Family Time

We had heard fantastic things about the Iowa State Fair, so it was a must on our summer bucket list.  I'm not sure where we went wrong, but that was a first and last for our little family.

Yes, we had fun checking out the animals, eating fried food on a stick and people-watching, but I'm confident we will not be spending that kind of money to tell our kids "No" to every carnival booth, fair ride, exotic animal exhibit and junk food stand in sight again.

We quickly forgot about that adventure in the name of bigger and better ones, though.  On Labor Day weekend we traveled to South Dakota to meet my family at Mt. Rushmore!  We took two days to get there, and of course, the hotel was a complete hit.

 And I'm pretty sure there is a law that says you can't drive through South Dakota without stopping at the Corn Palace.

 It was a great place to stretch our legs, anyway.

We also had to check out Dinosaur Park, where the kids had a blast climbing on the life-sized dinosaurs and enjoying the views.

 But, as the saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone uses a giant mud puddle as a slip-n-slide... or something like that.

And, in true compassionate parenting form, Jason and I just laughed and laughed at him.  He was a total mess!

The real fun started once we met up with our family.  We had a big house in the Black Hills that we all shared, and had a wonderful time visiting, eating good food, and relaxing.

 We went mining in the Black Hills and panned for gold (which Jason took waaay to seriously),

then headed over to Mt. Rushmore, which was incredible.

We obviously had a whole lot of fun because I have exactly zero pictures of our whole group together- which was my whole family except for my brother, his wife and their two kids, who just moved to Seattle.  One of the best parts of the trip was gathering everyone together and listening to my parents tell their grandkids stories about their grandparents.

We're not quite sure when we'll see everyone in my family again, so this was a delightful chance to enjoy being (almost) all together one more time this year.

Back to School

Leah started first grade a few weeks ago.  We closed on our house the day before school started, but didn't move in until that weekend.  As much as Jason wanted to spend the first night in the house on the floor, we opted for a good night's sleep in our beds.  The kids and I drove over to the house in the morning, parked the car and walked from there.  And we got there in time!

Her teacher is Mrs. Burk, and she has the fanciest classroom in the whole first grade.  School starts at 7:45 here, and I will probably never stop complaining about that.  We are just not early morning risers.  

It has been very fun walking/biking/scootering to school, though.  As we get to know more of the neighborhood kids, I imagine that Leah will be walking to and from school with friends before we know it (we are two blocks from the school- I love that I can see it from our front door).

 Leah's school has lockers outside of the classrooms- I love this "please stop taking pictures of me" smile.

Leah also lost her front tooth a few weeks back.  It got a huge gap and became super snaggly in the week leading up to the loss, and now she looks so grown up!   I love that pumpkin smile.

Adam started preschool this week!

He has really been looking forward to his chance to go to school, and he had absolutely no problem going and staying at preschool for the two and a half hours.  His class is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, and he told me all about his day when he got home yesterday (no surprise there- Adam is never at a loss for words).  His favorite part was the puzzles and the Lucky Charms that his teachers sent home (with a cute note- "We are so LUCKY to have you in our class!").  He got to be the weather helper on his first day and gets to be the snack helper next week.  He was politely cautious when we got to his classroom about what he could and couldn't do, and wanted to wait for direction from his teachers before touching anything.

He would probably even enjoy more preschool- many kids around here go to four- or five-day preschool- but I'm happy to have him gone a little and here a lot.  He is my energetic little buddy, and my heart was tugged constantly throughout the day yesterday as I realized that he will never be home with me all day every day again.  But I'm so proud of the sweet little boy that he continues to become, and I know that he is going to have a great time in school this year.  He isn't afraid to talk to anyone, and he makes people- especially me- smile with his sweet stories.

Preschool provides a bit of mommy-and-me time (for a few more weeks) for me and Emma.

Even though she is adamant that she should be going to preschool as well, and constantly asks about "my pee-kool? my pee-kool?", more often than not she is quite happy to sit near my side, playing with her dolls or flipping through books.  

And I think she quite enjoys the respite from her big brother and sister- it's always nice to have a chance to miss someone.  It makes them so much more delightful when they return home!

We have started going to a weekly toddler storytime at the library where she gets a nametag! and a hand stamp! 

I'm trying to soak up as much one-on-one time with her as I can before her little brother arrives and completely rocks her world.  

We Bought A House!

Six months to the day after we signed on for the ride... we closed on our house today!  It has been a surreal day.  One I've spent the last six months (or more) dreaming about, stressing over, and praying about.  And it's finally came!  The paperwork and whole signing-away-of-our-lives-as-we-know-it was actually quite painless, and now the real work begins.  The work for the workers is over, now the work for our family begins.

We are moving all of our furniture into the house on Saturday.  We will take a few small trips between now and then, and will spend our first night there on Saturday.  Jason wanted to spend the night there tonight on an air mattress and sleeping bags, but tomorrow is Leah's first day of first grade.  Given that she has to be at school almost an hour before she has even been waking up lately, I thought that might not be the best idea.  Which makes me a total party pooper, I know, but I certainly wouldn't want to go to my first day of school after sleeping in an unfamiliar, empty house on the floor.  Soon enough.

