Painting DONE!

Well, the painting is done - PRAISE THE LORD! I am so glad to be done. I know that come Spring/Summer when we get ready to sell, we will be pretty thankful that we don't have to paint:).

Adam STILL hasn't cut those two teeth that have been bothering him for going on a month - good times. His crankiness comes and goes, so at least it's not constant. He is definitely discontent for reasons other than teething. He wants so badly to move around, and yet when we put him on his tummy he just cries and cries. It's really sad actually - the tears are flowing and everything. He seems to think we are trying to torture him or something! Like I was saying in my last post, he just wants to stand, and more and more wants us to walk him around. He still likes his jolly jumper, but when we walk by, he tries desperately to reach out for us and then cries. He is definitely starting to reach for us when he wants to be picked up (which is most of the time). He is getting better at feeding himself (figures that would be one of the things he masters first! Not gonna put much energy into learning to crawl, but I definitely need to learn how to FEED MYSELF!:)). I love watching him and Lynsey interact. While she still makes him cry a lot of the time, more and more I see her making him smile and laugh, and it just makes me so happy! I have visions of them entertaining each other in the very near future!

I think I've mentioned this in other posts, but Lynsey has pretty much memorized most of her books (and she has A LOT of books - no small feat!) and she often sits there reading to herself for a long time. It's very cute:). I don't know if this is normal for a kid her age and I don't even care if it is (I refuse to be one of those moms always looking for ways that my kid is "ahead" of other kids) - I just think it's really neat and I'm glad she is so interested in books! I did some fall shopping for her yesterday and it was so much fun! For the first time, I let myself go a bit and bought her some really cute clothes that weren't necessarily always the most practical:). I decided it was time to take advantage of the fact that I have a little girl and have some fun with it!

Labour Day festivities in Red Deer

The last week and a half have been filled with a teething Adam, a challenging Lynsey, and right in the middle, a Brian-less Labour Day weekend. Good times:).

We painted our ensuite bathroom and bedroom last week, so that was a relief to get out of the way. Just two bathrooms left! I will do the upstairs one tomorrow, and next week finish off the main floor bathroom. When this is done, there will be a ceremonial storage of paint and paint supplies, at which time I vow never to see them again (at least not until we move!).

Brian left on his annual guys camping trip on Friday afternoon, and the kids and I took off for Red Deer for the gathering of the Penner women right after supper. We stayed at the Red Deer Lodge. It was the first time I had the kids in a hotel room, and it actually wasn't that bad. Adam's first night wasn't fantastic (it always takes him some time to get used to new surroundings), but him and Lynsey both had a great nap on Saturday afternoon and then he had a great night! Lynsey was up until 11:30 on Saturday night (the latest she's ever been up by quite a bit) so she was a bit grouchy on Sunday. The weekend as a whole was pretty good. Brian's mom helped me with the kids a lot, which was great, but we had a different schedule than everyone else so it was a bit tough to do things together. We were up early and everyone else slept in (trust me - I would have liked to be in their boat!) so our meals didn't really coordinate. The pool was a bit deep for Lynsey, which was a bit disappointing, but as you can see from the pictures, Adam loved it! I bought him a new baby boat where he sinks in a bit further, and he just leaned back and floated around looking at the ceiling, saying "ba ba ba". It was pretty cute:). Lynsey just needs a shallow end to gain some confidence - she can be okay in the deep end with her arm floats, but she always spends some time in the shallow end first. Too bad - we'll just have to make sure the next hotel we stay in has a shallow end!

Adam is not one of those kids that wakes up one day and you look in his mouth and say, "oh, when did that tooth show up?". No, we always know when teeth are coming - for like a month beforehand:(. We had a nice break after those bottom two teeth poked through, but the last few weeks have been a bit tough. He's cranky and while he still sleeps well most nights, he's waking up a lot more than usual, especially in the evening after he goes to bed. I have to hold him and comfort him for a while, then he can usually go back to sleep. He's working on the two teeth beside his bottom two - I think he might get all his bottom teeth before the top ones make an appearance! I just want them to come out already . . . I want my content boy back! I don't think this is related to teething, but he also hardly lets us sit him down anymore - he just wants to stand all the time! I really think he'll walk before he crawls. He is perfectly happy if we stand him up and let him step around a bit, or jump (this one is very difficult with his weight!). Oh, speaking of his weight, I had him weighed on his 8 month birthday (the 31st) and he was 25 lb 9.5 oz, 29 inches long. Weight gain is slowing slightly, but that is still very heavy for his age. Lynsey at this age was the same length, but under 19 lb!

Lynsey continues to be very interesting, and continues to really test us some days. Today was one of those days. She just wouldn't listen to a thing I said! All day! It was very frustrating. On the whole, I continue to be thankful for her because I know she isn't as difficult as a lot of kids her age, but my patience can hardly handle a crying Adam and a rebellious Lynsey. She does make up for her bratty times by making us laugh and sometimes I just want to crush her with hugs for being so sweet:). She did do really well at the grocery store today which was a bit of a saving grace - I'm proud to say that when she asked for a treat, I told her no and stuck to it. I'm even more proud of Lynsey because she complained a bit about not getting a treat, but she pretty much just got over it and moved on! It's hard to believe she will be turning three in less than two months - she's growing up so fast!