Snowing

We finally have our first snowfall of the season. Today is day three of the on and off snowfall. The snow is falling so slowly that our accumulation so far has been maybe four inches. The kids were really excited. We spent about two hours outside on Thursday and another hour yesterday. I became cold yesterday and wanted to come inside. Nyla wanted to come with me and Bohdin didn't want to be by himself. He could have happily stayed out another hour if I had. The snow was way too dry to make snowballs or snowmen so Bohdin has been making piles, trails, snow angels, and cleaning the driveway and my car. We forgot to buy a snow shovel so we used a broom the best we could. Buddy had to drive my car to work yesterday so even though the roads were clear enough to drive to the store we had no way to get there. Buddy may need a new battery for his truck. Both of our cars must be in shock. This is the coldest weather they've encountered in over two years. The picture above is from our front yard. Bohdin is about on our property line. The neighborhood looks so pretty with the trees and the snow. We picked this neighborhood because it was older and more established. The picture below is in our backyard. It looks like there are small kids who live next door but we've never anybody there.







Bohdin and Nyla have been playing trains a lot recently. In the past few weeks Nyla has learned all of the names of the trains. Bohdin has five Thomases and he wanted to get rid of some of them because he had too many. They were in the donate bag but I never managed to get it to the thrift store. That turned out to be a good thing because now we don't seem to have enough. One has a funny face, another has decoration, and one has a lot of wear and tear. That leaves two Thomases that must be accounted for at all times. That's not so easy in this big house. We have had a lot of tears over this. Nyla will misplace her train so she takes Bohdin's train. He gets mad. He has switched to other engines which is great since it makes everybody's life easier.

Us Knights

Bohdin, Nyla, and Buddy were in the basement this weekend. Nyla came upstairs crying over something. After she calmed down I asked her if she wanted to help me in the kitchen. She replied "No. Me boy." and went back down into the basement. Her answers have now changed to "me knight". So when I ask her is she is ready to get out of the bathtub she says "No. Me knight". Sometimes we are all knights. She has also been a dragon knight and snowman knight. I don't know why knights can't do the things I ask but I guess it makes sense to her. Sometimes it applies to a group thing. When I ask Bohdin and Nyla if they want to read a book Nyla says they can't because they are knights.

Buddy thought that since we have a dedicated playroom which is in the back of the picture through the door the toys would not be spread out throughout the house. That hasn't been the case at all. There are toys in every room of the house except the bathrooms. The worst of the toy mess is in the kitchen so we have to step over multiple toys to eat dinner in the dining room.



Buddy finished the pole for Nyla's closet. She really likes being able to reach her stuff. They've only pulled everything off the pole one time so far.



Nyla brushing Bohdin's teeth.

Shoes

I think for practicality reasons we've given up redoing the stairs or at least I have. We are getting used to them. The kitchen on the other hand seems to be getting worse by the day. I despise the dishwasher since it doesn't clean well. The new one will be here next week. We still need to address the space and layout issues of the kitchen. We've been working with an online design program trying to come up with solutions. We found one we liked but just out of curiosity I scrapped everything to see if I could do something different. I did and it involves less work. We can really only expand in one direction and that is by knocking out the wall behind the stove. The wall behind the stove is mostly living room but just to the left of that the house bumps out and there is a bathroom. The bathroom has a large shower which we would eliminate. There are no bedrooms on the first floor and there are three additional full baths in the house. I don't think anybody would choose that weird shower over a bigger kitchen. In addition we want a better door to the back. Right now one has to pass through a narrow laundry room to get to the back door. It's ugly. The second plan would keep the laundry in basically the same spot but put it in a closet instead. At first I balked at the idea but it would open up the floor plan and look better than what we have now. Most laundry rooms are really pass through rooms to a garage or something anyway. The laundry area wouldn't be any smaller. In fact with the built in shelves we have in mind it would actually be larger. I think it's a more effecient use of space. Plan #1 has the laundry area in a shared space with the bathroom which I also thought was weird at first but it can be done beautifully.

These pictures were taken before closing. I can't take pictures now because the kitchen is too messy. There isn't a home for everything yet.



This is the second living room. The door on the left leads into the bathroom. That is the shower that is visible. The sink and toilet are to the door through another door. The door on the left has the narrow laundry room and the back door.



To the left is the dining room. We can't figure out an easy way to expand the kitchen toward that because of the bay window. Even if we did we would still want to make a better door to the exterior which would involve removing the shower. It's still a possiblity though. The house has a brick exterior except for the bay window area so it would be easier I suppose to put in shorter windows. That area seems to small for much of a table anyway but that would eliminate any possibitly of being an eat in kitchen. We can't add an island due to the width of the room. We have basement stairs on one side and exterior on the other. Neither of those walls are moving.



