Back to "normal"

Well, this was our first week of "normal" in a while. We've had over a month of visitors, moving, etc and this was the first daddy goes to work, mommy and the kiddies stay home week we've had in quite some time.

I forgot about those.

We all stayed very busy. Mike worked his little tail off and got a 94% on his first test. He carpooled a couple of days this week with a friend who lives a couple of miles from here so we had a car 2 days this week which was NICE. The kids missed daddy but I think they are enjoying themselves here with mommy....most of the time.

We made some paper pumpkins, ran around outside, sang "going to the zoo" a LOT, collected sticks from outside and made trees today, organized lots of closets and rooms, watched 100's of airplanes coming in for landings at Norfolk International Airport. I have never seen a toddler with such a zeal for flying objects. Oh my goodness. Did I jinx myself when I told him he could be anything except a pilot? (worrying about one flying man in my life is enough thank you very much) This kid is OBSESSED with planes. We have a nice charcoal print of the three aircraft Mike has/will fly hanging in our house and he must point it out to me and say "tockter" 200 times a day. I thought I would get him a nice helicopter sheet/quilt for Christmas....of course they are impossible to find. Come on, Pottery Barn Kids! Help a mommy out. Andrew is just exploding with new cognitive talents including following all the actions when we sing songs and pointing out all the characters in his books. I think he is all of a sudden afraid of the dark, or aware he is alone in his room when he goes to bed. I've had to stand next to his bed a couple of times while he falls asleep. This wasn't so bad except once it was at 1:30 in the morning and frankly there are other things I'd rather be doing at 1:30 in the morning....hopefully he grows out of it quick. I let him fall asleep with the closet light on tonight, but he still cried. Maybe I should let him stay up later and he's crying because he's still got energy? I don't know....toddlers are little mysteries if you ask me.
Emma has really taken a liking to all the art we did this week. She did loads of play-doh, painting, painting with water (she finished that book you brought her, Rae), coloring, gluing and stickers. I am having a hard time remembering what she was doing when she didn't spend so much time on the kitchen floor doing art projects. Which reminds me....I really need to find a little plastic table/chairs set for my kiddies. Anyone have one they love/hate? I'm hoping to find one at a yard sale or on Craigslist, but I still would like to know which ones are worth my money. And, it is with a tiny bit of glee that I can report we are slowly moving OUT of the Wonder Pets phase for a little bit. She still loves to act out Wonder Pets episodes with her little Wonder Pets and animals but she isn't so interested in watching them anymore. I'm not all that upset about it. I was going a little crazy with it myself. 40 minutes a day of Wonder Pets is just too much sometimes. What have we moved on to? Little Einsteins. Oh yes, fabulous, wonderful, entertaining Little Einsteins. I like them. The premises of the episodes are pretty weird, but what kids show isn't when you think about it? (Dora with her Monkey friend and talking map, Diego with his weird rescue pack that can turn into anything, Wonder Pets who fly in a boat thing which can reach any location on the globe in about 14 seconds, and our other favorite Maisy Mouse who is best friends with a crocodile and elephant-very unnatural for a mouse!) Emma is desperate for a new Little Einsteins DVD but I'm making her wait for her birthday. I'm not sure which one to get so if anyone has a Little Einsteins lover out there, let me know what the good ones are. We also discovered the AWESOME library this week. Florida's libraries left much to be desired even the "good" library wasn't great. This library is GREAT. Emma came home with about 7 Spot books, another one called "Happy Birthday Monster" and a Frosty the Snowman DVD which she was so excited to check out but has refused to watch. Oh well. I guess the idea was exciting. The library is only 1.5 miles away and close is good for us.

We've been hanging pictures and trying to make this place home and I think it is. The above picture is of my favorite wall in the house so far. The collage with Andrew isn't straight and needs to be fixed. The letter on the wall are vinyl and are SO awesome. You can order them to say ANYTHING you want, although the catalog has some great ideas. Plus, they make those of us who aren't so crafty feel VERY talented. You can click on the picture to make it bigger to see the words better but they say "From small beginnings come great things" which I think is especially valid hanging between collages of my 2 lb 8 oz and 2 lb 9 oz babies. Love that wall. Love those babies. Here's a link to the vinyl if anyone wants to look at them