The Puddle Formerly Known as Eileen

This is the puddle formerly known as Eileen.

 Eileen, used to look like this.

A happy, easy going child.  Eileen was happy to snuggle and go along with whatever the plan was as long as she was included.  Eileen turned two in November.  She began asserting some independence but nothing major.  We wondered if maybe we would escape the terrible twos.  Apparently not, it was just slowly building momentum.

This past weekend Eileen kicked the terrible twos into full gear.  O.M.G.  She is a whiny mess who has forgotten how to speak in a normal voice.  Anything not to her immediate satisfaction is met with a full on melt down.  There are no small events, only major catastrophies in her world.

Yesterday, she was in full meltdown mode from 9 am until 4:30 pm.  It was a long day but by the end I was trying not to laugh.  She gets so worked up that she throws herself to the ground, tries to get back up, only to fall down again.  Repeat about 20 times.  Finally, she is crying so hard she can barely breath and consents to just be held.  At which point I can make out the sound, "on" and she keeps pointing to my mouth.  This means she wants me to sing a song with my mouth. So pathetic.  As soon as she is calm, she remembers what upset her in the first place and repeats the tantrum. Soooo ridiculous.

Eileen in a moment of vertical-ness.

We didn't deal with this with Linus.  He was born with a naughty streak and started in timeout at the ripe old age of 14 months.  He is used to being told no.  Sure he has tantrums, less often these days, but never of quite the epic proportions of Eileen. 

I am hoping this phase leaves as quickly as it entered.  Otherwise it may be time to invest in a mop and some ear plugs.  Time to go wipe the puddle up off the floor...

Mustaches and the Mouths of Babes in February

As part of dressing like a man, Linus stressed his need for a mustache.  I happened to find some the other day.  He was pleased and took himself very seriously.

The babes provided lots of good quotes this month....

Me:  Let's go. Chop chop.
Linus: Timmm-berrrr!

Linus: love it! (sung it a high voice)

Eileen:  Yah sure

Linus:  Studying is not just a thing of the ancient past.  Ya know?

Linus:  I'm counting in my heart.  That's why I didn't say it out loud.

Linus:  Is that what you're wearing?
Me: Um yeah.  Is that okay?
Linus:  You look beautiful!

Linus:  We should get this cereal--it's called cocoa pebbles.  It's part of a complete breakfast.

**Eileen for her part has taken to using volcano and ninja to describe things, ie. volcano poops, volcano jump, ninja reading, etc.  Ninja also appears to be some sort of imaginary friend.

A couple of more pics of the the Schnitzel.

Frog after bath

Eileen insists on lying down on the stool while doing her business.  If that's what she requires to be potty trained, I'm happy to comply. 

In Search of Snow

It has been decidedly un-snowy this winter.  I know other places in Puget Sound have seen a little snow but Seattle has not.  I believe I saw it snow ever so slightly for about 10 minutes one afternoon but that's about it.  While it makes me a little sad, lack of snow can be devastating for children so young.  Today we headed out to the Snoqualmie Pass with our PEPs friends.

If you've never been,  just east of the Summit at Snoqualmie ski area is a much cheaper place to go sledding/sno-shoeing/cross country skiing.  At the Hyak exit, for the mere cost a daily sno-park permit ($20) and you Discover pass you can enjoy some snow play.  Over the years the sledding has been made a little safer.  They now have the sides for walking back up the hill marked off and there is even a staff member lining up sledders in rows and timing them down the hill so it is significantly less chaotic than it used to be.

The kids hit the slopes running.  We did a couple of trial runs on the bunny slope before going down the big hill.

Linus was quick to show his bravery his first time down.

Look mom, no hands!

Eileen went down with a parent the first few times before braving the bunny slope solo.

sibling love

building a snow fort while being pummeled with snowballs from Eileen

If you look closely, you will see Eileen has a snowball in hand and is making a sneak attack on Linus.

While building the fort two boys around age 9 started throwing snowballs at them.  Instead of getting upset, Linus and Dave engaged them and had a pretty solid snowball fight.  The boys tried to take cover behind a sled.  As much as he liked sledding, Linus actually preferred playing in the snow.  Eileen could not get enough of sledding.  She and Dave went down the big hill countless times.  She did a pretty good job walking back up the hill.

After a full morning of sledding and a filling lunch at a Mexican restaurant in North Bend, Eileen and I collapsed into sleep for meaty naps while Linus and Dave continued their ninja training.    Everyone will sleep well tonight.  It's really too bad we only go sledding once a year.

Business Woman

Before I became "Mommy" I was Charlotte, or more frequently called by my professional title, Mrs. Dimock.  I love staying at home with the kids.  I do not really miss my old job teaching middle school.  However, I do miss have an identity outside of Mommy.  I miss using the adult side of my brain, the intellectual part.  Sometimes I hate how much I struggle to hold conversations about non-parenting topics.  I miss contributing to the household finances.

After much reflection I decided to do something about it.  The benefit of my years at my former job is that I worked with some amazing teachers.  I knew that two of them had a tutoring business. Over winter break, I met up with my friend, Jan, to pick her brain about how to be a successful tutor.  The meeting was energizing.  I came away from the meeting feeling like tutoring might be a real solution for me--enjoy all the perks of teaching without the hassles.  After speaking with Jan, I contacted our former mutal co-worker, Mary Lou, who owned the tutoring business.  To my relief, she was glad to have me aboard! 

I am feeling very blessed right now.  I have been given the opportunity to work for an amazing friend and teacher.  I have wonderful mentors who will help me learn the ropes and set myself up for a long career as a tutor if I so choose. I will be working in an office in Edmonds so I won't have to worry about finding a quiet table at the library to use for tutoring. I also get to work with a highly respected neuro-psychologist. Clients will be referred to me so I hopefully won't have to spend too much time trying to build a clientele.  I already have my business cards made up so I feel very professional now. I plan to get a business license in the near future.

