Adrift in a sea of boxes
Please pardon the lack of posts lately - my usual nighttime blog time has been filled with unpacking boxes. The girls have not been too keen on giving me the latitude needed to unpack during the day, so I have only a few hours every night to make headway. A lot of headway that simply does not make. BUT - Bri and Dan came over on Sunday and helped me make some progress. PLUS - Bri is coming over tomorrow evening; a friend and her daughter are coming on Thursday during the day to run interference with the girls; and Bri said she'd come hang on Friday during the day since she has a vacation day from work. The unpacking shall get done (whether I like it or not, I suppose).
This house is SO big. I'm used to being able to hear what's happening upstairs while I'm downstairs and vice-versa. That just doesn't happen here. In fact, I keep having to call out to the girls and locate them when we're all on the main level. I'll call, "BUUUUUGGGGGYYYYYYYYY!!!!! BEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYY!!!!!" and I'll hear the patter of little feet in the distance getting closer and closer. Or not - and then I have to run in the kitchen and make sure they haven't somehow figured out how to put each other in the oven (everything else has been baby-proofed). They really are having a big ol' time scampering about. I love seeing them so happy. I can't wait until all of the box-chaos is done and they know where all of their stuff is. For the moment, their toys and books are out in the sun room. I'm also going to give them the bottom level or two of shelves in the library. And Jonas informed me last weekend that he's about to start building a play kitchen for them. I'm going to put it in the eat-in part of the kitchen so they can cook while I cook. How cute will that be??
In other news, Belly had an eye exam today. It was the first she's had since November and obviously the first time she's been to the pediatric ophthalmologist out here. I liked the doctor. He was very gentle and thorough. Belly HATED him...for most of the visit. She seemed to deeply resent the fact that he was all up in her grill and positively screamed with everything she had every single time he tried to examine her eyes. She's such a strong little kid that I couldn't hold her. Dude and I switched spots so he could try to snuggle her/hold her still. It only half worked. Finally, finally, finally she calmed down. Dude sat in the exam chair and held her on his lap facing out. I knelt in front of the chair and hugged her. Dude and The Bug rubbed her back. This was the only way that worked - but it WORKED. She let the doctor do a full exam and by the end of it, she was reaching out to touch his hands and his glasses and was pleasant. Then he gave her a sticker and I think she forgave him completely.
After all of that, there's good news and bad news that will ultimately be good news. The good: Belly doesn't need to wear her glasses anymore. This means the fighting to keep them on her is a thing of the past! How about an amen? Can I get an amen?! AMEN!! And how about a woot?! WOOT!!
Now, the bad that will ultimately be good: She doesn't need the glasses because they're not correcting her crossing. What she needs is surgery - probably within the next six months. I hate to think about my little baby-kid going in to surgery but I like the idea of having the problem FIXED. And putting the whole ordeal behind us. We're going back for a follow-up to today's exam in about a month and we'll get the full story on the surgery then. We understand WHY the surgery, but not the HOW yet. Today was totally traumatic and there was a lot to process, so we just left all the detail questions for next time.
It's a non-stop party here, isn't it?
Anyway - boxes are calling me. More soon.
Scattershot
I haven't blogged in a few days, so there is much to write about. Here it is in no particular order...
Belly had her evaluation this morning. She's basically a baby-kid rockstar. The developmental specialist, the physical therapist and the audiologist all confirmed that there's nothing wrong with her - she's just a late walker (most likely the result of being preemie). The relief I felt this morning was MORE than palpable. We are going to get, however, an Early Intervention eval. The physical therapist suggested that Belly's fine motor skills might benefit from some occupational therapy - you know, to help her catch up faster. Sure! Sign us up! Sounds good to me! I want my girl to have every advantage.
Next...
Who knew when I decided that we must paint the gawd-awful red dining room and the gawd-awful royal blue girls' room at the new house before we moved in that it would turn into such an all-encompassing effing production? We started on Wednesday night (see previous post), painted some Thursday night, until 1:30am Friday night/Saturday morning, most of the day Saturday and most of the day Sunday. What made two rooms take that long? Well, the dining room was a deep, blood red so it needed two coats of primer. Plus the woodwork literally had the old paint (which was off-white) peeling up, so that was all pulled off, sanded, primed and painted white (it was salmon-colored under the off-white). The dining room is now olive green. If you hate it, don't tell me. I wasn't 100% sure about it at first but now I L-O-V-E it.
The dining room was nothing, though, compared to the girls' room. I don't know why, but this bedroom has siding on all four walls. It is clear that it has always been part of the inside of the house so it was someone's conscious design choice at one point. And to that person I say, "YOU SUCK." Every single board needed to be cut-in with a paint brush and then a 4-inch roller could be used. And since it was royal blue, it too needed two coats of primer. And I had a three-color scheme planned, adding to the fun. Fortunately, only one of those colors needed a second coat. In the end, I think it's totally fab. But it's not going to be repainted until the girls are old enough to do it themselves. I will wish them well in their endeavor as I sip cocktails on the back deck.
