I got bread but forgot peanut butter at the store this morning…so Owen had a plain jelly sandwich and Katie had microwaveable mac and cheese. Amazingly, she ate most of the cup! Owen told me not to worry—we could go back to the store again tomorrow. 🙂
Katie loves climbing on Owen.
Sometimes an oops happens.
She wasn’t hurt and didn’t even make a peep—but Owen still immediately apologized and gave her a hug. 🙂
Technically it’s not that far from our house…if we could cut through a few yards we get the green route (believe me, I’ll be asking when we get back from vacation). Otherwise it’s a loooong trek uphill past seven houses, then backtracking past the same length around the block and down a few more houses (pink). Or downhill a few houses then straight up a big hill (yellow).
Today we drove because it was unbearably hot.
The kids first stops:
It’s not very big, but at least it’s something. And there are two decent-sized tables to sit at.
Katie likes climbing!
We were only there about 15 minutes before Owen declared it TOO HOT. Katie didn’t care. But I agreed it was too hot so we went home.
I slept like crap on the air bed (and had to fill the air about 11:30, hoping I didn’t wake the kids up since it sounded SO loud in an empty, quiet house), the street noise was annoying, there was a loud drip somewhere that I couldn’t figure out, and it was storming.
I know I looked at the clock at 12:30, 2:30, 4:15, and then I was up for good at 5:30. Owen was up at 5:45 and Katie was up at 6.
GOOD MORNING!
And them the big question: to take a cold shower or no shower (no hot water since gas isn’t on yet). I thought I was going to shower but then chickened out and opted for a baby wipes cleansing.
Everything was such a rush this morning that I left without even taking a final look back at our house. We were in it for eight years (combined) and have lots of memories…
The drive was long(ish) and my back hurt most of the way—even with using the lumbar support. Even now it’s killing me. I should have taken a pain pill but then I’d have to get out of bed to find them.
At our first stop, I grabbed the diaper bag to change Katie, rushed to get everyone inside because Maggie was stuck in the car without air, and discovered there were no diapers in the bag! WHAT THE—?!?! I know I put some in there! GRRR. At least she hadn’t pooped. So I had to change her on the front seat after digging for diapers in the trunk (I couldn’t even change her in the grass like I’d normally do because it was all fenced off). And it was hotter than hell. (We figured out later that Katie had taken them out while she was playing earlier. Tom found them in the drawer where we normally keep them…so she was putting them away!)
The house seems to be cooling okay (I was worried because there’s only one unit for whole house; we’re used to a dual system) but no ceiling fans is killer.
Maggie pooped in the house within 10 minutes of being here, even though she just came in from being outside and peeing.
Katie got into meds again. I debated taking her to the ER but I really didn’t think she ingested much, if any (there were lots of pieces all over which led me to think she spit them out when they didn’t taste like candy). I’m still watching her for symptoms. She is so much more evil—I mean inquisitive—with stuff like that than Owen ever was. It’s hard to re-train your brain.
The landlord is nice but can drive you crazy. I had to call him because the alarm was beeping (not an alarm beep but more of an “I’m not really turned on but you’re setting off room sensors” type of beep). He ended up unplugging it and disconnecting it entirely. (Apparently it was something the last renters put in.) Then he walked me through the house systems (which I had asked earlier to wait for Tom) and he’s just not very personable. I try to comment on things and make chit chat and he just doesn’t get it and/or doesn’t respond.
I didn’t pack the bath stuff well enough and shampoo got all over everything—even the stuff that was in bags—because the bottle was so tall the spout stuck out. Katie’s toothbrush got thrown away. Their sound machine got some inside (it twists to leave openings to make it louder or quieter). Just a yucky mess.
The MBA toilet doesn’t work, which of course I didn’t realize until I peed in it. I’m sure it’s a simple fix but it’s not what I needed to discover at bedtime.
And there’s lots of little annoying things about the house:
All the blinds are the cheap crappy metal ones and about half are broken somewhere or don’t open right. (We were spoiled as our house had all nice plastic wood-looking ones.)
