Just Evelyn, jumping rope.

Been a while since I’ve udpated, I know.

All is well.

This is my step-dad Marty, relaxing the cool water of the potholes, after a long day working at the farm.

giordano’s is the most awesome pizza ever. Ruby was mad for some unknown reason. It passed once she tasted the pizza.

On our walk to the pool, as a train rumbles by, she runs in her flip flops.

The neighbor down the street crassly said, “The kitchen is going to need updating!” O contraire! We absolutely love this vintage metal cabinets. We do need, however, to strip them, clean the drawers including the hardware and internal drawer workings, etc.

To the left of this, we’re looking to find a smallish vintage eat in table and chairs.

I found her entranced, sitting on this dresser, drawing a street scene involving various animals and cars. She loves to write, too. Drawing is her first passion, it seems.

Its hard to believe that we’ll live there in just a month or so!

So we’ve been looking at the market lately, and its actually really great for people who are looking to get into a home. We’ve looked at lots of houses and seen things that would scare the average person away from the market: Holes in walls, dead rodents, strange staircases leading to nowhere. But we stuck with it and we found a home that we absolutely love.

Its a 4 bedroom home on a dead end street RIGHT next to a park and pool. Its a 4 minute walk to the Blue Line El, and a five minute walk to Evelyn’s school. It does need updating but its in move in condition.

The House:

update!

We made an offer and it was accepted, but we’re still trying to work out all the minute details. Its going to need a new roof, and the FHA inspection is this coming week. We’ll see how that goes.

Ambrose eyeing his next snack!

So our regular afternoon routine goes something like this: Ruby, Ambrose, and I head over to the school at 2:55 and pick Evelyn up from Kindergarten. We then proceed immediately over to the playground next to the school to burn off some energy before heading back home. Now this would generally be a pleasant experience…if it weren’t for the nosy nosy moms that won’t stop policing my baby! Now, I do appreciate it when a mom alerts me to the fact that Ambrose has found an old lollipop stem and is chewing on it, or that he is begging for head trauma by planting himself on the bottom of the slide and there are several large children heading right for him. Imminent danger– yes, please. But telling me every time he puts sand or sticks in his mouth-or even worse-walking over to him and prying the stick from his beaver-like teeth, resulting in wailing and crying– no! Tend to your own (much older) children and leave mine alone! The playground is covered in sticks and sand. It is not possible for him to be at near eye level with the ground and not put something in his mouth. There is one mom in particular who always sits next to me on the bench and is constantly fretting over Ambrose’s latest chew toy. And so I have to act like I am shocked and dismayed that he is chewing on the end of Harry Potter’s wand and rush over to him, literally every 5 minutes, and wrestle the thing away from him. Now, I know that sticks and sand aren’t the ideal things for babies to put in their mouths, but as long as he is not 1) eating garbage 2) swallowing something that he could choke on, or 3) aiming the thing straight for his eye, I am not overly alarmed. A small amount of sand or the occasional bit of tree bark won’t kill him, but the same cannot be said of that nosy mom if she won’t just let me neglect my child in peace!

Highlights

1. Jumping in the bed
2. Evelyn messing with the mic
3. Praying
4. Accidentally saying “hamster” instead of “mice”…not sure where that came from
5. Evelyn not “saying the words” to the rote prayers
6. The phone ringing right after prayers, talking to a student, and then her mom.
7. Evelyn and I completing our bedtime routine…”Go

Putting the Girls to Bed