So
cute.

Fresh from the bath (hence the hat), Eve settles
in for a morning nap. Or not! Moments after I took the picture
Lex decided to “visit” and that was the end of that :)

Lex has decided that the best seat in the house
for TV viewing is the stool on the hearth. Maybe looking
through the plant foliage somehow enhances the TV watching
experience??

Lex and Eve were on the same wavelength
all weekend… unfortunately it was the cranky one! Alan kept
saying, “they’re definitely siblings!”

Crazy man coloring with
markers
On the bright side
though, we finally got the whole yard raked!! I know, most
people do that in the fall, but we’re new here and have kids
and and and …. don’t judge me!! :) Just kidding. The back
yard was a huge mess of pine needles and garbage. Yep, garbage!
We found beer bottles, a water bottle holder for a bike, a bike
lock, a door jam, and so much more. Now all of that is gone and
we just have a big dirt spot in the back yard. Sooo much nicer
though :) Next step is to get some grass growing and then we’ll
be all set.

The veggie
garden
Speaking of grass,
Alan bought a lawn mower (electric, he’s very excited) and so
we’ll be mowing the lawn this week too. Oh the exiting news
from my house, huh?? It will be good to mow it, but I’ll kind
of miss the lovely purple and white violets and yellow
dandelions we currently have growing. Our front yard is quite
nice these days.

Our
house
After we get the
lawn under control, the next step is weeding and figuring out
the flower gardens. We are very lucky that the previous owners
planted such nice gardens and hopefully we’ll be able to keep
the alive.

Playing with the
neighbors (sorry you can’t see their
faces)
Have I mentioned
lately that I love our house??

PS. I added another video to YouTube. Look over
at the sidebar and click on the top video. Alan took it when
his parents and their friend Linda where here last weekend.
Nothing exciting, just cute.

Lex was playing in our downstairs shower
today (the one we keep the laundry baskets in :) ) A usual, he
was talking the whole time and the conversation went something
like:

LEX: “Want to get in
shower. Lex in shower. Sit in theshower. (meanwhile he has
tucked himself into the tub, under our laundry baskets) Lex in
the shower. Uncle Barney’s shower. Lex in Uncle Barney’s
shower.”

ME: “Uncle Barney’s
shower?”

LEX: “Yeah, Uncle Barney’s
shower!”

ME: “Ok”

LEX: (very serious and shaking his head) “That’s not Uncle
Barney’s shower. (happy again) That’s Lex’s shower!”

Where do kids come up with this
stuff? It’s been awhile since we’ve talked about B (shhhh….
don’t tell) and even longer since he’s showered here. Lex
cracks me up.

We spent the afternoon outside today. It
was beautiful. We went out to plant veggies in the garden and
our neighbors (daddy and 2yr old) came to help and another
neighbor (8yr old) also came to help. It was so fun. I dug
little trenches and they planted the seeds. Then the 8yr old
watered the garden and the little boys got their little rakes
and we raked the back yard for awhile. Our yard is full of pine
needles and leaves from last fall. The daddy also did some
raking, which was the most real help of the afternoon! The
three boys played together and had a great time. Eve wasn’t
sleeping very soundly and kept fussing, but around 5pm Jan, our
Good Beginnings volunteer, showed up and held Eve so I could do
some raking as well. It was a beautiful afternoon! I love our
house and our neighborhood.

I opened the skylights upstairs this
afternoon because it was so hot. We don’t open them often since
there are no screens, but I did today. Later, Alan took Lex up
for a bath. After his bath Lex ran into his room, “naked boy,”
he loves it. Alan took a minute longer in the bathroom then
went into Lex’s room, and found him standing on the back rail
of the changing table, face and arm out the skylight, trying to
climb up the wall. If Lex had thought to climb on the nearby
dresser we could have had a serious accident! Alan called for
me to come see (standing right next to Lex, of course, to keep
him safe). It was scary. Don’t think I’m opening that window
again! Or maybe we need to rearrange the furniture so he can’t
reach the skylight…

I know it’s been a
while here. I’ve been busy and oh so tired. Eve and Lex both
have lingering colds. She sleeps a lot and he cries a lot.
Luckily they don’t both cry a lot! There is always so much to
be done so I don’t end up sleeping as much as I probably
should.

We made our first attempt at
potty training this past weekend. It was ok, but not great. I
don’t think Lex is really ready for it yet, but I don’t think I
can deal with six more months of kicking and tantrums every
time I try to change his diaper. I’m trying to find a Love and
Logic way to handle it, but haven’t found anything yet, and I
find myself getting frustrated quickly when I’m tired, he’s
been crying all day, and now he’s kicking me and grabbing for a
poopy diaper. It’s hard to think clearly in situations like
that :) But we will survive. Still debating about how to handle
the potty training. Some friends recommended doing it outside,
which would be cool, but a little weird in our new
neighborhood. We did a “naked day” and Lex loved it, though I
don’t think he liked the constant attention as much. Alan and I
took turns watching him like a hawk in the hopes of preventing
“accidents” on the carpet. He used the potty a few times, but
used the carpet as well. Besides the vigilant watching, the
other hard part was that we couldn’t really do anything else.
Can’t do housework or anything and watch him close enough. It
was such a beautiful day too. “Naked day” ended up being only
half a day because when he woke up from his nap he asked to go
out outside “go outside, want to play with Jack” and it was so
nice and Alan and I really wanted to go outside as well. So
that was the end of potty training.

Anyway, along the lines of sleep, I should probably go
back to bed now. I’ll be up again soon enough.

Lex has taken to calling me “mamoo” or
“moomoo” or “memoo”. He’s very silly and only two (almost) so I
don’t get too offended :)

Today Lex and
I started a garden. Eve slept peacefully nearby. We dug a
rectangle (about 3′ x 6′) and turned over the earth and all
that good stuff. It ended up looking a bit like a fresh grave
:) Then we picked up Alan from work and popped over to our
local garden nursery to buy some Moo Doo (organic compost, the
people there said it was very good for gardening). Tomorrow Lex
and I will spread it out and maybe this weekend we’ll put some
seeds in the ground. We have carrots, green beans, peas,
cucumbers, and tomatoes (from seedlings, not seeds). I’m new to
gardening, so wish me luck!