Stay at Home Chaos

I have so many things I need to do that it isn’t funny anymore. I’ve been meaning to get around to updating pictures, which I’ll hope to do at the end of this post. Next week alone, I have so many plans. I need to study for a test, take a pre-test to further prepare me, then take the test. Also, I need to schedule my yearly woman exam that I was supposed to do in May but I didn’t want to because I was just there last in March. I need to stop putting it off. Then I need to take Ory for his 2 year check-up, and the week after, Kiki goes to her 6 month check-up. Next week is Ory’s birthday! I also take a test that day. That’ll be a fun day. I need to order his cake already. Then, when all that is for me to do, we also plan on refinancing our house to see if we can get a lower rate. We also need to get around to hiring an electrician for our recalled dishwasher and a chimney sweep for our dryer ducts. We’ll also be starting on potty training with Ory soon after his 2nd birthday.

Aren’t we a bundle of fun? Anyway, the kitten is adjusting well. Oreo is the only one who still doesn’t approve, although he approves more than he originally did. WALL•E still tries to chase her. The kids chase her. WALL•E stops if you tell him to stop. The kids do not.

We ordered a new highchair for Kiki. It’s wooden and matches our table. It’s adjustable for toddlers too. I’m hoping it solves the problem we endure of toddlers running rampage at the dinner table and spare my food from future snatching. Kiki starts her solids in 2 weeks. We’re going to get her a playpen, which we’ve never owned, so she can have someplace comfortable to lay outside. She absolutely hates the grass and won’t stay on her blanket. The kids are absolutely loving the outdoor playset and sandbox. They throw such a fit if you don’t want to go out because its deathly hot outside.

Anyway, here are the promised pictures before I drag this post longer than needed.

For the fourth of July, we went and saw some fireworks. We went to the same spot we went to last year. When we got out of our car, Evie grabbed my hand and lead me to the car next to ours, while Ory took off with Tim. Evie told them, “Hi! This is my Mommy!” Then she pointed at Tim with Ory, “There is my Daddy.” When asked her name, she didn’t answer. I don’t know how to get her to say her name. I still can’t get her to say she’s 3 years old. She’s still 2, according to her.

We went to the ragdoll breeder Saturday morning. I go inside and see all the kittens playing around. They bring out the one previously picked. Somewhere along the way, I saw a blue mitted kitten. It was brought up how we originally wanted a blue mitted but they weren’t expecting any. The breeder was shocked that she forgot about that. Her daughter remembered me mentioning it. She was born in the same litter as the other one, but they weren’t expecting any blues. She came from a diluted gene and she still wasn’t adopted. Guess which one I ended up leaving with? I now have a pretty blue mitted ragdoll kitten! She is adjusting well. She hates being put in her room at night (for her safety) and absolutely loves me. For the time being, loud noises scare her as does fast movements (such as small children). Spirit loves her. She’s afraid of WALLE. The kids startle her a lot. She’s warming up though and is very playful.

In other news, my sister is officially divorced from her 2nd husband that she split with 2 years ago. The play set is 100% done with. The sand is added to the sandbox and everything. Ory’s birthday is in 1 week! No idea what we’re going to do on it yet though. I need to order a cake and get some wrapping paper and cards still. We took Evie to the zoo for the first time on her 2nd birthday. Evie’s new dresser is finally in her room. We still need to put her mirror up. It’s a monster mirror. Tim and I have different views of how to hang it. His version is “put a nail and hang it.” My version is “use a hook so it won’t slip off.”

There actually has been lots going on. Lack of time has lead to my limited updates lately. I’d love to post some pictures, but Tim has them all on his phone. He isn’t exactly good about handing them over either. Tim ordered me a new iPhone so I can take my own higher-quality pictures. The typing is easier on the newer version too, which will help me because I’ve always had issues typing on it.

Right now, Evie’s favorite thing is to either watch The Aristocats, or go play on her playset. Ory’s favorite thing is to play in the sand. Tim’s favorite thing is to use his grill for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My favorite thing is to play The Sims 3, Spore, or work on my tree (I pick from the three when I get my alone time).

