My weird little Aiden

I love Aiden to bits. But he's a very weird child. His vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds every single day and sometimes he says some of the oddest things. Today, for example, he is attaching "I'm serious" to the end of every sentence that he says. At lunch, I asked him if he wanted a sandwich. He answered with, "Peanut jelly". Not really weird, but pretty darn cute. When I handed him the sandwich, I said, "There you go, and mommy cut the crust off for you". He says, "Oh mommy!" and attacks me with a hug that must have lasted for a full minute.

He has a bit of an odd relationship with Nathan. At one point today, I held Nathan close to Aiden and Nathan reached out and put his hand on Aiden's. Aiden stared at Nathan's hand for a moment and then yelled, "BACK!! He'll kill me!!". I'm not sure where he might have heard that.... Maybe there was some preview for something while he was watching AFV the other day, I don't know. It was a little strange.
Yesterday, I picked Nathan up and headed towards the couch to feed him. Aiden saw this, ran to the couch, grabbed my nursing pillow, and ran off with it! Later on, Aiden got mad because Nathan was staring at him.
Aiden seems to go through phases with Nathan. At first he was slightly interested, then angry, then he thought it was fun (for about 2 weeks), and now he just seems annoyed by Nathan's presence but ignores him most of the time. I can only assume that as Nathan gets older and more mobile, Aiden will develop more of an interest in him. I hope.

A little addendum: While I was writing this up, I assumed Aiden was quietly watching VeggieTales. He was watching VeggieTales, but he also consumed two whole crayons. At least we'll have colorful diapers for a few days. Oy....

Dear Washington State RV driver....

Dear Washington State RV driver towing the trailer on I-5:

I want to thank you so much for completely running our family's car off the freeway this afternoon. It was very kind of you to nearly kill us by not looking before you changed lanes. I also appreciate the total lack of remorse you showed when we finally got past you and sent shocked and confused looks your way. This of course, is laced with sarcasm. If there were any justice in the world, your license would be completely revoked and you would be legally banned to drive anything that is powered by a motor. You are extremely lucky that you did not cause any sort of damage to our car or injury to my family. Had you done so, I pray to God that He would have given me the self-control to not show you exactly how I felt about you. Had you hurt my children in ANY way, I may have actually ended up arrested for assault. I can only hope that one day, somehow, you will learn how to drive and that no one dies before you figure it all out.

Sincerely,
A wife and mother who is praising God for His protection over us today.

To all my readers: Hug your family and let them know how much you love them. You never know when something might go wrong due to someone else's total ignorance.

A few random pictures

Just wanted to post a few random pictures. Two of them are actually from Easter, which I never got around to posting about. I got a few cute pictures from then, so maybe, if I ever have time, I'll post a link to an online photo album. For now though, enjoy these.

Nathan and his blanket. I think it's nappy time!

Nathan's Easter photo.

Sizing each other up....

Aiden's Easter photo. It's really hard to get a toddler to hold still!

Why we're moving

I thought I would share a few photos of the mold that we're dealing with. There's more like this, but these give you the basic idea. Not to mention the mold that we can smell but can't see in the 2nd bathroom.

Master bedroom window

Growing up our bedroom wall and onto the carpet

Living room window

Master bathroom wall

We're getting there on packing. We move everything to the new apartment on Saturday. We won't get any more boxes until tomorrow, so for now I'm trying to clean things and get some organization done so that packing might be a little easier. Aiden will go to grandma's tomorrow for a sleepover, which will help in keeping him out of things and packing up his room without him freaking out. This will probably be my last post until we get moved and our internet gets hooked up. But I will then be able to share photos of our new, beautiful, mold-free home!

A little bit of craziness

Yesterday afternoon, we took a tour of another apartment complex. I had prayed that it would be what we needed for a home and the Lord definitely answered that prayer. We loved the place! It's a 2 bedroom/1 bath with a little solarium office space and vaulted ceilings. It's even got a little laundry room! We're actually losing about 100 square feet, but the layout is so much better that it wasn't even noticeable. John typically prefers bottom floor apartments, but when we were shown the 2nd floor, he had to agree that it was a good choice. Our rent will be a little lower than it currently is, so that's nice.

Now for the crazy part. We have to take the apartment by this weekend! They won't hold it for any longer than a week. I have to attempt to pack up our entire home by this weekend. Luckily, I've bribed Brady and Carrie with food and so we'll have a little packing party Friday evening. It's just so crazy...and we have no boxes. I didn't expect to have to do this with a 3 month old baby.

