California trip pictures

Andre told me the other day that we had to put off having a second child so that he would have time to fill the house with gadgets. He's off to a good start with the new touch-screen thermostat complete with two remote controls. He did turn down my suggestion to change the doorbell music to play Darth Vader's Theme, however. Who's the big geek now? Huh? Huh?

My mom is here visiting from Arizona and we arranged for it to rain the entire time she was here just to show her how tough we are for living up here. Actually, we did have a break in the rain yesterday and she, Fiona and I all went to the zoo for a few hours. We checked out the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit and Fiona could have taken up residence there. She was determined that a butterfly was going to land on her arm. Finally, after about 45 minutes, she did have one land on her foot and she was pretty pleased with that.

We bought new living room furniture on Friday and Mom helped us get everything cleaned out and situated in the right spot. It feels great to have the family room set up and the living room looking nice. Our friends Sean and Aimee and their daughter Olivia came over last night for dinner and to see the newly organized house. We met them in our birthing class and Olivia and Fiona are almost exactly a month apart. Since we've moved we're only about 7 minutes away from each other. It would have been so nice to have the girls be able to play together now that they're old enough to want to. Sean just got a job in San Francisco, though, so they're moving! I'm happy for them, but we'll miss them.

We're almost, almost totally out of the old house. We have a couple of loads to take to the dump, a load or two to go to charity, and a couple more to bring back here. I'm not sure where exactly we'll put the last couple of loads coming here since our entire garage is stuffed to the brim. We can't even walk in there let alone put more stuff in. The problem being that the bottom floor isn't carpeted yet so we have all of the stuff that goes there in the living room and the garage. We haven't painted the bedrooms yet so we don't have all of that stuff up there yet and that's in the garage too. We didn't have enough time for a garage sale so that stuff is, you guessed it, in the garage. All in all I love the house. The garage is freaking me out though. How is all of that going to fit in the house? We have too much stuff.

Moving sucks!

So flying alone with an almost three year old = not so fun. It wasn't too bad when we had the whole row of seats to ourselves and she could roll around and be a pill to her heart's content. It was more of an issue on the way home when we had some poor guy stuck in the window seat cowering from the chocolate covered spoon (they served chocolate ice cream for a snack) and flailing feet. The real trouble started when she fell asleep with about 45 minutes left in the flight. All fine and dandy until the flight attendant told me I needed to rebuckle her in for the descent. A full toddler's fury at being cruelly awoken should never be experienced in an enclosed space. There was screaming and writhing and kicking and hitting and crumpling to the floor and more screaming. She finally shut up when the parents of three kids sitting in front of me gave me a baby toy to placate her with. She held it and stopped crying but still wouldn't let me buckle her in. The man in the window seat and I formed a completely-useless-in-an-emergency human hand shield to keep her from falling off the seat and conspired not to let the flight attendant know that they had an unbuckled toddler on their hands. Thank god that's over.

"Draduation" was nice from what I saw of it. Really too long for grown-ups let alone toddlers. We got to see Tamara get her diploma and walk across the stage and then made our getaway. We all went out to dinner that night with Tamara and her very nice friends and her roomate's family. I was worried about dinner at a late hour, but Fiona made me look like an overprotective mother by being completly charming and quizzing everyone about where they had bones and whether or not flowers have bones.

Yesterday was Disneyland. The morning got off to kind of a rough start. I think Fiona was a little overwhelmed by all the people. We rode the Astro Orbiter (which terrifies me, but Fiona loved) avoided a near encounter with the dreaded Captain Hook, checked out the teacups and had the dolls sing to us at it's a small world. The Jungle Cruise was extra exciting with a small boat collision - we all survived. We also rode the incredibly boring new Pooh ride and then got rejected by Pooh and friends in the meet & greet line when break time rolled around. Fiona had a screaming kicking meltdown and we made a quick getaway from the park to eat and have naptime. A nice long nap helped immensely (for all of us) and we headed back to the park. Fiona spotted Goofy and Minnie right away and got to meet both of them. Then we rode the choo choo train over to Toon Town and met Mickey Mouse in his house. Fiona was disappointed that she couldn't go in Goofy's Bounce House but was consoled by the promise of pizza and ice cream. After dinner, it was time for the Astro Orbiter again. Fiona wanted to ride by herself! Auntie convinced her that kids under the age of three needed an adult along. We hit it's a small world again before leaving and saw the fireworks from our hotel parking lot. Phew! What a day! I don't think I've ever had a more exhausting day at Disneyland.

Tomorrow Fiona goes back to school and the moving process begins!

We're off to California today. Wish me luck on flying with a toddler during naptime!

We had an exciting weekend of painting the kitchen and dining room. We had planned on painting the kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms and the family room. Please feel free to laugh all you want; I don't know what we were thinking. The kitchen/dining rooms look freaking awesome in the red though. I love it. So when you come to my house you had better ooh and ahh over the kitchen because if you say you don't like it you're not allowed to come back.

Andre also ripped up all the nasty carpet in the basement and laid some tile in the laundry room. The last owners had carpet in the laundry area. Who carpets the laundry room? That seems like the opposite of smart to me.

Fiona watched about 3 bazillion hours of TV while we were painting. Poor kid.

Two more days until we leave for California. I'm ridiculously excited. The last two times I've actually left the state have been trips to North Dakota. whee. I'm used to traveling widely and frequently and have a major case of claustrophobia from all these damn green trees and bushes.

It's official! We're homeowners! We got the keys on Monday and have already started painting. Andre took the day off yesterday (on his birthday) and started painting the kitchen a deep shade of red. RED! We don't have to live with white walls anymore. And you know what? If we don't like the red, we could paint the kitchen purple or green or puce (is puce green?) or yellow or hyacinth or polka dots or stripes. You know why? Because it's ours. OURS! I'm feeling drunk with painting possibilities.

This weekend is going to be a wild painting bonanza if we're going to move on schedule. I am so happy and so completely exhausted just thinking about moving. I've moved seven times in the last 10 years. I'm so ready to settle down and maybe, just maybe, throw boxes away instead of hoarding them for the next move.

Fiona Easter pics

Looks like packing it is. The mortgage folks didn't get the money disbursed in time to get the papers to the courthouse, so the earliest we can get into the house is Monday. I think we'll have some late nights painting in the next couple of weeks. It's actually probably for the best. The landlords at the current place would like to start showing the house to the next potential renters which means the house needs to look somewhat presentable in the midst of packing everything up and moving. Wheee! What fun! I love packing things up and cleaning at the same time!

I think this whole moving thing is totally freaking Fiona out. She seems excited about moving, but she's been incredibly timid the past week or two. Whenever she hears a noise or sees something move outside she comes screaming and racing over to the closest parent sobbing about being scared of the squirrel or bird or airplane or whatever. Last night after she went to bed she started screaming in her bedroom. I went into her room and asked her what the matter was. She said she heard a motorcycle and asked, "What his name is? The man on the motorcycle?" I said I didn't know. She screamed, "What his name is?! What his name is?!" I said, "Uh, Jack maybe?" She said, "My Jack? My friend from school? I like him. He's nice. Night night, Mommy." Uh, ok, freaky child.