The house is ours. We have a verbal contract with the lawyer on the phone, and we sign the papers after church on Sunday.
It's official.
We close in 30 days.
(Boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing...)
Friday, September 14, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Home and Kids
First, the house news. The seller called us last night, and she is selling us the house for sure. She said that she was selling us the house, even if someone else showed up and offered her more money, and she was willing to wait as long as we needed to get everything covered and closed. So if we wind up having to wait for the settlement to come in, she's fine with that.
In kid news: A is doing well in school, and is offering an occasional 2-word phrase now. It's still pretty garbled most of the time, and we don't always understand him the first few times, but he's trying. He is also stuck on repeating phrases from movies. Right now it's a quote from Milo and Otis: "Mommy mommy mommy mommy." "I'm not your mommy! You're a chicken you know!" ~ which comes out as "mommy mommy mommy mommy tu ta mommy chicken know." Over....and over....and over....he really likes that part of the movie, where the chick hatches and thinks Otis the dog is his mommy. A has also started a rather interesting self-stim: he raises up his shirt and twists his nipples.
Yes, you read that right.
Over the summer, when it was hovering around the 100 degree mark for the weeks upon weeks that it did, we let him run around in his shorts and no shirt. One day, he discovered "buttons?" on his chest. We told him, "No, those are your nipples." And ever since, he will go for them multiple times a day. Doesn't matter where we are; church, home, grocery store, school, wherever. We tell him, "no, put your shirt down," which he grudgingly does, then he'll reach in the top of his shirt (stretching out the collar) to do it some more.
He has a new teacher at school this year, fresh out of college, and she left us a query about it in our communication notebook we pass back and forth. Her suggestion was to tie his shirt down with a weighted vest to prohibit that behaviour. Since he freaks whenever we put a jacket on him, I advised her against that option. I think this is just a phase that will end, like his incessant chewing finally ceased, and that the vest will cause more problems and disruptions in the short term outweighing any possible benefit. I'm not embarrassed by it, but it is interesting trying to explain what he's doing to other people who don't know him and ask. It's just a part of his stim right now, that we're trying to reduce by distracting him with other activities. That works best for him right now.
He is not currently involved in ABA therapy, because his therapist is having complications with a pregnancy and is in a local hospital until at least the end of October, hopefully November sometime so she can give birth to a healthy baby boy. So if you guys want to pray for Miss Jenny, she'll take all the prayers she can get.
K is fine; she is a wild child. The more people around, the more flirty and show-off-y (and LOUD) she becomes. She loves to dance and is trying to learn how to jump. In the words of the receptionist at the hospital in D.C., "she is BUSY. Oh my goodness! You have your hands full!" (Incidentally, the hospital visit was not for her, but for her daddy who just had corrective eye surgery). She climbs with abandon, and I have recently found her on top of the dining room table several times, all the way up on brother's double bed (which is on a frame), and trying to climb onto the window sill while the window was open on the second floor (heart attack time). She is greased lightning, it only takes her a couple of seconds while I help A go potty to get up there. She has shoved a dining room chair into the kitchen and started to get up on the counters a couple of times, but I rather emphatically deterred her both times.
Her vocabulary is tremendous, increasing daily, and she is already showing signs of being very generous and empathetic. The other day, A had a cold and was at the doctor's office (which he hates). They were attempting to take his blood pressure and look in his ears, and I had to pin him down to the table so they could get their readings. He was screaming, "NO NO NO NO NO" the entire time, and K started to cry because A was upset, she kept saying, "A--, oh, no" and looking very sadly at him. Also, yesterday morning we gave her a cup of juice. She took a sip, then went over and opened up the dishwasher, pulled out one of A's cups, and took it to her daddy asking, "A-- milk?" This surprised the snot out of Z and me, she did this out of her own initiative.
Another day, another unexpected joy.
In kid news: A is doing well in school, and is offering an occasional 2-word phrase now. It's still pretty garbled most of the time, and we don't always understand him the first few times, but he's trying. He is also stuck on repeating phrases from movies. Right now it's a quote from Milo and Otis: "Mommy mommy mommy mommy." "I'm not your mommy! You're a chicken you know!" ~ which comes out as "mommy mommy mommy mommy tu ta mommy chicken know." Over....and over....and over....he really likes that part of the movie, where the chick hatches and thinks Otis the dog is his mommy. A has also started a rather interesting self-stim: he raises up his shirt and twists his nipples.
