Gramma brought Owen a kazoo but he couldn’t get it to work—in fact, none of us could. Then Katie picked it up, figured out how it worked (we had all been blowing into the wrong end), and WOULD NOT STOP PLAYING. 🙂
We eventually had to hide it from her. 🙂
I had emptied out the crate [that she had loved sitting in the other day] and her first response when I showed her was “YAY!” 🙂
Then she climbed right in and said “Mama! Pick up my box!”
No, daddy will have to do that!
Owen was home for a teacher work day and Katie was napping…so we built this Lego city. Complete with a pool (with mermaids and a diving board), a fenced tree, pathways, and random buildings. 🙂
The living room is torn up since Tom was painting, so things were on the floor. Katie spotted the mirror right away so I put it on the floor so she wouldn’t drop it on herself (it’s HEAVY). She spent a good amount of time looking at herself.
Then she noticed the petoskey stone print: “Mama! Those are big rocks!” 🙂
Then since she seemed to be having lots of fun, Owen had to get involved.
We got her a new kitchen from IKEA and she loves it. It’s in the basement and she’s always sneaking down there to play. Sometimes I even make it down there with her. Her favorite thing to do is put stuff in the microwave and cut her foods (we have a few sets that attach with Velcro so they can be “cut”).
Luckily we all had raincoats because we apparently lost all our umbrellas (minus Katie’s from Grandma Marsha!) in the move. Katie was thrilled because she got a new (new) coat and new (used) boots to wear for the first time! She couldn’t quite get the hang of the umbrella so Owen held it.
And then she noticed WATER and of course HAD to play in it. 🙂
Then walking home with the umbrella…
Minutes later, all is forgotten.
She loves “ice” (she can repeat dice if we say it, but then she reverts back to saying ice).
She lost her ice… She was attempting to put it in her pocket…except her leggings didn’t have pockets so she shoved it down her pants and then couldn’t find it.
Just like her brother used to do…trying to drink out of the sprinkler.
Just got back from the first MOPS (moms of preschoolers) get together and holy crap was it overwhelming. It wasn’t the typical first meet as they’re still working out child care, so instead of small groups of 6-8 moms each with kids being watched elsewhere, it was about 60 moms plus 60+ kids at a local park. Egads.
I had hoped for a bit more organization (which would have come if it was a regular meeting) but unfortunately it was just kind of mass chaos with everyone wearing their name tags and just trying to search out people with matching groups (blue stars, pink stripes, orange stars, etc.). And the anal part of me was going insane because it was just written on the tags (“blue stars” or “pink stripes”) instead of actually using, you know, a blue star or pink stripe to make it stand out. So we just walked around staring intently at everyone’s chests. 🙂
The nice thing is the group was very diverse with all sizes and shapes and ages and colors. Most of them are army wives (since it’s based at an army base!) but there are a few marine wives. 🙂 Most of our group was there and we all shared basic getting-to-know-you stories. The mentor mom for our group is only two years older than me (43) but has a 21yo, an 18yo, and a 15yo!
I just hope I get along well with my group because they are going to be a big part of my acquaintances/friends for the rest of the school year (and time here). They were all nice enough, but there was no one that I really hit it off with…yet, I’m hoping. But I know these things take time.
Parenting is hard. Let’s have a drink.
Before it was total chaos:
Katie actually did pretty well. I didn’t hover (I couldn’t if I wanted to actually meet and talk to my group) and she came back to me now and then for a snack break. Or a few times I was able to watch her run around—and hold my breath as I saw her go up a 6′ metal ladder to get to the slide. She has no fear…and survived just fine.
While the big kids were at school, the little ones got to play…and the adults got to catch up!
We were out and about testing out the car and decided to stop at a new playground (it’s at the other local elementary school).
Katie is so different from Owen at that age—she just climbs right up the stairs no problem and zips down the curly slide with no fear.
She kept going over to these but wouldn’t actually get on them.
Then when it was almost time to leave, she decided to start playing in the wood chips and dirt.
Friends were talking about getting new cars and other friends were talking about cars they were looking at and how much their cars were worth…so just for shits and giggles I researched my car. Kelly Blue Book approximated $25k-27k so that grabbed my attention because I knew our payoff was about $10k less. Now, it’s not that I don’t like my car…but I don’t love it (like we loved the Highlander) and I thought What could it hurt to look? Famous last words, right?? 🙂
I had a few cars in mind from friends’ recommendations, so when Tom came home I told him what I was thinking and he looked at me like I was completely nuts. By the time I was leaving for my PTO meeting an hour later, he was on board for some research and we agreed we’d take a quick look at Carmax tomorrow. By the time I got home from the PTO meeting, he told me we had two test drives scheduled (at two dealers) for the morning! 😯 Well well, look who was suddenly on board!
The reasons for wanting a new car were twofold—our current monthly payments are a little too expensive now that our cost of living is higher (our BAH—the money the government gives us for housing—paid for the house AND car in Jacksonville…here, it doesn’t even cover our rent) and we have realized we miss the AWD (especially with actual winter weather coming). So we just thought we’d see what we could find that might cut our monthly payment a bit while still giving us the size we need.
