Category Archives: Kids
Watee please?
We were outside and Katie wanted to use the pool but it was empty. She was smart enough to know the hose needed to go in the pool and she kept asking me to turn it on.
After playing in the pool:
Morning Battle
My happy morning girl
King Owen
I think this was his first Burger King crown! And he LOVED it!
Katie loves being in a bed!
This is our bed when we got back to the hotel! She cuddles up tight next to Owen and says “Sleepy!”
Then this is Owen trying to go to sleep…with Katie still going a mile a minute rightnexttohim.
Either she was extra tired tonight or she was finally getting used to the bed…but she was out pretty quickly (yay!). She still did cry out a few times during the night but it wasn’t bad. In the morning we looked over to see Owen practically hanging off the bed with Katie snuggled right up next to him. He said she touched him all night long. 🙂
A good report, a birthday, and a messy girl.
Both kids got a good report from our friends…and they told us we were right—they were quite easy and Owen was really polite. Yep, that’s Owen. 🙂 Tim only had one moment right after we put the kids in the car and left—he said Owen started crying saying he wanted his mommy. Tim assured him we’d be back in a few hours and that he was going to see his friends—and then asked if he wanted to watch a movie and the tears dried up immediately! 🙂
We went back to their house (after our house stuff was finished) to hang out and celebrate Tim’s birthday. And the boys took their usual photo (there’s a long story behind it):
Whose birthday is it? THIS GUY!
Here’s their last photo from 2005:
OLD PHOTO WILL BE INSERTED HERE WHEN I FIND IT
They had other friends with kids over so there were like 13 kids total and Owen was in heaven. He enjoyed talking to the 8yo girl about Star Wars! I missed getting a picture of Katie IN the sand table but she had fun on the swing:
And it had rained and there was some wet mulch and mud…so she was A MESS! So much so that she got a quick bath before we left (and her clothes got sprayed with stain stuff)!
And it was another late night for them—we headed home at 8:30!
House Hunting Day 3—Success!
We met our friends to transfer the kids and Owen was excited to go play with his new friends.
We met our agent at the first house and actually really liked it. It was quite similar to the Band-Aid house:
- Four bedrooms…but an unfinished basement.
- More hardwood floors…but not quite as open a floor plan.
- A deck…but no fence possible.
- Kitty corner from a playground…but everything felt a bit crowded.
But $200 cheaper a month. 😐
So it was back to the Band-Aid house to talk with the owner, who had requested to meet us. He wasn’t thrilled with the July 1 start date but he liked the 3-year lease…so apparently he wanted to see if he liked us…?!?!
Amazingly he is willing to put up a fence and some ceiling fans. It’s only three bedrooms but it’s got a HUGE finished basement with a full bath so will be great for (long-term!) guests! The one small bad/strange thing [that we didn’t realize in ANY of our searching thus far] is that bedrooms here typically have no overhead lights…so we have to buy lamps again.
So it was a very tough decision. I honestly thought we’d be good in either house, but my gut said the Band-Aid house. Tom was in the same boat…but I think the agreement to put up a fence sealed the deal, so we filled out the app, shook on it, then went to get certified checks…and breathe a sigh of relief. And panic a little because it’s a bit over our budget. But we’ll make it work because we have to.
Of course then we started thinking about things…and looked at the listing again. It says 4BR but we don’t remember four bedrooms—in fact, both of us were sure it was three. But if it’s the same as the first house, then it has four (because I remember thinking the basement bedroom made five). And we can use our own washer and dryer—but we’re pretty sure it’s a gas hookup so we may need to ask to have an outlet installed (I’m not buying a gas dryer AGAIN—we did that in Troy and sold it when we moved back here). And where are we going to put our deck set with no deck?! I guess it will be a party table in the basement.
So…exciting and still terrifying at the same time!
So here’s the Band-Aid house—the houses are very close together but at least it’s a house and not a townhouse!
You can just see the corner of the kitchen (hardwoods), then the main living area with the fireplace, and the carpeted (?!) dining room (which will likely be a play room):
The kitchen—with Corian counters and the gas stove on the island. He calls the appliances upgraded but they’re pretty basic (though I guess the fridge is a side-by-side with a water dispenser). We’re debating bringing our awesome stainless fridge and putting this one in the garage (then buying a cheap stainless one for our house in Jacksonville).
Cool windows in the stairwell:
The huge master bedroom:
And the closets are BEFORE the bathroom like I wanted—not THROUGH the bathroom like we have now. 🙂 It has a soaking tub (not jetted like we have now) but we never used it anyway so no biggie.
