We woke up yesterday morning to exactly what we were supposed to wake up to--1" or 1.5" of snow and ice on the ground. Stephen and I went to Home Depot to get some stuff for the house (it never ends) late in the morning. Stephen loved stomping around in the ice in the parking lot. When we got back home, we played a little bit in the front yard and then I had a brilliant redneck idea: we have a lot of large boxes in the garage from moving and buying furniture, so we could sled down the icy driveway on some cardboard. A redneck sled. Turned out to be pretty fun.

We went to a park near S&S's house a few times during our visit. The first day we went, Stephen went down the biggest slide there (a 12' high tube with a few spin-arounds in it) about fifty times. It seemed like he came down it a different way every time, too.

December 24, 2011

No good news as far as Henry's sleeping habits, but he sure is cute! When he is awake (23.5 hours a day), he is generally a happy baby. He motors around and gets into trouble. This begins a tough age in my opinion. 9-15 months are pretty labor-intensive times. A lot of following the baby around and telling them "no," removing them from dangerous situations, saving their lives, the usual fare. He is starting to use "mama" and "dada" meaningfully, like when he wakes up at night. If he's not hungry, he says "dada," but if he's hungry, he says "mama."

It seems like Stephen's tantrum stage was short-lived and is over for the most part. I can't overstate how good and easy Stephen is. He is good-natured and does whatever you ask of him. He eats well. He sleeps well. It's pretty much always been that way. We went out to eat with some friends on Saturday, and Stephen sat in a regular chair (no booster seat) the whole time and didn't act up once. He even tried to order his own dinner. "Me. Cheese." Then we went over to M&E's apartment and the boys tag teamed a Pac-Man game for a little bit. It was entertaining for about three minutes.

Here is a video of Stephen when he was fairly close to Henry's current age. It's incredible to me how similar they look and act.

We got some bids on getting a fence. I was pleasantly surprised by one of the prices, so we should have a large fenced-in area in our back yard in a few weeks. We also have blinds and/or curtains on most of the windows now. It was very strange having absolutely nothing on the windows; we felt so exposed. Jaime was getting dressed inside the closet. We bought a desk, hutch, and file cabinet for the front room of the house, and the desk had a piece missing. I called the number on the box and they said it was on backorder and it would take six weeks to ship us a new part. So now I have a half-assembled desk in my living room for six weeks. Fun stuff.

This house was a flip (for the definition of a "flip," consult every show on TLC), and consequently a lot of things were not done correctly. It's just a facade. They painted the floor of the garage with regular old indoor wall paint, so it's already peeling up all over the place. Some of the doors don't latch properly without having to use excessive force. The overflow drain was not installed properly on one of the bathtubs. I added some hot water to the boys' bath and water drained into our kitchen. Sigh. My first attempt to fix that was unsuccessful.

We still have a few loads of stuff to bring from the old house. Steve is coming over tonight to help me take apart the elliptical trainer and move it. That's a big task that's been looming ever since the day we moved.