I finally figured out how to connect ALL the pieces of Owen’s train tracks, and it made a tunnel. He hadn’t seen it because I did it after he went to bed…but he noticed it as soon as he came downstairs! And he knew it was a tunnel!
Year: 2011
New squirt gun!
Learning how to—OOPSIE!!—use his new fish squirt gun! Thanks, Gramma Marsha!
Yelp ROTD–The Big Salad
Weight loss!
If you may recall, at Owen’s 24-month check-up, the doctor was a little concerned about his weight, and mentioned that she would like to see him lose a few pounds. I thought that was pure lunacy and didn’t worry about it at all—and just thought she was crazy. :crazy:
So my cousin’s kids were here today and I swear Owen felt heavier than the two older ones (their mom said the 7yo weighs about 45# and the 5yo weighs about 28#) so I wanted to weigh Owen just to see. I knew he was more than 28# but I thought he might be close to the 45#, seeing as how he was 38# in February.
So imagine our total surprise when he weighed 36#—which means he’s lost 2# since February! (His pediatrician would be thrilled. :meh:) He’s apparently losing some of his baby fat (which we’ve actually been noticing) and is getting more lanky.
I guess a height measurement is next on the list.
Opening doors–a milestone.
For awhile now, Owen has been able to unlock the sliding screen door and can now push the sliding glass door open if it’s unlocked. (He could probably unlock that door, too, though we’ve never seen it happen.)
However, today we hit a new milestone—he can open a regular door knob. 88|
I know…oh nooooooo!
So far, he’s only displayed his prowess on the downstairs bathroom door (probably the easiest door in the house), but I am sure it’s only a matter of time before he figures out he can open his bedroom door, too.
Ugh.
Of course we knew this day was coming, but as with everything else, we kinda hoped it wouldn’t happen quite yet.
Three raves in one day? Awesome.
RAVE #1
A huge thumbs up to the place that fixed my car post-accident. We had decided to get the hood repainted at our own cost (since it really needed it and they were painting the front end anyway) for an estimated $150. When Tom went to pick up the car, he was told it was done minus one fog light light bulb (they had ordered a pair, and one came with the bulb and one didn’t) and they had driven all over town looking for it, and apparently no one in the state had one! They apologized profusely and said since they felt really really bad (they had already had the car an extra two days due to another ordering/shipping error that wasn’t their fault), they ate the cost of painting the hood!! WOOHOO!!
RAVE #2
After dealing with Costco Concierge and HP over the third major issue in nine months, they are giving me a brand new laptop! They are sending us a list of what models are available (saying they will not downgrade but only upgrade the specs) and if there is nothing we like they will build to suit (but will take 3-6 weeks). I can totally live with that. So kudos to them for actually doing the right thing with this dud of a laptop. YAY! (A bonus rave to this rave is that Tom took over the dealings, as stuff like this just makes me insane. Besides, I paid my penance dealing with the first two wonky laptops and the two repairs to this laptop.)
RAVE #3
This one is comparatively minor, but a rave nonetheless. After almost three years of five bulging junk drawers (2 large, 1 medium, and 2 small) and at least two solid weeks of procrastinating cleaning them out…I did it today! Here’s proof (only one drawer, but you get the idea):
Of course, now I have two buckets of stuff to put away elsewhere, but a lot got tossed and put away already…and I feel much less stressed about the movers not having to pack and move five drawers of crap.
Bee! Bee!
Owen kept saying “bee” this morning, and actually whined when I put on Little Einsteins or Mickey Mouse Club…whined! WHINED!
He didn’t want his all-time favorite rocket? Color me stunned. And he just kept repeating bee! bee! bee! and I couldn’t figure out what he wanted. His blanket is called a “B” but that wasn’t it.
Two hours later after we came back in from playing outside and he started with the beeee! beeee! again—and it hit me!—Bee Movie, which we watched for the first time last night!
He liked it so much that we watched it—are you ready?—THREE times today. THREE.
And for the moment, I don’t care, because I was getting a little tired of rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket rocket. 🙂
Scheduling nightmares.
The moving company that’s been assigned to us? Ugh.
