SO Glad I'm Me, or, I LOVE My Life!

 I've been thinking of all the troubles I had when I was younger, feeling lost and like I just didn't know what to DO with myself.  Where did I want to live?  What did I want to go to school for?  What would I do with my life?  Now in my mid 30s I can honestly say I'm glad I ended up where I am.  I live in a cool neighborhood in a pretty great city, I'm married to a funny scientist, we have two amazing kids that make me happy about 99% of the time, I get to sell vintage kid's clothes and sew stuff.  I have it pretty good.

This past week has been HOT.  We got a cheap Slip'n'slide at Target and used it for hours at a time.  I even slid down it, it was fun!  The kids got a real big kick out of that, I'm glad there is no video evidence of it.

We've stuck to our no TV in the morning routine, well mostly.  Sometimes I have to take a shower and that is the easiest way to ensure I get all the shampoo out of my hair AND shave both legs.  I had cut out 4" squares from a whole bunch of my scraps to make a scrappy quilt or two.  Ingrid found the pile and has been having fun putting together her own quilt.  I cannot wait to teach this girl how to use the sewing machine!  She will be a natural I bet.

And we've been just plain silly stuck in the house with it being in the 90s.  We go out right away in the morning, try to get some play time outside.  Then it gets too hot to breathe, so we go in and cool down.  Again after naptime we try to get outside, but dang, it's been like 80% humidity the past week.  Uncomfortable.  And yes, I realize how funny that is that we midwesterners complain about how COLD it is and how much snow we have and then a few months later complain about how HOT it is and how much humidity we have.  I sometimes wonder why anyone lives here...

 This weekend we went to the cottage.  We brought friends, it was fun.  The kids all played, we went swimming in the lake, and this morning Brendan took each of the kids on a kayak ride.  The cottage got a face lift last month, doesn't it look nice?  It used to be white, I really like the creamy tan though.  And lastly, look at that picture of Brendan's dad and uncle!  Bob is the one on the right.  He looks just like what Brendan looked like at that age!  I love how there are just random old things at the cottage, you just never know what you'll find when you go searching through the drawers looking for clean sheets...

It's Still Summer!

I always hated the first part of September, where you had school and you wanted to wear your back to school clothes but it was still in the 80s and you had to make do with your old summer shorts.  It's still like that here, it was super hot and humid yesterday.  So after school we got out the pool and the kids had fun jumping and splashing.  It's still kind of summer, and that's okay.  We'll have plenty of extremely cold, wintery days ahead of us, I will enjoy this while it's here.

New Pals

More of the same summery goodness lately, made even better because we have made friends with the neighbors across the street.  They have a little boy six mo. younger than Ingrid and one just a couple months younger than Otis.  It's been instant BFFs around here! 

Today after nap time we had them over to play.  I'd made this paint I saw on Pinterest, which did not really turn out like paint so much.  It's simply flour, water, and food coloring, but all I had on hand was whole wheat flour, next time I'd try regular flour and hope for a better consistency.  But all in all it was a nice messy project for the kids on a hot day.

We had a pool of cold water ready to wash them up, and of course, popsicles.

The other day we stayed inside for the hot weather, and the AC must have been cool enough because we baked cookies.  I'd gotten some cookie cutters from Ikea that Ingrid desperately wanted to use, so we made moose sugar cookies.  They were delish.

The Perfect Saturday

Yesterday we had friends over for a cookout.  I was a little worried about how hot it's been, thinking we'd end up hanging out inside in the air conditioning, but luckily the heat wave broke a bit and it was in the high 70s instead of the high 90s.  And there was a nice breeze blowing, it was perfect!  We got outside bright and early, of course, to clean up the backyard and set stuff up.  Ingrid moved all the chairs into a train for her dolls, just like I used to do.  Otis helped by singing Rock a bye Baby to Ingrid's doll.

 Our friends came after naptime, and we had fun being out in the now cooler weather.  I made a tent on the clothesline that all the kids liked to play in.  They had some little pony toys and Goldfish crackers and were in heaven.