Yes, you read that right.
Over the summer, when it was hovering around the 100 degree mark for the weeks upon weeks that it did, we let him run around in his shorts and no shirt. One day, he discovered "buttons?" on his chest. We told him, "No, those are your nipples." And ever since, he will go for them multiple times a day. Doesn't matter where we are; church, home, grocery store, school, wherever. We tell him, "no, put your shirt down," which he grudgingly does, then he'll reach in the top of his shirt (stretching out the collar) to do it some more.
He has a new teacher at school this year, fresh out of college, and she left us a query about it in our communication notebook we pass back and forth. Her suggestion was to tie his shirt down with a weighted vest to prohibit that behaviour. Since he freaks whenever we put a jacket on him, I advised her against that option. I think this is just a phase that will end, like his incessant chewing finally ceased, and that the vest will cause more problems and disruptions in the short term outweighing any possible benefit. I'm not embarrassed by it, but it is interesting trying to explain what he's doing to other people who don't know him and ask. It's just a part of his stim right now, that we're trying to reduce by distracting him with other activities. That works best for him right now.
He is not currently involved in ABA therapy, because his therapist is having complications with a pregnancy and is in a local hospital until at least the end of October, hopefully November sometime so she can give birth to a healthy baby boy. So if you guys want to pray for Miss Jenny, she'll take all the prayers she can get.
K is fine; she is a wild child. The more people around, the more flirty and show-off-y (and LOUD) she becomes. She loves to dance and is trying to learn how to jump. In the words of the receptionist at the hospital in D.C., "she is BUSY. Oh my goodness! You have your hands full!" (Incidentally, the hospital visit was not for her, but for her daddy who just had corrective eye surgery). She climbs with abandon, and I have recently found her on top of the dining room table several times, all the way up on brother's double bed (which is on a frame), and trying to climb onto the window sill while the window was open on the second floor (heart attack time). She is greased lightning, it only takes her a couple of seconds while I help A go potty to get up there. She has shoved a dining room chair into the kitchen and started to get up on the counters a couple of times, but I rather emphatically deterred her both times.
Her vocabulary is tremendous, increasing daily, and she is already showing signs of being very generous and empathetic. The other day, A had a cold and was at the doctor's office (which he hates). They were attempting to take his blood pressure and look in his ears, and I had to pin him down to the table so they could get their readings. He was screaming, "NO NO NO NO NO" the entire time, and K started to cry because A was upset, she kept saying, "A--, oh, no" and looking very sadly at him. Also, yesterday morning we gave her a cup of juice. She took a sip, then went over and opened up the dishwasher, pulled out one of A's cups, and took it to her daddy asking, "A-- milk?" This surprised the snot out of Z and me, she did this out of her own initiative.
Another day, another unexpected joy.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Faith and Patience
All right; let's clear the air first. To whoever has been praying for us to have more patience: KNOCK IT OFF! We keep getting things to practice on.
We talked with the homeowner last night (Monday), and her lawyer friend who is doing the settlement for the home sale had been on vacation, and would be out of town Monday and Tuesday working on another case.
She (the lawyer) is supposed to talk to our mortgage company on Thursday. Let's hope the rates either remain unchanged or drop further, or we can't cover the closing costs any more. Somehow, though, with everything else, I think we're already taken care of. God has been three steps ahead of everything so far, so no worries. The homeowner never did say we "got the house" in so many words, but it does look promising. It is just taking longer than us excited people would like. Z and I are both planners; this is driving us nuts!
**
Then. We got another call from the homeowner this afternoon at lunch time. She was getting our information for the contract (!!), and finding out what the closing window was for our mortgage company (ours is 30 to 45 days). The reason being, she is, and I quote, "slurping out the septic tank for [us] so it's like new". There is always an inspection within 30 days after a cleaning to make sure that the septic tank isn't leaking into the yard, and the homeowner didn't want to "sign a contract with [us] next week, have the septic guys clean it, have it inspected, and then have the closing drag on longer than the closing window so [she]'d have to pay for another inspection"; she only wants to do it once.
!! I've been doing a happy dance every so often for the last two hours.
