Darling Precious Angel Baby:

Precious is now in dance lessons. Well, not really dance 'lessons', it's actually called creative movement and basically consists of learning your right from your left and jumping up and down. I CANNOT tell you how much Precious LOVES this class. It is the absolute pinnacle of her week. She seems to like it more than soccer, even. Of course it's very organized for a group of 3 year olds. (And expensive!) We had to get her a pink leotard, tutu, tights and ballet shoes - and of course the leotard/tutu combination had to come from the Dance Etc. recommended store (which probably gives Dance Etc. a kickback.) So, anyway, I'm paying through the nose for Precious to dance to music that she could listen to at home for free. But, of course, this is not the point. The point is, your life is simply not complete until you see 15 preschool sausages stuffed into pink tutus doing the hokey poky. Hilarious!

So, on Thursdays, Precious begins asking about dancing basically right after she gets up from her nap - about 4 hours early. And the minute Hubby walks in the door Precious wants to get ready and begins to take all her clothes off, even though we still have over an hour to wait. Finally, we cave in (usually after she's eaten dinner while butt naked) and stuff her round body into the stretchy leotard. . . well, then we have to put her hair up! And I found this little ribbon that has a flower on it, so she wants that to wrap about her pony tail!! Finally, she can't wear her ballet slippers outside, so we have to carry them. So I'll probably be totally queer and get a little book bag for her to carry her special "dance" shoes in. The whole thing is so screamingly cute! Anyway, I keep telling her that she is "Precious Beautiful" and such. So last week she walks in and the teacher says, "And who are you?" and Precious says, "I'm a princess." How true it is.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin is still a hyper active little guy. He and Stealth Baby just NEVER quit moving. Kenny moved on July 8 - and Pumpkin is taking it really well. To be honest, he doesn't seem to mind at all? It was weird; the day Kenny moved the DeShongs grandkids were over (they live in the area and come over nearly every Sunday - but most of the time they don't come down and play on the street with us.) Anyway, Kenny was hanging out with us because his idiotic parents were still trying to remove things from the house all of 3 days late. So the 2 DeShong grandkids come down to play with us too. I think we were probably playing with Pumpkin's remote controlled car. (Which Stealth Baby also just loves, BTW.) So I was talking to Pumpkin about that Kenny was moving to a new house, and he probably wouldn't see Kenny again. But that he was going to make new friends, just like how he was playing with X and Y (the DeShong kids) now. And Pumpkin really seems to have accepted that. He's asked about Kenny a few times - but very rarely. And often he'll say something like, "Kenny's gone, but that's OK. I'll make new friends in kindergarten." Man, I thought I was going to go nuts hearing Pumpkin ask about Kenny. But he really seems to be content to terrorize (oops, I mean, 'play') with Precious.

July 15 we took the training wheels off Pumpkin's bike. The day before he was riding with Wesely. Wesely and Rachel are the Willis's grandkids and they also come over fairly regularly during the summer. I think our cul-de-sac is flatter then their street, so they bring them over to ride their bikes. They are each 1 year older then Pumpkin and Precious. Anyway, Wesely rides his bike without training wheels and Wesely's dad (Jeff) was like, you know, I really think Pumpkin is ready to take his wheels off. I didn't think much of it, but I could tell Pumpkin wanted to be like Wesely. (And of course Welesly was kind of making fun of Pumpkin saying someday Pumpkin too would be a big boy without training wheels. Aren't kids great?) So on Sunday I said to Hubby, lets take his wheels off for just a little bit and see how he does? Was he ready or what! Pteew! Pumpkin was off like a shot. I was attempting to hold onto the back of his seat to keep him upright and he nearly pulled my arm out of its socket. So, yeah, he was ready alright! Our only problem so far is stopping. When Pumpkin gets panicked - like he sees a car - he forgets how to stop and instead of keeping his feet on the pedals, he drags them on the ground, which is not particularly effective. This is amusing (assuming he doesn't hit the car) because the rest of the time he practices going as fast and he can the then slamming on the breaks leaving big skid marks on the asphalt. He is already trying to kill himself via the 'hit the curb as fast as possible to see if I can do a wheelie'school of bike riding.

Stealth Baby

Stealth Baby also gives new meaning to the word hyperactive. He never EVER stops moving. He's hard to describe - what a GREAT little kid. He's very sharp too - like, he knows when the other kids put their shoes on then they are going outside (which is the highlight of his life.) So Stealth Baby scurries around to find HIS shoes and bring them to me. He gets so excited and plops right into my lap, pointing his toes to go into his shoes. It is too cute. Stealth Baby just loves to put his shoes on, and also to go into his carseat. Yes, he likes to sit in his carseat - because this means he is coming with us! He gets left behind on Mondays when Pumpkin and Precious go to soccer and it drives him nuts. So he is quite keen on getting into the car whenever Pumpkin and Precious do.

