Long Strange Trip

Fast forward a few years. The house was bought, move competed, and then baby #2 was announced. Pregnancy #2 was just as rough as the first one and the 10lb, 3 ounce Charlie moved in. He is the complete opposite of big brother. Rough and tumble from day 1 it seems. He makes our house move at an even faster pace if that could even be possible. Every day is a new adventure. Currently at 21 months he is on a phase of stuffing food into his mouth and holding it there like a chipmunk for as long as he can get away with it.

Big brother has had a few interesting years. Preschool was last year and things started as we imagined they would. A few tears the first day or two but we all survived. In October last year Big B was demonstrating some interesting behaviors that we couldn't figure out. Lots of head shaking and shoulder shrugging. This got worse and worse until we were given a referral to the pediatric neurology department of the hospital in the city. Dx- Tourette's Syndrome. (this diagnosis became official in the fall this year as it takes a year of tics to make it Tourette's rather than a passing phase), medication was tried with success but it had side effects that we were not thrilled with.

So our lives these days are chaotic at times, a riot at others, and rarely calm. It is just a matter of adjusting to a new normal I suppose.

The kids are jazzed about Christmas. I am looking forward to it being over so the commercial frenzy the world is in will die down a bit.

I will try to post a little more regularly if any one out there is still checking this.

Tick Tock

the clock is ticking on getting our house in shape to move in. We have to be out of our apartment on June 30th so that means the house needs to be as close to done as possible by then. That means we need: electric upstairs, insulation, walls, paint and floors, and bathroom done by then. Kind of overwhelming to say the least. Bright is stoked to be moving- he knows which room is his simply by overhearing us talk about it. He loves to go to the house while we are working on it and play in the sweet sandbox that Kevin and Kristy made for him with his favorite John Deere green paint.

The garden that we planted there is doing fine- corn (4 rows), beans, peas, carrots, basil, zucchini, strawberries and three kinds of tomatoes all seem to be surviving without a lot of constant TLC. This garden is not as big as the one we had in Eugene at the Matthews Garden plot which I think was 20x20. Ours is just 16x16 this year. Maybe next year we will expand it but the rototilling and sod pulling was enough for us this year.

We have finished most of the painting in the dining room and have been moving boxes everyday. A wayyyy easier move than from NY to Oregon, and Oregon back to NY. Now it's just 4 miles down the road. We will still have just one car, as that is all we can afford with just Andy working but I think we will be just fine. We can walk to the grocery store, library and church which are all a block or two from our house and when we need the car we can take Andy to work or he will ride his bike. Plus he has December through February off from teaching at his college so that will be better as well. I think once we are living in the house we will have enough things to keep us busy and play parks close by that we won't be looking for reasons to drive to Geneva for shopping just to have a change of pace.

No pictures of the house to show yet. Too busy when we are there either working or chasing after Bright to stop for that.
Here's pictures of Bright from a few weeks ago, though.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day! We had a great day here- chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, a sweet crown to wear and a nice card, followed by a shopping trip to Lowes. What more could I ask for?

It's been a long time since I last made a post. Here is an update. Bright's 2. Bright is two years, 2 months actually. He can count to 20, knows all of his letters and can tell you what most of them stand for (A is for apple, etc). He is a nonstop chatterbox with a bit of a stutter right now. His vocabulary is pretty diverse- he uses words like combine(the tractor), connect, trench, humus (for planting), mulch, plaster, actually, probably, if you... then... kinds of sentences. Seems a little advanced to me. I think the stutter comes from having so much to say and wanting to say it all at once now. Not much action on potty training and that is okay since we are still working on getting our house ready to move into- one less thing to have to worry about and focus on would be nice. We did swimming lessons at the college pool again and he loved it this time since he can actually stay in the water longer without getting cold and understands the directions now too. He is sleeping better and more independently- no longer do I have to hold his hand for almost an hour until he falls asleep. I can sit on his floor for a few minutes while he talks or sings and then slip out. Usually he calls me back in to cover him up or talk about his day but he is way better than before. Molars (2 year) are coming and he can be a bit touchy lately but overall he is happy and hilarious. He understands jokes and tries to tell his own. He is into pretend play as observed with him playing with his firetruck one day and saying" What are you doing firetruck? Oh, I'm just firing". He still goes to playgroups three times a week, but we haven't been consistent with storytime lately. He weighs 30lbs and was doing most of the 3 year old activities at his last checkup. That's all in a nutshell.

Say Good Bye to the Shaggy Mane

Bright's hair has been getting quite long and although we love the curls and the shagginess of it, it was getting in his eyes. So, I cut it. Here is the before...