Our realtor asked me today what we are going to do once we're all unpacked and settled in.  I laughed and said, "Have a baby!"  And that is just about right- I've got 10 weeks to get this place in order!

I had to laugh (inside) at the housewarming basket that she brought us- Jason and I used to make fun of those baskets on HGTV- they seem to say "thank you for paying my salary for the month- have some fudge!"  Still, the kids thought it was so exciting that we had a present to open at the house today.

It has been hard for all of us to curtail our excitement with the house, but we've kept visits to a minimum to avoid getting in the workers way.  Every day for the last two weeks the kids have been praying to "please let the workers work faster."  I think they are just as excited as Jason and I to finally have the keys to our new place!

We've been asking ourselves again and again if we would do it all over again if we had the option, and the answer is still, "I don't know".  It has been hard.  It has been emotional.  It has been stressful.  It's been fun, too, and Jason and I have learned a lot about each other during this experience.  I'm grateful that, most of all, we've realized (or remembered) that stuff is just stuff and that we know what matters most.  In the whole six months we only had one notably tense moment (over that darn fireplace wall, I believe), which isn't too bad, considering we had to agree on everything from the design of the mudroom to the light fixtures to the paint colors.  Stuff is just stuff.  But still- we're pretty excited about it- as of today, it's our stuff!

Happy Birthday Emma Grace!

Emma is two! She is such a delight- she makes my heart melt with her big blue eyes and wispy hair and her great smile. She has so much to say every day- she's very much like her mama and knows just what she wants and what she doesn't want. She adds extra syllables to some of her words- 'choc-o-late-a-milk' or 'blankie-and-a-paci'. 

She loves babies, M&Ms and, sadly, beating on her big brother. I often have to stop her mid-swing from pummeling him with whatever blunt object she can find nearby to use as a weapon.  

She loves the idea of going swimming and playing at the park, but more often than not, can be found happily playing right at my feet. Especially if there is a suspicion that I might be leaving her. 

She does great in 'noo-see' (nursery) and is adamant that she will be attending preschool in the fall right along with Adam. She loves and needs both of her pink ladybug blankies at bedtime, and still prefers to keep a pac or two or three within arms reach.  

Some of my favorite Emma sayings are-

"Wook-it Mama!"  (Look it)

Dansa me Mama! (Dance with me)

"Wook-it Lee-lah!"

"Biddy biddy!" when she wants a little bit of something.

"Cozy cozy!" When she wants to be snuggled up tight. 

Emma passed out on the floor this morning and is now fast asleep with a touch of a fever. I'm hoping it's just related to the big molars that are sprouting up in the back of her mouth. She has been eating like a bird lately and has no interest in getting her teeth brushed- let's hope that's all it is!

"Foo-head.  Hot!"

Oh yeah, and she just turned two. So there is a little bit of two-year-oldness about her these days, too.  Thankfully we've been here before and at least know a bit on how to handle these moments.  Usually.

But my goodness, do we love this little girl.  She is happy, chatty, full of energy, and I always want to remember the way that she opens her eyes up wide and nods up and down when she wants me to agree with whatever she's about to say.  Which I usually do, just because she's so darn cute!

Lesson Learned

We continue to wait, inching closer and closer to our closing date!  Our house still looks like a mess to me- paint on the ceilings but not on the walls, mounds of dirt dotting the yard, dust everywhere, the master tub in the master closet, and a pile of appliances in the garage.  But our plans are coming together!  It is really fun to see the plans that we wrote down on paper turning into reality every day.

We're getting so excited to move in.  Jason and I used to joke about the kids that came into our newlywed apartment and questioned where the stairs were, as if a house couldn't be a home if it didn't have stairs.  Just the other day we had some friends over who asked where the basement full of toys is.  Nope, we don't currently have one of those, either.  But I think our kids are going to trump all of those innocent observations with their own comments about building a house, as if it is commonplace to have a crew of people working to build a house to your liking.  At Adam's well child check-up, the doctor asked if we were building a house.  Adam looked at her with confusion and said, "I'm not building a house.  The workers are building a house for me."  Oh dear.  True, but sounds a bit snobby, no?  I think we need to have a few more conversations about what a blessing it is that we get to build a house.  We have a great yard, an empty basement full of possibilities (the kids always flock there when whenever we stop by), and really fantastic neighbors.  We have white cabinets and pretty hardwood floors and a sunroom that is, indeed, filled with light all day long.  It's a beautiful house, and it's going to be a whole lot of fun once we're finally in it.

But...

I've decided that building a house is a lot like being pregnant, in terms of complaining about it.  No one wants to hear it.  You chose to get pregnant/build a house, right?  You're happy about getting pregnant/building a house, right?  You're getting everything you want by being pregnant/building a house, right?  (This last one is definitely not true when it comes to building, but what we're building is certainly above and beyond some of the already built houses we were looking at buying) so no complaining allowed.