One of the other changes we are making is a closet system for Nyla so she can reach her clothes. Buddy bought some lumber yesterday so he could put in shelves and a lower rod. We chose Nyla first because she cares what she wears. I can't remember the last time I was allowed to pick out her outfit. She always has at least some say in it. She will love having more of her stuff within reach. I'm not sure I will but we'll see. Bohdin on the other hand doesn't like to pick out his clothes. Almost every day I choose what he wears. He doesn't really care. The only thing he is picky about are his shoes. After a year in his previous shoes it was time for a new pair. He will only wear the Preschoolian brand of shoes. The are very flexible and light. For the past three years he has had the same style of slip on shoes which he loved but it was time for something different. The easy slip on was also easy to slip off and they were coming off with increased frequency. I chose the style but I let him design the colors. His first design was blue, red, purple, and green. We talked him down to only three colors. He would not budge on the red soles so we eliminated the green from the upper portion and replace it with red. He is very happy with his shoes. They are bright and certainly unique.



Buddy was in the basement the other day and I was calling out to him. Nyla was coming up the stairs at the time so she clearly heard me yelling "Buddy". She told me "No. Name daddy." I stand corrected.

Leapfrog

Playing

Christmas

We had a really wonderful quiet Christmas. It was also fun that both Bohdin and Nyla were excited about Christmas. Well maybe not Nyla so much but she was old enough this year to open presents and enjoy what she received. The biggest present was a horse from Nana and Papa. Being a clotheshorse I bought Nyla some new underwear. Some people would not like this present but Nyla is not one of those people. She immediately put on a new pair of underwear. She actually put on two. She changed her mind after putting the initial pair on. Nyla also recieved a drum and Backyardigan videos. She loves the robot episode.



Bohdin had a Playmobil Christmas per his wishlist. He loved everything he received and has spent many many hours playing with all of his new toys. Nyla is also having fun with it when Bohdin allows. Usually he is pretty picky about how people play with him but Nyla managed to do a bit. Bohdin also received a gear toy and a shovel.



Buddy's favorite present was the subscription to Netflix. He took huge advantage this weekend and watched two seasons of Dexter with instant download. Now I can have the computer back again for a little while. Hopefully he doesn't find another show soon to watch in marathon. My favorite present was a hat that a friend knitted for me.

Tumble Bumble

We have two huge issues we need to address in the house as soon as possible. One is the kitchen which is small and awkward. The other is the steepness of the stairs. I wondered who would fall down the stairs first and last night we had a winner. Bohdin needed to go downstairs for a certain blanket but didn't want to go by himself. Nyla wanted juice but couldn't pour it. They decided to work together. Nyla would go with him to the basement and he would get her juice. Bohdin went down the stairs first and Nyla tumbled down the steps behind him. Buddy rushed to get Nyla who was okay. She was crying and saying "Me tumble down the stairs. Me not hold on." I've reminded both kids numerous times to be careful and hold down when going down the steps. Less than 24 hours later it was Bohdin's turn. I talked to him in the kitchen and he walked away mad going down the stairs to the basement. I heard a loud thumping. He went down the stairs backwards on his back. He was okay but shook up. We had already decided to take care of this problem soon but these incidents sure reiterated the urgency.

Nyla had a messy mouth last night from eating ice cream. In the bathtub I was asking her what she ate that would give her such a messy face. She answered "My chicken, Bohdin's chicken, noodles, cereal". I thought it was funny that she made a distinction between her chicken and Bohdin's chicken. It was the same chicken just on different plates.

We were driving in the car yesterday afternoon near sunset. Bohdin looked out his window and noticed that "those clouds looks like they are squeezing the sun". There was a band a clouds above and below the clouds partially hiding the top and bottom of the sun.

Christmas tree

We don't have any Christmas decorations but Bohdin wanted them this year. I thought it might be a good idea to postpone Christmas by two days so I could get the tree and ornaments on clearance. It turns out I didn't need to. We stopped and Lowes and the Christmas stuff was already half off so Bohdin, Nyla, and I all picked out a container of ornaments each. Bohdin chose first. His choice was a giant bucket of gold ornaments. To keep with the theme I gave Nyla a few boxes to choose from that would be suitable. I had seen trees on sale at Target but couldn't decide between the nice expensive ones and the cheaper ones. I waited. After we found the ornaments I went back to find that the display trees were now 75% off. I was able to get the tree I wanted at the price I wanted. Bohdin was excited and we spent a lot of time decorating it. I didn't now that ornaments didn't come with hooks so I put thread on nearly 150 ornaments. The kids are pleased with the result. I've even found wrapping paper on clearance. I had no idea so many places cleared out their stuff so early. Christmas will be on time this year which is good for Bohdin because he can hardly wait.