Stairs

The past few weeks we've been working on going up and down stairs. Now that A is large enough to get down the stairs she has a lot of fun. It does take her significantly longer to go down the stairs versus up the stairs, as you can see in the videos. She also uses this rear first technique when going down slides this way. We think it is so she doesn't bounce her head back and hit it on the slide accidentally. She just holds her head up. She will also get off the couch or anything this way now, as she has decided that face planting into the ground isn't the best idea. We managed to get to the park today and Chris had a blast with A while I ran. Overall it was a good day, and hopefully tomorrow will be just as much fun. Don't forget the time change!

Water Woes

Since it has been a bit over a week I suppose I'll post something. I'm currently "hiding" from Chris and A as he tries to get her to sleep. She ate an entire tortilla dipped in salsa with some tomatoes for dinner. She's gotten pretty good about eating food and eats a LOT of it when she does. Chris says she is definitely destined to be a skinny white girl because of how she eats. (He says to never underestimate exactly how much the skinny white girl can eat, because she'll eat everyone at the table under it if allowed.) She has finished cutting all four of her front teeth, but they aren't entirely in yet. She is also going through a nice growth spurt. She is getting ready to walk as well. She has started creeping along things she doesn't have to hold on to (like walls) so walking alone isn't far behind. She just likes to get there so fast by crawling that she doesn't want to take time to learn to walk. Anytime she thinks she is going somewhere she isn't supposed to be she goes super fast and makes a lot of noise. It is funny and cute. She did it a lot at the library this morning. She kept crawling down the wide stairs and then jetting to a doll house. I didn't mind her looking and playing with the dolls, just her putting them in her mouth.

Our biggest problem the past week (well really since we moved here) is the blasted water. In a nutshell, it just doesn't act right. This has made the diapers waterproof a time or two. We've tried changing the water pH (acidic with vinegar, basic with baking soda) as well as temperature to get powders dissolved. However, anytime we put a powdered detergent in our machine it takes one wash to get the diapers to be water resistant if not waterproof. And waterproof diapers are what all people need, right? Chris says he has trouble making very simple solutions at work because the solids won't dissolve, as in it may take him 30 minutes to get a solid to dissolve that should dissolve when it hits the water. When we check the water report the city posts, it says there are <2.5 ppm TDS, which means the water has nothing dissolved in it. However, it doesn't exactly act like "soft" water should. Granted it does dry a bit more with showers and such, but it never leaves the "film" I'm used to feeling with soft water. We've tried varying the amount of detergents we use. Our conclusion thus far is that a powdered detergent won't work, so it has to be a liquid. We'd ideally like a liquid we could use for all of our clothes (so not an exorbitant price) not just our diapers. However, the liquid we used in IL (All Free and Clear) is now giving her rashes when we use it. And it all relates to the blasted water. I'm really beginning to wonder if the water report is right or not. If the water is "saturated" with dissolved solids it would be quite hard and couldn't hold any more "solids" dissolving. Anyway, from what I've been able to tell, no one can tell me what the problem is.

We got a fair amount of snow yesterday and A and I started to make a snowman. However, she felt it would be much more fun to attempt standing on the ball and promptly crushed it. Then she decided she was too cold and wanted to come inside. So, no snowman made here.

Anyway, I can apparently go clean the kitchen and things now since A has been put to bed and Chris is at his computer.

Park in February?

Well we got to go to the park twice this week. A continues to love to swing. She is also learning to slide and really enjoys that as well. She is getting good at holding herself up enough to slide down the small slides and we go together down the big ones. The park we go to here is great! It has a TON of stuff for everyone, including a nice covered picnic area to eat lunch or hang out if it rains for a minute or two. Today it was threatening rain so there weren't a lot of people around, just the ones who wanted to ensure a park trip for the day.

She loves her glasses!

Today though we met a couple of other moms with kids. One of the ladies asked us to play group on Monday, so hopefully we can make it. The other lady has a little boy who is 2 weeks older than A, so they liked patting each others faces, pulling hair, etc. They are both active so it was nice to see a similar aged child just as active as A. It was also nice to meet other people here. It was really the first couple of people that have even come close to saying more than just a passing hello. Apparently there is also a large employer here that I didn't know about, Samaritan's Purse. That would probably be an interesting place to work, so it is another place to look for a job.

Wordless Wednesday

I don't think this picture needs much, but this happened today, so I'm lucky that I get to do a "Wordless Wednesday" on it. :)

Blue Ridge Parkway

Since A was being a pill today and wouldn't sleep, we went for a drive. We went to a nearby town, Blowing Rock to see and just outside was an on ramp to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I spent about half an hour or so going North on the parkway and it was quite pretty. We had overcast weather this morning that has turned into a sunny afternoon. Here are some of the pictures though. 

Teething 101

Well, life as we know it is changing again. We now have a tooth. Not completely, but it has pushed through the gum entirely. The bottom right one is working its way up. It looks like there are several more in the immediate horizon, so we may soon have four or five teeth.

This past weekend we made a trip to Winston-Salem, or simply Winston to the locals here. We went to the science museum (shocking, I know) and discovered why so many people think that the MSI in Chicago is such a big deal. Because it really is! When we'd go to MSI we would never be able to see the entire museum in one day, but here we didn't have any trouble. We also managed to make it to a Costco so we've got all our canned goods and such for a long while now.

Sunday we went to a park here. They have a recreation center with a rather large outdoor area, access to one of the main trails along a creek, and a pool. A got to swing and slide and such. She tried sliding by herself a few times, and was unsure at first, but always wanted to do it again. Until she lost her balance and bumped her head a little on the edge of it. We are regularly getting small bumps and bruises everywhere these days as she is crawling and getting into EVERYTHING. She has started pulling stuff (diapers, clothes, etc) out of the drawers, laundry baskets, etc. She started when we were unpacking, so I blame that for teaching her how to do it. Nevermind the fact that kids of all kinds do it all the time. She is still creeping and will walk if you hold her hands. The few times she balances on her own it isn't a problem until she realizes that she shouldn't be doing that.

Life is settling down here in a pattern. It is weird with Chris being close enough to eat lunch, or leave five minutes before he has to be at work and have him be early. It is different not having our lives ruled by the trains and not really have a lot of driving to do in the first place. We drove all over town for an entire week, most days we did it twice a day even, and only put 50 miles on the car. We like having Chris close and we are both getting a lot more sleep (though with the teething thing this past weekend we now have a lot more catching up to do) and enjoying the extra time he's around. This also has allowed me to get back into running. I've got a 2.5-3 mile loop that is hilly that I've done several times now. I will eventually make it up Stadium Drive and Poplar Hill. These are the two largest hills on the route and both can get a car going over 40 if you don't put the brakes on, and this is cresting the hill going under 10 mph. Needlesstosay this means doing it sans car is fun right now. I've enlisted to run the Route 66 Half Marathon in Tulsa on November and hopes this helps keep me motivated despite the soreness and out of shapeness that I'm encountering. My best friend Maggie is also going to run it, so maybe we'll do it together. We will see how this year shapes up though.

As always, here are a few pictures of A swinging at the park.

Yes she sticks her tongue out to the right these days to play with her new tooth.

Wordless Wednesday