Beautiful Day

It's gorgeously sunny here, low 50's, and you really couldn't ask for it to feel any nicer. March really is in like a lion, out like a lamb this year! The people who came to look at the house earlier seemed to like it pretty well and said they expected that we would hear from them soon. So, here's hoping.
I was up till 2 AM again - for some reason Beth's favorite time to eat is between midnight and 2 . . . I get totally deflated during those 2 hours every night. On top of that, Thomas woke up for some reason around 6:20, so I had to go put him back to sleep. Getting out of bed woke Beth up though, so then I had to feed her until a little after 7. This girl EATS! Thomas ate just fine, but Beth is amazing in her capacity to hold copious amounts of milk. I still haven't figured out which leg (both?) is the hollow one.
Now that the house is finished getting ready to sell and all I have to do is keep it that way, I can get some more sewing done. Yea! I want to get a few more dresses and some diaper covers for Beth, plus a few things for Thomas done. I think I'm going to go for a simple diaper cover for Beth first, then some Nemo pants for Thomas, then tackle some dresses. I've missed getting my sewing done, but have had so much to get ready for the house that I just haven't had time. I'm going to have to make sure that I keep sweeping the floor where I set my sewing machine up though, I don't want it to get all yucky looking!

Phone calls

We've gotten about a 5 calls since yesterday for the house, though nobody has actually set an appointment to come and see it. Thank goodness! The downstairs is pretty much done (needs a good scrubbing in a couple of the rooms, but otherwise ok). The upstairs, however, desperately needs attention. Go figure, Clay came down with a cold on top of it, so he's going to be relegated to watching kids and making a flier to put in the "Take One" tube (that we don't have yet).
I got Thomas in bed so he was asleep by 9:30 last night - thank goodness! He's been so messed up with Daylight Saving Time changing, so it's the first time in ages he's been out before 10. Here's hoping we'll be able to continue that! He woke up this morning convinced that we needed to go to playgroup and promptly fell apart when I told him it wasn't for another 6 days (including today). At least we know he has fun there!
I didn't get to go to sleep until 2 AM, we were in bed at midnight (or was it 11? Can't remember . . .) but Beth decided that was the time to start eating. I would've liked to get a full night's sleep last night, but alas for me.
Now to tackle more laundry and cleaning!

Busy busy busy!

As if I ever talk about anything else - sorry. We're progressively getting the first floor of the house ready to show. Now just the kitchen and mud room to do, then we're ready to do the second floor! Yea! Especially since pretty much all that needs done on the second floor is the computer room.
We had playgroup earlier today, which was great as always. We didn't get there until 11:00 even though it starts at 10; we weren't even awake until 10:15. I guess I'm going to have to do a reset by waking Thomas up and just having a miserable few days, he's been stalling and staying awake until at least 10:30 the last few days - and hasn't been taking his nap either.
After playgroup we went over for lunch at Jenn and Henry's, lots of fun there too. I'm happy to learn that I'm not the only one who will go to any lengths to avoid talking on the phone. I love email, at least if I say something idiotic I can erase it before sending.
Ok, Thomas and Clay are done picking up the trains, so off to give a bath to the Master Staller.

Scrub-a-dub-dub!

An appropriate title given all the cleaning being done around here - I've done umpteen loads of laundry, dishes, etc. etc. Clay got home early today (yea!) but promptly fell asleep (boo!). I plopped Beth on him (at least he was being a useful sleeper!) and got lots of sorting clothes done. Since the Great Crawlspace Catastrophe I've been washing baby clothes and sorting, etc. I'm getting rid of a bunch of the ones we never used for Thomas because they weren't in good shape - why I didn't do so before packing them up last time . . . we'll never know. Thomas fell asleep right before Clay got home (just after 3 PM) and didn't wake up until after 6:30! It was awesome, I was able to get so much done, I even took Dandy for a jog around the block. *Pats self on back*. Clay's complaining of a headache so I bullied him into taking some meds. You see, we really need to get to the store (Thomas has been wanting more juice since we ran out 3 days ago) and given his 3 hour nap, Clay does not get an excused absence from this shopping trip. Hee-hee! We just got the inspection results from the house on Clay's email, so he's reading through that ("while my headache goes away") then we're off to see the wizard . . . oh, no, nevermind, wrong story! ;-)

