Updated 5/25/08– a few photos added below.
The fun of today was going to the outlet mall that is about an hour away and going to Carter’s to get new summer pajamas for the girls. We met Jacqueline, Steve, and B there. Shopping was followed by lunch at McDonald’s and then we parted ways to head back to our houses for naptime.
After naps, the girls helped Michael to cut down a small dead tree in our front yard and to chop up some of the branches that Michael cut from our peach tree. Yes, we have a peach tree… let’s see what we get….
The girls are snuggled in their beds, wearing their new jammies of course. E really wanted to get a nightgown because that is what Grandma wore when she came to visit last weekend, and what Nanny wore when she came the week before! She got a very cute long nightgown.. pink, of course, with an ice cream sundae on it. She has only ever worn pajamas with pants or shorts before, so she is quite excited by this nightgown concept.
The big news of last week is that we had some hardwood flooring put in. We had some already, but we wanted to add a bit more wood on the first floor. We had a really hard time finding wood to match, since the new wood bumps right up to the old wood. But they did a good job and the woods almost match perfectly. Our new stuff is a bit lighter, but they tell us that wood darkens with age. So we will see if that is true. In any case, we are pretty happy with it. They definitely did a great job laying it.
As I mentioned, we have been very lucky to have had some visitors the last two weekends. Last weekend, Grandma and B-pa came over from Illinois. It is a 5-hour drive, so it is not easy, but doable. While they were here, they went with Michael and the girls to the zoo, worked on the garden a bit, made banana muffins, took a walk on the bike path behind our house, went to a restaurant, and played a lot.
They went back to Streamwood with our kitchen table and chairs for Denise’s new apartment. We have recently inherited my grandmother’s kitchen table, so the timing is perfect. We hope the table and chairs fit nicely in Den’s space.
I was sorrry to miss Grandma and B-pa, but I was at a girls’ weekend with friends from grad school at a house in Killington, VT. I flew to VT on Friday afternoon and returned on Sunday afternoon, so it wasn’t long, but it was so nice to see these women. We were all in the same “cluster” in business school, which means we took all our classes together, essentially, for the first 2 semesters. Jenna is in Philly (soon to be Pittsburgh), Elise and Rachel are in NYC, and Anne (our hostess) lives in CT. It has been 6 years since graduation and we have all had many changes in our lives… marriages, births, a divorce, job changes, and lots more… but we all fell right back into the groove together. I look forward to the next one. Below, you can see the posse… Anne, Jenna, Rachel, me, and Elise.
For Mother’s Day weekend, my parents and sister came to visit from Boston and Washington, DC. We, too, had a nice time together. We went to the Des Moines Art Center– which turns out to be a fantastic art museum with a really interesting collection. And we also went to the zoo. On Mother’s Day, we went to a restaurant for dinner and the girls did really well.
It has been fun to show our families around a bit and to learn more about our new city and area in the process. So far, so good. We think we will really like Des Moines.
Our neighbors have been really friendly and we enjoy them already. Oddly enough, one of E’s classmates (there are only 7 in her class, total) lives across the street from us! E and M are good friends at school and we know we will start getting them together on the weekends, too. They have a crazy schedule, too, so we haven’t managed to do it yet. But soon enough…
All in all, we are still in that crazy new move-in mode… working lots of hours as we get settled into our new jobs, trying to get the house to be the way we want it, learning our way around. So it still feels like we are operating in fast-forward, but we are happy. The jobs are good, the town is good, and Apple Tree (E and J’s school) is good. The girls give us so much joy… they are really good playmates and so much fun to be around (usually). We feel very lucky.
J is using 4-5 word phrases and constantly asks, “What is that?” and “What you doin’?” She has developed a sense of humor and tries to make us laugh by doing silly things. She is VERY determined (some might say ’stubborn’) and stands up for herself when her sister invades her space or takes her toy. She also seems to know some colors (brown and pink, I think) and can say the numbers 1-10 in order. I hesitate to say “count,” because they are just sequential words to her, I don’t think they represent quantities or anything. But a good first step! She loves to sing and does it many times a day. Here are a couple of shots from the last week.
E seems to be blossoming in her new school and is learning so much about clouds, insects, and growing plants. She takes part in an optional program on Tuesdays that is like gym class for 3-year-olds called All Stars. She loves it and we think it is great. They practice hopping, jumping, walking on a balance beam, stretching, and other forms of movement. E loves it and we have seen her gross motor skills improving a lot. She has mentioned gymnastics…. we will start looking into it. Here we go with “activities”, I think…. a whole new level of busy… Here’s one of E today.