As previously mentioned, Tim went and bought a play set for the kids. He worked on it Sunday, a little Monday, and some more yesterday. Yesterday, he put in the floorboards for the upper level. He put the kids up there with him. I went out to find them up there and he informed me that Evie had already jumped off of it once. She was fine, so we let them stay up there with him. Ory isn’t that silly. I go back inside. A bit later, I hear Evie screaming something awful wanting her Mommy. I go outside and she’s on the ground and I just know what happened. We bring her in, she wants a sticker. I go grab a bandaid and ask her where she wants it, which, by the way, is a great way to figure out what hurts. She pointed at her ankle. Around that time, she calmed down and Tim got on the phone with his parents.

After he got off, we tried to get Evie to walk on her foot and she wouldn’t do it. It was off the ER! She got right in as the waiting room was empty and she started screaming something awful when she seen where I was taking her. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned, but she’s a doctor phobic. After telling a million people what happened. she got an x-ray, some motrin, and wriggled her way out of a splint. Her final diagnosis is a sprained ankle. Believe me, that is the short version. She needed held down through all of it. She got a teddy bear by the end of it with a pretend bandage that she kissed all better. She was a terror in the beginning, but calmed down unless someone touched her. We left after 8:00 pm and got some dinner at McDonalds. I was going to get her ice cream, but Tim asked me to bring Ory home something so I scratched that plan. She asked for a ‘cheese’ anyway.

To make yesterday even more interesting, I have never been harassed at home so much in my life. I had a call from the portrait studio wanting us to take more pictures, ADT people wanting to put a sign in our yard (in which I pretended not to know anything and was un-allowed to make such decisions, and lied about my husband being home), some guy selling strawberries, and some boy wanting donations for his education fund to be an EMT. I liked the young man and the portrait studio people. Tim dealt with the strawberry guy by telling him he isn’t interested and shutting the door. The ADT guys were plain annoying.

Also, our neighbors with children our kids ages moved back to Minnesota. I’m kind of depressed about that. Evie’s future husband and Ory’s future wife are gone! One of Tim’s coworkers moved with his small daughter a couple years ago, taking away Evie’s BFF (even though they never met).

Father’s Day was yesterday. It started with Evie running into the bedroom screaming and climbing into bed with me. Evie has new bedroom furniture, so I’m unsure if that was the reason or not. Ory has been waking up every night since being moved into Evie’s old toddler bed. It hasn’t been fun. So Evie climbed into bed with me, and laid in my spot. Keep in mind we have a king-sized bed and no one else was in bed. Evie was laying right in the middle of my pillow with me falling off the bed!

Around 10, Tim went and got me up because he just had to go to Costco and buy a play set that we’ve been eying for a while now. We was going to buy it online, but they stopped selling it right when we decided to. Then Tim saw it at Costco when he went to get mattresses for the bunk beds for $400 cheaper than what we was going to spend on it, without shipping to top it off! Win!

So he went and got it. He rented a u-haul to get it home. It came in 6 boxes. We spent yesterday putting it together. By putting it together, we mean that the only thing put together is the ladder, rock climber, and a picnic table. The base of the actual play set has barely been touched. It said it would take 2 adults 10-12 hours to assemble and even came with an instruction DVD. It might take us longer. Especially because Tim has to do a lot of it by himself because I need to tend Kiki.

In other news, Duchess comes home on July 3rd. We’re considering camping up near a lake that is close by to the breeders the night before just to make the trip into an interesting visit. But we need some sleeping bags and other camping gear first. All we have is a tent and some coolers. That just isn’t enough!

Frustration is common in a house with small children. Ory is a monkey and has reminded me he’s turning 2 years old soon. He’s being especially evil this week. I’m extra frustrated today. After dealing with Ory’s antics yesterday, which were much worse than usual, Tim has decided to join the ranks of making Mom mad.

You see, Tim has a tendency to do specific behaviors that is most annoying and frustrating. One of these behaviors is when he has to pick who to make mad at him, he always picks me. I’m tired of being mad at him because he decided he would much rather disappointment me or frustrate me than whoever the other party is. It’s typically either his parents or his work, but there are other people too. When we go out to eat as a group, I typically vote for Chinese food and he votes for Mexican. I don’t like Mexican and he doesn’t like Chinese. He wins 95% of the time. I recall winning once when we happened to have an asian girl with us. Her opinion mattered, you know.

