Ordinary Days: July 2013

On days #2 and #3 here in Boston, Sarah spent lots of time in her pack-n-play. She was just so tired and fussy and I'm sure confused with everything happening with the move, so all she wanted was to go to a safe place and suck her thumb. Sometimes she would have her stuffed animals with her, then she'd toss them out and fuss to get them back.  Usually when she was fussing somewhere in the house and I would ask her if she wanted to go rest in her bed, she would immediately head back to her room.  This pattern continued for a few days after we got her crib put together, but now things have settled down enough that she doesn't want to spend long portions of her day in her bed.  Instead she just fusses.  Lots.  Hopefully as she continues to acclimate to our new normal the fussing will start to decrease.  Hopefully.

Behold, the "cart-a-vator"!  Never seen this before in my life, but we all (especially Nathan) thought this was super cool.  The grocery store was on the second story of this building, so this handy-dandy contraption got the cart back to the ground floor so you could get your groceries to your car.  Nathan REALLY wanted to ride in the cart on the way down, but we vetoed the idea.

Our front-loading washer has been a source of entertainment for the kids.  They love to help load the clothes, then both want to help put the detergent in the dispenser, then they watch with fascination as the washer fills.  "Bubbles!", Sarah always exclaims as the detergent foams up right behind the window.

I have a bunch of pictures and movies from before our move about Nathan's new trike, hopefully soon I can catch up on all the posts from June that never got written.  Suffice it to say that we had to buy him a new trike and he LOVES it!  He rides it all around the apartment all the time.  Another favorite kids' toy?  The slide from Brian's childhood.  So here you go, two of our favorite children's toys!

Since Nathan LOVES his trike so much, I was certain that we would need to get one for Sarah as well.  I had researched and found the one I wanted online (Radio Flyer Steer and Stroll), but decided to wait until we got to Boston to purchase.  The day that we went to the grocery store with the cart-a-vator, I just happened to notice that we drove by a second-hand kids store.  On the way back I took another look and saw the trike I wanted sitting out front!  After calling and determining that yes, it was the trike I wanted and it was at a good price, we ran back out to get it.  Sarah, however, had different ideas.  She would barely sit on the trike for us because she was so enamored with this cozy coupe.  She has one that she LOVES at Nana and Grand Dad's house, but I decided it was just too big for the apartment.  We ended up not buying the trike after all!

What to say about this one?  Its almost always more fun (and always more goofy) when Daddy's home!

I mentioned in an earlier post that there was some woodcarving going on around here.  This was Brian's first creation with the carving knives he bought with birthday money: a ball in a box.  He carved it while we were watching the concert and fireworks on TV on the 4th of July.  He may or may not have stayed up until midnight to finish it. 

And a close-up.

Next he carved a stylized bird.  He made this one out of a piece of cedar that the still had in his desk from when he was about 10 years old!!  Here's the initial sketch.

 Then roughly finished after a long night of carving.

And the finished result.  Pretty impressive, I think!

Nathan's also taken up carving, of course.  Here's a "bird" that he "carved".

We are beginning to understand why people warned us about Boston traffic.  I feel about it kind of how I feel about motherhood - people told me it would be hard, I thought "Ha! How hard could it be?", and then I experienced it and realized that yes, motherhood can be pretty brutal sometimes.  Same with Boston traffic.  Add bad traffic to the fact that Sarah hates being in the car anyway and fusses after about 1 minute in her carseat - yeah, not fun.  I have realized that it calms her to hold onto my fingers (and usually suck her thumb), so I have started breaking my back and having a permanently numb arm so she can hold my hand and stop fussing.  This particular evening we had gone to Ikea and were already past bedtime on our way home.  Brian had to move Sarah's carseat to the middle so we could fit our purchases into the car, so Sarah and Nathan both got to hold onto my hand at the same time (however Nathan requested he NOT be in the picture, so that's why his head's only halfway in the picture.  I tried Nathan!).  Now I'm trying to prepare myself for when Brian goes back to work and I have to drive in the crazy traffic by myself and can't hold her hand anymore!  The thought makes the T sound even more appealing!