So long Cincy

First things first. I would just like to say that last night Sophie may not have slept through the night -- but I did. And it was glorious. The reason I say she may not have is because I really don't know. I decided a few nights ago that enough was enough and I kicked Ethan out of his bedroom (which is the farthest from ours and our neighbor's bedroom) and moved the pack n' play in. The result? With the doors closed, and a fan on in our room, I can't hear a thing if she's crying. Isn't that wonderful? I only wish I had done this sooner. The first couple of nights I fed her around 11 and then I woke up around 3 in the morning and (because I couldn't hear anything) I went to check on her and sure enough she was screaming. So I fed her and she went back to sleep. Last night, however, I was just plain tired. Nearly 6 months of not getting enough sleep must have finally caught up with me, and after I fed her at 11 I went to bed and did not wake up until morning. When I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 6:30 I kind of freaked out and ran to check on her thinking she would surely be screaming and hungry -- but she was still sleeping! And when she finally woke up around 7, she was in a delightful mood. I'm so glad that with only 2 weeks left here, Sophie has finally started cooperating with me!

Although I guess it is kind of a trade off because now that Ethan has to share Grace's room, not a whole lot sleeping is going on in there. Here are the 3 most often voiced grievances from Ethan since he has moved in.

"MOM, Grace is bugging me!"
"MOM, Grace is hurting me!"
"MOM, Grace won't stop talking to me!"

It seems as though Grace is incapable of falling asleep when there is someone else around to be her audience. We have finally solved the problem by letting Ethan fall asleep in our bed and then moving him into Grace's room once they're both asleep. Its just easier that way. Otherwise we're dealing with them coming out of their room and keeping each other awake until 10 or 11 at night. And I don't know about the rest of you, but by about 6 o'clock at night I am ready to be done with being a mom for the day. The sooner there is peace and quiet in the house for the night, the better.

In other news, we were super excited this week to find out that Scott has received a full-time job offer with P&G for when he graduates next year! So, come next summer we will more than likely be heading right back here. Which is great. We've really liked it here. So, in honor of us only having 2 more weeks here, I thought I'd make a list of all the things we'll miss here in Cincinnati once we're gone. Here they are in no particular order:



The Children's Museum



This would probably be number one on Ethan's list. I think he could probably spend all day here and be happy. As long as he was out before it closed. Because as I discovered when we went last week, he FREAKS OUT when they come over the loudspeakers announcing that it will be closing in 15 minutes. I mean, FREAKS OUT. I was trying to get Sophie and Grace buckled up in the stroller so we could leave, and Grace was being her usual uncooperative self and not listening to me. So I started to walk away knowing she would follow, but Ethan was so scared that she was going to be left behind and locked in? Or something? That he kept half-screaming, half-crying to me not to leave her, all while he was trying to decide whether to physically grab her and drag her to the stroller or run out of the building before it was too late. I finally got Grace buckled in and we take off and Ethan was literally running in front of me crying and yelling at me to hurry even though I kept trying to tell him that we had more than enough time to get out and even then we weren't going to get stuck inside. Oh well, I guess I'll just make sure that we never go near closing time again.

Here he is while he was still having fun.


And here's Grace -- always having fun.

What the bunnysauce?


Playing in the little store.

The Walgreens


Yes, I'm serious. There's just something about a Walgreens. I love them. They are by far my favorite drug store. Yes, I have a favorite drug store. Growing up we had one close to the house and we used to go there all the time and spend hours there. Okay, maybe at least AN hour there. We still affectionately call it Mallgreens in our family. This particular Walgreens is significant also as being where we picked up Scott from his bus stop for most of the summer.


The Park


The sad thing is we just barely discovered this park and the kids LOVE it. Especially the swings. And I was pleased to discover that Sophie is the only one of my babies who does not freak out in the swing. In fact she really likes it and starts to squeal and laugh when you push her high.








My Walking Trail

Enough said. I even tried training for a 5K on this trail. Until I decided that I'm too tired to try that right now in my life. Maybe now that I'm sleeping through the night...


The Cheesecake Factory

This would most likely be my personal number one on the list. I LOVE this place. I am so sad that when we get back to Utah there is not a single Cheesecake Factory in the entire state :( I know this because I've already looked it up online. We're going to squeeze in one more trip before we leave and that will have to be my fix until we get back next year.


The Mall

Lame I know. But I thought I'd look even lamer taking a picture of the mall for a visual here. So suffice it to say that I will sorely miss this place. It has pretty much every store that you could ever want to go in and then some. Grace likes this mall, too.


Mariemont

Knowing that we will most likely be coming back here next summer, I've enjoyed looking around at houses the last week or so. But apparently I have really expensive taste. Because when I found this area I fell in love with the feel of the neighborhood. All the houses are just so cute and the streets are just so charming and apparently a lot of people must feel the same way, because everything for sale here is just a LITTLE out of our price range. Okay, A LOT out of our price range. But a girl can always dream, right?


The Dairy Corner
Enough said.


Graeter's

A newly found favorite. As in we just went for the first time this weekend and I'm wondering why the heck we hadn't gone before. The ice cream is delish although a little pricey.

Enjoying a treat.

An Income

Okay, so I don't have a picture for this one. But it will be missed nonetheless.


Thunderstorms

I LOVE thunderstorms. Thats one thing I miss the most about home (New Orleans) having been out in the west for so long. Its been nice to have good rain storms here all summer long.



