Raising Boys

When Nate was born, many people asked if it was different having a boy. I would laugh and say, "Not yet." Looking back, whether it be that he is a boy or if it is simply a difference in temperament, he was different from his sisters, even in the beginning.

He was standing in our laps (with help for balance) as a tiny baby. He rolled over...very early. He climbed before he walked...and he walked pretty early.

Mothering this little boy has been different. He is more rough and tumble. More reliant on his Mama. It is funny how different life is with a little bitty man.


('standing' in Daddy's lap at 1 month)


(holding himself up at the ottoman--4 months)


(crawling--5 months)


(setting up to climb--6 months)


He does things the girls never dreamed of doing:


Climbing into the big chairs,


Pushing little chairs to reach the counters,


Mounting the desk to reach the video monitor (which isn't even plugged in, let alone on),


Getting into the book case,


Hiding in the dryer,


And gaining access to door knobs by whatever he can find to get him up high enough


(see?).

I wonder what we have in store over the next few years. I guess I better locate the closest ER to our new house!

Step 784 3/4 of 1000

I don't even curse, but filth and foul and filth. It has been a stinky day.

I found out that the appraiser was without cable so he didn't send anyone his report last week. You know because there are no public libraries and McDonald's doesn't have free wi-fi. While that stinks and does delay our closing, we can set it for next week.

I agree to next Friday, because apparently that is the favored day for closing. I call the carpet cleaner and reset the date.

After I get off of that phone call, the realtor calls and says that he thinks we should really go mid-week, since the people we are buying from are antsy. Okay, I answer. I call the carpet cleaners again, thankful to get a different person, because I seriously seem crazy.

Then I reschedule the movers. Justin schedules a U-Haul for our smaller things. I have started planning out the next week and a half in my head. What to do when, what goes where, when we need help with the kids. all that fun stuff.

I run an errand. I come home. The phone rings. Yeah. Scratch my plans. I have to call everyone back. Again. Because there is an odd rule. The house we are buying isn't a flip, but because it is being held in trust FHA has decided that it has to abide by the rules of a flip. Which means a second appraisal, you know, because the first one went so smoothly, I'm thrilled. Oh, and don't worry--we don't have to pay for it (No joke, 'cause I wasn't planning on it.). So the long and the short of it is. We will close...someday, but no one is really sure when. So I have to call these people back and say...I don't know what. I can cancel completely or I can take a guess and maybe have to move it again. to add to that, Justin is teaching a summer class starting next week and has several days that he is doing academic advising all afternoon...so scheduling will become more difficult as time goes on.

So, if you need me I'll be banging my head against the wall...or on the phone.

Almost, But Not Quite

Kate: Fine, throw a fishy fit*.

Gabby: Kate's calling me a fishy fit!

* she meant hissy fit

* * * * *

Gabby: That's 'alarious!

* * * * *

Nate (pointing at a watermelon): Ball. Ball. BAAAALLL!!!

Step 812 of 1000

Someone forgot to tell me that we are closing on our new house on THIS Friday, until we were on our way to Cincinnati (and by someone, I mean me). I knew June the 3rd was the date, but I still had weeks, right? See I thought that May had like, eight weeks this year. I was wrong.

Maybe I should pack a little.

Nah.


I'm too busy making a quilt.


Isn't it pretty? You can sort of see that the stitching is a multicolored thread. It took me a lot longer to make than I planned, but it is finished now.


And it matches Kate's fairly well.


And making valances.

Justin has a project going too. He's painting our old desk white to match the trim in the new house. It was pretty banged up--it had belonged to his dad and as far as I know hasn't ever been refinished.


Here it is two coats of paint in--it will probably need one more coat.


I did go shopping for a few trivial things this weekend after we got back, for silly little things like a kitchen faucet that actually allows water to flow though it, towel bars, curtain rods, door stops, and the like. And I mailed notice to our landlord that we will be leaving at the end of our lease, not renewing. Progress, progress.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly for closing on Friday, finding a mover to help with our furniture on short notice (for next week), and that I that I get all my little ducks in a row!

