New Rooms

It has been a whirlwind week as everyone changed rooms. D called the furniture store Monday evening last week and found out the furniture would come on Saturday. Wednesday we went for the first change and that was putting G and M together. M was confused as I put his stuff into the bunk bed room. He kept walking from the crib room into the bunk room saying Max room..... Max room....Max room. Moving him into the bottom bunk for sleeping seemed too easy; D and I are waiting for some trauma. D took guard duty the first few nights waiting for someone to get up or talking or giggling and he got nothing. He actually got 20 minutes of peace and quiet to read a magazine each night. Thursday we moved the baby stuff out of the baby room and moved E's stuff in. D is terribly jealous of E's room. The cowboy theme turned out too cute. D keeps saying that he always wanted a room like it. Actually I think it is terrific too and we have considered evicting E and making him sleep in our room. His room is so cozy! Saturday the new furniture was delivered and at first we were worried that it was too much for one room; once we got our things settled in though, it looks nice. It feels very grown up to have a complete set of furniture. It is darker than I remembered it in the store. I am inserting a video of the kids telling about their rooms. Sorry about the mess in the upstairs hall (we are still finding homes for pictures) and for the lighting; cloudy day with no lights on in the house.
love and hugs,
B

Lessons from the Fridge

When we moved in here we needed a fridge for the kitchen and picked out a counter depth one with the stainless steel look but it was magnetic. It was so pretty and we loved it until we had to live with it. You know, not one single sales person ever asked how much we cook and eat at home (nearly every meal, nearly every day) or explored the possible problem of fitting food for 5 people into a 21 cubic foot space. Then came June when mysterious puddles began appearing on the floor. For months we thought a child must be playing with the water or letting extra ice drop on the floor. Then we noticed the water appearing when a child hadn't touched it and tracked it a loose flap on the ice dispenser side. Doesn't seem like a big problem until you realize the ice storage is in the door of this freezer so as warm air goes in ice melts and drips out and refreezes inside the ice holder so the contaption gets permanently frozen into the door. We called for service and had a towel stuffed in the hole for 3 weeks. Finally(when the repair people said they couldn't/wouldn't) drive back out to fix it we called Lowes. I do have to give Lowes a giant pat on the back. As soon as the manager heard our tale of woe he immediately gave us a store credit for our purchase price and told us to come in to pick out a new fridge. It was delivered and the old fridge was taken away the next day. Fabulous!!!
What have I learned about fridges: bigger is better for us and I will never get a freezer side with ice stored in the door again.
love and hugs,
B

video of all 3

M is miserable cutting his 2 year molars. At dinner I said (in a sing-song voice) "Someone's getting new teeth" and E immediately sing-songed back " Someone can bite us harder now".

Adding a video of all 3 after school. NOTE: there is a llama farm next to the playground and sometimesthe llamas walk up to the fence to see the kids.
love ang hugs
B

To Preschool At Last

I know he needs to be there, but it is really hard to let him go. My G. I cried a bit last year when he headed to his 3 year old class; then when we moved we were back together with no preschool options here in the middle of the year. And he was such company for me here when we were both lonely after moving. And he is exactly where he needs to be. I have a magnet on my refridge "Childhood should be a journey, not a race" and the same pic and saying were the cover his preschool's information on parent night. G, M, and I visited together yesterday and he just loved it (actually they both did) he was a bit shy meeting his teachers and then got interested in the "find these in your new room " list they had made for a scavenger hunt and before we left he was playing up a storm. Our public school here is heavy on inclusion, especially at the preschool level.... there could not be a better match than G with students who might need a little help, a little encouragement, or a little friend to say come and play with me.... G is built for the job. But it does still leave me at home on his first day a little weepy and greatly missing my G. Here is he is with his teacher.

Updates on the others: E is loving second grade. He also has this strange habit (probably picked up from his Bradington days) of calling girls ladies. He will come home and say "I sat with a lady today on the bus" or " A lady moved to the desk next to me". Never girl. It takes me aback at first-- what was an adult doing there? One of my favorties was when he invited a girl from our neighborhood over to play: "Can a lady come to play tomorrow?" E has always gotten along well with the ladies :) He seems to be doing well so far in 2nd-- no behavior or talking problems yet.

M is still M. We are manipulating his nap to fit the preschool schedule. It is a long time for him to be up from 6am-1pm ; today about 12:15 he crawled into my lap and kept saying "night night" "sleepy". Poor thing. His favorite book is Goodnight Moon. I have read it 3, 487 times in the past week. I have taken to hiding it from him; unfortunately he is smart and he hunts it down only to torture me with it. At the end of the book he refuses to say "The End" He flips it over and says "Again". Quite a kid.

I have 30 minutes until I pick up G so I better get a few things done,

love and hugs

B

Busy Beginning of the School Year

E has started school. Finally. The G and M started MMO this morning; M is already in trouble for biting. He really is Satan. Neither of the others ever got in trouble for biting and here he is on day one of this year with the teachers on his case. He is my parenting test.

Last weekend we went and ordered new bedroom furniture for our room (don't say we haven't stimulated the economy) and are preparing to shake up the room arrangements. G moves up to the top bunk; M moves in to the bottom bunk big boy bed; E moves to his own room. We have worked together this summer to design a quilt with his choice of "cowboy" theme. Pics show the cowboy fabric and the whole quilt. If you look closely you will see the the sides and bottom of the quilt are rail fences. This is the reason I have been busy this summer. Of course now it comes down to finishing the thing and I am worn out on it. Anybody else want to quilt it and tie it?? Please.

Oh well, back to it.

love and hugs, B