And then the reality sets in that to REALLY cut our monthly payment like we’d like, we’d have to spend about $10k less than we are looking at…and unfortunately I’m really used to the nicer touches of a little bit more expensive car. (When we were searching for this car, we looked at the Ford version of a similar size (I think the Traverse) and everything about it just felt cheap.) I also really really really don’t want a minivan. We don’t need seven actual seats but we do sometimes need six so when parents come to visit we don’t have to take two cars (critical in this traffic nightmare). And I like the space seven seats affords us with the last row folded down because we fill up the back A LOT (we’re not even carrying strollers and stuff anymore—I’m talking trips to Costco, IKEA, Target—all errands in one day type of thing—plus our road trips to Michigan). We use all that space very frequently.
I was 99% sure that there is not a new/different car in our future because we are not the people who just buy a new car on a whim (I kept my last car for 10 years and Tom has had his Prius for six years), but now we’re both thinking about it.
So…we did our test drives. I’ll skip the majority of the BS that goes along with that, other than to say we had Katie with us and she didn’t do too badly. She LOVED playing in the cars in the showroom while we waited and didn’t mind the test drives at all.
Katie: I want to start it up!
Mazda earned points for giving Katie a balloon—and boy did she love it!
After both test drives, we were pretty sure we were going to go ahead with the Mazda CX-9 if they could get us a bit closer on trade-in value. We liked the dealership and they’ve let us take the car home overnight to really test it out.
Most of the things I don’t like about it are minor (the auto liftgate isn’t quite as good, I don’t love the color (see below), it has navigation which I don’t want, it doesn’t have the backup warning beeps, the shifter pattern is WEIRD, and it doesn’t have the automatic three turn-signal-clicks with one press)…but the Bluetooth is nice, it has lots of pep, the third row seating is easier to get into, it has XM, and while it’s not as tall as my car, it still sits high enough to not feel like a car). The things I don’t like about it are things that my current car has spoiled me for over the past two years. It’s definitely a step down in luxury but not enough to be a deal-breaker.
Dolphin Gray Mica—meh. It totally reminds me of the color of our Birdie house—the siding was gray or blue or green depending on the lighting. At least this car doesn’t have shutters that try to match. 🙂
So stay tuned!
Of course the day the A/C goes out is one of the hottest and most humid days this summer. It wasn’t too bad if you didn’t move too much, but we finally had to open the windows to get what little breeze we could in the house. I gave up when it hit 84° and took the kids to the basement…but that only lasted until Katie found the caterpillar water toy. Then it was outside!
Katie was super excited and was ready to go the second I put her shoes on. Tom made sure to be home in time to go with us. 🙂
Playing with the other kids.
We could finally see the bus…and she sat down to wait. 🙂
Finally!
Screenshots from the video:
Once we got home I tried to get the scoop. He was excited and more interested in watching the movie (which was paused). But he was happy so that’s all that matters!
The breakfast was put on by the PTO for all of the kindergarten parents. And what a nightmare it was. It was scheduled for 9—which I understand because it’s at the beginning of school, and I guess they figured you’d likely be dropping off your kid in person so you’d already be there…? But trying to get there was awful, even though I drove straight there and was in the general vicinity at 8:50.
I was using the GPS because I’d only driven there once, and it took me to the back of the school where there is no parking (only Kiss-and-Ride and bus areas) and all the side streets were packed. I tried to reroute to the front of the school but the GPS wouldn’t do it and I couldn’t figure it out (it’s in a subdivision). I finally figured out how to get there, stupidly assuming that the small parking lot might actually have a space for people STAYING at the school instead of just dropping kids off. Ha. HA HA. There was literally NO parking space there or on any of the side streets for a half-mile radius. And it was already 85 and I was NOT walking that far with Katie and I was already late…so I said screw the breakfast. On the way out, I pulled over to calm down and think—if I waited just a bit longer, a lot of the parents would be done dropping their kids off and I’d hopefully be able to get a closer parking spot. So I waited until 9:15, turned around, and got a spot a block away.
The breakfast was…awkward. People were already at tables and chatting and there was nowhere for me to sit so I just stood there letting Katie play for a few minutes. It was also HOT in there—I asked if they didn’t have A/C and they said yes they did but in apparent Halley tradition the A/C was out the first day. 🙂 But they liked Katie’s school spirit—dressing in black and yellow! 🙂
Then I got us a snack and grabbed a seat and both other people were buried in their phones. Yay. 😐 I chatted for a brief minute with a mom from the pool but she was talking to friends. I hate these kinds of things but I had pushed myself outside of my comfort zone…and it was a bust. Lovely. So we listened to the welcome and the PTO president and I didn’t learn much. Katie was having a ball eating her apple and running back and forth to the stuffed animal area. Afterwards I talked to the PTO president about possibly volunteering a little and she was very nice. Then I saw Katie playing in another section so I went over to grab her and there were some other parents over there. I recognized one set as the parents of the twins in Owen’s class so I chatted with them briefly and they were very nice and we exchanged numbers.
It’s going to be an interesting year.