Tom went in to set up the move a few weeks ago, and came home with packing dates of June 20-21, a loading date of June 22, and delivery on July 6. The packing and loading dates corresponded with when my mom could come down to help, but I was surprised that the delivery date was so far out (we normally get our stuff a few days later)—so I was under the impression that’s when they could first do it. (Come to find out later, Tom has a function at his job that he can’t miss…on the 28th!…which he never told me about…which is why he scheduled delivery for when he did. I wasn’t happy about having to live at the house with no stuff for a week, but whatever, we’d make it work.)
Fast forward a week or so, when I get a call from the moving company out of the blue. This surprised me because Tom was the one dealing with it all. So I had to deal with her questions about the house, which was fine. And then talked to her about dates, because she mentioned that they could deliver earlier than July 6. (At this point, I still didn’t know about Tom’s function on the 28th.) So we had a conversation about possibly changing dates to whatever we needed to TO AVOID WAREHOUSING because we wanted to avoid that at all costs (warehousing means they come load the truck, unload the truck at a warehouse while we get where we’re going, then they RE-load the truck and deliver it). That just leads to more opportunity for loss and damage, so I told her we’d schedule something so we didn’t have to do that. She said she had to check the driver’s schedule and said she’d get back with us the next day. Two days later and nothing. Then Tom forgot to call until this afternoon.
Now, keep in mind no one has talked to us since that lady called me a week ago when dates were still up in the air…so Tom called and about had a heart attack when they said our delivery was scheduled for 6/23. HUH? What? JUNE 23? We never authorized that!! And apparently they didn’t think it was necessary to let us know?!?
We told them in no uncertain terms that June 23 was NOT possible since Tom would still be working…though we could alter our dates somewhat. Come to find out, they assigned us that delivery date because their driver has a pickup IN Jacksonville on the 24th. Sorry, not our problem. We discussed potential dates and they said they’d have to get back to us.
Ugh. We have never had this many issues with scheduling a move…EVER.
If we get what we want, we will have packing on June 23-24, loading on June 27, and delivery on July 1. My mom won’t likely be able to be here to assist (dang jury duty!), but it’s not as critical as I thought it would be since Tom will be able to be here for everything (unlike all past times when I had to do most of it by myself).
But I just don’t have a good feeling about this. I have a pit in my stomach thinking I will end up having to drive to NC in a rush (to meet our stuff), by myself, with Owen and the animals, while Tom stays behind to finish up at work and check out of the rental.
Please keep your fingers crossed for us on this one.
Hi bug!
Owen loves watching bugs…and saying hi!
What the…?
You never know what you will see when Owen wanders off then comes back.
Handprint, schmandprint.
Well, so much for Owen’s 2-year handprint…
- We were actually four months late.
- His hand was too big for the tin (his on-time 1-year print was too big, too).
- He hates getting his hands messy, so by the time we got him to do it…
- The plaster was already set up (man, it was quick).
Damage/repair estimate
Total damage/repair estimate: $2154—about half in parts and half in labor. We get to pay the $500 deductible plus a few extra bucks for the upgraded rental car we chose and about $100-$150 to repaint the hood while they’re painting the other stuff (the only place that had some paint chips/rust spots, so we figured we might as well get it taken care of at the same time). I should have my car back Wednesday.
Owen is 2 years 4 months today!
First trip to the zoo!
The first stop? Penguins! He loved them!
Group shot!
There wasn’t much action in the arctic circle…except a tiny seal.
Watching the train pull into the station:
First train ride! We thought he’d love it, but he was fairly 😐 about it.
Owen did an amazing job during the three hours we were there—we had the stroller and gave him rides between stops and he was a perfect little angel. He enjoyed the animals we saw (a lot of them were hiding or sleeping) and said “hi” to and waved to them all (sooo cute!). He never ran off when he was out of the stroller and he would run back to the stroller to ride to the next spot. Such a good kid!
OUCH! GRRRRR!!!!
>:XX
Coming home from the zoo, pulling out into traffic, a GMC truck/trailer hauling asphalt changed lanes (merged) and smashed into our right front bumper tearing it off.
Everyone was fine, though my back was sore almost immediately.
But my poor car. This was her first accident ever at almost 10 years old…and with one fell swoop she lost her $10k resale value. It was drivable to get home, but not again until it gets fixed.
