So Much To Do, So Little Time

Well, the good news is that we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. The bad news is that even though blogging and keeping you all updated since the move is high on my priority list, it is low on the "things-that-require-brainpower" list.

So, I think for this post I'm going to have to randomly bullet list what has happened in the last month as they come to mind. Maybe I'll throw in a quick picture or two if they're readily available.

• Simon turned 7 months old yesterday (the 6th, in case I don't get this done and posted tonight). He officially began scooting forward. This is in addition to his being able to scoot backwards, being able to turn in circles on his belly, and rolling. His moving has motivation now. Will I ever be able to keep the floor clear of chokeable objects? That talk at conference last October kinda freaked me out.


• TMI alert! Asher went on the potty today!! He's not quite 2.5 years old, but has been showing interest in the potty lately. I, for one, am not feeling ready to train. I mean, it's only been a year since Moses won the potty battle. I'm still kind of reeling from that. But today, as I was finishing up in there, Asher was adamant that he needed to go potty on the toilet, so I set him up and told him to tell me when he was done. A couple minutes later, I hear him yell, "Mommy! I all done!" Sure enough, he had gone. He even used a tiny piece of toilet paper to wipe himself. I was thoroughly surprised and proud. So, next time Asher tells me he wants to sit on the potty... well, you know...
  
  

  

  My kids have a knack for falling asleep in chairs.






Any chair.



• We drove up to Portland and had Thanksgiving with Mike, Chelsie, Liam, and the twins, Luke and Jude. It was fun to finally meet the babies, who were almost 11 months old already. Our kids had a ton of fun playing with Liam.
  
  I had fun cooking Thanksgiving dinner with Chelsie. I totally nailed the pies. I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a pastry mat, a pastry blender, and some crust shields. It totally made a difference in how my pies turned out. Wish I had bought those utensils five years ago.
  
  

  

  Chelsie and the three baldies: Luke, Simon, and Jude.

  

  I'm so proud of these pie crusts. The pie filling that went in them was superb, too. But aren't the crusts pretty?

  

  One side of the spread.

  

  The other side of the spread. Those pumpkin rolls in the front that Chelsie  whipped up at the last minute were sooo tasty. 

  

  The Thanksgiving chefs. Akiko helped with the turkey and the crescent rolls. Jude only helped eat.

  

  I love my brother and his family!



• Akiko and Moses are enjoying their new schools.
  
  Akiko was put into the 2nd/3rd split class. There are too many 2nd graders for one class, but not enough for two. Same with the 3rd graders. I really like Akiko's teacher. She's really sweet and has helped make the transition to a new school easy for Akiko. She told me that Akiko is capble of doing 3rd grade work (though she has to keep her with the rest of the 2nd graders) and is obviously beyond some of the 3rd graders, but I just had to throw that in there to brag.
  
  Moses just barely finished his first week of preschool today. He seems to enjoy it. He didn't want to leave today when I came to pick him up, so I think he likes it. He can't seem to recall what he learned on any given day, but I learned with Akiko, that it's just an age/developmental thing. He's the kind of kid who will just start talking to you and you just realize he's been talking to you for the last several minutes, so by the time you start listening, you have no idea what he's talking about. So, if he's been telling me about what happened at school, chances are, I missed hearing him say so.


• Our new house is really cool. A lot bigger than our old house. That translates into a lot more to clean. My routine for getting things done has totally been thrown for a loop. I'm trying to figure out where things should go and some of the stuff we have just doesn't fit.
  
  This was a stressful move for me. We have twice as many kids as last time and, it seems, twice as much stuff. But now we're here and I can take my time unpacking and organizing. The laundry schedule has been totally messed up. And having bedrooms upstairs and downstairs has me going up and down and up and down all day because I forgot something or other. At least I'm getting my exercise.


• Originally, Akiko and Moses had their own rooms downstairs, while the little kids were upstairs with Joseph and me. We had to move Asher downstairs with Moses. Asher, like his sister at age two, has a hard time going to bed, and he kept waking up the baby with late night tantrums. He also liked to climb into the crib and yell, "Good morning, baby!! Wake up!!" So, he's back to sharing a room with his big brother, who happens to sleep like a rock.
  
  

  

  Asher looks so innocent, doesn't he?



• I cut my hair short. Just a bob, not a pixie. I've been at odds with my hair ever since I was pregnant with Asher. I've also sported the same haircut, more or less, since high school. I needed a change. I also needed a way to better camouflage the horribly frizzy new growth from Simon's pregnancy. This is just one small victory in my war with my hair. Now that I've bored you all to death with hair talk...


• I can't think of anything else right now, so I'm leaving the biggest news for last. We got  Joseph got us a cat!! His name is Sparky. Joseph was trying to get the kids to name him Jiji, but they didn't catch on to his hints. Akiko's first choice was "Snowflake", but since he's a black kitty... So, Sparky it is. He's a sweet kitty. Just a few days younger than Simon.
  
  The kids are nuts about him. My favorite thing so far is Asher going around the house looking for him, or else walking up to him while he's napping and yelling, "CAT! CAAAAAAT!" Asher does a lot of yelling, if you hadn't noticed.
  
  

  

  Meow.

This kitty gets no alone time. Then when he does, like at night when we're all asleep, he gets lonely. Silly kitty.

And as promised, here are some pictures of our new town. I apologize about the Main Street pictures. They were taken from the dashboard as we drove down it. The other pictures are from the baby's window.