27 April 2013

My Cute Boy





My Kids

Both my chilluns are having birthdays soon.  Molly will be 3 and Jack will be 1.  I was reading back on my blog about what was going on when Molly was almost 1 and I have not done a very good job documenting Jack like I did with Molly.  Here are some updates:

Jack

  • Walking all over the place.  Very bow-legged.  Refuses to wear shoes.  This morning James put shoes on him and he literally sat on the floor and sobbed.  He wouldn't even get up.  He acts as is shoes are the curse of the world.  Needless to say, he doesn't wear shoes at school and usually ends up walking around bare-footed (which I'm not thrilled about because dirty feet are yucky).  This weekend I am going to see if I can at least find him some of those gripper-sock-shoe things (or some shoes that he'll walk in).
  • Picks up anything that looks like a phone and puts it to his ear, saying something that resemble "Hello."
  • Makes sounds resembling a monkey and lion.  Molly and I have been trying very hard to get him to do these animals on queue and he is getting better.
  • He can say Uh-oh, Mama, Dada, and bye-bye . . . . though he doesn't always say them when he is supposed to.
  • Throws a ball pretty well already and with the early walking maybe it is a sign of some athletic ability (since his sister is a bit of a clod like her parents).
  • Loves to eat, especially bread, cheese, baby oatmeal, and mini chocolate chips (dessert!). Loves to drink out of a sippy cup.  Loves to lick butter off a saltine cracker.  Doesn't like Fruit Loops or mashed potatoes.
  • Loves his sister.  Follows her around.  Giggles at her in the car.  Screams when she screams.
  • He has already learned how to torment his drama queen sister.  If he catches her on the floor, he'll pull her hair, let go, pull it, let go, until mom intervenes.  Molly screams.  It's kind of funny.  Also, the other night in the bathtub, he went to pull up on the shower knob thing to change the water from the spout to the shower and Molly freaked.  He laughed.  Although he really couldn't pull it up, he kept putting his hand toward it just to get a reaction from her.  
  • He loves to be outside.  Most afternoons when I pick him up from school, he is outside playing with the big kids (supervised, of course).  He loves to sit in the wood chips and just walk around (without shoes on, also of course).  Tonight while we were spreading dirt, he had a lot of fun wandering outside and just sitting in the dirt.  He was pretty gross and needed a bath when we were finished.


Molly

  • She is afraid of all "ladybugs" which is a universal word for any type of insect or spider.  The other day she was playing on the stairs and freaked out because there was a lady bug.  I couldn't see a bug anywhere.  I had no idea what she was talking about, but after several minutes of her freaking out and me searching, I found a microscopic web and spider in between the wall and the bottom step.  I killed it with a Klenex but she refused to go back downstairs.
  • She loves to talk on her play phones.  She calls both sets of grandparents.  She calls Uncle Willie.  She calls all her teachers at school.  It is pretty funny. Conversations go something like this, "Hi Grandpa Binggeli . . . . you come to my house . . . ya Jack is by me in the car . . . ok bye."
  • On Thursday she went on a field trip to Wheeler Farm.  In the car on the way home she told me all about the cock-a-doodle-chickens chasing her, the pigs not wanting to come out, she didn't get to throw bread at the ducks, and a few other things.  I tried to get her to tell me about her field trip on the camera, but of course, she wouldn't cooperate.

  • She can recognize all 26 capital letters and actually does a pretty good job at drawing some of them.  When we go to a store, I tell her the name of the store and to look for what letter it starts with and she is pretty good at picking out the signs.  She can count to thirty by herself, but doesn't recognize any written numbers and really doesn't understand how to count.  She knows how many "just 1" is, but anything more than 1 can be 2, 6, 10, whatever.  She is getting a little better, though.  That will be one of our summer projects.
  • She learned about "photosynthesis" at school the other day and was pretty funny telling about the trees and the sun and the ground, etc., but when I tried to get her to do it on camera, she of course did not cooperate.
  • She LOVES to sing and can pick out the words on almost every song on the "Molly Playlist" on our ipod.  It is really cute.  

This Crazy Life

Everything is so busy lately.

When we got back from Disneyland we found out our renters had bailed on us. We inquired about April's rent and got a response that said he moved out.  Great . . . .

It could have been worse.  Other than dog smell, a small hole in the wall of one closet, and just needing a really good cleaning, it wasn't in bad shape.  However, that didn't mean we were ready to spend the time necessary to get it back in order.  There wasn't really an option, though, we had to get it ready and rented out again.  The worst part is that is simply takes lots of time.  James and I each took turns going and the other staying home with the kids.  Also, each of our parents took turns tending.  There were just lots of little things and it took us a good two weeks to get it back in rentable order.

We had a lot of interest in it and several good applicants.  Hopefully we chose wisely and everything works out ok (fingers quadruple crossed).  The new family moved in last weekend.

We contacted a realtor in our ward to see about selling it, but after looking at the comps he gave us, we are still way too much upside down in the thing.  We'd love to sell it, but will continue being landlords until that time comes around (hopefully in less than 50 years from now).

******

James has been taking a class to become a lymphedema expert.  You can google that if you'd like, but it is basically extreme extremity swelling.  The class has been all day Friday and Saturday for the last couple of weeks.  He took the test today, passed, and can now add CLT (Certified Lymphedema Therapist) to the end of his name.

******

Our lawn is very healthy and green.  James has already mowed it twice.  We have the greenest lawn in our circle and are the only ones who haven't started watering yet (I don't know why any of them are watering after all the snow and rain the grass has had, but oh well).

We got a load of dirt (mulch and top soil mix) delivered today and have been busy spreading it around the yard.  Last year we never did get to the flower beds around our house and the hard, rocky dirt is 1) not plantable and 2) way below the level of the curbing and just needs to be raised up.  Hopefully I we can finish it tomorrow and maybe get a few flowers planted (and then keep adding to it).  I think James is also planning on planting some stuff in the garden.

Also, in yard news, my pretty tulips from last year are just . . . somethings wrong with them this year.  Out of 30+ plants, I only have blossoms on maybe a dozen.  I don't know if they froze or what, but they only have leaves and no stems.  It is really weird.  I just piled the dirt over top of most of them today.

******

That's it for now.

24 April 2013

Redecorating

I don't have a lot of home-decorating skills and certain walls in my house are very boring.  I found a Groupon for "Wall Pops" and I bought these things.  I have more (different styles and colors) and I'm going to put them in a few other places.  It's not much, but I like them (even if James called them Christmas ornaments . . .  they are lanterns!).


We also have a back fence now, but I didn't take a picture.  Our backyard neighbor did all the leg work of getting bids and hiring people.  We just had to pay our half.  It was pretty nice.  We now only need a fence on one more side.  We haven't decided yet if it is a priority or not this summer.  We shall see.

Next, we are getting a load of dirt to fill in our flower beds that never really saw any planting last summer.  We will also fill in the garden and some other low spots.  Thank goodness for slightly warmer weather .  . . finally!