Whoa, Nellie!

I wrote last month about looking at motorhomes and attempting to put an offer in to purchase one and have it bought out from under us. Well, the first offer fell through and we were offered first dibs on the motorhome. So, we dove right in and purchased the 40ft. diesel pusher bunkhouse we now affectionately call "Nellie".

Nellie resided in Florida, Matt drove from Ocala to Tampa when he and Chloe were in Florida for Chloe's kart race in February. He first saw her in a downpour and she hadn't been cleaned or serviced. The original owners were just moving their stuff out and into their new motorhome.

We had looked at enough RV's at this point to narrow it down to what we wanted--a bunkhouse for the kids--and we had narrowed it down to the Winnebago brand after walking through many of their motorhomes.

Nellie fit the bill nicely. But, in the time that Matt left the RV dealer and talked with me on the phone about the motorhome, someone else swooped in and made an offer. Used, diesel bunkhouse motorhomes are hard to come by (that's one reason why we were looking in Florida), especially when you rule out one of the manufacturers who build bunkhouse models because we didn't like their floor plan/layout.

It was back to square one. Maybe we would wait another year.

Then, a week later we get a message from the dealership that the deal wasn't going to go through and did we want to buy Nellie?

We sure did!

We made the deal and officially purchased Nellie at the end of February. Since we were all planning on going to Chloe's next race in Florida, we made arrangements to fly to Tampa, take possession of Nellie and go through all the training and then drive her from Tampa to Orlando and camp in Nellie at the track for the race and then drive her back to NY.

The two weeks between closing on Nellie and actually taking possession had us excited but also worried that we hoped she was as nice as Matt thought she was. He had after all seen the motorhome when she was dirty and in the pouring rain. Ugh, we might have made a very large mistake with this very large purchase.

The 15th of March was Matt's birthday, we celebrated at home with the kids and then with a date night. Three days later, all five of us were on a plane headed to pick up Matt's birthday present, Nellie!

Chloe wrapping one of Matt's smaller birthday presents.

We landed, had to wait for the airline to tell us they forgot to put Emma Claire's car seat on the flight (thanks Un*ited for helping us feel like we made the right choice in buying a motorhome so we could lessen the amount we fly)  and wait for them to dig out a car seat we could use in the meantime (It took them 2 days after we arrived to get our car seat to us from NJ to Florida--two days. I feel sorry for the two guys whose golf clubs got misplaced with our car seat). We picked up our rental car and headed straight for Nellie.

The RV dealership we purchased her from is enormous. They sell a massive amount of RVs and motorhomes. The place is so large you have to travel by golf cart to see all the RVs and motorhomes in stock.

Going to get Nellie.

Oliver, Matt and Chloe riding out to where Nellie was parked. Emma Claire and I followed in the rental car.

Since the paperwork had already been done, we just had to inspect Nellie and go through our training. Our trainer took us out to where Nellie was parked, in the customer campground. And there she was....

She was clean, serviced and pretty impressive.

Matt made a good choice. She was nice.

Nellie at the service bays.

The kids claimed their bunks, we had our training on all the mechanicals and maintenance. We did our walk-thru for any items that needed to be fixed (there were a couple) and then we went to lunch while the minor repairs were made.

The kids love the bunkbeds with drop down TVs. Nellie has 5 TVs inside and one TV on the outside. I think that will do.

After lunch, the repairs and the tank was filled we hit the road for Orlando. Oliver, Chloe and Matt were in Nellie and I followed in the rental car with Emma Claire.

We set up camp at the Orlando track and headed out to grocery shop for the week and buy some Nellie necessities, like bedding, towels and toilet paper.

We spent 5 nights camping in Nellie at the track and we really enjoyed the experience and are looking forward to all the trips we will have with Nellie.

The kids on the drive back home.

Kicking my feet up and looking out Nellie's large windscreen at the Florida highway. I was actually the hostess on the trip, serving coffee, cereal, snacks and dinner.

After the race weekend came to a close on Sunday, we headed out of town to make our way back to NY. The kids were fully entertained and fed on the 19 hour drive back. Matt did the majority of the driving (17 hours) and I took over for two hours (maybe I made Matt a little nervous driving Nellie, she is a BIG girl). We stopped in NC overnight to sleep and made it back home on Monday evening.

