Staying afloat

A few weeks ago, one of my sweet work friends gave me some clothes her little boy had outgrown. There were lots of cute items in the bag, but probably my favorite was this adorable navy blue puffy vest. The first day I brought it home, Landon wore it all around the house and I thought he thought he was super cool. But maybe not.

Later in the week, we were leaving in the morning. It was supposed to be a somewhat warm day, so I hadn't put the kids' coats on them. Of course, as soon as we get to the car, Landon starts freaking out saying he's "chiwwy" and that he needed a jacket. So I suggest to him that he wear the vest, and he completely melted down. I asked him what the problem was, and he said,

"I don't wanna wear a yife pwaserver!"

(That's 'life preserver' for my non-Landon-speaking friends. :))

Hehe. Guess it does kinda make sense...

Week 4.5

John Michael sneaked a peek today and it looks like the builders have been working hard the past few days!

Week 4

Eeeee!

Gonna pay for this one day...

And it'll be worth every second of it ;)

Week ... ?

It's technically Week 18 since we signed our contract, but for the sake of my sanity, let's stick with weeks since there's been progress. So here you go - your Week 3 update! :)

(Finished foundation and the beginning of framing)

All our lumber, just waiting to make up some walls!

The lot looked a little bit hillier (did I make up that word? More hilly?) this past weekend and I had a minor freakout. I think it'll be great once the fill dirt is in though. Breathe in, breathe out. John Michael lovingly reminded me there's not much I can do about that at this point anyway. Thanks, honey ;)

Movin' on up...

We have vertical movement - hooray! Foundation work underway.

This is a view from the left side of the house.

You can see our temporary construction driveway in the bottom right of this photo. That is where our final driveway will be, too (this is a view straight on).

A generous kid, that one...

Addie attached this to the Great Big Toys R Us Book. It's so thoughtful of her to let Santa off the hook, at least a little bit...

*Groan.*

(Good thing she's cute! ;))

Progress!

After some delays for plat amendments and obtaining permits, we officially have the start of our house! They began grading the lot earlier this week and poured the footers on Thursday. It is so exciting to see movement!

The footers will provide the support for the house. The blocks for the foundation should be placed sometime this week!

From the bottom of our lot looking up

Funny Boy

Every day on our way to Landon's preschool, we pass our old house. And every single time we pass the house, we say, "Hi Old House! We miss you!" That is, until the other day when Landon said,

"Hi Old House! We miss you! Indeed we do! Enjoy your new people!"

Cutie.

Our summer in a nutshell

First, I'd like to publicly admit that I am pre-dating some of my posts (BOLO for a first day of school one, too ;)). I'd like to give a shout-out to my friend Tina for teaching me how to do that. Hehe. I'm also admitting that it is unlikely that anyone will still be reading at the end of this verrrry long post. But it's for my memory's sake, so I'm not going to apologize. :)


So...here's what our summer has been pretty much all-consumed with: We sold our house. It was an adventure, to say the least. We have been talking about moving closer to work, family and friends for the past couple of years and finally decided to bite the bullet! Admittedly, I think we dragged our feet as this was our first home. We brought both of our babies home from the hospital to this house. We bought it only two years after we got married, so really, most of our married life had been there. And we just loved the house itself - we always joked that if we could pick the house up and move it, we would've (although we probably would've added a room or two if possible :)).

Anyway, we listed the house at the end of April. The day the listing went live on MLS, we got a call that we had a showing. We got an offer that evening, and after a weekend of negotiating, we had a contract! Whew! That was easy!

Or not.

We should've known from the get-go, really. The buyer/lady-who-was-going-to-live-there (who was around our age) was having her home bought for her by her mother. Hm. That was interesting in and of itself. Not to mention that the buyers had pretty much asked for the moon. By the way, Mimi and Nana, we are still waiting for y'all to offer to buy a house for us (HA!). So we began the househunting and made an offer on a really pretty home and had it accepted. Woohoo! It was all going well...


