Last day of soccer

Today was the last day of soccer.  We'll pick it up again in the spring.  I can't believe how much both kids improved during the season, Eileen especially.  I don't think the kids fully comprehend they aren't going to soccer for several months. 

We got to pick up team pics today.

Afterwards, our friends, Colleen, Ari, and Vivian came over to play.  It was a great playdate.  The kids played well together while mommies talked. 

Eileen really loved Vivian.  She couldn't stop snuggling her.

Vivian, for her part, was willing to play along during a variety activities like building a spaceship.

Linus repeatedly asked to hold Vivian.  He even cleaned up all the mess (and there was a lot) in order to hold her one last time.

It's the days like these that don't make me miss working at all.

From the Mouths of Babes in November

Linus:  We need to hide the (Halloween) candy when Grandpa comes.  I don't want Grandpa to eat all the candy.

Linus:  I will get so angry if we don't get snow this winter that I will cancel winter.  Okay? All year. And if we get snow I will play in it.

Eileen:  I poopy. No fair. No fair.

Linus: I need to go outside and collect samples so I can learn about the world.

Dave: Night night Eileen.  Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Eileen:  Adios amigos.  See you soon.

Amid the drama of water damage in the basement, we've managed to have a lot of good family playtime this month.  There has been lots of Legos, wrestling, and pretend play.  Eileen is really beginning to hold her own.

November Rain

"And when your fears subside and shadows still remain, oh yeah
I know that you can love me when there's no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness we still can find a way
Nothin' lasts forever even cold November rain"  --Guns N Roses

If you live in Western Washington then you know that we've had a lot of rain recently, hard pounding rain with blistering winds and occasional thunder and lightning.  Normally, I find this a little romantic and fun--a little hot cider, a cozy blanket, maybe some board games or a good movie.  It's not like we live in a valley or flood zone......

Backtrack.  A few weeks ago I noticed that the floor molding in the guest room was coming away from the wall. I was worried maybe something was wrong with the foundation.  I tried to get a hold of several contractors, but no one seemed to want to call me back.

Monday.   It rained and rained and rained and rained.  It was practically right out of "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh."  Monday afternoon I walked downstairs and I noticed foot prints in the carpet.  I thought to myself, "That's weird.  I hope no one broke in again, but why rob the mostly empty guest room?"  I went to investigate.  As I stepped onto the carpet, the squish it made beneath my feet became unmistakeable.  The guest room was wet.  Further investigation revealed that parts of the main room were wet too.  Panicked, I called Dave and then tried another contractor recommended by a friend.  Miracle of miracles, he answered the phone and offered to come out first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, it continued to rain and the basement got wetter.

The contractor determined we had drainage problems on the north side of the house and a back drain.  We needed to construct a new drainage system.  Tuesday night a guy from a water damage company came out to review the situation.  He told us it was a category three. I asked if that meant it was not so bad.  He responded, "Uh no, that's the worst."  Wednesday a sewer guy came to snake the back drain only to find that it didn't need to be snaked, because it was really just a hole to nowhere, hence why it always overflows in heavy rain.  He was nice enough to not charge us.

On Thursday morning (Thanksgiving) Dave and I moved everything out of the basement.  We got creative with where to put stuff.  We used it as an opportunity to lose some furniture we had been thinking of getting rid of and dust some of those hard to reach places.

Right now we are waiting for bids.  Unfortunately, this all happened the week of Thanksgiving so everyone is not working.  Additionally, since a giant rainstorm happened lots of other people are dealing with water damage too.  The house smells like old wet towels.  It's gross.  We are looking at costly repairs.  In addition to a new drainage system we need to get new carpeting, take the wall of the bedroom down to bedrock, remove all insulation, and rebuild.  Costly repairs, probably not covered by insurance (we are waiting to hear from the claims adjuster).