Clever

Oliver came home from pre-school today with a drawing he made of me.

Not sure how I feel about the portrait of me.

One of the goals for Emma Claire is to learn and use a pincer grip. Normally Emma Claire rakes her food with four fingers, grabbing a handful and shoving it in her mouth or using this raking to pick things up. We've been trying to develop her pincer grip and Emma Claire's occupational therapist has been giving me ideas to encourage Emma Claire to use a pincer grip. One was to give her a snack with something she would really want and have to pick it out using her index and thumb. So, one day I gave her a snack cup filled with goldfish crackers and a couple of M&Ms. I quickly saw that Emma Claire wanted the M&Ms over the goldfish but she was still not willing to pick out the M&Ms out using her pincer. Instead, she enlisted the help of Flash the dog. I managed to snap some shots of the pair's symbiotic relationship--avoiding the pincer to pick out a particular object but each getting what they wanted.

A snack cup with something really, really good inside. I think I will shove my whole hand inside.

Hmm, I got some crackers. Not what I wanted. I will have to shove my whole hand in their again, take out a fistful and separate the two on the floor.

I am going to put these crackers on the floor and eat this M&M.

Here Flash, you can have these. I don't want them. I want the good stuff.

Cleaning up.

What a team.

19 Months Old

Photos I took of a very happy Emma Claire who popped up from her nap to tell me she was "ALL DONE!" napping for the day (and for the most part the evening). It had only been 20 minutes. *SIGH* It was just enough of a nap to give her crazy baby hair.

Emma Claire is 19 months old today. She's been home just over 7 months. The most noticeable change in the last month is that she has really started to babble and use words to communicate. Before she would just randomly say words, mostly pointing to body parts (eye, nose, etc.) and saying the words. Now she is using words in context as a way to get her point across.

Some EC stats -
19 months old
height: 30 1/4 inches
weight: 23 lbs. 8.2 oz.

I had begun taking a mommy and me music class with Emma Claire once a week but stopped that after one session. We have a physical therapist and an occupational therapist come to the house three times a week to work with Emma Claire on some gross and fine motor skills and it was a lot to have something four mornings a week for her. She still prefers her morning nap, albeit a short nap, and having that schedule interrupted three days a week was taking a toll. We will revisit the mommy and me class once Emma Claire has quit the PT services which should be soon.

One thing that hasn't changed has been the night time wakings. Emma Claire wakes anywhere from 1-70000000000 times a night (perhaps a little over-exaggeration but sometimes it feels like it). Our pediatrician told me "she's just not a sleeper" which was SO helpful. It's just unfortunate that the other 4 members of the family are sleepers. It does seem that she calms more easily when she wakes now and that I have to spend less time getting her back to sleep than a couple of months ago (looking or the silver lining). Hopefully sleeping through the night and during nap time is not that far off.

Defrost

Here we are into March and the snow still blankets the ground. We are all waiting spring's arrival. It seems hardly fitting that this weekend we move our clocks ahead one hour. What for? So we can have more daylight to work on removing the ice pack that blocks us from the barn?

Good news is that the next 5 days should be above freezing and maybe there will be some noticeable melting of the glacier in our yard.

This is the view as of today.

 

Who needs to lay a tarp to paint? I had a little craft project I wanted to spray paint and just threw it down on the snow to paint.

The view from the front door.

OVRP Banquet

This past weekend was the OVRP banquet for the 2013 race season. Chloe received two trophies, 2nd place in the OVRP Club Championship and 2nd place in the Northeast Rotax Region. Matt also received two trophies (which he shared with Oliver).

The banquet is also a luncheon and can go on for several hours. Oliver and Emma Claire lost interest pretty quickly after the plates were cleared. I spent most of the event wrangling a toddler.

The NE Rotax Regional Micro top 3.

The OVRP Club Micro Championship top 3.

Matt and Oliver receiving their trophy.

After the awards ceremony we invited 4 families back to our house for a get-together. There were 8 adults and 11 children total to who came back to the house. It was impromptu, but it turned out to be a great evening with our track friends. The kids played games in the basement and even had a soccer game in the barn while the adults talked the upcoming race season and other topics.

