1, 2, 5

After the weekend the house is back to looking like a disaster area. Matt started on the boxes in the basement and even though he cleared out about 10 boxes, it still looks like we haven't done anything in there. Matt was also able to assemble the new lawn mower and cut the grass/dandelions/wild onions. We don't have the best looking lawn on the street, but we are not digging up the yard and reseeding. No thanks.

We purchased a patio table and chairs and a chimenea for outside. We also went and bought a flat screen tv for the basement. Matt believes it is for the family room and that he can dismantle his 52" giant tv and get it into the basement. When he asked the salesman if he had ever dismantled a 52" freestanding tv, the kids just laughed and laughed and told Matt he was insane. Well, there's your answer honey, we just bought the new tv for the basement. It looks like the giant tv is staying put in the family room.

We also bought some new 2" blinds for the bedrooms as we had some lovely aluminium blinds circa 1985 on the windows. Of course, none of these got put up this weekend as Matt spent his time putting the new tv and all the 5000 components together in the basement.

I got Chloe's room painted. It's pink of course and is beginning to look just like her room in the old house. I guess I don't have an original idea in my head.

After our successful trash pickup we were skipped over again on Friday. Instead of putting it out at the curb you are apparently just supposed to leave it in the backyard and they will go back there and get it. Nice, but that isn't going to work once Lizzie, our nutty English Setter, arrives. I hope they return stray dogs to their yards too.

Chloe has taken to counting the stairs in the house. There are 15 steps going up to the floor with her room. She counts 1, 2, 5, 8, 10....and lets me fill in the gaps. I was shocked to learn that she knows which coins are which. She can pick out a quarter, a dime and a penny. She doesn't seem to care too much for a nickel. She should know these items well because she is always digging through my billfold and change purse. She loves "money". Who knew it would begin at 22 months of age? She is also beginning to put sentences together. For instance, she accused me of putting soap in her eyes during Friday evening's bath ("Momma soap eyes, Chloe cry"). Of course I didn't put soap in her eyes. She helps shampoo her hair and then promptly takes her soapy hands and rubs her eyes. But, I am the mother and I get the blame. I love how all of her first sentences are so accusatory and all aimed at me. Her very first 2-word sentence was one to cherish, "Momma's mean".

In an effort to get so much of the focus off me and to socialize outside the momma and Chloe circle of pals, Chloe begins the Little Gym tomorrow and we begin swim lessons at the local YWCA on Friday. I also joined the Newcomer's Club in our city. We are also getting to meet more of our neighbors as they stop by to introduce themselves. We discovered in this grass-obsessed city that people will come out to see what you are up to when you do any garden or lawn work. Of course, maybe they came out to see if my husband was making a joke at their expense when he found the little orange cones I used to teach a children's golf camp one summer and placed them around the perimeter of our yard.

My aplogies that I have no photos with this post. I will take some of Chloe and publish them with our next posting.