Ingrid loves her friends Camryn and Ellie.  They had so much fun together, we didn't have to watch them at all, they just ran around and played all day long.  For some reason, they decided to dress up in Ingrid's pjs and bring out musical instruments to give us a concert.

 Poor Otis tried to keep up with them, but he just couldn't.  They would run up and down the stairs while he was trying to crawl his way up the first time.  Then he'd sit there and cry, go back down, and watch as the girls ran back up the stairs again.  Oh, just you wait, Ingrid!  Next year he'll be able to keep up with you and you won't be able to get rid of him!

The party lasted until bedtime, when both my kids passed out from sheer exhaustion.  Honestly, I may have also passed out soon after.  In fact, I may or may not have gone upstairs and gotten into my pjs while Brendan was still saying good bye to our friends.  When your kid gets up at the crack of dawn, I think you should be excused if you want to be asleep by 9pm, am I right?

4th of July

Too hot to be clever.  My brain is melting.

Yesterday we went to the cottage.  We melted there, too.  Went swimming.  Went boating.  Drank beer from a keg.  Ate ice cream sandwiches.  Played with cousins.  Sweat. 

Then we came home to sleep in air conditioning.  Ha!  Jokes on me, the A/C was broken.  I opened up the windows, turned on all the fans and tried to stay comfortable.  All night was horrible, just laying in bed made me sweat.  Otis woke up and was drenched.  He spent the night in my room and then proceeded to wake up all cheerful and ready to go at 4:30am.  Again. So we went outside and spent a lovely morning with our new neighbor friends while waiting for the repairman to come. 

Then I found a magical light switch that manually turns on and off the air conditioning.  It's about two feet off the floor, perfect for a little man to turn on and off.  Mainly, off.  Air conditioning not broken, just turned off!  Relief that I didn't have to shell out hundreds of dollars to get ours fixed, pissed that it was a simple fix I could've done LAST NIGHT.  Lesson learned!

The house was up to 96 degrees, it's taken a few hours but it's finally down to 80, which seems like the Arctic compared to what it had been!  Screw this heat, I'm done with it!

Hot Hot Hot, or Thank God for A/C

It's been in the 90s here for days.  Last year we made a little getaway in our room with a window air conditioner, but this year--we have it in the whole house.  The whole house.  It's amazing. Granted, the upstairs is still a bit stuffy even with a/c on, but it's not 90 degrees. 

We have done a bit of going outside to break up the day.  Our poor neighbors must hate us, we are outside at 6am watering the garden, running around in our pjs and making a ruckus at the crack of dawn.  Sorry guys!

 Our garden is exploding.  None of the carrot seeds took, but everything else is growing like mad.  We saw a peek of a couple flowers on our zucchini, and the tomatoes are all getting bigger and bigger.  I saved one lavender plant on the side of the house and it is gorgeous.  I'm so glad to have a garden!

  Other than that, not much going on here.  Cleaning and doing laundry.  Hanging said laundry up to dry on the clothesline.  Another thing I absolutely LOVE about this house--a simple rope to hang clothes on.  It makes me so happy to hang my laundry up, how silly?  I've been trying to instill a sense of teamwork in Ingrid by making her help with little chores.  Today she washed the big window in the living room.  Doesn't she look ten feet tall?  She is growing as well as our tomatoes...

Summer is here.  Bring it!

My Girl

Ingrid just amazes me.  I love her.  Even with all the whining and craziness, she's my girl.  She definitely has her own personality and knows what she likes.  Take the heat--you'd think a kid without air conditioning would want to have as little clothing on as possible and have a fan on her while she sleeps.  Not this kid!  She saw some pjs I'd thrifted and immediately wanted to wear them, even though I'd gotten them for the fall.  When it's cooler.  And then she asked for socks.  And then she put her fleece blanket on.  And then she said she didn't want the fan in her room. 

Ugh, it makes me sweat just thinking about it...And those pjs on her Cabbage Patch Kid?  Those are Otis' preemie pjs!  They actually used to be big on him.  My how he's grown.

