S Phrases

S is such a good communicator and just a little mimic when it comes to regurgitating words. I know it's normal at this age, but it always surprises me. One day my FIL was listening to a CD in the basement, and he had it cranked up. S wanted to go down to see him. I told her he was jamming out, and it was really loud, and she probably wouldn't like it. Now whenever he turns up his music, she says, "Papa jam out!"

She's also evolved her "Come on" repertoire from just "guys" to "dude" (thanks to me), and most recently, "people". To expand on that, when we were driving on Saturday, traffic was bad, so I told her we would have to go a different way. She said, "Come on, people! Pass 'em!" I about died laughing. She got that from DH when he gets frustrated driving.

She's also getting better with her manners. She's starting to understand the difference between "please" and "thank you". For a long time we would ask her what she was supposed to say and she would always answer "please", but now she will say "thank you" on her own sometimes. And the other day it was very cute because she wanted me to uncrumple a sticker for her, and I told her I wasn't sure I'd be able to because it was pretty much rolled into a ball. But I finally got it undone and she said, "Good job, Mama!" So sweet.

I'm also in awe of the big words she says pretty well - she can even say hippopotamus fairly well (which I can't even spell without looking up!).

One last thing, which isn't a vocabulary note, is that she loves floss right now. She isn't good at using it properly - she won't really let me show her how to do it - but she wants to floss every day. It's a good habit for her, but I have to really watch her because she basically lets it hang out of her mouth so she looks like a walrus and ends up chewing it up so it's almost all in her mouth. Such a fun kid!

New House/Old House

I've been waiting to post until we found out for sure about our new house, but that's still in limbo. The day of the inspection there were probably 50 things listed (of course), but only two fairly small things we planned to ask them to resolve - an electrical and a plumbing problem, maybe $500 at the most. But the inspector wanted someone with more expertise in chimneys to look at the fireplace, so we had to wait for that. Sunday we found out that the house failed the radon testing, so it needs to have a mitigator installed. That will be around $1,000. Then yesterday the chimney guy told us it would be about $2,500 to fix it. So we went back to the seller asking for the radon mitigator, chiminey repair and plumbing repair (we decided to take care of the electrical ourselves). Waiting to hear back. Hoping we can reach a middle ground.

Today I found out some sad news about an old house I lived in - the Theta house in Ft. Collins. Apparently it's going to be torn down. It wasn't that attractive a house really, more functional than frivolous, not as sorority-girlish. But that didn't bother me, because inside were all my friends. So many great memories of hanging out in the back PJ playing Life, sliding down the stairs on kitchen trays, watching NBC's Thursday night Must See TV (which was coined in that era - Friends, Seinfeld and ER) in the front PJ, laying out on the deck, formal Monday night dinners in the kitchen followed by meetings in the chapter room. I could go on and on. I'm sad I won't be able to take S and R there when they get older and show them where I experienced Greek life. It was such an integral part of my incredible college adventure.

Independence Day

Since the 4th of July landed on a Saturday this year, we were able to have Friday off which made for a nice long weekend. Friday, I took S to get her haircut. It was only her second time going so I took her back to Shear Madness since they are set up for little ones. The chairs are little cars that the kids can play in and each station has a tv so they can watch cartoons. She was fine when we got there, but then a little boy who was about 3 or 4 was screaming bloody murder and sitting on his mom's lap and she was pinning him down. I just don't have the desire to torture my child for 15 minutes. He can just have long hair. She was pretty nervous about how upset he was, so I told our stylist if she got too fussy, we'd just call it quits. But she was so good! I was very proud of her. She even let the stylist put her hair in pigtails. They only lasted about an hour, but it was too cute.

Saturday my mom, my mother-in-law, S and I all went to Lenexa's parade. S seemed to enjoy it. That night DH and I went with his best friend and his wife to the movies. We saw The Hangover which was a little vulgar, but hilarious. I didn't think they could keep the story from getting stale, but it never did. After it was over, I reminded DH that that was why he didn't get to have his bachelor party in Vegas and thanked his friend again for being such a trustworthy Best Man.

Sunday we stopped by our old neighbor's house. She had gone to Barcelona the week we moved so we wanted to see photos from her trip. We had left our trash cans for her to put out and needed to pick them up as well. It was a nostalgic trip. Poor S kept wanting to go next door and play in our old backyard, but I just had to keep telling her we didn't live there anymore. She didn't understand. I'll be glad when we're in a new home, and she will feel like she belongs there.

