Construction Month 1

Finally we got a start, and if the monsoon rain season subsides we can finally get this show on the road!

As of now, the basement is poured, the support beams are in place, the first floor is framed, and lots of brush has been cleared. Mike and some helpers also took down a very large thorny elm tree and tons of little trees that were in the way. Today the framing for the main stairway (there are two) should go up and next week the trusses arrive to start the roof portion. The builder wants our spaceship... errr I mean shower delivered the first week in September, so that's sooon!

This is what I mean when I call our shower a spaceship.

Here are some pictures of the progress so far...

Living room

Above: Dining Nook, Below: Poker Room 

Above: Living Room, Below: Rec Room

Dining Nook

Katen's Room, Girls' Bathroom

Rec Room

More soon!!

Summer Wrap Up

Well... our Fall 2010 Hawkeye Football tickets have arrived. That means that summer is almost over. We've had so much fun though!

It's been a summer of record rain. The third wettest summer on record to be exact. We've built tents, played with water, and terrorized the library play areas on the rainy days. We've even painted pottery - which is not for the faint of heart as the pottery store has many breakables within reach of curious little hands.

 

The dry days have been filled with trips to the park, many zoo visits, strawberry picking at the strawberry patch , blueberry picking at Berry Fresh Farms (which Ana was actually pretty good at too) , raspberry picking at Grandpa R's office (and some awesome black raspberry crisp as a result), splashing around at the splash pad, and lots of other random activities to keep us busy. (and wear us out for nap time.) 

  

The girls even got to see their first play - Charlotte's Web - this summer. Of course the time they spent sitting in the chairs for this picture was probably the longest stretch of time they actually sat still.  :) 

Katen spent a couple of mornings at daycamp and did really well. She came home very proud of her "work" and didn't have any problems with mommy leaving her there for a while. In fact the conversation went something like this...

Mommy:  "Katen is it okay if you stay here and mommy leaves for a while?"

Katen: "Bye mom."

 Unfortunately she also got her first bite by another kid. The boy got her in the eye of all places. I have no doubts that Katen told him in no uncertain terms that it wasn't nice though. 

Ana has really come a long way this summer too. At 8 months she began to crawl and two weeks later decided that wasn't good enough, so she started pulling herself up on things. Now she's an expert cruiser along the furniture and toys. Yesterday she even stood on her own for a while. Katen handed her a toy and she forgot she wasn't holding on. When she realized it, her face was priceless. You could see the "uh oh!" look on her face and then she went plop. She also has her first two teeth and is working on a bunch more. Only having two doesn't slow her down much in the food department though. She'll eat pretty much anything. She even stole Katen's hamburger off her table one day and ate half before Katen could get it back - ketchup, mustard, onions and all. 

We spent our last day at the splash pad on Monday. It closes for the winter this weekend. Both girls had a blast as most of the kids were in school already. Ana likes crawling through the water and splashing. Katen loves pouring water into buckets, etc and practicing swimming. (in the 3 inches of water.) 

Yesterday we went to the fair. I'll have some fun video of Katen riding the big slide to follow. This weekend we're heading to Minneapolis for a short weekend vacation with the girls. We're planning to go to the zoo and do some shopping for sure. It will be interesting to see how the girls do in the car and how everyone sleeps (or doesn't) when we're all in the same room.  :: fingers crossed! ::

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Hello Ana!

Oh wow, where do I start?

Ana is our quiet, slightly shy, gentle giant. Or at least she used to be!

Now she's Katen's worst nightmare. Revenge.

In the past month, Ana has learned to crawl, she's cut her first two teeth, sprouted some very light blonde hair that sticks up all cute when I sunscreen her head, and has become an all around funny kind of girl! She'll crack you up with the silly faces she makes just to get your attention. She especially like to put on a show at supper time. She knows the sign for "more" and "milk" and as you can imagine, uses them often.

This crawling thing really has Katen a little nervous. Katen will be minding her own business playing with something when Ana crawls up behind her and attacks, pulling her hair with two fists and wrestling her down to the ground with her sheer weight. I thought big sister was supposed to be the bully but really Ana can hold her own.

