Hodge Podge

Rather than try to be coherent and blog around a theme--and end up not blogging at all because that's virtually impossible at this time in my life--I'll just lay out my random thoughts.

Part of why I haven't been blogging at night is because I've been searching CraigsList and the MLS for rental properties. We've started looking at places on the weekends, too. Ugh. It's making me a bit depressed, as I think I will really miss our house and yard. The places closer to DC are really expensive, and if they're affordable, then they're basically dumps. So we're either going to spend more in rent than our mortgage on a place that's not as nice, but is closer in, or we can stay close to where we live now (we could get a bit closer to the city, but not much), live in a pretty decent place, and pay the same or less as our mortgage. Aghhhhh! I just keep having to remind myself that we're only talking two years here. We want to buy before William starts kindergarten. I can do anything for two years, right?

William and I played in the snow yesterday while Seth took a nap, but I didn't bring out my camera because it was too cold. Mostly we shoveled the snow. I worked on the driveway, and I shoveled it off, William would shovel it back on. It was pretty funny. We went out again later after Seth woke up, but by then, William was really tired and didn't want to play so much. When Ed came home at 6:00, he and William went back out to finish shoveling the driveway and William had a great time.

William is really into Superman right now. He loves the original Superman movie and wants to watch it all the time. He runs through the house with his arms out in front of him and sings the theme song. It's pretty cute. One day I found him a Superman shirt at Walmart. He would wear that shirt 24-7 if I let him. I hope it's a durable shirt because I wash it just about every other day. At least he's wearing something other than a truck or digger shirt, right? The next step is Superman pajamas. And I also plan to order Superman underwear. Maybe that will convince him to use the potty.

Seth is balancing and starting to try to take steps now. He turned 10 months old last week. (I did get chair pictures, but not of both him and William. I'll post them soon, with a proper "Seth is 10 months old" title.) He's also eating lots of people food now, like macaroni and cheese, cheese toast, waffles, pancakes, cinnamon toast, cereal bars, soft meatballs, goldfish, diced squash. He doesn't like green veggies, though (like peas or broccoli), or carrots. Mind you, he still has no teeth. I think the bottom ones are imminent. Time will tell.

I'm taking a class at GPO this week (Government Printing Office). It's on printing processes and terminology. Today was the first day and I've already gotten a lot out of it. I wish I had taken this class when I started this job. It's nice to be doing something different for a few days.

I'm finding it virtually impossible to read anything. I simply cannot fit it into my day. After I'm done with my evening chores (wash bottles, make bottles, make lunch, prepare sippy cups and breakfast for next day, do any prep work for next day's dinner), I either get online and catch up on blogs or search for rentals, or else I fall into bed and watch TV. I've tried to pick up a book, but I can't concentrate. I keep thinking it will be better when I get more sleep.

I don't think I've mentioned how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE my iPhone. I've been taking notes for my class on my iPhone, which I can then email to myself. I've downloaded apps for keeping a grocery list and for recipes, which have been awesome for grocery shopping. I've used the mapping feature quite a bit when we've been house hunting. I can save different locations and then get instant directions to and from each one. And I can instantly search the Internet or my emails to see various listings, get their addresses, and agent phone numbers. But the most useful feature of all has been the timer. The timer is my best friend when I need to get William to do something. If he's not ready to stop playing or change his diaper or get out of the tub or leave school, I set the timer for 2 or 3 minutes, and when it goes off, he's instantly ready to go. It's amazing. He woke up this a.m. at 5:15 and I finally convinced to go back to sleep in his bed, by himself, by leaving my iPhone propped next to him with the timer on. It was set to go off at 6:30 a.m., and then he could come into our room. It was a bit of a risk leaving it in his room, as he's already figured out how to slide the bar to activiate the menu. But it was worth it for him to go back to sleep by himself in his own bed. Actually, this ode to my iPhone probably should be it's very own blog post. But this will have to do for now.

I'm sure there are more thoughts swirling around, but I should end it here. It's 10:15 and I still want to look at rental properties. Why can't there be just a couple more hours in each day???