A bright part of our day today was that we bought a fridge and a washing machine and dryer for our new place. We bought them all second hand on craigslist. Since we're renting a place we don't want to make a big investment and then end up moving somewhere else, that may already have appliances, a year or two later. We had been looking for a black fridge to match our other appliances, and those seem to be hard to come by these days. We finally found one listed in Brooklyn Center. It's a side by side style with a water and ice dispenser on the door. It seemed really clean and we got a great deal, so hopefully it makes the trip smoothly and works well for us. The washer and dryer are older standard large capacity white machines... haha nothing too exciting! The fact that we're going to have our own washer and dryer again is so exciting though! I never realized, until moving into our apartment last January, how inconvenient it is to have to either pay large amount of money in quarters for small loads of laundry in the hallway... or to lug baskets of laundry down the three flights of stairs and out to the car to bring to our parents places when we visit. Yuck.
Speaking of which, today I spent 8 hours (yes eight...) at my mom's house getting load after load of laundry done so that everything possible is washed before we move, all the bedding, all the pillows, slippers, everything. It's going to feel like such a luxury to be able to do that at our own place from now on, and being able to go about our day in between loads. Ah, the simple things in life! Another thing I'm really excited to "move on" from is unloading groceries... in the winter... with Jace. I used to consider myself a pro at carrying all the bags in one trip. I'd just sling the diaper bag and Jace in his carseat on one arm and loop the 4-5 bags of groceries on the other. That was before he weighed nearly 25 pounds. I will now sit at the grocery store, before checking out, and put all the heavy things back on the shelf because I realize it's only going to be more trouble than it's worth to make an extra snowy trip. That may sound really lazy... but after twelve months of it, it really starts to get old. (Don't get me started on when I had to carry Micah up those stairs at the same time too, day after day...) So, obviously at this point, a house is sounding pretty good.
One thing we have been doing in order to prepare for moving, is avoiding buying any new groceries. I don't remember the last time we went to the grocery store, other than to buy food and milk for Jace. We've been eating some pretty interesting meals around here... but it's actually turned into a fun game, to see what we can make with the random contents of our fridge and freezer. To be honest, it's actually surprising how good we've been eating despite our lack of supplies, maybe we just need to find more creativity outside of this challange. We had a bunch of meat in the freezer so we found ways to use that along with some of the other stuff we always have laying around (frozen veggies, bags of potatoes or rice) to make chicken fried rice, sheperds pie, turkey burritos, pulled beef tacos, parmesan buttered noodles... it's all been amazing.
When I made the sheperds pie it was with leftover pulled turkey, whipped potatoes with the remnants of parmesan and colby cheeses, frozen veggies, and gravy made from ramen noodle beef seasoning, flour and water. Yes, sounds disgusting, but it was really good and we're even using up the random ramen noodles in the back of the cupboard that way! The only meat we have left now are pork chops and salmon fillets, which obviously don't need much to make a meal... maybe just a nice pile of frozen veggies on the side? ;)
Jace has been doing great. We went to the Science Museum last week and Eagle's Nest indoor play center this week. He had so much fun at both places! It's great for him to be able to run around and burn off some energy once in a while... and he loves exploring and being around other kids. The only downside, if there is one, is that he doesn't quite understand what things are dangerous for him yet. He's completely fearless. At the Children's Museum he was running around so fast I had to run to catch up and make sure he didn't jump of a bridge or something crazy like that. The morning we went to Eagle's Next he poked himself under the eye with the corner of a book before we left and then on our way scratched under his nose... not sure how. So of course, he's the beat up looking kid already, but then he jumps off a ledge before I could catch him and gave himself a black and blue lower lip. (I should mention he had no reaction, no cry, no pain... I think he was too busy playing) Oh well, if it doesn't bother him, it doesn't bother me. We just try to be careful, but when you're an unsturdy toddler that's always on the go, bumps and bruises are bound to happen.
His favorite part of the Children's museum was the water tables. He really liked the one that had pipes in it and he could stick a ball into a hole in the pipe and it would travel down and come out the other side. He could have stayed there and played with that all day. I will have to think of ways that we can have fun with water like that at home. Now that he's getting older we've been having a little more fun at bathtime. He really likes when we run that water on low and he tries to grab the water, over and over again. He's gotten more into bath toys now too, even though his favorite toy is usually his soap! He loves to bang it on the side of the tub, and then put it under the water and bang it against the bottom. For a kid who never sits still, he's actually really good in the bathtub, he rarely tries to stand up or slip around. Once he starts trying to get up we end bathtime.
Jace has been getting really good at communicating lately. He listens when we ask him to bring something to us and will walk over and hand it to us. If he puts something in his mouth and we ask what it is he will open up and say "Ah!" (this actually happens often, because sometimes I'll leave his snack on the coffee table so that he can keep playing, but eat as he gets hungry... which he does, but whenever I see him chewing I get paranoid that he's eating one of his Little People, haha!) Another thing he's been doing lately is grabbing the phone and putting it to his ear and saying "Yea? Yea? Ha HA HA. Daddy?! Ha Ha Ha. Yea!" and so on. Apparently I must say "Yea" and laugh alot on the phone and he's learned through observing. He also always assumes it's daddy on the phone, and when he's done he will come and hand the phone to me to have a turn, until he wants it back about five seconds later. My favorite thing that he does, though, is the face he makes when he's really happy. He scrunches his nose and moves his mouth over to the side so its crooked, and then he usually starts breathing heavily through his nose. I can't describe it, but I just love it.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention Jace now knows where his "nose" is. If you ask him "Jace, where's your nose?" he will stick his pointer finger halfway up his nostril and start roaring with laughter. Sigh. At least he has a sense of humor I guess. :)
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| Water Tables at the Children's Museum |
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| Making friends |
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| Going shopping in the Little World at the museum |
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| In the ballpit at Eagle's nest with his friends Ava and Addison |
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| Chillaxin |
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