And the topper? Our fault. Failure to yield, since we were the ones at the stop sign. The cop said he didn’t want to write Tom the ticket but he had to. It was just a matter of bad timing—the guy merged over right after Tom looked and saw that it was clear.
We were at the bottom arrow at a U-turn/turn-around stop sign needing to turn directly onto the 696 on-ramp.
There are three lanes of traffic at that point, and the guy that hit us was NOT in the closest merging lane—but moved over at the last minute, after we had started to pull out (he said his blinker was on). I saw the truck go by, heard the screeching of the brakes, and just as I thought HOLY SHIT HE JUST MISSED US—his huge work trailer (filled with asphalt) slammed into the front right bumper and tore the whole thing off. Luckily it was just the bumper and it doesn’t seem to be anything more internal.
And what actually hit us (and had no damage, of course):
>:XX
The guys in the truck were really nice and were only worried about Owen, who was just fine and didn’t even realize anything had happened (though when he saw the front of the car, he said “broken”). And he did notice the police car there. 🙂 The cop was going to let him come sit in the car, but he got a call right as we were headed over so we didn’t get to do that. 🙁
On mark! Get set! Go!
Splashing in the water table with papa. Grannie Lin taught him “On your mark!” which comes out “Onma! Onma!” 🙂
May pictures are online!
First sandwich!
Owen usually likes taking a bit of whatever papa has (cookie, cake, sandwich), so he’s had a few bites of PB&J along the way…which was surprising, because every time we’ve tried to give him jelly, he’s refused.
But apparently papa was the key, and Owen ate part of a PB&J sandwich while Tom and I were out. Of course, I require photographic proof or it didn’t happen 😛 so I got this video today!
Nomming a Monkey Arm
We gave Maggie one of her favorite monkeys tonight. After she crunches off the eyes, nose, ears, and squeaker box, then she starts doing this:
Random bits
I wish Owen would want to stay outside and play longer. I wish he would understand that this current weather is the best we’re going to have for probably the next three years…that it will soon be too hot to want to stay outside very long. But he usually only wants to stay outside for like 10 minutes at a time, at random times throughout the day.
He has figured out how to unlock the screen door, so he’s taken to just going outside whenever he wants (leaving the screen door open, of course). I’m trying to teach him that he has to ask to go outside, and of course that doesn’t go over very well—he collapses into his go-to whining position (crouches/squats on the floor covering his eyes with his fists and whines gently). I would call it a tantrum but it’s not that bad.
He listens and understands basic commands pretty well—which is fun—like “Bring me your juice” or “Turn your car off” and yesterday he even understood me when I told him his B was up in his room…because he went and got it! Of course, being a toddler, he doesn’t ALWAYS listen…but for the most part he does. He’s also still really good when it comes to picking up toys and putting them away.
His words are still coming along, though honestly I’m probably not keeping track as well as I should. He also seems to be repeating things more, even if he doesn’t understand. Since the last update, we have about 15 more words:
Annie => Little Einsteins character
Awesome
Beanstalk => From a Little Einsteins episode
Blimp
Cage => From a Little Einsteins episode
Cute
Cymbals => From a Little Einsteins episode
Helicopter => Pronounced as hector
Hiding
June => Little Einsteins character
Lion
Mouse
Note => From a Little Einsteins episode, as in music note
Orange
Saturn => From a Little Einsteins episode
We have taught him “please” (which comes out as peas and it’s so cute) but he thinks that’s all he has to say when he wants something. So he’ll be saying “peas! peas! peas!” but we have no idea what he wants. I keep asking him what he wants, and all I get is peas. I keep telling him that I need to know what he wants, or that he needs to say “outside please” but it’s just not getting through. If we ask him if he wants to go outside (or wants a snack or wants to watch rocket or whatever), he giggles. So, we’ve learned that giggling = yes. 🙂
The next cover for Car & Driver?
More rental fun. Ugh.
Our landlords have lost their ever-loving minds. They came over for a showing, except the people were early, so I showed them around and answered questions—something I totally didn’t have to do, but I wanted to make everything sound great and get this place rented. Fine, right?
