188, Lansford, tomatoes

Another week to be all over the place.
We started the week with Grady's eye appointment - which all looked good.
I also had my first appointment. Due to some health questions, I ended up having an ultrasound and there was a little bean with little limbs. Hard to believe some days that we are here again and everytime I see our babies for the first time I'm always amazed. I tear up each time and hold my breath waiting for news on the heartbeat. 188 beats per minute this time and a confirmed due date of February 28th. Matt finally will get his winter baby.

At the end of the week, we headed north to Lansford. We hadn't
been for awhile and we hadn't seen Kevin for awhile so it was good to be there to catch up with him. Matt had fun sharing the big news with him and he took it well and is excited for us. We will probably wait a few weeks before we tell more, including my work. While we were there, Matt and I left the kids and went to the airshow at the base. Matt and I take in air shows in very different ways. I like to sit and watch the show happen from a shaded perch underneath the wing of a plane eating snacks. Matt likes to wander around to ensure he doesn't miss anything. Meanwhile, back at Grandma's house, Eleanor faux-adopted the newest kitty that has moved in on them. We get back to Eleanor holding the kitty around the middle going "look, my kitty!" Grandpa was concerned about her being a little too rough/loving with the kitty but Kevin and I agreed, if the kitty wouldn't like it or didn't want the attention, he wouldn't continue to crowd her for more affection. Matt wouldn't take the bet that the kitty isn't temporary to their house.

When we got home on Sunday, it was nice to relax with the kids while they played outside, the weather has been beautiful and the yard is a common place for all of us to be. Whether they play in their house or in their cars or on their dad, it has been fun to just let them spread out a bit. Grady's steps aren't consistent so he does make me nervous on the pavement and around Hurricane Eleanor but we are getting there.

Their favorite place is the garden plants. E will help out with a harvest any day of the week. She'll eat anything out there.. yumyum peppers, beans, peas, and her favorite continues to be cherry tomatoes.

ALR in kitchen.
MJR and EER and GRR coming up the deck stairs: Go take it to mom.
MJR: Show Mom.
ALR; What do you have?
EER has nothing in her hands.
MJR: Eleanor where are those tomatoes that I gave you to show mom?!
EER: In my mouth!

Zoo, Park, News

We spent time at the zoo this week... so much time.
Not only did we have the annual members supper, which we went to with friends but we also went to the Farmers Union Family night, where Dad served Dinner. He wore a red shirt - which was the uniform of the evening. It was so odd to me to see him in public in a t-shirt. The meals were good but the Farmers Union one may have been better, Grady loved the homemade shredded beef, the homemade buns were a beautiful addition that I liked.

Other than that the week was fairly slow. Work occupied our time. We ran errands on the weekend. E now knows how to look for parks and constantly suggests that we go visit or points out ones that she'd like to play at. Grady likes the swings - he gets to giggling.

The other big news came out. We purchased two frames.. with three slots for pictures in each frame. We put Eleanor in one hole in both sets and Grady in another... this leaves the third slot open. We presented the parents with a frame each. Matt and I did find the response interesting. Michele and Randy commented on Eleanor's hair and how long it had been. Matt finally told them the third picture would come in February and then answered their question of because that's when the baby is coming.
My parents did pick up on it a little quicker, asking who the third slot was! Was good to start telling people.

First day back to daycare after a few days off.
MJR: Do you see this?
ALR: No, I've been running late this morning, what should I see?
MJR: Them.
ALR: What's wrong with them?
MJR: They are sleeping.
ALR: Still?
MJR: Yes. Weekend or day off and they pop out of bed between 6:30 and 7 and cry and beat on their doors and demand that we be awake but the day that they should be functioning there is no moving. 
ALR: I think this may be a preview of the rest of your life.
MJR: We are raising jerks.
ALR: Inconsiderate jerks.

Big Trucks, HFM, Siblings

It's been a big week at the Remynse house - not for one particular reason but because our street is finally being paved. That doesn't mean much to Matt and I BUT to Eleanor, that means a whole new set of traffic to watch and explain. Given the runway project that Matt has been watching and working on, his knowledge of construction has grown so he was able to explain things more in detail but to Eleanor, we had a simple explanation of what was going on... "Big Trucks."

What defines a Big Truck... anything larger than Dad's pickup or louder. Skidsteer = big truck, Semi = big truck, Grader = big truck, Roller = big truck... you get the point. We would watch them work on the road and even tell the crew "good job".. I'm not sure they appreciated the 2 year old praise or even heard it but it was said none the less. When they moved on to other streets, we would go for walks and look at the big trucks. And after they were done in our neighborhood, we know looked for them on drives around town. It was a life changing week.

Eleanor is also growing full well into her "independence" or bossiness or mothering. Now, when we play in her room, she will tell Matt or I to get into bed, and go to sleep. She will then cover us up with blankets, turn on the sound machine, shut off the light and proceed to yell at us to close our eyes and keep our head down... it's all very soothing.


We have spent a bit more time at home lately.. the kids came home with hand,
foot, and mouth. So that means a couple days away from the daycare. Not exactly what Matt and I were hoping for as our plates are full at work but it was also good to slow down with both kids. Grady got it worse than Eleanor with a full body rash and blistered broke open bumps. E got it too but I think all things considered we came out relatively unscathed. After fevers broke and an attempt to get out of the house, we took them to the universal park and even set up the pool.