Guess this means I've got to start packing...we're probably moving by November. :)
Here is the house. You can see the mountains in the background.
We talked with the homeowner last night (Monday), and her lawyer friend who is doing the settlement for the home sale had been on vacation, and would be out of town Monday and Tuesday working on another case.
She (the lawyer) is supposed to talk to our mortgage company on Thursday. Let's hope the rates either remain unchanged or drop further, or we can't cover the closing costs any more. Somehow, though, with everything else, I think we're already taken care of. God has been three steps ahead of everything so far, so no worries. The homeowner never did say we "got the house" in so many words, but it does look promising. It is just taking longer than us excited people would like. Z and I are both planners; this is driving us nuts!
**
Then. We got another call from the homeowner this afternoon at lunch time. She was getting our information for the contract (!!), and finding out what the closing window was for our mortgage company (ours is 30 to 45 days). The reason being, she is, and I quote, "slurping out the septic tank for [us] so it's like new". There is always an inspection within 30 days after a cleaning to make sure that the septic tank isn't leaking into the yard, and the homeowner didn't want to "sign a contract with [us] next week, have the septic guys clean it, have it inspected, and then have the closing drag on longer than the closing window so [she]'d have to pay for another inspection"; she only wants to do it once.
!! I've been doing a happy dance every so often for the last two hours.
Guess this means I've got to start packing...we're probably moving by November. :)
Here is the house. You can see the mountains in the background.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Waiting on Monday
OK. So Z was awakened by our mortgage broker yesterday afternoon. Apparently the Fed lowered interest rates yesterday afternoon, so they can offer us $5,000 more in a mortgage, but our payments will stay the same. (They'll increase by 2 bucks a month; doable!).
We contacted the lady who owns the house last night. She is talking with her lawyer friend, but seems like she's very agreeable to our most recent offer, where we pay the closing costs out of the mortgage loan. She will still get the original amount she was OK with on Wednesday. And her whole demeanor was changed in a positive way, and she said something very interesting just before we got off the phone...."God knows the desires of your heart, and the Lord moves in mysterious ways sometimes."
!
We'll know for sure on Monday evening, her lawyer is on vacation ending on Sunday....
Really, now, how often does a bank call you and tell you they want less money? (Which if we hadn't altered our amount by 5K, with the lower interest rate they would have received almost 10,000 less).
The urge to start jumping up and down for joy is becoming more and more difficult to tamp down...but still ~ we wait for Monday.
:)
We contacted the lady who owns the house last night. She is talking with her lawyer friend, but seems like she's very agreeable to our most recent offer, where we pay the closing costs out of the mortgage loan. She will still get the original amount she was OK with on Wednesday. And her whole demeanor was changed in a positive way, and she said something very interesting just before we got off the phone...."God knows the desires of your heart, and the Lord moves in mysterious ways sometimes."
!
We'll know for sure on Monday evening, her lawyer is on vacation ending on Sunday....
Really, now, how often does a bank call you and tell you they want less money? (Which if we hadn't altered our amount by 5K, with the lower interest rate they would have received almost 10,000 less).
The urge to start jumping up and down for joy is becoming more and more difficult to tamp down...but still ~ we wait for Monday.
:)
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The Waiting Game
Well.
We saw the house and yard.
Everything is in excellent condition and beautiful. It's less than 5 minutes to the Interstate, and when it snows the guy who plows for the county is the nearest neighbor, and he plows his way out to get to the other roads. (So our roads are done before the snow emergency route. Sweet!).
She was willing to accept $12K less than her asking price, but no more, and she isn't willing to pay the closing costs.
So now we wait, because we don't have enough to cover closing costs if she takes our full amount available.
Either she waits until our settlement comes in from the car accident (May 2006), which should be in sometime the next 2-3 months, or she reconsiders and just accepts it the way we offered it. (Preferable for us).
We're not worried about it; we got this far. If God wants us in this house, it's already taken care of. And if He doesn't, then He's got something better somewhere else. Now we just have to be patient. :) That's the hard part!
We saw the house and yard.
Everything is in excellent condition and beautiful. It's less than 5 minutes to the Interstate, and when it snows the guy who plows for the county is the nearest neighbor, and he plows his way out to get to the other roads. (So our roads are done before the snow emergency route. Sweet!).