On this Thanksgiving evening, I am trying to remember to be thankful.  I am part of an amazing family, I am able to stay home with my kids, and we have a house to name a few.  I am hoping that the carpets will be removed soon because then I can work on the improving the smell.  I fear our basement may be out of commission for a while.  I'm trying to stay positive.  I had been thinking it would be nice to replace the carpet and put on some fresh paint downstairs.  Nature has just forced our hand a little.

Cozy Cabin

Your perspective on a lot of things changes when you are a parent, especially of young children.  One of those is how you view birthdays, presents, and celebrations in general.  Dave and I thought by virtue of being an aunt and uncle, we knew what to expect and what pitfalls to avoid when it came to celebrations.  Despite our best efforts, we had yet to perfect how to pass the different milestones in our children's lives.

Linus had a first birthday party.  There have been no official parties since.  When we first got married, we went to two Thanksgiving one year.  We now rotate.  We also learned that three days of Christmas in a row is two days too many.  What is fun and exciting for adults, is overstimulating and exhausting for little ones.  Kids become unappreciative, demanding, screaming tyrants.

Besides my family's three birthdays close together (myself, Linus, and Eileen), the day after Eileen's birthday is my nephew, Dylan's, and the following day is my brother-in-law, Chris'.  That's a whole lot of birthday.  In an effort to prevent over-stimulation and exhaustion for both kids and adults, my sister, Beth, and I decided to just rent a cabin for a weekend and skip big celebrations.  It was one of the best decisions we ever made.

After an initial slow start due to car troubles, we had an amazing weekend.  We rented a cabin in Long Beach with its own private trail to the beach.  We played lots of board games, drank mulled wine and hot cider, sat by the fire, watched the winter storms, ate birthday cake, and let the kids just be kids.  There was no cell service, no internet, and no dvd player.  It was old school and a perfect escape.  The kids played great together.

We braved pelting winds and rain one morning and headed to the beach.

Proof we made it to the beach.

The walk back.

Twister

A little bit of the action was caught on video.  I call it, "Parents talk, kids play."

Roughhousing

My mother asked me to take a picture of the kids all together.  Eileen didn't quite cooperate.

Sometimes you go into vacations with little kids with high hopes of relaxation that are quickly dashed by the realities of life with small children.  This weekend was not one of those times.  I think it may have to become a new tradition.  I don't think anyone would complain.

Happy Birthday Eileen!

Fall means birthday season in the Dimock house.  Today is Eileen's second birthday.  I'm doing okay with it.  She is still a baby girl.  It's not until three that I have issues.

We tried to make her regular Thursday special.  After soccer practice, we stayed at Arena Sports and played in the bouncy houses, a very rare treat.  This was followed by Happy Meals for lunch at McDonald's.  After long naps by everyone (we were all thoroughly exhausted after a morning of soccer and bouncy houses), we made a quick trip over to Cupcake Royale to pick up some cupcakes and red velvet ice cream for later.

Linus had a much tougher time with Eileen's birthday than I did.  In his words, "I don't want Eileen to have a birthday."  I think this stemmed more from jealousy than not wanting Eileen to grow up.  After a brief rough patch, we had a lovely night.

Linus found a Playmobile catalog and spent copious amounts of time scouring its pages.

birthday girl, wearing her brother's shoes and practicing making the number four

playing statues, this may be one of my favorite pictures ever

Eileen asked for help opening presents and Linus was happy to oblige.

Dave and I gave Eileen a bunny family of calico critters with baby bunnies and a bunk bed.  My parents got her a little cottage carrying case for them.  Linus' jealousy kicked back in immediately when he saw them, but was willing to share her toys with her.  We also gave Eileen a doll potty so her dolls no longer had to use the play kitchen sink.  My friend, Heather, sent Eileen one of her favorite books and a doll high chair.  When Eileen saw the high chair, she repeated over and over again, "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!" 

Eileen prefers to eat baked goods by holding them to her mouth and slowly pushing them in.

Who needs a spoon when you can eat ice cream with your hand?

It was a lovely birthday at home.

