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:).

Visit to Heritage Park, Bottom teeth FINALLY make an appearance

The last few weeks, we have been outside lots, and made a few trips. Last Sunday, we went to Heritage Park for the first time. Lynsey LOVED the train ride, and even went on the children's ferris wheel by herself! We were so surprised - she has gotten a lot braver the last little while! We went to Stettler to visit Mary and Dave on Wednesday as well. It was my first significant trip alone with the two kids, and traveling went very well. Adam doesn't sleep a lot in his carseat, but luckily for me, he doesn't whine the whole time he's awake.

Adam is becoming louder every day! He just started saying "da-da" and he was practicing all day today:). He is also getting more and more grabby, making it harder to hold him at the table than it used to be. He doesn't seem to be making much progress at moving forward when he's on his tummy. He kicks and kicks his legs, but has not figured out forward motion with any consistency. He DID cut his bottom two teeth last Monday finally! He had a terrible three nights leading up to Monday, and since he cut those teeth, he's been sleeping through the night which is FANTASTIC! He sometimes wants to get up shortly after 6, but I am doing my best to show him it's still night time by shading his eyes so he can't look around etc. I feel a bit mean doing this, but he needs to learn that 7 is the earliest he's allowed to get up. The last three or 4 nights have been better - he seems to be figuring out how to sleep past six so that's good:). The biggest problem we've been having is that he keeps pooping in the early morning! We'll walk into his room hoping to only have to give him his soother, and instead, we have to change his diaper, waking him up completely. I just don't know how to stop him from doing this, so I guess we'll just have to hope he outgrows it!

We have decided to be extremely ambitious, and are painting all the walls in our house except the kids' bedrooms and the basement (although we are also doing touchups in the basement). We also rented a storage unit and are de-cluttering, bringing stuff that we would want in a bigger house but just don't have room for right now, to this storage unit. Brian is also making some shelves in our living room entertainment unit to make better use of that space - apparently it's time for smaller speakers anyway:). This is a huge undertaking, and I'm a bit worried that we're taking on too much, but these are all things we have to do before we move, and the move is getting closer - Spring/Summer is less than a year away now! I didn't want to paint everything and get the house looking really nice only to move out right away - I thought that this way, we could enjoy it a little first! Lynsey has already talked quite a bit about wanting to help us paint, so I'm going to have to find a way for her to "help" without actually getting involved:).

Speaking of Lynsey, the potty training is going fabulously! She hasn't had an accident in a week, and she just always goes by herself now. She has even been dry at night for like a week and a half, and tonight she's wearing panties so we'll see if I've jinxed it:). I'm so proud of her! I guess she just needed to decide the right time!