August 2013

I don't know if you'd call it "nesting" or not, but this month has definitely been filled with a wide range of preparations - getting ready to close this chapter of life and begin the next one. 

Charlie spent quite a bit of time the first week of the month finishing Bruce's shelving unit for his new room - and it is awesome!  We went back and forth so much on what kind of furniture to put in Bruce's "big boy" room, and we were just about to settle for buying a much smaller (but biggest one they offered) cube storage system from IKEA.  I'm so glad Charlie decided to go with this plan though because it offers so much more storage... which we desperately need in this house! 

just think... where was all this stuff
before we had this?

Charlie made another trip to China for two-ish weeks, and this time I think he had a much better time.  Not only was the work load a little lighter this go around, but they managed to find some time to do a few touristy things as well.

At the Great Wall

While he was gone I tried to make some major progress putting together the odds and ends of Bruce's room.  I organized all his toys, getting all but a few out of the living room, made a curtain valance and bed pillow to match the blanket Charlie's mom made, and hung some of the things on the walls.  I also managed to paint the walls, which is much harder to do with a basketball for a belly that was constantly bumping the wall.  Bruce said he wanted orange and dark blue, so that's what we went with, and I think it turned out pretty fun and not too dark. 

When Charlie got back from his trip, he found an antique wardrobe on Craig's List that we decided to get for Bruce.  Maybe Charlie will build a different one for him later, but we felt like we were starting to run out of time, and think this was a good solution.  It took a little effort to get the calamine lotion/old man smell it came with to go away, but other than that, I think it's perfect. 

There are a few tasks still on the "to do" list before the room is completely done, but it's come a long way from where we started!  Bruce spent one night in his toddler bed, which went wonderfully, but has been terrified to sleep in it since.  So, we set up the pack-n-play in his room, and he can choose which bed he wants to sleep in for now.  We'll start transitioning him to the bed soon hopefully, but don't really feel a need to force the issue yet. 

Which means.... he's done with the nursery!  Over the next couple of weeks we'll work on making that room Abigail's, and will post pictures of the little lady's space next month - along with pictures of the little lady herself.  I can't believe it's already that close!   

Along with working on the two kid rooms, Charlie and I have also gone through every closet, box of "sundries," nook, cranny - even under our bed... and have reorganized and purged so much stuff.  Don't get me wrong, we still have tons of stuff squirreled away, but we can breathe a little easier now, and I think we gained several square feet of floor space in the process, along with some room to grow in the closets. 

Probably the biggest highlight of the month though, was Bruce turning two years old!  It's amazing to think how quickly these two years flew by.  Bruce wanted to have a "drum party" to celebrate the big day, so that's what we planned for, and I think Bruce talked about it every single day of August leading up to last Saturday.  I think he was just a little bit excited about it. 

For his actual birthday, we celebrated with a pancake breakfast and a pizza lunch at Sam's.  Since we couldn't install an oil pump jack in the backyard (his favorite thing ever right now) we settled for getting him the next best thing for a birthday present - his very own miniature vacuum cleaner.  If you've spent much time at all with Bruce, you'll know how much this guy loves vacuums.  He asks to see people's vacuums when we're at their houses, he always wants to walk down the vacuum aisle in stores again and again and again, and he's determined to push mine around our house no matter how frustrating it is for him.  I think it was a big hit.

 

But even better than his own vacuum cleaner, I think Bruce's favorite gift of all was the Drum Party itself.  It pays off to stay connected with my "teacher friends" at the elementary school I used to work at, and the awesome music teachers there let me borrow a van load of various drums to let all the Littles bang on at the party.  It was pretty chaotic and incredibly loud - Bruce was in heaven. 

We had a few friends from church come over with their kids who are Bruce's "friends" these days, and Charlie's mom was able to drive down to join the party, too.  The biggest surprise of all for me though, was that two very great friends from high school even came to celebrate with us.  All three of us had boys within a year of each other, and we think it would be great fun if they grew up to be friends, too.  Leslie and her son, Liam, flew in from St. Louis for the weekend, and Nathan and his son, Caleb, drove up from Dallas for the day.  It was great to see them and catch up a bit while refereeing the tots - trying to get them to play in the same room with each other and actually share toys...  Loved every minute of it.   

 

Can you tell which one's which?

 

The rest of the month has been filled with keeping up with tomatoes, peppers, and okra from the garden, increasing doctor's appointments, and watching Bruce grow up before our very eyes. 

