Emily

I have 2 more works to do!

2008-04-02T06:22:22Z

Blake has a toy toolset that he just loves playing with. Today he marched into the living room and announced, "Mom, I have 2 more works to do!"
He studied the couch and said, "Hmm, I fink I mean 'a fix dis couch! It's broken."
Then he pawed through his tools and said, "This hammer should do da trick!"
He commenced hammering the arm...

Days like today are exciting because there was a point where we never thought his language or pretend play would show up at all, let alone get this far.

Ugh

2008-02-12T01:12:44Z

Saturday I did a whole 15 minutes of that Total Body Sculpt program on FitTV. Or in other words, only a quarter of the show. It kicked my ass and it was a BIG mistake, because about 12 hours later I started feeling that familiar twinge in my throat and skin. By Sunday night I had the full-on body aching flu. It doesn't go well with muscle soreness, I'll tell you that. It appears Gavin's coming down with it right now too.

Today was still a good day as I made 3 phone calls and got my house insurance reinstated, the cat-collar check torn up, and my W-2s on their way from my old job. Who would think it'd be so hard for me to make phone calls, but it is.

Gardening plans....spring is coming.

2008-01-29T18:26:44Z

I know it's not spring yet, but it hit 45 this week (after being -10 the week before) and it feels downright summery. I'm thinking about planting already!

We are in zone 6b. Our yard came with lawn, virginia creeper, honeysuckle vine, grape-looking vine that doesn't fruit, trumpetvine, and some other unidentified vine. LOTS of vines. And an ornamental plum that fruits edible but small plums. Some rosebushes up front, too.

Last year we planted a tomatillo plant, 2 basil plants, lemon balm, chives. We didn't add any flowers.

I am going to do the tomatillos again, more plants this time, but I am going to try putting them in the backyard, and in front under the pine tree. They grew far too big for my little front flowerbed. That plant sprawls to 5'!

I'm putting 2 basil plants up front again, one purple, one sweet basil. They are pretty ornamental plants and also delicious in thai dishes. And when you have your own plants you don't have to pay $3 for a few leaves at the grocery.

The lemon balm looks like it didn't die, I guess it's a perennial. I am letting that one grow back in place. Same with the chives, if they're not dead.

I need to prune my roses. They are not full size roses but make little blooms less than 3" wide. I don't know how exactly to go about pruning them, so I'll figure that out as I go.

Oh - I also need to get a heap of corn meal or something like that, something to tackle the crabgrass out back. Luckily it hasn't infested the front yard, but we had it so bad in back that I would spend easily 4 hours just clearing a 3' square area. And it'd grow right back. I had some success seeding fescue in. I'm going to try and kill the crabgrass, then seed fescue. It came in so thick and soft last year. It was like having a lawn made of velvet.

New Car

2007-12-22T02:02:35Z

Today Blake told me that he needed his own car. A red one. And we needed to go straight to the car store (as he calls dealerships) and get it for him. I told him his legs won't reach the pedals but he doesn't believe me.

He just changed his mind. He wants a gray Ford and asked Dad to buy him one for Christmas. He told me to go find a coupon for it.

So frustrated.

2007-12-20T00:40:57Z

I have spent 4 hours today trying to unclog the vacuum. I have unclogged every place in the debris path at least 3 times. Every time I "finish" and try vacuuming, it picks up stuff, but the stuff never makes it to the tank. So I take it all apart again, make sure the whole thing's clear, and vacuum again. Nothing in the tank. Damn. It's all piling up in the hose somewhere. Take it all apart again. How many times will it take?

It is never a good sign

2007-12-19T20:32:42Z

When you hear something going on in the next room, and holler out, "Blake? What're you doing?"

And the response is "Um...I don't know."

On another topic, Gavin has started communicating. Actually communicating. He says "yes" and has learned the 3 signs that are most important to a toddler. Namely, "more", "eat", and "candy". I've been giving him anything he asks for (within reason) because I'm just so glad he's finally ASKING. He'll come up to me, sign "eat", (point into his open mouth). I say, "What do you want to eat?"
He signs "candy".
"You want to eat CANDY?"
"Yesthz!" (does a happy little tap dance)
"How about we eat some soup instead?"
"YESTHZ!!!!" (more dancing)
And he signs "more" after each bite. It's adorable and you can see he's so proud of himself for getting his needs across.