Step 812 1/2 of 1000

Since I wrote that, I sent an email to the realtor because I hadn’t heard about the time for closing yet. Evidently God thinks I need another week to get it all together. We’ll have to wait another week to close. It seems that the bank’s appraiser (who we paid, by the by) declared the a/c didn’t work. Since we had it inspected just over a week ago, we beg to differ. Evidently he didn’t bother to check the electrical panel, where the breaker was off (so it didn’t waste electricity), seeing as the house is vacant. We think they need a new appraiser, seeing as he didn’t figure that out and evidently he didn’t notice that the furnace, water heater, and gas logs all fail to work (seeing as we turned off the gas at the meter for the same reason). I’m trying to be patient, but I have to reschedule the carpet cleaning and the movers we’re using for some of our heavier/larger items. It will all work out...eventually.

Justin is getting ready for his summer class and making those corrections on his dissertation. Maybe he needs an extra week too.

Away

Justin and I took our trip for his defense without the munchkins. My parents kept the kids and his parents paid for our hotel room, as a graduation gift. So instead of staying at a Days Inn or the like, we stayed at the historic Omni. It is kind of like going home--being in Cincinnati, not the Omni. We had intended to put down roots there and we let ourselves get attached to the area. We lived there longer than anywhere else we've lived in our married life.


It was a pretty room,


With a chair Justin deemed as comfortable.


While the bathrooms have obviously been updated since the hotel was built in the 1930's, they put in fixtures that are reminiscent of the ones that were likely there originally.


We walked down to Fountain Square Park on our first night in town, before the storms blew threw.


We took some pictures, in the rain, of Justin in front of Old Chemistry


and inside Old Chemistry in front of a fountain with Alchemical Symbols

After celebratory lunch at the Skyline near campus, we headed to Mount Storm park. Ironically, we went there shortly before we closed on our very first house, back in the days of film, because we had to use up a roll to get it developed to send pictures of the house to our insurance company.


This picture has Crosley Tower over his shoulder--one of the newer chemistry buildings that he worked in.


(Here he is in the same spot in 2002--thanks to my scanner.)

* * * * *

And I had to include this picture I took on our way up. You know those nifty street view maps you can get on Google now? We saw one of their cars on the interstate. It is pretty funny to see--all the painting on the car and the funny camera ball on top. The fellow had his lap top open, but thankfully he wasn't playing any games, just downloading video.

Memorial Day

I hope you had a lovely Memorial Day.

We have always tried to balance carefully honesty and preserving our children's innocence. Tonight at dinner we were chatting about what today means. Kate answered that we were remembering the people who died for our freedom. Then she looked at her sister and said, "Does that make you sad?" It seems that she is getting it.

No worries about her losing her childhood though. She had enjoyable time too.


We have had rides on Daddy's back,


playing in the wading pool,


(Both of the girls are putting their faces in the water this year and floating on their backs. Nate fell in several times and rights himself quickly and doesn't mind a face full of water.)


and home made ice cream (sorry, no pictures of that!).

What's Up Doc?

"Ten years. Ten years, man, ten years! Ten years!!" -name that movie quote

Justin and I started the journey for him to go to graduate school ten years ago. After two years of marriage, and shortly after I finished my undergraduate degree, we packed up our belongings and moved from the hometown where I had lived my entire life. I started a teaching job and he went back to school.

For five years we lived there in town. In that time, September 11th happened, we made many dear friends, we bought our first house, and we had our first baby. At the end of that five years, Justin took a new job, vowing to write his dissertation in the evenings and on weekends. Which he has done faithfully...for five more years!! In that time we've moved some more, had TWO more babies, made and left behind dear friends.

This week though, he defended that huge amount of work. There will be some edits to come, but his research has been accepted. His adviser spoke very highly of him and even gave me a hug. His official graduation date isn't until the fall, but if you happen to run across him, you can call him Doctor. He's earned it!

Justin, in his Master's regalia one last time for this spring's commencement exercises.