Mother Load

Well, being a mother of two sure is interesting. I have spent the better part of the past two days rearranging all sorts of stuff in order to make our house a little more organized and family-friendly. I split up the toys (infant/toddler) and moved the infant toys to Judah's room-to-be. Then, I cleared out two collapsible bookshelves, one from the dining room and one from Charis' room, and took them both to Judah's room to hold the toys and infant books. Then, I lugged a massive (for weakling me) bookcase (non-collapsible; though it did make me want to collapse) up to Charis' room for her books and toys, and hauled a matching one into the dining room for my books, which have not seen the light of day for a loooong time. I put a toybox in the living room and switched the computer desk and the secretary, and finally, I switched two of our living room lamps so they'd be the same height. Abe noticed nothing...except the lamps. :)

Today was errand day, and also bath day. Judah's bath was uneventful, barring the terrified look on his face when his little tush slipped on the bottom of the tub and thereby submerged his chin. Charis' bath was a little more interesting. Her tub time is naturally a lot less hands-on, as she can entertain herself quite well. She generally dislikes being shampooed ("Look at the ceiling, Charis. No, the ceiling!!! Sorry..."), but other than that, to her, baths are great fun. She sticks her foam letters to the tub, whips the water with a bathtub whisk, and colors on the tub with her bath crayons. While she was sudsing today, I stepped out of the bathroom to retreive a box of books (for my newly-placed shelves) from our "attic" space. It is literally five feet away, and the box was right inside the door, and I was conversing with Charis the whole time, lest anyone think I was endangering my child. No lectures, please. Anyway, I returned a few seconds later to find that she had pulled a whole roll of toilet paper into the tub with her. Any guess what happens to a roll of toilet paper when it hits water? It disintegrates into thousands and thousands of tiny tiny tissue paper wisps that are nearly impossible to catch. I had to go to the kitchen for a wire-mesh strainer to sieve out the paper clouds before I could drain the tub. Always an adventure.

So far, Charis is still crib-bound. We've attempted the switch for the last few nights, but she is still apprehensive about it. I have decided not to force the issue, since she is not yet two (she still has seven days) and Judah is still fine sleeping in the pack'n'play (though not at this very moment) and it is kind of nice having her contained, since I can't hear what goes on up there when our AC unit is on. I anticipate that will change soon, however, since we will officially have central air as of tomorrow morning. I will make no comment about the fact that my heating and cooloing husband has waited more more than two years to install this feature in our house. :) I will instead say that with the advent of central air, Judah will officially move into his new room, and I will probably work harder to get Charis out of her crib (which I have stopped calling "your bed" and have started calling "the crib" to help her get detached).

Sadly, I think it is probably not too far down the road, though, that we will switch back temporarily, as we build an addition onto our house. That's right. This will likely (though not in all certainty) be the Summer of Construction. Slated is the demolition of the current back porch, pouring a new foundation (and possibly full basement) for the addition, and building on a structure that will extend 13 feet from the natural back of the house. Incidentally, this would mean that Judah's room would grow by a whopping 13 feet, as well. Hopefully, I will be getting new kitchen cabinets as part of the deal, and we'll be getting a full main-floor bath, along with new siding and a new roof. If we decide to attempt this, it will be MASSIVE. I will keep you posted!

Well, I was hoping Judah would drift off while I was composing this, but it does not appear likely at this point, so I will sign off for today! Thanks for keeping up with us!