Friend

I lived in Louisville many years ago and on Friday I had an old friend and her family over for dinner. I rarely have people over and maybe for good reason. Most people clean for company but our house was never messier than that evening. Our brand new dishwasher was on a one day strike which we can't figure out. It worked fine on Thursday and Saturday but not on Friday. The kitchen was overrun with dirty dishes. Nyla and Bohdin had been on a huge and messy painting streak which I hadn't completely cleaned up yet. Nyla danced that morning in the living room with an open container of paint in her hand. One big spin splashed pink paint everywhere. I covered the worst of that with a rug though. Despite us looking like we live in a pigsty we had fun. They have a 3.5 year old boy who Bohdin decided before hand to talk to. Talk they did. They had a blast playing together for the most part.

Bohdin and especially Nyla have been painting so much I decided to order their paint in bulk. Nyla can go through 2oz of pink paint in no time. That's her favorite color to use but it comes in a 10 pack. I ordered 2 gallons of pink paint which should arrive next week. I also went ahead and ordered several gallons of the other colors. We'll use it up eventually and I don't anticipate that it will take too long.

When we went to the commissary last week Nyla scanned her yogurt. Bohdin saw that and immediately wanted to scan the rest of the groceries. It slowed us down a lot and I wouldn't have let him do it if there was a long line behind us. So now instead of trying to unload the basket for me. Nyla tried to unload the basket but it's even harder for her. She was basically pushed aside and had to amuse herself by dancing or making snow angels on the floor. Bohdin scanned my stuff again at Walmart a few days ago. We'll need to get more efficient if he wants to keep us this form of helping.

Due

Bohdin would rather stay home than go to the store with me recently but Monday I convinced him to go to Costco with me. Costco is as far away from us as possible so I thought it might be our last trip. My membership expires this month. We stopped at Whole Foods first which was conveniently located next door to the Toys R Us. We stopped there for a few minutes and Bohdin was excited to see a train table that he could play with. Except for NYC we haven't seen one of those in a store in a long time. The Barnes and Noble in Maryland didn't have train tables. When we were in Colorado I took Bohdin to the bookstore often to play. We missed that in Maryland. I may have to try the book stores here because me reading something interesting gives him a lot more playing time.



A new series started on Disney this week that Bohdin is enjoying. The problem was that it interfered with story time yesterday. I tried to convince Bohdin that he would be better off going to story time than watching tv but he didn't agree so I just had to put my foot down. He does love story time so he wasn't sad for long. The room was set up with rows of chairs and the kids sitting in the front on the floor. I sent Bohdin and Nyla up there and found a seat a few rows back. I don't know what happened but Nyla became spooked. She came running to me scared. She wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my neck. In a few minutes she felt better but she never went back up to the front again. In fact she wasn't enjoying it even in the back. I gave her the library books to return, then she looked at some of the display books and then she colored for a bit. Bohdin was enjoying himself in the front and actually participated. He did the motions to the songs except the yelling part of "If you're happy and you know it". Bohdin covered him ears instead because it was too loud for him. He also talked. He's certainly growing up. After the stories and songs there was a craft. Nyla was quite excited about that. She spent quite a bit of time decorating her paper mittens. I was hoping to meet some boys but out of the dozen or so kids there every single one was a girl.

We've been going to the library frequently and every time we go we check out several Curious George books. Most of them are fine but one is particularly long. It is also the favorite. Buddy and I cringe when that one is chosen and it always is. I took it back yesterday even though it wasn't due. When I told Buddy he smiled and gave me a high five. We've been reading more in general since Nyla will lay quietly and enjoy the books. Yesterday we read more than 10 books. That is about our new average.

After Halloween Bohdin went with me to the store and we picked up a costume on clearance. I chose a size 7 or 8 so he would have room to grow into it. Since it was laying out in his room Bohdin decided to put it on. He thought it looked a little scary. Nyla ran around playing and screaming as only she can.

Backyard

Tuesday I took the kids to playgroup because Bohdin will need a new a friend. It was a bit of a long shot since kids his age often don't do that sort of event. The kids were even younger than I expected. Besides my kids the oldest one there was 18 months old. The kids still had a blast and didn't want to leave. Playgroup was held in the back of a store which used to be a house. They also have a small preschool there which was not in session at the time. The part that Bohdin and Nyla loved were the exercise balls they were able to play with in an empty room. They played with some of the other toys but this was by far the biggest hit. We are now the proud owners of exercise balls too but they're not as fun at home.

