Blogging from the Camera

• I figured I have 2 preschoolers in the house, we might as well have preschool. I try to do a little everyday. Nothing formal, just some sort of educational playtime. On this day, we alphabetized our letters. They then decided it was a running track.
• I've since rearranged the furniture in our living room. The piano is now on the far right, close to the entrance and the couch is where the piano used to be. I like it better this new way. I am going to change the paint color. This olive couch was in storage when I picked the current color and it just looks blah next to the wall. I have a new color picked. It's a light, neutral yellow. Boys are suppose to go with MIL this weekend, so I'll probably do it then.
• I bought a huge, build it yourself clock to put up in the living room. I've always loved those. I found a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby and they had them. It'll probably go above the couch after I paint.
• This week, Z is going to VBS at the First Methodist Church. He seems to be having a lot of fun. I was so proud of him the first day. I told him goodbye and he gave me a kiss and sat right back down where he was suppose to. What a big boy!
  

• I gave him a haircut after I took this picture. He is such a sweaty kid. I decided for the summer he needed it short.
• THERE ARE CURTAINS HUNG!! I did it myself. Gave up on waiting for the man to hang up the curtain rods. I decided I'd just figure it out myself. Right now, my room and Z's are the only ones up. I hung up Ca's but they were too long, so I sent them to my seamstress (mom) to get taken up. He does have a rod up, so when I get them back, it'll be a quick fix. I need my seamstress to do some work on Ben's curtains too before I hang them up. Haven't talked to her about it yet, though.

• Someone really needs to host a playdate. Summer is almost over and I've been to 2. One was at my house. If no one else is interested, I'll throw another, but I don't want to be the playdate host hog.

• Ben rolled over completely for the first time this week.
• I had Ben laying on the floor. He was crying, but I was trying to get lunch cooking & was planning on picking him up when I got it to that place where it could just cook. After a few minutes, I turned around and Z was carrying him into the kitchen for me. I gave him a big talk about carrying the baby and he said, "but he was crying." Truth is, he did stop crying when Z picked him up.
• Ca loves it when I say, "Don't you dare give me a kiss!" He loves getting that chance to be cheeky.
• I did a quote on Ben's wall. It's not perfect. I could have spent another hour on the edges of the letters, but you have to stop somewhere. I found one I liked from one of those vinyl wall lettering companies. I then found the exact same font they used, made it in photoshop, printed it, and free handed it on the wall.

• I can park my car in the garage now. Chris finally got enough of his stuff unpacked.
• Z read his first book today. I've started doing hooked on phonics with him. I'm trying to do school a little with him because I feel guilty that we don't send him to preschool. A friend said something about me being really scheduled. I thought I should start living up to that myth about me.
• I'm teaching piano again. Most of my students are Korean. The parents LOVE the baby. He's been staying with me during the lessons. He's so easy. When he gets cranky, I just rock him or put him in his swing to go to sleep. He doesn't cry himself to sleep when I rock him. Ca and Z always did.
• You might have heard me say when I was pregnant that I didn't really like babies until they hit 1yr. Ben has changed that for me. I love babies now.
• Speaking of babies. B's crying. Should I pick him up or keep typing?
• Thanks to the girls who came over for our swim playdate. It's so nice to have friends over. The kids love it and so do I.
• Ok, I'll go pick him up.

Pool Playdate

Thursday at 9:30am, I'm inviting everyone over for a water playdate. Call if you need my new address.

Grand Tour - the final frontier

Past the den, behind the fireplace is this little nook we are calling our office nook. I took this picture a few weeks ago, but really it looks the same now just without the boxes. Lots of painting to do. See the ceilings? They are latte, too. To the far right of this picture is the door to our pitiful patio. Through the door in the picture is Ben's room. . .

Here's Ben's room before . . .

Just kidding . . .

Here's the after. . . See Ben in his swing?

I want to put one of those wall quotes above the rocker - "Oh the places you'll go" - to go with the trucks. I'm probably just going to paint it myself. We also need a door for the closet. What could have happened to that door, I wonder.Here's my truck pictures that I made. Finally I get to hang them.Through the door on the left is Ca's room. No hall, just a door straight to his room. We thought about walling it in, but now I've decided I like it.The door in this picture is the one we just went through. We need furniture. I've decided to look for bunk beds so that Ben will already have a bed when he's ready and if we decided to put them together later, we'd already have them.I'm doing a Mickey Mouse theme. You can't see it, but that red pillow has a Mickey head on it.We found this at a garage sale for $5 last weekend. Ca put the tubs on there. He's a little anal. Through the other door in his bedroom is a small hall which leads us to the bathroom. It's not horrible, but again they painted the ceilings. We're hoping to gut it eventually.At the end of that hall is Z's room. I might do a wall quote in here too. I have an amazon gift certificate and found them cheap online. There's a buy 2 get 1 free thing, too. I still need to hang curtains in all the rooms. I have some decorations for Ca's room, but I'm waiting to get furniture before I hang them. I have some Mickey decorating ideas to add, too.

Well, that's the house. I'm hoping to have some more "afters" one day, but in the meantime, I'll learn some patience.