Bathroom Day 2

It's Painted!! what a PITA but it only took about 5.5 hours to complete between the two of us taking turns doing that or watching the chillins. there are so many nooks and crannies to our bathroom...yeoutch....my back hurts already from being bendy woman.

Tomorrow we will work on as much as we can to finish up this project. I am hoping/praying the painting was the worst of it but I am no fool and realize that was actually the part we knew something about already.

I did learn something about Lee yesterday. He was taking down the old light fixture and got to the point of disconnecting the electric. I have watched/helped my father enough times to generally know what to do with minor electric but it freaks me out still...probably because in those times I have also watched my father get shocked multiple times :) anyhow, Lee says "yikes what do we do next?" I realized that his lack of doing might actually just be a lack of knowledge....maybe if we keep doing these projects he will gain more confidence because I know we can do them...teamwork and well, work :)

Actually...

does not need to begin every sentence. Griffin didn't get this memo though. He keeps saying it and it is pretty funny. so, in five sentences there will often be 4-5 actuallys. haha. what a goof ball.

Bathroom Demolition

we are redoing the bathroom. nothing major like we planned at some point but enough to make us no longer hate the bathroom. I know hate is a very strong word (and one we are trying desperately to rid from our son's vocab so I really should not use it)...let us just say strongly dislike being in the bathroom...so, we bought the materials, we chose the paint, we prepped the work space, lee removed our only light (so now we are forced to at least complete the job that far, right?), and we prepped the walls for paint tomorrow (clean, sand, puddy, more sanding).

I am soooo excited. It currently looks bare but already better.

Lee is on vacation so I have been taking 1/2 days from work for the week. we also thoroughly cleaned the first floor. It was sooo nice to know that all the dust bunnies and sticky spots and puke smell were gone, even if just for an afternoon. we went through the kids toys again as well....much more organized and very much slimming down finally.

Tomorrow Paint and light installation
Wednesday Vanity, mirror, and accessory installation
Friday we rest, I hope

I have a new love

and he is a serial killer. His name is Dexter. and he is on showtime. oh man I love that show. wish I could be watching right now. seriously, though, whatever will we do when we are caught up with the past seasons. I haven't been drawn into a show like this for awhile. Must by my mom's love for court t.v. rubbing off on me. lol.

kid stats

from their appointments last week.

griffin at 4 y.o. 35 lb. (50%), 40 5/8 in. tall (high side of 50%)

Paisley at 19 months 27 lb. (high side of 75%), 32 3/4 in. tall (low end of 75%), head 18 7/8 (low end of 90%)

they are both doing great!!

just another tuesday

pretty nice day with the kids. I wasn't great with not yelling but we got out and about, did some exercise, did some cleaning, and had some fun. griffin still told me he loved me so I suppose my yelling was kept at an ok amount. :)

I am still sweaty from our bike ride though. I think the window units are close to being necessary. I WILL make it to July 1st this year! it will just be hot. I think back to when we lived in the apartments and didn't even have air...I think that I like to convince myself now that this house has worse air flow but honestly it just gets hot eventually...and then all houses have bad air flow. so, we will wait and we will be not die..but yes, we will be hot for a few more days.

in part of our travels today we biked to the bike shop on madison because in order to continue biking around town I really felt it was necessary we finally purchase a bike lock. I know the bikes most likely will be fine without being locked up but I don't feel like risking it any longer. so, we stopped at Spin and griffin found a little bike with training wheels and he took right to it. oh how I wish I had enough money to buy him this bike. He really just LOVED it. I can see that owning it would pose problems with the youngest member of our family as she is convinced she is big enough to do anything he does but oh, how griffin did so great on it.

then it was off to the library. I want to get some books about going to the dentist as griffin will have his first appointment sometime in the next couple months. then to the dvd store (aka blockbuster) for more disks of Dexter.....love that show, officially obsessed. then to phoenix where we had a apple juice tea party according to griffin. he is awesome. :)

oh, and this morning we got stocked on vitamins, everyone took theirs, including me and we are headed in the right direction. I also heard back from my doctor about the therapist. feeling good about making that call too. I am hoping and praying it does not rain tomorrow..I really want to ride my bike to work.

typical morning...

