Went to the river house tonight

Dave has been working on getting the river house prepped and ready to sell over the last couple days. The old flooded and rusty truck was finally hauled away by a salvage dealer. They gave us $150 for it. He hauled 500 pounds of garbage to the dump the other day, including the container we kept Abby's dog food in. The house actually listed today, and Gary said there is already somebody coming to take a look at it tomorrow. After the kids woke up from their nap we made a family trip and went to Menards to get some pieces of plywood to take to the river house and cover up the big holes in the floor boards. Since people will be walking through there and we want it to be less of a hazard zone. I was upstairs with the kids for most of the time. Violet was reallllly excited to go back to that house and walk around. Of course, it was freeeezing cold. I left the kids' hats and coats on and let them walk around upstairs while I moved some items from an old box to newer boxes. A big box of my life collection of trophies and awards was still sitting over there all muddy. The kids started fighting over the stroller that we had up there for Calvin to sit in, so that made my work go quicker. Violet was whining about her feet and hands being cold. Then she said she had to go poop. Great. So we were stuck in a house with no toilet. I thought quick and grabbed my diaper bag and looked in it. There were a couple disposable diapers in it. So...I unwrapped a clean disposable diaper and laid it in the toilet upstairs (which had a big block of ice in it, we forgot to drain that toilet so it cracked and broke....oops). I told her to sit on the toilet and poop into the diaper. HA! She thought that was just the coolest thing, so she did, and I wrapped up the dipe and told Dave to throw it in the burn pile outside that he had started. Calvin did his business in his diaper while we were there too. So apparently it wasn't the best timing! We didn't stay long there. Dave took me and the kids home so I could get them baths and right to bed. He went back to finish a few things. He just got home at 11 pm tonight. Earlier today I was coloring with Violet and I started writing down the things she was saying. I said to her "Violet, how did you get so smart?" She said "Because I'm so precious." and then went on with a huge run on sentence that was this "You can color with the blue one if you want to! I'll color dis part, ok? When you are done with dat part we can get a different page ok? Mommy, I need dat pen. I need dat pen mom. Tank you. *slightly slips off chair* Oh no! I almost felled. What is dat mom? Are you writing? Again?" It just never stops. She is a verbal waterfall and never stops talking and coming up with new words I never knew she knew and new concepts almost daily. I think she learns more in one month than ever, and then the next month passes and surprises me even more. She enjoyed having all her cousins here so much. She keeps randomly saying "I am sad for my cousins." I am trying to teach her when her birthday is. She obviously doesn't get the concept of weeks or months, but she can say January 20. She'll be three in just a few weeks! I want to have a party over at the trampoline gym. We'll see if that idea actually materalizes. Another thing I wanted to record and not forget: Tonight I was rocking with Violet in the blue recliner. She could see the front door in her line of view. As we rocked, the glass in the window sparkled as the light from the front porch sconce lights shone. She said "Mommy, the light in the window is rocking with me." and then later I turned a 180 in the chair so she could see the other direction. She caught a glimpse of the picture we hung over the fireplace, and said "Mommy! I like the new picture by the fireplace! It looks kinda like animals!" Calvin is terrified of the water running to fill up the bathtub. He was paralyzed with fear of the noise until it turned off, and like a lightswitch, he was a happy splashing kid in the tub after it went off. I thought he was just starting to hate bathtime, but I'm glad its just the sound of the water. He is much more sensitive than V to stuff like that. Loud noises, sudden bursts of light or sound, he freaks out. Like the beginning of the baby einstein videos - the moment that little caterpillar starts crawling across the screen with the music, he screams, he's so terrified. He prefers the hymns to the BabyFaith videos over the baby einstein ones.