Long (short) night

Meaning the part where we were awake was long, the part we were asleep was too short! Last night around 11:00 Clay went down to the crawl space to take a bunch of the random stuff we've pulled out to make it less cluttered in here. He noticed several of the totes were on their sides, and when he went to take a closer look saw that they had water in them! Apparently when the creek near our house flooded a few weeks ago (it had rained/snowed several inches within just a couple days) the crawl got water in it - whether from the sump pump failing, the place where it drains out got frozen, or what we don't know. Now here's the sucky part . . . most of the baby clothes (not in use) were down there, so got all mildewey and gross. I got cracking on the laundry right away (after doing laundry all day long!) and would spin a load then put it in the laundry sink to soak in Oxyclean while spinning the next load. There were 2 loads of darks, 2 of lights - the sink would hold 2 loads at a time. So, I spun 1 load of darks, got it started soaking, spun the other and added to the sink. Then I spun a load of whites, moved it to a laundry basket while I spun half of what was in the sink, moved it to a separate laundry basket and spun the other half of what was in the sink then put the rest of the darks in their laundry basket. Then, while I spun the last of the lights for the first time, I got the other lights started soaking, then when the second half of the lights finished spinning, added them. Started an actual wash cycle of the darks, moved them through like a regular cycle of wash to the dryer, did the other half of the darks, same deal. I started half of the lights washing and the second half left in the laundry sink, this time soaking in a solution with laundry detergent too - and got to bed around 2 AM to start feeding Beth. Ugh.
On a happier note, we got to set up an Easter egg hunt for Thomas this afternoon, and he had a total blast. I got lots of pictures, which I'll post sometime in the next week once the house is more under control (yeah, right). We also put a For Sale sign out in the front yard yesterday! Keeping our fingers crossed . . .

Do-nothing Day

Ok, so I didn't do Nothing, but I didn't really get anything accomplished. I ended up being needed by at least 1 of the kids the entire day, until about 10 minutes before Clay got home (and an hour before we went to Jenn and Dave's for an awesome pizza dinner). The only time Beth didn't need held, I was taking care of Thomas - go figure. Thankfully it's now the weekend, so Clay can hold the kid and I can get the house done. Yea! Not tonight though, I want to go to sleep!
I'm debating going to the Easter egg hunt tomorrow morning with Thomas, it's at 11:30 at the local park so he'll be awake in time but I don't know how Clay will feel about it - there really is a lot to do to get the house ready! We'll see how it is tomorrow, if the weather is icky forget it!
We've finally got our house in Ohio officially under contract (ok, so it's not ours yet, but I can call it ours in anticipation). The sellers came down a total of $9000 from where they had originally priced it, $4000 from the current listing price (they had already come down $5K before we had ever heard of it). Nervous about spending that much, but I don't think we'll be regretting it in the long run. The inspection is scheduled for Monday, here's hoping it goes well! The current owners had a pre-listing inspection done and fixed a bunch of stuff, we'll see how it is now. I'm not expecting anything too terrible, they've owned the place for 20 years and really done well with maintenance and all. I can't wait to get there! We'll close on April 30, so only 40 days. Wow, I've got so much to do here! Starting tomorrow - right now I want to go to bed!