I've made oodles of fresh pico de gallo, bruschetta, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and chili, along with multiple batches of pepper jelly and pickled okra - and every day we go and pick another big bowl full.  We're going to attempt to plant some Fall veggies this week... call us crazy, but we really do enjoy the hobby.  Maybe I'll even get around to selling some of my pepper jelly again this year, too.  Any takers?





A "fun" surprise in the chicken house



Ever the excitement around here...





I've had a little more time on my hands this month because I quit both of my part time jobs.  I'll still help out with the kids stuff at church, but I'm not writing the curriculum anymore.  Also, last week was my last week to help my attorney friend with her advertising mail outs.  I've really enjoyed both of those roles, but it's really nice to have Bruce's nap time to get other things done.  (For another couple of weeks, anyway!)

Abigail continues to check out just fine every week at the doctor, with no worries or concerns on the horizon.  Bruce had his two year check up this week, and was "perfect" according to the doctor's standards (even though she probably tells all parents that).  At a quarter of an inch shy of three feet tall, he's meeting all of the benchmarks for development and still is talking about the candy the doctor gave him after his blood work. 

 

Bruce has gotten to the point where he'd rather stay at home and play all day instead of run errands with me to pass the time.  And actually, I really don't mind.  It isn't so hard these days to play with him for hours on end without it feeling so redundant and monotonous.  He loves playing in his new room - I think because of all the table space at his eye level.  It's strange to think that such a small change would make a big difference, but it really has.  He spends a lot of his time playing with his tractors, construction trucks, or trains on the tables - with lots of breaks in between to push a shopping cart, stroller, or the vacuum around the house.  We get outside when we can, but thanks to the "heat dome," as the weather folks call it, we're mostly limited to morning walks around the block and evening backyard shenanigans.

 

I guess it's fairly indicative of our summer when Bruce drives
his car up to these two windows and says, "Work Lady give
you ice cream."  Gotta love Sonic...

Bruce also has taken on multiple personas this month, and pretends to "be" different people all the time.  Sometimes he's different family members, like Grandpa.  Sometimes he's different friends, like Jon who plays the drums for our church.  Sometimes he's different animals or imaginary things, like the Booger Man (a farm myth from Charlie's childhood that's funny, not scary) or a Pacheetah (we still don't know what that one is...).  We especially like it though when he's community members, like "Work Lady," who surfaces frequently while completing various tasks.

The next big role that he's going to be playing soon though, is Big Brother.  And even though we haven't talked about it too much with him, I'm still optimistic that the transition will be great.  He gets a little possessive of his toys when friends come to play, but it'll be awhile before we have to worry about Abby trying to take his things away.  He really likes having attention, but I think he'll like having Abby join in on the fun as best she can, and will hopefully understand when he needs to be more independent so I can tend to the baby.  And he really likes "helping" when he's playing with his baby doll.  The other morning he was being so sweet, making her "do" all the things he was doing, narrating the whole time, "She jump on rocks," "She hold puzzle," "Help her eat ice cream."  Until we got to this activity where, "She eat bugs" by the front door.  (In all fairness, bugs do tend to accumulate there...)

All in all, I think he'll be a fantastic Big Brother/Work Lady/Pacheetah, and I'm looking forward to this next season.

July 2013

Mornings spent outside

Bled into July sunsets

Enjoying the warmth 

We started off the month with a visit from the grandparents!  My mom and Rick came up from Texas for a few days, and they picked the perfect week to come - we had really pleasant weather and had a lot of fun together!

There were a few planned activities, like showing off our library and Story Time, going to the Natural History Museum for Free First Monday, and our traditional pilgrimage to the local airport to eat breakfast at Ozzie's Diner.  We had a great time with all the little things too though, like Sonic ice cream treats, shopping for Baby Abby, and splashing around in the kiddie pool.

craning to see the planes out the window

first cup of coffee at Ozzie's!

watching planes take off

Bruce loved his time with Papa and Grandma, but all good things must come to an end and they headed home on Thursday morning.  We said goodbye and then headed back to Kansas for another weekend at the wheat farm.

Charlie drove combines, I helped Yvonne with food for the fellas, and Bruce inspected, worked on and test drove every. single. truck. on. the. whole. entire. farm.  And with our powers combined, we helped to wrap up this season's wheat harvest!  

helping with maintenance work

playing in the wheat truck

"hugging" the wheat...

