Monday, June 16, 2008

A Missing Croc

A few hours at the park, meeting up with my mom for a few minutes during her bike around Holland, reading books and, of course, Rowan attempting to change her own diaper during naptime AGAIN! Post-naptime laundry is just becoming part of my daily life and I think Rowan actually looks forward to it. She can't wait to push the blinking blue button to start the machine and watch it spin around. Do I honestly have to use duct tape to keep her diaper on? The backward sleepsack only worked a few times. She has now mastered both unzipping the sleepsack as well as wriggling her small body out through the neck opening. Any ideas here would be appreciated.

Tonight Lance and I needed to go to a fence place to look at different fences and try to decide what we want for our new house. Tate cried the entire way there, the whole time we were there and the whole way home. Rowan somehow lost a shoe while we were there, one of her new purple Mary Jane crocs, but we, of course, didn't realize it until we got home. So, I put the kids to bed, Lance drove all the way back there and got the Croc and now we're home and I can't wait to curl up in bed with my book, Stealing Buddha's Dinner (thanks, Steph).

Speaking of my current book, there is a page in the book that descibes an annoyance of mine--deliberate misspelling. I know some people aren't great at spelling, that I often hit the wrong key and end up with misspelled words, that anyone can make a spelling error. Though some of these errors irritate me, what is much worse is when this is done ON PURPOSE! Here is the scenario in the book "...some of us would walk down the road to the little convenience store half a mile away. I loved and loathed this store. Loved because it was the only purveyor of candy and joy to be found. Loathed because it was called Kountry Korner...Why, oh, why, I wondered, couldn't it have been called Country Corner? There was no need to use K's instead of C's." My feelings exactly. There was a salon in Charlotte called I Kut Hair. Every time Lance and I drove past that place, I would tense up and say "Gross. That is just disgusting that they use a K instead of a C." Lance would let me know that, although it might be irritating, it's not really disgusting. But, it really does disgust me. And, for some odd reason, changing a C to a K is a worse offense than changing other letters, though those are, of course, still offensive as well. Not that I would frequent a salon called "I Cut Hair" anyway.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Father's Day 2008


We closed on our new house on Friday (yeah!), did some packing and went to the beach on Saturday and actually didn't have much to do today. The kids gave Lance his presents (handpainted canvasses, a traditional Father's Day kids book and a great porch swing) and we spent most of the day playing. I actually took a nice, long nap and then we went out for pizza and ice cream. The kids were in pretty good moods, Rowan did surprisingly well at the restaurant and was very adorable wishing Lance "Happy Father's Day" and now Lance is out on a bike ride by himself.

It's Lance's third Father's Day as Rowan's dad and his first one as Tate's dad. So, of course I am happy for that and we had a great day. But, it's also my third Father's Day without my own dad which just makes the day a little bittersweet. There are so many things I miss about my dad--the "Rowe" sense of humor, his amazing culinary skills, his great advice--but I think what I miss the most is something I never had and that is watching him be a grandpa. He was so excited to meet Rowan and I know he would have been an amazing grandfather. I can still remember when I told my parents I was pregnant. I was almost 12 weeks along and I was in town for my mom's birthday. The first gift I gave her was a bib that said "I love my Grandma". She took it out and my dad said "Why are you giving your mom a bib?" Then it sunk in. He was absolutely thrilled. He would always send me e-mails asking how things were going and saying how excited he was.

So, on this Father's Day, make sure you take time to enjoy your husbands and your dads and make memories that will last forever.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

"My change my diaper, Mommy!"

The day started out just fine. Rowan actually listened (at least part of the time) at gymnastics. We came home, played, made lunch, and I put both children to bed. Except, of course, Rowan wouldn't sleep. Since the gate is now in place, she can't get out of her room, but she can open the door, peek over the gate and tell me that she's not tired. I decided to go in my room, close the door and ignore her, hoping that she'd get tired and fall asleep. After listening to her talk for quite a while, I decided that it's hopeless and headed in there, only to find her, naked, extremely excited, holding a clean diaper. "My change my diaper, Mommy!" she said. She took her dirty diaper off in bed, got out a wipe and really did try to change her own diaper. I have to give her credit for being independent. But, I was not thrilled about the clean-up on my end. Lots of laundry. Also, a complete meltdown when she had to pick up her sidewalk chalk later. Long, long day.

When Lance got home, he said "Do you want to go see the street performers downtown?" I said "No, but you're more than welcome to go and take the kids." And, to my surprise, he did. It was his first venture out alone with the kids and I think it went surprisingly well. Rowan had a great time. She watched lots of performances and asked the balloon man to make her a baboon. She was very excited about the baboon until she bit his nose and it popped.

Tomorrow we close on our house! Yeah! Then we move in the next weekend and I absolutely cannot wait! Though, I will say, I'm pretty much loving Holland in the summer. Cute downtown, tons of things going on, walking distance to the beach. I keep reminding myself that summer is short and I hated being here all winter. Plus, it's a short drive to come into town.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The Art of Escape

Though Rowan has known how to open doors for a while now, she must have just realized that when she is in bed and not sleeping, she can actually get out of bed without my help and walk right out of her door. Here's how I found this out. Yesterday, both of my children were miraculously sleeping at the same time. I took advantage of the situation and mowed the lawn, then took a shower. When I got out of the shower, there was Rowan, just standing there saying "Mommy take shower!" We went back to her room and I noticed she had also been in Tate's room (how he slept I have no idea) and had been wandering around the upstairs.