A Fork In The Road

Ok, so nothing really to do with my day, but I love the title. It's actually the title of a new blog my sister-in-law is writing. Check it out here. She's really got an inspirational message, and gets it out so well that she makes me want to get off my butt and stop whining about my whiny kid(s). Applicable message to a different situation and all . . . Check it out, it's SO worth the read.
I got our closet cleaned up yesterday, today I got started on the bathroom closet but only 2 shelves done thus far. I'll go spend a couple more minutes in there before bed, that way at least everything will be out of the way if one of us gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I'm figuring I'll work my way out into the main areas - not to mention that while they can use a little tidying, the living room and kitchen are already pretty much ready to go. I hope this place sells fast.
We had playgroup today, the kids had a great time with the Easter egg hunt we set up. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one to think of bubbles for egg filler, so there were a disproportionate number of bubble eggs - on the other hand, you really can't ever have too many bubbles with a 2-year-old! One of the moms had gotten some puzzles, Thomas didn't notice too much with the Easter-themed erasers, but in the long run I know what will be his favorite bit of haul. The kid is crazy about puzzles, he's got 5 or so and could quite easily spend all day working them. Good thing we have so many jigsaws packed away - as he gets older they'll be used a lot!
Ok, enough chatter, the bathroom closet beckons . . .

Rock-a-bye Baby

7 hours of uninterrupted sleep! Yay! Granted, Beth slept on me the whole night (she had some gas that she just wasn't giving up) but we got to sleep from 1 AM to 8 AM when Clay's alarm went off. I wonder how long we could have gone but for the alarm . . .
Beth's still being very clingy, wanting to be held all the time, and unfortunately the Snugli has not yet been a success. I'm wondering if maybe I need to turn the temperature up in the house, maybe it's a warm thing . . . though I've tried blankets too and that's not getting anywhere either. On the other hand, we REALLY need to get the house cleaned up to get it on the market - I need an extra set of arms! Too bad you can't grow an extra set of those while pregnant!

There's no place like home!

It's great getting to visit family, but there really is no place like home. It was an exhausting week, we looked at over 20 houses. Most of the ones we had originally had on our list were definite not-interesteds due to neighborhood. Also, we arrived in the middle of the big snowstorm that dumped upwards of 15 inches on Central Ohio, so our original appointment with the realtor was rescheduled from Saturday (the 8th) to the following Thursday (he's a busy guy!) A bit of a bummer for us, but it gave us the opportunity to go see the neighborhoods of the houses we thought we were interested in. We got back to Bucyrus and ditched all but 2 of our list, then spent the next few days coming up with a new list. We went down on Thursday and looked at them, again ditched all but 2. We wanted to look at those 2 again, so we scheduled another appointment with the realtor on Saturday (the 15th). We also came up with a few more in another neighborhood that we were interested in, so we looked at those, too. Yay! After a whole week of constantly looking at houses on the internet or in person, we finally we found The One, so now we're working at hammering out the contract. I'll post pictures at some point, but I've got a lot to work on for our house here too!
Thomas rearranged his attitude while we were gone and is much better behaved now - I think he was just getting bored. My mom said that's part of the curse of having a smart kid - they get bored with same ol' same ol'. Now if we can get back to a normal sleep schedule we'll be in great shape!
Beth is doing well, growing like a weed - much more of a chunk than Thomas ever was, though nothing compared to lots of babies. And she is SO long! I'm kind of worried right now, she likes the pacifier. Thomas was never interested, so no concerns with him - the things just make me really nervous. So many of the kids (Thomas's age!) in our playgroup STILL use them - I don't want to have it be something she's dependent on. On the other hand, it's nice to have something (other than me!) that will calm her down and keep her happy. I guess the debate will continue . . .

Daylight Saving Time

Sucks. I was all excited and happy that everyone (including me) was able to sleep so late when I came out this morning and saw the clock saying 10:30 - until I went into another room where the clock hadn't already been adjusted. Granted, 9:30 isn't anything to complain about, but it doesn't warrant actual excitement the way 10:30 does. Anyway, Thomas ended up missing his nap in order to adjust - it will be a long time before we do that again! It was pretty much a mess from about 6:00 on, in spite of getting to eat dinner with his Nana and Grandad (we all met at Bob Evans). He was in bed asleep by 9 though, which is something of a big deal as it's 2 hours earlier than we have managed the last few days. Here's hoping we get some good rest!
We're having fun resting and hanging out here - Clay and I went in search of a sled for Thomas earlier (totally unsuccessful) in hopes of introducing him to one of the greatest joys of childhood in winter. Tomorrow we're leaving the kids with my mom to go look at the neighborhoods of the houses we're considering, so hopefully we can stop and find a sled somewhere along the way.
I'm in the midst of loads of laundry right now, Mom's new machines are freaking crazy. I swear they're more complicated than my laptop! I think you need at least a bachelor's degree to figure out how to run the things. And it beckons . . .

