Sleep!

Beth is FINALLY starting to get back to sleeping through the night again - last night she slept from 7:30 PM - 9:00 AM *straight*! Yea! A good thing too, I was so sleepy. Thomas woke up at 8 and came to snuggle, then went downstairs, then came back upstairs and was playing so I convinced him to go watch a movie, and dozed off again. He was happy to comply and is finishing up his Thomas the train movie right now. Hey, it was an emergency - I needed sleep!
I got to go out with friends for a couple hours last night, it was a lot of fun hanging out, and the hot fudge sundae I got was fabulous. There were 10 of us at a long table so I only got to talk to a few other people, but it was still fun - I love my mama's group, it's nice having friends close by going through the same stuff.
I'm working at getting the house organized again, I got almost all the Christmas stuff back downstairs yesterday, I think there are a couple towels out still though that I'll have to track down. I'm trying to get into routines so that I can *keep* everything nice once I get it there. So far I've got this:

1. Kids get up, so I do too.
2. Feed kids breakfast, try to remember to feed myself - lol.
3. Check email/message board/other random internet stuff.
4. Make bed and get dressed.
5. Laundry.
6. Dishes, spend a few minutes clearing off counters.

By the time I'm on #6, I usually get sidetracked and do random stuff, sometimes cleaning and sometimes not, till around 5:00. Then, I've got this:

1. Start tidying up a bunch of stuff as quickly as possible before Clay and Rob get home.
2. Help kids clean up toys.
3. More dishes, start dinner.
4. Dinner.
5. Give the kids their bath and put them to bed.
6. Get absolutely nothing constructive done the rest of the evening and play games or mess around on the computer.

It's not perfect, but it's a start!

Hello World!

A fellow blogger asked if I have a blog and I realized I haven't posted lately, so figured if I'm going to give out my URL I'd better have something recent up! I could make all sorts of excuses, but I'll just skip them, you've heard them all before.
Thomas loves preschool, he's really looking forward to his first "Storytime" tomorrow - it's the enrichment program for the 3-year-olds at his school. He absolutely loves his teachers, loves playing, loves "Weather Bear", and is learning the days of the week based on which days he gets to go to school. I love it too; Beth and I usually get the grocery shopping done one day, we go home and work on the house the other - it's so much easier shopping with one kid rather than 2!
Everyone's been sick around here, Thomas just started feeling quite a bit better today so I'm looking for Beth to feel a lot better tomorrow (T brought it home from preschool, B got it the day after him, me the day after that, and Clay and Rob the day after that). Beth is growing and becoming much more mobile, she loves to roll all over the room especially when the obstacles are out of the way.
My brother Rob is living with us as he looks for a job and gets ready to start at OSU during winter quarter ... he's transferring there after leaving Miami University, so here's hoping OSU will be a better fit for him. I'm really glad he's decided to move on, it felt like he was just sort of stagnating at Miami. We love having him here, the kids love him and it's a lot of fun having someone else to play games with! He's a million times better about doing the dishes than I am, so while I might have thought it would take a bit *more* work to take care of the house with him here, it's actually made it easier! Yea!
I'm doing a lot better now that I'm on meds, I was diagnosed with PPD and - lo-and-behold - the world is a happy place again! We're also part of a playgroup where we've been making a lot of friends and enjoying new activities, doing lots of things we wouldn't do when it's just the kids and me. Today we went over to Homestead Park in Hilliard, it was absolutely terrific! The park is huge, we did a stroller walk then let the kids play in the different play areas while the mommies got to visit and be real people.
Ok, I should have gone to bed a long time ago, but wanted to get something up to let everyone (all 6 of you! jk) know that we're still alive!

Big Kids

Beth had her first solids yesterday! I could hardly believe how she was devouring everything, she ate the whole serving I fixed for her and opened her mouth every time I brought the spoon nearby. When I wasn't going fast enough for her, she was making grabs for the bowl to take care of herself - she's like Thomas's polar opposite when it comes to food.
Thomas started making some more friends today; we went to playgroup and met about a dozen more kids, about 4 of whom were all boys born within a month of Thomas. Apparently we're the only ones that are planning on preschool this fall - everyone else was feeling like their kids aren't ready yet and aren't planning on sending them to kindergarten when they turn 5 either. I couldn't believe it - I might not be ready for Thomas to be grown up enough to go off to school by himself, but that's just because I'm still in shock that he's not Beth's size still. I've gotten a lot more used to the idea lately, but it's still hard to realize he's as big as some of my preschool-aged swim lesson kids were back in the day. I love that he's growing up, but I wish time didn't pass so quickly! To be fair for the other kids though (and this isn't just my bias) he's a bit more advanced so maybe they really aren't ready for preschool.
Baby Peter has a new mommy - Beth has adopted him! I didn't think she'd be interested (Thomas likes him but does just as well ignoring his existence as he does playing with him) but she was ticked and he was nearby. I handed him to her and she played with him for a good 10 minutes before losing him (he's a pretty big baby doll, so I'm surprised she could support him for as long as she did). If I find it hard to believe that Thomas is growing up so fast, it's even more difficult that Beth is already old enough to play with dolls. I'm enormously proud of both my kids (what mother isn't?) but it makes me a little sad too! I never realized how true it is when women who have been moms for decades tell us newbies, "They grow up too fast!"