I <3 chemicals!

2007-12-10T19:07:01Z

Last night while we were making dinner, at least one of the boys found a small jar of antiquing glaze which the previous owners helpfully left in the lower laundry room cabinets.

If you were a toddler with a jar of black sparkly petroleum-distillate based antiquing glaze, what would you do?

You would unscrew it, scoop all the glaze out onto the light blue bedroom carpet, and drive Hot Wheels cars over it, am I right?

I wish I had taken pictures. Just imagine a 2x3' area coated almost solid black, with large clumps of black stuff the consistency of shortening, reeking of petroleum. Basically looking like the Exxon-Valdez minitanker had tipped over in a sea of hideous blue polyester fibers.

At this point I was convinced the carpet was ruined, and my primary concern was cleaning it up to the point that it wouldn't ruin every upholstered or fabric item in the house.

However I got out the steam cleaner (by far the best $130 we will EVER spend) and the bottle of Spray 'n' Wash with RESOLVE power, a laundry cleaner, and damned if it didn't get every bit of it out of the carpet. You would seriously never know. I don't even know who makes Spray 'n' Wash, but I love them.

Goodbye, ugliest chandelier the world has ever known

2007-12-08T20:01:39Z

When we bought out house, we chose it because nothing really needed to be done before we moved in. That's not to say there wasn't stuff we *wanted* to do....but everything was livable.
Unfortunately, with the exception of the baby-blue master bedroom, EVERYTHING was white. With white trim. And the chandelier in the dining room has to be the ugliest one mankind has ever dreamed up.

I happened across a decent color in the rejected paint at Lowe's this week. Only $10 for a gallon of semi-gloss, which is good anywhere you might need to wipe it clean. So on Wed and Fri night I painted the dining room. Got it done all by myself, too. Yesterday, I happened across a chandelier at Samon's that was marked down from $119 to $60, and it was 25% off on top of that. Totally worth it, as the old chandelier is wooden, and blocks all upward light that might intend to reflect off the ceiling. I don't like eating in the dark.

Since it was the last one in stock, it didn't come with any instructions. We used a few helpful internet sites to figure out how to actually install it without starting a house fire.

Dining room before:

Dining room after:

It looked on the can like a neutral gray, but on the wall it looks much more like a sage green. Disregard the crap on the floor, the kids were tossing it while we installed the chandelier.

summoning the robots

2007-11-29T02:14:30Z

Ever since Blake saw parts of Transformers with us, he summons the robots to destroy anything that inconveniences him.

Example: We are walking out of the grocery. He sees our car and says as much, then says, "Oh no, cars are in my way!"
"Tell them to excuse you," I say.
"I fink the robots mean a come SMASH THOSE CARS!" he says.

So far the robots have been summoned to smash many, many cars, our house, his messy room, and the kitties.

First day of preschool

2007-11-29T02:10:25Z

Yesterday was Blake's first day of preschool. Based solely on his IFSP when he was barely 2, they allowed him in 4 days a week, and during the next few months they will evaluate his progress to see if he still qualifies. It's a win-win for us. Either they say, "Sorry, your child has improved too much and is too 'normal' for special preschool," or we'll get a "your son qualifies for totally free preschool!"

I expected it to be really emotional, and it sort of was for me - I didn't expect to be dropping kids off at school for another 2 years or so - but Blake couldn't have cared less when I left. He was just so excited at getting to cut paper up with scissors. When I arrived to pick him up, he decided to throw a tantrum and then hit the car, yelling, "I HIT THAT CAR! I HIT OUR HOME!!"

Gavin has an evaluation for EI on the 11th. We'll see how it goes. His receptive language seems fine to me, but he is 18 months and rarely says anything. Most of his words occur only when he's prompted or reminded. He doesn't babble in a way that imitates conversation. The best we can hope for is an occasional, "tsooka tsooka tsooka tsooka!" which means, "I'm busily excited and possibly getting into mischief!" or something along those lines.