Paul-iwog

In honor of Paul's 10-month birthday tomorrow, here's the latest on my little man.

My little happy man. He is (generally) such an easy going guy. He likes everyone. Likes to clap his hands. He says "Dada" and "Mama".

He's a big boy - not a surprise there. He is already in his 12-month clothes. He loves to eat everything that I give him. He really hasn't turned up his nose at anything yet. Loves fruit though - which is funny cause we couldn't get Grace to eat for years. He will chow down cantaloupe, watermelon, and grapes like nobody's business.

He has 8 teeth already, and I think that there might be more on the way. I think the back molars might be on the move cause I think I can spy the little marks on his upper jaw. I'm hoping that is the case as he hasn't been the best sleeper lately.

I was so proud of my man for a while there. Around 7 months or so he started sleeping most of the night through. I thought I was going to have it made in the shade as Grace had basically just started sleeping through the night at 2 years! But then.... he changed his mind and seems to be more on "let's wake up a couple times during the night and then rise up nice and early for mom!" He's ready to play usually around 6:30am. I'm not. Especially when I just was up with him at 5am.


And now, Paul-iwog is on the move. He started crawling a couple weeks ago and nothing holds him back now. Well, nothing except for his baby cage.
He typically will play in there for quite a while. But when he's done... well, he's done.

And now, I have two months to plan for his birthday party! I already have the theme picked out. But I'll leave that for another story.... oooh... the suspense.

Getting It Done

So after I bared my "dirty" secrets yesterday, I wanted to share that I was moved to action today. Between Grace and I, we got things done.

I have a clean and non-eek bathroom now! Yay!

Clear the Air

Things are finally starting to feel more normal. Hallelujah! I am getting back into a routine - my Type A-ness just demands a routine. I am back to making my meal schedules, laundry is under control, and the house doesn't quite look like it has been hit by a tornado.

But I have a problem. I have to overcome some bad habits that I've created during these past few months. It started back when we put the house on the market. In order to keep the house looking good - I had to skip some of my heavy-duty cleaning in order to do general pick-up so frequently. Then, in the process of moving, I threw my hands in the air and gave up trying to keep things clean, and then after we moved and were still unpacking, I figured, why bother right now - what's the point?

Well the point is now that I have a dirty bathroom. I'm eeked out by my own bathroom. So I need to get my hands out the air and back on the scrub brush.

Ok, I really wasn't going to go on a diatribe on my cleanliness here, but I guess I needed to confess in order to clear the air... or should I say CLEAN the air.

But I'm working on these bad habits. I did some cleaning today in our living area. I also disposed of the pile of stuff that had been lingering in the corner for weeks. (The pre-move Sara would never let things linger for weeks.) We had a garage sale at my mom's house a couple weeks back and I brought back a box of some stuff that didn't sell, and a box of stuff I filched from my uncle, along with some random things like signs, tape and stickers. So I finally grew tired of looking at it, and cleared it out today. I gave myself a good pat on the back.

And just for fun, I'm going to share my garage sale signs that I threw out today. I had several people comment on them. I had fun with them.

The Cat is Out of the Bag.... or House

So I have to admit something that I have been having a little bit of guilt about the past few days.

We recently had a household squabble. There was some shrieking. Some hiding. I kept the kids close to me.

And then...

Mr. D threw out the cat.

Her new home is outside our front door.

And I feel a little guilty because I didn't do much to stop it. I just watched, and to be honest, deep down, I'm rather glad.

Poor Kitters.

See, this cat isn't a real people-person kind of cat. She hides most of the time, isn't very friendly, and frankly, isn't even nice looking. She doesn't have the proper hygiene skills that a cat should have - she gets matted, dirty, and I have to wipe her bottom. Seriously, I have enough bottoms to wipe without adding on a cat's.

We had an incident a few weeks ago that involved pee-pee in Paul's room, poo in the office, and well, an unhappy Mr. and Mrs. D. The cat had been wearing its welcome thin the past few months. Okay, really, the past few years. Basically since I've had kids. I could tolerate her before the kids. But now, she's just in my way. Buying food and litter just aggravates me, and I generally kept her around cause I didn't know what else to do with her.

Well, now, I guess Mr. D solved that for me. However, I still feel a twinge of guilt when I see her sitting in the front planter.

But at the same time, she doesn't seem to be that perturbed. Maybe this is a good thing for her. You know, some fresh air, dirt in her paws, she can wipe her bottom in the planter rather than in my baby's room!

Yes, I think this is a good thing for her...It sure is for us!

The End of the Fish Party

Okay, so seriously, this is it in regards to fish party nonsense. I promise. However, I did get all the pictures from the party loaded and I just wanted to share a few more. And then we'll move on to more exciting topics, like, cleaning up my office, organizing closets and how I've been line-drying all my clothes lately. I think my neighbors are probably thrilled seeing Mr. D's tightie-whities hanging out to dry. Or better yet, Paul's diapers. Nice. See, this has been out of necessity rather than a big environnmental or cost efficiency move on my party. Our dryer broke down the day before the "fish party."

Fish party...Oh yeah... pictures.

Here you go. And maybe things were more interesting when I was just talking about the party. I know I've really hit a fascinating topic when I brought up underwear.

The birthday girl!


Our "Ocean Oasis"



My Seashell Candies


Cake Time!
Ocean Cake

Fish Cake


Next, time for presents. One of the favorites was a bride/princess dress-up kit. Here is Princess Grace

The princess opening more packages


And, last but not least...
The Family