Well, we get done with the tour and the landlords are in the driveway, saying they’ve been waiting there. Whatever. They were maybe there for five minutes. They gave me a half stink-eye for not waiting for them. Whatever, don’t care, my part is done. They said they’d be back in to talk to me about the disposal. WHY? It’s broken? Ugh. (We had called to let them know it was broken and that Tom had attempted to fix it to no avail.) So they come in and check the disposal and it actually just needed to be reset, which Tom had looked for but didn’t find so thought maybe it didn’t have one. So that was fixed, they made a joke about “That will be $75!” and all was good.
Then they brought up the A/C. We said this morning when it was cool in the house, the air coming out of the vent was room temperature, or 74. The wife couldn’t wrap her head around it, because 74 was cooler than the current air temp [because the unit was off]. I said I’d turned the air off because it didn’t do anything to run and run and run. She said, “But if you turn it on the 74 will feel cool.” Yes, maybe for a minute. I told her we had it on all day recently and it was still 82 in the house, which implies it’s not working. I said maybe it just needs a refresher of freon every year since it’s an older unit. She says “But we just had someone out.” Yes, LAST YEAR. Yes, I know you don’t want to spend any money, but seriously. They ended up saying they will send someone. *And all this was AFTER we already called them about it TWO WEEKS AGO, and they gave us a song and dance that the A/C company said [something to the effect of] “Let’s wait until it gets warmer to check it out.” HUH? :??: Normally you’d be glad to check it out before everyone and their brother is calling during the first heat wave of the summer. ANYWAY.
Then.
THEN.
Then they wanted to give us some “feedback” on the house showings. Um, why? We don’t care. So basically, they want us to clean out the house. 🙄 :)) :crazy: Yeah, they said people are saying they can’t really see what the house looks like with all our stuff. Yes, that would be because WE’RE STILL LIVING HERE. They said they know we just had the garage sale, etc., but if we could make it look better… Um, just what the hell are we supposed to do? I said “If we move that [pointing at some random item], it just has to go somewhere else, which doesn’t really help.” We said we tried to get rid of some stuff but the garage sale was a bust. And then? They suggested an estate sale. Seriously. I felt my blood pressure rising and I was become less and less calm…ready to fight almost. I’m sorry, but there’s just not much we can do. And other than not enjoying people traipsing through our house twice a day, we don’t care if this place gets rented or not. Really. I know they’re concerned…but at this point, it’s not our problem and if they weren’t such douchebags about other stuff (like the A/C issue), maybe we would care more.
Then they said people didn’t like that the fireplace was covered. Tom said we could uncover that. But then they said something else kinda bitchy and I kinda snapped a bit and said something to the effect of “Well, we’ve been telling people it was for toddler-proofing and haven’t mentioned ONCE that that’s where all the cold air comes in in the winter.” They didn’t have a response to that.
And then they complained about the lawn, saying we need to take care of the weeds. Lord. They’ve never once cared until now, of course, because they’re trying to rent it. And honestly, yes, we are responsible for lawn care, but we never thought about weeds and at this point, we’re really not caring much about taking care of the damn weeds. So I need to pull the lease and see what exactly it says regarding lawn care. Again, if they weren’t such asshats about this other stuff, we’d be more than willing to be amenable about things like this.
So, overall, they just made their lives worse. We are NOT moving furniture around, we are NOT going to make it look like no one lives here, and we are NOT putting everything away. And from now on I am going to be brutally honest when they ask me what the landlords are like and how it is to live in the house. And I’m contemplating not being available a time or two when they need to show the house (since we’ve been EXTREMELY generous in not requiring 24-hour notice for showings).
I really don’t want to leave Michigan (or even this neighborhood) but I cannot wait to be rid of these landlords.
Owen’s New Car
Yes, Tom and I decided to spoil Owen just a little more and get him his own car. A Dodge Charger Police Cruiser to be exact. He loved the little Toy Story-themed car at Walmart so much, we thought he would just die when he saw this one. As you will see, he was excited to see a car…but was almost more excited with his pool. Toddlers!
When we finally got him back to the car (he kept running back and forth between the pool and the car), Tom tried to show him how it moved…but since it wasn’t a constant pressure and a smooth movement, the noise and jerkiness freaked him out a bit and he was DONE!
Then he came back over to explore it more. He loved playing with the wheels and the mirrors.
Loving his car!
Having more fun (and getting more comfortable) with his car!