The things that I'm tempted to complain about are, for the most part, completely insignificant when I think about what an awesome blessing it is that we get to build a house.  There is a lot I've learned over the last 7 months though.  If you were to ask Jason and I a month ago if we would go through the building process again, we'd say no.  But ask again once we're settled in and loving our new place....

Here's the short list of my lessons learned.

*Be ready to second-guess your decision to build several times a month from the day you sign to the day you close.  The transition time from our move from Indiana to our move into our Iowa house is going to be over 7 months.  That is a long time to wonder why you were so picky- some days any other house will look far better than the house you are building, just because it's already there.

*I tend to be far more critical of my own craft projects than of those that I see others make. Building a house is criticizing-what-you're-making times a million.  All of the decisions are made, and we have to live with them, but we're also critical of the work of the builders and contractors- the pattern of the stone, the drips of paint, the quarter inch gap in woodwork- we notice it all.

*If you want to build a house, make sure you know what you want.  Don't just know what you don't want, otherwise what you don't want is exactly what you will get.  We knew we wanted built-ins and a nice hearth and mantle surrounding our fireplace, but we didn't know what exactly it should look like.  What they built was not what we wanted, even after we had sent them several pictures and architectural drawings of what we had in mind.  It wasn't what the carpenter had in mind.  That was not a pleasant day at the jobsite.  Similarly, I had an idea in mind for our mudroom, and it did not include putting 14 cubbies in a 5 foot space. Not sure what I wanted, just pretty sure it wasn't that.  Ahh, the organization, though!  That will be fun.

*Be prepared to have an opinion on every single thing that you never cared about or had even considered before.  The direction of the island.  The curve of the sidewalk.  The location of the light switches.  You get to pick!  And then, like it or not, you get to live with it.

*If you're going to build, surround yourself with a great team of people- you'll be working with them for a long time.  Make sure that they are people that have the same kind of vision of what looks nice as you do.  We had to build with a certain builder to get into the neighborhood we loved, and they build a great spec home.  But when you want to take out the columns and arches and add in bookshelves and a sunroom, things get complicated for a spec-home company. Find a company that has already done the kind of work that you have in mind and you know you'll get what you want.

*Document everything.  There was a whole lot of hand-waving at the beginning of this journey, and we communicated mostly through emails.  That has been key as we are hitting the point where the rubber meets the road- we can pull up old emails and remind the builders about the shower door they included in the plans, the extra window in the basement we added, or who is paying what at closing.

*Everything will take longer than you want it to.

*Everything will cost more than you want it to.

*Make sure you know what your real non-negotiables are.  If you absolutely must be in one neighborhood, you might just have to deal with people you don't communicate well with for 7 months to get a house built there.  If you must have white cabinetry but don't care where you live, you can probably find something suitable in a house that already exists and just paint it.  And save yourself the stress of building.

*Pick your battles.  Isn't this a life lesson?  We had a point last week where we had to decide what was more important- painting the stair trim instead of staining it, or closing on time.  You're not going to get every single thing you want, no matter how hard you try, so pick the most important things and realize that the rest can be fixed later.

Is it worth the wait?  I still don't know.  But when I see the bay window where we will put our Christmas tree this year and the basement where the kids race to play make-believe and the room where we will bring our baby boy home in October, I get pretty darn excited.  I have met several of our neighbors and continue to feel so good about where we will be and what kind of memories we will be making in our new home.

Just Life

Leah and Adam finished swim lessons today.  The weather here has been so bizarre- we skipped the last two days because it was cloudy and in the 60's- not swimming weather!  They had a great time today going down the slides and playing together, although neither of them is sad to see swim lessons end.

I've had some funny conversations with Adam lately.  We were trekking up our 18 stairs to our second floor apartment today, and Adam stopped to say, "Mom- I'm exhausting.... I'm just so exhausting"  I just smiled and (remembering the long morning of whining and tears over snatched toys) said, "Yes, yes you are."

While waiting to fall asleep tonight, Adam whispered loudly up to Leah, "Leah!  Are you bored?"

Adam has a pretty bad habit of sneaking into our bed in the middle of the night.  If I'm up for the struggle, I take him back to bed or tell him to get there on his own.  If not, I just scoot over and make room for him, which makes for a miserable night's sleep for all three and a half of us in the bed.  Yesterday I gave him a long and sincere lecture about the benefits of staying in his own bed all night long.  When I was tucking him in for the night, he had plenty to say about the people that were going to "climb the walls and swoop into our apartment and sneak into his room in the night."

"Who is going to do this?" I asked.

"The google-ers!" he declared emphatically.  "The google-ers are going to get me in the night."

That does sound pretty scary.

This view was my reward for getting up at 5:45 and taking a nice long walk the other morning.  It was one of those nights when I just couldn't stay in bed any longer so I got up and I walked over to our house, which is only about a mile and a half from our apartment, talking to myself all the while and wishing for the days when I had a running/walking partner.  For all of my fears about coming back to Iowa friendless, I have been having a great time getting to know new friends in our neighborhood, apartment complex, and church.  There are so many kind people here- I feel like this could turn into home after all.