Little Joys

1. Using my homemade cleaning supplies.

2. A facial.

3. A quiet house all to myself for two whole hours.

4. Trying a new recipe (successfully) in said quiet house. Just me, my cooking gadgets and some music.

5. Open windows.

6. Sales on current-season clothes.

7. Reconnecting with old friends through the miracles of Facebook.

8. Recipe subscription service (thanks, Whoorl, it was a great suggestion.)

9. Impending vacation.

10. A giggling baby.

11. A no-construction day. No sawing, no hammering, no walking on tarps, no cleaning bits of masonry off my doorknobs, no shop-vac, no grumbling contractor. Bliss.

12. Being a two-parent household again. It was a long week.

13. A little boy asking if maybe, please, if we're good, can we maybe go to the library - as if that's a grand prize - so glad he loves books.

14. And it's only Saturday.

Drive Through

Wyatt is very busy in his cozy coupe this morning. So far he's been to Kansas, Florida and most recently picked up an order at the Chick-fil-a drive through for Daddy. The best part? He pretended Natalie, who's happily bouncing away in the jumperoo, was the drive-through lady. He very politely placed his order with her, then waited, then asked for a few extra napkins. What a guy.

Milestones

Wyatt is officially a student. Like so many others, he began preschool this week and it seems to be a resounding success. His parent/child orientation was last week and I thought he was going to start crying when it was time to go, so I wasn't concerned about the drop-off on Tuesday, which turned out to be an accurate prediction of how things would go. I, on the other hand, didn't fare was well.  His school has a system where I never leave the car (holla!) so when they plucked him from his seat I got all sad and could barely choke out the words, "have a good day!" without my voice catching. That was completely unexpected! I mean, I've been looking forward to this since FEBRUARY for goodness sake. Don't worry, Wyatt didn't notice and had already scampered into the building before I could even catch a glimpse of him in the rearview mirror. And today, well, let's just say I was just fine with my three hours of greater effiency.

The requisite first day photos:

The one with Natalie was per Wyatt's request. The sibling love here is palpable and should be thoroughly documented because I feel certain there will be a day when it isn't.




So far, Wyatt has been the weather helper, brought home one art project, claims playground time is his favorite, closely followed by lunch and music (notice the more "academic" things don't make his list) and climbed into the car today in his back-up pants. When I asked why he was wearing his jeans, he said, "I had an accident." When I asked what happened, he said, "it's no big deal." By the time we got home he was spilling his guts about how he'd been on the playground and just didn't ask to go potty in time.

And for the other child, Wyatt's first day happened to be her half-birthday. I love this age, or at least this baby at this age. She is so, so, so happy. She smiles all the time, has two teeth to show off, is eating solids when offered (and would probably eat them more, if I would remember to offer them more), is great at sitting up, loves putting everything in her mouth, works hard to get Millie's attention as well as Wyatt's (and already takes mine for granted), spends lots of time jumping, is getting closer to sleeping through the night (I think/desperately hope), is starting to take better naps, squeals with delight when she sees us prepping a bottle, enjoys being outside, wakes up by 'talking' to her toes, plays Lulu's letters in her crib, loves her little pink blanket, has thighs that virtually demand to be squeezed, occasionally holds her own bottle, tips the scales at 16 pounds, is acting like she'll be crawling sooner than later, remains quite chill and just kind of rolls with whatever we do. Have I mentioned that we think she's just about perfect?

Ready for a Vacay

Grandpa and Grandma, look out! Someone's ready for the beach.

What Lies Beneath

We're demolishing our kids' bathroom. It's been kind of fun, although it's easy for me to say that because Jeff did all the heavy lifting (both literally and figuratively). The tub was chipped, so it needed replaced and you know us, we'll just gut and remodel while we're at it. I feel like all my years of watching HGTV have finally paid off. Truthfully, I started watching home improvement shows before it was cool, back in the days of New Yankee Workshop and This Old House, Saturday mornings on PBS. Then there was Frugal Gourmet....ahh, the good ol' days. Anyway....we removed the old vanity with its cultured marble top, took out the supertall toilet, chiseled away the tile on the tub surround and then Jeff took a sawsall to the fiberglass tub. Last task: the floor. We thought we'd just be taking up the tan linoleum but it turned out we also had to remove the 1/4" plywood underneath. The real treat came next.

