Same old stuff…

There hasn’t been too much excitement around here lately. We’re just pluggin’ along, doing the same old stuff. Tess is enjoying the last month of her preschool, and I’m already trying to find fun things to do this summer to keep her entertained; we’re thinking we’ll do a 4-week session of swim lessons during June. I also had my last week of teaching her preschool group. I really do enjoy it, but I’ve decided that I would never want to run my own preschool (like I used to want to do…) because it is really hard with a little 16 month old helper! I tried putting him in his highchair and bringing him over with the other kids, but he screamed and screamed until I got him down (not crying-screaming, just out-of-the-blue-“I think I’m going to see how loud I can scream”-screaming.) So, then when I let him down to bebop around, he decided to get into everything (I had a box of about 5000 pins sitting with my preschool stuff because I had a note to pin on the kids at the end of the day, and I just wasn’t fast enough when I saw Miles grab the box and dump it onto the carpet in our family room. Crap.) Also, I learned a lot about the differences between girls and boys one day during preschool. For the 20 minute “free playtime” section of the preschool, the kids just go in the playroom in the basement to play on their own while I get the snack ready (and I also try to pick up 5000 pins while trying not to bleed on everything because I’m getting poked so much). During the 20 minutes the 3 little boys in class played happily with each other, or alone; while the 4 little girls in class spent 20 minutes yelling at each other and crying about who got to be “the Mom.” Drama, drama, drama!

This past weekend we decided to get away for a few days and ventured up to Bryan’s parents’ cabin above Heber City. I figured it would be great to let the kids just play outside, digging in the dirt contentedly. I knew it would be chilly up there so I was sure to pack warm clothes and jackets. When Bryan suggested we’d need our big winter coats, I didn’t believe him, but packed them just in case. Well, let’s just say that we had to put our chains on the van to get home, because there were several feet of snow still on the ground up there. (Bryan knew there would be, and of course I should have listened because he’s been to the cabin in the Spring much more than I ever have… but I was ignorantly optimistic.) In spite of the existing snow, and the 6 new inches of snow Saturday night, we still had a great time and it was fun to get away.

This week begins the real work on our yard. We had Blue Stakes come last week and Bryan designed the sprinkler system just the way he wants it. He spent a lot of time, and maybe even overdid it on the detailed “analysis” of where each and every drop of water would land (the employees at the plumbing store just looked at his design with surprised grins on their faces and their only question was, “Whoa…how much time did this take you?”) It’s that “engineer” brain of his, but I’m glad to know our sprinklers will work very well! This week we’re planning on: pouring more concrete to enlarge our back patio on Thursday, trenching on Friday, and laying the sprinkler pipes on Saturday. Cross your fingers that the weather will be nice!

A “Tess”ellation: one day after her nap she told me “I had a funny dream. Guess who went potty in the sky? Silly little Mommy! (laughter….) Guess who pooped in a cloud? Silly little Miles! (more laughter…)” Oh, the humor of a three year old.

Only one picture this week (I forgot to bring the camera to the cabin): There is a new house being built kiddie-corner from ours and Miles’ favorite thing to do is to climb up and watch out his window. He is fascinated by all the big machines and loud noises.