Babysoroos

The, umm, damage?, or, ah, improvements? after the recent painting extravaganza:

And the new dining room decor we ended up with:

Definitely a good thing.

I realised last week that we were wasting the sunniest room in the house. What was formerly the guestroom and my sewing room faces south with sliding glass doors. It is a lovely bright room. And it was being used only a few weeks a year by guests who mostly just sleep there, and the rest of the time by me in the evenings when the kids are asleep. And on all of these sunny spring days we’ve been having, it was gated off and inaccessible while the playroom sat there and looked like a dark brown cave. No wonder the kids didn’t want to play in it.

Duh.

We moved the guest bed into the “cave” along with some stuff I want to store out of kids’ reach. We moved the toys into the sunny room and kept my sewing machine in there. We’ve spent at least some part of every day in there since then, boys playing together, or Ben helping me make something. All my supplies are easy to get to, and Ben is fascinated by the sewing machine and loves to help me use it.

I really like this new arrangement, and I think the boys do too.

Again, we got busy. We moved house, we’re getting settled in, my parents came to visit and help with that settling in part (Thanks again, Granny and Granda, for all your help! 🙂 Ben still misses you.), we’ve had stuff to do for Ben’s preschool, we’ve been chasing a VERY mobile baby, and here we are, end of October, and I haven’t posted for a month and a half. Ack.

So, updates.

Ben is great. And very three. Heh. Sometimes we have issues, but mostly he’s fun and engaging once he’s warmed up. He’s got lots and lots of ideas. Last week, we were stumped for a dinner idea, so Ben decided for us. “Two cans of pinto beans…. one can of corn… maybe some pasta. And tomatoes.” And then he proceeded to get all the ingredients out, open the cans (with help, of course) and helped me make his dinner. It was good too — I just added a few spices and we had Mexican pasta sauce.
Timothy is getting more and more mobile. He can stand for long periods, cruise anywhere, climb the stairs if you blink…. He even took a couple of steps all on his own on Granny and Granda’s last night here. Then nothing for a week or more, but he was doing it again tonight. Two steps, on his own, then flop into my lap. He’s going to be walking soon, I’m sure. On the other end of the development spectrum, he’s still not eating much food. He makes the funniest face as soon as he gets anything on his tongue. We keep trying, but mostly he wears it or plays with it. Someday it will click, I’m sure. And he’s not exactly looking starved.

We’re loving the house. We spend a lot of time outdoors, the boys both love being outside and there’s plenty of stuff for all of us to do out there. We planted a bunch of flower bulbs last weekend, Ben loved helping with that.

Here are just a few recent photos. I still have some summer ones I want to share too.

View album.

Wow, it’s been a month.

I had computer problems which prevented me from posting for a couple of weeks, and we’ve been sorting and packing and getting ready to move house, and unpacking and organizing and sewing things to help get Ben’s co-op preschool ready to start the new year in a new space. It’s been a little hectic. And once I let the blog go for a week or two, it’s so hard to get back into it.

News about Timothy: We’ve had a little bit of a development spurt. He’s CRAWLING. That started almost two weeks ago, on Wednesday Aug 28th. One day, he woke up and just got it. And crawled across the room. Then he started trying to get up the steps from our living room to our dining room. There’s only two, and he mastered that within a couple of days. Now he’s pulling up on things — couch, coffee table, laundry basket, anyone who stands still for 10 seconds — and can get up to standing in no time. He even let go briefly yesterday. And he’s climbing the wooden stairs at the new house. He got up 3 of them today, and probably could’ve kept going if I hadn’t spoiled his fun by lifting him down. 🙂

Packing up to move house with a newly mobile baby makes babyproofing a whole new problem.

News about Ben: He started preschool again today. He went two mornings a week to the toddler class last year, and did pretty well. This year, he’s in the older preschool class, 3 and 4 year olds, and goes 3 mornings a week. I work in the classroom 1 morning a week. It’s a fairly large class at this stage — 11 kids, only some of whom he knows — so he was a bit reserved (okay, downright clingy and silent) this morning, but even by the end of today’s class he was warming up slightly. I think another few days and he’ll be fine. Apart from school, he’s doing great. He’s so talkative, sometimes telling stories he’s made up, sometimes repeating (over and over and over) things he’s heard, sometimes just talking nonsense and making up words. And often asking questions. We’ve entered the “why?” phase. HOW long does this last???

News about the house: It closed last Thursday, and we move this Friday. We’ve been over there a lot, Eric’s been working (with help) on finishing what is to be his office space and installing bamboo floor. It’s such a wonderful place to be. 2 acres, very private, some wooded, some cleared. The back door opens from the kitchen into a huge (~ 1 acre?) fully fenced yard. Can’t wait to be living there full time.

Photos soon as I get through the backlog.