We already got credit approval and are waiting for the final approval once our background checks come back. That should happen sometime this afternoon. So many things to do! And here I am putting it off by writing about it. I'll try to keep you all as updated as possible. If anyone in the area would like to help us with moving, we'd greatly appreciate it. We haven't decided whether or not we'll be renting a U-Haul and we're not quite sure if we'll be trying to move on Saturday or Sunday (or both), so I'm a little low on details at this point. But if you let me know that you're open to helping, I can get the details to you when we have them. Ok, I'm off to try to work on something. Ugh.

I'm so overwhelmed

It looks like we don't have too much of a choice now when it comes to moving. Our little mold problem has grown (literally) into a huge problem. It's taking over every window, our bathroom wall, and the wall behind the fan above the stove. Yesterday, I went into our 2nd bathroom to find the bath mat completely soaked. I couldn't find the source of the water, but there was a very strong, foul, moldy odor consuming the room. I was in there for less than 2 minutes and still ended up with a raging headache and nausea. I have no idea where the mold is.

We wrote an extensive letter to the management and they called us this morning. She said that this has happened in other apartments and that the drywall will need to be completely replaced. She offered to put us up in a hotel while they do the work, or to transfer us to an empty apartment. She also said we were welcome to find another place ASAP. We are on a month-to-month right now, so we wouldn't be breaking a lease and they would let us go without a 30 day notice. She pointed out that even with the drywall replacement, the mold has come back in some apartments. She also made the point that if they do transfer us to an empty apartment, they can't guarantee that the same problem wouldn't happen there too. It really seemed like she was trying to imply (without directly doing so) that it would probably be in our best interest to move elsewhere. She is sending the maintenance manager over this afternoon to assess the problem.

I don't want to live in a hotel with two small children for a week or more while workers tromp through our home. Transferring to an empty apartment would be faster, but I am afraid of having the same mold problem. I've set up an appointment for Sunday afternoon with complex in Hillsboro. From what I've seen of their units online, I really like them. I spoke to the manager there this morning and told him our problem. He said they did have immediate availability for us, so at least we have that option.

I don't even know what to think right now. I can't believe this is happening to our home. We have to make a decision quickly before it really begins to affect our health. Especially since we have a new baby and I have asthma. This is so crazy and it's not a great time. We just had to pay all of our medical bills from having Nathan and it was more than the insurance initially told us. I just don't know what to do. Please keep us in your prayers while we try to get through this.

Our Day at the Zoo

Every now and then, I like to get together with my friend Misty to have some people time away from the apartment. We haven't gotten together since I was 36 weeks pregnant and I was beginning to go crazy, so we planned a day out with our kids. She has two girls, Chloe (almost 5) and Amity (6 weeks younger than Aiden). I found out that the zoo has $2 Tuesdays on every 2nd Tuesday of the month and it just so happened that we had Mommy and Me that day, so we planned on a zoo trip after group. The weather was OK, mostly cloudy with a few light showers here and there. We picked up deli food at Safeway and headed to the zoo. It was my first major outing with the boys without John there to help, so I knew it was going to be interesting.

We wanted to have lunch as soon as we got there, so we found a place to sit. Nathan started crying right away (a good sign for the day...) and so I had to nurse him first thing. Everyone was done eating by the time I was able to take a bite of my food. Aiden had dropped some bread on the ground and we were soon joined by four peacocks! They were so close to us and Aiden attempted to pet one, but I grabbed him away before he could risk getting bitten. Nathan wasn't liking the Snugli carrier, so Aiden ended up sharing the stroller with Amity and Chloe so I could put Nathan in our stroller. And off we went to look at animals....

The walk around the zoo was fairly uneventful. We saw an elephant "dancing" (the only way to describe what he was doing) and one of the female elephants was pregnant. She was in month 17 out of 22 (how does that sound right now, Bethany? :^)). We also saw the most horrible woman. She was screaming at her children and calling them names! I wanted to go tell her that if you call your children "stupid monkeys", they probably won't act much different. Everyone in the area was staring at her and talking about her very vocally, but she didn't seem to notice. Sometimes I feel bad about my parenting, but at least I never act like that. Disgusting.

