Warm and lovely

We're so glad to finally have spring weather!

Molly makes a "garden" behind the house to plant neat rows of sidewalk chalk.

Kate loves this little bike this week, perhaps because our new driveway has a little hill that rolls her right into my car or the garage. Super fun!

First Abbott's trip since moving to the new house -- we don't even have to cross any busy streets to get here now.

By the end of the day everybody was wearing summer clothes. Kate was dancing around saying "Lucy's dress." Hooray!!!

We're settling in pretty quickly. Within days of having the girls back in separate bedrooms we cracked down on the Kate's night wakings -- two years is a long time to be getting out of bed every few hours. She only complained one night and has been sleeping solidly for a few nights now. Fingers crossed!!

We've met several of our neighbors. The girl next door is just a little younger than Molly and will be the same grade in school. She's doing private kindergarten but they'll be on the bus together starting in first grade. So cool! They just played together a bit yesterday for the first time. Today Molly asked several times when she'd see our neighbor again and started watching to see when she gets home from preschool and when she might be around to play.

Kate's in luck, too. The couple right across the street has a daughter who was born about 5 days before Kate. Once they're old enough to be aware of each other, they'll be as excited about that as we are.

The only bummer is that nobody's around during the day. Stay-at-home moms seem to be extremely rare around here. Ah, well. At least there are no lines at Abbott's on a beautiful Monday afternoon. :)

Crazy week ... the 5-minute version

So, the walk-through of our house Tuesday night was so exciting that it was hard to sleep. Molly snuggled in bed with us Wednesday morning and Jim asked her if she wanted pancakes for breakfast. Closing day seemed to be off to a great start. Until Molly climbed out of bed and threw up on the shag rug in our bedroom.

It brought back fond memories of two years ago, when she was violently ill with a stomach bug when her baby sister was born.

We powered through, left my mom with a sick Molly (just like 2 years ago, sigh) and went to the closing. Molly was so upset when we left for the walk-through that for the closing we told her that we were just going out to buy saltines.

She drew this oddly perky picture to illustrate her dual cold/stomach bug -- I believe that's a box of tissues in one hand and a trash can next to her while she's throwing up.

Closing was quick and easy. We gave them a huge check, they gave us a key. We had plenty of time to stop for saltines.

Fortunately Molly recovered quickly. We started right away moving stuff over -- this was not hard, considering the old and new houses are within easy walking distance. Molly helped.

Fast forward two months a couple days. After much marching up and down attic stairs carrying boxes (and thanks to the endless generosity of our parents who were here in shifts every day this week) we had enough stuff moved by Friday to sleep in the new house.

Today we pushed the boxes aside and tried to remember that the kids still exist. Poor Kate got so little time to bask in her birthday glory. It felt good to have a little party and think about something other than the move for a few hours.

Kate fell asleep at 4 p.m., for the second night in a row. I was holding her in the kitchen after the party and, just like last night, she laid her head on my shoulder and zonked out. Both girls have been sleeping surprisingly well for being in a new place and in bedrooms half full of boxes. I guess the trick is to exhaust them beyond imagination every day.

Speaking of exhaustion, it's time to go to bed!

2-year-old girl

Happy birthday Kate!

We started the day with snuggles in bed and the story of how she was born. She seemed to be paying attention, but when I got to the part where I hugged the midwife Kate busted in with, "Henry try hug me, I run away." I continued with the story, but that's all she wanted to talk about. :)

Next we went downstairs and opened presents bright and early before Jim went to work.

One of Kate's gifts was her very own set of dry-erase markers, so later in the morning we got out the easel to play with them.

It turned out to be such an exciting morning that our snuggle bug fell asleep on me just before lunch.

We happened to be meeting friends at the library after lunch, and we might have missed it if they didn't call to ask where we were (I may have taken a little nap, too). Kate woke up just in time to hop in the car and dash over.

The library was a good break in the day, after a morning of more than the usual amount of conflict between sisters. We got home just in time to cook Kate's special birthday dinner -- hot dogs! Then cake (store bought this year, of course) and ice cream.

Jim and I ducked out quickly after dinner (thanks Mom!) to do the walk-through on our new house. Closing is tomorrow morning!!! The house looked great. The sellers put little notes on everything to tell us what switches go to what, etc. They even left us a binder with take-out menus, a huge stack of info about the house and a bottle of wine and chocolates. So sweet.

Kate was a little wired at bedtime after that. Molly crashed hard, but I think the nap gave Kate way too much extra energy.

We finally got her to bed around 8.

The funny thing is Kate really hit the 2-year-old emotional intensity about a month ago with a ridiculous tantrum in a parking lot where she wanted to be both held and to walk on her own at the same time. She started to have tantrums and refuse to let me comfort her. She has big ideas and can't make them happen. So today didn't really feel like a new year beginning, just confirmation of what we already know -- that Kate's 2!

Phew! We made it through Easter and the birthday day. Now all we need to do is buy a house and move into it. Not a busy week at all. :)

A hoppy Easter

Easter dresses

Snuggly Kate

Cousins

Eggs

Time to dye the eggs!

We decided to play with the extra dye (aka food coloring in water). Molly colored some paper and fabric.

We have some mini batches of purple and pink pizza dough rising, too. Because, why not!

Silly monkeys

We had a fun Saturday playing with cousins during their move into the new house. It was amazing how all five kids were together all day and not once seemed to get sick of each other. There was no fighting, even after no naps for the little ones. Kate was the only one who tried to start something, grabbing toys out of poor Henry's hands, but she couldn't even get a rise out of him. Hooray for cousin harmony!

So does anybody know why winter just won't go away this year?

Molly and Kate came out of the mud room giggling this afternoon all "dressed" to go outside to play. I think they thought it was naughty that they were wearing spring jackets and baseball caps instead of winter coats and hats. Neither one seemed to get why I was laughing ...

(grand)Parent Observation Day

Molly got to invite family to gymnastics class this morning. Lucky girl had all three grandparents in the audience.

Jumping into the pit of foam blocks.

Kate had an audience for ballet class, too. Turns out there's one thing she loves even more than ballet ... Grandpa!!!!