(Deep Sigh of Adoration)

Signs it's Time for a Move

• Instead of the usual yearly lease renewal inquiry, your landlord (who was never all that excited at the prospect of kids in his complex) gives you notice that he'll be showing the apartment to prospective new tenants and it needs to be clean
• A third bat has taken up residence in the basement and must be relocated to a more natural location
• The dryer always accepts your quarters, but now only actually turns on the heat and dries the clothes about half the time
• You strongly suspect the upstairs neighbor is deliberately flushing the toilet in the middle of your showers, sometimes twice per shower
• When making a list of things you'll miss about your current apartment, you begin to struggle after built-in bookcases and nice woodwork
• You're so ready to stop sharing walls that you're looking into buying a house even though you might not break even
• You find a house to rent with more space and a MUCH nicer kitchen (with dishwasher) that barely costs more than your current apartment
•  The window air conditioning unit dies on a 93 degree day that promises to be followed by 98 degrees the next day (the new place has Central Air)

Chronicles of a (Temporarily) Single Parent

9:45 pm Scout makes one final trip to the bathroom. Potty training is great and all, but it loses some charm when the trainee figures out that needing to go potty will get her out of bed practically every time. In our case, this means every fifteen minutes for an hour or two after bedtime, whether the potty is actually needed or not. When I inform her that, whether she wants to go to sleep or not, I'm going to bed, she finally gives it up and begrudgingly goes to sleep.

3:30 am A loud thump somewhere in the building startles me awake. I'm always afraid it's Scout falling out of bed. I don't hear any crying, but decide to tuck everyone in just in case. As I check that Scout isn't near the edge, she lifts her head and mutters, "Mommy, I need you." Might as well give in lest she wake up Thomas.  I lay down next to her and she puts her arm around my neck. "Mommy, protect me." Even at 3:30am, it melts my heart and I think that, tired or not, I'd better enjoy this moment. This is not a stage that lasts forever. After about 15 minutes, I slip back to my own bed.

4:45am Sounds of waking begin to emanate from the bedroom.Nope. Not gonna do it. Pre-6:00 I can handle, but pre-5:00 is out of the question. Fortunately, a binkie solves my problem and back to sleep I go.

5:40 am Sounds of waking again, this time more determined. Here we go. It's a good thing this kid wakes up happy; his mother does not. Bottle. Dry diaper. A vain attempt at a return to sleep. Tummy time for him. Work for me.

6:30 am Sounds of sleepiness from the floor. Swaddle. Puppy. Sleep. As I place him in his crib, a little voice calls from the corner, "Mommy, I want to wake up." "No sweetie, it's still night time." Please, please, please, please. (This never ever works. If the very edge of the sky has begun to light up, she knows and will insist that it is morning. The sun is up, and we should be too.) A miracle: it works. Sleep for all.

7:40 am Little feet pitter patter across the bedroom, down the hall, and up to my bed. "Mommy, I want to cuddle." Into bed she comes.

7:50 am Sounds of waking from the crib. Cuddling with a squirmy three-year-old isn't that restful anyway. Time to really start the day.

Last the Best of All the Game

 Thomas looks more like this now, only with more and better hair.

 I know, it's hard to imagine better hair. But it is. He's a super happy, smiley boy. He has a huge grin any time you pay him any attention. It's easy to get distracted and forget to take pictures.

 Thomas has upgraded from the sink to the tub-within-a-tub. Here is the dry run. It wasn't an immediate hit, but he likes it fine now.

 See? I told you the hair gets bigger and better.

 Rotate your computer 90 degrees to the left and this picture will work much better. Tommy has discovered his feet and he loves them.

 He's also been chewing on everything. His favorite things to chew on are his fingers, books and his hearing aids. That's why they're not in these pictures. They haven't been lasting long these days before we put them in the dessication tub.

 Rotate again and you'll see the box we prepared to ship to the grandparents. Unfortunately, the children were unconvinced that this was a good idea.

Well, there we are. Life continues on in much the same way. We're busy, we're hot and we're happy. We have camping (really camping this time), an extended trip to Monga and Papa's house and a move across town on the horizon. It promises to be a busy summer.

Ladies First

I was looking at my blog tonight and realized that my children look quite different this month from how they looked last month. So, it's time for a random photographic update in no particular order.

Still dressing herself. We call this "Giraffe Ballerina."

 The kids are really starting to interact with each other in fun ways. Sometimes this means hair pulling and taking toys away. But often it means giggling and helping with speech therapy and a lot of fun for Mom and Dad to watch. Apparently group tummy time is still a thing.

 As a reward for a particularly big potty accomplishment, Virginia got to go to Ella's Deli and ride the carousel. Dad is the appointed carousel rider, as Mom gets motion sick on a swing. I am happy to report that I did take part in the ice cream part of the reward.

We've recently discovered a budding ballerina is in our midst, as befits her name. Nonna's birthday present has made the perfect outfit for lots of pirouettes, plies and of course plenty of bows.

 We had a wonderful visit from Nonna at the beginning of June. Many trips to the park were taken and many books were read. A good time was had by all.

 Best of all, Nonna doesn't mind letting Scout try her glasses on.

 Since Nonna left, Virginia has spent a lot of time caring for her dolls. She and I sometimes have special story time on her bed. Here she's extending that privilege to her doll.

 Random story about the tiger on Scout's bed: It belonged to my Great Aunt Lois and always sat on the bed in her spare bedroom. It has rather piercing green eyes and I was petrified of it as a small child. Probably because of the emotions it elicited, this is my most vivid memory from Lois's house, so I requested the tiger when she passed away. In a fun bit of irony, Virgina sleeps with the tiger next to her head to protect her from bad dreams. When she first made the switch to the big bed, she had a lot of nightmares and we put tiger next to her to keep the bad dreams away. It works like a charm.

Scout doesn't let her lack of stature stop here. She'd probably drive without seeing over the windshield too if we'd let her.

 It's been really hot this week. So, we've been going to the splash park and playing in friends' wading pools. When do swimsuits stop being the cutest thing ever? Probably somewhere around puberty.