The evening really made us look forward to warmer weather when we can hang outside and hold some BBQs with our friends.

Ugh, Winter!

Remember how I said back in a post in January that the snow didn't bother me yet?

Times up. It bothers me.

In fact, it's really starting to p#%* me off.

Snow is fine IF the weather warms above freezing and it recedes/disappears. But, we haven't had any temps above freezing and we've had lots of snow fall which means the white stuff has stuck around in mass quantity.

And now there is more. Lots more falling.

Emma Claire sums it up best in this photo.

She's tired of the cold and snow and apparently of Mom trying to take a photo of her in the cold and snow.

Yes, we've reached that point--we're done with winter but winter is not done with us.

View of the backyard before we headed out. You can see the snow is up to the window sill on the barn and the patio table is just hanging on but the chairs didn't make it.

Today Oliver was off from school and we made plans with a neighbor to sled in the snow after the snow stopped. I geared the kids up and we headed out across our yard to the neighbors. Snow to my thigh. Like we decided to walk across Siberia.


Seriously, they look cute but cuteness doesn't keep you warm when you get snow in your pants. And, yes, Oliver is wearing Chloe's gloves which he insisted on wearing despite my protest in telling him they would get wet and cold--that's foreshadowing, BTW.

 After a workout, we made it to the neighbors for some sledding. Oliver doesn't like the sled. He prefers sliding down on his bottom. Do you see where this is going? Snow in every crevice and crack. After about 40 minutes (which was way longer than I thought he and his pal would last) we headed back to our house.

This is where the entire day went downhill fast.

The walk back home is not long, if there wasn't waist-deep snow. Take a young boy who is cold and snow-covered and we have a temper-tantrum brewing when he continually loses his balance in the deep snow and keeps falling. We made it back home--Oliver was covered in tears and vomit and I was sweating profusely from carrying two kids in what felt like a superior cardio-vascular workout.

Emma Claire, a little happier this time around in the snow.

Once we were back home Oliver retreated to his room to change into dry clothes and to calm down and then fall asleep for a three-hour nap. Emma Claire had a snack and then a nap. I went to tackle the snow on the beloved John Deere. But, alas, the snowfall was too much for the little tractor. I had to shovel it out every two feet. I did manage to cut a path straight down the driveway from the barn to the road only to find we were blockaded by a four foot wall of snow built by the snow plows clearing the street. Our mailbox was buried and I proceeded to uncover it to discover our electricity and gas bill inside. What joy it was to see that heating bill which had 4 numbers in front of the decimal!

I shoveled as much as I could making only a slight dent. I drove the tractor back up the driveway where it threw off one of its snow chains and would go no further. I tried to pry the chain lose and to get it back on to no avail. I decided to take a break and head back inside the house. As soon as I walked inside, Lizzie, our aging English Setter began to howl and bark at the commotion of the door opening and woke Emma Claire up. I got Emma Claire from her crib, carried her downstairs and held her and turned on the local news.

I nearly began to cry as the weatherman said this was only the first part of the storm. The second half would follow later in the evening. It seems the Nor'easter wasn't happy with the 12 inches of snow it just dumped on us and was circling back to give us 3-6 inches of snow, or maybe even 10 inches. We would have to wait and see in the morning. Just as I began to think I might lose it, the weatherman sent me over the edge with the news that another snow storm was coming Saturday morning and would bring only another 1-3 inches.

Matt and Chloe were in Florida and I was at home with a 1 and 4 year old being buried in snow. The tractor wouldn't budge and I couldn't figure out how to untangle the snow chains to get them back on the tire so it would move again. Even if I did, the best the tractor would do was head back to the barn because it wasn't handling the amount of snow on the ground.

I spoke to Matt on the phone. We discussed Chloe's racing (she's doing really well) and that we would like to take the plunge and purchase a Class A motorhome Matt had looked at in Florida the day before. I decided to call the sales rep. at the dealership in Florida to get the deal in motion. At least this was something exciting and something to look forward to---heading south to Florida to pick up our RV! I called the rep. told him we wanted to purchase the motorhome and he told me, "Sorry, it just sold." So, I am spending this winter's night buried in snow and looking at RVs online. Again.