BUT, long story short, the evening before we were supposed to have the home inspection (which was also about two hours after we had our offer on the other home accepted), we found out that the mom wasn't able to get financing. Apparently she had bought all of her children's homes and although she had a good job, she was stretched to the max. She even tried to get her elderly parents to co-sign for her. No luck. So there went both our contracts.

Back to the drawing board! And back on the market.

Less than a week later, we had another showing and immediate offer. Yessss!

(I'll cut to the chase and let you know that this one fell through, too - buyer financing again. By the way, those "commitment letters" you get from the bank? They don't mean a thing.)

So, there we were, 50 days on the market, 40 of which our house had been under contract. We got another dud offer a couple of weeks after that. We countered and the buyer walked. We got an even MORE offensive offer the next day and we countered back with full price (with us paying a portion of the buyer's closing costs)...and...the buyer accepted! Hooray!

The third time was the charm! We kept househunting, and the house we had initially loved was even back on the market! It was like it was meant to be. Except that it wasn't. It turned out that house had a mold issue. Although it had been remediated, the underlying issue hadn't been fixed, so it was possible that it would return. After having good friends just go through this recently, and having two kiddos with asthma, we decided it just wasn't worth the risk.

When we first started looking for houses, we saw a development near where I grew up where new houses were being built. We kept it in the back of our minds as a "fallback," as we didn't want to have to make two moves, and it is also about the same distance to my job (20-25 minutes). After looking at countless houses, and feeling a little bit like Goldilocks (too big! too little! not enough yard! too much yard!), we ended up back there and signed a contract to build on July 4! Our home should be ready sometime late 2012/early 2013. And although my commute will not improve, John Michael's will drop from over an hour to about 15 minutes.

We decided to stay near our old house and rent an apartment (the rental price for apartments is significantly cheaper here than elsewhere) but had a two-week delay in between the closing date for the sale of our home and when our apartment was available for us. After a two-week stay with my parents (which was a lot of fun!) and putting nearly everything we own into storage, we embarked on our SECOND move within a few weeks. Remember how we didn't want to have to make two moves? HA! There will be three total when all is said and done. :)

So that's that. We have been in our two-bedroom apartment for a little over two weeks now and it is going well so far. It is cozy, of course. We had outgrown our cute little home as it was, and then going down to a smaller two-bedroom apartment has been a challenge. When we moved from the house, we had five storage units holding all of our things and John Michael has gotten us down to two, so to say that we are living in clutter is a bit of an understatement. But it's an adventure!

So what do I miss most about our house?
1) Our dog. He began staying at JM's parents' farm while we were showing the house so we wouldn't have to hurry home to get him packed up for showings, and also to not have to sweep/vacuum/mop twice a day. We decided an apartment with no yard just wouldn't be fair to him. We are kind of going crazy without him. Also, I am prepared for the potential custody battle that may ensue when we try to get him back from Nana and Papa ;)
2) Our travertine kitchen floor. Yes, it is material. But it was something we saved for and we were quite proud of it.
3) Our yard. That needs no explanation.
4) Our recycling bins. After a week of horrible guilt of throwing stuff away, we rescued one from storage, but we aren't able to sort so I am already dreading the trip to the center. Blah!

What am I loving about the apartment?
1) The kids are definitely growing closer. They are doing GREAT sharing a room and although they are somewhat forced to play together since there isn't really space for them to "escape," they are loving it. I anticipate that they will have some problems going back to their own rooms when we move into our new home.
2) Paper plates. Yeah, I said it. Disregard #4 above and pretend I am not being hypocritical. We decided to not pack/unpack/repack/unpack our dishes, so we are using paper plates and plastic cups. I love this when it comes time do to the dishes in our very small kitchen.
3) It's cozy. We have gotten a crazy amount of family time (again, there's nowhere to "escape"!) and I love it.
4) (Can't think of a fourth right now but I'm sure there's something :))

So that is that! Updates on the new house to follow as progress starts being made...



