Lady"
Bottom row: "A Monster"

I checked out "Rapunzel" at the library today. With Alice's fascination with long hair and a moderate interest in the princess world, I thought it was a good pick. She was disturbed by several of the events (a father trading his unborn child to a witch for rapunzel plants, witch collecting the child the day she's born, witch cutting the girl's hair, witch banishing pregnant Rapunzel to the wilderness, witch blinding the prince, prince and Rapunzel reuniting at the end and living joyfully with their twins..."what happened to the mean witch?"). She asked me to read it twice in a row, then again later.

I don't think she's scared of the witch. If she were truly scared, she wouldn't ask to revisit the story. I think she's trying to figure something out. I can't blame her, there. It's a strange and twisted tale.

Getting Crafty

Last week, for our "Saturday Family Fun" event, we made a craft. I've been wanting to try out some freezer paper stenciling, so we cracked open the fabric paint and experimented on a couple old/stained shirts. Alice wanted "a bat, a pumpkin, a bat, a pumpkin, a bat, and then a pumpkin."  I think it came out nicely. She did most of the painting herself. Then, when I selected a fat little hen to paint on my t-shirt, Alice decided she also needed a baby chick and an egg (She tells me often, "Where you go, I go."). The chick stencil was created by Bobby. Alice put in the feet herself freehand.

The shirt is OBVIOUSLY too small...it seems like only yesterday when I threw it onto the "hopelessly stained" pile. She's actually posing in this picture to make a silhouette of herself that we then painted onto another extremely small and stained shirt. I won't show you here 'cuz it's not modest, but it's pretty cute. On Monday morning, as she ran into preschool, her first words to Mrs. Strom were an emphatic "Guess what?! I painted my shirt!"

I wonder what else she tells her teacher out of context :)