Something to be Proud Of

I wish I'd taken a before picture to help illustrate how truly amazing this is. Kirk and I took a nothing-special-about-it bay window in our bedroom and turned it into this awesome little reading nook. The most amazing part, though, is that we did it ourselves!

I married an accountant. Translation: my husband is not trained for construction projects. And he married a whatever I am. Translation: I am not trained for "domestic" projects like sewing. But he and I have both been slowly increasing our skills with each project we try to do, and this time, neither of our fathers had to come to our rescue. (Although we did use them for a bit of advice, some tools, and a bit of lumber. Thanks, dads.)

The biggest challenge was definately trying to figure out the hinges (because the two center sections of the window seat open for storage). Other than that, the project went surprising according to plan.

The easiest part was making the slipcovers for the pillows. I expected it to be more of a project than it turned out to be. Maybe I'm just finally getting decent at sewing. I can almost even sew in a straight line these days!

I still hope that someday we can afford to just pay people to complete my crazy ideas, but I do have to say that finishing this project by ourselves is definately something to be proud of.

Starting School on 09-09-09

If Adam was old enough to realize it, he'd have loved that today is 09-09-09, because he's always possessed a little more than the average need to have organization and order. Sadly, this need doesn't seem to apply to his bedroom, but rather to the little things in life, like how I arrange the candles in my decorating. (I've learned that I just can't split up sets; he will rearrange them on a daily basis to make sure the candles that should go together do go together.)


Today was his first day of school, which I had decided not to blog about. But I quickly changed my mind when I picked him up today. At his preschool, the whole class walks in a line to the front doors where they are then handed over to the appropriate adults. Since Adam's name is so early in the alphabet, he gets to be at the head of the line on the first day of school (2 years running). Right away, I noticed the beaded necklace he'd made. I thought it was a really cute project, and that the teachers probably instructed the kids to group them by color, and maybe even to count out a certain number of beads. Then I noticed the normal 4 year old's necklaces. They were not grouped by color. The charms were not evenly spaced. They looked as if they had a great time just stringing things on in whatever order they happened to pick them up. I reiterate that I consider this behavior normal.


Kirk and I are collecting a file of evidence to hand over to Adam when someday he realizes his weird need for order is precisely that: weird. We want to make sure he knows that we did not do this to him. He came to us this way. So far we have pictures of a gingerbread house with the candies separated by type and placed in straight lines. We have pictures of Christmas ornaments which had to be grouped by color so they'd have friends. Today, we'll add this:

Oh, and one thing I didn't notice until Adam pointed it out. "Mom, the apple is next to the red beads because it is red. The pencil is next to the yellow beads because it is yellow. I had to put the chalkboard next to the green beads because there were no black beads."

It Won't Be Like This for Long

The other day as Alex was napping, I was curled up on the love seat with a book while Adam and his Leapster occupied the couch. I glanced over at him, and I was overwhelmed. By what, I'm still not sure, but I felt like I just had to have a picture of that moment.

He looks so big to me here, but I started to think that when I look back at this picture in 2, 5, or 10 years, he will look so small. With each child, time seems to pass so much more quickly, and I just felt like I needed to stop and enjoy this moment. I stared at him for a minute or two, then got the camera. He looked up at me as if to say, "What are you doing? I'm just playing my leapster!" Then he smiled at me and went back to his game. I love this kid so much, and I loved this moment so much that I just had to share. In the words of the Darius Rucker song, "It won't be like this for long."

Change is Coming

A few months ago, I was having a really rotten day, and I just couldn't seem to pull myself out of the bad mood. Kirk randomly suggested that I go to the grocery store, buy some hair color, and dye my hair. I know it would have cheered me up, but I listed off several reasons why I wasn't going to go through with it right then. I jokingly told him that he could go to the store for me, though, and that I'd dye my hair whatever color he got for me. He didn't go that day, but we've kind of joked about him picking a hair color for me since that day.

