Moving On Up!

We recently moved to a newer and MUCH bigger house on base. Base housing can be a real benefit to live in. Especially here, where it is so far into town and the weather can be so questionable. And let's face it....I wasn't real interested in buying a home in North Dakota. Not really my choice of retirement locations. The base is in the process of tearing down all the old housing and building new houses. Houses that are more current and comparable to options available downtown. Here is our old house. GHETTO...it seriously lacked some curb appeal. But it was charming on the inside...charming and tiny with no dishwasher and the bathrooms were only upstairs. The master bathroom in the new house is bigger than the old house's two bathrooms put together! They build a lot of duplex's up here, both on the base and in town. I am sure it has something to do with the freezing cold weather up here. We were fortunate enough to get the best neighbors on base! The people we shared the unit with are great friends now. We hope they get to move right next to us in the new house.

Here it is...so much nicer and bigger!!

In the distance is a HUGE playground with a large field that extends behind our house. And I wanted to take a picture of our giant snow drift.

More chillin'

I am publishing pictures from Picasa and haven't quite got it figured out, but here are a couple more stair pics. Too funny!

Chillin"

Ella was a jabbering away. I decided that maybe I should go check on her. Here she was...chillin' on the stairs chewing on her socks. I need to get some gates because she has learned how to go up, but not come down. These pictures just crack me up.

Payback is a.....you know what!

Three year olds (who are going to be 4 in 3 months) are great. They can get themselves dressed, feed themselves, entertain themselves, and get into trouble. They are pretty good about getting things done....except for wiping their bums. Fortunately Porter is usually a one a day man. He will go upstairs, do his deed and then holler when he needs some help. He won't expound upon what his actual needs are unless he is really getting tired of waiting, then the "MOM!!!" turns into "MOOOOOMMMM!!!!" and finally "MOOOOMMMMM I WENT POOP!!" He is relentless in trying to get my attention. Now in all fairness I must admit that sometimes I have let him wait a little long.

Today I was loading a program onto my computer and wanted to finish what I was doing. Porter kept at it, hollering at me every 2 seconds. I finally got up when I heard him say, "Ewww." Bad news. He had tried to get off the toilet and smeared a little. Not bad, but still gross. I can't blame him for wanting to get down. I cleaned him up and then the toilet. Suddenly I was struck with the same need. I hurried into my bathroom and took care of business. Only to notice that I was out of toilet paper. I yelled at Porter to go get me some toilet paper. He ignored me!! Can you believe it??!!?

I yelled, counted to 3 (what's he gonna do...i'm not going anywhere), threatened, sweettalked, you name it, I did it. He kept telling me, "But Mommy, I'm putting my clothes on." Porter is not known for his speed. That turned into this conversation:

Me: "Get me some toilet paper out of the closet."
P: Where?
Me: In the closet
P: What?
Me: GET ME SOME TOILET PAPER FROM THE CLOSET!!!
p: Where?

Repeat 5 times.

Finally he comes moseying into my bathroom with a big grin on his face. "I got you two, Mommy!"

This exchange took about 10 minutes. I kept thinking that he got back at me for all the times I have made him sit on the can while I finished what I was doing before I came and wiped his butt. Lesson learned...next time I will go quickly to his aide!

Is This Love?

Okay, everybody sing with me (blast from the 80's Whitesnake song)......Is this love or am I dreaming, is this the love that I've been dreaming of.

That is what one little girl was thinking today. She tried to give Harmon some kisses after P.E. today. Harmon was not going for it. He responded by kicking her and earned himself a trip to the principal's office. There was another little boy that she was trying to kiss and when Harmon kicked her then so did the other boy. It escalated into quite the lover's spat. This little girl also rides the school bus with Harmon and this isn't the first time that she has tried to give him a smooch.

The principal called and gave me a heads up. I asked Harmon about it when he came home from school. He wasn't going to tell me anything. Funny kid. I am sure he thought he was going to be in big trouble. I asked him about it and he finally told me. I told him that he did the right thing and that I was proud of him for sticking up for himself. Then I told him not to kick, that he should run away, find a teacher, etc. We have talked to him about the importance of not touching others, and not letting other people touch him, privacy, etc. I definitely was not going to punish him for doing exactly what I told him to do. When I told him that I was proud of him he looked at me like, "are you kidding me?? when am I going to get in trouble??" It was so funny!

And so it begins...I am not ready for this!!