Where does the time go?

It seems as though every time I write an entry, I begin by apologizing for how long it's been since I last wrote. So, why break with tradition? It has been sadly long since I've documented in any meaningful form how our kiddos are progressing in life, so now that it's coming up on their birthdays, I figured, no time like the present. 

Let's start with Oscar. I just got a glowing report from his teacher yesterday which outlined how much his attention and interest in academics has progressed since last year. He's choosing more challenging work at school, taking his time to complete it correctly and has started doing just a smidge of reading. It was very good news. If you're a follower, (and why would you be unless you're prone to following something only once a year, like Santa or Bruce Springstein?) you'll remember our concern on Oscar's lack of, how shall I put it? academic prowess. He's street smart and very observant and communicates his thoughts and questions very often and with great, great, sometimes mind-numbing detail, but we were never totally sure when the academic bug would catch him. Speaking of Oscar's thoughts, here are some Oscar-isms of late, just to give you a glimpse into the Jack Handy litany that is my life:

• While eating lunch at Chick-fil-a after a long silence: "You know, it's easy to know which shoe to put on because once you have one on, you know the other one has to be right, because it's the only one left!"
• Addressing my inability to answer his questions in an understandable, nay, audible way: "Mom, sometimes I can't hear the information you're telling me because I get confused when I ask you questions and what you say I just can't hear."
• On the way to school: "You know, infiniminity (read: infinity) has no end, but it does have a beginning." Brilliant, I say.

Now, onto Annie. I hate to say it but she has entered pre-adolescence all to quickly for my taste. She's already begging to wear lip gloss, paint her nails red, and wear high-heels. Anyone who knew me  when I was growing up knows the Barbie doesn't fall far from the tree. On the other end of things, however, she's very interested in doing "research" at school and then presenting her findings to her class. I'm sorry, let me rephrase: She loves to "teach" her class, including handouts and quizzes. How she still has friends is a mystery to me. All kidding aside, Annie is admired by all age groups at her school. However, because of her debilitating shyness, very few know she likes them back. It's an amazing sociological experiment to watch her interact with her peers. At times she's a little bossy. At others, she's deferential. But mostly, and I say this with all sincerity, she has an innate need for those around her to be happy and agreeable. She'll bend over backwards with her friends to try to work things out and make sure everyone is being fair. 

Notice I said her "friends." With Oscar, it's another story. I definitely see that big sister/little brother dynamic creeping in. They still play wonderfully together, but Oscar has that unique ability to annoy the pants off of her. Anyone observing this behavior would know it's just because he wants her attention and she's usually doing something solitary, like homework or reading, but Annie has taken to a little back-handing every now and again to put him in line. It's highly discouraged and infrequent, but completely understandable.

Annie as a Vampire and Oscar as Spider-Man, Halloween

And for the greater family as a whole? We're doing wonderfully. This past year we renovated the downstairs bathroom and even though the experience wasn't great, the result is wonderful. I have started freelancing again, this time for a company my mother put me in touch with. So, now I actually get to work with her on projects (she's an editor). Strange when on conference calls, let me tell you. I have to fight the urge to call her "Mom." I feel like I'm breaking the daughter/mother rules when I call her "Martha." Jay is starting a residency program in neurology at Carilion/VTech and is very busy as a result. We got six chickens this past spring whose names are: Mabel, Pippa, Chippy, Reese, Amelia and Fluffy (the latter named by Annie). 

Also, the day before Halloween, a little kitty showed up at our back door. And me, thinking it was Roscoe, went to let her in, and soon realized that she was about one-fifth the size of Roscoe and all black, save for a little dot of white on her chest. We searched for her owners, if she had any, but nothing came of it, so now she's ours. She's named Noke after Roanoke (as we seem to name our cats after where we're living (Roscoe, for Roscoe, NY, halfway between our homes in CT and Syracuse, NY; Mason, for the first time we lived south of the Mason-Dixon line). We call her Nokie and she's about 4-5 months old. She's very sweet but a little under the weather, so I have a feeling we haven't met the "real" Nokie yet. I'll keep you posted. Probably in about a year. Happy Holidays (and by that, I mean all of them, because who knows when I'll get to this again).

