Getting Wet - By Whatever Means Possible

It's been HOT here. HOT. Except for today, which was delightful. Except for this coming weekend, when we're planning to go to NY to go swimming, and we're going to freeze our butts off. But otherwise, when we're stuck here in PA, next to zero water... HOT. So, you've got to get wet when you have the opportunity. Fortunately, we have many opportunities to get wet. And fortunately, Dex LOVES getting wet.

Excellent splashing

Dex is the best back floater in class. Notice how the other two kids in the class basically suck...

Going under, with boat held firmly in hand

Going under is FUN!

Rubber duckie. It's what's for dinner.

Getting ready to blow bubbles. Or eat water. Either way. Actually, blowing bubbles has made great strides since Dex discovered how to do so in a cup in the bathtub.

"Jumping" in to the water. How do you teach a kid to actually jump? Also, notice awesome farmer tans and red necks on both my boys. :-)

Mid-jump

Aaaaaand he's down (notice other sucky kid still trying to decide if he's going to let his mom pull him in to the water)

Playing with our friend Anya at a beach south of the old house. Nice beach. This is the only picture from here, as I spent the rest of the time in the water with Dex, walking after him and standing him upright again after he purposely sat down under water for the ten trillionth time. He had fun.

Playing with Daddy in the muddy, mucky, "Ewww, don't blow bubbles here" Elk River in Elkton, at a benefit BBQ for Pediatric Cancer.

Dex doesn't mind the muck. He did, however, require a quick shower when we got home. He was a sandy disgusting mess of a child.

Gorgeous day to go to Longwood today. We wandered through the main fountain garden. Dex had his finger up his nose most of the time. Yes, water. I see. Water.

Hooray, water! Surprisingly, no shirt change needed after today's jaunt in the Children's Garden.

This was a close one but I caught him before he dove in.

Playing with fountains with our friend Nate Kevin

And THAT'S an excellent way to stay cool in the summer! Bring it on, heat. We've got you beat.

The New Digs

OK, OK. FINALLY I am doing a post with some pictures of moving week, painting, packing, and the new house. I am out of excuses.

You can check out the entire collection of 230 photos HERE

The new house! It kind of peeks out from the trees. The front is well shaded, which is great because the sun... NEVER SHINES in the front of the house. The back of the house, where the sun is brutal, has ZERO trees. Zippy. Nada.


The family room before painting. My sister didn't think the green was too bad. I thought it was pretty terrible.


The family room during painting (we recruited Dad to help. He was perhaps not pleased. Painting? Not his favorite thing.)


The family room all done. We LOVE the dark brown wall around the fireplace. The other walls. Meh. They're ok. I wish they were a touch lighter. But the next shade lighter on that card looked like, as John described it "The Caucasian color in the box of Crayola crayons." Not appealing.

Note awesome pictures of Havre de Grace on the mantle - nice housewarming gift from Mom and Dad. Just today I unpacked the box where CoCo's ashes were stored, so now CoCo is on the mantle, looking over us from her proper place. I still miss the little girl every day.


The guest room. Yeah, this didn't need paint. AT ALL...


Dad works on painting the guest room. Ahhhh. That hurts my eyes much less.


The guest room completed. With a bedroom set we bought off Craigslist for $100. God bless Craigslist.


Dexter's room. It was recently painted white, so we didn't need to prime it. Which was good, because painting it took FOREVER.


Why? Because SOMEBODY (ahem, me) decided this bright blue would be an awesome color for the bottom of the wall. And it took three coats to make it look ok. Plus that certain somebody wanted some of this stuff:


(Dad loves painting chair rail)


But the end result was completely worth it. LOVE this room.


We also painted the basement floor before we moved in, so that the concrete dust would stay on the floor, as opposed to being tracked all over the world, which was happening before we moved in. Note oodles of flattened boxes, now being taken to New York so Aunt Jeanne can use them to move in August. Hooray for recycling! Dex will be sad to have his box mountains leave, though. He has fun down here.

In the basement, which I don't have pictures of:
Pool table, which we really don't want, and now has a whole bunch of crap piled on it.
Fancy-ass water filtration system which took our nitrate levels from an Above EPA Limit 11 (somethings per something) to an almost insignificant level of 1 (somethings per something).
Eighty seven trillion boxes.

So what, you may ask, was Dexter doing while all this painting was going on? Why, playing with Grandma, of course.



New fancy water table kept Dex cool during this ridiculously hot weekend

Last day of playing in the pantry before...

Dex moves to the new house to hang with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Jeanne





Meanwhile, John and Alissa pack furiously:




Good lord, where'd we get so much crap??

And then, in the blink of an eye (seriously, like three hours to empty the old house AND the storage unit) the movers came and our old townhouse looked like this:



And we pretty much did this all day. It was awesome. Movers. Best idea we've ever had.


It was a little sad seeing our house all empty.


We did so much to the house while we were there.


We'll miss it, but we're pretty psyched about our new view...

It was a very good day

I mean, minus the separation anxiety, the whining, the crying at bed time, the SHRIEKING when John left the room during breakfast (my how the tables are turning - I left the room and there was barely a whimper). But otherwise - an awesome day. A visit from friends, a trip to the corner for ice cream, and THIS. How cool is THIS!

A BACKHOE! Like, in our YARD!

He was there installing our ginormous new propane tank

And during a break in the digging Dex and John got to pretend to drive

"Beeping" the "horn" (the horn was not located on the steering wheel)

Yes, small child. I see. You are driving.

You are also ridiculously cute

And the wheel is WAY bigger than you are

Whoa. WHAT is this fantastic banana looking thingy?

Corn? No way. It's FAR too yummy. Nom, nom, nom.

Also, check Dex out, all fancy using a bowl and a spoon.

And even putting the spoon in his mouth right-side-up!

OK, so it's not perfect. Yet.

The natives are getting restless

I have, in my head, a big blog posting that tells you about our move, and unpacking, and what we've been doing for the past three weeks or so since I've posted. It just hasn't gotten any further than my head. Some of that is because we're busy. Some is because I want to post some video and my laptop still has no sound. Mostly, though, it's cuz I am a slacker.

But, the natives are getting restless, so here are a few photos from the past couple weeks at the new house. Or at Longwood Gardens, 25 minutes away from the new house. Where we shall go quite frequently this summer, I am sure.

I need to pull out the camera and take some more pictures. Maybe that will be on the agenda for this afternoon, after Dexter's (ONE, gloriously long) nap.

We were doing lots of walking on boxes, til I moved them to the basement. Now we only do that on hot days, when it's way cooler in the basement.


Usually we just go outside and do this a lot


Or help Mom water the flowers


Went to Longwood last Friday. We had a blast.


Hooray for fountains!


I thought we were going to get lucky and get out kind of dry. And then this happened...

That's about it! We don't do much. Play. Sleep. Eat. Unpack a little bit. We're settling in to a groove. One of these days maybe we'll meet the neighbors. I must say I am a little disappointed they haven't come over to say hi yet.