Our first home:

Under construction - Winter 2004

Getting closer!

Cute little house - our first summer there

And on our last day

Bye bye, house!

And hello to our new house-to-be!

(Too sunny for a photo, apparently :))

We were blessed to have such a wonderful first home, in a great neighborhood with amazing neighbors and a fantastic school (and daycare/preschool!). We miss it terribly but know we'll be just as happy making new memories in our next home.

First Day of First Grade

What a big girl! Addie is now officially a "grade schooler." I was nervous for her to start school this year since she would be at a new school with our move. She had so many little friends at her old school, I just couldn't help but worry about her starting all over. Yes, I'm aware that she's just six and I knew she'd adjust quickly, but I am just being honest here :)

Getting her registered was quite interesting as we had to wait until the sale of our old house went through in order for the contract on our new home to no longer be contingent. At that point, we were one week from the start of school. There was a lot of running around and getting paperwork signed, as her old principal had to sign that he understood that she was not attending anymore, and her new principal (and the Director of the School Board) had to approve her attending "out of zone" since we are not yet living within the school zone. (This was also why we had to make an interim move to my parents' house - we had to wait on an apartment that was within our County, or else we would've had to pay tuition.) Phew! Luckily it all worked out and her new principal called me in time to invite us to their "Back to School Bash" the week before school started. That really got us all excited! :)

Little Miss Social Butterfly wasn't the slight bit apprehensive (although she was very sad to not be going to her former preschool for before- and after-school care anymore). I was thrilled for her to be going to her new school because I actually went there as a child. She is less than impressed by that - ha!

Anyway, she had a great first day and has a teacher who seems absolutely amazing. I know she'll excel just as she did in Kindergarten.

Oh - the biggest news of First Grade? She wants to go by "Addison" instead of "Addie." *Tear.*

A little mani-pedi with Mommy and Mimi the night before the first day of school!

First Day (in front of Mimi and PawPaw's house)

August 10, 2012

First Day (in front of her school)

(Even if she's big enough to be "Addison" it still makes me giggle to see how teeny she is! She's my big (little bitty) first grader!)

Six Years Old

I know, I know - the first sentence of every birthday/milestone post I do begins, "I just can't believe..." But it is true. It is impossible for me to wrap my head around the fact that I have a six-year-old! An almost first grader! Where did the time go, seriously? (That's another one of my catch phrases :))

Addie,
You have such a sweet, loving, caring heart and you make us so proud. You definitely have your moments (ha!) where you are hard-headed and somewhat defiant, but even those are qualities that I know will serve you well as you grow up. You are so smart and have become such a good reader. You are excelling in school already and I know you will continue to.

You love playing babies (your favorite is "Emma," although you remind me that you are only her big sister and I am still her mommy), princesses, and you are an amazing artist! You also love to write letters and cards to your loved ones. So sweet.

You are still a little peanut (5-10% for both height and weight, and size 8 (toddler) shoes!) and are quite a bit smaller than your classmates. But that doesn't stop you from keeping up with everyone with your big personality! You have lost two bottom teeth so far. You are quite proud of this and ask me to check every evening to see if you have any other loose teeth (you don't :)).

Addie, we are so proud to call you our little girl. The past six years have been SO much fun. We are excited to see what the next six bring!

I love you,
Mommy

Captain(s) Planet!

Two recent happenings from our very earth-conscious kiddos. They're teaching me every day :)

*I was making muffins for the kiddos a couple of weekends ago and had cracked the eggs. I reached over and threw the eggshells in the trash, and immediately Landon said,

"Mommy! Eggshells DO NOT go in the twash! They go in the compost!"

(Totally busted...and how did he know that? :))

*The other night I was running Addie's bath water. I usually do not stop up the tub until after I have finished washing her hair because I don't want it to get too full, but need to use the clean water to rinse. She had sat on the potty as I turned the water on and this is how the conversation went:

(Addie) "Mommy, I have to go potty."

