Shelves and School

Before the kids went back to school, Scott tackled another major project - putting shelves in the closets for Cakes and Bubba. Since we moved into our new house back at the end of May, all of their stuff has just been heaped onto the closet floor and spilling out onto their bedroom floors too.  As with most home improvement projects, it turned out to be more complicated than expected when Scott discovered there were no studs where he expected/needed them in the wall. Which is odd, because in hanging things up on the walls so far we've found it hard to miss a stud. Scott, of course, engineered his way around that and spent pretty much all day long working on the project I  gave him. As usual, I forgot to take a real "before" picture, but this is all the stuff we took out of their closets while the shelves were being made:

Bubba's stuff



Cakes's stuff - YIKES!

 My job was taking everything out, keeping Scott fed and watered, and putting everything neatly back in the closet. He was outside doing a lot of this:

Earlier, I looked out the window and saw Silly helping out, just about gave me a heart attack seeing him standing right next to the saw, the perfect size to be exactly eye-level with the saw should anything go flying. Nice.

And so, after many hours, Bubba's closet had shelves!

And then, finally, after three months, a clean room!

His room seems gigantic now.

And then, on to Cakes. Bubba's stuff wasn't too hard to sort and organize, but Cakes had one heck of a mess in there and I spent hours sorting and organizing all of her stuff. I'm happy to say, that even though she grumbled about helping me out a very little bit at the very end to sort and put away her own stuff, she has done a great job since of keeping everything neatly put away and playing with just one thing at at time, which shows me she appreciates it in spite of her bad attitude.

Look! A clean dresser! Hadn't seen the top of that thing in ages. She is loving her new desk. She made a goal poster for piano on Saturday and wanted it up in her room and we discovered that the back of her desk is in fact magnetic! I shouldn't have doubted IKEA. So now she's got that up there, and it is pretty darn cool, hopefully cool enough to keep her motivated all year long.

That was our last big thrill before school started. Cakes set off for 4th grade, Silly for 1st and Bubba for Joy School. Cakes was all worked up, upset and nervous Monday night. Scott gave her a priesthood blessing which helped her calm down and sleep well, but she was still too nervous to eat much breakfast Tuesday morning. I was pretty worried waiting for her to come home, even though I know she has no trouble making friends, but I shouldn't have worried - she got off the bus all smiles telling me she made 18 new friends, 17 of them girls. Of course my first question was "Well who's the boy?" No answer on that yet.

Cakes home from a great first day

Silly trying not to smile, because that wouldn't be cool



And Bubba being silly while I try to get a picture of his for Joy School

 Joy School was, of course, crazy the first day, and that was with only two little boys! Day two was much better though. It is amazing how much he talks about it after just 2 weeks. That's why I love it!

The other thing I love is this weeping willow at the end of our street. The kids have created all kinds of uses for it; mostly they call it their car wash when they're riding bikes and ride under it. Other times they are lasers that they have to walk through without touching any leaves. Fun times at the bus stop!

Summer Events

We have accomplished a few things this summer. Cakes had a birthday, her 9th. This was a non-party year, so we didn't go all crazy. Gummy and Granddaddy came up the weekend before with cake. I remembered to use my cute little cake plates for once. (I put them in the cabinet near the lighters and candles - that should help me use them more!)

 

Mamie was here for the actual day. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and tried to talk her into sitting in the saddle while the employees sang to her, but she wouldn't go for that. And just last week Scott took her and three friends to Busch Gardens for the day. They all had a blast. One girl had never been, never been on a roller coaster before, but she tried everything and loved it. Her dad thanked Scott for getting her to try the rides because now he has someone to ride roller coasters with him.

Silly and Bubba took another session of swim lessons, this one at "the new" YMCA. They have an outdoor slide and on the last day of lessons the teachers let all the kids slide. Bubba had been his usual self during the previous 7 lessons; barely doing anything at all in the water other than allowing his teacher to hold him. He did let her dunk him a few times, which was new, and also the only time he spoke to her because he would scream,"No, I don't want to!" The teachers led the little kids over to the slide. I told my mom and the other moms that there was no way Bubba was going up those steps and down that slide. But he walked over there and stood in line.

And then he walked up the steps

 

And went down the slide where Miss Savanah was waiting for him.

 

 

 

She said he was grinning from ear to ear when she caught him. And then he went back to sitting on the wall like it was no big deal.

 





I could not believe he did it, especially that he did it like it was no big deal. Never would'a guessed.

This is how he spent the majority of his time in the water, feet up, maybe moving his arms a little, letting Savanah do all the work.



 

Silly worked really hard on his swimming arms and keeping his face in the water. He's a good little swimmer. I was laughing at him during one lesson because his teacher had him hold a kickboard; when he tried to swim using only his legs he hardly got anywhere.

Waiting his turn to jump

Jumping! And then he floats on his back indefinitely

We decided to take a family trip to Water Country last week, since Bubba went down the slide without freaking out, and had a great time. I am usually no fun at all when it comes to rides because I just get sick, but this time I took some less-drowsy Dramamine and it was great! We all went on everything but Vanish Point. Scott and Cakes tried that one and said it was terrible; you get a face full of water and feel like you are drowning. No thanks! There was one ride that had a canoe type raft, which meant Bubba had to sit in his own space by himself. I wasn't sure he would like that, but he sat right down, grabbed his handles and held on tight the whole time. His favorite thing was the Hubba Hubba Highway, a lazy river with a current that pushes you along. You're supposed to just relax and let it carry you around but he was kicking and paddling the whole time (making up for all the work he didn't do in swim class I guess). He was actually hard to keep up with because he just wanted to keep going. There was also one small, but still twisty, waterslide that he could go down all by himself. He did that quite a few times. Everyone had lots of fun, and best of all, I didn't feel sick! I'll have to use Dramamine for often.