And the kids’ bath has two sinks like I wanted!
There’s not much of a back yard…but at least there’s some nice grass!
So we’re just waiting on the app and credit check to be run Monday morning so they can send us the lease to sign!
Katie is 22 months old today!
I forgot to bring Katie’s “22” sticker and my good camera, so this is the best I could do! (I’ll get some with the sticker when we get home!)
Outtakes:
Katie lasted all night!
So we put her in bed with Owen again…and she chattered away for quite some time.
Good night Owen.
Good night mama.
Good night daddy.
Good night Maggie.
/babble babble/
Good night Maggie.
/I coughed./
Are you okay mama?
Tom and I took turns telling her it was night night time and she needed to be quiet… It was probably about 10 when it was finally blissfully silent. And other than a few small short cries throughout the night, she did fine! They actually both slept in until about 6:40!
Visiting with old friends
Friends of ours live in Fairfax so we went to visit and have dinner with their family. (Tim was in the Marines with Tom back in the day.) They had also offered to watch the kids if we needed them to, so we were letting the kids get to know them. 🙂
Of course Owen immediately got along with them all (ages 7, 5, and 2) and had a blast on their playset. We had also brought Maggie and she was having fun playing with their lab!
The kids were way off their sleep schedule but both did well—they were both wide awake as we drove home at 8:30!
House Hunting Day 2
Today’s fun thing? We found an awesome house—the first one we looked at [again!]. Great, we thought, it JUST came on the market, we’ll get our app in and be done. Except no, they’re not looking at apps until MONDAY. So of course by then they’ll have a mountain of them to sift through and to get ours to stand out we’d need to offer more rent. It was already over our budget so adding more just wasn’t realistic. [Sidenote: That really pisses me off. You put it on the market so take my app and be done—or raise the listed rent price to start. None of this other BS.]
So we kept looking. Everything we saw was simply okay—nothing that we loved. There was either no basement or what they called a basement wasn’t really (one was literally a 6×10 room with a fireplace right inside the front door?!); fenced patios with no grass or doors to the patio/grassy area were on the lowest level (doable but not convenient at all for letting Maggie out); only three bedrooms with no good place for guests or an office; and lots of townhouses with absolute crap for parking.
There were a few we surely could have made work, but we still had more on our list so we kept going.
Then we saw one that was almost identical to the very first one we wanted—it was the same floor plan but with less hardwood/more carpet and no bedroom in the basement. But we still really liked it so it became our top choice. It had been on the market awhile so we were pretty confident we didn’t have to act immediately so we kept looking. But we referred to it as the Band-Aid house because there were little cosmetic issues throughout (stains on carpet, no fence, no ceiling fans, etc.) but nothing serious. 🙂
We took a mid-afternoon break to get lunch and let Katie take a nap while our agent had another appointment.
Afterwards, it was back to work. She drove by a few and said the parking was horrible so we were able to cross them off without even looking at them. A few others didn’t even have any grass patches so those were immediately out. And another one was doable but not great. And others just felt too small. One was in a perfect spot—right across from a walking trail to the pool (maybe 100 yards away) along a grassy, wooded area—but of course the house wasn’t quite right.
We had time to wait at that one so walked around—and Owen actually held a caterpillar! I never thought I’d see the day he’d hold a bug! (Of course, Katie picked one up and immediately tried to squish it!)
But we still had a few on our list we needed to check out before deciding on the Band-Aid house…so we knew we had another house hunting day ahead of us… But at least we had pretty much centered our search on the Lorton area—Alexandria was just too crowded with no parking. I’m sure some of the homes themselves were livable—but it’s very hard to give up space when that’s all you’ve ever known. And of course we had the open-floor-plan Band-Aid house in our memory.
Katie didn’t last…
So…Katie just wouldn’t quiet down and leave Owen alone in the bed, so I moved her to her pack-and-play about 9:30 where she still kept chattering until about 9:45. Everything went well until she started crying at 12:15 and would not stop. So I got her out and held her, she settled down, and I put her back…just to have her start crying again. So I put her in bed with us and she quieted right down. Hoo boy. (Owen hasn’t even slept with us!)
She slept pretty good, but she sleeps rightnexttoyou and I had feet and knees in my back all night. I did get some sleep but it definitely wasn’t the best.
What have we done?!
We’re attempting to let Katie sleep with Owen on the fold out couch tonight. Heaven help us. (We figure why not make this hellish day complete?) She’s never slept in a bed before so of course we decide to try it for the first time in a strange hotel on a night when she’s had no nap and their sleep schedule is way off—bedtime is normally 7 and it’s after 9! She’s calmed a bit but is still playing and chattering…having a ball!