Stealth Baby is definitely the 3rd child. Very intent on anything that the other kids do. So he is big on playing in the sandbox and pushing cars around. Which is so funny. I don't think Precious has yet to play with a matchbox car in her 3 years on this planet, but Stealth Baby just loves them - and we are forever rescuing Pumpkin's remote control vehicle from Stealth Baby as he pushed it down the stairs. His other favorite toy is a miniture plastic shopping cart that we supposedly got for Precious. But Stealth Baby gets great joy pushing this thing at high speed into walls. So he goes lunging forward pushing this so fast he's about ready to fall over…but just as he's about to fall flat (causing the cart to fall over ontop of him), luckily at that point he usually hits a wall or another child. So instead of falling on his face he runs his chest (at high speed) into the cart. But Stealth Baby thinks this is high entertainment, and as a result we can't ever let Precious touch her cart.

Unfortunately, Stealth Baby doesn't talk yet. Not a single word. Actually, he seems to say "oh no" and "Hello" - but nothing like mama or dada or juice or anything. It would really be useful if he could say "juice" or "hungry" so that instead of screaming he would at least give me a clue as to what the problem is. He babbles a lot, and he definitely understands things. Like, if I say, "Go outside?" He nearly launches himself down the stairs. And he waves 'bye bye' and stuff. I'm not sure what is up. I'm not that worried yet - Dr. Touchette says that if the problem remains at 2 then he'll have to go to a speech therapist. I wouldn't mind sending him to one now.

The Beach

The whole push of us went to Wildwood with Hubby's family again this year. It was a total blast. We call early and that way we got a room on the first floor (no falling down the steps for Stealth Baby!). Hubby's mom and dad stay next to us on one side and his sister Kat and brother in law J were on the other side. CYL and BL like to stay a town over which gets them out of having to help with the kids :+)!! (Smart people.) Can I just say that I was there for 5 days and I never so much as dipped a toe in the ocean? It is So funny! So, Stealth Baby gets up at 6:15, and manages to get Pumpkin and Precious up too. Hubby is just hideous in the mornings, so I would rather suffer by myself than enlist his help and REALLY suffer. So I would walk the kids the 15 feet to the end of the hotel parking lot, and down 5 stairs to the beach, (carrying Stealth Baby and every toy we brought.) And then we would dig to China. Did we have fun or what! So every morning we would start digging and get this enormous sand pile with a deep moat, and basically every child in the hotel would come by and start to help. It got to be that most of the people in the hotel would recognize us and smile from their balcony's as they went to get their coffee. And one morning - get this! - Pumpkin and Stealth Baby got up early but Precious slept in (I thought.) So I'm out with those two getting good and sandy when a guy drinking coffee and sitting on the bench at the end of the hotel parking lots says, and I quote, "Here comes your daughter." (??) So I walk up the stairs and, yes indeed, here comes Precious. . .but no trace of Hubby! She had woken up, walked past Hubby (still asleep) opened and shut the door and come over to the China dig all by herself!

And every night somebody would destroy our mound. J As Hubby says, what self respecting boy would walk by a castle that size and not stomp on it? Certainly not Pumpkin, who, on the few times we would walk the beach, ran around like a crazed ping pong ball stomping on other people's castles and lunging into holes. So we generally tried to walk the beach very late in the afternoon after everyone had gone to eat and wouldn't notice a small, blond-haired, smiling, dinosaur terrorizing their sand masterpieces.

Of course, the kids liked the pool as much as the ocean anyway. I mean, they loved the sand, but there was no reason to cross the burning desert sands all the way to the water's edge to play in the sand. We could do that 20 feet from the edge of the hotel parking lot - and everyone was just as happy. The pool has a small kiddy pool and then a mid-section that Pumpkin can just barely stand in, and then a very deep end that I try not to let the kids in. Pumpkin is basically autonomous since he can go down the slide and not drown at the bottom. Precious doesn't like to go under the water that much, so she needs a lot of help in general - but of course wants to go down the slide! So you need someone to catch her at the bottom and someone to hold her hand on the way down. You can image the difficulty this presents since we also have Stealth Baby, who is missing some critical brain mass and consequently has no fear - shows no negative reaction at all, actually - to falling face down and staying in a dead mans float. So he'll fall and just stay face down sucking water good-naturedly waiting for someone to rescue him. So, as Stealth Baby patiently floats there losing conscienceness, holding Precious's hand as she goes down the slide doesn't seem like such a high priority.