Except now sleet is coming down and the light's are flickering. Maybe if we lose power it will cut our electric/gas bill? I mean, its not like I have anywhere to go or anywhere I can go - at least until I can flag down a plow to dig us out.

Looking forward to that balmy 50 degrees on Wednesday!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I think I get to spend most of the day shoveling out of 18 inches of snow! The kids were out of school two days this week for a pre-scheduled holiday (pretty good planning on the school district's part I might add because we are buried in snow and it would have been canceled).

I ordered/gathered all the supplies for the Oliver and Chloe's Valentine treats at school last month and then did my usual, forgot all about the supplies until Monday of this week when I realized that a)they wouldn't be in school on Valentine's Day and b) Chloe wouldn't be in Florida for any Valentine's party. With that knowledge I seemed to tuck away I packed a 24-pack of Pop Rocks in Chloe's suitcase for Florida (enjoy!) and that Oliver's pre-school class would be having their Valentine's celebration on Wednesday. That last tidbit was tucked safely away until I laid my head on the pillow at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday night--10 hours before the party.

Thanks to my 6 a.m. wake-up call from Emma Claire, I was up and at the Valentine's making on Wednesday morning.

The Valentine's Day treats from Oliver for his class.

The finished product--a shovel and M&M's. And, yes, I know Valentine's Day cards are a great opportunity for kids to practice their handwriting by writing their name and the name of each student in class but, I was short on time and the computer had to do it.

Soccer & Karate

Each Sunday Oliver has a soccer class. He loves it. The coach really engages the kids and Oliver is having a blast. It's his favorite activity. It makes me look forward to spring soccer. We switched Oliver's team as three of his pals in pre-school play for another team/soccer group. I hope Oliver keeps loving soccer and won't get too distracted being on the team with his favorite friends.


Oliver at soccer camp.

We also signed Oliver up for karate. His first class was this week. He looked so cute in his Gi. I was worried the first 5 minutes of class when the instructor started with having the kids do push-ups and mountain climbers and Oliver was standing there like,  "Say What?!". I instantly went into former teacher/classroom teacher evaluator mode and knocked on the window to tell the teacher/sensei,  "He's four, he doesn't know what those exercises are. You have to show him".

His class is supposed to be for 4-6 year olds. Those are some big six year olds.

As I sat there questioning the level of instruction at the school and "Googling" the nearest Kung Fu school (unfortunately it's over an hour away) my fears were calmed as a second instructor came in and the kids got more individualized and personalized attention and better explanations of what to do. Oliver did really well listening and you could see that he was beaming with pride that he was getting to do this "big boy" activity.

Before we had gone to class, he told me he didn't want to break a block of wood on his first class. I told him, they wouldn't make him do that on his first day. Color me surprised when towards the end of the class they pulled out the practice blocks. Oliver gave it his best shot (hey, it's only the first class) and he's adorable doing it.

At Home

While Matt and Chloe have been in Florida, Oliver, Emma Claire and I have been at home. Oliver isn't thrilled that Dad and Chloe are in Florida and he's "stuck with Mom and Emma" as he puts it. I've made a conscious effort to let Oliver pick some fun things to do while they are out of town. Of course, he picked my least favorite place on the planet, Chunky Cheese.

I find this place gross. I took the kids once last year, found the food inedible and the place a breeding ground for all sorts of viruses. So, when Oliver suggested we go, I was not thrilled but agreed. Armed with anti-bacterial hand wipes and a gallon of hand sanitizer we headed out to the local Chunky Cheese about 20 minutes away.

I was surprised. It wasn't bad, it wasn't good either. It was tolerable and the pizza was actually edible. Apparently all Chunky Cheese's are not alike. The one we went to last year was in NJ and this one was in NY. The NY establishment had it together. The place was clean, tables were cleared off and they even had people to assist and find you a table. Night and day.

We ended up staying for three hours. Oliver had a blast. I spent way too much money trying to get the kid enough tickets to buy something other than Fun Dip and Emma Claire even got in on the action by riding on some of the toddler rides.

The point was, Oliver had a good time and forgot he was in cold NY and not sunny Florida.



This is the way Oliver "drove" this game. Odd form, I know.