Have I ever mentioned this house was built in the 80's?

You're looking at layers of linoleum. The original appears to have been a more late-70's-inspired faux tile with a small floral pattern. Someone then got the bright idea to add peel and stick black and white checks over that. It was dizzying when the whole floor exposed itself. It makes me wonder if at some point the walls were splatter painted, too. I'm thinking that new surfaces we're putting in will be slightly more appealing to the masses, but on the flipside, they won't make you want to break out a disco ball or a fog machine.

Slow News Day

I do not have any astounding "where were you" story regarding the events of September 11, 2001. Truth be told, I was in the McDonald's drive-thru in Enid, Oklahoma grabbing my morning cup of coffee before work, same as always. And eight years ago I never could have guessed that today's news, in my world, is that Wyatt announced he "loves pooping on the potty" and that Natalie's second tooth came through, joining the first one which appeared four days ago.

I'm immensely thankful for these small things and I'm grateful to all the Americans whose lives have been cut short or irrevocably altered in an effort to protect my freedom to enjoy the little things in life.

I Can't Make it Up

Jeff & I went to the parents' open house for Wyatt's preschool tonight. He was still up when we got home and so we took the opportunity to (again) talk up school. I truly believe he will love it, but I thought it would be good to talk him through all the stuff to come. It went a little something like this:



Me: It will be so great, you'll love it.



W: But I want you to come with me.



Me: Oh, well I get to come with you on Friday to show you your classroom and do whatever activities the teacher has for us.



W: With all the kids?



Me: Yes, I get to come with you and all the kids on Friday. And then on Tuesday you'll go all alone.



W: But how will I drive?



And then every adult in the room cracked up. This kid, I tell you. He is seriously funny.

Give It Up For Khalil

Gibran said it best: "Let there be spaces in your togetherness..." This dude was spot-on with his observation. My kids are waaaaay more fun after a touch of space in our togetherness. Specifically, I had a girls' weekend away in D.C. a few weeks back and then this past weekend I got to spend a whole 2.5 days in Boston with my husband but without our angelic children (not an assumption - my parents tell us they were both great except for the part where Natalie was awake for two hours during the night on Friday). We had a fantastic time.



Have you been to Boston? You totally should go. I'd been as a kid and then again six years ago (still can't believe it was that long ago, but apparently it was) with friends. The first time produced memories of much historical learning - I'm pretty sure there's a picture of me and my sister at Faneuil Hall - though I managed to retain none of the knowledge. The second time was really, really fun but produced scant memories due to a lot of red wine. So this time was great. We did some History 101 review (quite frankly, it would be nearly impossible to spend 48 hours in that city without literally tripping over or running into something of historical significance), we did a lot of walking (thanks to gorgeous weather and the aforementioned NO KIDS), we took naps because we wanted to, we saw Blue Man Group, we ate yummy food, we wandered around Cambridge and the Harvard campus, we browsed in antique stores and learned we got some real deals on our Chinese antiques, and most importantly we met up with our college friend who, six years later, still lives there. Funny enough, we both fought off our own unique illnesses (food allergy for me, migraine for Jeff) and STILL had a great time. You know it's good when you can say that, right? Incidentally we're also becoming the old crotchety people you used to hate as we called the front desk twice the first night about our loud neighbors. I mean, we remember that it's fun to go out drinking but it's really more fun to sleep these days and these guys ruined our sleep. I'll throw down for some sleep.



And that space I mentioned before? Well, it do believe it has been the key to an attitude shift around here. Not sure if the change is Wyatt's, mine or both, but we have been having some really great days. So I'm pretty sure that this makes vacations more mandatory for me. Now I just need to start planning the next one. Who wants the kids?