hola! como estas??

Yo! My friends, I have been long lost, absent, nowhere to be found until, AT LAST... INSOMNIA!  I've said it before, and I'll say it again... this blog would be nothing if it were not for my insomnia. Whoop whoop.

It's only right for me to not be able to sleep in the SECOND TO LAST NIGHT in our first house... it's like my body is telling me that I need to remember all of the sleepless nights I have endured here.  Of course, as fate would have it, my insomnia also falls on the night before I'm supposed to be running a 12K (in the Austin Marathon Relay) at 8AM.

So since it's been like weeks, and you've all been sending me thousands upon thousands of emails and comments along the lines of, "Where are you/My life is not the same without your blog/Please come back and tell me why in the world you haven't been here," I'll go ahead and fill you in on recent happenings.

House "remodel."  I use the term loosely, because we've only done basic stuff, but MAN has it made the biggest difference!  Matt and I are dumb dumbs and we didn't take before pictures.  In the last two weeks we have - scraped popcorn ceilings, painted literally every paint-able square inch of the house except for bathroom cabinets which are going to get the boot anyway, knocked an opening in one of the main walls, installed new carpet, and fixed some other ghetto-ness on the stairs, etc.  (And before you ask, when I say "we" I mean "we have paid people to.")

Obligatory Packing.  No emotional breakdowns yet.  So far my excitement about new house has trumped my sadness about old house. Movers are coming at like 8 AM on Monday morning.  And yes, Matt and I reached a "compromise" and hired movers.  Guess who wanted to do everything by himself, and guess who would have paid her right pinky toe to have the movers pack and move it ALL?

Fall Stuff.  With "back to school" and all the happenings of Fall, we've just been more structured and have had more activities every day.  I think it's good for us!

In other news.  Yesterday Sam went from sitting to standing without having to pull up on ANYTHING!  And I would have considered it a fluke, except then he did it two more times.  I have caught him standing alone a couple of times, just for a few seconds.  He never does it when we are trying to get him to, but only when he is on the go or after something.  Watch out, World, Super Sam is on the loose!  (Have I told you we call him "Super Sammy" like 95% of the time?)

Henry is saying the most hilarious things every single day, and I love his little personality.  Here are some of the most recent convos I remember.

After Bath, Henry is running around without a diaper on.
Leah: Henry, let's put your diaper on!
Henry: Sorry, mom, but I'm playing with my puzzle right now.  (Note also, the kid is obsessed with puzzles.)

We went over to the new house to see progress the other day, and I tried to go in the door from the garage to the house, but it was locked...
Henry: Mom, is it locked?
Leah: Yep, it's locked.
Henry: (Annoyed tone of voice) OH GREAT!

He's also doing great at Preschool and has only cried a couple of times at drop off, which for us is a HUGE success. Huge!

Well, I think that's all for now.  I will try to have a more entertaining, less technical update post in the near future. Laterz.

weekly confessions

Last weekend we forgot to lock Henry's door, so he came in our room in the middle of the night.  When he wanted me to scratch his hand (something he typically wants), I pretended I was asleep.  He fell asleep much faster.

Last week I made some awesome, healthified zucchini bread.  When we offered it to Henry, he first refused.  So then we changed the name to apple bread (since it does, in fact, have applesauce in it), and he was more than willing to down several pieces.  Now we play a game.  "Henry, do you want some zucchini bread?"  "No!"  "Well, do you want some apple bread?" "YEAH!"

When I was in third grade, each class had a reading contest.  Who could read the most books (and write book reports on all of them)?  I won the contest for my class.  But here's the confession.  There was another girl in my class who was a true bookworm.  The girl was ALWAYS in a book... even in high school I remember she was always reading.  She rode my bus in elementary school... ALWAYS reading.  It turned out that she actually read an insane number of books that year... because she LOVED to read.  ME?  I just wanted to beat her.  For real.  I read books as fast as I could and wrote reports so that I could win.  So at the end of the year, we both got an award because I'm pretty sure she still read an insane number of books (and I probably beat her by one or two).