In other news...

We've been a touch remiss in updating the blog, but just know that since I last wrote the kids are alive and well-ish. Oscar broke his leg, oh, and his finger, and got stitches, all in the span of just a few months. I'd like for him to work on over-achieving at something other than ER visits. We're hoping next week he gets his full-leg cast off. I never thought of injuries as a "phase" in childhood. Apparently I was wrong. I'm hoping it ends soon.

We had Thanksgiving in Roanoke with the family Schindhelm, then over to Bethesda for Christmas Day and further festivities with the Ferrara clan. All were wonderful and illness free this year. The new year brought an uncharacteristic amount of snow fall (and even more snow days) and a new renovation project: the downstairs bathroom, because hey! we weren't yet crazy enough. This one has not gone as smoothly as the last, which is weird because it's like an eighth of the size of the prior project. We hired the same people but the best I can explain: the mojo is just off. Things have been over ordered, under ordered, ordered late, over budget, and it's taken longer than the big renovation that got us into this house. But I'm assured the final product will be amazing and I'll want to move to the guest room just to make it mine. Sorry, Jay.

Annie is quite the little performer. In addition to getting bitten by the "Frozen" bug (God help all us mothers) and treating us to numerous at-home performances of "Let it Go" (in which Oscar always has a cameo as Olaf, the snowman), she has performed in the winter ballet of the Roanoke Ballet Theatre's Magic Toyshop as a fairy with real-live ballerinas (and a professional DVD keepsake to boot!). She played Laura in her school's mini-drama adaptation of Little House in the Big Woods. Precious and riveting (because now that she is seven I can no longer just call her "precious"). This spring she'll be in another Roanoke Ballet Theatre production of some ballet that has a French name so it's lost on me, but I'm sure someone in it is sad at some point.

Oscar, well, besides the breaking of bones, is pushing our skills as parents. He is not quite as invested in learning the English alphabet or its coordinating sounds as his sister was at his age. In fact, she could read at this point. Not that I'm bragging, I'm just mentioning it so you know how woefully unprepared we are in dealing with this challenge. He's getting there though, just at a pace that a boy, well, with several broken bones would be going. He does make us smile a lot though, which is good, because I'd rather he keep us in stitches than himself for a change.

That's the news from these here parts. We'll see you in the spring! Hopefully this spring.

Coming up for air

So spring happened. Ok, and summer. Despite all appearances, we are still alive and happy and the kids had a great time getting to know their neighbors, going to camp, having visitors like Oma and Papa Joe, Beverly and Al, Aunt Jennifer and her gang, and Nana and Grandbob, not to mention our other set of cousins with Aunt Joanna when the Schindhelm half of the family went to Smith Mountain Lake for a week and, with the aid of many flotation devices, lived to tell about it. (See! That's why I don't have any time to update this thing!)

Now, we're settling into the fall routine which has been a bit of an adjustment. Waking up is not Annie's strong suit. In fact, I am ashamed to admit it, but there have been days I've dressed her while she's still asleep... no easy feat. Oscar started his Montessori school and it's a great fit. I even noticed him pushing in a chair after getting out of it at a restaurant. That, in itself, is a huge accomplishment. He's having fun tracing shapes for shape books, pin punching continents and countries, and making friends. Along with the beginning of school comes the beginning of Activities (and yes, it deserves a capital 'A'). Annie's doing ballet, piano, Daisy Scouts, and swimming. Oscar is easing himself into being overscheduled and is just doing soccer and swimming. Luckily two of Annie's Activities happen at her school, so the shuttling isn't so bad (I'm holding off on the minivan). She loves it all and it's fun to watch her learn a musical instrument even if she gets impatient with practicing after basically sitting down at the piano. We're working on it.

Oscar is at that lovely almost-four age where a kid's personality starts to come through and he's just so fun to talk with. He loves anything that involves using his hands, so when I suggested he help me make pumpkin ravioli yesterday, he insisted, "No, mama. I want to make dessert." So we made chocolate chip cookies instead (hey, you don't have to ask me twice). I got this little gem of a video. You can see he does not suffer from a lack of self esteem. He's also a great snuggler still and loves to give "moodgie" hugs where he basically grinds his face into your upper body while hugging you. Annie gets a little tired of it, but I love it, as Oscar would say, "to pieces and bits."

