In an instant

The kids and I went to the State Fair yesterday with my mom. It was awesome. We saw llamas, and sheep, and longhorns. We saw baby pigs and tractor races and rode the monorail. We ate corn dogs and ice cream and drank lemonade. It was fun to see the kids react to the animals, and to riding the monorail and seeing the Fair from up above. It was fun to watch them slurp down the lemonade and ice cream. It was a fun day full of firsts for the kids.

The biggest first was the little kid rides. I bought tickets for Emma to ride the rides, and she was in heaven running around trying to decide what to ride. I was slightly apprehensive how she was going to do on them since she had never been on anything like it before. My plan was to ride along with her while my mom hung with Grant, but she insisted on her first ride being one I couldn't ride on.

"I'm fine riding by myself Mom" she says to me as she walks away to get in line. I hurry after her to hand the guy her ticket, and then watch as she marches off to pick her helicopter. I follow her from the outside of the gate, wondering if I should have gone with her to help her up, get her buckled in. She waits patiently for the guy to get to her, accepts his help getting into the helicopter and being buckled in. She scoots over so she's in front of the steering wheel, squeals in delight at the anticipation of the ride starting, and then waves at me and yells "HI MOM!". I wave back, snap a few pictures, and wave some more. The ride lurches as it starts, and I panic because she usually panics at unexpected things like that. I'm starting to offer reassuring words and trying to decide if it's okay to ask the guy to stop the ride to get her off when she squeals with delight again, and waves as her helicopter lifts up and the ride starts to turn. As she moves out of sight, I hear "Wheeeeeeeeee" and see her little hand poke out the window and wave to me.

And in an instant she grows up. Suddenly I see her for who she is becoming, no longer a little toddler, but instead a grown up Pre-Kindergartner. As the ride comes back around, and she's beaming with joy and waving to me, I see how tall she's become. How thin she is getting, how her plump little face is thinning. She comes around again, same beaming smile and enthusiastic wave, and I see how mature she is starting to look, and I get a glimpse at the emotions I'll be feeling when we drop her off at Kindergarten in one short year. When did she grow up?

The ride comes to an end, she clamors out and meets me at the exit gate, already talking about the next ride she wants to go on. She decides on the pink elephant ride, another one that goes up and down. "You ride with me mom" she says as she reaches for my hand.

I smile, and realize she's still my little girl for now.

Blech

Remember this pudding post? Well we made the lemon pudding this morning, and I tasted a little bit after I poured them in the bowl.

It taste like lemon air freshener.

My Buying a House PSA

PSA stands for Public Service Announcement, by the way.

Don't buy a house from a general contractor. If you find out that ANY of the previous owners was a general contractor, run far far away from that house. Far far far away.

We knew that the owner before the previous owner was a general contractor. We knew he was the one that did the addition on the house, who put in the "pool", who re-did the kitchen.

Now we know that he used faulty wiring in two of the ceiling fans and one of the wall light units. We know he didn't put a big enough pump onto the "pool" and dug the hole weird so the vacuum doesn't work right. We now know that he used interior paint on the exterior of the house, that he didn't hook the hot water heater up correctly, and that he used an off brand, no longer made garage door.

Most recently, as in today, we found out that he didn't properly seal the toilet to the floor so it's been leaking under the floor. Now luckily he also grouted all around the toilet so the water didn't get under the tile, that could have been a huge expensive mess.

Instead, our toilet backed up on Saturday. And then again yesterday. Only yesterday no amount of plunging by me or Hubs could get it to flush all the way. A plumber came out today and snaked it, both him and I fully expecting to find some toy Grant had flushed. It didn't do any good, but he did pull up some roots. Roots indicated he needed to remove the toilet. When he did that, there were roots all over the wax seal (which is what attaches the toilet to the floor) and a few dangling over the edge. He starts pulling them up, and pulling, and pulling, and pulling, until he's pulled up a "rope" of roots that is taller than him and probably 5 inches in diameter, with poop and toilet paper mixed in. Obviously the roots have been growing for a while, which indicates the toilet has been leaking for a while. Like since the guy improperly sealed it, 8 or so years ago.

He later confided that he has never in his career seen so many roots in one drain. The painter said the same thing about interior paint on the exterior. The electrician said the same thing about the ceiling fans. The pool repair guy said the same thing about the pool pump. The garage door guy said the same thing about the off brand garage door. And the house inspector said the same thing about the hot water heater hook up.

We need to move. We can't afford this previous general contractor any more.

Gymnastics fever

Emma is on fire with gymnastics over here. She wore her white leotard to gymnastics today, and as she wriggled into it she exclaimed "I look like Nastia Lukin!" Then when we arrived she skipped right up to her teacher to tell her the same thing. They chatted about a few of the other gymnastics stars, including Shawn and Chung Fey from China. Emma told her teacher that balance beam was her favorite "appawatus". With her teacher chuckling, they all headed out onto the floor while I hustled Grant off to his class.

A while later, I look up to see Emma, across the gym, doing a little balance beam routine on the beam that is on the floor. Apparently they were just suppose to walk across it, but Emma decided to add a few jumps, a spin, and some sort of donkey kick, then a fancy jump off the end as her dismount. As I watched (and Grant ran away, but that's a different post), she did this over and over.

At the end of the class, she ran over to where I was getting my shoes on and asked me to watch her beam routine. This time though, she put her hands down on the beam and jumped her feet off the side as her dismount, then threw her arms up in the air for her finish.

Here we come Team USA!

Melissa Math

One pear with breakfast + one peach with lunch = lots of diaper changes for Grant

All I need is a stamp

Dear Guy who invented the car shopping cart,
Do you have young children? Or maybe I should ask, do you do your grocery shopping with young children? Yeah, I didn't think so. See, I thought the car shaped shopping cart was a cool idea too when I didn't have kids. I thought it was a great idea when I had one kid and was 8 months pregnant in the summer. I even thought it was a great idea when I had one in a sling and one in the shopping cart.

Now, not so much. My kids are pretty squished in there now, so you might be able to imagine that it leads to hair pulling, elbowing, squeaking the other one's horn, and the end result is always screaming, crying, and general chaos.

When I then forbid use of the car cart, I have to spend the whole shopping trip listening to double whining, double tears, constant pleading, begging, and promises of good behavior.

So, Mr. Car cart inventor, my grocery trips are a total nightmare right now and I hold you responsible for that.

**************************************

Dear Pudding Flavor Decider,
Pistachio? Seriously? Who wants to eat pistachio flavored pudding? Except my almost 4 year old. See, she loves pistachios, and thinks the "pretty green one" would taste great. But I can think of nothing grosser, so every time we select pudding, I have to steer away from the pistachio flavor which is shelved at her eye level, divert her eyes from the pretty green, and talk her into something else. Today is was lemon, which I'm not really looking forward to, but since my alternative was pistachio, I'm pretty thrilled.

Who says white men can't jump?

Cause Grant is proving them wrong. He got air today! He's been "jumping" for a while now, only those darn feet just wouldn't come up off the ground. Well today he was totally messing around and being silly and his feet got off the ground. And then again. And again. And again. And...well you get the point.

He's also totally in love with all things Elmo, even though he doesn't sit still long enough to get to Elmo's World on Sesame Street. He's taken Emma's Elmo and it lives in his crib. I left him in his crib at bedtime with Elmo tightly in his clutches.