This isn't so much a confession, but...  I think I'm just going to stop cleaning.  I mean really, I waste so much time cleaning and picking up and organizing, when I could actually be DOING stuff- and then it just gets dirty again - like before I ever finish.  It is a viscous cycle!  Laundry too.  No more laundry.

hen is killin' us

Henry is so funny these days... Here are some more recent conversations.

Henry in the bathtub.

H: "I'm laying down!"
L: "You're laying down?"
H; "Yeah, I'm tired!"

Henry at random...

"Matt, come here!"

While driving in the car...

H: "Mom, you get back here!"
L: "I can't get back there, I'm driving!"
H: "No, don't drive, Mom! Get back here!"
L: "If I get back there, then who is gonna drive?"
H: "SAMMY!"

While eating dinner...

"Mmm, mmm, mmm.  Mom, this is delicious!"

He can also quote the books we read him and the movies he watches WORD FOR WORD.  He usually does this while falling asleep at night.

I'm sure there will be more where this came from.

It's ours!

We closed on our new house this morning!!  Here it is!  We will be moving in the next couple of weeks after we get some little things done inside.  We will close on our current house later this month.  We are so excited!!!!

on that note

If you read yesterday's post then you'll appreciate this... today I went to workout early before anyone else had woken up.  When I walked back in the door at about 7:45, both of my children were crying... and Matt was asleep.

"Hey babe, are you aware that both of your children are awake and crying?"

"Huh?" (startled) "No."

Anyway, Henry is starting to be pretty funny when he talks, so I wanted to document some of the things he has said recently.

The other night, Matt was disciplining him and in true dad form, Matt called Henry "young man."  Henry replied, "Dad, I am not a young man.  I'm just a little boy."

On Henry's first day of preschool I said, "Henry what are you going to do today?"
He said, "I am going to go to preschool all by myself!"
Leah: "Yes you are because you are such a big boy!"
Henry: "Actually, I'm not."
Leah: "You're not what?"
Henry: "I'm not going to go to preschool all by myself.

Yesterday Henry was throwing a tantrum and I said, "Henry, why are you moody?"
Henry said, "No I'm not!  I'm not moody!"
Leah: "Yes you are, you're moody!"
Henry: "No I'm not!  I'm HENRY."

riddle me this

God blessed dads with an amazing ability to tune out their children.  I'm telling you, Henry had been crying in the middle of the night to get out of his room for more than TWO hours.  Matt had NO clue this was happening.  Meanwhile, I wake up when my children cough.

On the other hand, the alarm clock on my phone goes off to purposely wake me up, and I barely respond, but Matt's all complaining about how my alarm is so obnoxious.

You think maybe it's because the children are in a different room, but when we were at the beach, both kids slept in our room (part of the reason we are having middle of the night trouble now) and even then, Matt did not wake to Sam's crying in the middle of the night.

Not gonna lie. Sometimes I wish I was a dad.

6 out of 30

While on our trip to the beach, not only did I finish The Great Gatsby, but I also read The Help, completing my sixth item on the 30|30 list-- to read a fictional book (but not a classical fiction). (You see, normally I ONLY read non-fiction books, so reading something fictional really is new to me.) I LOVED the book, and I can't wait to watch the movie now.

5 out of 30!

A couple of weeks ago we went to Gulf Shores, Alabama with my family for our annual trip. WAY more fun when you aren't preggo. (I had been pregnant the previous couple of times.)  We actually had way more pictures (via Matt's iPhone and camera, but if I don't post this now, it may never happen.)

All the kids on the beach! (This was not stressful, I'm telling you...)

Look at our 2 and 1/2 year old

In the car on the way to the beach...

Figured it was only fair to have one where Henry was smiling...

We decided to be brave and take all the kids out to eat... here is Sam and Laura!

Mommy and her boys!

The babies with Uncle Peter

My pretty sister and my bro in law... we took a double date.

Me and Matt on our date (instagram style)

Sam on the beach!!

There were never such devoted sisters.

We had a rockin' condo.  It was awesome.

And that, my friends, is 5 out of 30.