Now here is the after... not my handiwork to be sure. My cut was bad. Uneven, mullet-esque. Just not good. So we took him to the barber shop, where he refused to take off his coat when he sat in the seat with me. We didn't even try to have him sit on his own. He held a truck in one hand, and my finger with his other while Cindy cut his hair. He wouldn't let her put a drape on us, so we both ended up looking like a shaggy dog from all of his hair. No tears from any of us- I've never gotten too excited about haircuts. Hair grows- if it's a bad cut, it'll look better soon enough. So here's what we left with, a much more grown-up looking boy. And yes, we will be growing this out. I miss the curls. Our curly locked ski bum, surfer boy, has been replaced by Corporate Man...
We went to look at a house today. Finally a promising one as far as we are concerned, maybe not to others. It sits right next to a gas station but has a lovely view of Seneca Lake. On the corner of Route 54 and Route 14. It is tall Victorian, blue paint, red shingles, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, hardwood floors, big kitchen and a parlor (what do you do in a parlor? put Andy's stuff there!) and some carpet, a decent basement, radiators instead of forced air which bothers my allergies too much, an acre of land with a barn in the backyard (doesn't sit on the land lines- just nice to look at) and an ancient garage/barn that does come with the land. The price cannot be beat. If the house passes the okay test with Mom and Dad, and probably Uncle Dave, then we'll make an offer on it. Too bad Mom and Dad are on vacation in Culebra...Only drawbacks as I see them, other than the gas station proximity (it's closed and for sale right now, and really we only get the back side of the building in our view) are the lathe and plaster walls and some ancient wallpaper. Keep your fingers crossed!

Christmas Past

I cannot get over how quickly the Christmas holiday snuck up on me this year. It seems like it was just Thanksgiving a few weeks ago and now it is New Years Day (Happy Birthday Shay!!- How did you get to be five years old already?!) We did lots of visiting with family from near and far, took Bright to Family Mass, which was mobbed but we survived it, and opened more presents than a family should ever get. I don't think we had too much snow on Christmas Day, definitely before it though and again yesterday and today. We need to buy a sled for Bright. He loved riding in the one at the Christmas Tree Farm, and Grammy and Grampy have one but we should have one here- if only we had the space for it... the house hunt continues at the speed of molasses. Plans for the new year include "Less"- less worry, less spending, less eating, less stress. Here are some pix from a present to Bright from Shay- his first doctor kit.

Bright, with the beaver- an unsuspecting victim.

The beaver having his teeth checked out. Looks good there. Next?

The beaver getting his nasal passages cleared out, just like when Bright was a baby. Strangely enough the beaver didn't put up much of a fight, unlike Bright....

"Poor beaver, got a sick bug. Need some medicine.", said by Dr. Bright as he administered multiple doses of tyle-ies, as he calls it.

Getting out a sliver...


An unknown procedure here...

Followed by a blood pressure check. A-ok!


The beaver survived to tell the tale, watch out Baptism Bear. I hear you're next!

So busy

We have been really busy lately and keeping up with the blog has been a low priority. But here are some pictures of things we have been doing. Bright's speech is amazing- he can count up to 14 on his own, knows groups of letters for the ABC song, knows all of his colors, can sing jingle bells on his own, and also loves to sing the 5 Little Pumpkins song. He says Amen at the end of grace at dinner time, likes opening up his advent calendar, goes to 2 story times each week, Stretch 'N Grow, and Together Time, too. We are always doing something.
Bright's first gingerbread house, made out of Graham Crackers,

snugglin'

A cozy spot.



Finger painting in the tub.

Bright and Momma in his closet nest.


Cozy closet nest time.

steamroller

Our days are filled with endless movement, hollering and banging lately. Bright plays out his role as Bob the Builder to a T and is hard to redirect when I cannot take the constant hammering and sawing that goes along with his play. He is also having great fun exploring his vocal capacity and I am thankful that most of the other tenants here are either at work during the day or are retired and semi-hard of hearing, or just don't care about his yeowling. He loves to ask us "Howyadoin" and "whatyadoin", as well as saying "Hey dude." He gets a bit fixated on a theme centered on an exciting event of the day or days ago and will chit chat on and on about it. Thankfully though he has taken to playing a new game of hiding where he lays down and asks to be covered up with a blanket. He lays still and whispers "Hiding". He will stay that way for an increasing longer amount of time these days. My sweet silence!

We, or I, continue the house hunt. It seems so hard to raise a boy in an apartment. Boys seem to be so rowdy or full of life. I hate to keep hushing him. I also would like him to sleep later than 6am but the heavy walkers upstairs are up and at 'em at the crack of dawn every blessed day. So keep us in your prayers that there is some little dump house out there with our name on it.... Preferably in the Town of Jerusalem and with low taxes :)

Here's some pictures.