Happily, at Sam's Club we got Precious and Pumpkin some life vests. In general they don't really like them, but it's useful for Precious going down the slide because then, even when she hits you in the nose with both feet so you fail to catch her, the life vest bobs her up to the top of the water pretty quick. So generally we just have to keep Stealth Baby from killing himself. Which would be easier if we could get him the grasp the idea of "steps." See he likes to fall into the water, weather or not you are there to catch him. (Also, he sometimes 'leaps' while he is a good 12 inches from the edge of the pool and actual water, which leads to some depressing results, knee-cap wise.) So he'll be standing what he thinks is the appropriate distance from the water and then bend his knees to launch himself into the pool, never realizing that he is directly above the very large stairs - so he's leaping into about 2 inches of water. He has yet to break his nose. Yet.

One of the best things about the beach is that it again reaffirmed how perfect Hubby and I are for each other. I mean, we are just so different from everyone else we went with - and they were all so alike. So, are they pod people, or are we? One night after Hubby and I went and spent like 15 bucks on ice cream for the kids and then had them bouncing off walls on a sugar high (while everyone else went to an expensive restaurant that probably had real napkins and lit candles on the tables) Hubby pulled me over and said, "I'm so glad I married you." Which I thought was pretty cute. And I'm like, what brings this on? And he basically said he was glad he was eating pizza and cheese fries with me and the kids instead of having to wear a shirt with a collar. We are definitely a nacho dip kind of a household. So the whole week was like that - where the group would vote to do something and Hubby and I were like - I think we'll just stay here at the pool and eat grilled cheese for dinner. So Hubby and I are obviously very weird. But it is such a gloriously, "in-love" type of feeling to be weird together. It's hard to explain, but we had such a great time, and were constantly amazed at the amusement choices made by other members of our party, who were equally appalled at the amusement choices made by us. I'm so happy I married Hubby. He's so…so ME!

We had such a great time that we are using our tax rebate and my work bonus to go back again over labor day. I can't wait, and we already have the kids in a high state of anticipation.

The Kitchen

Well, Hubby and I are FINALLY doing the finishing touches of the kitchen remodel. And I can tell you it is easier to build a nuclear submarine than move a residential sink. I've been without a sink, dishwasher, or stove since June 15. (When I say 'redo' I mean gut totally including removing the subfloor, moving every outlet plus the phone jack and also cutting numerous holes in our basement ceiling trying to find out where our heating pipes to the kitchen are - or more appropriately were, since we decided they were in the way and therefore removed the radiator.)

So, it has not been a ton o' fun in the Yates household. The whole thing was a fiasco! Nothing went as planned - and cost us twice our original estimate. Hubby and I basically did the whole thing ourselves, which would have been amusing except that screaming at each other over where the wall studs might be placed is stressful. In hindsight we are getting some good giggles over it. For example, in the 100 degree weather I go to pick up our wall tile - the special order accent tile that we are going to use instead of a backsplash. The kids are miserable and it's so hot the car air conditioner can't keep the car cool. My god I can't even THINK it's so hot. So I shove all 3 in the van - then go to the store to pick up the tile which is in a large box. I come home, take three kids out of the van. Can't lift the box so I open in to carry in each batch of tile separately. Notice at once that first batch of tile has many broken pieces. Back to the store shoving 3 now very unhappy kids in the car. Slightly irritated show that most of the tile is broken. They apologize profusely and say they will reorder the broken stuff. Get back in car. Drive 50 feet. Realize that something is still wrong with the tile -- Gosh darnit they ordered the wrong sizes!! Grrrrrr - stomp back into store and shove order in the guys face. So now they have to reorder EVERYTHING. And that is just the story behind the wall tile!!! Every stupid step was like that! We still have the fiasco of having to move the new dishwasher outlet 3 times, the aforementioned holes in the basement ceiling, countless hours in the attic trying to feed down electrical wires for new outlets, using wall putty and a nail file to move the phone jack and the fact our new countertop - which I special ordered, had them template and cost 2 weeks wages - is too large and overhangs the dinning room entrance way by half the width of your fingernail. (And by GOD they are going to either fix that or give us some MONEY!) And we've come to the conclusion that our air conditioning vents must have my DNA since they seem to have reproduced at random all throughout every wall.

But now that we're nearly done and have a Julie designed kitchen with solid oak cabinets, a corner sink, gorgeous tile floor and drop dead fabulous countertops it was SOOO worth it. And I have so much storage space it's laughable. I have a lazy susan above my corner sink that currently is storing nothing but 3 bags of Hubby's potato chips. (Not kidding.) I have entire cabinets that are empty. Life is soooo wonderful in my kitchen. . . Assuming we ever finish tiling the walls and putting up the toe kicks, or find a way to put up the shelves - which were also special ordered to have the same wood and stain as our cabinets but that we can't screw into any walls because (surprise) there are air conditioning vents - which must have 90 degree angles in them to achieve this - in the way.