(Me) "Okay, sweetie, that's fine."

(Addie) "Mommy, I said that I am going potty."

(Me) "I see that, honey."

(Addie) "Then why are you letting the water run? Just to waste it?"

(Ouch. :))

I must give a shout-out to John Michael who is teaching them all these great things. Their very favorite chore is to take items to the recycling bins in the garage. John Michael (or I) will call out, "RECYCLERS!" and they come running. They know which bin to put them in without even being told. So cute! The get onto their mommy frequently for slipping up and throwing the wrong things away. I'm learning!

Our little schoolgirl

*So I actually started this post in January, but went back to copy and paste into a new post so that it wouldn't post-date and make me lose credit with the grandmommies for actually posting - hehe. ANYWAY...here goes:

I know, I know. It's been a while. I still need to do a Christmas post. But there was one very important happening that I have failed to blog about, and it's certainly not because it isn't important: My Addie Leigh is officially a full-blown READER! She has been reading lots of words for a while now, but she was super shy at home about reading to us. We caught her reading to herself a few times, but I guess she was waiting until she was more confident (hmm...perfectionist much? Wonder where she gets that... ;)).

So a couple of weeks before Christmas break, she came home with a new reading folder. She already had a "Guided Reading" folder with books she and her small group were reading, and we were supposed to have her read them to us and check whether she read them by herself, with a little help, or if they were too difficult. She was consistently reading them by herself, but again - they were fairly simple books. Then she came home with a new folder and a congratulations letter that she was going to be starting the Accelerated Reader program. Ooh, how proud was I?! You have no idea :) The AR program is a program that all kids at her school will do, but I was super proud that Addie (and three of her classmates) had gotten to begin the program before she was even halfway through her Kindergarten year! Basically, the kiddos read the books (in Kindergarten, she has to read them three times each) and then take a test on the computer. She has been doing GREAT so far! She is very proud of herself, too, and tells me how she's an "AR Kid." Cutie.

*Okay, now I'm in current (April 5, 2012) time. Addie's reading continues to improve. Her reading group books are now second grade level! She is starting to get a little competitive edge with her reading and wanting to read a LOT and make sure she is not getting behind her reading group friends with the AR books :) I can't explain how happy that makes my bookworm heart.

Also, right before Christmas break, we got an email that Addie was going to be receiving an award at an upcoming assembly. Our sweet girl got an Excellence Award for Academic Effort. Her teacher talked about how she always does her best and gives her everything in class and how it really pays off.

(Maybe if she could bring a little of that effort into cleaning up her toys?! TEEHEE!)

We are so proud of our favorite little Kindergartener. I just love that she loves school as much as I did, and hope that is always the case :)

Addie with her award and her fabulous teacher, Mrs. Sellers

(It was jammie day :))

My favorite "yittle" guy

Landon,

Happy (belated) birthday, cutie pie! Your daddy and I can't even begin to put into words how we feel to be your parents. You make us laugh every single day - from the moment you wake us up (verrrry early) until the moment you go to bed (usually without too much of a hassle ;)). You are so very smart, kind, loving and maybe even a little bit stubborn. You are quite the "ladies man" at school. Your teacher told me the other day that all the little girls adore you (and don't care much for the other boys), so much so that the teachers have to remind them who the boss is (because the little girls will say, "But Landon didn't say we had to do that!"). What a stinker! We know they can see what a sweetheart you are.

You love your "yegos," playing outside, picking flowers, getting tickled, hide and seek, playing on mommy or daddy's phone, Disney shows (your favorites are Octonauts and Doc McStuffins - you call it McStuffings :)), and most of all, playing with Addie. Oh, how you love your big sister! And she loves you just as much.

Sweet boy, you are the light of our lives! To say you brighten every day is the understatement of the century. You make everyone smile with your infectious laughter. You have brought us so much joy the past three years, and we are excited to watch you grow into a little boy. Even if I would make it slow down if I could.