Play fountain

We went to meet several of the people in playgroup at a local play fountain today, but as we'd never been and never met any of the families that were supposed to be there, the "meet-up" part was less than successful. We were all there, but so was every other family in Columbus - it was so crowded! So, we never actually found the other people we were going to play with, but it was a lot of fun anyway. Thomas was kind of intimidated by all the kids, so hung back more than I had thought he would going in to it, but he ended up getting soaked and having a blast anyway.
We're headed for the zoo tomorrow to meet with some of the same people, but a) we've been there and know what to expect and b) we're going equipped with cell phone numbers! We're going to go earlier though, so I'm going to take Thomas to the park right now so he gets exhausted earlier, goes to bed earlier, and wakes up earlier.

PS - We're all finally healthy, for the time being!
PPS - I did take pics at the fountain, and I have a lot to post I know, which I promise will happen at some point!

Prepping for playgroup

We're hosting our first playgroup here tomorrow, I've spent a huge part of the day procrastinating. I did dishes and started laundry, plus steam-cleaned the carpet where Dandy peed (again!) but that pretty much is the extent of my productive activities. Granted, Beth's been having a rough day and needing held a lot, but it's telling that I'm procrastinating by writing a blog post about procrastinating. Ahem.
So, moving on ... life is good in spite of nasty headaches and suchforth, I'm superly looking forward to going to Cedar Point with my mom (and Greg & Sarah) this Saturday, I can't wait - a kid-free day! Clay and his mom and dad (so, mostly his mom) is going to watch the kids so I can run away for a little bit and have some fun. THEN on the 4th of July weekend we're doing our annual Girl's Weekend with me and Clay's mom and sisters - 2 kid-free times in a row! Seriously! I love spending my time with the kids (and it's nice to finally be getting us all settled and back in a predictable schedule) but this weekend can't come soon enough!
Ok, now I really need to stop goofing off and sweep floors, finish dishes, do more laundry, and generally pick up. And prep food (not much to do on that, thankfully!) Then I can waste some more time.

Updates

We gave Clay a cute picture frame and "Doodle Box" for Father's Day. The picture frame was our project at playgroup, Thomas did pretty much all of it himself. I gave him the letters for "Daddy" and traced/cut out the kids' hands, but he did all the gluing, coloring, picking out what to put on there, and placing everything. Now I just have to a) take a picture of it and b) print out a picture to put in it. The "Doodle Box" is actually a tool box sold by Craftsmen that comes with paints and stickers and such for the kid(s) to decorate for their Dads. It's still in the box, Clay and Thomas can do it together (lol, I'm seriously looking forward to watching this, I can just hear Clay trying to not be completely anal while a 2-year-old decorates). Clay wants to take it to work after it's done, I guess tools are pretty hard to keep hold of there, so he wants to be able to lock them up.
Thomas's sandboxes arrived, along with a little playset and (finally!) a slide for the big swingset. Now we just have to get the swingset finished and the sandboxes filled. We got the sandboxes and little playset from a garage sale, the playset has a little steering wheel. It's taken up residence in the basement, Thomas calls it his "car" and a new favorite phrase is "Should I drive it ... ?" I love his "Should I do X?" questions, I'm not sure whether it's a cute saying he's come up with or a new way of discovering standards of behavior. It certainly helps though!

Off of hiatus (maybe)

What with moving in and all I haven't been much for posting lately, but as my mom has posted on her blog THREE TIMES since I last posted, I figured I'd better get started again.
It's been quite a month! (Wow, a month already! I can't believe it's been that long!) Let's see, we left PA April 29, closed on the house April 30, Clay graduated that weekend then went back to PA to finish up his stuff there and get the movers all set, we stayed in Bucyrus till our stuff arrived the following Tuesday, May 13, and have been unpacking ever since. Well, sort of. We had the Cold From Hell (ALL of us! Sick 2-year-olds are NOT fun!) which seriously lengthened the time it takes to unpack. The kids and I went to our first playgroup-meetup last week, it was nice to meet some other people.
We're loving being so close to family, Clay's parents (55-minute trip) have been down twice and mine (1 hr. 10 min. trip) have been down once - a visit every weekend since we moved! My mom also came down one day to shop for some Little Theater stuff. And this is all since we officially moved in - everyone but my dad was here before that at least once to help us get stuff cleaned up and ready for move-in!
My brother Greg and his fiance Sarah came over for dinner last night, which was nice. I made some chicken fettuccine alfredo (main dish) and strawberry shortcake (dessert) as the main things of the evening - salad and rolls to round us out. It was nice having them over, we got to play a game of cards too, which was fun. Here's hoping we can do it again soon!
Ok, Beth is eating which makes it really hard to type so off for now, but I'll try to be posting more regularly from now on out.