Emma Claire chillin' on the Barney train ride.

One of Oliver's favorites. I have to warn people not to play the skee ball machines on either side of him. He's a bit of a wild man with his throwing arm.

Brother and sister playing together.

Winter Tour & Race Season Planning

Chloe is racing this winter in the FWT which is a very competitive race series that draws racers from all over the Americas and even farther afield. She and Matt have been traveling to Florida to practice on the track in preparation for the fierce competition.

Chloe, with Chris, her tuner and driving coach, at Orlando last week.

She has missed some school, though it has worked out that their winter break coincides with this week's race. Chloe's teacher is very supportive and thinks it is awesome that Chloe races karts. I also think it helps that Chloe is a good student. Her lowest test grade this year has been a 97.

Oliver, Emma Claire and I have stayed at home. We do plan on going to Florida for the race in Orlando and making a visit to "the mouse" (which will be another post(s) because I seriously have never had a desire to visit and am trying to psych myself into it for my children).

We are hoping Chloe gets some good race experience at the FWT and enjoys the competition. This race season will have us traveling farther away from home as the plan as it stand right now will have Chloe racing in mostly regional and national events and less in the club race series.

Matt and I are still working out the schedule for Chloe's race season. We are waiting to see her reaction to the FWT and if she REALLY does want to compete in the tougher regional and national-level races. And since karting is really a family event - Oliver loves to go to the track as much as Chloe (though he doesn't want to get in a kart yet), we are making other plans so that we can all travel to these races together. Considering we are a family of five, have two dogs and that we also have to get Chloe's karts and karting gear to the regional and national races, we've began looking at Class A diesel pusher motor homes. We already have a travel trailer with a garage, but it isn't very comfortable loading the karts in the garage and loading everyone in the car and towing the trailer. We did this last spring when we went to Pittsburgh and it wasn't enjoyable. It was a lot of packing and unpacking and rearranging. And cramped. We feel a diesel pusher will give us the most comfort and towing capacity. We could use it to camp at a lake and tow the boat (something we can't do with the travel trailer without taking two vehicles-one to tow the trailer and one to tow the boat). So, we've spent many weekends looking at RV's and narrowing down our choices to find the floor plan that will work for our family. After this weekend's FWT race, we will determine if we will take the plunge and move up to the diesel pusher. It's no secret that I love a road trip, so the idea of having a motor home is the ultimate road trippers dream! The kids seem excited about it too, but we will see if it lasts when they realize that they will be in an RV from NY to Utah this summer and we won't be stopping at the golden arches because we have a refrigerator and can make food on the go.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face...

One year ago today, we saw the face of Sui Shi Wen. I documented our referral day here and here.

I can hardly believe it has been a year and its also been exactly six months since we returned home.

The first photo we saw and a photo from today.

And one of Mommy & Emma Claire.

More Snow

Perhaps it is that I have been busy settling in to the new house, but I don't seem to be bothered by all the snow fall and frigid temperatures this winter. But, it's not February yet. February is usually when I hit the wall with the snow.

Or maybe I am not as bothered by the snow because of our new toy, where we get to live out our dream of suburban farmers.

Yes, that was my husband you saw walking down Park Avenue to his office in the city wearing his John D*eere beanie cap. We're loving the new ride.

Even with all the snow fall, it wasn't until this week that the kids had their first full snow day. They got a four-day weekend. It wasn't until the 3rd day of the weekend that I started freaking out about the mess around the house and by the 4th day, I loaded the kids in the car as the snow started to fall and we went to the craft store to buy some items to create a new chore chart.

See the kids go from creating one mess to another and rarely pick anything up-which means we (translation MOM) search for "missing" shoes or end up cleaning up trash and discarded snack bags from the basement when we had planned on family movie night. Or, finding wet swimsuits and towels in the back of the SUV because someone just hops out of the car and doesn't bring their swim bag inside the house.

GRRRRRRRRR.....

So, to encourage Oliver and Chloe to do a better job picking up after themselves and to take more responsibility, all media time is now earned. I call it DMT (Digital Media Time) and it encompasses tv, iPads, Wii, Xbox, DS,  Facetime, Skype, texting, phone, etc. In order to get digital media time, the kids have to complete their chores and earn time when it is complete. Time can be taken away for fighting, arguing, whining, etc. When a task is complete, the popsicle stick with that chore is placed in the colored cup of the child completing the task.

