Her World...

Having a crawler in the house again reminds me of just how precarious this stage of development can be. Atleast with toddlers the world is less about discovering every single shiny and potentially dangerous thing in their line of sight (and putting it in their mouths), but about balls and playing with the dog and books and toys. Also, toddlers can avoid getting hands and legs covered in dirt and crumby stuff when you don't have time to vacuum and sweep every 2 hours.

So it seems we are back into baby-proofing mode. Due to the fact that we moved downstairs after Will was past this stage, everyday it seems I have to find new ways to make this apartment a good place for a crawler. Take the dog's water and food dishes for example. When we lived upstairs the dog dishes were conveniently locked behind a baby gate in the pantry. Downstairs there is no pantry, so I find myself continuously putting them up high when Che is not using them. And let me tell you, when I forget Eva sure does make the most of that oversight.

Aside from the challenge of having a crawler in the house once again, It's been so cute to watch Eva discover her environment. She's especially interested in what her brother is doing. The absolute best thing is when Will and Eva start to laugh at one another, the very first signs of playing together. We've been trying to catch this on video with little luck. For now I'll post a video of them sharing a good laugh as their dad reads a book.

Projects Completed

After 2 long months, the house projects involving the mold removal have been completed. Coupled with the awesome feeling of being back in our own home after a month away is the great feeling that comes with getting these projects behind us. Here are some photos of the completed areas and if you want to see some before shots (minus the basement) go here.

Project #1: This is just a small portion of our basement, but the section that holds our new organizing shelf. The new system along with the extensive cleaning that was done has made this area of our home a place I'm no longer scared of.

Project #2: We were approved for a 5 year forgiveable loan based on our income that is meant for environmental hazards in your home (and some other things) like mold, so we were able to apply that money towards contractors for this project. I decided to play around with color and am happy with the outcome.

Project #3: Kitchen ceiling. While the contractors worked on the bathroom, Rodney set to work at finishing the kitchen ceiling.

The only major project left is the sunroom. Months ago Rodney gutted the room and this summer he sprayed it with the same chemical solution that the other areas in the house got, but it's still in decontrucion mode and therefore unusable. The plan is to have it completely finished by next summer, but I am so so so overjoyed that these first 3 projects are completed that I can wait for the sunroom to be done. Rodney keeps saying that we're no longer poisoning the kids and I have to say that this is probably the best feeling of all.

Summer Fun

Every summer since Rodney and I got married we have done some extensive road-tripping. Even after we started a family we continued the tradition with our biggest roadtrip ever. This year (minus one weekend away for me and a week for Rodney) we have needed to be home to work on our house. That being the case, we have still managed to figure out how to live out of suitcases for much of the summer.

This housesitting gig has probably been the biggest summer adventure for us, making it feel truly as if we are on vacation. The home we are staying at in Clayton is lovely and I've been spoiled in many ways. Even Will has had some spoiling being able to play with some pretty cool toys thanks to the three year old boy who lives here. One of his favorites is a legitimate, albeit child's sized, drumset. Rodney has schooled Will on the different names of each drum and cymbal and Will relishes in remembering them aloud whenever he plays. Even Rodney and I have taken turns playing. Here's a video of some awesome rock star action.

Besides pretending to be Ringo, we've been enjoying trips to the playground, Monkey Joe's, and all sorts of other shenanigans. Here are some of my favorite photos from the past few weeks. I would like to draw your attention to the underware around Will's neck in the first photo below. Crazy times.

Month In Review

It's been almost a month since my last post, which means that lots has happened. I'll do a little trick my friend Evie does and highlight the important stuff:

-Rodney started his campaign to rid our house of mold, beginning in the basement

-Eva started sucking her thumb

-Eva started crawling

-Started housesitting in Clayton so that contractors can rennovate bathroom

-Gina debuts as the Soprano Young Artist for the Bach Society of St. Louis

-Eva gets her first teeth

-Rodney's parents and brother, Brett arrive for visit

-Cousin Yuri turns 2

-Baby Kye (cousin) is born

-Rodney goes to emergency room for a sore neck and arm, starts physical therapy for a pinched nerve

-Gina and Eva take a road trip to Michigan for a memorial service

-Rodney leaves for New Orleans with a group of students for Habitat for Humanity relief work

That brings us up to date. As you can see, it has been a busy month for our girl, Eva. This would explain some overall fussiness and honestly, who can blame her. So much development in such a little time for such a little person. It's funny how when they start crawling a whole new level of parenting begins. Here are some photos of the month closing with a video of Eva crawling.

Thumb Sucker

Stingrays w/ Uncle B

Yuri's B-day Party


Grandma and Grandpa Malone

Great Nonna, Eva (namesake)

3 Evas: Nonna Eva, Cousin Evamarie, Eva Sophia

The other day...

I walked into the living room to see this.


Don't know when Will got the crazy notion that playing horsey with Eva would be a good idea, but she didn't seem to mind. Will has actually been paying much more attention to his little sister lately and will get real close to her and say "hey, sister" or "hi, Eva." Sometimes he'll spontaneously give her hugs and that is too cute, I tell ya. I realize that someday they may start squabbling, but I think at this rate they are on track to being pretty good friends. Or atleast good playmates.

Loud and Clear

There are times I feel like God is trying to tell me something. Sometimes it's just something little. Sometimes it's huge. I'm not always really certain what it is he's trying to say or what I should do, but there are times I feel like I should atleast stop and listen. The other day I was in the grocery store and I smelled my sister's perfume. At that exact moment I heard Sting over the store's stereo system, my sister's favorite pop musician. What was God trying to say??? Probably nothing. But I decided on a prayer for Earon.