No house hunting today!

We've got something like 14 inches of snow blowing and drifting all over the place here, so we missed out on our trip to Columbus today. A bummer on top of that, we won't get to go until Thursday now - the realtor is booked Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday. On the other hand, Thomas has been great - he totally idolizes his grandpa, following him around (and dragging him when necessary), deciding what random thing they need to do next. Dad is getting tired, but I think he likes being the Most Popular Guy Ever. We went outside for a while earlier, Thomas had a blast but was definitely ready to go inside when it came time. The promise of hot chocolate probably helped! We've all been relaxing and enjoying being inside, though Clay had to work on grading exams, too. Mom and I helped him for a while, hopefully we'll be able to talk the guys into a game of cards later. We're going to work at a crossword now, while waiting for dinner to finish. I love times when you really can't get out (we've been under a Level 3 snow emergency, which means any non-emergency travel is illegal and you can be arrested for driving) so you just hang out and enjoy the day - an enforced Time Out (in a good sense!)

Made it to Ohio

Thank goodness!
A trip that normally takes 6 hours, we finally made it after 9 1/2 - nothing, I assure you, to do with the extra kid. In fact, both kids were real troopers the whole way - Thomas didn't really start getting whiny until about the eighth hour of travel, and Beth slept (of course) the whole time except when she wanted a bit to eat. Good thing Clay has long arms, he's able to drive and hold a bottle for the baby at the same time - when I'm driving alone, I just have to make hushing noises and pray we get wherever we're going soon.
We're in the midst of a horribly nasty winter storm (put it this way, blizzard watches are out), so who knows if we'll actually get to go look at houses tomorrow. I hope we can, I've been looking forward to it all week, but I'm pretty much convinced that we'll end up spending the day playing cards and staying warm in the house here. Thankfully we've got the whole next week if we need to reschedule!

I love my job

Ok, so I know I've been complaining a lot about Thomas (I would say my kids, but I don't think Beth has warranted much complaining as yet), but can I just say I think he's absolutely the best kid ever? I did some thinking after a cool-down time last night (after posting my mini-rant) and decided that I've probably been a bit of a brat lately too - and I don't have the excuse of being 2. I also decided that probably a lot of what's been going on is the result of boredom at being cooped up in the house so much with winter and pregnancy and all. So, we did the trip to the gym this afternoon (after playgroup, which was as always a big help in attitude) and it was awesome. Thomas spent an hour running after balls, kicking them, and running after them some more. He got so tired that he laid down and wanted to "go night-night on floor!" He was so mad when we told him he had to go home and go to sleep in bed. After his nap I asked him if he wanted me to get out his legos. Now, he has this HUGE milk crate of Duplos and Mega Blocks, which had been taken away for a) a consequence of repeatedly not picking them up, and b) to make them cool and fun again by not having had them to play with for a while. So, I offered to get them out - "UH-HUH! Thomas is big happy!" How cool is that? And he's spent the last hour running Duplo trains around the living room, narrating how it's gone to get stone with Ooh-hoo (his grandad plows the roads and puts stone down as part of his job of taking care of the roads in their township), it's taking the stone to the trampoline, the stone is dark, the train is getting more stone from Daddy's shoes, etc. etc. It's been hilarious to witness, just beautiful kid-play. I love how his imagination is developing.
Ok, definitely time to finish packing for the trip to OH and some more house cleaning.