Ana is also eating like a champ. She pretty much will gum down any food that we give her. She devoured her portion of Shepard's pie before Katen did a few nights ago. Not that it helps her to sleep any better. I'm still up every 2-3 hours. I have no idea how I'm going to wean Miss Ana from her night feedings without a lot of crying. (on both of our parts.) She acts like she hasn't eaten in months if I try to withhold food in the middle of the night. Couple that with the fact that she refuses a bottle and you've got a very interesting night owl on your hands.

Katen is such a big girl now. She's lost that baby face and in its place is a pretty big girl with tendrils of curls hanging in her face. I hesitate to cut it, so we just bought some pretty clips yesterday to keep it out of her eyes. Katen has been brushing up on learning a bunch of new songs and really enjoys music in general. In the car and on TV she's all about bopping to the music. I love watching her dance and jump around to the beat. She also enjoys "cooking" for us and dressing up in her princess dresses, although she's not all about princesses like some girls.

Katen has finally proven herself worthy of walking beside the cart at the grocery store as well. Finally she won't knock everything off the shelves and run down the aisles as fast as she can giggling. She's so adult now. (sort of.) The trick, I found, is that when I make my grocery list, I make one for her too. Hers is in pictures and she has to find a match to the pictures. That keeps her fairly busy and on task. Notice I didn't use the word "focused" as she's still a bit of a daydreamer. She gets that honest...

I can't believe how fast both girls are growing. This summer has been so much fun with both of them. Ana is so easy going and Katen thoroughly enjoys so many things in life that it's hard to take a step back and not smile at how lucky we are to have such bright, beautiful daughters.

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Hello Cloth Diapers

Well... we've made the switch to cloth diapers. Before you start thinking that I've lost my mind, hold on a second and let me explain.

Cloth diapers are not what they used to be. In fact you can get cloth diapers that you simply put on, take off when wet/dirty and and throw them in the wash. They're about $15+ per diaper though so I chose the cheaper route and use prefolds which are basically layers of cotton that you fold into thirds and lay inside a water resistant cover. Saving money was the main motivation for making the switch. We were spending $40 per week on diapers for the girls. ouch.

In the beginning, we were having a tough time with the fit. Ana has very large thighs and well... overall she's just a big baby so the bulk of all of those cotton layers was just too much. I didn't feel like she was comfortable and I didn't like the idea of soa

king wet cloth up against her skin. So I looked online for a better option. Everything was really more than we wanted to spend and I already had bought the prefolds so I kind of wanted to find a way to use them in some form.

After a lot of thinking, this is what I came up with....

Problem 1: the prefolds were too long. I was having to fold over an extra layer and tuck it near her belly

Solution 1: I cut off about 3-4 inches from the top of the prefold.

Problem 2: There was a lot of bulk around Ana's chubby legs.

Solution 2: I measured her thighs and then made cuts in outer two thirds of the prefold to

accommodate that measurement. The middle sections that the cuts create can then be folded into the middle to create additional absorption. This makes the front and the back of the diaper only one layer instead of three.

Problem 3: I didn't like the feeling of wet cotton on her bottom.

Solution 2: I cut a piece of microfleece to fit the middle of the diaper. Fleece wicks the wetness away from the baby and helps her to feel dry I sewed velcro tabs to the bottom of the fleece and the top and bottom of the diaper. This makes the fleece stay in place. I may just sew it into the diaper as I can still unfold the flaps under the middle of the fleece for faster drying time.

Then all I have to do is wrap the flaps around Ana's sides and secure them with a "snappi." Snappis have replaced the dreaded diaper pins. The're kind of like what you'd secure an ace bandage with only a little more blunt. Top that with a cute diaper cover and she's ready to rock her little fluffy butt.

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It's Summer Again

I love summer. Love, love, love it!! We've been up to all kinds of fun things lately like...

Picking strawberries at a local organic farm...

Picking blackberries

Playing at the splash pad

Eating Sweet Corn

Swimming!

Picnicking and playing at the lake with friends...

Wishing mom didn't insist on serving carrots...

More strawberry picking

We've also hit a few farmer's markets and spent lots of time at the playground.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing that an ice cream shop is within walking distance to our temporary home or not, but we've been walking there too. They serve baby cones that have two candy eyeballs on them to the little ones . (not creepy ones - they're cute.)