creamy deliciousness

Since we've only got less than a month left here in Sacramento, I'm trying to get the most of our time here and take advantage of the local jewels while we still can. I know, I know, everyone's all "In Sacramento? What?" I still don't think people believe us when we say this area kicks ass, but that's ok.  If it stays a secret a while longer that's probably not a bad thing.

Anyway, so the other night we all went to Gunther's for ice cream.  I've only been there once before, to get an ice cream cake for Zach's birthday last year.  It's a shame it's taken us this long to go again, but at least we made it.  The ice cream is famous around these parts, and it is indeed incredibly delicious (and not to be a snob or anything, but I'd say after living in Switzerland we have fairly high standards for ice cream).  It's been a long time since I've had a real sundae so that was awesome. Quinn devoured Sasha's scoop of black raspberry cream (and then begging for bites off everyone else's), and Donovan went the traditionalist route with a sugar cone with just plain vanilla ice cream.

preparations

Zach and I spent some time boxing up books and a few other things this afternoon, while BB played with the boys.  We've sorted through a lot of our things and gotten rid of a lot, and now we're trying to get started on packing so we can get an idea of how much more time and packing supplies we'll need.  I sometimes forget what I've mentioned where, but we now have a house secured (yay!) and it's in the neighborhood we want (double yay!).  It's a bit smaller than our current place, but no biggie.  Also, there's apparently a mama black bear with 3 cubs who lives in the woods right behind our house. As in, we may be able to take pictures looking out the window.  So that's exciting to look forward to.  BUT knowing the floorplan means knowing what we need to prep for, like getting a different dining table because our current one will so not fit into the dining nook of our new place.  And, we're trying to take care of that sort of stuff here while we have Target and Ikea within easy driving distance (aka NOT 2hrs away).

I just looked at the date and the kids & I have just under a month left in California. EEK!! I don't really know how to feel about moving away, since I don't know if we'll be back.  We all walked over to our favorite coffee shop and along the way I looked at the cuter victorians painted bright colors, and watched the people walking by and the house playing Paul Simon for their yard sale, and I'm really gonna miss living here.

Then again, I will not miss the mentally ill homeless woman who nearly attacked my mom several weeks ago and who still occasionally walks around yelling obscenities at no one in particular....

The details of our move are all but straightened out by now, and as sad as I am about leaving this place, and the wonderful people who have made the past 2 years great and probably quite literally saved my sanity as I learned how to be a mom of two and then dealt with my husband being gone four days a week for his job, I am also getting very excited about getting to New Hampshire.  Donovan keeps telling me how excited he is, how he can't wait to get to New Hampshire.  I aks him why and he says, "the snow!"  I'm trying to prepare him for not seeing snow for several months after we move (please). We'll get there mid-July and Zach doesn't start classes till September so we'll also have some time there as a family to explore together, which will be really friggin nice after the schedule he's worked these past 8 months.  And we'll see what things are like when classes start-- everyone's warned us that the fall semester(s- there are 2 before christmas) are ridiculously busy, so we may see less of him on the weekends than what we're used to but at least he'll be home every night.  I figure that's a plus.

After we packed about 10 boxes, Zach and I snuck off to the mall to pick up his new glasses-- a pair that somehow have a much more formal look to them-- and then stopped by Banana Republic to browse business suits.  The transformation from Enginerd to Business Dude is beginning.  I expect it to be kinda fascinating to watch.

New Montessori Post: Freedom and Discipline

I have a new post up at MariaMontessori.com:

Freedom and Discipline are two words that are not usually used together, at least in regard to children.  It seems counter-intuitive—how can you give kids freedom and still have discipline, or be disciplined and have freedom?  It is generally understood that children can only “behave” when strict discipline is imposed on them, meaning their freedom taken away– this is the thinking of traditional schooling.  But Maria Montessori discovered that the two, freedom and discipline, indeed go hand in hand.

Head over here to read the rest, or go here to check out some of the other great post written by other montessorians.

