Memorable Memorial Day

We've had an adventurous weekend that you all should know about, so here we go.

Anna: Yesterday morning, we were awakened by Little Miss Anna walking into our room. For those who know anything about kids, that shouldn't be surprising, but for those who know anything about our little kid, that will be shocking. She's 2 1/2, and she has never once gotten out of her bed by herself. She's had a toddler bed for nearly a year, and every morning, she wakes up and calls out, "Mommy, come in!" when she's ready to get up. Well, the darling girl learned how to open the door handles in our house last week, and yesterday morning, she finally figured out that she can just come into our room when she's ready to get up. So yes, we are very proud. However... this morning, Adam almost jumped out of his skin when his alarm clock went off and he opened his eyes to see a little girl staring at him 5 inches from his face. Ah, yes--it's a whole new world.

Mariah: I can only imagine the trouble we are getting ourselves into with this whole crawling gig. Already she's managed to knock over several plants, chew up several pieces of paper, and make her big sister afraid of her. She's crawling like a pro now, and we're relieved that she's figured out how to crawl even on the hard floor (before she would just sit and fuss as soon as she got to the laminate), but she's about 12 times more curious and 42 times less inhibited than Anna ever was, so trouble is on its way, and its name is Mariah. The video at the bottom of the post matches this theme.

Adam: He hates me. Oh, and his paternity leave started today, so he's very happy to be home for four weeks.

Sarah: I bought a new car. Thus the hatred. Okay, go with me on this. I've wanted a new, bigger car for a long time. I'm tired of having my wonderful-but-tiny Civic stuffed to the brim with junk every moment. I'm tired of not being able to have another single living creature in the car with us. I'm tired of not even being able to carry two strollers AND three grocery sacks at the same time. I'm just tired of a small car. Adam, however, is in love with our Civic and is very afraid of gas prices (and reasonably so). Well, yesterday our friends were showing us their new car and telling us about this great deal they got, so after we left our Memorial Day BBQ, I talked Adam into "just going to LOOK at some vans." I swear, my intentions were pure--I just wanted to look. But we made two mistakes: we went looking during a big sale weekend, and we gave in and took a test drive. Anyway, long story and FIVE HOURS later (our girls were exhausted), and we were walking out of the Honda dealership with keys to a new Odyssey minivan. We did put on quite a performance, too, the two of us--I'm sure you can imagine the kind of agony a spontaneous decision like this caused for two people who are completely incapable of making any kind of decision without two to three weeks of discussion/research/rehashing. Adam has spent the last 16 hours re-running the numbers in his head to make sure that we really got a decent deal, which he decided we did, so I think it's okay, but we are both still shocked and horrified by our lack of planning.
So, we have a new minivan, I have my space, and Adam lost his beautiful, beloved Civic (we remain a one-car family). Good day for me, and hopefully... eventually... he will decide it was a good day for him, too. Of course, we had to take the van back in this morning to have the stain repellant and LoJack installed, so I can't take any pictures to post, but I'll post some later this week. It's kind of a pretty grayish-green. And now, we are van people. And all you SUV snobs can go... drive your SUV's. *bat my eyelashes*

By the Way...

By the way, here's another Anna/Mariah combo. This is Mariah now and Anna on June 25th of 2006. Enjoy.

Snoqualmie Falls... and Other Stuff, Too.

This is a video of Mariah's crawl/walk. It's the best video we've gotten so far, and I love the way she stands with her rear up in the air, so you get to enjoy it, too.

Last week, Adam's Dad and Stepmom came to visit, and although I was just as terrible as usual about taking pictures, we DID remember to take some during our outing to Snoqualmie Falls. It was a gorgeous hot day, so the river was running high and the Falls was the biggest I've ever seen it. The spray was huge--nobody could even go down the trail to the bottom because the water was spraying so high. It was amazing, and I'm glad we saw it, but since half the outlooks were soaking wet, the visit didn't last very long. But it was still fun. Here's a few pics.

Now Grandpa and Grandma Swank are on their cruise, and I hate them for it, but it was really fun to have them here. I'm going to go on a cruise someday, too. Hem hem, Adam.

Crawling/Jumping Practice

Here's a video of the girls goofing around last week. By the way, there's a mention of getting an offer on our house, which we did, but things fell through. Therefore, we are STILL on the market. *sigh* We've decided to give it about another month and then we're done. I'm tired of spending my whole life keeping my house clean just so strangers can walk through it for 10 minutes and decide not to buy it. Okay, so I'm making it sound worse than it is, but still. Enough is enough.

In other news, this week Mariah learned to sit up, but she still can't make those front arms move to get her crawling. We're just holding our breath (half excitement, half dread). Anna is in love with jumping now that she can finally do it. Mariah's favorite foods are officially banana, cheerios, peas, and sweet potato. Anna's favorite foods are candy, chocolate pudding, milkshakes, pizza, hot dogs, and smoothies. It's amazing how much can change in two years, isn't it? And not necessarily for the better.

One exciting development this week is that Adam found out that he is much closer to finishing his project at work than he thought he was. That means far fewer nights of working at home past midnight. It's a good thing he got a Nintendo DS for his birthday--now he actually has time to play it. He also learned how to make some great whole wheat breadsticks on Sunday: add too much flour. I'm gonna try it next time--breadsticks I've made according to recipe have never turned out as well as his "mistakes" did. He seems to have the baker's touch. I told him that he should be the at-home parent and I'll go get a job. He was a little too okay with that.

Have a great week.