NOT!

we woke at 6 a.m.-typical
took a shower-typical
tidied the upstairs-typical
heard noise outside-uh, sometimes typical
looked out to see lots of cops-not typical
dog goes crazy at someone knocking on the front door-very typical
policeman at the door-not typical
police asks lee if he heard anything last night-not typical
dead body in the brush next to the traintracks across the street from our house-sooooo NOT TYPICAL!!!!

ugh, very disconcerting. they assured us already that they do not suspect foul play but geez, a dead body was there this a.m...we walk through there sometimes. yikes. just sooo creepy. It was a young guy, 20-22, goatee, dead most likely since last night given the rigor that had set in already. wow.

Tonight putting griffin to bed.

I was lying in bed with griffin, trying to pretend I was asleep so he would fall asleep.

griffin: "so what did you do today mommy?" lol.

me: "I went to work to make money so we can buy things."

griffin: "like transformers and bakugon?"

me: "well, sometimes, but usually we spend money on food, clothes, our cars, and our house."

griffin: "we should just spend money on robots and bakugon."

then, quiet followed by...

"you have a blister?"

me ignoring him so he will think he should go to sleep.

"daddy can put a bandaid on that for you. then he can rip it off later. it won't hurt too much."

me still ign0ring.

"does your blister hurt?"

me: "griffin go to sleep. my blister doesn't hurt. it is fine. I will ask daddy to look at it later."

griffin: "otay. if you say so...."


oh my this kid kills me in his mimicking and antics nowadays. hahhahahahah.

griffin cuteness continues

now it is "Paisley just stop thinking about it. have fun. don't think about it and you will be otay." also, he says, "I love you mommy. do you love me?" I said, "yes, very much." him, "thank you." hahaha.

Paisley has been cute too but difficult to focus on the cuteness when she is so dang whiney. I know it is in part the age. she really is quite the character though. loves to help around the house, loves to do anything her big brother is doing (I love this since I always always always wanted a big brother), and loves to watch me get ready and participate in the bathroom. this included getting into my make up the other day. she had brown eyeliner on her lips and blue eye shadow on her forehead. hahaha. they both love my high heels though. lol.

today is a new day

Monday, June 22nd. by some calculations I was due on this date 4 years ago. It is a good day :)

Today I begin the shift of some changes. taking control again of the chaos. don't get me wrong. life really is quite great overall but the littlest things send me into a tailspin and I really think as the mother of my family they all follow suit in some way. so, today is the day. I have made some lists and called a few people I need to call. and overall going to make some positive changes to begin TODAY. can you tell this is going to happen today? haha. I am focusing on it because it was a rough morning....again. ugh. but no more. I mean, sure there will still be rough mornings but things are gonna change so that we can all cope better.

with that said we really did have a lovely weekend. I hope lee concurs. He spent a lot of time with the kids alone on saturday and I most definitely needed the time away. I think in part I am still traumatized by all the alone time I spent with them a few weeks back...lol. so, friday night we cashed in on our sitter swap and went to a friend's birthday party. old friends, lots of laughing, good times. about the only bad part was it was a late night, i was already tired and paisley was up again at the crack of dawn (5:30) sat. a.m. I was off to work at 8:30. Lee could not get the girl to nap either. she was seriously manic by the time I was home. they were playing with the slide and the slip n slide. she was having a blast but in a completely manic way...crazed wet baby. I finally said it was time to go in, got her dry and to sleep at 3:30 pm...insanity. she did sleep until 6 p.m. though. that evening I was off to the art museum with tamara for the east wing summer solstice celebration. we had a blast but another late night and since yesterday was father's day I was up with her at 5:30 a.m. yet again. ugh. I did lie back down at 8:30 because they both seemed happy and I just couldn't be awake anymore. that did not really fly...they kept getting in the bathroom, into my make up, knocked over a lamp, fed the dog lots of non dog food, and generally were just whiney and annoying. so finally both lee and I got up and we proceeded to have a really nice day....cleaning, outside, zoo, ice cream, home for dinner, baths, rest, and early bedtimes!! she did sleep all the way through the night and up at 6 a.m. but the whining, oh geez the whining.

so, the changes...are a happening...first, no more whining. second, severely reduce the yelling. we will speak to the children in quiet tones with hopes they pick up on it..wish me luck. third, schedule! I think this will help the kids the most whihc will in turn help us. they need to know the expectations even more than are already present. so, a schedule with check list. fourth, meal plan (working on this). fifth, counseling..more on this later.

aaah, I feel better. now for some lunch.