We are also happy to report that we have next-door neighbors who became fast friends with our troop. Caroline, 9; Kate, 7; and Will, 5; are a joy to have around and despite the daily destruction of their bedrooms (if I could bottle the speed with which they dissemble their toy bins, I think I could win the Indie 500), it's so nice to live in a place where the kids are happy and comfortable. 

On a sad note, we lost one of our chickens to (most likely) a raccoon one night. We hadn't been locking them in their coop at night during the summer, and have thus, learned our lesson. We will miss you Henny Penny.

Maiden Lane - After

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Maiden Lane - Before

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So this one time, we had a blog...

Remember that? That was fun. Then we bought a house and took on the immense task of potty-training Oscar at the same time as renovating said house. I'm amazed that I lived to tell the tale. (Mostly because of the Oscar thing.)

No stringers, just 2 x 4s.

Stringers, the spine of a staircase.

So much has happened in the last six months. Let's see... Oh! We got new stairs. Yes, stairs. Everyone commented on how loud our stairs were and how you could see daylight through the top of each stair as you walked up them as they bowed under your weight, even more so with a 300-pound electrician (yikes!). We figured the stairs had a cracked stringer or just needed a little extra support. Apparently the people who built this house almost 100 years ago didn't believe in a thing called stringers. Not familiar? Neither was I at the time, but now I am. Intimately. Stringers are the stair-stepped pieces of wood underneath a stair case that actually support the steps of the stairs. Yeah. We didn't have those. We had two very old 2x4's underneath leaning against the bottom corners of the stairs. The whole kit and kaboodle had to come out and be replaced with a brand-new staircase. I have never walked on such quiet nor expensive stairs since. 

kitchen before - cave like.

kitchen after - let there be light!

The rest of the house renovation was mostly cosmetic, albeit thorough. We completely redid the kitchen which included knocking down almost an entire wall between the kitchen and dining room, added a closet to what used to be a breakfast room to create a ligitimate four-bedroom house, tiled the mudroom, refinished the floors, updated the electrical and added recessed lights throughout the common areas, replaced light fixtures, switched Oscar's second closet over to our side of the wall so we now have a double closet, painted EVERYTHING, added a whole-house fan, (hold on writer's cramp) replaced the windows in the attic and second floor, removed a chimney from the attic and had the roof patched with matching slate where said chimney used to be, and just because Oscar was jealous of all the demo to which he was not being able to contribute, he took matters into his own hands, literally, and ripped a spigot out of our exterior wall and flooded the basement for about 2 minutes before I got to the water main. I seriously believe a Marvel comic book is going to be made based on his life someday. 

I still have to hang some shades in Oscar's room so these before and afters are not complete, but you'll get the idea. Oh and in regards to the potty training of Oscar: I can't remember anything, only a ton of laundry and years off of my life.

Annie and Oscar are heading towards summer vacation and we're excited to enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace. They have camps, my parents and my sister's family are coming to Smith Mountain Lake for Schindhelm-a-palooza 2013 (yes, I just typed that), we'll be headed back to Connecticut for our annual Bridgewater Fair pilgrimage, and mostly we're just going to enjoy not listening to the sounds of me yelling, "We're LATE! GET - IN - THE - CAR - NOWWWW!" Ah, summer.

Just as a reminder to myself, mostly, I hope to recap Annie's first feature length performance in Kitty Cat Capers, or some such title, in which she played a singing scaredy cat, very convincing. Until then, enjoy the pictures, and take comfort in knowing that we're alive and well despite our absence from the blogosphere. Happy summer!

All I want for Christmas is a really big mortgage

Ask and ye shall receive. We are homeowners now. I'm still getting used to saying that. 2 months later. More on this in a minute.

Our Christmas was filled with joy, family and the uninvited guest of a stomach virus that made its way through me (right before Christmas), then Oscar (Christmas night), and finally, Annie (the day we got back from visiting our family for Christmas). Jay managed to skirt it. Good thing too, because I needed someone to make sure I had brushed my teeth in the last week. Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Jon hosted us in Bethesda with the kids' beloved cousins, Luke and Colin. Even though we were very under the weather, we had the best time we could in between loads of laundry. I owe Jennifer a lot of favors, not to mention laundry detergent. 

