Cleaning Confessions

I have a confession to make. This will probably give my mom the shivers, like when I told her, after being married and cleaning my own bathrooms, that I realized that she had neglected to put "Clean flush handle" on the bathroom chore checklist and it never occurred to me that I should clean that part of the toilet at all. It was like it was invisible. One day as an adult I was cleaning our bathroom toilet and thought, "This handle is probably covered in germs and grossness, and I don't think I've ever cleaned the flush handle on any toilet I've ever cleaned." Sorry, Mom.

Back to the present. We have lived in our current house for 8+ years and I think I have mopped the kitchen floor... maybe 6 times. Let's be generous and call it 9 times - at least one for every year we've lived here. Maybe I've blocked some times out. We do own a real mop at least. I just do NOT like mopping. I do not like it, Sam I Am.

And before we had kids, the occasional spot-clean with a cloth was sufficient for most common spills and even muddy footprints. We sweep regularly and vacuum even more regularly.

It didn't occur to me until today that when I said one reason I wasn't too anxious to start Allison on real food because it was messy, that "messy" would translate into MOPPING! I always thought of sticky face and hands, dirty clothes and bibs, wiping down a high chair, picking or sweeping up cereal off the floor, but never until I looked at the floor today and saw watermelon juice and sweet potato smears scattered around the kitchen did mopping enter my mind. Ugh...

So today I mopped. It was the worst. The floor looks a bit better but not as much as you might think because we chose our tile very well. Not that it really matters because I'll probably be mopping again in a few days. I just know I'll come to love it. Someday. Probably when we don't need to do it anymore because our kids are grown and gone.

August pictures

Life is good. Jeran started classes again. His schedule is pretty good except for most of his classes are midday which isn't ideal, but it doesn't seem too busy. He's also still working part time, but he's so great about helping out with Allison, letting me get more sleep, etc.

We got a new nephew. He's so cute. Congrats, Jess and Chase! My friend Mary came to visit us and we had a nice time hanging out and visiting. 

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks. 

Getting ready for bed

Hanging out with Dad

Cute baby

Fun with Peter!

Four little girls. How fun.

Hanging out with Mary and Peter

Yay for friends!

Two babes in car seats

Toby still doesn't want much to do with her

Sleepy baby. She likes to sleep up on her knees a lot. Seems familiar...

Turtle face!

At a friend's pool

Holy cow! All of a sudden she's up on her hands and knees all the time. Still not much more than getting up and holding it for a few seconds before settling back down, but it really seemed to come out of nowhere! And she knows that is the way she's going to get from A to B, so she tries it whenever she wants to move.

Hanging out with a buddy

August 7 update

Not much going on here: just hanging out, working, and keeping on top of housework. Jeran is enjoying his few weeks of freedom but I'm starting to realize just how fleeting they will be. Classes will start in less than 2 weeks!

We had the missionaries over last night for dinner and made some delicious zuppa toscana. I also made overnight bread, which was also scrumptious and very moist. I'm very grateful we get to make and eat such delicious food. Yum.

Allison is growing bigger every day. She still does not roll often although we know she can. She has been practicing making really breathy - almost hoarse - talking noises which are funny to listen to and not annoying because she can't do it very loudly. 

We went to a used book sale and picked up lots of kids/baby books for a good price but it was hot and crazy! They do this sale just a few days each month so it's a crowd of people rummaging through big bins full of kids books and around shelves full of other books, but I think we got some good ones for a much better price than we would have otherwise. It is in a warehouse and after just 10 or so minutes we were hot and sweaty in there with so many bodies and not much breeze.

A silly tired girl giggling about the noise this dog toy makes.

Hanging out with a cute friend! These girls were born just a few days apart and live just a stones throw from each other.

Such a funny, sweet girl.

Earmuffs

Here is our little bug helping Dad eat breakfast. She is sporting Jeran's noise-cancelling industrial earmuffs that he wears while studying.

Qualifying exams are now officially done but results don't come in until September. Jeran feels like he did pretty well on the second one so that is great news. Now for a few weeks of relative freedom!

Happy Early Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Jerans birthday several days early. He will probably have a pretty lame real birthday this year because it's (finally) qualifying exam week! Jeran has been studying all the material from his classes of the last year to prepare for the Masters qualifying exams, which are given between years one and two. The first six hour exam is on Tuesday and the second is on Friday. We are all sooooo ready to be done with the studying for a few weeks until school starts mid-August. Allison and I just try to stay out of his way so he can study study study, which can be pretty boring in a small house

Anyways, good luck to Jeran and the other students this week!

A quick run down of things going on for us right now besides that:

Allison and I need to find new health insurance in the next two weeks.  Ugh.

I'm managing a few projects that need to be completed by Monday but still have lots of work to be done. I think we've got sobe good developers working on them so I'm not to worried (yet) but I may end up working a good amount this weekend when Jeran will finally be free to go have fun.

We're starting to make plans for a graduation (last one!) trip for next spring.

We're getting excited for Mary to come visit us!

And some Allison updates:

She loves grabbing her toes now. She has a hard time getting them to get mouth - either she's too long or she got her mom's flexibility, or both.

Her legs are good at crawling but she doesn't lift herself up with her arms so she scoots forward face-down, leaving a trail of drool like a slug.

She went through a period of crying every time we drove somewhere, but now she sits and quietly looks around or makes quiet little sounds. The crying in the car was getting very old so this is a wonderful turn of events.

Sappy thoughts this morning

I just can't really describe how much love and happiness has come into my heart and our home because of this little angel.

4 Month Appointment

We just went in for Allison's 4 month appointment yesterday. She's weighing in at 14 lb 5 oz (50th percentile) and is 26 inches (96th percentile) for height and 30th percentile for head circumference. She was a trooper through her vaccinations, crying briefly after her shots but then settling down and being pretty good all afternoon.

She rolls from her back to tummy but not tummy to back (at least not that we've seen), so when she gets frustrated of being on her tummy, she flexes her legs and scoots forward, scooting when she's in the crib until there is no more room to scoot.

It's been slightly cooler than June was so we've been trying to spend some time outdoors in the shade most days. This week we went swimming again, walked on the American Tobacco Trail, and visited and ate lunch outdoors with some friends.