There are TONS of colored stains on the carpet. In almost every room, in all sizes, and in all colors. It’s awful. It’s almost as if the carpet cleaners didn’t even try to clean it. (We had carpet people who got out red nail polish…so I’m thinking his cleaners sucked.) We’ll try to clean some of them because I really don’t want to look at these for three years:
Flat paint. Off-white. Everywhere. Need I say more?
No curtain rods. I’m so glad we get to buy these AGAIN.
Round toilets. This takes some getting used to after having the elongated ones. They seem SO tiny.
No door to the basement.
No room for a deck, even if he let us. I finally get a nice tree in my yard and it’s in the way.
Street noise. Ugh. Cars going by, cars beeping/being locked, dogs barking. I know it’s typical for this many houses this close together…but it sucks. I guess it’s better that our room overlooks the street instead of both kids’ rooms.
We need shower caddys in each bathroom.
There’s no light above the kids’ tub.
The kitchen is bigger…but the way it’s layed out there’s NO room for any of our current kitchen storage pieces (the island that holds the pet food/water, the big IKEA cabinet that holds all the big kitchen stuff, and the other cabinet that was in the laundry room). Some stuff might fit in the current cabinets…but not all. I don’t even know where the garbage will go!
Our sectional couch is too big for the living room. Or the dining room. Or even the den space. Hell, it will barely fit downstairs. We obviously have other pieces to use (like we did at the last house) but we had hoped to be able to use it full time again (like in Troy).
And of course the kids’ bedtime saga.
But I know it’s not all bad…
And add crazy heat and humidity on top of everything.
Blurg.
I put the kids in a queen bed together. Katie doesn’t do a pack-and-play anymore and has slept with Owen before but it was at a hotel with us right there all going to bed at once. I kept my fingers crossed.
Ha. Haha. 😐
They went to bed late as it was…and as of 8:30 (her normal bedtime is 7!) Katie had been up out of bed five times, at which point I posted myself right in the doorway. I really didn’t plan to do the SuperNanny shit tonight—I was exhausted and just wanted to relax—but there I was. On the sixth time I was seriously about ready to lose it, even though I know it’s normal for the situation. And then she wouldn’t stop playing with the outlet and the bed plugged in…so I decided to put her in her own bedroom (we had a kid air bed) because by this point she was keeping Owen up.
Once there I sat in her doorway and had to tell her to lay down and go to sleep about three times. I waited about 10 minutes and she was calming down so I shut the door and left.
Phew.
Well, me and the kids anyway. And Maggie. Right on schedule at 10:00. With the Prius packed to the hilt with a crap ton of stuff for two nights (pillows, air beds, sheets, towels, stuffed animals, blankets, sound machines, night lights, food, snacks, drinks, kids’ med kit, toys, books, iPad, laptop…and Maggie and all her stuff)! Katie is back there, too, but I was lazy and didn’t take my phone out of the dash holder to take the picture.
The kids were really good—Katie watched Despicable Me 2 on a continuous loop and was perfectly content…and Owen alternated between playing on his phone and just watching the road. He did enjoy watching my mapping app (Waze) and kept notifying me of “yellow triangles” (road hazards like stopped cars) and police. When this came up he was like “WOW!! Look at all that stuff popping up!”
Katie had fallen asleep about 1:00 and Owen was adamant he didn’t need a rest. This was taken at about 1:15. 🙂
There were a few slowdowns around Stafford (when aren’t there?) but we made it in good time, even with the traffic snafus.
Welcome home! Amazon packages were waiting!
And the kids had A BLAST running around the house.
And they saw COOKIE MONSTER in the garage…so it had to come in immediately. 🙂
It was hotter than hell (and humid) so unpacking the car wasn’t fun. Katie also kept opening the garage door and coming outside—leaving the door wide open with Maggie right there. We’re going to have to put some kind of lock on the outside of the door, I think. Probably on the inside, too. (I’m not sure why these doors are so much easier to open than ours were—she could only open our lever-handle door, not the knobs.) She’s going to be a 180 from Owen on just about everything, escaping included.