Just forget about it...

say griffin to paisley when she was whining again. so cute.

maybe I should take his advice too. he is wise that wee one. I need to just forget about it and move on. I have been yelling too much. I have also been moping too much. I desperately need some sleep though and would feel a little bit better. ugh.

work this a.m. and it was good...now feeling unmotivated.

some griffin cuteness

he has been saying, "thank you mommy." for pretty much anything. Like, I tell him, "griffin you are such a great big brother" or "griffin here is your juice" or "yes I see you are playing with your toys".....pretty much acknowledging him gets a thank you. guess we are getting somewhere with manners :)

today Paisley was quite upset and griffin says to her and then me, "think about something else. stop thinking about it." "mommy just tell her to think about something else"...this is something I have said to him when he is getting really worked up. ha. I guess it is setting in but it most certainly does not work on a pissed off 20 m0nth old.

griffin got a present from his friend Natalee today for his birthday. there was also a card. on the ride home he was reading it, "this card says happy birthday to griffin. you are great." hahahahaha.

he is also really starting to take to reading. I am psyched about this. my aunt and uncle gave paisley two books when they were recently visiting and the kids LOVE them. so much so they are fighting over them a lot...annoying but I guess they could be fighting over other things, right?

random fever or not so random?

Both kids had their well check ups on tuesday afternoon. they are well :) or they were until I allowed the nurse to stab tetanus into griffin's leg. ugh. anyhow, he was quite traumatized by it and even though I know it is "for his safety" I am quite traumatized by his response :( anyhow, he was fine after a few minutes and fell asleep on the walk home. about two hours later the fever developed but then disappeared. the next morning he seemed fine so off to our days we went...my sitter called around 10 a.m. to tell me he had fallen asleep on the couch and when she moved him she felt he was really warm. she said she was happy to keep him as l0ng as he was sleeping and not wanting me. I picked him up around 3 with a 103 degree temp. I called the doc and they were concerned it could be a reaction from the vax but he had also had this random (I think made up but who knows in a 4 y.o.) leg pain tuesday as well so the doc was not sure the fever was from that ( like a silent infection or fracture of some sort)....so we waited and he fevered and then he was fine. long story short probably a vax reaction, mild one but it was awful on all counts..glad we can not do that for awhile again. blah.

feeling LOW

this is the 4th or 5th month in a row that I feel the world caving in during this week of the month...no good. I plan to do something about it but even though I know what to do, how to start has me feeling stuck. I am hoping to feel more motivated and in control next week so I can do this...remind me if I get sidetracked, ok?

parades and parties

we had a very busy saturday starting out with Parade the Circle over in University Circle. It was a festival and parade of handmade sort. Loads of fun for all...I look forward to this event as the children grow bigger and bigger.

then it was home for some rest (yeah right) and pasta salad making. Then off to a partay (or gathering) of Lee's work folk. His co-worker lives in a pretty neat house down in ohio city/tremont area. I enjoyed that. the kids enjoyed their bounce house and 5 y.o. daughter. we were able to hang out and talk without too much grief from the kids for 3 whole hours. ha. then home where we all collapsed into sleep...Lee was a tad disappointed with the waste of the evening this morning when he woke up.

Not sure exactly what happened during the night of sleep but I put Paisley to bed and then laid down in our bed because my belly muscle was aching. I must have fallen asleep. Then Lee put Griffin to bed and fell asleep in his bed. We are guessing that Grififn left his bed at some point and came to bed with me...I don't remember this at all. What I do remember is being woken up because he fell out of the bed and screamed. I calmed him down and back to sleep but he had woken Paisley so I moved into her room on the futon so she would keep sleeping. blah...awful night of moving and such. so this a.m. Griffin was in our bed all alone, Lee was in Griffin's bed, and I was on the futon in P's room. what a mess.

Today we are working slowly through the day on some to-dos. It is nice just to be moving slowly and not worrying about having to be anywhere :)

Happy Birthday Griffin

wow...4 years! I just cannot believe it. I mean, it is long but it isn't that long, right? I am quite nostalgic today and yet can realize the memories are fading :( man I love this boy though.

oh, and even though he turned 4..he thinks he is 7. haha.

Griffin today

It still amazes me how overnight (or so it seems sometimes) they grow up. Lee told griffin to be good for me this week so I didn't have to work too hard. It really worked in many ways as I was able to remind griffin of what Lee told him and also slightly threaten him at times :) haha. so anyhow, griffin keeps walking around this week telling me how good he is being or he will ask, "am I being good right now?" as if he was not being good I would still tell him he was...haha. anyhow, then today we were getting ready to go to a friend's house to play and he says he needs to pack a bag...a strange assortment made it into the backpack, all with intent as i watched him pick them out: a dora the explorer book, a small basketball, several men figurines, a whistle, and a bag of peanuts. He barely showed Natalee the stuff so I am not sure why it was very important to bring....at any rate he put the stuff in the bag, then he put the backpack on and asked, "am I handsome?" I told him "very." then he asked to wait outside on the porch. I let him out and locked up the front door. a minute later he was banging on it and said he needed to go potty...he took off the backpack and did his business upstairs, came back down, put the backpack on again, and again asked, "am I very handsome?" I told him, "absolutely." he is so cute.

then in the car he asked me why he couldn't wear his backpack while in his car seat and I told him because it wouldn't feel very good smashed up against his back. down the road he asked me again and then said, "oh yeah. I am in the car. so silly. hahahaha. you are so silly mr. man" He gave himself the nickname I told him Lee calls him since our window guy had a nickname.

god I am in love with this kid. lol.

Pooped.

It is barely 9 p.m. and I am going to bed. I probably won't go to sleep yet but I need to be in bed, chillaxin. (I love that word). It was an early rise this a.m. and another busy day.

I did manage to go to play group, get my haircut, put P for a nap, laze around during naptime in a daze, get them up and going and over to a friend's house for a playdate, home for dinner, and then bed at a decent hour. It is exhausting but we are doing it! I made warm green salad tonight with the greens from yesterday, baby portabella mushrooms gg picked up, and garlic expressions. It smelled wonderful and I will enjoy it tomorrow. I also made many eggs (for the children) and a lovely chicken stir fry with some leftover chicken, all the veggies in my fridge and bok choy from cityfresh. I am bummed that I forgot to pick some thai basil to put in the fry. oh well.

off to bed. work and then pick up lee tomorrow!!!

Cityfresh and the Farmers market

Summer is here even if the temperature doesn't reflect because the food has arrived..the growing season has begun!! I picked up some fresh cheese, jam, and honey at the farmers market this afternoon. then this evening I picked up our first shares of cityfresh. we got maple syrup, bok choy, onions, kale, lettuce, green garlic (not sure what this is), and some herbs. I am soooo excited. then I picked up some fresh bread and a treat from the local baker who had a stand...oh my that lazy daisy cake is YUM!!

anyhow, griffin LOVED the bread. go figure but he did also eat a little bit of lettuce. Paisley and I enjoyed the bread, jam, cheese, onion with some zucchini I had in fridge, and it was all soooo tasty.

off to bathe and bed...they both napped a loooong time today for anna so wish me luck for an early bed...I am sooo tired.

Long great day

Kids woke up freaking early and I was not pleased especially considering I knew we were stuck at home for the glass block guy. Him coming was good in some ways though because it thoroughly entertained them (when the saw wasn't scaring Paisley). The poor guy was tortured though with Griffin's incessant talking and shadowing..pretty cute and entertaining from my perspective and "Biggs" handled it quite well. The dog hated Biggs though so she spent the day in her cage in griffin's room...enough of an ordeal in and of itself to put me in for the day. ugh.

The rest of day was normal...lunch, nap, snack, walk. Now Griffin is asleep on the couch and P is eating dinner...I will bathe her after she eats and then attempt to wake g so he does not keep me awake all night.

one evening down....

3 to go :) picked kids up from anna. then met up with tamara for a walk and a treat and a trip to the playground. then home and had some late dinner and got the kids to bed. I really hope it is a great night so we can have a great day again tomorrow.

glass block windows in the a.m.!!!! lee has the camera so no pics :(