Adventures in home life
Last weekend was busy!
I finally got Abigail's wading pool filled up and she was rarin' to go. The water was still too icy for me to do more than dip my toes, but she was all-in for a good 45 minutes. Then, with blue lips and chattering teeth, she finally conceded that she was cold. Then it turned rainy and a little cooler, so she only got one day of swimming, poor thing.
We got part of our cement project finished: 1 step created. Now we just have to do a small stretch of sidewalk and our cement work is done for this summer! And I got my first sunburn of the season. Someday I'll remember that, unlike the rest of my family, I DO need to wear sunscreen!
I also got more of the house cleaned up in anticipation of this weekend's friend fun-fest.
We also went refrigerator browsing. Ours has had a persistant draining problem (freezer constantly defrosting? we're not quite sure of the cause) that meant I needed to mop out the bottom every 3-4 days. And when I'd forget, I'd open the refrigerator door and be greeted by a gush of cold water on my toes. At Sears we found a Whirlpool side-by-side with water/ice in the door that meets our price requirements, so now we're just going to check online to see what we can find.
Posted by: Tamara on 7/03/2009 at 6:17 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: family fun, housework, summer
These times, they are a'changin'
Abigail is trying mightily to figure out time. She hears things like "yesterday," "tomorrow," "next week" and "this year" and you can just see the gears in motion as she attempts to figure out how long that is.
Last weekend, she was angling for a trip to the DQ and was told that we weren't going to go right then because it was nap time. Her response: "We go this year after I wake up?"
I hope she doesn't have plans to become Sleeping Beauty, because she's a little young for a prince to be kissing her.
Abigail also has become very big on knowing what time it is. And vague descriptions such as "lunchtime" and "tickletime" just don't cut it. If that time has a "thirty" tacked on to it, so much the better. And if you're not near a clock to check, Abigail has the amazing ability to tell you what time it is anyway. It's often 17:31 or some such time, and we don't run on military time.
I guess I'll have to start teaching her about the big hand and the little hand on the clock. And we are working on the days of the week.
Posted by: Tamara on 6/30/2009 at 8:21 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: learning, parenting, time
Best of intentions
Things I've meant to do this week to beat the heat: dig out/clean up/fill the wading pool for Abigail, set up the new Slip-n-Slide she got over the weekend.
Things I've done this week to beat the heat: saunter my way through every aisle of the refrigerated/frozen food section at the grocery store, hang out in the house in front of the AC window unit.
Clearly, I've got the plan. Now I just need to work on my execution...
Posted by: Tamara on 6/25/2009 at 3:41 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: family fun, parenting, summer
Splinters are no fun, for anyone
Abigail got a splinter today playing outside. She came over to show me and tell me it hurt. It was shoved into her finger deep. I suggested we go inside and get it out, but she insisted she'd be OK playing for a little bit longer. That lasted 2 minutes.
So we went in and washed our hands well with soap and I dug out a pin and tweezers and a little hydrogen peroxide.
Abigail didn't like the looks of the pin at all. And as any parent knows, getting a 3-year-old to be still for any length of time is impossible.
Then the crying, screaming and major squirming began.
I hadn't even touched her with the pin before the bloody murder screams began. I finally wrestled her hand into a relatively firm hold to try to bring the splinter up to pull it out. Every time I nearly had it, she'd pull away, managing to get a poke nowhere near the splinter site. Of course, this did not help the situation.
When I finally got ahold of the splinter with the tweezers, I managed to pull most of it out, but a tiny fragment stuck, so out came the pin again.
A few more off-target jabs and then, success, and the whole splinter was out! A quick dab with a little peroxide to watch the bubbles work and a princess bandage and the job was done. An extra cuddle and a kiss, and everything was OK again.
Total time since entering the house to wrapping the bandage: 35 minutes.
I (faintly) remember putting up a big fuss getting splinters out when I was little, too. But I wasn't that bad, was I, Mom?
Posted by: Tamara on 6/21/2009 at 5:21 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Getting excited
July will be a big month for our household.
First up is the Fourth of July weekend. High school friends and their families will be visiting. Five children younger than 5 (and their parents) in my house for a few days. If nothing else, it will be interesting! But I predict much fun, too.
Next up is a visit from my parents. And when they leave, Abigail goes with them to the farm. She'll get to see a baby cow, drive the tractor, help in the garden and all sorts of other things. She's already planning what sort of fun she'll have with Grandma and Grandpa without Mommy and Daddy around. She's very excited for her time there, and Mommy and Daddy are, too. Our big plans for that time include staining the deck. And maybe a date or two.
Then we'll have a trip to North Dakota for an extended-family picnic with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., and an Abigail retrieval.
A little bit of the fun spills into August when Abigail gets to spend more time away from home, this time in the Cities with her other grandma.
I'm getting tired just thinking about it! Now, if we can just make it through June...
Posted by: Tamara on 6/15/2009 at 11:23 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: family fun, friends, grandparents, travel
Let's go out to the movies!
Abigail has had another first! We took her to her first movie in a theater on Sunday and saw "Up".
Abigail tries to figure out how to not get folded up in the seat. We ended up stuffing all our
coats behind her and she just sat on the front part of the seat and leaned against them.
Because the building excitement is nearly as much fun as the actual event, we started talking about it on Friday. But all Abigail seemed to care about was which snack she would get at the theater: "I have pah-corn at 'heater?" was the refrain for the weekend. No worries about the movie or the dark or sitting by herself, just wanted to make sure she would get some popcorn. She got popcorn.
That bucket wasn't just for her; we made her share.
It went quite well. She laughed at funny parts, asked a few questions (relatively quietly) during the movie, sat on my lap for a little while, stood up and watched for a while, and asked to go to the bathroom once. Not bad if you ask me. Especially since we had a chair kicker right behind us.
And when the movie was done, she and Daddy played a video game of her choosing.
I fully expect her to talk about this for the next week or so. :-)
Posted by: Tamara on 6/10/2009 at 8:37 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Tags: family fun, family time, movies
Kids still say the darnedest things
Overheard at my house recently ...
"I'm not naughty, I'm happy!" (Well, that makes one of us! Whenever we accuse Ramsey of being naughty, this is his immediate response. Does that mean he associates "well-behaved" and "sadness" as being opposites, too?)
"Don't stop believin'." (Maura doing her best -- or worst -- impression of the Journey classic. With apologies to Steve Perry. Apparently it's featured at the end of the Adam Sandler movie "Bedtime Stories" and that's where she picked it up. Not from my CD collection.)
"Goodbye, John Deere." (Since our neighbor, John, was working on our John Deere mower the other day, Ramsey just assumed that his name was John Deere.)
You've got to love kids' expressions. It keeps us on our toes. I wonder what my kids will say today. ...
Posted by: Rick on 6/05/2009 at 5:00 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink