Should have done this sooner!

Two years ago we were considering a huge addition to our house. The main reason, and the starting point of this exploration, was to get an additional bathroom upstairs. Oh it got a little control after that (why not extend the garage! let's have a downstairs office! let's move the laundry upstairs! let's move the existing kids bathroom! let's extend Reed's closet into Tod's existing closet which would have connected to what will later be Amy's bedroom! - cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching!) and we ultimately decided against it. Lately we've even toyed with the idea of moving so that we can upgrade (that idea is currently on hold until spring 2016). It was frustrating to not be able to access our own bathroom, or to always have to remind Amy to pick her stuff up from our bathroom, or not drip water all over the bathroom floor, etc.

The kids' bathroom was originally painted not long after we moved in in late December 2004. We went with a fish theme and it was very cute! But nearly ten years have been hard on the room and we found the border was beginning to fall down, so we needed a new paint job.

Well I couldn't find a good one of the kids' bathroom, but this
does the trick - fishy shower curtain, toothbrush holder and towel.
Plus adorable two year old brushing her teeth.

I have to mention that when we were talking about a remodel, Reed was 110% against ANY changes to his bedroom. He didn't want a bigger room, he didn't want his own bathroom (okay he essentially had one already since Amy wouldn't use their bathroom), he didn't want a single thing to change. He stuck to that throughout the process and was relieved when we decided against the whole project.

So we found ourselves needing to choose paint for the kids' bathroom. I took the kids to Home Depot to look at paint samples and Reed chose a handful of colors, and Amy chose to focus instead on looking for colors to paint her bedroom. In the end, Reed's recommendation for color choices were lime green and purple. He chose those because they are opposites on the color wheel and he thought they'd look good together. While it wasn't our first choice of colors, since it was so unusual for Reed to express any kind of interest in something like this, we figured, well why not...it's only paint! The kids chose a new shower curtain together and I bought new hand towels and a new rug. Tod got to work painting.

Wow did the lime green turn out bright! I mean BRIGHT!

But the amazing upside to this day-glo bathroom situation is that it caused Amy to give using their bathroom another try. She was reluctant at first but now it's kind of second nature, she doesn't seem to give it a thought. She's even take a bath in there. And miraculously, I was finally able to find a comb that's just like our favorite comb, and so Amy is all set to use that bathroom full-time. I think it's been probably 3 years or more since she stopped using her own bathroom. Of course we still have conflicts from time to time that force Reed to have to use our bathroom (because Amy's already gone to bed and their shower is right next to Amy's room and is so loud). So far, though, no instances of "Reed's hogging the bathroom!" or "Amy's taking too long!" though I'm guessing that probably won't last.

So maybe this house meets our needs after all, and we don't need to make any big moves after all! All it took was a fresh coat of (really bright) paint!

Sidenote...I know my memory is cruddy, but I don't really recall a lot of bathroom conflicts in my house growing up. Jennifer was an earlier riser than me, so she showered first and then finished getting ready for the day in her room, while I showered. I wish I could ask my Mom if there was a lot of drama...but instead I'll just go on thinking we got along delightfully. :)

"You look like a couple of sisters walking down the street!"

That was the comment from Amy's PE teacher as we were walking to school this morning. I am pretty sure that's the first time I've heard someone say that, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Hopefully Amy isn't too mortified to think people might mistake us for sisters. :)

Memories....

Back in January 2009, Reed organized his books into a library. Then a couple of weeks later, Aly spent the day with us on a teacher workday. The two of them set up the lending process for Reed's library. Aly was 9 and Reed was 6 at the time.

Here are the rules and fees, which Aly wrote up...

And here is my own personal library card, with hole punches for the books that I checked out.

So delightful to come across that sheet, which was hung on Reed's door! I had my library card safely stored in my nightstand, for whenever I wanted to do some good reading. 

The best comb of all time

At the risk of sounding totally strange, this is the very best comb ever. I think I've had it since maybe 1990? That's a ridiculous amount of time to use a plastic comb, isn't it? But it's just the best. It's worn down, Shelby's chewed on it, the color that used to be on the tips is long gone...but it still works great. Amy uses it every time she showers, and is also a fan of the comb. I've looked and looked for similar combs but never managed to find one – I've bought her probably 6 different combs and she hasn't liked any. The tines were too close together, or too far apart....very Goldilocks. So she keeps using the comb. I keep using the comb. And we're both happy. Long live the purple comb!

Teleworking ain't always all it's cracked up to be

I am extremely fortunate to have bosses that trust me and are flexible with allowing me to work from home. Really the number of things I can't do from home are very limited - I can't make copies, send things in the courier, or talk to a co-worker face to face. Other than that, I can do everything remotely. During the school year, I telework on Wednesdays and Fridays - it really breaks the week up. It also allows Amy to walk home from school two days a week, and not go to CASA those days (her after-school program which she's grown to really dislike). This winter it's been particularly good to telework because the schools were closed so many days due to the weather - I didn't have to take vacation time or pay someone to watch the kids while I went to the office. Teleworking is really great for me, gives me time back in my day (the nearly 60 minutes I spend in the car getting to/from work) and I can take advantage of the solid block of time at home on Wednesdays and do the laundry (hey, I'm here anyway!).

Last summer, I cut down to just teleworking on Fridays, to allow the summer babysitter a 4-day work week/3-day weekend.

There is a down side to teleworking, though. Even though I'm physically present, I'm not really "here" for the kids. Reed doesn't care much, but it bothers Amy. I'm not able to really interact with her a whole lot (other than refereeing between the kids, which no one enjoys). I know she'd rather I just take the snow days off and relax with them...but being a teleworker kind of puts on the pressure to work regardless of the weather. I feel like if I take the good (being home with the kids when I need to be, being here for repair people to come, easily taking the kids to appointments, etc.), I also have to take the bad of working when I'd rather not.

I guess I just want to say that it's not lost on me that it's not all that great to have Mom home, if all she's doing is staying in the office all day working.

Look who's 10!

We celebrated Amy's 10th birthday last week – I can hardly believe it!

For her family birthday gathering (which she shared with Aunt Jennifer), we made our own Dairy Queen Blizzard-style ice cream cake...

For her actual big day, she baked her own birthday cake, including using fondant for the first time...it turned out so awesome!

And we celebrated by going out for breakfast for dinner.

Amy realized after Christmas that she'd amassed a pretty good chunk of money, from Christmas gifts and allowances she'd saved up. She proposed if she paid $150 for half, we buy her a new laptop so she'd have her own. Well the math didn't quite work out on the "half" part of the equation (laptops are expensive!), but she got her wish. And much to our relief, we don't have to listen to the kids bicker over whose turn it is on the computer anymore. Oh don't worry, there are plenty more things to bicker about!

Happy #10 to our amazing Amy!

P.S. Reed got the absolute best end of this deal. He did absolutely nothing, contributed nothing, yet now he's got his own exclusive laptop. Pretty sweet deal.