After diaper changes, we headed out. We got to our cars to find that Misty's car had been broken into. We were parked right next to each other, so I was a little surprised that they hadn't broken into mine as well. Chloe had left her little kids purse on the back seat and apparently that's what the criminals saw. Misty had also left her purse in the car, hidden under a seat, but she had taken her wallet in with her. I had almost made the decision to leave my purse in my car as well and I am so relieved that I didn't. The thing is, Misty's car is high up off the ground and her windows are tinted. These people had to have been going around, peeking in car windows looking for something to steal. There's no way they would have just noticed the kids purse in passing. So, Misty's window was broken out completely and there was glass all over inside her car. We had to wait for zoo security and the police. So of course it begins to pour rain and start hailing! By the time everything was all taken care of and Misty could leave, we were soaking wet. It was time to go get John from work at that point and I had to attempt to navigate Hwy 26 during rush hour, in a hail storm. I couldn't even see the lanes on the road. But we made it to Intel in one piece.

It was a fun day, despite the stolen purses and a busted out window. I've included a few pictures of our day.

Peek-a-boo Nathan!

Aiden, Chloe, and Amity

Hello, Mr Zebra!

My mommy makeover

I was beginning to feel a bit 'blah' about myself. It happens when you wear sweatpants all day, every day. Never put on makeup unless you're SURE you're going outside. Always have your hair up in the traditional new mom ponytail. So, I needed a change. I hadn't decided what I needed to change until my long hair started to get dry, dull, and damaged. Washing it was turning into a full workout and it was getting so tangled, I could barely get my brush (a brush made for thick hair) through it. Nathan kept pulling it and it was just generally in the way. I hadn't cut it in well over a year and I do like long hair, but what's the point in having it if it gives me no joy? So away it must go! I needed something easy to deal with. I need to be able to just roll out of bed, rub some gel into it, and I'm done. Thanks to the fabulous stylist at ULTA Salon in Beaverton, I got what I needed.

Oh my gosh....

I was changing the litter for the guinea pig cage. I turn around.....and find what Aiden was in the process of doing. Covering his little brother in pig litter!!! At least it was the clean litter.

Goof!

He's discovered his tongue....

Dreams and schedules

For the past two weeks, I've been having very vivid dreams at night. They can be about the oddest mix of things and sometimes I seriously can't tell whether something actually happened or not. I'll dream about conversations and then think that I actually had that conversation with someone. It's driving me nuts. Now, the dreams aren't just vivid, they are angry. I'm having dreams that are filled with such anger and rage, it's a little scary. I don't feel angry during the day, so I don't think it's manifesting itself from that. It's very weird and I really wish it would go away.

On another note, these next couple months are going to be interesting. John started class on Monday for the term and he is taking 18 credits. He actually only has class on Monday evenings (and it's in Hillsboro instead of Clackamas) and during the day on Saturdays (in Clackamas). A lot of his classes are online. But it stinks because it takes up half of the weekend. By Friday evenings, I'm so ready to have him home for the weekend. It's going to take some adjusting to. I need to get myself on some sort of schedule. I think it would help in feeling like I can actually get things done around the apartment. Right now, I don't feel like I have enough time during the day to do everything, but that's partially because I'm sleeping in when the boys do. I definitely need the sleep, but I just need to make myself go to bed earlier. I was really happy the other night because I got myself in bed by 11pm. But then I just laid there for an hour and a half before I could fall asleep. Bah!

I need something fun to look forward to and I've finally got it. Some friends of ours in California are getting married at the end of May and John is a groomsman, so we have to go. We finally decided on flying and renting a car instead of driving down, which gives us more time there in Palo Alto. I'm hoping it will go smoothly, since we will be flying with the baby. At least it will be a short, direct flight. Aiden will probably be staying with the grandparents while we're gone, so I don't have to worry about controlling a toddler in the airport. I've convinced John to let me plan a sightseeing day in San Fransisco since we'll be close. I was there once in 2002 for a quick look at the Golden Gate Bridge and a SF Giants baseball game, but that's it. I think John is hoping that I will do all of the travel arrangements concerning this trip....yikes. The only experience I have in taking care of travel arrangements is when I took care of booking our room at Luxor Las Vegas and buying our Cirque du Soleil show tickets last year. Well, how hard can it be to rent a car, right?

Now I need to go because Aiden has, once again, woken up his brother. Who wants a toddler?