Long Day

I really don't like bratty kids, but I have to admit that today Thomas fully qualified as Brat #1. I know a million reasons I shouldn't hold it against him (and I don't) but it was a very frustrating day. In the 20 minutes Clay was home before Thomas went for his bathtime, Clay got a new view on why I am such a frazzled mess at the end of the day. When I got back downstairs from putting Thomas in bed, Clay told me that if he could he would be paying me six figures for getting through days like today. I've been trying to think of what I could do to get Thomas some exercise, I think it would help, but the weather is just so crappy this time of year. I had a brainstorm a little while ago and realized that there's a perfectly good gym and indoor track that will be great to wear out little legs on just over at the university. We are SO headed there tomorrow after playgroup. Even cooler is that Clay doesn't have a lab tomorrow, so he'll get to come play too. I can't wait!
Now to get the nightly 3-hour feeding in so I can go to sleep!

My afternoon

Part 1: So, I know that when you reach the stage where your kid is recognizing when he's gone pee in his pull-up that it's supposed to be a good thing. Can I just add the exception of it's NOT a good thing when aforementioned recognition occurs in the middle of naptime? Especially after hardly more than an hour on a day when we had to get up early.
Part 2: Picture this. While trying to convince Kid #1 that he really can't get up yet (uh-huh), Kid #2 starts demanding feeding at the top of her lungs. I head downstairs to pick up a cup of milk for Kid #1 and grab Kid #2. We all climb into the glider, Kid #1 on the left leg drinking milk while Kid #2 nursing from the right. I am SO glad no one with a camera was around, because that was probably a picture no one could pass up.
And Kid #1 is lying in bed talking still, a half-hour later.

Randomness

Headaches suck. Terrible twos also suck. Combined . . . this is the story of my life today. And for the last week.
I've gotten headaches for years - really bad, nasty, put-you-on-the-floor headaches with no good reason. I get headaches with weather changes, headaches with being too tired, headaches with any sort of extreme (too hot, too loud, too bright, etc.) for any length of time, etc. - I get a lot of headaches. They aren't migraines (so said the headache specialist) and migraine meds don't work - I wish they were so they did. Because symptomatically they're pretty much migraines - just the treatment for one won't work for the other. Ugh. So if you ever see me and I seem not altogether *there*, just out-of-it, saying/doing idiotic things, whatever, that's probably what's wrong. During the first half of pregnancy with Beth I got more headaches than normal (not quite daily, but certainly more than every other day). During the second half, I rarely got headaches. Post-birth, I've gotten one every day the last 7 days. And I have 2 kids now, one of whom has redefined Terrible Twos. Enough to make anyone pretend to be Grouchy the Dwarf for a bit, right?
Enough with the complaining, how's this for weirdness? Thomas woke up in the middle of the night Sat. night with a fever, had it still at 7:20 Sun. AM, I took his temp and it was 102.5. Gave him motrin and put him back to sleep, when he woke up he was fine. No other symptoms (ever), woke up in middle of night last night, was definitely warm but not a high fever like before (didn't take temp), fine this morning. How weird is that?
Now that Beth's eaten again I'm taking a nap!

Better day

And thank goodness! I've been sleeping horribly the last few nights, waking up (or being woken up) too early, and have a 2-year-old set on removing all doubt as to the existence of the Terrible Twos; these combined have made for a rotten last few days and pretty grouchy mommy. Ok, to be fair Thursday was great until naptime, but the rest of the day sucked. Thank goodness for playgroup.
We're looking at houses in Columbus, keep ditching some and adding others, so we've been hanging around 25 or so to look more seriously at. Clay is going about deleting a bunch right now and finding that there aren't very many at the lower end of our price range. Surprise, surprise. On the other hand, going somewhere to stay we don't want to buy to have to move in a couple years, so let's get what we actually want now, right? Not be ridiculous (can we say sub-prime NO!) but well-considered and thought-out as to what we want and what we're willing to pay, and where those two criteria can meet.
Apparently I'm being paged again (nothing like an infant to make sure you feel necessary to the running of the world!) so off for now!