Much of this week has been devoted to planning the kitchen remodel. I never knew how much planning this would entail. We've barely scratched the surface. I think we have a final tentative plan. It needed to be modified over the weekend when Buddy discovered the wet wall. All of the plumbing to the second floor goes up through the wall we wanted to eliminate. So change of plans. It's working out okay so far. Buddy has offered to move the plumbing but I don't want him to mess with all of that. I think it will be a better use of time and money to work around it. Buddy also opened up a hole in the ceiling which is directly below the tub in the master bath. There are some cracks in the sealant between the tub and the tile. I never knew how important that caulk was. The dry wall was wet. One time when Bohdin was in the bathtub he turned the water on and was holding a toy near the spout. This allowed water into the crack. I was in the kitchen at the time and was shocked at the downpour of water. It was like a waterfall. I called upstairs to Buddy to turn the water off. Even when I took a shower the next morning the floor below in the kitchen was damp.

We're not in love with the kitchen but we do love the backyard. It has warmed up from the very cold temps of last week so we went outside this afternoon. After playing tag and kicking the ball we wandered into the forest behind our house. There is a trail maintained by the neighborhood which we followed for a short distance. We have a lot more exploring to do.

Three

The first day we went outside in the snow Bohdin couldn't find his snow boots. He had put them on the night before when he was stomping on bubble wrap. When he took the boots off one went under the table and the other he tossed down the basement steps. Shoes belong by the front door so they are easy to find. Bohdin doesn't have trouble with this but Nyla is always searching for shoes. Bohdin knew he should have put his shoes back where they belonged and he also knew I was not at all sympathetic to his problem. He didn't ask me for help. He asked Nyla and he wanted me to call Buddy also. He searched and searched the basement with no luck. He came upstairs upset. I suggested he pick up all of the books he had scattered on the basement floor and that might help him find his boot. I wasn't sure it would help him find his boot but he did need to pick up those books anyway. It worked. He found his boot. Hopefully we will have no more lapses about putting his shoes away. If only it worked so well for Buddy. He is forever losing his shoes. I laughed at him when he lost his pants a few weeks ago with his keys inside. How do you lose a pair of pants? It turns out it fell into a box of clothes in the bedroom but seeing him search the house wondering where he took off his pants was super funny. It took him days. Maybe that's why I try so hard to instill a sense of putting things where they belong in Bohdin and Nyla. I can see in Buddy what happens if this is never learned. Unfortunately I seem to be having little effect on Nyla. Perhaps misplacing things is genetic.

Our new dishwasher arrived Saturday morning. Buddy decided to do the install himself since they charged $150 to install it. It was a little trickier than he expected. The water shut off valve for the dishwasher didn't work so that took a little more time to figure out. There was some confusion about turning it off at the hot water heater but it was resolved. In all it took several hours to get it done but it works great and looks good. Buddy wanted to go for the stainless steel look and I'm glad I agreed. It looks very pretty. I can't include a picture because Nyla will laugh at me in 20 years about my ugly outdated dishwasher.

Buddy's truck wouldn't start Friday morning so he took my car instead. Sunday afternoon he checked the battery and the leads which both worked. We had assumed it was a weak battery. I had an appointment yesterday I couldn't cancel so we had to rent a car for a day. Monday morning the tow truck driver came and started the truck up. I wish we could have done that on Sunday so we could just drive it to the mechanic instead of paying for the tow. It started right up in neutral. Buddy was thinking it could be his transmission. His truck was sort of bucking or jumping at around the 35 mph mark. In addition he had trouble putting it into park on Thursday. It turns out it was a simple inexpensive repair. I can't remember the name of the part, it was something I have never heard of before, but it was a little bent. They were just able to adjust it and everything was fine. I don't remember the exact details of how it works but it solved all of the problems. We thought we were going to end up paying thousands of dollars for a new transmission. The repair cost less than a hundred.

Buddy has started doing some demolition work on the bathroom. He really ought to wear a mask but he won't listen to me. He makes a little bit of progress each night tearing out some tile. We need to get moving on the planning side of things now.


The appointment I had yesterday was my initial appointment for OB care. It's a military hospital and a very weird system so I was just seen by an ultrasound tech. Don't ask. Anyway we did the initial bloodwork and paperwork. In addition they did a quick ultrasound to check dates. Everything looks good for a mid July baby. I was supposed to go back again tonight at 7pm for the physical portion of the exam but I cancelled. I'm not sure I want to go with a military hospital. Being there just reminded me how impersonal and inefficient the care is at a military facility. I'm going to shop around off post. It can't be worse and it would at least be closer. Buddy, Nyla, and the Chinese gender predictor say girl. I say boy. Bohdin says boy and girl. He went on to explain that means he would be happy either way. I think Nyla will be excited about a baby until she sees how it supplants her unless she matures a lot in the next few months. She has been quite the mama's girl recently.

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.