The two themes that I've noticed lately are death and living amidst chaos.

Death
On Friday the mother of my best friend growing up died of colon cancer, a battle she had been fighting for the past 3 or 4 years. She was only 55. She was a very important person to me growing up, a motherfigure and an example of love to all those around her. A year ago yesterday Rodney's good friend from high school, Phil passed away. Why does death have to be a part of life? What can death teach us? What is God trying to tell me about death?

Chaos
Two nights ago we had a totally unexpected visit from good friends who were just driving through St. Louis on their way home from vacation. Let me tell you, my house was ABSOLUTELY TRASHED. I was so embarrassed. Had they come just two hours later, after dinner and the kids' bedtime, I would have had mostly everything picked up and the house in relative order. But there was something very intimate about having these dear friends stop by in the middle of my chaos. God was trying to tell me this: don't be so concerned with appearances. Relax. Care about people, connections, relationships. Forget about trying to control your environment. Oh, and their house is probably just as messy (they have three kids).

So how do these two things connect, if at all? Maybe in that life is too short to sweat the small stuff. Or even the big stuff. [We have HUGE projects in our home this summer that Rodney is tackling mostly himself. The rest we have to pay for with money we don't have....Don't sweat it, life's too short. We have a big mold problem in the house and we just found out we have lead...Don't sweat. Trust.] Trust.

So for now, I'm trusting that everything will turn out fine and I'm trying to enjoy the little things in life because who knows what may happen to me or my loved ones. I'm trying to smile more, enjoy my kids more, say "yes" more (isn't there a Jim Carrey movie out about this???).

If you haven't seen the movie from the link I posted above, make sure you watch the clip. It makes me cry everytime. I often need this reminder of God's gracious love, waiting for me to return to his open arms, sins and all. Even when I might not be listening...

8 Years

Next week is our 8th anniversary and in all honesty I've been too consumed with Birthdays and Baptisms to spend much thought on how we might celebrate. Well, last week Rodney declares to me, "Gina, don't make any plans for next weekend. We got a babysitter and we're going out to celebrate our anniversary. Oh, and think about what you wanna do 'cause she's staying overnight."

What more could a girl possibly think of to want? Good work, Rodney. Now to decide where to go and what to do. Due to lack of funds we had to dismiss the first few ideas that popped into my head (stay at a B&B or a hotel downtown, maybe see a show). Then I remembered. I used to camp. I used to bike. Rodney and I used to do this a lot together. Then I got pregnant and someone stole my bike. But, we could borrow someone's bike for the day and we could find a great place to camp that wasn't too far (oh, and I'm thankfully not pregnant right now). I didn't have to convince my outdoors loving husband that this was a good plan. The very instant the words "camping" and "biking" made their way out of my mouth he had the perfect place in mind. Pere Marquette State Park along the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. The plan was to make it there by dinner and return before Will and Eva woke up from afternoon naps the next day. Done and done.

Victoria and Dan arrived at our house at 4pm. Victoria is a colleague of Rodney's and Dan is her boyfriend. They babysat the kids a few times on Thursdays during my voice lessons when Rodney had tutoring in the spring. They were so awesome to give up close to 24 hours of their summer freedom to enter the world of schedules, bottles, naps, and Play Doh. I didn't think I was very nervous about leaving the babes overnight until I started explaining our routine. I honestly couldn't shut up. I kept finding the most random things to tell them about that I had to remind myself that they too are adults and can figure out lots of stuff. Then we got in the car. Crap. I forgot to tell them about Che's eating schedule. And how to turn the monitor on. And that the fan in the dining room makes noises so don't use it. I have two words for you. Control freak.

But, we did it. We made it to the site, set up camp and had a great hotdog-and-s'mores dinner. At one point Rodney turned to me and said "Look at us. What have we got to do? No kids to worry about and no responsibilities. This is amazing." He was right. I couldn't believe that we had 6 whole years of this before the awesome job of child-rearing took over our lives.

I did have one thing to do, however. Pump. After our lovely camp meal, I started getting sleepy and knew this must be done before settling in for the night. I'll share the start of the ensuing conversation:

Me: "O.K. I'm gonna go pump before bed."
Rodney: "Alright. I'm just gonna sit and watch the fire for a little bit."
Me from the tent: "Crap. I forgot the pump attachment."

There was no way I could make it until two o'clock the next day without pumping. Can we just say uncomfortable? So, we started deliberating. Do we go home? Can you (sorry about the TMI) hand express? No. O.K. Rodney remembers seeing a Wal Mart on our way to the campground. We'll just go buy a hand pump and make do. Not something I was that pumped about (I do like a good pun, people) but we're having a good time, so I'll suck it up. I will say that I don't really understand why anyone would every buy a hand pump, but in this instance I was happy not to have to buy a whole new electric pump for just a night and a morning.

I made the best of this situation (not without some grumbling, I'm not gonna lie) and the rest of our trip was amazing. The bike ride was so much fun and we spent some inspiring moments beside the river discussing dreams for the next 8 years. After a tasty lunch of "hot fish" (there were several establishments in the "touristy" burg of Grafton advertising this delicacy) we made it home in the middle of naptime to a house intact and two very tired 20-somethings (Eva apparently was up from 4-5 am). I am ever thankful for Victoria and Dan's bravery and can think of no better way to celebrate marriage than in the stillness and beauty of bluffs and riverfronts.

Happy 8th year, baby.