Eleanor had some quality Dad time while Grady was down for a nap. He and her washed the car. She was so intent on helping. Made me smile to watch it all play out. While he moved around the vehicle pretty thoroughly, she was pretty consistent in one spot and would scrub for a bit, throw her rag into the bucket, pick it back up and scrub that spot again.. and repeat. That was all fine until after Matt rinsed and began drying and she continued to focus her scrubbing on the specific spot. I'd like to think of this as presoft skill training.

Grady has begun to grow out of his shell a bit more... his personality is coming through. While we are easily down to one nap a day, the boy has become a bottomless pit for food. I'm not sure where it is all going but he will shovel food that he likes into his mouth more than E or I at some meals. He likes meat, will tolerate vegetables, and downs all fruit. He is starting to cruise furniture and takes on the stairs easily - if we come after him, he thinks it's funny... will begin to laugh and will try to go up them faster. He's retained his easy going nature and is quick to laugh. Daycare constantly says what an easy keeper he is and joy in their room.

Their relationship and tether to each other has become more and more obvious as they grown. E continues to call him her Grady-boy. He follows her around, does all he can to get to her toys, and watches her constantly. One of the mornings Matt stayed home with them, he was getting ready and heard her talking and him talking... and then it dawned on him, it was the same room. She had gotten out of her room, went into his and crawled into his crib.

Smell comes across the room.
MJR: Who pooped?
EER: Grady-boy.
MJR: I don't think so, he just did a little bit ago. Was it you, Eleanor?
EER: NO! Grady-boy pooped!
It wasn't Grady-boy.

Fireworks

The Fourth of July - an American holiday that kids are excited for and watch the skies. Well, we thought that this year may be the year for that for us. However at 9:30 when Eleanor looked at us and told us that she was tired and wanted to go to bed, we determined it probably wasn't going to be this year.

 

We actually celebrated a little earlier... after all Independence Day is really a celebration of liberty so we decided for our sanity to celebrate on the 3rd. We went and bought fireworks and went out to Mom and Dad's for supper and lighting them off. The hard part about summer in North Dakota is that it doesn't get dark until 10:00 practically and I was not going to let off fireworks that we had spent good money on in the light. So I insisted we wait - much to Matt's dismay. Sure we had some other distractions - wagon rides, new kitties, and snacks - but my children were ready for the show to be on the road. Grady crashed pretty early, which was no surprise - that boy likes a consistent bedtime. And E thought the fireworks were okay - she liked the fountains the best. Her dad preferred the roman candles.  He only burned up part of his shirt. They both liked chasing after the parachute. Nothing like carrying a bucket around looking for fireworks remains in the yard.

The next day, we did things a bit differently. We slept in until 7:45 - that's huge and then relaxed around the house. We got the bubble machine going, played in the yard. It was lowkey - there will be future days with parades and picnics and whatnot but why not appreciate these simple years.

The day after, we headed down to the lake to wade in. We haven't spent much time in/at the lake this year, we've wanted to dump the paddle boat in and go for a ride but it hasn't worked out and swimming with Grady hasn't always been conducive... it was fun to see them enjoy just wandering around. Sure there's always one (or two) who has to wade in too deep and get a wet diaper - causing the fun to be over and a walk to the house.

Big rocks, Gutters, Last time

We've been talking about landscaping now since before Eleanor was born. Well now we don't have the time to do the landscaping of the front and side of the house nor the money. Those kids really take it out of you - both time and money. I decided we needed to get on the same page for what we wanted to do. So we headed out to the farm to scour for some big rocks to help. When we got home, we worked on what we had and got things included in. I'm happy how it turned out.
**Spoiler alert: by the time this got blogged about the Clematis already croaked because we thought the sprinkler's covered the path of it. Well we know now it doesn't.

As the suns been out and the weather continues to stay hot and beautiful, we've been taking a lot of wagon walks with the kids. E INSISTS/DEMANDS on pulling Grady. This is fine because it wears her out and down but the walking is sooo slow. The speed is only further impeded by her turning around every couple paces to tell him to sit down. Which half the time he is, because the wagon is not moving fast enough, and half the time he isn't because he was just yelled at to sit down. It takes 45 minutes to go around the loop. There is no working up or breaking a sweat.

The other major accomplishment of the weekend was that I got on the roof and got the gutters cleaned out. Matt has never been a fan of heights and it needed to get done so I drug the hose up and over and around and we worked to get them cleared. I'm hoping we are good for another 5 years but he told me that we aren't.

EER with bucket of gutter remains
ALR: That's sludge
EER: Sludge?
ALR: Yes, sludge. Pick up your bucket, bring it along, we have more to pick up.
EER grunts
EER: uhhh, sludge heavy! 

We probably wouldn't have had me on the roof if we'd have known what we'd find out later that week. We are expecting! The last baby will come in late February next year. We are a little nervous, a little excited, a little scared, and a lot shellshocked when we think of the three littles all at once. But it'll be good and we look forward to keeping them all close together in age.

We'll let thing percolate a bit more before we starting too far down the rabbit hole with logistics and cribs and whatnot. I'll admit I'm nervous about telling people, not sure how the responses will go down.