Ingrid's favorite thing to do now is to draw.  She goes through so much paper just making all kinds of little guys and telling herself a story as she draws.  I love it, it's when she's the easiest to deal with.

She is almost done with her summer Montessori program, which she's loved.  Hopefully we'll get into a K3 program.  If I ever get off my ass and figure out who to call to sign her up!  I keep thinking of it at odd times, like 6am or 9pm, never during the day when I could actually get a hold of someone!  Of course.

The Heat Wave, Part 2

Yesterday got up to 100!!  We are fragile folk here in Wisconsin, when it comes to the heat.  Give us the ice and snow and we're fine, but a hundred degrees??  Living by the lake doesn't even help that one.  So, after Ingrid's doctor's appointment in the morning, we camped out in the air conditioned bedroom.  Quite literally: I made Ingrid a tent out of the comforter and brought in her library books.

Otis and I just hung out staying cool, we had a bedroom picnic for lunch, I put a dvd on the laptop for Ingrid.  I took some pictures. 

That was our whole afternoon.  Every time we had to go to the bathroom or get a fresh diaper for Otis, we opened the door to a wall of heat.  It's been about 86 in our house for days.  Days!  Gross.  Have I mentioned I don't particularly like this heat?  I'd much rather have a summer full of sunny, 73 degrees, light breeze.  Anyone know where I can find that? 

Heat Wave

Ugh, it's been SO hot the past few days!  In the 90s with full on humidity, it's sticky and gross and makes me extremely crabby.  The doors won't shut, or won't open, because the wood swells, there are ants galore in our bathroom, Ingrid wants juice pops and then lets them drip all over, so there are sticky messes all over.  It's just disgusting. 

So, today we left the house to go to the air conditioning.  We took advantage of the free day at the museum and looked at dinosaurs, butterflies, and fake fish.  Then we walked to the downtown library.  We signed up for a cool program they have in the summer where you read for a certain amount of time and get coupons for area attractions.  Just for signing up we got a summer pass to the art museum.  Awesome!

When we got home, we all stripped down and ran in the sprinklers.  It felt so good, I did not care at all that Ingrid's slip'n'slide actually says on it that it's not for adults.  It's not for children under five either, so I guess we're just breaking all the rules!

Tonight before dinner we went to get our window A/C unit from Brendan's parent's house.  I put Otis to bed and will be joining him in the nice cool bedroom to read until my bedtime.  I felt bad that Ingrid is in the 88degree heat, but then she asked to put on socks because her feet were cold.  Huh??  Tomorrow after we drop her off at school, I have a feeling Otis and I will be hanging out in the A/C, cutting out felt circles for a garland order, reading, napping.  Whatever we can do while sitting by that sweet sweet box in the window!

Summer Came With a Vengeance.

Dang!  We never thought summer would come and all the sudden BAM!  Here it is.  Brendan said he saw it was 102 degrees by his work yesterday?  Crazy.  It's usually a lot cooler by the lake and it was still in the high 80s yesterday.  It's 7:30am and 80 right now. 

I don't want to complain because it is better than snow, but I hate heat.  Why can't our summers be breezy and 72?  I really hate sweating before 8am.

Yesterday we got a Slip'n'slide.  And then got home to find there was a broken piece on the hose that made it impossible to hook it up.  Blah.  Ingrid was so happy when Brendan came home and fixed it!

Otis was pretty much naked or in just a diaper all day long.  Favorite part of summer, seeing all those squishy baby parts unearthed!

All the bugs are out, too.  Ingrid is still slightly unsure of them.  They gross her out but she knows they're really not going to hurt her.  So she has to tell herself how cool they are.  "I can be friends with the ants, right Mom?"  We saw this huge dragonfly on our rosebush.  He stayed there forever, sometimes flitting away if we got too close, but always coming back.  We got to really look at him, it was pretty cool. 

Today is supposed to be a scorcher, too, so we're off to find something water related or in the air conditioning.  I would love to just be outside but it's so hard when it just makes everyone sticky and crabby...