There are stories to tell and pictures to upload. But for now, you'll have to settle for the knowledge that this morning in the car Lyla asked me when we can have Madison's birthday party. That's how much she loved the day.
Oh, and that bathroom we'd been working on? It was finished two days before the party. Perfection.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
3 years
The first words I said to her were, "Nice to meet you." Yeah, you try being sweet after 36 hours of craziness.
The first year saw little sleep and lots of changes.
The second year brought big changes: a house, a sister, a big girl bed, potty training, and learning to express herself.
There are so many things I don't want to forget about this age. Sometimes, I like to sit and watch Lyla figure things out. I'm pretty sure 3 is going to be about making sense of it all.
Lyla is such a great big sister, teaching Madison to be loving and to be strong. Lyla teaches every day, today she taught Madison the proper thumb sucking technique.
Lyla will always be our spirited one, the one who requires us to really think through our parenting. She challenges us and makes us look at the world in different ways. Even in the toughest moments though, she's teaching. Teaching us what patience, love, and acceptance mean. She constantly reminds us to listen to her and what I think she's saying but can't really express yet is that she yearns for us to really hear her. Lyla does nothing at less than 100% and I admire that about her. My friend Sarah had a tough day a couple of weeks ago and Lyla suggested we make her some jello and put it in the mail. She loves with all her heart. I'm so proud of who is and can't wait to see who she becomes.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYLA!!!!!!!
Monday, March 19, 2012
the saga of the bathroom, part 1
Before you get worried, this post has nothing to do with bodily functions.
If you've been to our house then you know our downstairs bathroom has never worked. If you've never been to our house then let me assure you our downstairs bathroom has never worked. Truth be told it didn't work when we had the house inspected, the previous owner had it fixed, and then it worked for about a minute before the toilet started flooding again. We knew we were going to redo the bathroom at some point so we basically closed it and ignored it, the bathroom. Not any flooding. That would be gross.
This would be a great place for before pictures. However, I hated that bathroom so much I never took a single of the space. Imagine the ugliest room possible, complete with peach sink and toilet and white and peach wallpaper.
About a month ago Emilio and I decided it was time to remodel that bathroom and get it in working order. Well, maybe we decided a bit more than a month ago but you get the idea. We started searching around for materials and I found a website with mega deals on claw foot tubs. We had our start date set. The plan was to replace all of the plumbing with copper, lower the floor in the bathroom a tad (as a way to protect the hardwood), dig out the old plumbing to figure out why the toilet was flooding, then replace everything inside the bathroom and make it a place I could love.
The demo went well, as demo usually does. The digging out of the pipes went...interestingly. The workers kept digging and digging and couldn't find the tree roots we were sure were the cause of the problem. There were a few days where we had a seven foot deep trench in our front yard.
Just imagine I took a picture of the trench and inserted it here.
The pipes were dug all the way out to the property line where a pipe that was probably as old as our house was discovered to have collapsed and was filled with dirt.
Again, imagine a pic of the collapsed pipe.
Finally, the pipes had been dug out and replace and the work inside the house could begin.
Stay tuned for part two, I know it's soooooo exciting to read!
(Insert sarcastic face here)
If you've been to our house then you know our downstairs bathroom has never worked. If you've never been to our house then let me assure you our downstairs bathroom has never worked. Truth be told it didn't work when we had the house inspected, the previous owner had it fixed, and then it worked for about a minute before the toilet started flooding again. We knew we were going to redo the bathroom at some point so we basically closed it and ignored it, the bathroom. Not any flooding. That would be gross.
This would be a great place for before pictures. However, I hated that bathroom so much I never took a single of the space. Imagine the ugliest room possible, complete with peach sink and toilet and white and peach wallpaper.
About a month ago Emilio and I decided it was time to remodel that bathroom and get it in working order. Well, maybe we decided a bit more than a month ago but you get the idea. We started searching around for materials and I found a website with mega deals on claw foot tubs. We had our start date set. The plan was to replace all of the plumbing with copper, lower the floor in the bathroom a tad (as a way to protect the hardwood), dig out the old plumbing to figure out why the toilet was flooding, then replace everything inside the bathroom and make it a place I could love.
The demo went well, as demo usually does. The digging out of the pipes went...interestingly. The workers kept digging and digging and couldn't find the tree roots we were sure were the cause of the problem. There were a few days where we had a seven foot deep trench in our front yard.
Just imagine I took a picture of the trench and inserted it here.
The pipes were dug all the way out to the property line where a pipe that was probably as old as our house was discovered to have collapsed and was filled with dirt.
Again, imagine a pic of the collapsed pipe.
Finally, the pipes had been dug out and replace and the work inside the house could begin.
Stay tuned for part two, I know it's soooooo exciting to read!
(Insert sarcastic face here)
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
it's just one of those days
Anyone remember the song? Anyone?
What happens when both of your kids wake at 5am? What happens when the aforementioned children wake up cranky?
