Pool's open!

Memorial Day Weekend. You know what that means. The pool is open! Woohoo!
OK. So we don't have a pool. But we do have the access key to a pool at the neighboring apartment complex. Don't tell anybody.

Lucius was beside himself with excitement.



And it was reaaallly cold.

Lu likes to copy the big kids.

He did a great job jumping in the water.



He even put his head in the water!

Did I mention how cold it was?


Being cute in the bathtub.

Obama!

So I dragged Lu to Wesleyan's Commencement today. For those of you that haven't heard, Barak Obama gave the commencement speech, filling in for Ted Kennedy. Yes folks. That's what $47K/year gets you!

This is the hill we sat on. Foss Hill...where the undergrads drink beer and smoke doobies...or so I've heard.


Here's a shot of the field where the graduates (in red) and their families sat. This is as close as I got. That big terrace thing is the "stage" and all of the faculty and higher ups sat behind it. And if you look closely at the rooftops you can see snipers. The Secret Service were all over the place. Man, are those guys sharp dressers or what?



It's Obama! Do you see him? Do you see him? Man, I need a zoom lens.
Click here if you want to see better pictures and hear his speech in full.


This is what Lu was doing during Obama's speech.

Stroller derby is much more exciting.

Anybody home? Those are two of Lu's friends from daycare. They had much fun together.

My time at Wesleyan is coming to a close. What a great few years it's been. It seems like I just got settled here and now it's time to move on.
(My office is in that building all the way to the right behind that tree.)

Things are happening...

The contracts for the house are signed, sealed, and delivered. House inspection is set for June 2nd.

And for some really exciting news...Tom passed his licensure exam!!!!!!!!!!! Go EPPP!!!
That means he's one step closer to being able to practice as a clinical psychologist. He still has to 1) pass the CT state exam 2) transfer his license to NJ 3) take an oral exam 4) pass the NJ state exam and 5) pay a ton of money to someone somewhere. Whew. Who knew being a clinician took so much and so long.

We bought a house?

Well, I think we bought a house this weekend. We went to NJ Wednesday night and spent Thursday and Friday looking at houses (we saw about 20). On Friday night about an hour after our realtor dropped us off we called her back and said we wanted to put an offer down on a house. Fast forward to 1pm on Saturday while we're driving home, our realtor called us to say that the owners had accepted our offer! Wow. I'm surprised at how fast these things happen. Today (Sunday mind you) we got a call from a potential mortgage lender asking us about our offer. I guess that's just how things are done in the real estate business. Lock them in fast!
We still have to get the contract, put down a deposit, and then go through the inspection. Barring any unforeseen circumstances we'll settle on July 25th.
I'll hold off on posting pics until after the inspection. I don't want to jinx this! I'm trying to limit my excitement just in case the deal falls through...however, this seems pretty definite. The house has been vacant since December and the owners have moved out of state. I'm thinking that they want this house off of their hands! When they accepted our offer they also had to agree to pull the house off the market and not accept any other offers. We walked through the house twice and didn't see any major issues. Here's to hoping that the inspector won't find anything major as well! I'm also pretty confident that the assessment won't be lower than our offer price.
Fingers crossed!
Just some notes about the house...of course it was Tom's immediate first choice because it's friggin' huge. I honestly had no intentions of getting a house this big but Tom needs his space. I actually didn't like the house the first time we saw it. The garden is what started to change my mind. Now I love it. I'm glad that Tom got his first choice, now he can't complain about it!

Some house stats:
35 years old
4 bedrooms
2.5 baths
.25 acres with an amazing garden
about 1 mile from the university
needs updating but is definitely in livable condition

Happy Mother's Day!

My day was wonderful. I was given explicit instructions to stay in bed until 8:30a. Tom cleaned the whole apartment while I got to spend an hour reading.** Then I got a lovely breakfast in bed followed by a 32 lb monkey jumping on my back. I find it sad that he's in a size 4T already. Shouldn't that be for preschoolers?


**I randomly picked up "The Great Neighoborhood Book" from the library shelf thinking that is was a self-help book on how to make friends in your new neighborhood. But, oh no, it was much more than that. It was almost an introductory textbook on Community or Surburban Planning. It was fantastic. I highly recommend it. It motivated me to go outside and pick up all of the cigarettes butts that have littered our little yard all winter (damn those crazy college kids!). I highly recommend it.