Annie got a bike for her doll from Santa and a big girl bike from us. Oscar got exactly what he asked for, "a Thomas tricycle" even though I'm pretty sure he has no idea who Thomas is. We gave him marbles. You'd be surprised how much he loves the latter. 

Now we're settling into the idea that we have property and new tenants on said property who go by the names of Camilla, Ginger and Henny Penny. If you haven't guessed, we have chickens. We are now those people.

The house needs a lot more work than we anticipated (all pretty much cosmetic, other than a large portion of chimney resting on our attic floor), so we're trying to complete as much as we can before we are out of this rental on March 1. I'll post before and afters. The house will be great. At least, that's what I keep telling our financial stability.

As for the kids: Annie is loving her new role as a Daisy Scout and is in full cookie-selling mode. It's very cute. She barely introduces herself or her purpose before handing the sheet to the neighbor. I mean, they do kind of sell themselves. Oscar is a little helper who is looking bigger and bigger these days. Today he said to me, "Mama, can we have candles on the table?" Me: "Why?" Oscar: "Because I want to have a lovely lunch." He also loves to help me in the kitchen. Lately we have been baking a lot. As you can see, we are very particular about our outcomes, so taste testing is essential. Sometimes we even like to double check our work.

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So this one time...

... I wrote this blog and it was about my kids and their adventures growing up. And then it just kind of stopped? Remember that? Well, I don't blame you if you don't because it's been THAT long since I've written anything about these adorably challenging children. However, a lot has happened since Annie started Kindergarten and I'd like to get all three of you readers up to speed.

So first, there was Halloween. I kid you not, Oscar ASKED to be Oscar the Grouch. I did not push him into it. His love of trash and penchant for looking like a monster just made it a natural fit. Annie, due to her belief in parity, decided to be Mason, because Roscoe had his turn last year. I got a little (OK, a lot) carried away making their costumes, but it paid off, because due to the remants of Sandy, it was COLD and windy. Oscar and Annie loved parading the neighborhood IN THE DARK! saying "Meow," and "I love trash!" I had a great time passing out candy to all of our neighbors and frankly, meeting most of them for the first time (by the way, we're horrible neoghbors).

Then there were BIRTHDAYS!!! Oscar is now three and Annie, six. How the heck did that happen? We celebrated with cupcakes at schools and a party at bloop (a frozen yogurt/toppings place with a party room. Why a party room? Because I clean up after these kids enough as it is, that's why). Oscar decided to embrace his new found maturity and give potty training the old preschool try. It's going, um, OK, although sometimes it's going on the floor, in the car, at GreatClips... We're working on it. I have not lost faith it will happen. That said, the washing machine is running pretty much 24/7. 

Annie at six is so amazing, honestly, so mature. I am actually a little worried by how mature she is. At her party she was giving her problematic party guest (no, it wasn't Oscar) a talking to, and telling him that if he didn't cooperate then we wouldn't be able to have the party. It was like looking in the mirror, but at someone with much better skin and naturally blonde hair. After that, I tickled her just to remind her to be a kid. 

As the official start to the holiday season, Oscar's preschool was invited to be a part of the Grandin Village Children's Parade at the end of which Santa makes a startling entrance on top of a fire truck (he's never one for subtlety). Oscar marched as one of Ms. Kelly's nine little Indians (P.C., I know) and was thoroughly confused as to why he was made to throw candy to children, yet none threw it back to him. The concept of sharing is clearly still a work in progress.

This Thanksgiving, we have Nana and Grandbob paying a visit from the north and Joanna and the twins coming up from the south. It's like we're Appomattox, but with plumbing and no weapons. My sister and I are going to do a 5K together called the Drumstick Dash, my first race ever. I shouldn't really call it a "race" so much as a suggestion to finish. My expectations are low. Annie, forever the hostess, is so excited for everyone's visit. Oscar is just looking forward to having more people to pee on the potty in front of, and I'm so happy to have all of my family in one spot for a few days. It's going to be all that AND a ladle of gravy.

