That makes me so sad...

I assume I should be happy that my nearly 3 year old child is learning to express her feelings verbally instead of with screaming and crying, but hearing your child tell you several times a day "That makes me so sad" gets a bit old. Not to mention the times she now tells us that she does not love us when she's mad. No cookies for lunch? That makes her so sad. No sitting on the back of the couch? That makes her so sad. No sitting on my lap while I type on the computer? That makes her so sad.

Addie's way of describing not only feelings but everyday happenings is pretty cute though. When the sun comes up it's "happy outside". When she needs to brush her teeth "her teeth are so sad". When she gets a mint or altoid her "mouth is pretty". When it's foggy outside it's "very, very foggy outside". Ok that last one was not anything cute, but the way she says it is!

Bethany, on the other hand, is learning to vocalize her wants and needs and things she finds in the house too. Although most things she says comes out sounding like "ssssssss" or "shssshhh" it amazingly works out pretty well for her. She can get across "cat" "cheese" "this" "ears" "eyes" and "hair" all with some variation of the "ssss" sounds she makes. It's not really talking, but it's getting there.

Making Curtains

So after looking at my dining room window/sliding glass door for the past 3 years or so with disgusting vertical blinds on it, I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and make myself some new curtains.
This is the eyesore that we (and everyone driving by on our extremely busy street) have been looking at for a few years now.





And this is my finished product. It's in no way perfect, but I'd venture to say it's a huge improvement over what we had before.

All coming together

So it's all starting to come together at work for me now. This week I've been doing less cleaning and more counting and sorting. I'm starting to feel like the place is more mine than someone else's, which is really nice. I'm thinking that within the next 5 days or so I'll have it all up to speed, then I'll only have to worry about doing the daily work and getting the computer to order the correct things.
My supervisor stopped by today to help out with the ice/snow build-up outside. He seems great so far. I really like how laid back he is and his willingness to get dirty if need be. He also gave me a few compliments, which of course gave me some more confidence in what I'm doing.

At home we've been talking non-stop about Addie's impending 3rd birthday. She doesn't know exactly how far out it is, but she knows that she'll be 3 very soon. It's weird though, because she's been going through a bit of a regression of sorts lately. She really wants to treated like a baby a lot, insisting she's a "big girl baby". I think a little bit of jealously is starting to sink in about Bethany and the past 4 months have been just crazy for her. In and out of daycare, back home with dad all day long, and now I'm gone even longer than before. Unfortunately (in Erik's mind) she has gotten into the habit of sleeping with me every night too. While Erik was out of town for work, I really liked cuddling up with her in bed and falling asleep. But now we've started a trend that is proving to be very hard to break. I really have no inclination to stop her from sleeping with me, but I know that it really irks Erik, so I'm trying to find a happy medium. I know that as we move closer and closer to Erik getting his job back, I'll be sleeping a lot alone and will have absolutely no qualms about allowing Addie in bed with me. But sometimes I catch myself second guessing and thinking that it's not a good idea. Either way, I think there are pros and cons to it and we'll just have to play it by ear.

I've also started tentatively planning a vacation to Ohio this spring. I've never been to Ohio and we've been promising to come and visit Erik's mom for a while now. I'm tired of every year saying "maybe next year". So I'm just going to do it, that's it! I'm really looking into taking a train ride there, but am nervous about the cost and how the girls will do. Either way it will be rough on them. A 13+ hour drive in the car, or a 18+ hour journey on the trains. At least on the trains we can get up and walk around and I can focus on the girls. I'll let you know when we get closer to the date what we intend on doing.

Socks, Socks, Socks!

That's it! I've given up completely on the sock situation in this household. I have bought 25 pairs of socks that the girls will share. They are all the exact same kind and same size. There will be no more searching and digging and matching and folding of socks for me in this house. I cannot stand the number of socks that we have.. half of which do not have a match. The little bitty baby socks that no longer fit anyone, the cutesy little socks with a pink stripe, the pretty little socks with lace... all gone! In the TRASH!
I held out for a very long time, thinking "ok ok I'll save them for my cousin". Then I figured "Ooh, I'll save them for my sister". But now I've realized I'd actually just rather spend the money on buy them new socks myself than trying to pass of some old, mismatching socks from hell.

Goodbye sock hell! Hello to sock heaven!!!