Speaking of which, I've been trying not to get excited about it, but we put a bid on a house last week and the inspection is tomorrow. It's only 5 blocks from the old one (different subdivision, different builder), so still close to my friend's house (bonus!) and only a couple of blocks from a girl at work which will be nice. It's actually a center hall floorplan which I love - one of the first homes we looked at had it but it was on a lot that had a steep front drive and front yard - too steep to play in. I had said to our realtor, if we could just find this house on a different lot. Found it! Through the negotiating, we are getting to keep the dining room table and chairs, china cabinet and the china! It was so funny because when I had looked at the house, I had mentioned to my mom that I really liked their taste and jokingly wondered if they'd leave it furnished. We don't have a formal dining room table or a china cabinet, so we needed to get them anyway. DH and I both liked the desk and bookcases in the den, too, but that wasn't part of the deal. :) Anyway, I'm praying it goes well, and we can start planning the move. That's a whole other story...

A few S notes: the other day she was eating (cantaloupe, I think?) and she it was "delicious". I was taken aback by such a big word being said by her. She amazes me daily. Yesterday she was eating some dry cereal and dropped a piece on the floor. I told her I'd get it and she said, "No, me get!" At this age, she has no fear of eating off the floor, so I told her she could get it but she had to put it in the trash. She said "Kiss it?" I was like, uh, ok. So she gave the little oatmeal square a hug and a kiss and threw it away. I was cracking up.

Sleeping started to get better - she slept well Friday night for the first time - 7:30pm - 7am without any interruption - hallelujah!!! Saturday I was worried we'd ruin it by going to the movie and leaving her with my in-laws, but they said she only fussed about 10 minutes, so we had another 11-11 1/2 hour night. Yes! Sunday night to Monday morning was going well until the neighbor let his German Shepherds out at 5:30am and let them bark for 10 minutes straight. I could hear them through the baby monitor it was so loud. So she was up at 6am, but still did pretty well. But last night, she fussed and called for me around 5, and I went in to console her. She wanted me to lay down with her, and I did, but after about 15 minutes she was asking for Daddy. So I got him to lay in the other twin bed, and laid back down with her. She was tossing and turning and talking and not settling down, so at 6am we all just got up. So tired....Something she started saying a little while ago, that just melts me is "Mama hold you". It's torture though when she's needing to go to sleep, and I leave the room and she starts screaming it. Breaks my heart. I can't imagine loving another baby as much as her, but I know my heart will grow when R gets here. Can't wait for both of our girls to be together!

How come they don't do PSAs anymore?

I guess they do, they're just more subtle. It used to be so obvious - the fried egg, "This is your brain on drugs", or "I learned it by watching you!" for example. And they were on after prime time shows with actors from those shows, like "21 Jump Street". Now the anti-drug commercials are less memorable. At least in my opinion.

Growing up in KS, one of the Public Service Announcements from the late 70s/early 80s that was on every spring and summer was about tree climbing. A boy in a tree says this:

I've been climbing trees all my life, but not trees near overhead lines. 'Cause if you touch one of those lines, or your weight makes a branch touch one of those lines, that electricity will come right to you. And that can hurt. It may even kill you. And climbing utility poles is really dumb. So, remember, always look up before climbing, and stay out of trees near overhead lines.

The best part was that at the beginning, it said at the bottom of the screen the kid's name (Billy something), and "Professional Tree Climber". Really? Professional? And how sad is it for today that back then that was the most serious issue that needed to be addressed. The world has certainly changed.

The funny thing is that almost everyone from around here still knows that commercial. Whenever someone says "That can hurt," instinctively I'll reply, "It may even kill you." Unfortunately, hardly anyone I work with is from here, so that line is lost on most of them. I've been searching the Internet for that commercial figuring it must be on You Tube or somewhere, but no luck. Today I saw that a guy mentioned it in his blog. He is from Oklahoma, so apparently it extended beyond Kansas and Missouri. Anyway, that's my random thought for the day.

The World Outside

I've been pretty wrapped up in my own life the last few weeks/months. I'm not a big fan of the "news" anyway - it's usually depressing, left-wing propaganda - and I think it's terrible to invade the lives of the celebrities (but I'm as a big a gossip as they come about it when I DO hear anything). But I feel I need to make a note for posterity about the events in Hollywood this week. First, Ed McMahon passed away. Very sad, but he had lived a long life and left his mark. Then Jon and Kate split up. I can't imagine the pressure having twins and sextuplets would put on a couple, much less how much it was compounded by their show (which I did enjoy when I managed to catch it), and their lives being in the public and subject to that kind of scrutiny. But the worst part is those poor kids. It's hard on any family when the parents separate, I know. At least they have each other.

