congratulations on coming home!

I left my family for four days to travel to Missouri to be with my aunt and bury and celebrate the life of my grandmother. I had a wonderful time, my mom and sister are the tops to travel with (as long as I get to drive). My aunt has a laugh that makes the whole room erupt in side splitting laughter themselves. We spent a few teary moments remembering Gramma, but mostly it was a celebration of her. We ate ourselves into oblivion, slept until we woke up naturally, discovered a new mini series called Into The West that I am going to try to find on netflix as soon as I am finished this post. We went to a performance of Camelot, did crossword puzzles galore, wore stockings three days in a row, marvled at the beauty of the fall leaves, the crisp air and the swirling winds. I bought four mega packs of Chicklets which for some reason I can't find here, got to see old cousins that I hadn't seen since I had braces and started to really feel like I knew my way around Columbia. PLUS I want to send Ivy to Vet school there when she is ready.

I got home late last night and peeked in on Ivy before my head hit the pillow. In the morning I lept from my bed to go see her when she called for me. I was so excited. She was SO Sweet, you will see why that warrants capitalization in a sec. She stroked my face, looked deep into my eyes and said "welcome home, mom" Then she said in kind of a panicky yet calm excitement, "I am so glad you are back, welcome home, your face is still so soft, I am gla..., I heard you come in last night and I wanted to give you a huge hug, welcome ho..., Congratulations on coming home!" All the while she is petting my face. She told me that the worst part of dad's day was dropping her off at school and the best part of his day had been picking her up from school because he missed her so. All the while she had this look on her face of "I can;t believe you are here and I am talking to you!"

In other news, I am a budding children's skirt maker, due to make my debut at the holiday fair at Ivy's school in just 3 weeks, now I just need to get the application in!

The land is clean and we are due to make settlement in the middle of November. We are madly coming up with plans for the house that will make it PERFECT!

I broke my toe (or at least I think I did) by stubbing it on a pair of shoes.

I am loving all the leftover Halloween candy, because when we asked Ivy how many pieces of candy she wanted on Halloween she said "3" and that is what we all stuck with. Have I mentioned that I LOVE her?

It is 8 o'clock, and as soon as I track down my mini series we are off to bed to watch a movie. heaven? I think so!

I'll leave you with a picture of our little dentist and her first patient who just happened to be a dinosaur! How brave, how cute!

It is time for a recap!

Ivy started school last week and really likes it. She says she doesn't want to go in the morning, but I'd rather stay in my pajamas than almost anything else either, too. I can't blame her. She doesn't tell us much about what goes on during her day, just snippets here and there. I love hearing the snippets! Last night she said "at my new school we light candles!" I said, "oh, how special, do you learn how to be very careful?" "no, we just already knew that, mom!" She's often 3 going on 12 but most of the time, it is in a good way!

We are under agreement on land in Mount Airy which will get it's soil test next week, after which, we can start to really get excited (not that we are really waiting).

Scott sold two of his Bancroft Green projects, they are due to close before Christmas. This is exciting both because it validates him and because now we have money on which to live (or at least we will).

We had to put Oreo down last week. Scott got Oreo from a cat shelter when he was in college and has had him as a companion for the last... well, since then. We miss him but Ivy helps us focus on the positive. "I am excited because now I can sleep with my door open" And Scott and Ivy have decided that when we move we will get two new cats and name them Flopsey and Mopsey.

I have not exactly figured out what I am going to do with myself while Ivy is in school. I suspect that one day a week, I will drive home and do home chores but the remaining two, I will stay out here, typing in a coffee shop, running errands, going to the gym... any suggestions?

things you never thought you'd hear

We were dining in a cafe on Wednesday while waiting for the library to open. Ivy looked up at the ceiling and asked me what kind of lights were hanging there. I said "Pendant lights!" she said "pendant... like Independence hall!" Um, yup!

"You know what kind of cheese we haven't had in a really long time?" Ivy asks. "What kind?" I reply. "Um... I don't know the name of it, but it is twirly and it tastes like candy, do you know what it is called?" "No, I can't figure it out from your clues, sorry."

After a trip to the bathroom right before dinner, I told Ivy she could keep her undies and bloomers off because after dinner we were going to get undressed anyway for bath and bed. "Thanks", she said, "That is so very thoughtful of you, mom." "I'm glad you feel appreciated!"

Seriously, she gets cuter every day, the fact that naps are a thing of the past doesn't even bother me.. well, naps would be nice but when she rests quietly in her room, what's the difference?

what'cha been up to?

sewing, discovering new playgrounds, acupuncture, day trips to the zoo, family reunion, making dinner (and breakfast and lunch), laughing with Ivy, playing make believe picnic, watching "Burn Notice", swimming, socializing, reading library books, gardening, playing fetch, watching Ivy learn to dribble a ball, snuggling, and so much more!

what I live for

Tonight when I was putting Ivy to bed, her bedtime routine was pristine. It included no toothbrush fights, undressing and dressing herself, two wonderful and short books a thoughtful snuggle with her hot water bottle and then our nightly conversation. me: "what was the worst part of your day?" Ivy: "Nothing!" me again: "what was the best part of your day?" Ivy: "Going to get your watch fixed."

