I Think Yep

Sophia's new thing this week was she started to say "I think..." When asking her for an opinion she was say, "I think yep", "I think not", or "I think yeah". It is very cute.

James the other day, via video monitor, called out "Dada and Mama" and then on a walk said, "I want down"- three word phrases from the little boy who lets Sophia do all the talking. Amazing little man.

Emergency? Call Mom

So last night, while all of us were snug and warm in our cozy beds sound asleep at 2:45 AM...our house alarm goes off. I yell,"Jim! Alarm!" as I am jumping out of bed and sprinting down the hallway to James and Sophia. Must save the kids!! The alarm woke James up so I snatch him up and run into Sophia's room. I wait just inside Sophia's door, waiting for Jim to follow closely behind when I realize...he is not coming. He is just getting out of bed! I hear him starting to move a little faster in the bedroom and then he starts running around (for what I am not sure of). Then the phone rings - it's our security company. Jim answers the phone and starts talking to them. They turn off the alarm and I hear Jim say, "Karen, Zone 9 is a bedroom downstairs...is that the basement?! Should I go down to check?" I am thinking to myself "Hello!!??? Get your a** over here and have them call the police! Oh, and by the way, bring my cell phone." After that, I decided to take over with the course of action. Apparently if it isn't medical, Jim has to think things over before he reacts...he did this type of thing when we had our house fire too. (Of course all of this took about 20-30 seconds from the time the alarm went off but it seemed longer than that at the time. I shouldn't be so hard on Jim. He's been working hard.) Anyway, to shorten the story, the police came over to check out the outside of the house. No forced entry anywhere. A very friendly policeman came in and looked things over again inside the house. (I am sure he had a giggle at Jim's underwear and my old nightgown from college. He laughed at James' hair.) It turns out it was nothing, maybe a book fell and made the sensor go off. We all settled down and went back to sleep at around 3:45.

4:30 - House alarm goes off again! I am up and down the hall again like a lightening bolt. No time to think...must save the kids. Same thing happens. This time Jim is a little more awake. However, when we found out it was Zone 9 again we kept the police away and went down to check it out ourselves with the security system on the phone. Apparently we have a faulty glass break sensor. They are coming to fix it soon. Everyone back to bed, go to sleep. I finally went to sleep at around 5:15. What a long night.

Jim, James, and I were all very tired today.

Sophia, on the other hand, had a peaceful nights sleep. She didn't wake up to either alarm nor did she wake up when we were all in her room talking to the dispatcher.

School and James' 15 Month Check-Up

It's been a while since I have blogged. We have been very busy with moving/unpacking/etc. I will have an update on the move another time. Today was have some exciting news...the kids went to school today!! It is a Mom's Day Out program since the kids are not old enough to start a preschool. Either way it is great. They didn't cry or make a fuss. We dropped them off and 4 hours later picked them up. I loved it. Hopefully Sophia and James can start making friends and we can have play dates. Fun! I took a picture of the first day and will post it once I have downloaded the pics. Sophia talked about school all evening. She said she couldn't remember any of her new friends names but that Mrs. Neitzal found the mouse in the house and that was funny. Everyone laughed. Ahhh, to be a child again.

Before school we went to James' 15 month appointment. Suz (Dr. Bielski) said that James is doing great and is right on target. All developmental milestones have been met, which we already knew but it is always reassuring to hear it from the pediatrician. James weighs 25 pounds 6 ounces (70%ile) is 34 inches long (100%ile) and has a head circumference of 19 inches (80%ile). A few vaccines and he was ready to go.

This evening I interviewed a new babysitter and we love her. I told Sophia that she went to the same school as Kara so Sophia was very excited to meet her. It turns out the new babysitter goes to Chatard (Kara went to Cathedral) but we won't tell Sophia. Her name is Ellen and I think she will be around for a while. Yeah! What a good day!

Flowergirl for Hire

Does anyone need a flowergirl? It turns out my little Sophia is quite the performer. After preparing her (with books, videos, and talks of Princesses) for the important job for her cousin Jessica's wedding, Sophia was ready. She wore a yellow and white gown from Vietnam (which is where Jess Beeson - now Tocco - lives) with a flower crown of white daisies. She walked down the aisle holding hands with Lige (the other flowergirl) and carefully dropping yellow and white rose petals down the aisle. Every once in a while she would stop dropping flowers to look up at her Mamma and yell "Hi Mamma" with a sweet wave. She won the crowd! If there wasn't a beautiful bride getting married, I think Sophia would have won the show ;). Sophia is now ready for any other wedding as a flowergirl...Lisa - are you ready?

Anyway, now that the wedding is over, next on the list is Dad's birthday party. Dad turns 60!! I can't believe it! We (Beck, John, Carol, and I) rented the whole bowling alley in Brazil for the occasion. So far we have 125 RSVP yes but who knows how many will show up. Hopefully it will be a lot of fun for Dad. I know Mom has been stressed out (or at least doing a good job of stressing everyone else out) for about 3 weeks. She keeps insisting we do not have enough food. Luckily for us we are having appetizers and cake which means we are not responsible for starving people not getting a meal that day. Ahh, I love appetizers.

Story Time

Here is the conversation I had with Sophia today:


- Hey Mom! Hey Mom! Hey Mom! I have something to tell you.

- Yes Sophia. What is it?

- One day there was a girl and she was riding her bicycle. And she rode around and around. And then the storm cloud came. And then the prince said, " let's dance." And they dance and dance and they live happily ever after. The End. It was Cinderella Mom. The girl was Cinderella!