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Well, Monday night we headed out to Walmart for a few odds and ends, and ended up in the hair color aisle. After seeing my reaction to the idea of blonde, Kirk just HAD to pick blonde for me. No offense whatsoever to blondes, but I come from a family of brunettes, and we just kind of like it that way. So besides the fact that I think my eyebrows are going to look awfully silly, I'm just not prepared to be a blonde. But a deal is a deal, and I told Kirk I'd try whatever color he picked. It only cost $2.97, and if I look completely ridiculous, it will only cost another $2.97 to change it back to brown.

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I did think really carefully about the timing, though, so I still have approximately 33 days until I go blonde. I want the pictures at the hospital with the baby to actually look like me, so I'm waiting until I get home from having the baby. Then I'll go blonde during the period of time when I'm really not going to be leaving my house much anyway. And I'll probably be back to brunette by the time we bless Dylan.

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And so it begins... the countdown to one of the most random decisions of my life. Can I handle this kind of planned spontaneity? Let's wait and see.

All the Way to the Top

I've been trying to figure out exactly what made the difference between how many pictures I took of Adam as a toddler verses how many I seem to take of Alex. Maybe it's that I have a nicer camera now. Maybe I'm more of a picture taker. Or, maybe Alex just presents more opportunities. If I took more frequent pictures of Adam, I'd end up with a lot of pictures of a cautious kid making relatively good choices. Alex, on the other hand, is constantly coming up with picture-worthy moments. For example, climbing to the top of the fence at Adam's t-ball game. Also interesting to note is that instead of making him get down, I sent Kirk to spot him. I wanted to know if he could make it all the way to the top!

Looks Like October

For those of you who have been anxiously waiting on pins and needles for my doctor's appointment today {okay... maybe that was just me...} here's the fairly uneventful update:

• I didn't gain any more centimeters and actually lost half a pound, so I'm thinking baby may have just had a growth spurt before my last appointment.
• Dr. Terry says if we go any earlier than 1 week early, it probably wouldn't do us any good. Yes, the baby would be smaller, but my body would also be less ready, so the delivery would probably be equally difficult (or easy) either way. So 1 week early it is.
• Dr. Terry says we'll try to let Adam keep his record as my biggest baby. He says he doesn't intend for this baby to get any bigger than 9lb 5oz. I'm not sure that's all that comforting, though.
• Basically, the philosophy is that since I've done it before, I can do it again, so wish me luck on what I doubt will be a small baby.

I don't have a for-sure induction date yet, and I probably won't until mid-September. But I'm pretty sure it will be October 2nd, which means I only have 5 1/2 weeks left. May they go quickly.

A Great Deal and a Bit of Cheating

When we were in SeaWorld over the summer, the vehicle we'd taken (belonging to Kirk's sister) was broken into, and her GPS system was stolen. At first we thought the thief didn't bother with anything else (Kirk's 4 year old iPod was left untouched), but then realized that Adam's Leapster was missing. I doubt they'd have taken it, except for his birthday last year, I bought him a really nice PSP backpack case that worked great to store his Leapster, headphones, extra batteries, and game cartridges. Imagine the thief's surprise when the PSP he thought he had stolen turned out to be a Leapster. HAHA!

Still, it wasn't funny at all that one of Adam's most prized possessions got stolen. So we did what any parent would do... we didn't tell him. With all the summer fun, we've managed to go almost 2 months without him realizing it was missing. Until today.

After Adams tears and our promises to replace the stolen toy, I decided to check out eBay for a replacement. I'm pretty pleased with the deal I found: 1 Leapster, 1 case, 1 battery charger, and 7 games, most of which are right on his level, the rest of which he can grow into. All for $110, with free shipping. For those who may not know, a Leapster costs $50 new, and games run at $20 if you can get them on sale. This was a GREAT deal.

And now for the bit of cheating...

When the package arrives in the mail, Adam will get the Leapster. He will get the case. He will get the battery charger, and 2 or 3 of the games. What, you ask, will I do with the rest? Save them for Christmas and his January birthday. Yay for being a cheap mom.