Three hours in to this road trip…
And I already want wine. Katie has taken her shoes off and keeps turning off her iPad movie with her feet. Owen accidentally pulled out the thumb drive with his shows on it and I can’t find it—for all I know it’s on the ground at the rest area. If we all survive the next five days in a hotel together it will be a miracle.
Hands full of Katie
Owen’s Mother’s Day gift from school
Katie’s first popsicle
A mommy group friend invited us over after school to play on their waterslide (that Owen LOVES). Katie enjoyed it, too, along with the swingset and the trampoline.
Owen also ate a Popsicle—almost. He ate about half of it then wanted to save it. He was a bit upset when I said it wasn’t possible (it was about 85°)!
A friend making Katie laugh with funny faces!
Cute kids…silly kids.
Another morning ritual
Some days I try to get them both in a picture on the stairs. You haven’t seen the pictures as it rarely works—as you can see. 🙂
P.S. Katie’s in another 3T dress from cousins Gracie and Aubrey. It is a bit big. 🙂
Into the stuffed corner
Every morning usually begins with a dive into the stuffed animal corner.
King of his castle
Stacked Pillows
We asked Owen to put the pillows on the couch before bed. This is how he does it. (Granted there are more here than normal, but he does the same thing when it’s just four pillows.)
Our new temporary pool!
The kids love water so much that we broke down and got a cheapie $10 pool to use until we move. I had to help Katie in the first time, but she quickly figured it out for herself and she was in and out, in and out, in and out. 🙂
I asked Owen why he was sitting like this and he said “Because that’s how the kid on the box is sitting!” He even put the box up on the deck box so he could see it. 🙂
Jumping in! Normally he lands on his knees—I don’t know how he doesn’t get hurt.
Washing off her feet…but then liking standing in the bucket.
Just like big brother did in the big pool! 🙂
She took the chair into the pool and this is what happened when I told her no.
One last cute picture before I took the chair away!
Introducing Katie to the bubble machine!
We know Katie loves bubbles, so today we broke out the new bubble machine (the same one we had before but the old one died). She liked it, but wasn’t as enthralled as Owen was (but then, Owen was older when he first experienced it).
Looking good
We sent Owen up to get dressed and he came down in a very nice outfit (i.e. matching!) and when we told him he looked good (or snazzy or something we don’t remember because I didn’t write it down right away) he made this face. 🙂
Out little Storm Trooper
They love pillows!
We bought some new pillows to replace some very bedraggled ones and the kids had great fun with them first! You can see they’re blurry because they’re moving fast! 🙂
Owenisms 43
Owen: Mama, I’m sorry. I have to go.
Me: Why, where are you going?
Owen: The clone trooper work.
Me: Okay. I’ll miss you.
Owen: I’m sad. I’ll miss you in my heart. But then I’ll come home and I’ll be happy!
Owen had a bunch of sticks and water in a bucket.
Me: What kind of soup are you making?
Owen: IT’S NOT SOUP! IT’S POTION!
Me: Okay, what kind of potion are you making?
Owen: Uh…stick. Stick potion.
Owen: When I was at the hospital for a week for six minutes…
Owen has been randomly mentioning Facebook.
Me, to Tom: I have no idea how he knows about Facebook—I don’t talk about it.
Tom: Owen, what’s Facebook?
Owen: I think I see pictures or something.
Tonight we read “There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.”
Me: There was an old lady who swallowed a horse. She died, of course.
Owen: Why did she die?
Me: You can’t eat a horse.
Owen: No, you have to eat healthy things!
Driving by Dunkin Donuts:
Owen: And that’s Dunkin Donuts.
Me: How do you know Dunkin Donuts?
Owen: They have chocolate balls and vanilla balls. Braxton’s mom brings them.
(Yes, she does bring them to our mommy play group get-togethers…but it’s literally been eight months since it’s happened.)
We were all in the car and Tom and the kids were picking me up after their trip to Lowe’s. Tom said they bought Katie a toy.
Tom: Katie, show mama your toy.
Katie: babble babble
Me: Katie can I see your toy?
Katie: babble babble
Owen: Whining.SHE DOESN’T CARE!
So much for sitting pretty.
Sometimes it just doesn’t work.
She’s not overly big for her age, but she can wear some 3Ts. This is a borrowed hand-me-down outfit from cousins Aubrey and Gracie.