She was willing to accept $12K less than her asking price, but no more, and she isn't willing to pay the closing costs.
So now we wait, because we don't have enough to cover closing costs if she takes our full amount available.
Either she waits until our settlement comes in from the car accident (May 2006), which should be in sometime the next 2-3 months, or she reconsiders and just accepts it the way we offered it. (Preferable for us).
We're not worried about it; we got this far. If God wants us in this house, it's already taken care of. And if He doesn't, then He's got something better somewhere else. Now we just have to be patient. :) That's the hard part!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
House Hunters ~ Maryland
Z and I have been wanting to move out to the community where our church is located. It will make it so much easier to be involved with the projects and activities we have going, plus it's an excellent school district for the kids. Plus, he is out of the military soon and we need our own place in just over a year regardless. With A's issues about changes in his routine, it may be easier to go ahead and move out there now, and then keep coming to his regular therapists, and then when Z changes jobs and insurance carriers, switch providers (if we have to) then instead of everything all at once.
On a lark, Sunday we drove around the area looking at different things for sale and we happened upon a For Sale By Owner. It has everything we needed (3 bedrooms), plus some of the stuff we wanted (2 full bathrooms and an additional bedroom for a guest room/office, on just over an acre of land so the kids have room to play and I have room to garden). PLUS, there are additional things that we just love: the house is gorgeous and only 5 years old, and we have a view of the mountains. Off one of the two decks!) ~ the only thing is, the asking price is 12K more expensive than what we have been approved for. With the way the market is here, though, she may just jump on it. The house has been up for sale for several months. What we can offer is still $100K more than she paid for it five years ago, so she's making quite the hefty return, nearly doubling her initial investment.
That's the other crazy thing: with Z's credit being bruised after his divorce almost six years ago, we didn't figure we'd qualify for such a large amount, nor for a fixed rate (we counted on an adjustable one, even though we would have preferred the other kind), and figured our interest rate would be pretty high.
Lo and behold, we have 3 different mortgage companies fighting over him, and the best offer so far is a 30-yr, fixed rate of 6.25%. Which is fantastic for here, the lowest most banks will go is 6.50, most are up around 6.98. And that's for perfect credit people, which we most definitely aren't (we aren't that bad, either, but it's not tickling 800 by any stretch).
And we have an appointment at the house tonight to see more and talk turkey.
!
We figured that doors wouldn't even be opened for such a venture, and they're not only open, they're slammed wide open. We have been praying that if this isn't the right one, everything would be shut hard...and so far things just keep getting better and better. We have our approval letter in hand. Z applied on Monday and got it back yesterday (Tuesday). There is absolutely no way we should have made it this far in the process, so we know it has to be God. So we're excited, but trying not to be TOO excited. We'll see where this takes us!
Will post more later, including pictures if we get it. :)
On a lark, Sunday we drove around the area looking at different things for sale and we happened upon a For Sale By Owner. It has everything we needed (3 bedrooms), plus some of the stuff we wanted (2 full bathrooms and an additional bedroom for a guest room/office, on just over an acre of land so the kids have room to play and I have room to garden). PLUS, there are additional things that we just love: the house is gorgeous and only 5 years old, and we have a view of the mountains. Off one of the two decks!) ~ the only thing is, the asking price is 12K more expensive than what we have been approved for. With the way the market is here, though, she may just jump on it. The house has been up for sale for several months. What we can offer is still $100K more than she paid for it five years ago, so she's making quite the hefty return, nearly doubling her initial investment.
That's the other crazy thing: with Z's credit being bruised after his divorce almost six years ago, we didn't figure we'd qualify for such a large amount, nor for a fixed rate (we counted on an adjustable one, even though we would have preferred the other kind), and figured our interest rate would be pretty high.
Lo and behold, we have 3 different mortgage companies fighting over him, and the best offer so far is a 30-yr, fixed rate of 6.25%. Which is fantastic for here, the lowest most banks will go is 6.50, most are up around 6.98. And that's for perfect credit people, which we most definitely aren't (we aren't that bad, either, but it's not tickling 800 by any stretch).
And we have an appointment at the house tonight to see more and talk turkey.
!