Sick

Ugh. Clay passed on his cold to both Thomas and I, I have no voice right now but am feeling better than I did at 6 when Beth woke up to eat. Clay has his first day of work today, so this morning we had to frantically search for the little container we keep the keys in so we could get his passport out of the safe. We never actually found it, but fortunately found an extra key where we keep the house keys.
I found a group of mommies online that live here in the Columbus area and do playgroups and such together, so I'm hoping to get started right away! We're still unpacking lots of boxes, but probably won't get much done while feeling lousy. After we're over our colds we'll try to get started with a playgroup regardless of how many boxes there are - try to get settled in and make friends right away!
Ok, off of here - Beth is awake!

My legs are sore!

And no surprise - I certainly expected to pay for my spur-of-the-moment run yesterday. On the other hand, I had a lot of fun doing it and look forward to doing more. In fact, I'm planning on doing a 4-mile race on July 4 with Clay's mom and sister (Jill, whose blog I've mentioned a few times here). We do a Girl's Weekend every year with Clay's 2 sisters, mom, and me - Kelley won't be in town in time to go for it, but the other 3 of us are going to slumber party at our new house Thursday night then go to the race in the morning. I'm SO looking forward to it, the last time I participated in a race was Thanksgiving 2006 - and that was the first time I'd run in a year (which was the first time I'd run since Clay and I got married). So you could say I'm a bit spotty on my dedication to the activity. Here's hoping that signing up for a real race will help me continue.
We spent the morning outside, Thomas played with sidewalk chalk while I did some yard work, then we went inside to cool off for a bit. We then left for a walk, stopped at a garage sale to benefit Relay For Life, then went to the park. We got back home for Thomas to take a nap, then Jenn and Dave came over (with Henry, of course) for dinner and another trip to the park. I spent a good bit of time running around on the big playset going down the slides with Henry, which was great for my sore legs. They ached, but I know that it helps get rid of the lactic acid, so beyond just having fun with Henry I was glad to do it for me, too. Thomas spent nearly 20 minutes giving Jenn a dissertation on the ducks, it was hilarious. They had brought over KFC for dinner (the second time in my life I've had it, it was great) and got some of the parfaits with it, so after playing at the park for ?? (a long time) we headed home for dessert. Yum.
Playgroup yesterday was lots of fun, we were outside most of the time then, too. It was a little sad since it was likely the last time we'll see a couple of the people, but such is life I guess. We've made a lot of good friends here in a relatively short period of time, I'll be surprisingly sad to leave for just having been here 10 months. On the other hand - just 10 days till we live in Ohio again!
Oh yeah, and the people who came to look at the house on Wednesday really liked it and are talking to different banks getting the rates information, researching deeds, etc. Here's hoping!

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.

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 . . .

Food!

Yay! I'm (day)dreaming about my freezer right now, as the mommies from playgroup brought over a bunch of casseroles and soups for us to eat. How awesome is that?! We hosted playgroup today, so while trying to finish up getting ready this morning (thank goodness Jenn and Henry were the only ones *really* on time, I don't mind looking frazzled in front of them!) I was trying to figure out what we were going to have for dinner. I was drawing a total blank, then Jenn and Henry arrived bearing a dish of lasagna rolls. Those went straight for the fridge so we can have them tonight - then everyone else started showing up with more food for the freezer! Everything sounds delicious, I can't wait to eat them all. My mouth is watering just thinking about dinner tonight!
Playgroup went really well, though for about 20 minutes there pretty much all the kids decided to take turns having a crying break. We (the mommies) couldn't figure out what *that* was all about, but the time passed and everyone was happy again. Lots of fun getting to hang out - thank goodness my mom was here for those 2 weeks, it was easy doing the little bit of tidying needed for everyone to come. Somebody else had been signed up to host this week but sent out an email Tuesday that her son was sick so she wasn't going to be able to (not that any of us would have wanted to bring the flu home anyway!) I figured we might as well, I think all of us mommies care more about having a place to gather and let the kids play while we talk than we do about inspecting each others' houses with white gloves. Not to mention that with the new baby I've got us well stocked on snack foods, so no need to run to the store. Plus, this way I won't be hosting for a while so less worries as far as interfering with the house being on the market. Anyway, it went off without a hitch, except that I've got another headache so I think I was sort of fuzzy the whole time. Jenn and Henry got to stay for lunch after which was great, but I hope I didn't bore Jenn to death since I was pretty out of it, having just taken headache meds. The boys had a great time playing - for some reason both of them have been acting up a TON the last few days, so they spent a lot of the morning trading places in time out.
Off to change (another) diaper!