Yesterday, was a double-whammy: in the morning, Farrah Fawcett passed away. She'd been battling cancer (there was even a documentary about it, I guess - I had just heard that the day before - see how out of the loop I've become?), so it was somewhat expected, but still sad. There were specials planned for later in the week that were bumped up to last night due to the news of her passing. The shocker was in the early evening when the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, died suddenly of cardiac arrest. He was 50 years old (which when I type it, sounds like a reasonable age, but I think of him as too young). He is such a megastar that his death superceded Farrah's - an icon in her own right. He's been out of the limelight for some time, but was apparently planning a comeback tour that was to start later this year. It's weird to think he's gone. I was never obsessed with him like many my age were, but I did like most of his music and thought he was a great performer. He kept getting stranger as the years went by, so that overshadowed his talent for people younger than me. A guy I work with is 25 and he said he never understood what the big deal was about MJ. But he is just too young I think - his memories of him are the ones after he got Bubbles and the oxygen tent and married Lisa Marie and was arrested for child molestation. My memories are of Thriller , the moonwalk, the veritable Beatlemania that ensued, his one sequined glove and white socks with black shoes, scenes of people the world over - even China - going crazy for him.

I think when someone passes away, regardless of whether it's a celebrity or not, it makes you stop and think, count your blessings, take stock of what's important in life, and bring the focus back in. Which is why, for now, I'm going to bring that focus back to my own little world and leave the outside out.

Bye-bye House

We are officially out of our house. We signed the title over yesterday and picked up the check today. I'm sad - the longest I ever lived anywhere was the duplex, and that was 4.5 years. I've been at this house for 4.25 years, so almost as long. There are limitations when you rent, or live with your parents, so this was my first real home that was my own, and of course, DH's and my first home together and S's first home. The move did NOT go well. Let's just say there was a lot of miscommunication, and it took much longer than it should have. It didn't help that it's been incredibly hot here - the heat index was 110 yesterday. But we're done. For now. We had to put the househunting on hold until next week. Monday night DH helped cater something, and Tuesday night he went to the T-Bones game, so tonight and tomorrow night he's getting ready for the Lenexa BBQ, plus tomorrow night he has softball. Then of course the BBQ is this weekend.

I think I forgot to mention why we are househunting again. The inspection came back from the house we bid on and the roof and AC will need to be replaced within the next 5 years, and the plumbing is polybutylene which we found out is a bad thing. Due to all these factors, we wanted to have the price dropped or money allocated towards fixing all of them, and that didn't happen, so we chose to walk. So we are at my in-laws' house indefinitely instead of just a couple of weeks.

S has done fairly well with the transition, considering. She keeps asking to go home, and I tell her that Grandma and Grandpa's is our home, too, for now. But she's not been sleeping well which has been hard on all of us. Plus the heat has been affecting everything at their house as well - it's a 2-story and the AC doesn't get upstairs much which is where we are staying. It's been 85 degrees or more in our bedrooms. Luckily S's room has a window unit that keeps her room reasonably cool, and my father-in-law installed a ceiling fan in our room yesterday. So sweet of him. It's really just moving the hot air around, but it's at least helping a little bit.

Yesterday, DH wasn't feeling very well, so he had gone to lay down in S's room since it was cooler than ours. She wanted to see him, so I told her she could give him a hug and a kiss and that would help him feel better. She was so cute! Hugging him and saying, awww, and putting her favorite blankies and stuffed animals on him for comfort. She's going to be a wonderful big sister.

After his nap, DH felt better enough to go to the game, but we decided it would be best if S and I stayed out of the heat. I was disappointed because we played the Winnipeg Goldeneyes, and it would have been S's first sporting event, but it turned out to be a good decision because the game went into extra innings and finally got called around 11:15pm due to lightning. While Rob was there, he ran into the girl who first introduced us. We had been friends in high school, but when I was away at college, found that our interests sent us in separate directions. She was, of course, surprised to learn we'd gotten married. Kind of crazy that he saw her after all these years.

Second baby syndrome

Poor baby R already has second baby syndrome - I've hardly blogged at all about this pregnancy, and I haven't scanned in any of the sonograms yet - maybe next week. But honestly, this time around has been a piece of cake. R, do Mommy a favor and be just as easy to take care of when you come into this world as you are in the womb. :)

I'm so glad this week is finally over. Work was insane - my supervisor was gone so I was working extra hours to keep up with my stuff and cover his. We had the sonogram Wednesday and then we put an offer on a house, all of which was exciting. We've begun packing in earnest - we'll try to get most of it done this weekend since we're going to move next weekend. Since the house we bid on is empty, we may be able to close by the end of the month. If that's the case, we'll just store our furniture in my parents' garage instead of getting a storage unit. Hopefully that will all be ironed out by next week so we know where to take everything Saturday.

Sidenote: DH got Knorks as the giveaway at the T-Bones game the other night. A Knork is a knife and fork version of a spork. It pretty much looks like a fork, but supposedly you can cut better with the edge. It reminded me of my old roommate who came to visit from Mexico who at one time stated that he thought that sporks were the best invention ever. Granted, it was on a float trip after a long day on the water, so the validity of his statement is questionable, but he couldn't stop singing their praises from dinner until we went to sleep in our tent. I'll have to tell him about Knorks and see if he feels as strongly about them.