Another thing he tends to do is not tell me anything until the last minute because he knows I’ll disagree. This goes along the lines of back when I was pregnant with Evie and went to visit his parents in Ohio. He promised me there would be no party or anything of the sort. We got there, and guess what there was? A party. He knew about it. He didn’t tell me until right before so I would be unable to do anything about it. This happened again the second time we were going to go, except I got an invite in the mail about said party and was upset at finding out that way. Tim told me that just his grandparents would be going, and after I talked with his Mom, I learned that it wasn’t the case. I still don’t know whether he was trying to deceive me or not.

Today is a good example of both bad behaviors. Yesterday, he told me he had a meeting today at 9:30 am that he had to attend. He asked if it would be OK if he woke me up if he needed me. Well, yeah, it’s OK! What he didn’t tell me was that what he really meant is he had to go to work today and wouldn’t be home at all. This morning, he woke me up at 6:30 am, telling me he needed to go to work to attend that meeting. Yeah, he didn’t tell me until half an hour before he would be leaving. I was angry. He knew he had to go to that meeting and didn’t tell me yesterday. He didn’t even tell me when the meeting was first set. Mostly, I was mad that he waited until then to tell me because yesterday I scheduled furniture to be delivered this morning because, you know, Tim would be home. If I had known yesterday, I could’ve scheduled it to be delivered this evening because it was a curbside delivery. This infuriates me. I make plans around his schedule and he’s lying about his schedule. I told him he isn’t sorry yet, but he would be if he left. He left.

He told me he’d drive to work so he could come home early. He said he’d stay at home tomorrow instead. I could care less if he stays home tomorrow. I don’t need him tomorrow. I needed him today, not tomorrow. Well, I texted him a question about a new bedding set I was considering getting Ory (Cars or Toy Story because there is no toddler-sized WALL•E). He said Toy Story. Considering he answered me quickly, I asked him if he was in his car or on the train. He was on the train. That means he did not drive to work and he will not be home early. The earliest he can leave work now is one hour before usual. That means still 5.5 hours after the latest the furniture delivery will show up. He lied about driving to work. He changed his mind about staying home last night after I went to sleep, and he changed his mind about driving to work within 30 minutes of waking me up and didn’t tell me until I asked. I’m very mad at him right now.

I asked him what about the delivery. He told me to get them to put it in the garage. Problem. Last weekend I told him to clean the garage out, particularly the large boxes that need cut up and taken into recycling (which I’ll end up doing because he never cuts up large boxes and they stay in the garage for months, just like the cans he ‘recycles’). 1/3 our three car garage is unusable. One parking spot is taken. So he told me to move that car out of the garage and put it there.

I moved that car. I’m now wondering if I’ll ever get that space back. The delivery guy came and went at 9:30 am. There was 9 boxes, we only counted 8. The 9th was missing, but we also noticed that the two bunkie boards were taped together. We think that is 8 and 9. If we’re missing a box, he told me to call the delivery company and see if we can find it. There was one Disney box but it had a different address on it, so we don’t know what that goes to. We’ll see if it all works out. Ory and Evie ran in some puddles while the delivery guy left the stuff in our garage.

I’m still mad at Tim. Yesterday, I reminded him that Father’s Day is Sunday. He made a last minute order for his dad. It’ll get there Saturday with 2-day shipping. I wasn’t going to tell him at all because he relies too much on me for remembering dates and ordering presents for him. But I knew yesterday was the last day he could place a 2-day delivery and get it there in time, so I told him anyway.

Tim also took the taste-test last night. He didn’t taste a THING. That means he is taste-blind and I’m your average taster. He now has no excuse to not like vegetables because he can’t even taste the bitterness in them. It also explains his love of things that I find too strong to have too much of.

This deserves a post all of it’s own. Early last week, the downstairs toilet clogged. We didn’t know why. It didn’t help that Tim used it after I had informed him of the clog, and that Evie kept using it too. Plunging it didn’t help. I plunged it for a couple of days when it finally started flushing normally. Then Evie did her business in it and it wouldn’t flush again. Rinse and repeat this cycle for a week. Once, Tim said he definitely fixed it, just as I had said several times before. He thought he had it… Until Evie used it and it stopped working again.

