Belated Easter

I'm a little slow (no comments from the peanut gallery, either).

Here's some pictures of the kiddos:





As you can see from the boxes and wires dangling from the ceiling, we are still getting moved in ~ but we are rapidly approaching "the new normal". The master bedroom and laundry room are the last big hold-outs.

Chewing....Again....

For those of you with me from the beginning of this blogging adventure, you will recall that A had some OCD issues with chewing on objects. He pretty much stopped that about a year ago, it's been months since we've had any problems.

However, with the move, this behavior has re-emerged with a vengeance. He still prefers rubbery substances, but instead of his rubber fish bath toy, he has graduated to a finer palate: daddy's fishing lures (without hooks, thank God) and a foam bathtub toy that sticks to the side of the tub when it's wet.

Here's a yellow "worm" that is unscathed, as a "before" picture, and an orange "worm" that suffered a much crueler fate than being gummed by a fish. And, most of the starfish tub toy. I can't find all the bits that came off the ends, so that means they either went down the drain in the bathtub, or down A's throat. What goes in must come out, and the pieces are small enough I don't think they'll cause any issues in the output department. But we'll be watching closely, just in case....every day is truly an adventure! You never know what is going to happen.



I suspect the change in routine is part of the problem, and sheer boredom is another part. He's still not in school, they have not even had his IEP meeting in the new county yet. We moved 40 miles, in the same state. But we wait, mostly patiently, because we are blessed to have special-ed pre-K services at all. And every time A sees a school bus pass by our front windows, he gets agitated. He wants to go, too!

Two ~ and Froggy

Our little Miss K turned two on Saturday ~ but we didn't celebrate until Sunday after church. She has recently discovered a penchant for frogs, and so a lot of her presents from family and friends were amphibian-related. The Dr. Seuss books and art materials aren't directly related, but she got enough stuff that was:

She got a ginormous stuffed frog that's bigger than she is which she enjoys jumping onto, spread-eagled (Hilarious to watch), a towel for the bath/pool covered in the green hoppers, and a pair of rain boots and a bucket hat with still more frogs. These items, in addition to the three stuffed frogs and frog blanket she already owned, make for a very green statement throughout the house.

I realized after the wrapping paper removal frenzy that all I did was shoot video throughout the cake and everything, so I'm going to have to try to capture some still shots from her actual celebration. These shots are from this morning. Apparently it's the couture thing among the two-year-old set to wear rain boots over your footed jammies:

Trading Places

A has done really well with the move...surprisingly so, in some ways. After the Christmas tree debacle, wherein he freaked for about a week after we rearranged ONE piece of furniture in the living room to put up the aforementioned holiday decoration, we were preparing for the absolute worst. There have been a few tantrums and some shoving, up until a couple of days ago. Overall, though, the move has been better than we could have hoped.

I think he figured out that this is his new house from hearing us talk about it (he really is a smart kid, he just can't talk much), and the fact that we moved his own bed over here the first night we slept here. His language skills haven't been severely disrupted as of yet, but he did attend his old school through Friday the 7th, so we'll see how things go between now and when he starts at his new school sometime in April.

Because he has special education requirements, we have to go through an IEP meeting in the new county, even though we just had one two weeks ago at his old school, and jump through some other hoops before he's actually enrolled. Spring Break is next week, starting Weds, and runs through the first half of the following week, so the administration didn't want him to go for two days, be off for a week, then attend for two days, then have a weekend....they want him to just start out like it's a "normal" week (as an aside, do those actually exist? I'm not so sure) to help him adjust to the new school as easily as possible. So the administration has also delayed our meetings to get the ball rolling until April....so hopefully by mid-month he'll be back in school.

We have not changed his OT or his ABA therapist, so there is something familiar a few days a week, at least. Due to increasing gas prices, Z has made noises about changing his OT to someone that's closer to us. I'm hoping to arrange the schedule so he goes to both on the same day, instead of driving for an hour back several times a week (they're on different days right now). We are keeping his ABA therapist regardless, they are very hard to get into in this area and always keep long waiting lists.