Yuv you,

Mommy

Here's the stats! At three years old, Landon:

* weighs 31 pounds (50th percentile)

* is 36 1/2 inches tall (25th to 50th percentile)

* wears 3T shirts and pants (can still fit in 2T shorts - the pants are just a little short)

* wears Size 6 shoe - little munchkin feet just like Mommy, Daddy, and Addie!

* is not having much of an appetite lately, so I really can't even pinpoint a favorite food

* has decided he would like to be the first kid to go to Kindergarten in diapers ;). The little boy could not care any less about becoming potty-trained. That's what we get for Addie being so easy...

* sleeps from about 8:00 p.m. to anywhere from 4:30 to 6:00 a.m. He's been having a lot of night waking lately. It'd be frustrating if it weren't so cute when he comes downstairs and says, "I want to sleep in the middle of Mommy and Daddy!"

* still takes a nap at school and sometimes on the weekends

* has some monster tantrums, and tries to get "forgiven" by saying, "I'm weady to behave!" or "I wanna yisten!"

* knows all of his letters (uppercase and lowercase!) and their sounds and is an amazing counter

* loves StarWars and (as I mentioned earlier) Legos. I'm not sure JM could be any prouder.

* loves to make animal sounds as part of his bedtime routine, and has to tell you which category he wants each night ("Yet's do some animals that yive at the farm." "Yet's do some animals that yive at the zoo." And don't dare try to mix them up :) Also, if I try to guess which ones he wants, he says, "NO! I will tell you which animals!" He also will tell me if he wants "nice" animals or "mean" animals. Hilarious.)

* is still the cutest little guy ever

My favorite recent Landon sayings:

"Akshey" (actually)

"Yet's see..." (and he always has his finger on his lip, very pensive-like)

* always calls Addie "Add" - I think this is my favorite thing because they sound so grownup when he says this and I can picture them sitting around chatting when they're adults

"Addie told me no!" (as if this tattling is going to get him something...)

"I wanna wear big boy underpants to school so I can show Kay'yee. She will be impwessed. Yeah, and that's cute."

Okay, of course I haven't written them down like I should and will probably think of them all once I hit publish. Seriously, he cracks me up with pretty much everything he says. He talks like such a big boy vocabularly-wise, but still sounds so "yittle" with the way he speaks. :) He's a cute little mess!

Guess who is THREE!

This guy! (full birthday post tomorrow after his well baby checkup :))

Tagged!

So I was talking to my mom on the phone this afternoon and she said to me, "Trees of Christmas? Seriously? I keep checking and the blog isn't updated!" Unfortunately for her, this isn't going to be the picture-laden post that she was looking for, but it's going to be fun for me! My friend Jessica tagged me in a fun post, and I'm playing along! And yes, Mommy, hopefully this will get me over my blogging slump. And you're still welcome to guest-post at any time ;)

But anyway...

The Rules

~you must post the rules

~post 11 fun facts about yourself

~answer the 11 questions that the tagger posted for you; then create 11 questions to ask the people you've tagged