Happy Turkey Day, everyone!  

. . . Aaaaaand, we're back!

Sorry for the long delay but apparently our blog took a summer vacation as well. However, we are back in the swing of September and missing the days of ice cream trucks and fireflies. I'm not sure if you've done the math lately but we are in the presence of a Kingergartner (you can tell by the look of fear on her face; ironically, her sign reads, "My First Day of Kindergarten. Yay."). I'm still in shock myself but Annie seems to be taking it in stride. She fit right in to her school, only once hesitating as I waved goodbye to her at the playground, at which time she raced back and whispered to me, "I don't know what to do." Luckily the heavy hand of "the bell" made itself heard and off she went to her classroom and hasn't looked back since. 

To sum up the end of the summer: We had visitors Beverly and Al whose rental allowed us to spend more time on Smith Mountain Lake (and LOVE every minute of it). Then we headed up to Connecticut for our annual pilgrimage to the Bridgewater Country Fair. I was Oscar's age when I started going, maybe younger (my memory fails given that I probably couldn't talk then). We made a pit stop on the way up north (and on our return home) at the home of Jay's sister Jennifer, the cousins Luke and Colin, and Uncle Jon. We love that we're so much closer to them now, especially since Annie and Colin are only 8 or so months apart. Even though the distance between our houses is shorter, ever since the road trip when we get on a highway, Oscar always says, "When we get on the highway for a long time, we go to Aunt Jennifer's." True that.

Oscar, too, has started his new school—three mornings a week—this year. His teacher, Mrs. Kelly, touts how easy going he is and how he just goes with the flow. I wish he would share some of that with us. Not two days in to the school year he comes down with a horrible stomach bug that put him out a full week. Welcome back. Now with Annie in school full time, however, I have to say I've really enjoyed my one-on-one time with him these past two weeks. I haven't had that since he was an infant. It's great to see what he's like as his own little person. He's got quite the personality. He's a helper. Loves to watch what you're doing (he drags over his step stool, and today, even brought it down to the basement to observe me ironing—oh, the wonder!), and insert himself in whatever way he can (even if you wish he didn't). I just started him in gymnastics, which is basically the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. The first day, he ignored instructions to return to the top of the mat to practice his somersaults and instead ran up a foam ramp which ended about 3 feet off the ground and just kept going—even though there was nothing but hardwood floor after it. It was like watching a bird take flight. A blind bird. With no wings. 

Yes, they keep us all laughing (as exhibited in the video above; I call it "Pumpkins" followed by "Santa should move."). Quite the performers. Annie participated in the annual naming of the classes this year at her school, where each class comes up with a name for themselves based on the year's theme (this year's being "Making ripples, Creating waves") and acts out a skit to get the rest of the school to guess what it is. She was the cutest surfing penguin I ever did see. OK, the only surfing penguin, but still. They sang "Everybody's gone surfing... Surfing USA." She made us feel just like we were at the beach yet in the arctic at the same time. That's talent.

Now that we're back in our school routine, I hope to be more consistent with the blog updates. I know somewhere in the heavens, I'm being graded.

Summer on the Lake 2012

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Lake effect

Annie and Joanna look for land.

Oscar navigates us to safety—sharp right!

One of the good things about moving to a valley: man-made lakes! My parents and sister's family retreated from the grueling pace of western Connecticut and coastal Georgia and converged on Smith Mountain Lake, only 45 minutes from Roanoke. Oscar and Annie were delighted to spend time with their aunt and cousins from the south and to be appreciated (read=spoiled) by Nana and Granbob. We also played host to their dog Kaiser for a few nights. Annie and Oscar were delighted and took his walks very seriously, making sure each got equal possession of the leash. Mason the cat, however, had other opinions regarding his stay, the details of which I am obliged by law not to discuss. Lawyers can be so difficult. We pray for an amicable settlement. Back at the lake, we got to take a ride on a boat, fish with a homemade net (plastic netting salvaged from a bag of lemons attached to a stick... I don't know why it didn't work either!) and celebrate the twins' foray into double digits. I remember that tenth year fondly as it was the time when I was finally allowed to get pierced ears. I had never been so happy to have metal shot through my skin as on that day.