Dinner was an escapade. I’d been planning on PB&J…except I apparently forgot the peanut butter and the bread I brought was moldy. Panic! We were all STARVING since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was almost 4! I ended up pulling pizza bagel bites from freezer (that we brought up two weeks ago). There’s lots of pantry stuff but it’s all packed away in the hot garage and not immediately accessible. There’s always take-out but that will be tomorrow!
They were happy, though!
When there are this many out at once, he doesn’t mind sharing as much. 🙂
A little while later, this is more what it looks like…with Legos strewn all over.
I love that her foot is in a plastic bag.
She dropped this off at our house (we’ve been trying to meet up every since school got out). Owen was excited to see his teacher again.
Of course I’m a huge sap anyway, but reading what Owen’s pre-k teacher Mrs. Ashley wrote in his memory book really got me.
>>> June pictures are online at Shutterfly!
So over the past few days, Owen has mentioned that his ear hurt and that he had a headache (though not at the same time). We didn’t think much of it and just gave him Advil. This morning he complained that his ear hurt and his head still hurt…and still nothing clicked. Bad mom. It wasn’t until Tom got home (early) and we were talking about something and AHA! I thought he had an ear infection. I immediately called the sick clinic and got an appointment in an hour.
She asked if he’d been in a pool recently and I said just our tiny splash pool on the deck. She asked about any other water. Nooo. Then it hit me—AHA!—two days of the waterslide! But that was five days ago?!
Then she diagnosed him with Swimmers Ear—basically an outer ear infection. She said it could happen quickly (same day) or days later…which then it all came together…he’d been complaining for a few days.
So now he gets drops twice a day for 10 days. He doesn’t love them but he’s good about them.
Watching TV while daddy picked up his commemorative Sig Sauer deployment pistol.
I told Owen we were going to the chiropractor and he was super excited: “Katie! We’re going to the chirocracker and get to play with toys!”
She was excited about the unicorn!
Owen went with Tom to the police department to pick up his pistol purchase permit…and I got this picture.
Riding in the car:
Owen: Mom! Katie took her shoes off!
Me: Katie, you need to put your shoes on if you want to go outside.
Katie: *raspberry*
Owen: Katie, that is not a good decision.
Playing in the pool:
Katie: Are you hungry mama?
Me: No.
Katie: Are you hungry Owie?
Owen: Yes! I want electricery soup with guns in it.
Owen pooped in the potty and I said it was a small poop.
Owen: No, it’s big.
Me: No, it’s small.
Owen: Big.
Me: Small.
Owen: If you say that again I’m going to punch you in the face.
Me: NO SIR.
Owen: Then I will…touch you in your eyeball.
I still hadn’t eaten lunch at 3:30 so was eating a small snack of tortilla chips, nacho cheese, and guacamole.
Owen: Can I have some chips and guacamole?
Me: This is my lunch. You already ate lunch with daddy. Remember? Your egg sandwich?
Owen: I can have double lunch!
We had invited everyone back over today but no one could make it…so I was glad that I had talked to another pre-k mom at the end-of-year party and had invited her and her kids over. Owen loves the slide, but enjoys it SO MUCH MORE when there are other kids to play with. 🙂
Izzy (Owen’s classmate) and her sister, Cory:
After awhile I convinced Vicky to go down the slide as well. She agreed it was a blast!
Yep, we splurged on two days of the waterslide—why not? (Yes, it was mostly guilt—I still feel bad we have no back yard (per se) at the new house and they lost their playset.) And what fun is life if you can’t spoil your kids now and again? 🙂
Unfortunately, Katie was NOT into it today…this is all she wanted to do:
Then Katie climbed up this far then stopped and wanted help getting down. She refused to go up and refused to go down and wouldn’t let Owen help her. I wanted her to figure it out herself so just left her there for awhile while I watched Owen play.
I eventually had to go up and get Katie down because she would. not. move. And then it was time to go inside to rest for a bit before more friends came over for a waterslide play date! 🙂
Thankfully Owen’s injury didn’t even bruise much, let alone turn into a black eye. You might not even notice it if you didn’t know it was there.
She saw me taking Owen’s picture and wanted her picture taken, too. 🙂
We decided to have a going away party before we left—but I called it an “Until We Meet Again” party because I HATE goodbyes. It was also a perfect excuse to rent a huge waterslide for Owen because he loves them and our new house has zero place for one.