What happens when you drive to work in slippers and realize after dropping your kids off you don't have work shoes? What happens when returning home for shoes makes you arrive to work 25 minutes later than normal? What happens when you're already running late and leave your phone in the car?
What happens when your lesson gets hijacked because students have to vote for cutest smile and best dressed and that has to happen in their history class?
What happens????
A conference period spent sipping coffee, streaming a movie, that's what happens.
What happens when both of your kids wake at 5am? What happens when the aforementioned children wake up cranky?
What happens when you drive to work in slippers and realize after dropping your kids off you don't have work shoes? What happens when returning home for shoes makes you arrive to work 25 minutes later than normal? What happens when you're already running late and leave your phone in the car?
What happens when your lesson gets hijacked because students have to vote for cutest smile and best dressed and that has to happen in their history class?
What happens????
A conference period spent sipping coffee, streaming a movie, that's what happens.
Monday, March 12, 2012
BEWARE!!
Any child who is this good at hiding at the tender age of 19 months is not to be trusted.
After looking for some heart stopping moments I found Madison only after she started giggling because I couldn't find her.
If you've never been to our house here's some random pics to show you how random her hiding spot was:
Do you see the highchair?
Madison literally found a small space and stayed until I found her. We weren't playing hide and seek, she just decided to hide.
She may be the reason I finally warm up to those leash backpacks parents use.
...
...
Naaaah, I still think they're silly. But homechick will always be required to be in my line of vision when we're in public.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Dear Lyla and Madison,
Sometimes, too often actually, I get caught up in the day to day management of being a parent.
Sometimes, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not as patient as I should be.
Sometimes, I long for a kind of quiet that is impossible with a three year old and a one and a half year old.
I'll be honest and admit that there I days I just want to take a nap or drink my coffee in silence.
BUT
The management of parenting is parenting and if we were always having fun I wouldn't be doing my job.
Sometimes, you don't notice that I sneak out of the room to watch you when you think you're alone.
Today, when I watched I saw Lyla help Madison into her rocking chair. Then you, Lyla, went and got her a book and read it to her. Madison, you smiled, and kissed your sister as a thank you.
Always. I will always try to remember this time, the easy, the hard, and everything in between.
Always.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
it seems so long ago
Presented in black and white to hide how tired I look.
Monday, March 5, 2012
In which I disucss my right to birth control not being equal to a man's right to an erection
Also known as, "that time when I upset people by blogging about politics."
I've tried to stay out of the whole birth control/health care/religion debate. Mainly because I feel that what you choose to do or not do about birth control is your business. I could see why religious institutions didn't want to pay for birth control and I could see why people thought the whole thing was ridiculous.
That is, until I read that these same religious institutions will be covering erectile dysfunction medication.
Huh.
So, a man has the right to have sex even if his body is no longer capable but a woman does not have the right to prevent this sexual encounter from causing a pregnancy?
Let's run through this, shall we?
The same people in Congress who are pushing back against President Obama are also the very people who oppose my right to choose and me getting welfare benefits. Okay then. My employer shouldn't be forced to pay for medication that can prevent me from getting pregnant so if I have sex and get pregnant I then shouldn't have a choice over what to do even if I can't afford to feed another baby AND they'll be no social assistance to help me out with the kid. I wonder if these members of Congress would be up for mandatory adoptions for women or families who can't afford children or aren't in a place to have children.
Some may say they shouldn't be having sex in the first place if they don't want kids. Perhaps. Perhaps we could also apply that same argument to married couples who are done having children. If a man and a woman are done having kids then should they cease having sex because an employer refuses to pay for birth control? I wonder what those men (most of them older) would say if I asked them if they stopped having sex when they stopped having babies.
Probably not, seeing as they have no problem including Viagra in prescription drug protection.
I've tried to stay out of the whole birth control/health care/religion debate. Mainly because I feel that what you choose to do or not do about birth control is your business. I could see why religious institutions didn't want to pay for birth control and I could see why people thought the whole thing was ridiculous.
That is, until I read that these same religious institutions will be covering erectile dysfunction medication.
Huh.
So, a man has the right to have sex even if his body is no longer capable but a woman does not have the right to prevent this sexual encounter from causing a pregnancy?
Let's run through this, shall we?
The same people in Congress who are pushing back against President Obama are also the very people who oppose my right to choose and me getting welfare benefits. Okay then. My employer shouldn't be forced to pay for medication that can prevent me from getting pregnant so if I have sex and get pregnant I then shouldn't have a choice over what to do even if I can't afford to feed another baby AND they'll be no social assistance to help me out with the kid. I wonder if these members of Congress would be up for mandatory adoptions for women or families who can't afford children or aren't in a place to have children.
Some may say they shouldn't be having sex in the first place if they don't want kids. Perhaps. Perhaps we could also apply that same argument to married couples who are done having children. If a man and a woman are done having kids then should they cease having sex because an employer refuses to pay for birth control? I wonder what those men (most of them older) would say if I asked them if they stopped having sex when they stopped having babies.
Probably not, seeing as they have no problem including Viagra in prescription drug protection.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