So, all in all, trading one place for another hasn't been nearly as difficult for our son as we had anticipated. Thank God.

The Lyricist

It turns out that our daughter is a budding lyricist. Most people know a version of "Where is Thumbkin?". The one we sing here in the H-- house goes as follows:

Where is Thumbkin? Where is Thumbkin?

Here I am! Here I am!

How are you today sir? Very well I thank you!

Run away! Run away!

Our daughter has changed the words to suit her thus:

Where is punkin? Where is punkin?

Go away! Go away!

How's your dirty diaper? How's your dirty diaper?

Happy Birthday to You!

Heh. She sings it over and over....

Contrast

The serenity outside (this is the view from our front windows):



The absolute chaos inside:



Moving in is such fun! It poured rain all day on Friday, of course. But we got almost everything from the old house into the new house, there are still a few small things left at the old place.

Incidentally, the weird circle on the wall is a remnant of an old fireplace that had been fitted with a woodstove, and then it was all taken out at some point prior to our seeing and purchasing the house. But it won't take much to reopen it if we so choose, so we'll see. Definitely not real high on the priority list right now....

The Dishwasher

OK, so a dishwasher came with the house. It's not built-in, however, but rolls over to the sink to be hooked up. It doesn't bother me that it isn't built into the cabinetry. I've had relatives and friends that own the rolling dishwasher, so no biggie. I don't recall eating off of dirty dishes at their houses, so as long as it does its job and cleans the dishes, we're good.

However, I soon discovered that I had no idea how to hook the sucker up and get it to work. Seeing them in other peoples' houses, but never having actually hooked one up before, gave me some interesting results: initially, my kitchen and the nearby contents (including me) got a nice hot shower. And I couldn't get it to stop. I adjusted the attachment that goes on the sink faucet, I fiddled and faddled with it for a good 15 minutes before I felt completely inept and went to go look on the internet to see what in tarnation I was doing wrong. I was also sick of getting drenched every couple of minutes when I'd turn the water back on.

Turns out I'm not a complete idiot, I had done everything correctly, the coupler thingie just doesn't seal really well with the faucet. So, I draped a towel over the faucet, turned on the water, and the dishwasher did its job while I cleaned up the rest of the counters and floor.

In retrospect, I guess that God has just given me an awesome opportunity to multi-task. If I do my dishes in the nude and keep a mop handy, I can: get a shower, clean my dishes, and mop the floor all at the same time! Actually, who am I kidding? I don't think I could do my dishes in the nude; with my luck, that's when the delivery guy or meter reader would show up! : )

Leap Day

On Friday, February 29th, we:

~ signed for the new house and got the keys. It's OURS!

~ were mostly recovered from the stomach bug (K started us off on Tues, A and Z started on Weds, and I started late Weds night/early Thurs a.m....everyone else mended pretty quickly, but as of Sunday I was still dragging)

~ were NOT PACKED because everyone was sick the week prior

~ bought some things online for the new house and got to type in our new address : )

~ went to get Meyer a new tank, because his 10-gallon just ain't cutting it any more. He'll need between a 40 and 45 gallon when he's full-grown, so we went ahead and bought a 55 gallon so we can put in an algae eater or two. Oscars leave pleco's alone if they're big enough, and Oreck is about as long as my hand from palm to fingertips. I think they'll be fine in the new tank. Oreck may enjoy not dealing with the goldfish, actually....

~ had a freak out because we weren't packed at all (OK, so that was me, but I think I have good reason....we get the truck on Friday the 7th, and Z is working 15 hour days Sunday through Wednesday. By default, that means that I'M the one that has to get most of it done.)

So, as you can see, February 29th was a pretty good day this year, and aptly named. Whether it was for joy or out of frustration, it really was a Leap Day.