~tag 11 people and link them in your post

~let them know you have tagged them

My 11 Fun Facts

1. I am currently growing my hair to donate it. I have talked about it a few times in the past, and when my dear hairdresser moved her office from half-a-block away from my office to a 30-minute drive, I got a little behind in haircuts - what better time to embrace my goal, right? It's going to work even better now that she's stopped cutting hair to go back to college. (Insert big sad face here because I will miss her, but also a happy face because I'm obviously excited about both my potential hair donation and her following her dreams.)
2. I buy cards and forget to send them (or even give them to people when mailing is not involved). I do this A LOT. Kim can attest to this. :) I am currently in possession of three Christmas gifts that need to be mailed and at least four cards that I have recently bought and not sent. *Sigh.* Oh wait, these are supposed to be FUN facts, not EMBARRASSING facts... ;)
3. I dislike driving. I've never been one of those "get in the car and just drive" people. I will always take the interstate if it's a possibility to get somewhere faster!
4. I love ridiculously silly movies. My favorites are Dead Man On Campus and Super Troopers. I think maybe it's because I think so hard at work that I don't want to have to think when I watch movies?! We'll go with that explanation, although the truth is I have always preferred silly movies over other genres.
5. I have always been a good speller and worked as an editorial assistant for legal newsletters straight out of college. That's actually how I got the urge to go to law school. I love that it seems like Addie is going to be a good speller, too! Here's to many spelling bees in our future ;)
6. I currently have over 20,000 unread messages in my gmail account. I've even set up an account only for lists, but of course I still get most everything on my main account. Rather than delete the junk messages right away, I just scroll past them. Eh, I'll get to it one day. At least my work inbox is up to speed!
7. I love, love, LOVE working for a governmental agency. I admit that I used to buy in to some of the stereotypes about government employees, but I have never seen such dedicated and hard-working individuals! Also, if you ever think your local government is working slowly, thank your state legislature for the laws that make that necessary ;) (HA!) And be sure to keep any anti-government or lazy government worker rants away from me because I tend to become a little mama bear about it. :)
8. I got a bike for Christmas and when I first got on it, I couldn't remember how to ride! So it is NOT true that you never forget. Okay, okay, so I was fine within about ten seconds, but that was still a scary ten seconds...
9. I feel like I'm cheating on my kids when I eat at Chick-Fil-A without them. But man, I love that place. Funny since I went about ten years without eating it after getting MORE than my fill while it was at the Presidential Courtyard at UT. I still can't eat the chicken sandwiches...
10. I enjoy traveling but I panic beforehand. I think it is a control issue. There are so many variables you can't control when you travel. Eek! My blood pressure is rising as I think about it. Ha!
11. When I began college, I wanted to be an orthodontist. I know, it makes me laugh, too. One semester of advanced calculus and honors chemistry was enough to cure me of that. Also, the 8 a.m. tennis class wasn't a good idea, either ;)

Jessica's 11 Questions

1. Where would you go if you had an all-expenses paid trip somewhere? Hmm...probably somewhere tropical. Tahiti, perhaps? That would be if it were 100% my decision. I think John Michael would want to go to Australia, and that'd be fine with me, too!
2. What do you remember about kindergarten? I had an amazing teacher, Mr. Morgan. I remember our Christmas gifts because we all got teddy bears and coloring books and those stackable crayons. So cool! I also remember our Easter egg hunt and playing on the playground, which had tractor tires on it. So cool. Jessica, I'm not sure if you heard me say, but I went to the same school that Kate may go to!
3. Where did you and your spouse go on your first date? For our first "non-date-date," we went with some friends to a park and played on the swings and then back to John Michael's parents' house to watch movies (remember, this was my sophomore year of high school and his senior year). I say "non-date" because he had a girlfriend at the time who had gone off to college! I had a serious crush on him and I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but our little group of friends decided we were going to blow off the Homecoming dance and hang out. So we did. We went on our first official date about five or six weeks later :) We saw the movie Ghosts and the Darkness. Terrible, terrible movie. Even worse first date movie! I joke to him that I must've already really loved him to go out with him again after that!
4. It's 10:30 pm on a weeknight. What are you doing? Ideally, asleep! Lately, playing on the computer and watching tv or a movie :)
5. What did your senior prom dress look like? Ooh, it was pretty. A pretty blue (lapis blue, I believe it was called) silk chiffon flowy dress. I think I've got a picture on the blog somewhere, actually! I liked my junior year dress better, but this one was a keeper, too :)
6. If you could instantly be fluent in one language, what would it be? Spanish, no doubt.
7. What is the proudest moment of your life? I have many proud moments in my life (not the least of which are my kiddos' birthdays) but my proudest has to be the day I learned that I had passed the bar exam on my first try (after taking it while I had a three-year-old and four-month-old). Yep. I was pretty proud.
8. Are there any words people say you pronounce funny? I have a hard time saying the words "rural" and "drawer." I will do most everything I can to avoid saying them (i.e., replacing them with phrases such as "not urban" and "dresser thingy" or "desk thingy" - ha!).
9. What do people need to know about you to "really" know you? I have been known to let people take advantage of me or "run over" me, but I do NOT accept that for my friends and family. As I said earlier about my co-workers, I can get a little "mama bear" when someone messes with my loved ones :)
10. What was your favorite class in college? Not 8 a.m. tennis. Seriously though, I took a criminology class that was absolutely fascinating. And creepy.
11. You're craving something salty. What do you grab? CHEESE!