The celebration of Ben and Riley turning 10 (observed). Oscar is lifted by the happy spirits and the insanely large helium Mylar balloon.

But, back to the kids... Other summer activities have included our membership at a local pool club from which Annie and Oscar have enjoyed many an hour in the water and many a Popsicle from the snack bar. And between my workout schedule (aka "justifiable me time") and their camps, the caregivers at the Y now shout out Oscar's name whenever he comes into a room (think "Norm!" from Cheers). Jay and I also continue our house hunt, which I'm confident will be completed by the time the kids are in college (fingers crossed). Most recently, Jay celebrated his 37th birthday with coconut cream pie and balloons (much to the cats enjoyment—floating strings!). Thus, as you can imagine, we've been pretty busy. 

In a few weeks, our infamous surrogate grandparents, Beverly and Al will be visiting, also drawn to a house rental on Smith Mountain Lake (a gal could get used to this). So, while I'm applying sunblock and choosing which floatation device has the best neck support and most cup holders, just rest assured, I'll be thinking of all the things I should be doing (lest I become too complacent). Happy summer, all!

Oh, the places she'll go

It's official, Annie is a Kindergartener in waiting. Last Thursday, she graduated from preschool with a full-fledged ceremony. She got a diploma after marching down the aisle to Pomp and Circumstance; the CD was skipping a little bit, so it had more of a hip-hop feel, but Annie took it no less seriously. Now it's officially summer in the Ferrara household and the weather seems to agree with our proclamation. As a result, today we got down to business and bought a membership to a local swim club, froze some cherry lemonade for Popsicles and even made some cherry jello while eating some cherries, so at the very least, our summer will be cherrific. Oscar is so excited, in fact, he's pretty much given up napping much to my, and frankly the world's, dismay. He's such a hard toddler to begin with, destructive, disobedient, a joker... now he's doing all that on less sleep. I'm a-scared and you should be too, no matter where you are. But he does it with such a sweet smile, it's hard to get too frustrated. Maybe I should be freezing some wine-sicles instead.

We have summer full of activities, so I'll do my best to keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy the photos below (and the one above of Oscar and his watermelon (where's the watermelon, you ask? See his face.)) from our first Virginia outdoor event, the Bluegrass and BBQ Festival in Floyd. We had a blast and it was a great way to start the summer off--with some foot-stomping, watermelon-chomping, kite-flying fun.

Preschool Graduation and May 2012

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We remember when rock was young

Sorry for the hiatus. We've had to reinvent some routines at our new home, most of them involve music or water of some sort. Oscar is quite the guitar aficionado lately. He likes to play his Little Tykes guitar with an endless array of annoying music, walking around the house, saying "Rock star, I'm a rock star, I'm a rock star." Smash Mouth never enjoyed such a comeback as in this house. And, well, Annie sings instead of talks. But she's always been that way. Also, we've joined the YMCA (yes, you can do the hand motions, I'll wait...). Annie takes swim lessons twice a week and I no longer have any excuse not to work out. Free child care. State of the art equipment. Mirrors.

Also, we have a yard bigger than our house. Again. So the kids spend plenty of time out there what with global warming and all. Last week, we even had nice enough weather where they could play with the hose. It got out of hand, and naked, pretty quickly. But they have a blast and I have plenty of material to blackmail them with when they're teenagers. It's a win-win.

Luckily the Easter Bunny got our moving announcement and did a pretty good job hiding their Easter baskets, but eventually they found them, and we are still enjoying the fruits of their labor. Mostly, after they are asleep. That day, we took a hike on a private nature preserve in a different county and it feels nice to be so close to nature. Oscar was definitely in his element. 

This past month, we had our first two visitors to Roanoke, Jay's former fellowship cohort, Octavian and his partner Mark. Octavian is in the Navy, stationed in Virginia Beach, headed back to Afghanistan in a few months, so we were honored they made the five-hour drive to spend time with us. Annie even put on a show (I'll try to post the video soon) for them. Then, last week, our former neighbors, friends and landlords, the infamous Beverly and Al, or as the kids like to call them, "Betherly and Mr. Al" popped over in their plane from Louisville. The visit was all too short, but a big hit nonetheless. 

