Thursday, June 23, 2011

Writing Letters to Grandma Vickie


Mom: "What does it say?"

Edgar: "I love you. And this says, 'I love Daddy."
"And this one says 'Sabrina'"
"I will do this part: 'Edgar'"

Mom: "Who are we going to send them to?"
"Grandma Vickie!"


"I show you. I...Loooooove....GrandmaVickie"
"I'm doing it very well for Vicke to take it out of the mailbox."
"MY mailbox."

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Moving Day (...Week...Month...)

We are officially moved in our new house! Unpacked? Nope. Not even close. Feel like home? Yeah. It kinda does! It sure seems like it took forever to finally get here (we were "closing any day" back at the beginning of April), but we are finally here and settling into our new home.
This has been quite the adventure--and the kids have done great through it all. Edgar has honestly gotten very good with tools and helping daddy fix stuff. Okay, it still adds an extra couple of hours onto any project to have Edgar help, but he is really screwing in screws and hammering in nails--and LOVING every moment of it. "I'm gonna lay down for this one" is something we hear a lot around here. Accompanied by Edgar laying down to screw something in or examine a nail or screw. It's pretty darn cute. 

 Poor kid--his routines were all messed up for a few weeks. More than once he fell asleep in his highchair. I love this picture--he honestly fell asleep mid-bite. Fork made it into his mouth, but not back down. (=
This was right before dinner. We tried to skip his nap that day. It didn't go so well! You can see Sabrina playing happily amongst boxes in the background.
 This cute girl just keeps getting cuter! She is 5 1/2 months. Sabrina likes to roll around on the ground, isn't quite sitting yet, loves to pull off and chew her socks, says, "da-da-da-da-da" and "blah-blah-blah", sleeps ALL NIGHT, is super happy, and LOVES her mommy, daddy, and brother.

My heart is full of happiness for my cute little family. On one hand, we are feeling a little lost, having just been separated from our other "family." For nine years we have loved living in our tiny little apartment--living in the basement of Heather House--under the floorboards of some of the greatest friends we could have. It has been this little chunk of an ideal world. In our home we have seen 2 families grow from newlyweds to a family of 4 (making us a big family of 8). By the end of our stay it was not unusual to have dinner together a few times a week, to run to the store and pick up a few things for the other family, to go out on a date and have someone to baby-monitor-sit for us, and to interact with our friends every day. And, yes, I am getting all sentimental about it. We have all said (more than once) that it has felt like the final episode of Friends around Heather House.

We are lucky to be just a short walk away, but it will never be the same again. It is the end of an era. It is a little lonely in our big house.

On the other hand, it is so fun to have our own house. We are really growing together more as we work together to set up our home. It is a little overwhelming sometimes--all of the homeowner responsibility stuff--but it is a really exciting time of life in our family. I look forward to lots of new memories in this home. Each game of badminton in the backyard, each routine of doing chores in the morning with Edgar, each bedtime story, each dinner around our kitchen table--each of these moments help to fill up this big house and to really make it ours.  

Monday, June 6, 2011

Bedtime Stories and San Diego

Kicking it in the back seat.
Our bedtime ritual now includes lots of stories. We start them, Edgar [fills in the blanks]. There are some constant elements.
  • Almost everyone in the bedtime story is named [Edgar]. (Edgar the crabby. Edgar the chicken. Edgar the clam. Edgar the monkey. Edgar the fish. Edgar the boy. Edgar the Edgar).
  • The main character in the story is very [busy] and really likes to [run].
  • Someone drives a [motorcycle] that is [green] and really [fast].
  • They always go to [grandma's house]--but they often go the long way. Like through the ocean, flying up up in the air, via the moon, etc.
  • Edgar and company [walks up the stairs] and [pushes the ding dong button] and grandma slowly opens the door and says, [boo boo boo! I love you!]

Tonight I laughed lots. Tonight Edgar the [Edgar] and his friend [Alex the Lion] went to [San Diego]. Then, they wanted to go to [grandma's house]. But, they got there and [grandma wasn't there]. They wanted to see [Grandma Vickie, Grandma Lester (?!?), Grandma Carmichael, Grandma Betty, and Grandma Marcia]--but no one was there...[All of the grandmas were in San Diego]!

They were asleep in the subway. All of them.
There aren't too many places in Edgar's world. Home. Church. The store. Daddy's work. Grandma's house. And...San Diego. (On account of Madagascar). This morning, our little friend upstairs (1 year old girl) was trying out a little ride-on car. She is very little, so the car wasn't going anywhere. Edgar looked at her and said to me (very seriously), "she is NOT going to San Diego."
p.s. has anyone seen my camera? or my wallet? *sigh* hope to have pictures and time soon to update about our new house (!!!!) etc.