Summer is almost over

I can't believe school starts in 9 days. We have been very lazy this summer, and I don't mind a bit. We set goals and didn't achieve most of them. Went to the pool or the library every now and then. But mostly we spent lots of time falling in love with our new house. One or both of the boys climbs into bed with me after Scott leaves for work; this morning it was both of them and Bubba snuggled up to me and repeatedly whispered "need lunch." One of these days he'll get breakfast, lunch, and dinner straightened out. At this moment all three of the boys are outside with the new weed trimmer. I think it'll be quite some time before they come back in. Boys and their toys.

Here's what we've been up to around the house:

New shed built in the backyard. Once it was finished it stayed empty for at least a week and the kids used it as their playhouse.

This was immediately after Cakes returned from her trip with Mamie and Papop, notice her Carlo's Bakery shirt. :-)

I promise it has an exterior now, and it is full of stuff. Bubba insisted on putting his tow lawn mower in there with the other real ones.

Our trip to IKEA helped us cross quite a few things off our lengthy list of things we needed. Cakes now has a bedside table and a desk. She gave up her vanity, which surprised me, but when I asked her if she'd rather have a desk she said,"That would actually be really helpful." So she is happy. Now we just need to get those shelves in her closet so she has some actual floor place.

 Silly's room is looking good. I really don't like being the one to put holes in the wall, but I hung all of these boards up. I saw something similar at Pottery Barn, but their boards cost a ridiculous $35 each. I found these at Target for less than $10. I put some in Cakes's room too.



Used up quite a few drywall anchors hanging these boards up. I need to get his baby picture in the right spot, it's just a little smaller than the boards.

Now all of the random bins and containers that were taking up Silly's who floor are gone! Everything is in one of those bins and one big bin in his closet. His room looks huge now. He loves it and has kept his room super clean since we spent hours sorting and putting away all of this things.

 

 I made my dining room curtains (have to do the bottom hems still) and mom came last week and helped me hang all sorts of pictures. Now I just need to buy the fabric and recover those chairs. Ignore those stacks of books; they are waiting on our book shelves which should be arriving any day.

 I made this curtain for our downstairs bathroom and found these cool towels at Target. Bubba's present from IKEA was a little step stool for both bathrooms so we got rid of the training potty (woohoo!) We also got rid of diapers. He was still wearing them at night but always woke up dry, so I made the others disappear one night.

Mom and I hung everything in the family room, so we're back to our nautical selves, complete with a weather station for Scott.

I still have a long list of things to get and things to do, but we're getting there!

Maybe TMI...

If you don't care for talk of potty training or nosebleeds, just look at the picture and skip all the words. :-)

It is official - Bubba is potty trained! We talked about summer goals as a family a few weeks ago, and wearing underwear was one of his goals. I put him in underwear almost three weeks ago, set the timer on my watch to beep every twenty minutes and sat him on his little potty seat. I couldn't use that method with Cakes. If I ever used the "just try" routine with her she had a major meltdown. Bubba is very laid back though; I knew he would just go with it. I also knew he would happily stay in diapers forever if I wasn't a little more proactive.

His incentive was his very own scooter; inspired by him having a meltdown one afternoon over Silly riding his own scooter when Bubba wanted a turn. I told him that as soon as he wears underwear all the time and goes on the potty, he can get his own scooter and not have to share Silly's anymore. He requested green, which meant we had to order it, so it sat in my closet for about three weeks. He took to peeing on his little training potty right away, but it wasn't until today that he finally pooped on his potty. I was really talking up the scooter all weekend. I even took him in my closet a few times and showed him the box, telling him his scooter was tired of being in there and really wanted to come out and play with him. Seems to have done the trick. Just before we left to take him to the doctor this afternoon he pooped in his potty. Silly and I made a huge deal out of it and immediately got his scooter out and he took it for a little ride. Woohoo!

We were going to the doctor because he started having nosebleeds after we moved. He had one about a month ago, one last week and three over the weekend, one of which was of the wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-find-you're-bleeding type. (Am I the only one familiar with that experience?) The others were all pretty minor but that one took a good long time to stop bleeding. I was sitting there on his floor, holding him in my lap, pinching his nose as he's bleeding but really wanting to be sleeping, remembering the times I woke up with a bloody nose as a kid, waking my mom up, rinsing my pillowcase in cold water in the sink. I remember my mom bought me a new pillow once, and I'm pretty sure I had a nosebleed the very first night I slept on it. Mom and I both had bloody noses as kids. Dad says we had a weak blood vessel. Anyway, I took Bubba to the doctor just to rule anything out. She said his nose was a little bit inflamed, so maybe give him some Zyrtek every day for a week and see if that doesn't help, but there wasn't anything to worry about unless he has one that lasts more than 30 minutes, has more than one in 24-hours or has other indicators of a bleeding problem like bruising or a rash. I put a little towel by his pillow and when I was putting him to bed last night he said, "This is for my blood." Yep. One more trait that makes him more my kid than Scott's (yes - I keep track because Cakes is just the girl version of Scott and Silly is the blonde, dimpled version).