Owen has REALLY been looking forward to the cookout and I was excited because Tom would be home so we could ALL go to the pool together for the last time. It was definitely warm enough and it looked like the rain was going to hold off for a bit, so we headed down after Katie’s nap.
Now, let me preface this by saying that when we go to the pool, there are typically just a handful of people there. As in maybe 3-6 other kids AT MOST (with parents)—and most of the time, there’s less. And when Owen and I went this past Saturday (the last Saturday before the pool closed for the season) we were the ONLY two people there (four total if you count the two lifeguards). And by the time we left two hours later, the only other people there were two older couples! I was baffled.
So today we walked in and HOLY SHIT there were a lot of people. As in “Wow, I guess there really are people who live here.” As in “If it was this busy all the time we wouldn’t come nearly as much.” There were lots of older annoying kids who didn’t much care that they were running into people or splashing people or just being overall obnoxious (and of course their parents weren’t doing anything about it). I heard the lifeguards’ whistles more today than all the other days combined. It was extremely chaotic.
The super annoying thing was that we had nowhere to sit when we got there. I felt like we should really have our names on some seats because we were there ALL THE TIME. All these other people NEVER went but were taking up all the seats for the free food. Well, at least that’s what it felt like. Literally the only seats that were open were in the kiddie pool area. Which was fine…just annoying.
So Tom was swimming with the kids and I was chatting with the mom I had hoped to see there (with the son in Owen’s class). And then I saw another mom I’d met at the pool previously (the ones that are moving this December) so we chatted a bit. And then Katie was coming down the pool steps behind me and I turned to see Tom behind us as well (just having moved our stuff to a table that had become free) and he was saying “Katie! Katie!” at some other little blonde girl wondering why she wasn’t stopping to listen to him. Well, it turns out her parents were right in front of me and Tom obviously had the wrong kid, so we laughed about it and started chatting and WOW, fingers crossed, they might just be our new best friends here. We just really hit it off—they have a 2.5yo girl with another on the way, they’re military (army), and they just moved here in late June so they don’t know anyone, either! And we instantly hit it off (as opposed to the other people we’ve met who are NICE but I just didn’t feel that instant connection with). So much so that we invited them to come sit at our table with us!
And then! Tom was sure he recognized a guy sitting across the pool. I told him it was all him—I’d done my part meeting moms. 🙂 So it turns out it’s someone he went to TBS with back in the day…AND THEY LIVE ON OUR STREET!! Small world, right? So we might end up with some good friends yet!
So then we had a little more fun in the pool and then Katie wanted to go home so as Tom was getting her packed up, Owen also decided he wanted to go home. I think it was just too chaotic for him (which I totally get).
After we watched a Doctor Who episode on Daleks, Owen created this. 🙂
I’m still trying to get the basement organized so was moving stuff around this morning…and he found his glow-in-the-dark race track. He and Katie played with it on and off all day, but he wanted to go down at night to actually see them race in the dark.
Owen helped Katie get ready for battle with a helmet (his bike helmet), a sword (pipe insulation), and shield (a push-up grip). The tutu was all Katie.
Papa happened to call right as we were walking in, so I Skyped them back so they got to watch Owen do a few jumps and watch Katie swim around.
He kept doing this and I finally asked what he was doing… You’ll never guess. He was trying to do a somersault! 🙂 I told him I’d help him when we were in the big pool!
Katie saw Owen holding his nose, so she was trying to do the same thing!
The kids she had been playing with in the kiddie pool were going home, so she was at the fence saying “Guys! Guys? Where are you going?”
He loves just floating like this.
If you didn’t know he liked to do it, it might freak you out because he looks…well…dead.
This is how Owen moves across the pool when he’s not actually swimming.
And then it was time for the special surprise! Not only was daddy at the pool with us…but we ordered pizza for dinner! Poolside! (Ever since Owen saw the signs and saw someone have pizza delivered, he’s wanted us to do it. Since the pool season is almost over, today was the day!)
She loves being tossed in the air…but can’t quite manage to count to three. 🙂
My turn with Katie. The video isn’t that great (meaning Katie doesn’t appear to be having that much fun) but she really was…and it’s rare for me to actually be in a picture or video with the kids. So here it is. 🙂
I finally got a video of Katie getting out of and back in the pool. However, she only did it once. The other day, she just kept going up the ladder then back into the pool—time after time after time.
And the bonus to the whole day? I started talking with a girl at the pool (she was there with a little girl who Katie was playing with in the kiddie pool) and long story short, she’s a babysitter and lives in the neighborhood! WOOHOO!
And the funniest thing of the day? While I was at the kiddie pool talking to the girl, Tom came over to tell me what Owen had just said. Tom said they had a race across the length of the pool and of course Tom won, but when Owen finished, Tom asked if he was tired or if he wanted to go talk to me. Owen’s response? NO! I’M PUMPED UP! LET’S GO! 🙂
So I thought I’d try to get some better swimming shots. 🙂
Posing because he’s a goof.
Pouting because I wouldn’t give her the goldfish and juice (which were for the snack break later).
Getting into the pool and then swimming around. I LOVE her little legs just scooting her along!
I was going to trim it, but there’s a few good parts. 🙂