Spring Break Highlights

Adam was on spring break this week and we really enjoyed the time together as a family. Here are some of our highlights: 1. WE'RE RENTING A HOUSE!!! Our lease starts May 15th. Words cannot express how excited I am to have 2 bedrooms, a laundry room, a garage, and best of all: a backyard! With grass. Grass is not a given here in Phoenix so we are blessed. Even better, someone else will be taking care of the grass. The house is less than a five minute walk to school so no more driving Adam back and forth to school with Alcuin screaming in the backseat every time I need the car. May cannot come soon enough! 2. WE'RE ALLOWED TO PAINT INSIDE THE HOUSE! This is the last thing our landlord told us after we signed the contract on Monday. His exact words: "I want you to feel like it's your home. So, you know, if you want to paint the baby's room or living room, just let me know." Adam took one look at my face and said, "Uh oh." He's right. I've spent hours this week looking up nursery ideas on Pinterest. Alcuin will finally have a nursery. Alcuin, as you can see is really excited about this:

And now, no more house highlights, I promise. 3. Adam's birthday was on Wednesday and we celebrated by having some friends over for cake and ice cream. I made my first cake from scratch--red velvet with cream cheese icing--and it actually turned out pretty good! The biggest oops was in the decorating. I wrote "Happy Birthday Adam" in cursive but my cursive m only had two humps. Unfixable. So the cake actually read "Happy Birthday Adan" and then Adam insisted that we add an accent mark over the second a.

It reminds me of the cake Hagrid baked for Harry in the first Harry Potter movie. 4. Last Saturday, we left Alcuin with a babysitter and went to see The Veronica Mars Movie. Veronica Mars is kind of Adam's and my guilty pleasure. Adam watched the series when it was on the CW in high school. The first year we were married we watched all three seasons together and he got me hooked too. The movie was nothing remarkable but we're such die-hard fans, we didn't care. What we thought was really cool was that the director and the show's main star, Kristen Bell, got the movie funded with the Kickstarter website. So the movie was mostly funded by fans of the show. All the stars of the show returned for the movie despite the fact that it was low budget film. Over all, it's been a wonderful week at home with the whole family. We're excited for summer and getting to spend some time with our extended families back in PA.

7 Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

I know these are supposed to be written on Friday but that was just not happening. Plus, some pretty exciting things happened this weekend so I'm glad I'll be able to include them in these quick takes! Today we found out that a house is up for rent in the adorable neighborhood right next to our school. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a yard and it's right across the street from friends of ours. Adam would have a pleasant walk to work and I could have the car all day. The most amazing thing: it's actually in our price range. We had kind of resigned ourselves to being in an apartment for at least another year because renting houses is just so expensive here, especially in the area of the city where we're hoping to live. This house would be amazing if we could get it. Your prayers would be appreciated!

--- 2 ---

On Friday night, Adam attended a fundraising auction for our school. Teachers and parents can bid on everything from gift baskets to vacation packages and all the proceeds go to the school. Prior to the auction, we had been discussing with fellow teachers the possibility of bidding on one of the vacation packages together and dividing the cost between us. We put in a bid for a trip to Mexico and we got it! It includes one week at a villa in some small Mexican town (Adam forgot the name) and we have a year to use it. I'm hoping this small town in near a beach but even if it's not, it will still be cool to go to Mexico.

--- 3 ---

Alcuin had his four month check up on Friday. He weighed in at 13 lbs, 13 oz (25th percentile) and 24" (30th percentile). So he's kind of a squirt but a rolling-talking-shrieking squirt so I'm not at all concerned. I did ask the pediatrician about his lack of naps and he told me that it was probably a personality thing and that I'd be fighting with Alcuin about naps for the next five years. Ugh.

--- 4 ---

We enrolled Alcuin in swim lessons at a local pool and he had his first lesson on Thursday. They're free until he's six months old. He loved it! We were so glad. We're really hoping he takes to the water because with summer temperatures averaging around 110 degrees here, it's important to have a baby who's swimming pool friendly.

--- 5 ---

Ash Wednesday was tough. I'm horrible when it comes to fasting and I wasn't even really fasting, just trying not to snack. Needless to say, that was an epic fail. Wednesdays are also the day when I don't have the car and Adam has play practice until 8 pm. An Alcuin+no naps day is typical. An Alcuin+no naps+no car day is tough. An Alcuin+no naps+no car+no snacks day is unbearable. When Adam did come home on Wednesday night, I threatened to go back to work and put Alcuin in daycare. He wisely kept his mouth shut until my "little moment" passed. Basically that meant he kept his mouth shut until Thursday morning.

--- 6 ---

Adam and I are reading classic children's book together. We just finished Mother Goose and we're currently reading Winnie-the-Pooh. Neither Adam or I read Winnie-the-Pooh as children but we'll definitely be reading it to Alcuin--hopefully prior to him being exposed to the Disney version. Nothing against Disney (anyone who knows Adam or myself knows how much we love Disney) but the movies and their animation don't hold a candle to the books and their original Shepard illustrations. They're just such good stories. Adam remarked that the original pictures aid, rather than replace the child's imagining of the story. I would have to agree.

--- 7 ---

Speaking of Alcuin, it was sometime this week a year ago that we found out we would be having him. Now, a year later, our lives have been completely flipped upside down but we wouldn't have it any other way!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

So we'll try this blogging thing...

I'm back!  Well, that is, if one post 2 years ago that was only read by myself and one other person counts as blogging....I guess it would be more accurate to say I'm just beginning.  

In January, Adam and I stepped into the 21st century and got Internet in our apartment.  I know, first a microwave, now the Internet?!  We're so progressive, it's scary :-)  But, seriously.  We've been married for over 3 years and have never paid for Internet until now.  It's kind of sad actually...but gosh, it makes life so much more convenient.  I've been basking in Internet bliss, Googling every single question that comes to mind.  These days, those questions usually revolve around finding some magic way of getting an almost four month old to nap for more than 20 minutes.  Because that's where my life is right now.  

Speaking of which, we all know the real reason why I'm blogging.  This cutie, patootie right here:

Alcuin Charles

  I'm biased, but you have to admit, that's a darn cute baby.  I mean, check out that hair!  Mommy and Daddy find Alcuin exceptionally cute when he does this

for an extended period of time.