Right now the plan is to just work three Saturday mornings a month.  This way we won't have to pay for childcare.  This weekend is my first one with clients.  I already have two!  The pressure is on.  I definitely want to bone up on my upper math skills since it has been quite awhile since I used those.  I feel like I have so much to do to get ready, but I know that once I've been doing this for a few weeks I will find a good rhythm.  I'm really excited to help students again.

Goals for tomorrow: dig some of my teaching materials out of storage and buy a good day planner. 

While Mom Was Away

I had some business to take care of this weekend, which meant the kids got to spend a large portion of Saturday with Dave.  After returning home from swim lessons, Linus noticed our porches could use some cleaning.  Unlike me, Dave doesn't seem to mind projects that will involve messes and quickly put the kids to work.

Why use a scrub brush when you can use your tongue?

Yum.

 Onto the back porch!

Eileen loved this project.

Linus began to rethink the genius of his project.

While Dave wasn't paying attention, Eileen decided to brush her hair using the water from the bucket.  Ewww. 

When Daddy/Linus is in charge, there is no rest for the weary.  They moved downstairs for some more ninja training.

At the end of a long day, the kids were ready for a little bit of movie time before bed.

I'm not sure if the kids missed me while I was gone.  I do know that I came home to a cleaned front and back porch and happy kids so I have no complaints.

Ninja Training Facility

I can't believe it but we finally have our own ninja training facility, aka the basement is finished!  As you may recall, just before Thanksgiving our basement suffered some major water damage that required the removal of drywall and carpet.  Water came in on three sides of the house. Did I mention that nothing was covered by insurance?

Before we could do any repairs, we first had to stop the water.  This required digging new drainage systems on both sides of the house.  I'm telling you, our contractor, Rich, can dig ditches like nobody's business.  We then had to dig up the drain at the back of the house.  This was a slightly bigger project.  We had a water removal company help dry out the basement and remove water from the walls as well as remove all the drywall 18 inches from the ground.

My dad and brother volunteered to fix the drywall.  My brother came up whenever he had spare time to work on the project.  He also fixed other spots of the walls and ceiling that needed repair.  I can't thank the both of them enough. 

We contacted painters we had used before, Eagle Eye Painting.  They were running a special where they bought the paint.  I hate/suck at painting.  I'm really glad we went with them versus doing it ourselves. First, they did the whole thing in four days.  Second, they did lead containment.  Third, they did an awesome job, especially in some tricky spots.  Since we were having painters come, we decided to just buck up and shell out a little extra money to get some other areas painted that needed refreshing--the hallway, stairs, laundry room, and main floor bathroom.

After three months, we are done.  Carpet was installed today.  Several weeks ago Linus realized that with all the open space we now had down there, it would be perfect for serving as a ninja training facility.  We got rid of furniture when the whole water damage thing happened so there is technically space....  Linus loves his new ninja training space and has gotten right too work.  It's never too early to start training.

We used Sherwin William paint.  We used the same color for the main floor bathroom.  I wanted to use a lighter color (it was previously dark blue in the basement) to make the room brighter.  Mission accomplished. I also picked a higher pile carpet than we had before.

A nice light blue instead of creamy yellow.  This will slowly transition into Linus' room.

Painting the laundry room/bathroom was tricky. I was glad to have someone else tackle it. Previous color?  A mish mash of cream and plaster.

The aqua marine stairs with black stripping has been replaced with a beautful dark brown with grip mixed into the paint. The walls benefitted from some plaster work and fresh paint.

The kids went on a hike around the neighborhood while the carpet people worked.

Pulling books off the shelf + rocking on horse = multi-tasking

This venture put a major dent in our savings, but the upside is that part of the house got a major facelift.  The damage could have been much worse.  I suppose if you want to raise ninjas, you have to be willing to make an investment.

Simpler Adventures

We've been wracked by illness the past few weeks.  Nothing like a little norovirus to help you lose some weight. Blech.  The kids and Dave all had bad colds.  Needless to say, we've been a little less adventurous.

After missing a week due to illness, we made it back to Nurturing Pathways, Eileen's brain development/movement/music class.  Linus gets to tag along.  Instead of being grumpy (he finds the class to be beneath him), Linus decided to be a nice helper and big brother for a change. He even took over giving Eileen a sheet ride.

Yes, he is still wearing a bow tie and suspenders.

Eileen and I went shopping at the new Fred Meyer in Greenwood.  The place is dangerous.  It even has a Mighty-O donut display.  I admit to taking multiple free samples.

The kids and I headed to the zoo on Friday.  It was one of the easiest trips in a while.  Eileen walked almost the whole time.  For the first time in over a year, we didn't visit Bug World or the reptile house.  It was a good day.  The kids wanted to bring their babies so I made them wear their backpacks filled with all their other gear.  I didn't have to carry a thing, not even a purse.

Waiting for the jaguar.

Linus brought Baby Lucy out to show her the river otters.  Afterwards both kids carried their babies all around the zoo, causing fits of jealousy from passing children.

Today I made a good score on Craigslist.  I found a train table with drawers and a full train set for $45.  The plan is for it to also serve as a playmobile/lego table.  It'll go into the basement once we get carpet down there but for now we made room in the playroom.

On a final note, as I am writing this I can hear Dave playing the guitar and singing to the kids as he puts them to bed.  He just recently added the guitar to bedtime.  Even sweeter is that I can hear the kids singing along.  And that's why I love Dave.