Finally, Tim saw the source of the clog. A giant bouncy ball the kids got for Easter. We have two of them. One was in the toilet. Tim spotted the problem, and his brain started working right away. If only the water wasn’t in the toilet, he could reach the ball easier and pull it out! Now how would would drain the water from the toilet… That’s it! He flushed the toilet. And down went the ball. The brilliance astounds me.

After some persuasion, Tim agreed to remove the toilet. He didn’t want me calling a plumber for some odd reason, but he didn’t want to remove the toilet himself either. The thought of the cost of a plumber helped him decide. The last one was expensive.

Out came the toilet! Then we found the source of a leak we’ve been having. He went out to buy parts. Then we had to figure out how to get the ball out of the toilet. Several ideas didn’t work. At one point, I was taking a picture and was preoccupied in my own thoughts. Tim tells me he told me what his plan was at that point, but I heard nothing. My silence was supposedly taken as approval of his plan so he executed it. According to him, what happened next it my fault for not objecting to something I didn’t hear (and I don’t think he told me, either). He used a tool and PUSHED the ball that we could clearly see ‘loose’. Except it didn’t get loose. Instead, it went further back into the toilet where we couldn’t see it and it didn’t come out. When he told me what he did, I was again shocked by the cleverness of his actions. If you can’t pick up my sarcasm by now, you need to realize how irritated I was by this point.

After more fiddling, here is what worked. We poured water in the remove toilet. If the toilet wasn’t clogged, it would spill all over the floor. But it was clogged, so it stayed in place. We then proceeded to use the plunger until we heard a weird sound. We flipped the toilet over, and the ball was at the bottom opening, loose but too big to come out. We used a butter knife to pry it out. Problem solved! The toilet was put back into place and we haven’t had a problem since.

We think Ory put the ball in the toilet. Evie just doesn’t do stuff like that.

Back around Mother’s Day, I ordered Tim’s mom a present. I then got an email stating it would be shipping in 4-6 weeks, which was way past Mother’s Day and more like a Father’s Day present (and I don’t think Tim’s dad would like it!). Frustrated, I said I’d cancel it and Tim picked out a present by himself. Yesterday, I was contacted about the order I made back in early May and didn’t cancel. Guess what? It’s been backordered! It will ship at the end of September. My opinion on this? It all works out in the end. It should get there in time for my mother-in-law’s birthday! I guess she wasn’t meant to have it for Mother’s Day.

In other ordering news, the Disney bedroom set I ordered for the girls (also in May with a 6-8 week wait) will arrive tomorrow. I only paid for curbside delivery because it’s cheaper than having them haul it inside and set it up. I’m excited about it. There is a bunkbed, a dresser, and a mirror. It’s not really Disney’ish as it is princessy. I wanted the princess look, and it fit the bill. We still need mattresses and twin-sized bedding. Bedding doesn’t have to match, because Evie has accidents sometimes. If they matched, I’d need three of the exact same bedding to make sure everything looks the same! I’m not going to be that weird.

What I also got today was a PTC paper test. It cost $3 on Amazon for 100 strips. I only need a couple. A PTC paper test lets you know whether or not you are a bitter taster or not. I took my test while on Web cam with my sister. At first, I didn’t taste anything, so I was thinking that perhaps I just wasn’t a taster. Then I tasted a little of something. The moment I tasted something, it got really disgusting really quickly. I had to rinse my mouth out. Very gross! I could taste it for about an hour afterwards. Tim is going to take one when he gets home.

Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary. Tim got me a real wedding ring set, and I gave him a tent to go camping in. It’s a really large tent. He put it up yesterday and took it down. We considered making a last minute camping trip, but since we’ve never been on one, we don’t have the right stuff, so we’re not going to. Instead, we plan on going to the beach this weekend. We haven’t decided which beach, but a beach we will go!