In other news, Ethan is officially better at directions than I am. We've been driving around looking at houses a lot lately (me and the kids that is) and the other day we were in a new area and I was trying to back track our way to the main road, and as I'm passing the turn I was SUPPOSED to make, Ethan pipes up from the back seat (in a tone of pure exasperation) "mom, we're supposed to turn THERE." I guess I'll just count on him to be my personal GPS from now on. I'm so glad he did not inherit my lack of direction sense. Another thing I'm glad he didn't inherit is my general laziness. This boy has one incredible work ethic. Give him a wet washcloth and tell him to go wipe down the walls in his bedroom and he is in heaven. I am so glad I have at least one child who likes to clean.

Grace is a songbird. When she's not talking she's singing. I am AMAZED at how quickly she learns the lyrics to songs. And while "Annie" continues to be the soundtrack of our summer, she has also learned most of the songs in every other DVD they've watched this summer. During sacrament meeting today, I'm sitting there when I realize that she's quietly belting out the audition song in "High School Musical." Come on, you can admit that you've seen the movie and know exactly which song I'm talking about. You know, the one that goes "this feeling's like no other, I want ya to know..." I have to admit that I had a hard time keeping Grace from seeing me laughing so she wouldn't be encouraged to continue when I told her to be quiet and stop singing.

Sophie has entered the brave new world of solid foods this week. Here's a picture that Ethan took of me feeding her rice cereal for the first time. Sophie is a fan of food.



As for me, I've been staying busy with taking care of the kids and getting ready for our move back home. Oh and devouring the entire Harry Potter series. I should be embarrassed to admit that I neglected my family for about a week and half while I read books 1-6 in preparation for the 7th and final volume. I know that I jumped on the bandwagon a little late here, but I LOVED them. I don't know why I didn't give these a chance sooner. But then again I'm glad I read them later because I could just read them all in a row without having to wait for the next one to come out. Well, except for this last one. But at least this wait was only about a week.



Well, thats about all folks. I'll close with 2 more quick lists.


Things I WON'T miss when we go back:
The NEIGHBORS (need I say more),
Scott's 30 minute walk to the bus stop in the morning,
having 1 car in a sprawling city,
our couch,
air mattresses,
and the kids' complete and utter dependence on television


And finally Reasons why we can't wait to get back:
our FRIENDS,
all my kitchen stuff,
routine,
2 cars,
school schedule,
a REAL bed,
no downstairs neighbors,
and free babysitters (thanks in advance, Laura and Uncle Jesse, I mean Freddie. hahaha)

Until next time...

Ice cream, fireworks, and a little more Annie

I haven't gotten around to putting together a Top 10 list of reasons why we've really liked Cincinnati this summer, but when I do, the Dairy Corner will surely make the list. It's this cute little ice cream place that's right down the street. We went there as a family last Saturday and have made a couple more trips since. It's an old school, hole-in-the-wall type place that only accepts cash. And oh yeah ... it's crazy delicious.

Yummy!

How not to eat an ice cream cone.

I don't think "Great Taste" referred to the label, Grace.

The 4th of July was really great. A BYU MBA alum who works with Scott at P&G invited us over to his house for a BBQ with a few other people from work and church. It was really nice to get out of the apartment and sort of see what could be down the road for us in a few years. There were kids everywhere and the absolute BEST salmon I've ever had. Trent (the BYU alum) had just gone fishing the week before (oh, in ALASKA) and he shared a bunch of the fresh salmon and halibut he caught. The kids absolutely loved it. Ethan brought his "new" bike and rode it around the cul-de-sac all night and both Ethan and Grace really loved their sparklers. Well, Grace loved the sparkler until she grabbed the wrong end of the sparkler and gave herself a nice blister burn on her hand. In typical Grace fashion though, she was fine 10 minutes later and showing it off to everybody. Sadly, no picture. But we do have other pictures, first of us on the way to the BBQ and then of the kids with the sparklers, pre-burning incident.

So Grace decided to further blur the lines between fantasy and reality by becoming Annie. Apparently being called Annie, wearing the same red dress every day for over a week and singing "Tomorrow" (which I have now downloaded for her off of iTunes) non-stop isn't enough. So Friday night, me and Grace stayed in while the boys went putt-putt golfing. Scott picked up some foam curlers for her hair. I wasn't entirely positive that they would work with her thin, scraggly hair, but we had a pajama party and we gave it a shot. She wanted "red, curly hair, just like Annie," but she had to settle for curly. Well, you can check the pictures yourself, but she sort of had to settle for sort of curly. Kind of a cross between Justin Guarini and Sideshow Bob, with a little Annie mixed in on the side.

BEFORE

AFTER

Ta-Da ... Annie (replete with "Sandy"), minus the hair on the left side of her head.

And here's Annie with Ethan

And we can't forget little Sophie. We've actually moved her into our closet now to provide even more of a "sound barrier" for the neighbors -- and it is working so far! Our little Supermuppet is starting to get a better sleep schedule ... during the day. However, thanks to the neverending cold that is circulating through the kids, she still wakes up all night and now has picked up an oh-so-attractive cough that would make a chain smoker cringe. She's still really cute though, even if she does wake up literally all night long.

I'm tired so I'm done. Harry Potter is calling my name. Don't ask ...