My boys are awesome

The other day Donovan built a ramp for his cars to drive up, so they could then "jump" over into one of two boxes.

And of course, if you know the first rule of little brothers... well, Quinn had to do it, too.

My boys are so awesome. =)

PS- Both kiddoes are eye-goop-free! And amazingly neither Zach nor I caught it, either. Yay for no longer being horribly contagious with anything! (that we know of...)

Dear children, just please don't give me pink eye for mother's day

Anything I'd hoped to achieve the past week has completely gone out the window. I mentioned in the last post that D came down with Hand Foot and Mouth disease. He had a pretty mild case... but a few days later Quinn came down with it, too, and has had a harder time of it (poor thing still has blisters on his hands, feet, and butt, though thankfully his mouth hasn't seemed to bug him much).  Then on Wednesday, when I'd planned on D going back to school, he woke up with pink eye which has since spread to both eyes, and now to Q's as well.  So for the past 8 days they've been sick with highly contagious illnesses, meaning we've been quarantined in the house on our own and keeping the nanny and other friends we usually lean on away bc I didn't want them to catch any of this crap.  So that's been super fun.

Of course, recent events in the news haven't helped my mood either, what with stuff like this and this happening and all.

At least Zach came home on thursday night, so I have some back-up now.  And, I've gotten to sleep in the past 2 days, helping make up for two exceptionally horrid sleepless nights earlier in the week.  

Long story short, I'm exhausted and worn out (though no longer quite zombie-like, thanks to those couple nights of decent sleep). Thankfully I've yet to catch anything from the kids (KNOCK ON WOOD).  And hopefully we'll soon be an eye-goop-free household and able to emerge back into the world like normal human beings and stuff.

So, um, happy mother's day. Or something.

Misc Updates: May 2012 edition

A brief update:

- A couple weekends ago we drove to San Jose for a friend's baby's birthday party.  The drive was not quite as easy as previous ones, as D & Q slept each way but only for about half of the drive and then started getting restless.  But, the party was fun, as was seeing all our old friends and their kids who were practically unrecognizable bc they all grow so damn fast.

- After a mostly uneventful first year in school, D's class has suddenly come down with a case of lice and Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. We so far have seemed to avoid the lice (KNOCK ON WOOD), but yesterday D came home with a fever. I figured it was just a cold, but he had complained of a sore throat and today he has small pimple-like bumps around his lips and along the top of one foot. It seems a mild case, at least so far... his fever is already gone, so we'll see if the bumps get worse or if it goes away soon.

- Q has entered not only full-fledged toddlerhood, but also jumped straight into Terrible-Twos territory.  One particularly fun challenge that's arisen recently is his ability to wildly change his mind of what he feels VERY strongly about, in no time at all.  For example, the other day I was getting him dressed and I was in no mood to have to wrestle pants on and off all day so I tried putting baby legs on him.  This was, approximately, his reaction: "NO! Don't you DARE put those things on my legs! NOOO! Wait, what WHY ARE YOU TAKING THEM OFF, now I want them! Put them back on!" I am not exaggerating, he went back and forth like this about 3 times before I was finally able to get those damn baby legs on him.  It's been that way about a lot of things lately-- getting dressed, food, etc.  Toddlers are FUN!

(they're also incredibly and heart-meltingly cute, which is the reason most kids do manage to survive past this age)

- My sister Jen visited us for a few days this past week, on a whirlwind tour from Hawaii.  It was awesome to have her around, as we've greatly missed having her a mere 1.5 hour drive away ever since she moved from SF.  And now we're moving even farther, which means we'll see her even less often. Major le suck. But, we had a great time while she was here, the boys totally adored her.

- Zach and I are spending most of our free time trying to sort through our crap and get rid of things we don't need, before the move.  Each time we move we purge a bunch of stuff, and somehow there's always even more stuff to go through the next time.  But, the fun part is I keep finding jewels of the past, like my old journals from high school and our wedding video.  Some of these little treasures are things I want to burn (ahem, the journals) and others are things I'm incredibly grateful to have (the video). All have been good for a laugh or two.