Pictures, as promised

Mary lost her second tooth this morning!!

We have clean carpets!! Clean floors for me are the thing that make the house feel great. We've never had the carpets professionally cleaned since we installed them 6 years ago, so I think it was time. The upright cleaner does a good job, but it's not the same as the deep clean. Today on the agenda is play and have fun. We'll have to put all the furniture back later tonight, but the weather looks great and I bought my seeds last night, so there will be planting in our near future.

I am taking Mary to the doctor this afternoon. I think we've waited it out long enough. She's been coughing for the better part of a month. Maybe that will help with disposition if she feels better.

In toileting news, Emily is doing great!! She is wearing a diaper at night (with duct tape--just a small strip, but it is doing the trick to keep it on!) and mostly pull ups during the day. She tells me most of the time when she needs to go. I really haven't been asking her much. I would guess that by the summer she'll be in underwear. It just seems early to me, but whatever. I won't complain about not buying diapers. She is such a big girl in so many ways. Like how she watched me dump the little toilet into the big one. Now I've caught her several times going to the bathroom on her own and then dumping it into the big potty. She's not making a mess either. I draw the line at her cleaning out the small potty (but she does try!)

Or how she takes care of the dog: she will make him sit and lay down for his food and it's her job to put him in his crate when we leave in the mornings. It's funny to me how he obeys her little commands. "Cawaw, sit. Way down. Okay, you can eat."

And also, one last thing. She has learned how to say banana. Which is sad to me. We liked calling them bee-nuhs. She now says in a grown up way, "buh-nah-nuh." In a very enunciated way. Like she knows that its the right way to say it and she's proud.


This is Em reading to her baby. It's one of her favorites: Kim and Carrots. Sorry about the sound quality. I was trying to stay back to not disturb the moment; shockingly you can her Elijah and Mary whooping it up in the attic, playing video games.

Check!

Bathtub re-caulked...check!
Composter emptied and garden ready to be planted...check
Bedrooms cleaned out and ready for carpet cleaners tomorrow...check

After this I should be able to relax for the rest of break. I always have a few big projects that I want done during a break and those were it for me. I went to the store today and got batteries so I might be able to take some pictures. Perhaps of my little toddler with a goose egg? She was throwing a tantrum and while I was putting her into her crib she threw her body and whacked her forehead on the crib rail. Oh, the joys!!!

Both girls cannot seem to shake this cough and runny nose. I know that they both don't feel well, just well enough to get by, but their behavior shows it! Mary is getting into that pattern of less and less sleep and Emily has the wild-eyed crazy girl thing going on. Between the two of them I think I am starting to look a little wild-eyed!

Ramblings from the attic

Wow, here I am in the attic using Brian's laptop. Now that the weather isn't so cold we can actually use this space without wearing coats or smelling like kerosene. It's kind of fun to think of our house as a 2 story.

Yesterday I spent most of the glorious afternoon digging in my garden and preparing the soil for this spring's planting. I shoveled way beyond what was good for my body (as evidenced by my aching muscles and dry hands today) but I just couldn't stop. I LOVE GARDENING!!!!!! I loved the smell of the damp earth, showing the girls some of the more giant worms and finding remnants of last year's leftovers. I am much better at the planning and tending stages in the spring and summer, but not as good with the fall clean up. There were a few stray carrots and onions that made it through the winter. It really made me ache for the warm days of outdoor living. We are thinking of moving the swing set to the back of the yard and expanding the garden again so that we can try to grow and preserve lots of what we have. Right now we're definitely planning on growing tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, spinach, basil, onions, carrots, swiss chard, and this year banana peppers (can't make homemade pizza without them!) and pumpkins.

I know that I seriously need to add some pictures to this blog. My camera has been without batteries for over a month. No excuse. My cousin is doing this cool project where you take a picture every day of the year as a photo journal of your life. I'd be good to at least get one per week at this rate. I think batteries will be on my agenda for tomorrow.

In looking for Orthodox Pascha bread recipes today I found a couple of neat blogs of Orthodox moms doing Lent projects and baking with their families. I tried to not be jealous and just enjoy them.

I can't believe it's true!