We figured that doors wouldn't even be opened for such a venture, and they're not only open, they're slammed wide open. We have been praying that if this isn't the right one, everything would be shut hard...and so far things just keep getting better and better. We have our approval letter in hand. Z applied on Monday and got it back yesterday (Tuesday). There is absolutely no way we should have made it this far in the process, so we know it has to be God. So we're excited, but trying not to be TOO excited. We'll see where this takes us!
Will post more later, including pictures if we get it. :)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Back from Vacation
Greetings to all! Long time, no typing. I didn't figure that summer would be this hectic with two small children, neither of whom are in any type of sports or other extra-curriculars (save A's therapies). Alas, I was sadly mistaken. We've been busy, busy, busy!
Between church activities, potty training adventures, keeping my daughter off the dining room table and counters, and going on vacation, I haven't had time to check my own e-mail more than a couple of times in the last month. (As a side note, it is disgusting the amount of pure junk mail that accumulates during that time, and you have to fight the urge to just delete the whole mess instead of weeding through and sifting out the important missives from the detritus).
We went to Florida to see Z's family, then up to Georgia where my parents are currently stationed, spending about a week at each location. It was exhausting, great to see family, and wonderful to be back at our home when it was all over. Driving nearly a thousand miles one way ~ and all at once ~ can really try one's mental state, especially when you have a teething 16-month old in the back seat. We left at 3 a.m. with the intention of stopping after we went through Atlanta. A friend of ours graciously let us borrow her portable DVD player for the trip. We saved it for the afternoon, after lunch and naps and after the books, singing Itsy Bitsy Spider ad nauseum, and playing with toys had all lost their appeal; however, at 2:30 in the afternoon when we switched it on it DIDN'T WORK. We fiddled with it for a half hour; still nothing. I called the owner to see if there was something special you had to do to it to get it to work, but apparently not. The thing was just old. Apparently the last person who tried to use it had had some problems, too. (Hindsight is 20/20; we should have checked it out BEFORE we left...). It was at this point that Z decided to just press on and drive the last five hours instead of stopping. There was no way we were going to get the kids in the car again for another long day of driving, not with K already screaming her head off. So we grimly pressed on. A was superb; he was an angel, not one fit the entire trip. In contrast, K's voice was pretty much gone the next day.
The kids enjoyed running around like maniacs with their 6 others cousins. I loved that my kids could play with all their cousins from the H-- side (in contrast, they're the only grand kids on my side). Six of the eight cousins are A's age and younger. Ad-- is two years older, and S-- is Z's brother's wife's daughter from a previous relationship (say that ten times fast!); she's eight. The kids had the best time, and literally fell into bed every night after a day of very hard play. A actually did very well with all the mayhem, he only sought a quiet place a couple of times the entire week. His cousin Ad-- (who is five) didn't understand why A did some of the things he did and why he still needed to be in diapers when her own younger brother who was two was already potty trained. We explained that he needed some help with some things and that he didn't talk much, but he could understand you (her). That was all she needed; the rest of the time, she was grabbing his hand to go play somewhere, or trying to help him go potty (we did stop the last activity early in the game).
K had such a huge grin most of the Florida week, Z and I thought her little head would just split in half if it got any bigger. She is such a social creature; the more people around, the better. She's also a fast learner. Two of her cousins have the art of the temper tantrum and getting their way down pat. K has since tried to do the same with us and has been disappointed with the results. Tantrums are not tolerated at our house, and they most certainly don't get what they want if they throw one. She has stopped throwing them after a week or so. Did I mention she was a fast learner? :)
They had a great time at my parents' too, even though there weren't any other kids running around. My parents got one of those big inflatable pools that's 6x10 feet for the kids to splash in, and that was a blessing. The temperatures were over 100 degrees the entire two weeks we were down in the South, and the heat index hovered between 112 and 117. Yuck. We'd been having temps right at 100 degrees most of the summer here with some humidity, but we lack the intensity of the humidity rising off the Gulf. It's amazing what a difference that makes! A is a little fish, he was swooping down in the water and pushing himself along. The only thing he won't do is put his face in the water, though. He freaks. We still have to be careful when we wash his hair so we don't get water in his face.
Oh, and I have to tell the fire ant story.