As it was being set up, the kids were VERY excited watching out the window. Katie was saying “Slide! Katie slide! Katie slide please!” 🙂 I was busy getting the last few things ready for the party and Tom was running our last errands so I made the kids wait until he got home…but then it was game on! Owen had no issues with it, of course, but Katie was a poop. She loves climbing on things but put her on the slide where she HAS to climb (and can pretty much climb without much caution) and she wanted NONE of it. This is where she’d stop:
Even after Owen went down a few times, this is the farthest she’d go:
Finally I had enough of trying to verbally coerce her into climbing up, so I got on the slide with her and basically pushed her up each rung of the ladder. Once we got to the top, she didn’t want to go down…so I put my arm around her and we went down together—AND SHE LOVED IT! And immediately went to the ladder…and climbed up all on her own (the little shit!)! I did go up again behind her to make sure she didn’t slip backwards, but she did it just fine!
And then at the top of the slide…I realized my phone was still in my pocket!!! @$&#%! I obviously hadn’t planned on going on the slide (I was still wearing clothes, too) but got caught up in the moment of being frustrated with Katie. 🙁 I yelled at Tom to come get it and instead of coming up the ladder calmly, he was a bit upset and wasn’t being careful…and instead tried to come up over the side of the slide and pulled a leg muscle while getting back off. Like pulled it badly enough that he was limping. 🙁 But the slide was a blast and I knew I’d be on it more throughout the day…so I just gave in and put my suit on right then. And since Katie was still going up and down, I put her in her suit, too.
This is where she liked playing the most. And she was pretty good about moving out of the way when you said “Katie, watch out!” She’d go wait on the side until Owen came down, then she’d go back in the water. 🙂
Even though the slide was fun, I thought it might be out to kill me. After the kids had been playing for a bit (while I was working on party prep), Katie refused to come down (it was her naptime but she didn’t know that—she was just being stubborn). I told Owen this was his one chance to push his sister down the slide—and he tried but he said she was too strong and he couldn’t do it…so I had to go up the slide again to get her down. So I climbed up and we came down together—and I smashed right through the end buffer and landed on the ground with Katie on top of me! HOLY CRAP. I knew it was possible (other adults have done it before) but I had already gone down “successfully” a handful of times so definitely wasn’t expecting it. Katie wasn’t hurt (or crying) so that was good, and for the most part I was okay, but I had actually smacked my head on the ground. Ugh—instant headache. Then Katie was trying to get back onto the slide so I had to grab her…and I slipped on the wet tarp while carrying her! Thankfully she wasn’t hurt and I wasn’t really, either, though my butt and back hurt. Good times, right? I handed her off to Tom and took some pain pills. AND THEN…I was going down the slide with Owen and we were having a blast…and he was excited and wasn’t following the rules (waiting for the area to be clear before sliding down) and just rammed his feet straight into my side. Needless to say it was time for me to take a break.
Once the other kids arrived, things got a little more hectic. Pool toys came out and were part of the slide and kids were going down together (as you can see here)…and the “rules” kind of went out the window. 🙂
The girls loved Katie and basically thought she was their own little doll. 🙂
Ursula was the first adult to go down and she went tandem with Virginia! She agreed it was a blast!
Everyone had fun and the slide was (of course) a hit. There were a few minor bumps and bruises once all eight kids were on the slide at the same time and Owen ended up with a sure-to-be bruised eye. But it was super fun and it all went really well. The only minor bummer was the weather—in the middle of the party we had a downpour just long enough and with just enough thunder and lightning to send everyone inside…for 15 minutes! So then it was back outside! It started to threaten a storm again about 7:00 which sucked because all the adults were going to get on the slide (and I had planned on being able to use the slide most of the evening)…so we just sent the kids inside and a few of us went down a few times in the rain. There’s even video of me catapulting over the end (which may get posted privately) but I’ll gladly post the one of Tom! 🙂
Once it started storming and we were all inside, the kids were watching a movie and the adults were visiting and snacking…and Jacqueline was doing my dishes. There was plenty of room in the dishwasher but she actually LIKES doing dishes so who am I to stop her? 🙂
It was a really great time and I am so glad we did it…and it wasn’t until everyone was gone that I got really sad thinking about how much we’re going to miss everyone. (It’s always sad leaving, but the last time we left, we were just going to be missing two families…this time, we have more friends that we’ll be missing so it will be even harder.) But at least we have some great memories!
