Mason rides!

It did not take all afternoon to teach Mason to ride (see previous post).  We went out, I held onto him for a few rides, then he took off!  Pretty good for a four year old.  He's working on starting, he has trouble getting going.  He's also afraid of turning.  I think getting the balancing part figured out is a great start.  He's only taken one big spill.  He got over it fairly quickly as he saw Sarah & the neighbor girls coming down the hill from the bus stop.  He was excited to show off for Shay, she's 6 (barely the same size as Mason) & still has training wheels.

Mason & his "contractions"

Mason is into tires & "contractions" right now, meaning the traction or tread on the tires.  He talks about various wheels & what has "contraction" & what does not all the time.  It's really quite funny.

Todd took Mason's training wheels off a while after this was filmed, at Mason's request, since his training wheels did not have "contraction".  Now he's rethinking that & wants his training wheels back on but I think he'll pick up on riding quite quickly, that is if I spend the rest of the day out there with him.

Emma's first haircut

Emma's in the airplane chair at Cookie Cutters not sure what to think.

She was mad to have the cape put on & even more mad to have a stranger squirting her hair & combing it.

Emma had a big tear on her cheek during this.  I don't think I've ever seen her so sober.
Almost done, just tolerating this.
All done, whew.  She's checking to make sure she has a ponytail to play with.  Emma likes to play with her ponytail all the time (happy, sad, sleepy, whenever).  I can't put anything but an elastic in her hair because she rips it out, but she wants the elastic because after a bath she has nothing up there to play with.

You can't tell from the picture, but her hair is just a bit shorter & finally even all around the bottom. 

How embarrassing!

Our new house is great inside.  The outside is not exactly what we wanted but we'll make it work.  Today proved this to me.  We had the fence posts installed today (poor guys, out there in rain/snow all day).  Anyway, when they were done & I was going over a final checklist with the installer, Mason & Emma came out the back door.  I hurried up the patio to grab Emma before she came out by herself & fell down the pit (see here for pictures, there are lots more weeds in the boulders now).  Then I planned to hold her as I finished the paperwork.  

Well, getting down the rocky patio proved to be more than I could do, I tripped over a boulder & fell all the way down, landing on top of Emma (luckily I held on to her & did not throw her or something).  She screamed but was okay.  I scraped my knees but did not put any holes in the knees of my pants (that would have been bad since they are maternity jobbers that I don't plan to replace any time soon).  So I have a bruised ego & bruised knees.  The installer was very nice & I was really embarrassed.  

I can't wait to do something about that patio & pit!  I really don't want to move in until it's done either, it's too dangerous, not just for the kids, but for me too.

spring has sprung

Today we woke up to snow.  Blah.  Now it has turned to a cold rain, not much better.

We've also got sick kids around here.  Sarah has strep throat (surprise surprise) & Mason has a whoppin ear infection.  Emma had an ear infection about 10 days ago, so we've got 3 bottle of amoxicillin in the fridge.  Target's color bands on top are coming in handy.

That's it from here.  Todd's enjoying himself in Rochester (more now that he's missed the fun few days around here I'm sure!).

Spring is here!

Sorry, this is kind of a random post.

Yesterday was a great first day of spring!  It actually felt like spring, temps were around 70, so nice!

Lori brought Isaac over & the kids had fun in the yard.  I spent some time weeding (or shall I say, spraying round-up on the weeds) & killing box elder bugs (if I move a single one of these bugs to my new house I'm going to scream).  I wish my new yard was bigger, but not quite as big as the one I've been taking care of this year, it's just too much!

Last night we had my niece Megan babysit (thanks on such short notice!).  We went to dinner & I drank 3 blackberry lemonades.  Then we went to a movie.  I thought I'd be in big trouble, needing to take a potty break.  Oh no, I think all 3 of those lemonades ended up in my legs, they were so puffy by the end of the show!  Looks like I've got a few fun months ahead for my legs.  Can't wait.

Today we braved a park by our house that has a pond.  Last summer the pond was pretty slimy, today it was not too bad.  The kids had fun throwing bread to some ducks.

Todd is on his way to Rochester to do some practice sessions for his oral boards.  I would love to be there with him, so would Sarah (to see Mary Jane of course).  Mason was a little confused & asked if the people who live in our house would be gone so Todd could stay there.  I told him daddy would be staying at a hotel.  Mason knows about that sort of thing since we spent our last week in Rochester in a hotel.

That's that around here!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here's my green bunch.  Sarah's shirt has a green part on the bottom.
Mason made this great hat at preschool today.  It was really cute to see 9 kids come running out in these.
I did not get a picture of Emma in her shoes today.  I got these at Target, they just make me laugh!  I'm not loving her in laces though, she works hard to untie them.

One lonely boy

Warning, whiny post!  It's been a tough few days!

Mason is one lonely little boy, poor kid.  There is only one other boy in our neighborhood his age, but he's not really available.  His mom home schools & they have 7 kids & it's just kind of crazy, so Mason has not played with him much. 

So, Mason's main playmate is me.  That's fine for a while, but has gotten really hard lately.  I am trying to get ready for our move, to clean out some closets & get a few things packed.  That's not what he has in mind though.  He wants me to play race cars or be a character from "Cars" or something else.  I can do it for a little while, but then I really have things that must be done.  It's gotten very frustrating this week! 

We got this airplane as a bonus with our swing set purchase for our new house.  We decided to put it up now (but now we are not looking forward to moving it).  Mason thinks it is fun (he insisted on wearing his goggles for flying it the first time).  The only problem with this is that it would be a lot more fun with other kids.  So, Mason wants me out there with him & wants Emma to play on this too.  She's just too little for it.  Once again, another frustration!

Here's Mason & Emma on the wiggle racers.  We got these for Christmas & this was the first time we took them outside.  Once again, fun toys, but Mason won't play on them unless I'm out there with him!

So, here's to hoping our new neighborhood has some friends for Mason, & Sarah too (that is if we ever get moved in)!

Emmaisms

This picture is titled "Mommy was enjoying doing the dishes without my help" or "What was mommy thinking (or not thinking)"
Emma does not give dolls are ride in the stroller, she prefers to push balls around.

Loaner

The past two Fridays our new car has been at the dealership.  The first was to have a DVD player installed.  The second was to have a new bumper installed.  The bumper had a crack in it when we bought the car.  We would have had it installed at the same time as the DVD player, but it had been painted the wrong color & we did not think we wanted it on our new car.

The first week, we were given our old Explorer as our loaner car.  We all thought it was fun to ride in it again & to take a few pictures.  I was happy to get to burn some of the gas I'd put in it the day before we'd traded it in.  

The next week we were once again given our old car.  I think that return was probably our final goodbye.  We are enjoying our new car & I finally let the kids use the DVD for drives to grandparents' homes this weekend.