Just Listed

Yep, that's our house. I walked out the door this afternoon to go for a run, and there it was - a "Just Listed" sign. This sign is the reason it's been so long since my last post. We have been talking about selling our house for quite a while now, and talked to a realtor exactly two weeks ago. In the last two weeks, we have been furiously working to get our house ready to sell. I went through closets and bedrooms and drawers, decluttering like crazy. We patched holes and repainted entire walls. We rented a steam cleaner and cleaned carpets. We moved furniture so our living room would look bigger and more open. And the last few days have been all about furious, last minute cleaning. Windows, walls, floors, sinks, cabinets, you name it! The photographer was here yesterday to take pictures of the house, and it will officially go on the market tomorrow morning. We have not found a house to move into yet (although there is one house that we like . . . not sure if it's "the one" but it has a lot of things that we like) but our realtor says we really need to sell our house before we put an offer in to another house anyway. We plan to ask for a 90 day possession, which he says will give us plenty of time to find something, especially this time of the year. He doesn't seem to think we are looking for anything that's too hard to find, so hopefully he's right! I will be sure to keep you all posted on how the house hunting and selling is going:).

What is going on with our dear children, you might be asking (or not, but you're going to find out anyway:)). Adam has discovered that yelling isn't loud enough, and has upped his pitch into a scream when things aren't going his way. I can hardly stand it - please let it be a quick phase! He now completely navigates stairs all on his own! About a week ago, he started turning himself around at the top of the stairs and going down without yelling (or screaming) at us to help him. He now yells "eeaaatttt" whenever he's hungry - again, the food communication seems to be a top priority! He is an interesting boy to observe. Such a lone wolf, just wandering around, making noise whenever he can. He's taken to throwing hard things on the hardwood floor, leaving dings everywhere (great time, just before we sell the house!). Taking these items away in an effort to save the floor causes the world as he knows it to come to an absolute end, but I assume he'll learn to deal with disappointment sometime. Such an intense little boy! His hair is getting so long - it's going to be time for that first haircut soon! I'm holding off as long as I can because I really don't want to touch his little mess of curls yet - it's too cute! I guess I can't avoid it forever:).

Lynsey has been a bit under the weather on and off over the last few weeks, causing her to have some very difficult days. The whining is enough to make me want to lose it, but so far I've kept it together! She has had quite a few naps lately, which she hasn't done literally for months. She was never very sick, just a few episodes of fever and one throwing up incident. I think she might have inherited my immune system and is just really good at fighting these things off (here's hoping anyway!). She seems to be growing more reasonable about what she wears (sometimes - not always!). I have been able to convince her a few times lately to wear pants, and there was no big fight about it! Having said that, I usually let her choose, which means we end up with a "pink girl" or a "purple girl", but it's a start. On the days when I choose, there is still often a fight, but I think it's getting a bit better. As she gets older and more able to reason, my chances for success are going up. I guess this is what having a three and a half year old is all about!

My kids are growing up!

We had a really fun weekend in Edmonton a week ago. Steve and Andrea came down from Brandon and we had a great visit! It was great to meet little Alex and catch up with them.

Adam is becoming his own little person more and more every day. He keeps picking up more words and is becoming more and more mobile - he goes down stairs now! He needs a start at the top still, but he goes down very confidently on his own. He seems to be able to turn around and go down on his own when he gets to the landing, but for some reason he needs my help right at the top. He's probably still lacking some confidence. He is a lot more independent these days, too - he wanders around a lot, and I need to carry him around a lot less. He loves emptying my drawers, and recently his own drawers, which I remember Lynsey doing at that age as well:). We were at the zoo today, and he was happy just wandering around the playground for a long time. Once he discovered the slide, his contentment was over and all he wanted to do was slide, but it was a fun time nonetheless:). He seems to be going through a growth spurt the last few days because he has been sleeping a lot - long naps and nights. Nice for me! It will be interesting to see how long he will stay chunky!

Lynsey is becoming quite the little academic! She tried to spell out the stop sign today (didn't get it quite right, but it was the first time I ever heard her try!) and she is counting everything - the peas in her plate, her corn pops, etc. I registered her for preschool in the fall and I am getting more and more confident that she will just love it. She also drew her first bonafide face last week! I was so proud of her:). There is a picture below of her holding it.

Is it Spring yet?

I'm ready for March to become a bit more like a lamb - totally done with the cold and snow. Spring . . . I'm waiting . . .

The other day, Brian went downstairs where Lynsey was playing and she had lined up all the letters from the fridge on the floor, spelling her name at the end of it. We are entering the age of increased interest in letters and words. She's been watching this show on PBS called "Super Why" and I think that has helped her become more interested as well. We are planning on putting her in preschool at Cardel Place, a Leisure Centre close to our place. They have a lot of different activities including swimming and play on different apparatuses in gyms etc. - I think she'll have a lot of fun! I am glad I don't have to decide on Kindergarten just yet . . . not looking forward to having to figure that out!

Adam is climbing the stairs all the time now, and I am trying my best to teach him to come down on his own - he hasn't caught on yet. His legs are a little less stiff when I move them down now, so I'm hopeful that he's learning the motion and will get it soon. He's seems to be saying a lot more words lately, too! I say "seems" because I never know if what I'm hearing is just babbling or if it's purposeful - Brian said he was sure he was trying to say "Lynsey" this morning, and this evening, he definitely tried to say "yogurt" (figures - most of his words are food lol!). He may be behind where Lynsey was at this age in a few areas, but I would say his vocabulary is definitely better than Lynsey's was. Interesting - they say girls are usually quicker to pick up words than boys. Just another thing about my boy that surprises me:).

When Lynsey went down to one nap, I never looked back - she started having one nap one day and she never went back to two. With Adam, I'm finding it's day to day - he often still has a little half hour snooze in the morning, yet he is perfectly able to go all morning without a nap when we're out. I find that some days keeping him up all morning so he will just have one nap doesn't necessarily translate into a longer afternoon nap, which is why I put him down a lot of mornings when we're just at home. He's been teething like crazy, which I think is also affecting the length of his naps - he's cut another molar as well as that fourth tooth on the bottom row. I think his last top molar is also partially through, but it's hard to know for sure without getting a proper look (which I'll never get). Poor kid - not getting any better at handling that teething pain! His fingers are always in his mouth!