Owen wrote everything. I’m not sure why he did both Rs lowercase. 🙂
He had a blast at the party. They’re waiting for cake:
S’mores!
Messy with mama!
Owen’s friend Jocelyn:
Braxton’s mom, Alea, after a marshmallow attack! (She was in our mommy group. You can also see why Braxton is so petite.)
Their final hug:
He’s a little big for that toy…but he looks happy!
A TiVo friend was in the area so he came over for a visit with his wife and two of his kids. Tom and I had met him before in 2008 at a big TiVo meet but we wanted the boys to meet. 🙂
The kids all had fun in the police car, except it was a little crowded so the threesome didn’t last too long. 🙂
His son, Josh, is one month younger than Owen. By now you shouldn’t be surprised at size differences. 🙂
Owen: Daddy’s late.
Me: Yes.
Owen: Does he have a meeting?
Me: Yes.
Owen: Maybe it’s where they’re all sitting in a circle holding hands?
Me: Maybe. 🙂
Tom was pouring rum to make a drink and Owen wanted to smell it.
Ugh. It smells like medicine!
Tom: Owen, tell mama to suck it up.
Owen: Mama, don’t suck it.
At bedtime, I asked Owen if he had to poop. He grabbed at his crotch and said “FIRING UP!”
Me: Do you want some cheese?
Owen: Yes, I’d like a string of cheese.
Kinda like when a puppy stretches way out. 🙂
So awhile back we got an invite to a birthday party from a kid NOT in Owen’s class. I asked Owen and turns out he’s in a pre-K class in the building next door and sometimes they play together. It was actually the weekend of our garage sale so I RSVPed no, and the mom sent back this:
Okay. Thanks for letting us know. Kenrick really enjoys playing with Owen. Kenrick always tells me how nice your son is to him. Have a good day.
Awwww, sweet, right? Then later, I got this:
Kenrick really wants him to be there, would you like to drop him off at the party? And I don’t mind picking up your son and bringing him back to your home. I will make sure he will be safe and have a good time. I sound pushy but my son really enjoys Owen’s company. It will make him very happy.
We weren’t sure what we were going to do but man did that make us feel good. I mean, we know Owen is a nice kid, but to hear such gushing comments from another mom that hasn’t even met him? Ahhhh. So I talked to Owen’s teacher to see if I could get any scoop (like if the whole class was invited) and she just got the scoop that the parents were indeed nice and she’d trust Owen to go. Cool. So we RSVPd yes.
But, of course, remember that Owen has been a little more attached to us lately and always wants to know where we are when he’s awake…so we weren’t quite sure what might actually happen. So we talked to him about it, explaining how daddy would drop him off and then Kenrick’s mom would bring him home, and if he needed us for anything, we’d come get him immediately. He seemed okay with it, but then out of the blue would ask things like “What if I get hurt?” (we told him she’s a mommy and would know how to help him and she would call us to come get him) and “Do they have a bathroom?” (we assured him they would). And he asked us a few times if we were going to be there (we said no). I did call her and talk to her to warn her of all this and she was cool.
So, fast forward to the party and Owen was very excited. They had said we could bring him early (because the birthday boy wanted to show Owen his dinosaur collection) so we did…and Tom said he didn’t even look back after they got there! About the time he should have been coming home, I got a phone call from the mom asking if it was okay to take Owen to the pool with them because the boys were having such a great time! We said sure! (He didn’t have a suit with him, so just went in his shorts.) She finally brought him home about 3:00! So he was gone for like five hours! And didn’t have one issue! And the mom said he was just THE most polite boy and so well-behaved. Yay Owen!
I got out Owen’s old bike helmet to see if it fit Katie. It did, but then Owen wanted to wear it. He left it on for a good 20 minutes while he played.
