Family time!

Well, we haven't done any painting in the last week and a half or so, but it's still been a pretty busy time! My family was down south last weekend for my nephew Brandon's wedding, so we spent Saturday at the wedding, and Sunday we went back to Three Hills for a ladies lunch (that was just for me - Brian had the kids:)) and some pool time after. Brian's parents came down on Saturday to look after the kids so we could go to the wedding kid-free! It was amazing! On Monday, George and Karen came over for supper and for night, and on Thursday, Joyce and John stopped in for night on their way back home. On Friday, I had a playdate at my house, and on Saturday, Mike and Bobbi and Jer came over for supper. A lot of hosting! I really enjoyed spending some time with my family this last week - living in Calgary, we don't get to see them that often.

Lynsey is using her imagination so much in her play these days! She shows me "things" in her hand and talks about her favorite characters being right there with her - I love that she's at this point now:). Adam slept for 12 straight hours (without crying) for the first time on Monday night - 7:40 to 7:40. He often does 11 hours, but 12 uninterrupted hours was a nice treat! I think he might be teething again now, though - lots of drool, and he's been having some trouble at night again. Hopefully he copes a bit better with future teeth than he did with the first two!

Back to painting this week - the final push. Three bathrooms and our bedroom. Hoping to get two bathrooms and our bedroom done by the weekend, leaving just one bathroom for next week. Hopefully this is achievable!

Paint, paint and paint some more

I feel like all I've done the past week and a half is paint. Really, it's very close to the truth. We started getting ready to paint when we got home on Monday, and on Monday night, I started with doing touch-ups in the basement stairwell. Tuesday, we emptied out the porches and did the first coat in the evening. Wednesday, my life-savers Dylana and Shelby arrived! They were there until Friday taking care of the kids and doing other miscellaneous things to help us out. It really freed me up to make a lot more progress during the day than would not have been possible otherwise. By the time they left, we were totally done the porches, kitchen and living room. That doesn't sound like that much as I'm typing it, but it was a ton of work! And our place was a disaster in the meantime! All part of the process, I guess!

We took a bit of a break from painting over the weekend because Brian was playing in a softball tournament. He did, however, still work on making shelves in the living room entertainment unit in the evenings. I painted the shelves on Monday and I can't tell you how glad I was when those were done - they were a lot more of a pain than I thought, and I wasn't even the one who had to build them! Tuesday, Coraleah and Larissa were coming over to help look after the kids so we could get some more painting done, and so Brian went out and rented the scaffold for the stairwell. We did one coat on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. The relief we felt when this task was done is almost indescribable. There was a bit of a fiasco regarding the paint not mixing properly which prompted a trip to Home Depot, where I "suggested" that they give us a fresh can. This helped us avoid the near disastrous outcome of a streaky second coat in the stairwell. I don't think I can adequately describe just how much Brian and I wanted to avoid doing a third coat in this particular area of our house. I don't think there are words that can accurately paint that picture. There was a lot of stress in our house for a while, but it all turned out okay, thank goodness!

I just have to say that we definitely have the cutest kids in the whole world:). Lynsey is just so interesting - I think she kept Shelby and Dylana quite entertained with her stories! Adam is still not moving, but he has his moments where we think he's trying to, so hopefully those moments start happening more frequently! He's added "mum-mum" to his mix of babbling and the volume just keeps going up. We are giving him more and more "real" food and he loves it - I think he will be off baby food a lot sooner than Lynsey was. I haven't gotten up with him at night for weeks, but he still gets up shortly after 6 some days! I continue to discourage this behaviour, but I admit I'm feeling a bit defeated. I will not give up until I am POSITIVE he is ready to get up for the day - I just don't see how he's had enough sleep if he's only going to bed at 7:30 - 8 and getting up at 6:15. Anyway, I am happy to not be getting up at night anymore, and hope that if I'm doomed to have an early bird, at the very least he keeps THAT up!

Hanging out in Edmonton

We have been in Edmonton since Wednesday and it's been a nice break for us! Since we decided that Adam was too young to leave behind, Brian's parents offered that we could just come and stay with them for a while and go out and do things without the kids - a bit of a mini-vacation if you will. We went to an Eskimos game, out for dinner, saw a movie, did some shopping, had some naps . . . it was really nice:). Tomorrow, we head home and start the mammoth task of painting. I'm a bit excited to get it all done, but I'm a bit worried about how we will keep our house functional in the process. It's not like we can just go over to Grandma's for night so we don't get high on paint fumes, or invite ourselves over there for a meal because our kitchen isn't functional. It will be a challenge, but we'll make it happen. I'm nothing if not determined!

Adam is apparently not quite as adaptable as Lynsey always was. When we got here on Wednesday, he was so intrigued by his new surroundings that he did not want to go to sleep (his catnap in the van between 6:30 and 7 did not help either). He had to sleep with us in our bed on Thursday night because he woke up at midnight and just would not go back to sleep until he was in our bed. Lynsey used to just sleep where ever we put her - we would put her to sleep in the playpen at a friend's house and while she would wake up when we put her in her carseat, she always went right to sleep when we got home. I'm just not sure if Adam would do that! He is getting used to being here now and has been much better the last few nights, and has even had some really good naps.

Lynsey is loving her time here and has expressed that she will be sad to leave tomorrow. Her Grandpa is definitely her favorite person right now (he spends so much time playing with her, he has definitely earned this!) and I'm sure we will be hearing about him a lot over the next little while:).