Okay, the dilemma here is that I think most of my blogging friends have already been tagged or have already played! So I may not be able to fulfill the last rule :) But I'll ask 11 questions to anyone out there reading who may want to play along anyway!

1. Who was your favorite teacher and why?

2. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

3. What is the worst date you've ever been on?

4. What is your favorite breakfast food/meal?

5. If you could borrow Harry's invisibility cloak for just one day, where would you go?

6. What is the best concert you've ever attended?

7. What is your favorite feature/attribute/trait about yourself?

8. Would you like to be famous and if so, for what?

9. What is your most embarrassing moment?

10. If you could only watch one tv show for an entire year, which show would it be?

11. Do you have an outfit you LOVE to wear a lot (in our family we call it our uniform :))?

Trees of Christmas 2011

So I promise soon to have a couple of posts about Christmas, etc., but in the meantime, here is a fun guest post from Nana! Hooray! Thanks for the post and for spoiling my babies rotten! :)

I had wanted to have this ritual be a “Nana-Addie” thing but I could NOT exclude my precious grandson, Landon. Therefore PaPa also came to enjoy the day.

There were too many things going on in December so we couldn’t go see Trees of Christmas at Cheekwood until after school was out for Christmas. Of course the usual bribery was if they were good, then they could go to Phillips Toy Mart. They were great – there isn’t too much to the Trees as it was when our boys were young. Only florists and designers do the trees in the mansion now so there are just 6 or 7 trees to see. We blew through those pretty quickly. We did visit the Train exhibit again which they enjoyed. Lunch in the Pineapple Room was fairly uneventful. They wanted to play games on Nana’s phone, but Nana’s phone is in the dark ages and doesn’t have games. They were good.

As they were “angelic”, they of course were taken to Phillips Toy Mart. Mike (since around 1956 when Phillips was on 8^th Avenue) and our boys have been going to Phillips since they were little boys, so it is a tradition in our family. The deal was to get one small thing as a reward for being good. We circle the store many times. Addie dusting her fingers along most everything in the store. Landon wants everything he picks up. Addie finally decides on a “Play” mop. Landon picks out a ball. When we get in the looooong line to pay, somehow Landon shows up with 2 things. I tell him he can only have one thing. “Noooooo.” I said, “You have to choose one thing.” He says “I choose not to”. Sounds like a lawyer?:) Then Addie starts in – why does he get 2 things and I only get one? Well, if you have ever been to Phillips – once you are in line you better be ready to check out. Risking a total meltdown of not only one but 2 grandchildren – we hurriedly get Addie another item to be able to GET.OUT.OF.THERE! Hey, we’re Grandparents, we don’t have to worry about spoiling them. That’s what we’re there for!

We come home for a fun afternoon and spending the night. We have 2 inches of water on the floor for most of the day. Addie’s mop didn’t come with a wringer. Later Landon is scribbling on paper and brings it to me to read. I make up some crazy word that it says and he’s thrilled. Addie gets the drift and starts doing the same thing. After a point, she actually starts writing things for me to read. One of her pages she brings in says “Landon is a brat”. I express my displeasure that she is calling him that but also remind her that she should be writing the same thing about herself too. She goes into the other room, writes her sentence for me to read. She comes back and it says, “Addie is a Princess”. Too funny! They keep us in stitches, on our toes and we love every second of it! Another day(s) in paradise with our Grandchildren!