State of the Family #10

Into the double digits of SOF's! (yeah I think I am cool enough to use just the initials for the title of my (try to be) weekly blog entry). I missed last week again due to the craziness of a garage sale. . . more on that to come in the mommy section.

Miss Thumbsucker continuously has me at the edge of my bed, yep, bed, not seat. I never know how she is going to sleep for me in the past two weeks and it is quite gruelling. Sometimes she'll sleep great, I only have to get up once to feed her or she even slept from 11-6 the other night! Other nights (which are, sadly, more frequent) she'll be up as many as 5 times. So, I realize that most of Miss Thumbsucker's posts are about her sleeping habits lately. . . it is the main thing in her life currently. On another note, she made her first trip to the Omaha Zoo yesterday and seemed to enjoy it. She loved the train ride, but wasn't so thrilled about being stuck in the stroller all day. She also loved the aquarium and watching the fish and penguins.

Miss Firecracker has been surprisingly good the last couple of weeks. God knows I can only handle so much at a time. She has been quite the jabberbox lately though. We were in Target the other day and, of course, had to make a potty run. Mostly because she thinks checking out various bathrooms wherever we are is fun, but also cuz she really had to go. So, we are in the stall and she is just chatting away. "Whose potty is this Mommy?" "Who put that up there?" "Did you put that up there?" "Did Daddy put that up there?" "I'm all done. You wipe me now ." "I flush mommy." and on and on and on. Yes, there were snickers coming from occupants of the other stalls and then when we emerge from ours, they get a glimpse of the question box and her hair and just melt. Mostly cuz she IS adorable and jabbers a mile a minute, but also because they don't know the ornery, fit throwing side and think she is just a cute innocent 2-yr-old! One lady at the sink even thanked her for the entertainment! She drives me nuts sometimes but she can also always make me laugh.

Noisy Man had a hard time with the garage sale and his pack-rat tendencies. We were finding things we just HAD to keep left and right and throwing fits equal to Miss Firecracker's. Finally, daddy had a brilliant idea and let him pick ONE thing he wanted to keep. That item then, went on the banister (which is where daddy puts everything!) just in sight of Noisy Man for a reminder. The deal was that he could keep this item as long as he didn't complain or throw a fit about anything else that was getting sold. Thus, the fits and grabbing things off the tables ended quite quickly. It also ended many other problems for the next two days, as all we had to do was remind him of the toy on the banister and how quickly it could be gone if he decided not to behave. It was great! Perhaps a little cruel, but wonderful nonetheless.

The gift dilemma with daddy continues. . . We got him his fishing pole and reel and he is thrilled with them, even got them early for his fishing day last Sunday. They must work great cuz he caught a Master Angler large mouth bass on it the 2nd fish he caught that day and caught 2 more fish just 2 inches short of Master Angler status as well. Perhaps the fishing pole is enough and the specialness will come with the memories? Still, I would like him to have something from his kids ON Father's Day and his b-day. . . Maybe it is just his fault he couldn't wait to use his fishing pole.

The garage sale is done! (I can hear the Hallelujah Chorus all around me, surely you can too!?!) It was a lot of work and I will seriously have to think twice about doing it again. Of course the money we made makes it a little bit more worth wile and we are probably only $300 short of completely paying for the skiing trip we want to take next winter. So, ask me after the ski trip and I would probably do it again in a heart beat. But for now, my house is still a disaster from being neglected for a week while preparing for the garage sale, and I am still a little sun burned from sitting out in the heat all day Friday. I do, however, have 9 empty totes in my storage room and only 3 returned with items in them. We took 3 full totes to Once Upon a Child to try and sell the remaining children's clothes and came home with 1 full tote from there. We also took 5 big garbage bags of my and Jeff's old clothes and a few baby items to Good Will. It feels good to have things cleaned up and a little cash in my pocket waiting to be used on a kid-free vacation!!