Emily stayed dry almost all day today!! It was her first day of going to the sitter and using the potty there. She seems to love it! She asks to go and then...goes! I hardly remember training Elijah, and Mary was a bear to potty train. She took 2 years before she wasn't having accidents. Well, we're definitely not ready for underwear yet, but it definitely seems to be her idea, so maybe??!!

Where have I been?

Well, I think we've been in survival mode for a while now. Brian's school let go several teachers last week due to lack of funding and thankfully he wasn't one of them. We'd been waiting for over a month to hear what the final verdict would be after many school board meetings. Unfortunately he is taking some heat from some people for not being one of the teachers to be let go as some of the ones let go were much his senior. We are thankful that his administration recognizes what a good job he does with the students and that he is worth holding on to.

Elijah finished his basketball season last Wednesday. This is the second time he played in this league and each time I think his skills grew and his ability to play on a team improved. He scored many baskets and assisted his teammates. It was a fun family gathering time to go watch his games on Saturday's for the past 6 weeks. Grandma Betty might get the prize for number one fan!

We have someone in our house who wants to potty train (hint--it's not me!) Emily has been taking off her diaper for a while now, but all of a sudden it's becoming a major issue! We're going through several bed sheets every day. During the home waking hours I've been letting her wear cloth training pants or just a dress with nothing under it and she often requests to use the potty. And is doing a good job! (Except when she missed the toilet a little today and told me after I'd dumped what I thought was all of it into the big toilet, "mommy, my poop in daddy's slipper." Yup, sure enough it was. ) But at least she knew she needed to go and got most of it. We're trying to plan our next plan of attack for night time. We think it's probably time for a toddler bed so she can get up and use her little potty if she needs to go. She really doesn't like the feeling of wetness on her so I think that's why she keeps taking it off. We're also trying to limit drinks at night time, except that she cannot seem to stop getting sick and needs lots of fluids. So, that's tricky. I just started reminding myself of some advice I gave to a friend that she reminded me of at one time: "This, too, shall pass." Whether it's something good or bad, nothing lasts forever. So, although I'm frustrated about being awakened so often at night and stripping the bed in my incoherent daze, I am sure it won't last forever. Our little baby is growing up!

Brian's on spring break this week and I am next week so I feel a little relief. Our house is to the point of crazy messy and I've kind of given up for the time being. I am so busy with school and our family that it's almost impossible to keep it managed. We don't have any spring break plans other than try to have some down time and (in my case) attend holy week services. That will be nice to be able to go to more of the services in the week prior to Easter.

Ok, so the Avett Brothers concert was a-mazing. Brian, Laura, and I drove down to Indianapolis and went to the IMA for a couple of hours then met up with the rest of our group for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. I don't know about you, but I do not like to be the person who makes decisions for big groups of people. But I wanted to have a fun dining experience, so I undertook finding a place that was a. close to where we would be and b. in our price range and c. open on Sunday evening. We ended up at this place sort of by default, after I'd spent several hours and came up with nothing that met all of our criteria, but the food was delicious--even though we were a little nervous about going inside. My brother and his wife also met us there since they live in Indianapolis. I had these delicious tofu soft spring rolls wrapped in some kind of translucent rice tortilla, dipped in peanut sauce. YUM!!!

The show itself was a lot of fun. It was packed and hard to see (at least for short little 5'2" me), but there was lots of jumping around and great music. Oh, and $10.00 domestics. Can't forget that. Nothing like paying 10x what it's worth for cheap beer. After the show we were the weirdo's waiting outside the tour bus. Elijah wrote the band a letter and drew a picture of them because he was so disappointed to not get to go. It was our ticket to not just being the lame people saying, "hey great show." We had a purpose. And we were successful! There actually weren't that many people out there--maybe 20 or so. Several of the guys came out after they changed clothes. I got my picture taken with the bass player whom I think it super cute. (I obviously don't have the picture on my camera or I'd post it, but if you want to see who he is click here). SO, you know, that was fun. We have a little sliver of hope that they might respond to Elijah's letter since he gave them all our contact info and they seemed genuinely touched that he took the time to draw such detailed pictures of each of them with their instruments --and included a photo of he and Mary. Who knows? We just might be pen pals.