Also, since our move, Annie and Oscar enjoyed their first ice cream from the ice cream truck. Picture this: the van drives slowly past our house as Annie races out of the front door -- in a Cinderella costume, tiara and all, barefoot -- and chases the van down the block, about 100 feet, until he spies her highness in his rear mirror and bangs a U-turn. Victory is sweet. Rainbow Popsicle and chocolate eclair ice cream bar sweet.

And just to update you on the kiddos: 
When Oscar feels attacked, he'll bellow, "Don't be mean out me!"
Oscar is still obsessed with trash, and trash trucks, and trash cans... We had no idea the name Oscar would be so apt.
He's finally relented and is now eating peas. 
When I say goodnight to him, he thanks me for different foods I've given him, even water. I have no idea why.
Annie is reading so well now. No more spell-talking for us.
Annie and Oscar are now playing so well together (on the good days), I'm experiencing empty nest syndrome early.
Whenever Annie plays a grown-up in their games, she develops a speech impediment akin to Barbara Walters. Why not?

In fact, we're all settling in just fine. Looking forward to the summer and the kids being in camp (at the same time, halleluiah!). Here's to more roasted marshmallows in your near future. I know they will be in ours.

Easter and Spring 2012

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Virginia is for movers

We've arrived in our new home, unpacked many boxes, hung pictures, eaten our fair share of ice cream at Pop's Ice Cream & Soda Bar so it's fair to say, we reside in Roanoke and we really like it. With sprinkles. Annie and Oscar are enrolled in the same preschool within walking distance to our house (we tested it). Jay started work and he keeps going there, so that's a good sign. I'm finding my routine and joining a lot of non-profit groups aimed at entertaining young people to keep us busy and get myself in the proverbial "out there." I have also found a new passion of sorts: sewing. It's not so much a passion as a little bit of an addiction. I think it's because it's creative and can be done at home (two criteria that any hobby must fit if you're me). I've made purses, clothes for Annie, curtains for the house, reusable lunch wraps for the kids. I'm two stitches shy of making a toaster cozy, but I'm not there yet, thank goodness.

Oscar is so much a big boy now, it's kind of making me reminisce for when he was a wee little baby, but then I remember all of the times he almost killed himself, and the feeling passes. He's talking like a real kid now, even yelling, "Maahhhhm! Come up here!" from the top of the stairs. Melts a mother's heart. He LOVES Annie with a ferocity only matched by a puppy's love for its owner. She loves him AND loves having someone to boss around who actually does what she says. We'll see how long that lasts. Right now their favorite games are pretending to be in music class where Annie is both the mother and the teacher; restaurant, where Annie is the waiter and the cook; and house/school, where Annie is both the teacher and the mother. Sense a trend? My favorite moment of the day is right before bed when they say "goodnight" to each other. No matter what kind of day they've had, whether it be fighting or loving, they always give a huge hug to each other and kiss. 

Oscar is also a lot more forthcoming with his words of affection than Annie was as a baby. He often says "[Insert family member name], I love you too," even though we haven't initiated the exchange. It's like he assumes that everyone must love him and be feeling it all the time, so he better reciprocate less he offend us. What a great way to live. He's a huge hugger and snuggler. He loves Eskimo kisses and playing "trot, trot" games with anyone who will lift him on their lap. All of these positive traits far outweigh the stress caused by his disdain for naps, stubbornness (which I can not emphasize enough), and food habits.

Annie's gearing up for Easter and the chocolate that naturally follows. Oscar has her back on that one. We've explored every playground in a 2-mile vicinity. We have planted a bunch of seedlings Jay grew for fresh herbs and vegetables for the summer. Jay built a beautiful bookshelf for Oscar (I'll take a photo soon) while he was off from work. He has a legitimate shed now, which helps him with space and me with sanity as I'm not constantly dodging piles of saw dust and strewn tools in the basement. You could say we're pretty much settled. The scenery here is simply a breath of fresh air and the weather has been gorgeous. I think Virginia likes us.

Our new home

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Bahamas Feb. 2012

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