When I paint my masterpiece

Lu loves to paint.

And eat it too. Yum.


And he loves being thrown in the air.


and rollin' down the hill.


And doing handstands.

KidCity

Instead of saving for college I decided to put Lu's birthday money toward a year membership to KidCity. Boy, did I make the right decision! That place is fun. I think that I almost had a better time than he did.

The air ball rat tail thingy.

The igloo in the fish market.


But the best part was that his BFF Connor was there!


The train table.

Oh, Lu's going to miss Connor. They roll around and wrestle all day at daycare. Their teachers call them little puppies...that's just how they act. The other day I had Lu in my lap and Connor came up and just gave Lu a big ol' kiss on the forehead to which Lu replied "Thank you Connor". Very cute.

Mr. Manners

Lu's turned into Mr. Manners. He says "thank you" for EVERYTHING. No matter how small. Plus, he always has to say thank you both me and Tom...even if one of us isn't there. In that case he just supplies his own "your welcome".

Lu: "Thank you, Daddy. Welcome. Thank you Mommy."
Me: "Your welcome sweet pea."
Lu again: "Thank you Mommy."
Me again: "Your welcome Lucius" and on and on and on.
It's actually quite sweet. He also likes saying "bless you". However, he only uses "please" if he really wants something and we're ignoring him.


I finally gave him his "packback" that he got for Christmas from Auntie Lisa. And he loves it. I love it too because it holds all of his daycare paraphernalia and he can carry it all by himself.

What have I done!

I think I made a mistake. It'll grow back, it'll grown back, it'll grow back...



Yup, that's right. I shaved his head this weekend. The poor thing developed some sort of rash all over his scalp, so in anticipation of the meds that I'll likely get from the doctor's I decided to shave his head to make it easier to apply. And in the middle of shaving, and with his fine baby hair falling to the floor, I realized that I had made a horrible mistake! What happened to my baby! Now I'm stuck with this toughy 2-year old.

Lu was great by the way. I asked him if I could cut his hair and he said "yep" and climbed into the chair. It must've felt good because he kept asking for more.





Daddy got his hair cut too!


It'll grow back, it'll grow back, it'll grow back...

Chuck E. Cheese

Two weeks ago Lu came down with the coxsackie ("which involves neither" as Tom likes to say). It was a little weird seeing all of the kids in daycare covered in a red rash.

Auntie Lisa got Lu the quintessential kid's toy -- Snoopy Snowcone Machine. He loved it.


Lu was invited to his first birthday party and it was at Chuck E. Cheese! Let's just say that C.E.C. wasn't as nice as I remember it.


The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round

All through the town!

Update! Update! Update!

Lucius peed in the potty this morning, on purpose! He said he needed to poop...he sat, and sat, and sat, and sat. Tom took him off to put his diaper on so we could go to daycare. Lu threw a fit exclaiming "Poop! Potty! Poop! Potty!". So, Tom put him back on the potty and about two minutes later Lu peed in it. Of course he'll tell you he pooped but really it was just pee. Woohoo!

No, I don't expect him to be potty trained anytime soon. But this is a start.

And he slept until 6:45a this morning! Light on and everything.

Oh, and definitely no more nuk. Hasn't used it since I last posted. Well, that's really because Tom and I took it away so it's impossible for him to use.

Update! Update! Update!

I'm happy to report that we're 24+ hours nuk-free. Tom and I decided to bite the bullet and take away Lu's pacifier cold turkey. The boy did AMAZINGLY well. I'm so proud of him. It's as if he was a drug addict going through detox. I've been telling everybody the great news.

The Firehouse

This week was 'Week of the Child' in Middletown. So we went for a tour at the Firehouse and saw Lu's artwork at the public library.
Lu was pretty shy at first. It took him awhile to take to the fire engines.



But he finally warmed up and drove the fire engine.


This was my first time at a Firehouse. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it more than Lu! The firemen were so nice. They told us about the different trucks they use.

They demonstrated the mask that they use.

We got a tour of where they eat, sleep, and watch TV. And they even slid down the pole for us!


Of course Lu had to slide down the pole too.






They had a table full of free stuff so Lu made out with a hat, coloring book, crayons, and a sticker badge.

Then we headed to the library where all of the kids from the local daycares and preschools had artwork hanging in the Children's room.


Mother Goose showed up for story time and some songs.


There was also a ton of crafts to do. Whew. What a fun morning.