We were in my parents' back yard, and the house they're renting has this nice, plush Bermuda grass. It's tall, even after the lawn service cuts it. This is bad, because it makes it harder to see the fire ant hills unless they are really tall. We don't have such things in Maryland, so K had no idea they weren't normal ants, and I haven't lived down there in so long I didn't even think about fire ants. All of a sudden K comes tearing across the yard, screaming, and we thought it was because A took her ball away. Until we saw the ant on her face. And the ones on her arm. And her legs. She had apparently stepped right on a mound, and the ants were mad. We stripped her right there in the yard, diaper and all, and turned the hose on her (which she absolutely hated). She had bites on her face, back, chest, arms, and legs, and they all blistered up. For those unacquainted with the joys of getting a fire ant bite, I will tell you quite frankly that they suck. Fire ants have some sort of acid (sulphuric, I believe) in their saliva that causes their bites to feel like, well, you're on fire. I actually had to drain some of K's bites, because they were getting infected. She also ran a fever for a couple of days, but we couldn't tell if that was from teething (which it very well could have been) or from the sheer number of ant bites she had received. The bites all healed up once we got the acid out, but I think she may have a couple of scars on her arms where they were the worst. I bear a few scars on my feet from my own childhood encounters with these pests, and they're not super obvious unless you look for them, so I don't think she's going to be horribly disfigured or anything like that. They'll be little.
All in all, we had a great time, and we're also really glad to be home. A got excited when we got into our town because he knew where he was and that we were almost back to our house. Our parents blessed us with a car DVD player to take with us on the return trip, so that helped tremendously as a distraction once the kids were done with books and toys (and that Itsy Bitsy Spider) again. What a great invention; I remember car trips when I was a kid, and we were all crammed (and I mean crammed) into a Pontiac station wagon with that nasty plastic "leatherette" seating your legs got sweat-glued to. We played the alphabet game, read books, and sang songs, too, but I think my parents would have killed for a portable movie player on more than one occasion. A total frivolity, but man ain't they great for the driver's sanity.
We're home, we're home, and we've already hit the ground running. Z and I did a four hour concert on Saturday, but we were gone all day (left at 9 a.m. and returned twelve hours later). Then of course Sunday is busy with church, although our small group Bible study was cancelled for the evening. And Z left this morning for a few days; he'll be back at the end of the week. He gets to go crawl around in the mud and shoot at things; oh, goody. We've had steady rain here since Sunday, and it's not supposed to let up until Thursday. Heh. He's going to look like the Swamp Thing when he gets home. He hates this stuff; 18 months and he's out!!! He is NOT re-enlisting.
Between church activities, potty training adventures, keeping my daughter off the dining room table and counters, and going on vacation, I haven't had time to check my own e-mail more than a couple of times in the last month. (As a side note, it is disgusting the amount of pure junk mail that accumulates during that time, and you have to fight the urge to just delete the whole mess instead of weeding through and sifting out the important missives from the detritus).
We went to Florida to see Z's family, then up to Georgia where my parents are currently stationed, spending about a week at each location. It was exhausting, great to see family, and wonderful to be back at our home when it was all over. Driving nearly a thousand miles one way ~ and all at once ~ can really try one's mental state, especially when you have a teething 16-month old in the back seat. We left at 3 a.m. with the intention of stopping after we went through Atlanta. A friend of ours graciously let us borrow her portable DVD player for the trip. We saved it for the afternoon, after lunch and naps and after the books, singing Itsy Bitsy Spider ad nauseum, and playing with toys had all lost their appeal; however, at 2:30 in the afternoon when we switched it on it DIDN'T WORK. We fiddled with it for a half hour; still nothing. I called the owner to see if there was something special you had to do to it to get it to work, but apparently not. The thing was just old. Apparently the last person who tried to use it had had some problems, too. (Hindsight is 20/20; we should have checked it out BEFORE we left...). It was at this point that Z decided to just press on and drive the last five hours instead of stopping. There was no way we were going to get the kids in the car again for another long day of driving, not with K already screaming her head off. So we grimly pressed on. A was superb; he was an angel, not one fit the entire trip. In contrast, K's voice was pretty much gone the next day.