While I was making lunch, Tim and I were talking about slider hamburgers. This influenced Tim to go order some slider burger kit from Amazon, and a burger patty presser of some sort. I immediately got irritated. I informed him he should know better and told him to make himself some hotdogs. While outside, I got on his computer and canceled his order. Why? I’ll get to that. I then go into the office, with a grudge, and come out with Tim’s Father’s Day presents. The exact same things Tim ordered on Amazon. He always does that.

After nap time, we went over to our neighbors moving yard sale. They move after Father’s Day. The kids played together while Trish oogled over Kiki. They have a son 9 months older than Evie and a daughter 1 month younger than Ory. We helped a little to put their stuff back in the garage, but not too much. They gave Ory some Cars shows which he can fit later. Ory was wearing a car shirt and kept migrating over to her sons Car chair, so it was fitting. They also gave them each a teddy bear, and watched Evie throw a tantrum when it was time to go.

Evie screamed all the way home. When we got to the door, she took off. I had to chase her down. She went by the side of the house, to the park out back, and sat on the bench exclaiming how she was right where she wanted to be. I dragged her back to the house, forced her inside, through the living room, through the play room, and right to the backyard, where she was instantly happy again. We both win!

PS. Thanks for the e-card!

Children can be very demanding, difficult, fast, and amusing, plus a whole other sort of things. In the amusing aspect, Evie gave me one of her toy teacups yesterday with a plastic egg in it. To make the best of things, I thanked her for the eggnog and took a sip. She insisted I have another cup. Today, for some odd reason, Evie wants to watch Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. She’s never wanted to watch this. It’s something I might turn on when I realize they aren’t paying attention. Typically, I have to turn whatever I’m watching off because they don’t hear any music about puppies and rainbows. Anyway, she keeps pointing out all the chock-o-lit, putting special effort in each syllable. Then she points to her small fleece blanket that used to be mine, “Chocolate!” I don’t get it. She does it again, points and exclaims “Chocolate!” Then I get it. Did you realize the color brown is chocolate? Red, orange, green, chocolate, purple…

On the other hand, Ory is fast, clever, and difficult. He’s also very cuddly and a kicker. He can now climb absolutely any cabinet. He was sitting up there with the cat food. He has gotten the paper towels on more than one occasion. He has dumped out the baby water twice, making a nice waterfall in our kitchen. And he does this oh so quietly. Yesterday, he decided to start putting small items in his mouth and spitting them out. He thought this was fun because I saw him put a wooden block in his mouth and made him spit it out. Now he’s doing it on purpose. He also put one of Evie’s Polly Pocket’s shoes in her milk. I didn’t notice this, but after Evie took a drink, she noticed.

No shoes were swallowed in the making of this post.

Ory went missing yesterday. He has a special ability when it comes to vanishing, as he’s always right in front of you and you just can’t see him. I don’t know how many times I’ve asked Tim, “Where is he??” when he wasn’t even realizing I was looking for him. “He’s right there, on his firetruck sofa.” is the typical answer. I always look there first now. That isn’t where he was yesterday. I looked, I called, I looked. I sat down on the couch to look around from a centered position, as I know he has to be right in front of me. Any ideas where he was? Laying down on the changing table quietly waiting to be changed. That rascal.

The other day, I was in the office playing Spore when Ory started crying from the bathroom. First thought was where “Where is Tim? He’s supposed to be watching him!” But this is Ory we’re talking about here. He was born with a stealth gene. After a couple of seconds and no sound of Tim, I pop up to go investigate. Poor Ory. I found the poor boy stuck in the toilet. You see, he’s been practicing sitting on the toilet. He always does this when I clean the litter-box or wash my hands. Apparently, he didn’t realize it wasn’t an easy thing to do with both the lid and seat up, which I’m assuming he put them that way. So Ory was stuck in the toilet with his arms and legs over the sides trying to climb back out. I pluck him up and Tim shows up and scolds him. “He fell butt-first in the toilet because of practicing and you’re MAD at him?” Shame on Tim!

I’ve come to this conclusion many times. Kids want to harm themselves and consistently test their parents to make sure we still want them alive. Ory is so sneaky though. Evie was never this sneaky. I always knew where she was! Where on Earth did Ory get this terrible ability to vanish?