Some finished pictures.  We decided to paint the trim after all…so there will be a phase 3.  Stay tuned!

When we bought our house, nearly 3 years ago, it was very ugly inside.  I mean, retired couple, wall paper ugly.  But the price was AMAZING and we loved the layout, and we had a free place to live, so we spent about a month changing everything on the inside before we moved in.  We painted every room, we stripped wall paper (which my niece Amanda still b*tches about to ths day…you didn’t have to help kid if you didn’t want to), we re-carpeted. changed light fixtures and tiled.  Even though it was hard work, I LOVED every minute of it.  We moved into this fresh new house, totally designed (color wise at least) by us.

Well……..3 years later………I couldn’t take the color of the ceiling in the bathroom anymore (it was green, don’t ask) so a couple weeks ago I painted it white.  I’ve wanted to repaint our bedroom since the day we painted it baby poop brown.  Well tomorrow, that same niece who whines about stripping wallpaper is coming over to watch the girls so I can repaint it…a very very light sage green.  Today I spent most of the day taping the room and cleaning.  I am ready to go at 8:30 tomorrow morning.  Pictures of course will be posted when I’m done.

I now totally have the painting bug.  I think it’s a combination of starting projects again and watching Design Star on HGTV.  Poor Jonathan.  He hates it when I get “project minded”.  I give him WAY too much information, in too short of a time fram.

Anyway, wish me luck. We’re trying a low odor, eco friendly paint from Sherwin Williams called Harmony.  Expect a full review later.

Madeline just popped her head over the gate (to the kitchen where the computer is) and said to me:

M:  Hi Mommy

Me:  Hi Madeline

M: I lub due.

Me;  Awwww

M:  Wheee my shoe (as she threw her shoe at me)

Other than the throwing shoe part, turns out my kids who were driving me insane 2 minutes ago, have redeemed themselves

…hurt.

The ubiquitous MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY scream that is.

Days like today I’ve heard it so much I want to change my name.

The girls have heard for most of the afternoon “There is no Mommy, there is only Zoul”  (extra points if you know what movie that came from…and Jonathan you don’t get to answer) from me.  They should be afraid, very afraid.

I guess the conclusion I’ve come to today is that the girls must nap in the afternoon for me to remain sane.  This means that I can no longer, no matter how tempting it is or how tired she is, let Madeline take a morning nap.  I always pay for it.

Anyway, now the girls are kind of sharing a book.   I stress kind of because there have been a few heated exchanges from them in the last 45 seconds.  Don’t get me wrong, they really do love each other and play well, but some days all Madeline wants to do is say NO in a very very loud voice and Claire just tattles on her.

Days like this I miss my full time job in a way.  But that way is so very tiny as I know this too will pass and tomorrow is Saturday.  Phew.

Turns out even Stay At Home Moms are workin for the weekend.

…I just looked at the clock, thinking it was about 9:30 and it’s 7:57.  Oye.

Mads threw her eggs, by the handful, on the floor at breakfast.

Claire says that Madeline “won’t stop bothering me”.

I think there’s going to be a rumble.

We’re out of apple juice…again.

Maybe we all need a nap.

The next time you are 19 months old and attempt to climb on the kitchen table and eat a marker cap and squish a half empty Diet Coke can….please wear the appropriate safety equipment.

OK yes before you call Child protective, the camera was in my hand because I was taking pictures of her in the helmet. :)  I was arms reach from her when she climbed on the table.

….crayons and play-dough are non-toxic.

Let’s just leave it at that.

Actually when Madeline was eating the playdough, she took a bite and said EWWWW Ball, and then threw it all off her high chair tray.  Something tells me she’s not the artist of the family.

I’ve been struggling with what activities to do with Claire that stimulate her little mind . She really thrives on structure and being that she’s been in child care/preschool her entire life, this being home with mom routine just isn’t working for her. So we’ve started to do a specialized “learning activity” every day during Madeline’s nap. A homeschooler friend recommended the book Teach Your Children To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The name of the book is pretty cheesy but the content is great. We’ve been doing lessons this week and Claire is taking really well to it. It’s a phonics based approach, which is a challenge for me to teach since I was never very good at phonics. Anyway, 5 lessons down and she knows the sounds for M, A, S and can recognize them in words and can associate them together….like…am, as, ma. Pretty cool.

This was our art activity for the morning. And now we have a lovely gallery in our sunroom of her very prolific art work.

On the Madeline front…it turns out her saying “A Potty” all the time really is a request to go to the potty. Last night she said it about 80 times, I checked her diaper and it was dry, and I put her on the potty….and she went! Claire and I did a happy dance for her in the bathroom. She went a little again this morning before her bath. Pretty cool. I wonder if this is the beginning of potty learning for her….

…..everytime I get the children clean, they do something to get themselves dirty almost immediately?

I gave the girls a bath this morning.  Then we had breakfast…scrambled eggs…one of their favorites. (Yes I remembered to put butter in the pan Keith).  I go to pop some more toast in the toaster and I hear “HAT. HAT”  which only means one thing…Madeline is wearing *something* as a hat.  I turned around and the entire plate of scrambie eggs is on top of her still wet and very clean hair.  Ugh.

I think I combed out most of it.  The doctor will just have to deal with a kid with eggs in her hair at her doctor’s appointment.  I guess she gets another bath after naptime.

I’m really not sure which one of them is the teacher, but I think this a good first lesson.

Claire would like to write her name:  CLAIRE