Our last ever garage sale!
Today we officially had our last ever garage sale. Seriously.
The neighborhood we live in has a “community garage sale” every year. We figured it out the second year we were here, and our neighbor let us know which weekend it was, so we could be prepared for the third year—which worked out perfectly date-wise since we are moving in a month.
Now, from past experience, I hate garage sales. Yeah, I like the money, but they’re a lot of work and I hate haggling. Our stuff isn’t CRAP (like tchotchkes from the 70s or broken stuff)—a lot of the stuff was new (still in boxes or plastic), next to new, or in really good condition. So I priced it fairly—with some of the things marked a bit higher that I would be willing to haggle on. But long story short, we hadn’t had a garage sale in almost five years, so I was kinda ready…or at least had a positive attitude.
So we busted ass and cleaned out a ton of stuff—finally making the decision to just GET RID OF STUFF (some of which has been making the move with us since we got married). I had even posted on Craigslist that our community was having a garage sale, and listed what would be at ours. We had an entire driveway full by the time all was said and done, and we fully expected to make about $500-600 (thinking about past garage sales and how much stuff we had and what we made at those).
Ha.
HA HA.
>:XX
First of all, the “sale” was technically Friday and Saturday—which we didn’t realize until Thursday night when talking to our neighbor again. A garage sale on Friday? REALLY? :??: I had never experienced that in my entire life of having garage sales…so needless to say we totally weren’t ready. :down: But we figured that Saturday would be the big day anyway so weren’t really worried about it.
Second, the community association was supposed to advertise the sale with signs out front a week prior—except that the day before, there were no signs (they finally went up late Thursday night). :down:
Third, I saw NO listing for the garage sale on Craigslist—so I put one on there advertising OUR moving sale. I mean, in this day and age, you post on Craigslist, and it’s free and easy, so there’s NO reason to NOT advertise there. Stupid community association. :down: I also put up my OWN garage sale sign.
So Saturday morning rolls around and we’re up at 6 getting everything set up in the driveway (well, we were up at 4:30 but didn’t start working until 6). I had such visions of it being a gangbuster sale that I was bringing out anything that I thought might sell. The more stuff we got rid of, the better, right? And more money, right?
Well, in our Craigslist moving sale post, I said that although the community sale technically started at 8, we’d be out getting set up at 7, so early birds were welcome at 7:30. Well, someone showed up at 7:15 which was fine, but they didn’t take anything. Okay, no biggie, it was still early. But then no one else came until like 7:45. Really? Where were all the people beating down our doors at 6am or lining up on the street…or doing drive-bys the night before like we had in North Carolina?
Then people just started driving by. One car after another. Huh? We had about eight cars slow down and look—but not stop. Now, I fully realize that some might be looking for one particular item that could be seen from the road…but EVERYONE?? REALLY?? What are they expecting to find?
At the end of two hours, we had a whopping FOUR customers, two of which were neighbors…and we had made $68 ($60 of which was a fish tank). And had maybe 15 drive-bys.
BIG >:XX DEAL.
Then we’d get one person. Fifteen minutes later another. Then a drive-by. At the busiest time, I think we had three people there. Ugh. And of course 95% of them wanted to haggle. Now, I can handle haggling on stuff that’s $5 or $10, but seriously, if I’ve marked it $1, it’s $1. Don’t ask if I’ll take 50¢. And then pick out nickels and pennies when I agree. Seriously. (One lady had 49¢ and Tom just stood there with his hand out, waiting. I mean really, people.) Alternatively, if I have something marked $25, don’t offer me $10. I kept reminding myself that the point was to get rid of stuff, but honestly I would rather donate things for free than take $5 for a $20 item. My blood pressure certainly spiked through the roof at least a handful of times due to hagglers.
So come 4pm we started cleaning up—and it really didn’t even look like we sold anything. Every table was still out and full (when normally about two hours in, we’re consolidating stuff and getting rid of tables). The free thing we had sitting out didn’t even get taken!