Story telling just started this last week but I haven't been able to remember them by the time I had a chance to blog until tonight. She told me this story after supper so I was able to remember it better. I am very impressed that she can do this since she isn't even 2 1/2 yet. She also told me the other day that leaves were green because of chlorophyll.

A funny thing about James. He has been going up to the refrigerator and yelling "Ahhb". I had no idea what he meant until he went up to the van before we left on errands and yelled "Ahhb". He is saying 'abre' (open in Spanish). Sophia does this to her van door and then I push the key fob to make it open. She thinks that by saying "abre" her door automatically opens. Apparently now James thinks the same thing too.

Pedal!

Today we were in the driveway playing and the neighbor boys came over (Jackson and Taylor). Sophia and James love playing with the boys. They had their bikes today. Sophia was watching the boys ride their bikes. She told us she wanted her tricycle so we got it out for her and she hopped on and with a little push, she started pedaling!!! She pedaled all around the driveway. We were very excited. She's funny though because as soon as the boys left, she went back to using her feet to push it along. Silly girl.

Housing update: things are going smoothly. I don't remember is I updated everyone but we bought a new house. It has plenty of bedrooms (5-6 - any visitors?), a playroom for the kids, full basement with pool table, poker table, and bar, exercise room, etc. The kitchen has lots of room and two seperate sinks (one for vegetables at one area of the kitchen and then one double regular sink by the window) so I am excited for that. Inspections are done and they went well. Expected repairs are needed on our current house, no surprises were reported. Our new house had a good inspection too with a few things that won't take long to get fixed by an electrician or plumber. We still have to negotiate on those items but I do not anticipate it being too bad. Let's pray that everything keeps going smoothly. I have lists galore of things to do. I even have a list of plants that I liked here at our current house so I can buy new and plant them at the new house. Can you believe that there are no maple trees planted at the new house?! I believe they have all River Birch and White Pines. I am going to need a maple tree that blooms yellow in the fall and a Colorado Blue Spruce.

Jim is working a lot this month. I hope he is getting enough rest. He had to do a lot of trades to be off dates in August and it just so happened that they all fell in July. He is doing well so far. Jim seems to have a good attitude most of the time and he hasn't lost it yet. I hope that doesn't change by the time he is finished working all of his shifts.

Let's see, James is the only one I haven't updated. He is cute and rotten at the same time :) He loves his school bus and if you try to play with him with it he will scowl at you. He is walking and climbing very well. He signs 'more' and 'want' when he needs something. He says daily: done, down, up, hi, Dad, high, no, yeah. He is started to get a better accuracy with pointing to pictures and is attempted to name pictures or say parts of a story now. He's so cute. Mostly though he is spoiled and Mama's/Sophia's Boy. What more can you ask for!

SOLD!

Well we finally sold our house - Yeah! Finally a good offer came in and we accepted, after a few counters of course. I do have mixed emotions. I love living where we do, especially the yard. But, I am very excited about our new house. We don't have one yet but we are going out tomorrow to look. Jim and I have looked for the past 3 years and only found a handful that we would be happy living in so wish us luck that we will get one that we want. Luckily there is one on the market that we really like.

Happy Independence Weekend!

Let's Pray

Yesterday James started to pray with us at meal time. It is so cute! Sophia has always been really good about this. She stops eating if she has already started and will pray with us before the meal. Sometimes she even reminds us that she is waiting to pray. Well, now James has joined in. He had the biggest smile on his face while we prayed and he kept his hands together. ADORABLE! Also tonight, at bedtime prayers, Sophia said, "Stop Mom. I want to say my own prayer." Then she did the sign of the cross and said her usual prayer. It was sweet because it was the first time she did the sign of the cross all by herself.

Not Much Going On

Well, there doesn't seem to be much going on here this week. Jim is working the banker's shift this week (which I hate). He is supposed to get off of work at 4 everyday but it always ends up being 5 or 5:30 or 6. Yuk! Anyway, the kids and I have been holding down the fort while he has been at work. We tried to go the to zoo 3 times this week but thunderstorms around the zoo kept us at home.

Jim and I did have a date night this week. We started off looking at 3 houses with our realtor. I found the house I LOVE. Unfortunately I am not so sure it is the one that Jim likes. He likes the other house we looked at better. We'll see what happens. The third house was way to modern for us but looked great on the outside. It all really doesn't matter though because we have to sell our house first. We have had several people who supposedly want to buy the house but have to sell their house first too. Last week we had someone who really likes it and they have an offer on their house but it hasn't been accepted yet. I guess they are still trying to work things out. We will see what happens there.

Tomorrow I am taking the kids to the Fishers Farmer's Market again. There is a women there who makes gerbera daisy hair bows (I have to call them bows otherwise Sophia won't wear them. They are really clips). I put in an order for 4 "bows" in specific colors last week and I am going to pick them up tomorrow. I can't wait!

Sunday we are going to pick up Mom. She is staying with Beck this week to help prep for baptism. I just ordered a new skirt for baptism and I hope it works out.

To Change or Not to Change...

Here's a question. Let's say, hypothetically of course :), that you have two small children in the bathtub. One pees in the water at the beginning of the bath. The other one thinks its funny and pees in the water also. Do you:

1) bath them in the pee and say "oh well, pee is sterile"
2) change the water immediately
3) Decide that you will only change the water if there are floaters in the bathtub (and by floaters I mean poop).

I'll see if I can add this as a poll and see what people think.