Its been a week

and I feel like I have nothing to write about. Sure, there were funny things that the kids did, but I can't remember anything right now. Dave and Violet just left to go to Awana/Puggles and its just me and Calvin. I got him distracted by a few toys in the other room so I could sit down. We got a van yesterday. The lease on our current vehicle expires in 3 weeks, so we knew we had to act fast. As the time got closer and closer, I was starting to feel more and more claustrophic in that litte car - the car seats are so huge and bulky, nearly touching together in the middle even though they were both installed one each outboard seat. In our searching and reading consumer reports' reviews, we knew we wanted a Toyota or a Honda van, but they are really hard to come by in a decent price range. On Friday, Dave was searching through autotrader.com and found a new listing for a 2000 Honda Odyssey listed for $4900 in Cedar Rapids. Supposedly it was listed for 2 months at $7900, but it didn't sell, so they dropped the price to $5900, and just recently lowered the price to $4900. We knew it wouldn't last long at that price, so we made plans to go look at it yesterday. We were able to negotiate the price down to $4700 out the door, which means that includes tax, title, and license registration fees. That brought the price of the van down to $4300 plus all that extra stuff. Dave Ramsey would be proud that we got a deal and paid cash! No car payment any more!!! I'm so happy about that! I'm so glad Jay lives in Cedar Rapids. We left right after breakfast and Calvin took a nap in the car. We dropped our kids off at Jay's apartment and he watched them for 2 hours while we took the van for a test drive and decided whether or not to buy it. We were extremely impressed by the condition it is in considering how many miles it has on it. It has a lot of features we didn't expect a van that old to have, a CD player, auto climate control, remote-control operating doors, fold down and stow away rear seat, and spots for ALL five rear seating positions to have top tether attachments for car seats. I was particular about this, since I'm a little picky about how my kids' car seats are installed. The two captain's chairs in the 2nd row have attachment hooks underneath the seats, and the back 3rd row has 3 screw-in anchor bolt holes, and the bolt parts can be ordered and they hook onto the back of the cargo area. If we have any more kids, a car seat would have to go back there and I'd need that attachment point. Go Honda! We are both glad to have it. The finish feels nice, the doors open and shut nicely, they don't feel sluggish, and it smells clean - no smoking, yay! Dave went to the hardware store today to buy a power washer. So many things need to be cleaned. I swear, this crap from the flooding is haunting us. There is dirty flooded machinery all in the work shop area of the garage which Dave plans to get cleaned up, fixed up, working again, and try to sell. *sigh* I wish he would just scrap it all. There is also a huuuuge pile of cardboard boxes that I want to get rid of. I'm going to put them on the swap sheet or craigslist or something for free and see if we get any bites. If not, they're all going down the recycling tube at the recycling center. Speaking of recycling, we need to start recycling again. We had a whole system of bins at the river house - now we don't have that all set up. It would cut down big time on the garbage we are producing. Someday, I guess. Priorities. There is still so much to do. My tendency is just to plow through it and get it done but Dave wants to take it slower and do it right. I guess we balance each other out in that way. A totally separate topic, but it just came to my mind. It seems to have finally clicked with Violet to hold her pee at night and go in the toilet if she has to go. She's always woken up with a wet pull up every single morning for the last 5 months. Last night we put her to bed around 8 pm, and she was up clunking around the bathroom at 9:30. We are NOT used to her getting up after we put her to bed. Usually that is the end of seeing her until morning. But she had gotten up and went to the bathroom on her own, and was very proud to announce that she held her pee and went to the potty. She even woke up dry this morning - and went on the toilet as soon as she got up. I am so proud of her! Who knows if it'll stay this way, but I'm going to keep praising her and encouraging her to keep it up. She was immediately rewarded with gum...her favorite prize of choice. Calvin my little man is all over the place. He can't stand up in the middle of the room on his own yet, but he eagerly crawls over to anything to help him stand up, and he's a walking toddler. He can walk the entire length of the house, and even turn corners without help. Last night in the bathtub (I had both kids in there at the same time), I can only explain how he was with one word: a torpedo. He was splashing all over the place, nonstop crawling from one end of the tub to the other, tossing toys out of the tub, standing up and looking at them, so I'd throw them back in and he'd do it all over again. I just can't believe how active and secure he is in the tub. Violet was so annoyed with him. She is so sensitive and cautious - she HATES water in her eyes. She always screams "Eyes! Eyes! Towel! I need a towel!!" if she gets even a drop on her eyelashes. It is so hard to wash her hair and rinse it out without a screaming 2 yr old on my hands. She is in the habit of crying like mad after getting because she's cold, too. I dry her off as fast as I can and wrap her up in her bathrobe quickly, but she still loves to cry and complain. Not much else I can do to help that situation. Calvin is now sleeping comfortably in a crib. A friend of mine, Amy Knox, who I know from MOPS, said to me last week that her kids' crib was in their basement (her kids are 3 and 5) and I could use it if I wanted. She wants it back since her husband built it, but she said I was more than welcome to borrow it for as long as I wanted. I was like "yes! thank you!" so she came over last week and set it up for me. We got a mattress that very night so he could sleep in it. I am so happy for him!! He has been sleeping in a hard pack and play for the last 5 months and now I feel better that he is more comfortable. We put a soft flannel sheet on the mattress, and the first night he got in it, he was so happy. I don't know if he was happy about the mattress, but he was giggling and bouncing all over the place, and lately, he always happily goes to sleep. One slight view of that bed if he's tired, and he's reaching down to get in for a paci so he can konk out. Awww. I just got up to do something. And the whole time I've been typing this, he's been happily playing with random toys. I just walked past him and he caught one glance of me, and immediately started crying and hysterically crawling over to me. Nobody can comfort him but me! He is up against the glass on the french door screaming. Ughhhh. I think he's tired though. Its 6:30 right now, but 7:30 prior to the time change last night, and he sometime goes to bed at 7:30. I'll keep him up for another 1/2 hour or so. I hope he latches on to his daddy one of these days so I can get a little break. If I hadn't gotten up and interrupted his concentrated play time, I'm sure he wouldn't have started crying. I am working with him and some sign language. I've only concentrated on "more" which is hands together, but he responds with putting his hands together when I say "do you want more?" when I'm feeding him. He proudly claps! I need to try other ones.