So, in the end, we made about $300 for about 18-20 hours of work (prep, sale, clean up) which just sooooo doesn’t seem worth it. I mean, it’s better than working that long for nothing…but had we sold another $200 worth I’d be more amenable to having another garage sale sometime during my lifetime. To put it in better perspective how much work it was and how few people we had and how little stuff we actually sold…almost TWO-THIRDS (!!!) of our take came from just three big ticket items (a $100 table saw that Tom sold to a co-worker before the sale even started, a $60 fish tank we sold at 8am to a neighbor, and $30 for a new-in-box Lego set [that was actually worth $90, but I digress]).
The whole thing was just bad and frustrating—I have never experienced such a lackluster garage sale EVER. I don’t know whether it was due to the lack of advertising, people just not being into garage sales, or what… but what it did was certify that I will never again have a garage sale and I will just donate stuff.
Speaking of which—the Vietnam Veterans of America will be here Tuesday to pick up three bags of clothes and shoes, and about six huge boxes of stuff. :up:
Crying Over Corn
5:38pm => The world is apparently ending because I asked Owen to try a piece of corn. (This wasn’t even the worst of it. He was calming down here.)
5:45pm => Seven minutes later and he won’t stop eating corn.
I can’t wait for these food issues to be a thing of the past.
Au natural and old timey!
Fun at a new park!
We stopped at a new park on the way home from my chiropractor… Owen wasn’t too sure about it at first, but quickly got into it.
My biggest surprise? His hood came off and he let out a big OH NO (you will hear it) and wanted me to put it back on!
And then he went down a slide. The only one of four that had standing water and gunk at the bottom. Of course. Boys!
His response? WET! And of course I had no change of clothes (since we were in Tom’s car). It wasn’t terribly cold, so I stripped off his pants and he rode home in his top and a diaper! 🙂
Our house is for rent!
It’s official. Our rental house has been put back on the market. We knew it would happen eventually, but it still sucks. We never really keep a super clean and organized house, but it needs to be somewhat presentable for showings.
That said, we had the first two showings today. The first lady didn’t seem that interested (she flew through the house in about five minutes) so she either knew exactly what she was looking for or she hated it.
After she left, I decided to look up the listing and guess what? The property is listed as being fenced. Um, no. WE put up TEMPORARY fencing because YOUR CHEAP ASS didn’t want to split the cost of a real fence. So now we have to tell every interested person that the fence isn’t included, but we’ll make them a deal on it if they want to keep it.
Oh, and the second showing? As per the deal, we were notified by the agent…but were really surprised when the landlords showed up with the people. Yeah, THAT would have been nice to know. Not really because we would have done anything differently…it would have just been a nice heads up. I just hate having the owners walking through the house. Yes, they own it, but it still feels like an invasion of privacy. Ugh.
Going Away Picnic
We wanted to have a picnic like last year…perfect weather, fun for Owen in the pool, a bunch of friends over, some good food, and a new family photo. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate…and neither did Owen. We got a decent photo out of the 25 attempts…
But it doesn’t even come close to the apparently once-in-a-lifetime shot we got last year (one of two attempts).
But he was super cute the morning of the picnic when he discovered he could climb up onto the bay window ledge in the living room. What fun!
And he loved Gramma Jean’s mower…when it was turned off. She turned it on to give him a ride and it was “NOISY!”
Then Tom helped him pick a flower for me—my first flower! Sigh. :heart:
And last but not least…Gramma Jean got Owen a pop-up tube/tent contraption…which he LOVED. I’m not sure where it’s going to fit in either house, but we’ll have to find a place.
We lost Owen today…for a few minutes!
We got home from dinner and I was messing around in the kitchen and Owen was playing in the living room and Tom was upstairs. Then Tom came back down and asked where Owen was. I said in the living room. But, nope, no Owen. So we started calling for him—which usually brings him running—but nothing. And we didn’t hear his pitter-patter upstairs (which is where he normally is when he disappears). We checked another favorite hiding place—the closet—and nothing. And he still wasn’t showing himself.
CRAP.
We started getting a littler nervous, even though we knew he had to be in the house—but your mind still goes crazy. Tom checked the garage while I ran upstairs…and nothing. He was totally gone.
:??:
The only place left was the basement—the gate was open, but it’s almost always open and he NEVER goes down there. In fact, he’s only been down there once with us. So Tom ran down there, calling him…and guess who was sitting at my computer giggling? :>>
Hopefully this is the first and last time we lose him. 😮