Today friends came over to go to the beach. I was excited to have a tired child and a nice long nap, but Rowan immediately came out of her room and downstairs. Over and over. Time outs were unsuccessful to say the least. She was so proud of herself. She said "Mommy, I'm just not really very tired." So, no nap. Tonight after the kids were in bed, I ran to Target to buy some doorknob covers and they were all out! All out? Is this a random summer activity that all children are doing? There were clearly 3 racks for doorknob covers, but none were there! So, Lindsey gave me the idea to put a gate outside Rowan's door so at least she can't get out of her room. Knowing Rowan, though, she will find a way...

Sunday, June 8, 2008

My Little Bity Self

Lately Rowan has been saying and doing things that are so funny. I always mean to come home and write them down, but I never do, and by the time I come to blog, I've forgotten them. One thing she's been doing quite a bit lately is calling herself "my little bity self". She likes to have us sit in a row on the edge of the bathtub and she'll say "Mommy on one side, Daddy on one side, my little bity self in middle". Today she was referring to her shoes as Freddy and Eddy and wore a Dora sock on just one of her feet.

Earlier in the week we played at Tunnel Park and Rowan rolled down the dune. She loved it! We also had a playdate with Monica, Brady, Susan, Lily and Ally on Wednesday and then another one on Thursday with Con, Steph, Annie, Ben, Jemma and Sam. The hope for that playdate was to go to the beach or at least the park, but instead we had a thunderstorm. And that has been the theme of the week. Thunderstorms. Loud, long thunderstorms with lots and lots of rain. Today the rain took a break in the morning and we went to the beach--yeah! Yesterday we went to visit Eric, Thy and Nathan and went to Greek Fest and had a great time. We managed to take zero pictures. Nathan is absolutely adorable and at 5 months has already had 4 haircuts.

Tomorrow Rowan starts gymnastics. I'm really hoping it goes well and Tate is a little angel in his Baby Bjorn.

Postpartum Hair Loss


I remember after I had Rowan I kept hearing about postpartum hair loss. For a while I thought maybe I had avoided the whole thing, but when she was about 5 months old, my hair started falling out in clumps. Well, the time has come again. My hair is coming out in clumps--especially in the shower. Which brings me to my topic of the day. Wiping hair on the shower wall. This is without a doubt the habit I have that irritates Lance more than anything else. I'm not really sure when this habit started, but I know it was well before we got married. So, he's been dealing with it for a long time. Much more disgusting than my wiping the hair on the walls is that I leave it there. When the hair is dry, it's really easy to clean off the walls, but when it's wet, it just sticks there, sticks to my hands, just sticks to everything. So on the wall it stays. I have tried telling him that this is art in a new medium. Not quite sculpture, not quite painting. I even name the artwork to give it a more authentic appeal. Something like "Horses Dancing" or "Five Moons". Lance is not convinced. My justification is that David Sedaris once was part of an art show and his art was literally a garbage can full of everything he threw away including things like toenail clippings. If toenail clippings are art, so is hair. Sometimes I name the art, but lately I've been leaving Lance hair messages in the shower.

Which brings me to my question of the day. Does anyone else do this? I'm kind of hoping Heather is with me on this one. Ashley, a friend in Charlotte who keeps her house impecccably clean, even admitted to doing this. So, I've decided I'm going to make a coffee table book featuring shower hair art. Does anyone else think this is funny? Lance finds it totally repulsive and not the least bit funny. I'll be posting a picture soon, so get ready to either laugh or close your eyes!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Our own room

This weekend, Tate finally moved into his own room. I guess three months is long enough for all of us to be sharing a room. But, I kind of miss the little guy. He's just too precious when he's all swaddled up, sleeping so contentedly. He's so much fun lately--enjoying playing, trying to roll over, watching Rowan constantly. Tomorrow will be his 100-day birthday! One thing I enjoy about having our room back is rediscovering reading in bed. I've always been one to read until I fall asleep. But, with a sleeping infant next to me, I've been way too worried about turning on a light, making noise while turning pages, laughing out loud. So, I'm back to reading and loving every minute of it. I'm currently reading Wicked and have a long, long list of books I want to read. Feel free to share any titles you love!

Some things we've done lately. Wagon rides, going to the beach (where all Rowan does is throw sand in the water), lots and lots of sidewalk chalk, Lily's 3rd birthday party at the zoo (Rowan's favorite animals were the otters and the bear), several trips to Captain Sundae (Rowan's favorite answer when I ask what she wants to do is "Go to the Captain!"), a playdate at Susan's which included a walk to Reed's Lake where the kids got out and ran around and Rowan played with none other than goose poop (Steph, I almost called to see if you wanted to join us, but I was being very irresponsible and ignored naptime completely) and a stop for ice cream. We've been trying to get the kids to have overlapping naps lately and yesterday and today Lance and I got to take naps, too! We had a great family weekend and I'm looking forward to a date night on Tuesday for Lance's birthday!