Each chore is worth 10 minutes of DMT.

Chloe's tasks are in blue, Oliver's green. The red sticks represent things that can get DMT taken away in 15 minute increments. DMT can't be rolled over into the next day and some tasks MUST be completed before any DMT is given (i.e. homework).

We're day two into this new system. Day one had Chloe rushing to complete all chores so she could FaceTime during the two-hour school delay with her pals. She did great. Day one for Oliver didn't go so well. He tested the waters and wanted to see if I would really stick to my guns on this system. He didn't earn any DMT.

Today, day two had Chloe testing the waters and Oliver earning DMT like a man on a mission. As for mom, I am pleased with the new system. So far, so good.

Six Months!

It was six months ago today that Emma Claire ShiWen was placed in my arms and in only 10 days (February 1) it will mark one year since we saw Emma Claire's sweet face. Matt and Chloe will be out of town, but I hope to mark the occasion in some way with Oliver and Emma Claire, especially since it falls on Chinese New Year (January 31).

I can hardly believe that six months have past, especially when you consider that we have moved twice! This weekend we will have our six month post-placement home study with a new social worker (since we moved states).

17 Months Old

Emma Claire is 17 months old today. She's growing by leaps and bounds.

Milestones:

• Emma Claire started walking on her own just after Christmas. This is about the same age Chloe began walking too. She could have walked weeks before but she needed some extra encouragement and cheers from a house full of holiday guests to really spur her on. Now, she's all over the place with her monster walk.
• She crawled out of her crib before she could walk. I heard her crying one night, walked to her room and thought, "Wow, she's really loud and upset". I opened the door only to have it stopped by something in the way. That something was Emma Claire who managed to climb out of her crib and the crawl to the door. This was a pretty impressive feat and one we hope she doesn't repeat. Just to reduce the chances, we put her in a sleep sack at night.
• Once Emma Claire started walking, her language also started to develop more. She is much more communicative than a few weeks ago but we've also entered into the tantrum stage when she doesn't get her way.

Notables:

• Personality--Emma Claire has a spicy personality. She definitely knows what she likes and what she wants. We've no idea where she learned to make the most pitiful pouting faces but she does. Being redirected or told "no" will get the lower lip pushed out and/or the silent wailing cry and is lately accompanied by a shriek or loud crying. She is also persistent in getting what she wants.
• Even though she is walking, she will have enough of it by late afternoon (aka "the witching hour") and demand that she be held by Momma. Her timing is impeccable as it is usually while I am cooking dinner --chopping vegetables and boiling pots of water aren't the best place to hold a toddler. Trying to divert her or get her to play can be a challenge (see previous bulleted item).
• The girl likes to eat. Simple as that. She's never met a food she didn't like or didn't want to try. More times that naught, she eats more at dinner than her older sister and brother combined. Her favorite foods are still yogurt and bananas.

Emma Claire got her Certificate of Citizenship after Christmas too. We're working on getting a SSN and a NY state birth certificate. We are also scheduling our 6 month post-placement with our social worker. SIX MONTHS at home!!

Snow Days

Winter is here and even though the shortest day of the year is behind us and the days are getting longer, the snow is starting to fall frequently. Since the start of the holiday break, we've had three snow falls and bitterly cold temperatures.

We have a long driveway that goes nearly from the road to the back of our 1 acre property. The first snowfall took Matt over 2 hours to shovel us out. By the second snow fall, Matt had learned to step into the road and flag down a truck with a snow plow. The driveway is cleared in a matter of minutes!

Of course, there is still shoveling to do and Matt gets help from our zebra-helmeted oldest child who never seems to be fazed by cold.

I also have been informed of a valuable lesson by my two oldest children, snow days are even more fun if it means school is canceled because of it. The kids don't go back to school until January 6th, so the last few snow falls have prevented delayed openings and cancelations like our pals in NJ who started back just after New Year.

Wrestling/sledding in the snow in the front yard.

Something tells me we will have plenty more opportunity for missed school days thanks to the snow.