Eileen at Two

Loves: doing whatever Linus is doing, putting on other people's shoes, singing, pretending to swim and fly, reading books, playing with the toy kitchen, being a baby jaguar, her dance/movement class, Diego, Dora, Batman, and Super Why, coffee shops, being wrapped up, and snuggling.

Dislikes: when Linus doesn't want to play, Mama is trying to cook dinner, not getting to do what Linus is doing, chicken, broccoli, and being told "no."

Eileen is one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  I relish how generally easy going she is and how much she likes to snuggle.  She will snuggle almost anyone.  I should probably be concerned.  Eileen has the ability to make people fall in love with her over her sweetness.  Although she is starting to express stronger opinions, I am remaining optimistic about what her "terrible twos" will look like.

Animal Rescue

There are a lot of television programs out there for the toddler preschool set, some more tolerable than others.  Linus loves television, Eileen thinks it's okay.  But one thing they can agree on is Diego.  In case you are unaware, Diego is Dora the Explorer's cousin.  Often with the help of Baby Jaguar, Diego goes all around the world rescuing baby animals.  Linus asked for a baby jaguar of the stuffed variety for his birthday.  Baby Jaguar now accompanies us everywhere and sleeps in bed with Linus.

Tonight after watching a very stirring episode of Diego on Netflix, the kids decided they would play "animals rescue," or rather, Linus decided and then Eileen insisted on being included.

They are wearing scuba packs.  There was an oil spill.  They needed to get all the baby animals to shore (the furniture) and then vacuum up all the oil. Many pictures were not suitable to publish due to an lack of clothing on Eileen's part.  Apparently, clothes are not required to rescue baby animals and handle toxic substances.

Sadly, there is only one episode left of Diego to watch and then the children will be forced to re-watch episodes. Shudder.

Earlier to combat the cold, the kids dressed themselves.  I take no credit.

Linus is a blue ninja.

Halloween Bats

Another year, another 31 days of Halloween come and gone.  We had Halloween tattoos, grew witches and skeletons, made spooky necklaces and cookies, and much more.  Today all our preparation culminated with bats.

Sure it would have been nice if I had hand stitched the costumes myself.  But when one compares the cost of fabric to the cost of buying on ebay, really there is no comparison.  Linus decided in September that he was going to be a bat.  Knowing that Eileen wants whatever Linus has, it made sense that they would both be bats.  This was confirmed when Linus' costume arrived in the mail and Eileen freaked out.

They were very cute bats.

waiting patiently on the porch

She doesn't understand that you must take off the wrapper to eat the candy.

Did I mention they were vampire bats?  I don't think Linus actually knows what vampires are, but knows they are supposed to be very spooky.

We trick or treated in the Ballard shopping district, umbrellas in hand.  Linus refused to get out of the car at first, preferring to just be obstinate.  However, after the first trick or treat candy, it was full steam ahead.  Eileen was a big hit with her vampire teeth binky.

I would like to give a shout out to the spa/boutique that handed out $10 gift cards with the candy.  I also want to give a thumbs down to all the shops handing out dinner mints or dum dum lollipops.  My favorite part remains visiting the retirement home, where the residents wait with cookies, coffee, and hot cocoa.  I loved seeing all the creativity with costumes.  I keep telling myself "next year."  My goal is to "next year" not only have creative costumes for the kids, but one for myself as well.

After dinner, Dave headed out with the kids.  They only went to few houses and were gone maybe thirty minutes.  However, they did make sure to visit Linus' teacher.  It turns out she only lives a little less than a block away.  I stayed home, answer the door to trick-or-treaters, and read a textbook about classroom management for a class I am taking.

I am pleased to say that I got a lot of compliments on my pumpkins.  I gave full credit to the makers of Mr. Potato Head and the patterns you can trace.

Eileen is modeling her vampire teeth binky. 

The kids finally fell asleep about two hours past bedtime, over sugared and over tired.  I already double checked.  The kids' dentist is doing a candy buy-back again.  I think I know what tomorrow's afternoon activity is going to be....