The kids enjoyed running around like maniacs with their 6 others cousins. I loved that my kids could play with all their cousins from the H-- side (in contrast, they're the only grand kids on my side). Six of the eight cousins are A's age and younger. Ad-- is two years older, and S-- is Z's brother's wife's daughter from a previous relationship (say that ten times fast!); she's eight. The kids had the best time, and literally fell into bed every night after a day of very hard play. A actually did very well with all the mayhem, he only sought a quiet place a couple of times the entire week. His cousin Ad-- (who is five) didn't understand why A did some of the things he did and why he still needed to be in diapers when her own younger brother who was two was already potty trained. We explained that he needed some help with some things and that he didn't talk much, but he could understand you (her). That was all she needed; the rest of the time, she was grabbing his hand to go play somewhere, or trying to help him go potty (we did stop the last activity early in the game).
K had such a huge grin most of the Florida week, Z and I thought her little head would just split in half if it got any bigger. She is such a social creature; the more people around, the better. She's also a fast learner. Two of her cousins have the art of the temper tantrum and getting their way down pat. K has since tried to do the same with us and has been disappointed with the results. Tantrums are not tolerated at our house, and they most certainly don't get what they want if they throw one. She has stopped throwing them after a week or so. Did I mention she was a fast learner? :)
They had a great time at my parents' too, even though there weren't any other kids running around. My parents got one of those big inflatable pools that's 6x10 feet for the kids to splash in, and that was a blessing. The temperatures were over 100 degrees the entire two weeks we were down in the South, and the heat index hovered between 112 and 117. Yuck. We'd been having temps right at 100 degrees most of the summer here with some humidity, but we lack the intensity of the humidity rising off the Gulf. It's amazing what a difference that makes! A is a little fish, he was swooping down in the water and pushing himself along. The only thing he won't do is put his face in the water, though. He freaks. We still have to be careful when we wash his hair so we don't get water in his face.
Oh, and I have to tell the fire ant story.
We were in my parents' back yard, and the house they're renting has this nice, plush Bermuda grass. It's tall, even after the lawn service cuts it. This is bad, because it makes it harder to see the fire ant hills unless they are really tall. We don't have such things in Maryland, so K had no idea they weren't normal ants, and I haven't lived down there in so long I didn't even think about fire ants. All of a sudden K comes tearing across the yard, screaming, and we thought it was because A took her ball away. Until we saw the ant on her face. And the ones on her arm. And her legs. She had apparently stepped right on a mound, and the ants were mad. We stripped her right there in the yard, diaper and all, and turned the hose on her (which she absolutely hated). She had bites on her face, back, chest, arms, and legs, and they all blistered up. For those unacquainted with the joys of getting a fire ant bite, I will tell you quite frankly that they suck. Fire ants have some sort of acid (sulphuric, I believe) in their saliva that causes their bites to feel like, well, you're on fire. I actually had to drain some of K's bites, because they were getting infected. She also ran a fever for a couple of days, but we couldn't tell if that was from teething (which it very well could have been) or from the sheer number of ant bites she had received. The bites all healed up once we got the acid out, but I think she may have a couple of scars on her arms where they were the worst. I bear a few scars on my feet from my own childhood encounters with these pests, and they're not super obvious unless you look for them, so I don't think she's going to be horribly disfigured or anything like that. They'll be little.
All in all, we had a great time, and we're also really glad to be home. A got excited when we got into our town because he knew where he was and that we were almost back to our house. Our parents blessed us with a car DVD player to take with us on the return trip, so that helped tremendously as a distraction once the kids were done with books and toys (and that Itsy Bitsy Spider) again. What a great invention; I remember car trips when I was a kid, and we were all crammed (and I mean crammed) into a Pontiac station wagon with that nasty plastic "leatherette" seating your legs got sweat-glued to. We played the alphabet game, read books, and sang songs, too, but I think my parents would have killed for a portable movie player on more than one occasion. A total frivolity, but man ain't they great for the driver's sanity.
We're home, we're home, and we've already hit the ground running. Z and I did a four hour concert on Saturday, but we were gone all day (left at 9 a.m. and returned twelve hours later). Then of course Sunday is busy with church, although our small group Bible study was cancelled for the evening. And Z left this morning for a few days; he'll be back at the end of the week. He gets to go crawl around in the mud and shoot at things; oh, goody. We've had steady rain here since Sunday, and it's not supposed to let up until Thursday. Heh. He's going to look like the Swamp Thing when he gets home. He hates this stuff; 18 months and he's out!!! He is NOT re-enlisting.
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