Moving Along

Kait, after those independent steps (and it's 'look ma, no hands' before the 'look pa' this time!), is back to cruising again, and cruising more effortlessly now.

Crawling also still gets her places fast, fast enough that if I ask Jon and Ben to watch her for a bit, one minute she's right under their nose, the next they are asking me (not just me checking with them), "Where's Kait? Where'd she go?" !!!

I call her the Queen of the Floor!

Along these lines, Kait also knows a few other tricks. Like, scooting bum and legs first to get down a step...


... and being able to fling open cabinet doors and pull open drawers at her height when she's standing up --she's quite strong, *gasp*! So, it's not just her, but I am on my toes a lot as well! Kait also has her nose in the trash and laundry bins!

When she's not busy moving around, the other nickname I have for Kait is My Little Koala. There's not a lot of things though I can try and multitask with one hand, with her joined to my hip. But this is both the more and more mobile and also superclingy, bad separation anxiety stage!

Kait will be 10 months old tomorrow, and can it be that she knows how to pose for the camera already?! These pictures are specially for those who tell me you come here to see how much she's grown. Thanks for dropping by, this works for me to try and update everyone at the same time, and tell you how very much I appreciate your encouragement and prayers.

We are going to move early... NEXT WEEK! We were just now still going over again the possible plans and options, and this looks to be the best window for Vern. He has more to go for his dissertation, but the weeks after that leading to the defence will be even more stressful than now. He will make a trip back here by himself for that.

Meanwhile, with no offer on the house yet, we made another price drop and hopefully that's as drastic as it goes. Ours is more affordable than places in better school districts, but where we live there is a surplus of homes, and the spring market is winding down, if not already over. Why won't the agent try other ways besides letting an auto e-survey get responses from other agents who bring people for showings (who fills in that anyway)? We've been working hard ourselves, hosting three open houses and reaching out to interested parties in whatever ways we could.

Most of these pictures I took last Sunday. Another family, dear friends of ours with their children, were so nice to take Jon and Ben out for a second movie together in three weeks during the open houses the agent left us to do. Their house sold much faster, they're off, but they understand how most kids have the natural ability to mess up the place faster than we can straighten it out. Of course it's not only for open Sundays, but every day as well for two months now we've lived like this, and it drives me nuts to try and have as few things on the floor, table, and counter tops, so the house shows nice at all times, as close to how we've staged it. Decluttered (as best as we can, but lots stashed away to get back to) and depersonalized, but not without the warmth and coziness of home sweet home -- that was our approach (you watch HGTV, too?). But where art thou, where is the person or family who really think this place will work for them?

And now, we have more, lots more to work on before the move. Vern, trying to be on track with his dissertation, and many more things I'm trying to put/give/throw away before the actual packing of our luggage, among other stuff we have to wrap up here. We will drive instead of fly to save some, and pay the movers more to pack, simply because we cannot do it all. The two of us vs. the three kids, we are outnumbered -- this is one of more things now we have to be down-to-earth about!

OK, I have to run...

and Kait waves *bye* (TTFN)!

Staying in touch

Our phone lines and internet were down for a whole week. Feels good to be connected again, and yes, being able to keep in touch like this is good, always good!

We're still here, haven't moved. There's plan A (move early) and there's plan B (move later), depending on how things go with the house and Vern's schoolwork. He's still trying to figure this and that out (headache!). The children and even sticking to the basics with the cooking and cleaning keep me busy day in day out, and it's after they go to bed when I can do the laundry now. Then it's a long night, Kait is up as often as the boys last time, and for sleep's sake I let her nurse (again and again) before Ben or Jon or both boys will come wake us up at 5am!

One load, one step at a time... and Kait started walking a few steps by herself the other day! Life just got busier!

Hanging on

Left: Kait loves to cruise around the dining table and will go under the chairs, like a playground to crawl in and out of.

And hanging on...
we're trying to focus on the "busy" not the "crazy" in the "crazy busy".