It rained all day. In the morning we were stuck in the house waiting for the dryer duct cleaner (did you know you should have your duct work cleaned annually?). He turned out to be the most wonderful young chap I ever could have expected. I can't go into detail because I am considering going to bed at 7:43 on a Friday night, and I think I just might. Then we had to wait for the UPS man (yes, man, Donna has moved off of our route) to deliver the drum for our dryer that is to be repaired next week. After a full day inside, broken up by an easy and wonderful nap for Ivy and lots of mindless surfing for me, we set out to fix my watch. I have been lost without it since the pin slipped out about a month ago. While it was getting repaired we wandered around the mall (and by wandered, I mean Ivy ran and I moseyed after her) I think that the highlight that Ivy was remembering was when we smelled lotions in the Body Shop, and then tried them out, a different scent on each body part. When we ran out of accessible parts, she thought she would just pull down her pants and apply the wonderful body butter to her legs. I thought that maybe by then the watch was ready. Ten dollars and a lot of fun later, we left the mall and walked home in the commuter foot traffic, happy we had left the house and happy that we had had a successfull trip.

I also should mention that Ivy was singing "Singin' in the Rain" at the top of her lungs all the way there, a cuter picture you never did see.

AND we had egg rolls for dinner, branching out never tasted so good, I highly recommend trying them!

A small rant

I am pretty happy for people when they have a baby. Actually, I am almost always VERY happy when people have a baby. I like babies, I think they are a great addition to a family. The thing that gets me ticked off is when people decide to start trying, successfully get pregnant and carry a baby to term and deliver a healthy baby with no complications before we even get pregnant. I will use Audra as an example because she will never read my blog and her sister is my BFF so she will understand. Oh, I guess about nine months ago (or really 10) Audra was thinking about getting pregnant but was worried that they would have trouble conceiving because of her irregular cycles. So one day she goes to the gyn to voice her concerns and guess what... she's pregnant. AND her delivery was pretty much like out of a dream. Congrats Audra and Nick, I am jealous as hell! But on the bright side (because I always force myself to find a bright side) The thought of a dead-of-winter baby doesn't appeal to me, so I have a nice big window coming up to conceive and have a spring or summer or fall baby. Maybe THAT is what our baby has been waiting for, a temperate birthday!

Speaking of which, since Ivy just turned 3 she went to the dentist for the first time and we had the nicest time. It didn't hurt that he cleaned my teeth when I was a wee one, and it didn't hurt that he sent Ivy home with a glove, a little toothbrush head like the one he used and a DOLLAR! That's right kids, Ivy got her first monetary gift ever, from the dentist.

I just made a super-cute Tutu on the sewing machine and, since Scott is at his high school reunion, I am wavering between popcorn and a chick flick and an early bed time... hmmm

finally a video of the girl swimming!

check it out!

compliments

Tonight when Ivy was sitting on the potty, she said "I like the white stripes on your shirt!" She said it with such enthusiasm, too. She also pet my arm as I sang to her at nap time today. I asked her who she wanted to sit next to at her birthday dinner, she said " you, I love you so much." (she was stroking my face and nose as she said it) On Tuesday we were crossing the street and when we got to the other side, I told her she could let go of my hand. She said "I want to hold your hand, mom, because i love you so very much!" um, could I get that in writing? She is sweet and wonderful and I am in absolute love with her. We are looking at a summer together as we are taking her out of school at the end of May. I think we are going to be just fine together. We have such great friends and activities at our fingertips I can't imagine we will be bored. I also plan on convincing another certain friend to to a babysitting swap.

I am listening to an episode of "Voices in the family" titled Pressures Facing Girls. Part one of a two part series, I bet you can guess that the next episode is about. It is amazing to listed to people talk about adolescent girls and think that one day Ivy will be dealing with self esteem issues, peer pressure, finding her identity etc. One of the positive things I have gleaned from the program that makes me feel like we are doing a good job is that eating family dinners and spending quality family time is more important than gaining scholastic knowledge or excelling in a sport, or other extracurricular activity. Hot diggity dog, more family time! I also really like the relationships that Ivy is building with her friends' parents. I hope that one day when I am no longer the love of her life, she will have other moms that are maybe not so uncool that she can approach with the questions that she has that she can't ask me.

Long story long... I am feeling much better about Ivy growing up than I ever have before. I no longer want to keep her a toddler, I now can't wait to see who she becomes each and every day. Happy Birthday Ivy! (because let's face it, between the major house cleaning, the first trip to the dentist and the two birthday dinners, I won't have time to wish her a happy birthday on THE day)

in a nutshell

So, obviously we have been pretty busy. Here's with what:



being cute on Water Island

riding in the golf cart with dad

collecting things on the beach


And... SWIMMING

Other things that have been consuming our time have been deciding where to move (Mount Airy), when to move (ASAP), what to do to our house before we put it on the market (lots and lots of little stuff, and a few big jobs) when to have our yard sale (and how much stuff to give away). We have also been planning Ivy's 3rd birthday, planting our flowerbed and pots, organizing paperwork for tax season, catching up on LOST, cleaning the kitchen 3 times a day (UGH) and doing tons and tons of laundry! Oh, and we have been answering the question "why" a lot!

I think that about sums it up. We are off to the zoo, it is a beautiful day.

I heard her little feet walking all around the living room!

Ivy never gets out of bed after she has been tucked in. Well, rarely but she always scampers back. Today I was sitting on the first floor paying bills, facebooking and renewing our zoo membership for a %15 discount and all was quiet in her room. Daylight saving time has been a little rough on us and naps have been happening a little later, but they have been happening. Today her room was quiet because she was not in it! I heard her wandering around the living room looking for me. When I ran upstairs to coax her back to bed I thought maybe we had had an isolated incident of escaping. I was wrong. She is sitting next to me reading a book while I am on hold with the medical billing people and typing. I don't want her to think she is missing anything fun by napping, right? So she has to sit quietly and wait... maybe being in her room will begin to look better to her.