Here are some pics of both rooms:
The dining room before...
...and after.
I should mention here that the kitchen you see in the background will be a very soft tangerine before the year is out.
The girls' room before...
...and after.
I would be remiss if I didn't give two resounding woots - Woot! Woot! - to Bri for making many of those loathsome hours of painting possible by babysitting for us. I did the math and I think she watched the girls about 22 hours this past week PLUS helped us paint on Wednesday. YOU ROCK, BRI!
Next...
While looking for some cleaning assistance on Craigslist earlier today, I came across an ad entitled "Free Carpet Cleaning for the Ladies." The body of the post went on to say "I have my own carpet cleaning business. I can do a free carpet cleaning for the ladies who have a fantasy of being with a uniformed carpet cleaning technician. A+ if you like it in the back door. Have time today or Wednesday." Ew. And by that I mean ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, EW. Ew.
Next...
Two days ago, my president Barack Obama (I can't tell you how nice it is to say those last four words, so I still like to use them whenever I refer to him) took his daughters to my favorite frozen custard place THREE BLOCKS from our old place in DC. Big giant audible sigh. PLUS he's been to Five Guys - my fav burger joint. He is really doin' it right back there. It makes me proud.
That's all for now. It's nearly midnight and I'm pooped.
I almost had to sell the Charmer last night
My mom, being the most excellent mom that she is, drove 3+ hours from her place to ours yesterday so she could babysit Belly and the Bug while Dude and I got some painting done at the new house. I did not request this of her. She simply informed me on Monday that this was her plan. Nice, huh? I even headed back over to the house to do some more painting this morning, too. Mom's the best!!!!
And Bri very generously helped Dude and I paint last night. Our goal was to get the dining room and the girls' room and closet prepped and primed. We got it mostly done (I finished the girls' room this morning). Our system was that Bri and I prepped the dining room and then moved upstairs while Dude started the painting. It seemed to be working out alright. Until I was alone in the girls' room for a minute and the light flashed off-on-off-on-off-on-off-on-off-on. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I am TERRIFIED of ghosts. So, I panicked. Bri then told me that the tape had mysteriously rolled into her foot a little earlier. This, of course, led to the two of us high-tailing it down to the dining room where I hemmed and hawed and finally said to Dude, "Um, we're scared. The light kept turning on and off. The tape rolled into Bri's foot. Can we stay with you?" To which Dude mocked us and basically told us to get our butt's back up there. Bri and I decided that the house didn't seem scary - just those things did - and that whomever was here was clearly "good." So we went back up.
The more we talked about it, the more I felt like there wasn't anyone but us there. I learned that Bri had just set the tape down when it rolled, so no real mystery (it just caught her off guard). We had been taping the closet - which is a walk-in closet out in the hallway, not actually part of the bedroom - and I walked back into the girls' room. I turned on the light and commented to Bri that I was SURE there weren't scary ghosts in the house. AND THAT'S WHEN THE LIGHT DID IT AGAIN!!!! I yelled for Dude to get up there and he came quickly. I told him it happened again and we stood there waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Finally Dude walked over to the switch, turned it off, flipped it on and THERE! My heart was racing. Dude looked at me like I was the biggest moron ever. He was all, "Look. It's an old switch. You have to push it all the way up or it sort of hovers around three-quarters up. It's not establishing a solid connection so it's flickering." And he did it again to prove his point.
Me: "Oh. Well. Thanks. Sorry. I was scared. I still want to sage the house."
The eye-rolling continued and he went back downstairs. I can't say I really blame him. But wouldn't you have been scared? I went back by myself this morning to finish painting that very room and everything was fine. I even went to the basement by myself to use the utility sink. Nothing scary. Whew! I was a little worried that we had made a terrible, terrible mistake.
Sissy
This is a comparison that I never thought I'd make, but in at least one way, my family is like the Osbournes. Remember how their oldest daughter, Amy, didn't want to be on their reality show so it looked to the whole world like they only had Kelly and Jack? Well, my youngest sister has decided that she would like to be removed from my blog. I cannot easily accommodate that, however, because she is a significant part of my life and affects it in many ways, usually for the richer. I can't pretend she doesn't exist. I have decided that a fair option would be to change her name, so from here on out I will refer to her as Sissy. And I've changed every post in which she was ever mentioned to reflect this. I'd also like to publicly apologize if I've ever aired anything that could be deemed her "dirty laundry." That was never my intent and I thought I had been careful to reflect that in my wording of any situation that did not directly involve me.
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