Big Babies

My babies are getting big. It's a happy sad kinda feeling.

Maya is now 20 months and my little baby Sagan is 5 months. I can’t believe it. Sagan is starting to really show his little personality. He’s so ticklish and loves to giggle.

He’s totally enamored with his sister and vice-versa. They have started giggling at each other and Maya has learned how to entertain him on occasion. I love it.

Maya is learning more words each and every day. Her new vocabulary and her sign language skills make it so much easier to understand her needs. She can easily tell us when she is hungry or thirsty, when she wants more and when she is finished.

Maya can now very clearly say Mommy and Daddy. She really just skipped over Mama & Dada. She used to call John DAAAAAA! And I was Dooa. Now she sweetly says Mommy about a thousand times. It’s cute.

This Father’s day we decided to drive around the area and look for rental houses. We were cruising around in an older neighborhood in Alexandria when we found a little red tricycle on the side of a street with a sign that said FREE. John slammed on the brakes, I jumped out to grab it. We were both so tickled when the lady who was in the yard there said that she asked around and no one wanted it. It’s probably 20+ years old, but in absolute perfect condition. I swear it looks like the one I had when I was her age (guess that would make it closer to thirty something years old!). We had put Maya’s little trike in our household shipment (items in storage) thinking that she’s still to small for it. Well she’s growing like a WEED and I’ve regretted it. We only brought her little radio flyer wooden scooter. She loves playing with it but her knees are almost dragging the ground when she rides it. She’s so excited about her new bike and loves to climb on and off it.

We’ve taken up “tennis” again. I say that with quotes because we’ve played just a few times and our cute little multi-sport court in the hotel courtyard isn’t quite regulation size. It’s probably about 2/3 standard size, but we have lots of fun playing and Maya loves to be our little ball girl. She is great about chasing after them and giving them to Daddy!

Anyway that’s all for us so far this week. I’m in the middle of a marathon laundry session. 6 loads at once! I hate laundry mats. Thankfully there is one in the building, but it only has three washers. Hopefully I’ll get it all done before the kids wake up for their afternoon nap!

★Cheers!

Liberation

Sagan playing on his mat & Maya after eating a very sweet plum.

I recently joined a MOM's Club International chapter and I was talking with one of the other mommies about our situation: we’re living in an extended stay hotel/apartment for a few months until we are able to settle into a house. She said "oh that must be so hard, not having your stuff". I thought about it for a while and responded that it's actually quite liberating not having to worry about my "stuff". It's all in storage. Even though we miss certain items, we don't need that much to live with.

We only have three rooms to deal with. There are two bedrooms flanking a living/kitchen area. We have one bathroom in each bedroom and a small easy eat-in kitchen with just enough storage for a few days worth of food. It’s actually really nice. I do miss Maya having a nice open area to play, but it gives us more incentive to get out of the house and meet people. We go swimming, play on the multi-use court that is just outside our windows, and we have a few meals each week in the lobby with the other residents. It’s a total bonus we didn’t plan on. Two to three times a week they cook dinner for us plus they cook breakfast every morning. I’m getting so spoiled. We have a wonderful hotel staff that cleans our room each day – changing the sheets and towels, dusting, moping, cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. Did I mention that they also load and unload the dishwasher if I let them?

Yeah, I’m in heaven.

I love cooking in my little kitchen too. Everything is right at hand (when you only have two and a half cabinets it’s hard not to have it at hand) and I usually only have to take two or three steps to get to the stove, fridge, sink and table. My prep, cooking, and serving time has been cut dramatically. I will tell you the pots and pans they provide are terrible, so I've had to suplement it a bit, but at least its a full size stove, microwave, and oven.

The only thing that is a real bother is the laundry and bringing things in from the car. I HATE having to do laundry at the upstairs laundry mat. Ugh…I miss my washer & dryer. And I don’t have my convenient garage to bring in the groceries. Right now I have to go back and forth down the hall to the parking lot leaving the kids in limbo until I’m finished.

Now don’t get me wrong…I wish we were in a house. I can’t wait to have our own place with space and people a little further than 3 feet away. Plus the pups really need some outside time other than potty breaks. I know they are suffering the most.

Gidget looking out the window & Ginger napping on my bed.

So we are in the countdown. Only two more months to go. I will miss the staff here. They have adopted Sagan and Maya and everyone grabs them from us when we go to the lobby for meals. It’s so nice that they are so well loved.

Maya getting a hug fom our favorite house keeper Zulema.

Otherwise the mommies group is great. We had our first play date and Maya had a blast. I’m looking forward to more play dates and outings including Mommy’s night out next Monday! Whoo Hoo!