Charlie didn't have to travel the first three weeks of this month, which was awesome!  He did go to Colorado last week and is in Kansas City this week, but we'll be thankful that that was all!  He was able to finish the bathroom, and it looks amazing!  And now, after spending last weekend doing a major cleaning overhaul in the garage - transitioning from bathroom remodeling work stations back to his normal wood shop - he's started working on some new furniture for Bruce's "Big Boy" room.  Currently he's working on a full-wall storage shelf system to help us manage Bruce's ever-growing collection of toys and books and odds and ends, and next on the list is clothes wardrobe.  On top of all that, he still managed to squeeze in lots of guy time with the little man!  The highlight of the month was probably the trip to the motorcycle store though, with the bonus surprise of an antique car show in the parking lot.  Once again, Bruce's adorable face and irresistible personality granted him special privileges and full access to "drive" two super-classy cars worth half a million dollars.  Bruce was in heaven!



Bruce driving the Packard

 

I've been busying myself with a lot of random little projects while Bruce sleeps, like trying to go through closets and whatnot to reorganize our stuff to make room for more stuff, and get rid of the stuff that just can't get crammed anywhere else.  I've also been trying to keep up with the garden as best I can!  I've given up on weeding, and have just been focusing on collecting all the veggies every day and trying to use them or preserve them before they go bad.  We have tomatoes galore, along with quite a few peppers, zucchini, eggplants and okras.  I've been fairly successful, but have still had to toss some to the compost...

"hiding" in the okra

Bruce, at one month shy of two years old, continues to amaze us daily.  He is talking up a storm lately, even with some complete sentences now - and his vocabulary blows me away!  It's a lot of fun talking with him throughout the day to see what goes on in that mind of his - and sometimes it can be so surprising what he's thinking about!  A lot of his curious mind trails come out when he asks us to sing songs about things.  That's one of his favorite things to do right now - usually in the car or before bedtime.  He'll ask us to sing songs about vacuum cleaners or trees or oil pumps, and I've even sang a multi-versed song about the AT&T repair technician per his request.  I have a couple of go-to tunes that just about any lyrics can be sung to, and we've composed a slew of ridiculous songs this month - I wish I had recorded them all!

We weren't planning on delving into the world of potty training until after Christmas, but Bruce has been really interested in all things toilet related.  Just out of curiosity, recently I asked him if he wanted to try to sit on the toilet, and he was all for it.  So we're letting him do what he's enthusiastic about, with no pressure, time lines or goals in mind - and so far it's been great!

Bruce is incredibly excited about his new "Big Boy" room too, which makes us hopeful that the switch will go smoothly when it's time.  The original plan was to move him after his birthday next month, but I caught him trying to climb out of the crib last week, so now I think we'll move him as soon as the room is ready (hopefully by next week).  We bought a little toddler bed off of Craig's List and he insists we do all of our pre-bedtime reading sitting on it.  I'm terrified of "unleashing the beast" at night, and have no idea how hard it will be to keep him in his bed, but it's a milestone we have to reach one day or another, and I think we're at that point.

We're trying to create some fun and engaging play space in Bruce's new room to help alleviate the congestion of toys that end up accumulating in the living room.  We're hoping the tiny bed and the floor-to-ceiling shelves will help give him some actual space of his own - and I think he already loves what we've started preparing for him.

this will be the bottom cabinet/play table under the shelves

Once we get Bruce moved into the new room, we'll start making the nursery a little more girly.  We have no plans of doing anything drastic, just exchanging some of the melons, aquas, and blues for some pinks, fuschias, and purples.  I think there's a balance we need to find between making enough changes for Bruce to know it's going to be Abigail's room now, without making it feel like he's losing his place.

Overall, I think Bruce is excited about Abigail's impending arrival.  He's crazy about babies, points out the hospital when we drive by reminding me that that's where "Abby be born," and enjoys picking out things at the store for Abigail.  Despite the fact that Bruce asks for "Abby come out" on a daily basis, I feel pretty content in letting her incubate for another two months!  Health-wise we're both doing great still, and although my energy level is starting to decline, life is still really manageable.  I don't feel like I have an enormous baby bump yet, but I leave people shocked when I tell them my end-of-September due date, and Bruce tells me all the time to "close Abby" whenever my belly starts to come uncovered a bit...  Needless to say, I'm curious as to what the next two months will bring as Abigail continues to grow and we continue to get ready to bring our sweet baby girl home from the hospital.

Another highlight of the month was a trip to the OKC zoo!  Bruce had been begging to see a peacock (we heard them squealing when we were at the wheat farm, but never could see them) so we planned a trip on "free day" and Granny K was even available to join us there.  We weren't able to stay a really long time, but we were able to see a few peacocks, the giant Galapagos tortoises (another favorite lately), a dancing elephant, a few chimps, and several other animals.  We all had a great time, and Bruce still refers to himself as "monkey" when he's narrating his day...

And man, we love this monkey.