Vern tries and packs in longer days, if not nights, to give more time to his schoolwork, while also planning for the transition ahead. I try and keep up with my housework and the driving, and taking care of Kait, and Jon and Ben, getting them through the day till bedtime. And I will have all three children even more to myself after school is out for the boys tomorrow. Already went with Kait to buy more grocery, to feed and cook more for the always-hungry, growing boys!

It is a mad juggling act, we can never do it all, and each day isn't without its challenges. I'm trying not to scream when the kids scream, or to poke the husband in the ribs when he says something insensitive that's not remotely funny. We are just so stressed, and having to keep the place super neat for it to always show well is also not easy and especially hard with young children. And with no movement on it still (*sigh*), we have to figure out how to move on from here.

Taking a moment to gaze, it helps me see things in perspective. Thank you for your word after word of encouragement. I'm thinking of you, too! God bless!

Some of the moments and memories I'd wanted to store up (later maybe as make-up posts)...

Boys dressed up for a formal event with Ben's class as part of more things going on this last month of school. And yes, that's them acting silly, always happy to make funny faces at me!

I've also got more shots of the baby girl, she seems to be doing something new each time. She goes from doing a "shaky handy" with Jon, to a "hi 5" with Ben (sometimes, it's a "hi 4"!), to waving and saying "hi" to me one day out of the blue. And she's still pretty good at helping me do a "shoo, fly, shoo"!

They grow up so fast!

Playing soldiers

Earlier last month...
Right: Jon and Ben got to try out the different hats of a young man playing the part of a soldier at the annual World War II Weekend's battle re-enactment. What a treat it was for them, so happened there was no Chinese class that Sunday, and we got Jon a red beret, and Ben, a plastic green helmet, as souvenirs!

Monday night...
Left: Birthday boy Ben and funny Jon in their army headgrear; Jon juggling more than one hat at a time!

And that was how we capped off Ben's birthday celebrations -- with an impromptu little cake of our own, he really wanted that, never mind that it was from the remaining Pillsbury cakemix for the cupcakes for his classmates (baked them late one night, frosted them the next, and used Reynolds' jumbo foil baking cups for extra large cupcakes). That was about the only thing I managed to make for his birthday, besides the regular dinner (can't go wrong with chicken drumsticks), and we were running late after the party in the park.

On his cake I put these two Star Wars figurines from our present for Ben, and Jon added the strawberry slices for a decorative touch!

Now what you don't see here, but the boys think is "noteworthy"... after the birthday song, they fought over who really got to blow the candles! No, it was not pleasant, but ah (aaargh, this is one of those times I have to admit...) boys are boys!

THANK YOU! The green berets and the insignias have come a long way from Singapore (Beach Rd!). Like the other thoughtful gifts and gestures we receive during the year, from our families back home, and our kids' godparents, and dear friends old and new, we are thankful for all of them. It's not possible for me to single each one out, you can sometimes glimpse them from our pictures, but it's for the same reason -- knowing how much trouble everyone goes through to get something to us, I do not play it up.

There are many more moments to try and savour again with such make-up posts. The words are easy to write but the pictures themselves say so much more. I hope to be able to make sense of all the rest of the pictures I have not sorted out -- someday, when it's not such a luxury to sit down like this. Only so many hours in a day, and oh, how time flies!

Going back to basics...

... back to nature?

OK, not quite yet as there's more to done here. My allergies are still giving me a hard time, and I'm trying not to be "mung zang" (vexed) going about my usual business. There are the everyday things to try and keep up, other things to follow up and play catch-up, and all the rest of the stuff to get ready for the move but we haven't the time nor energy for. And call us crazy, we have a lastminute birthday party for Ben to pull off. He got all emotional again and was crying over how there's only so much playtime left with his friends, what with school ending soon also.

While I can -- before I lose my mind, and Jon thinks I am already, I'll like to come back and fill in the blanks of what else is going on, and share more snippets of Spokane. The blog is my journal, only now I'd better keep it short and sweet.

Thank you for checking in... have a good week ahead, everyone!