windy with a chance of wind: Odds and ends

Yesterday Blake turned ten weeks old (!!!!!!!), and we took her to meet our Wichita pediatrician.

She was...
13 lbs. 13 oz. - 92nd percentile
22 and 1/2 in. - 45th percentile

Whew...chunky monkey!

We got back to Wichita last Friday afternoon, but spent the night in a hotel, because there was so much work to be done at the house to make it actually livable - rinse all the dishes and cooking utensils, change all the sheets, clean up all the dead bugs and cobwebs, rearrange our bedroom to find room for Blake's bassinet...we're still not done! I only started unpacking boxes this morning, no joke.

The trip went great. We left several hours later than we intended (deja vu, maybe?), and had car trouble the first two days, but thankfully we had planned on spending a few days in Montana with my mom's aunt, so we just cut that stay short and got ourselves right back on schedule.

It's really a bummer that we had to do that, though. Montana is gorgeous! Our time there really deserves it's own post, so I'll get to that soon.

We really enjoyed our beautiful summer in Mukilteo, but it is good to be home, where we know people, have places to be and things to do, and just know where everything is without having to consult a map every time we leave the house. Also, streets on a grid. We missed that. :) It is still windy as heck here, though.

Hollie is pretty much ecstatic to be home. A couple of times she has asked to go to places in Mukilteo - the Winco store (haha), our favorite park (see below...), or ride the big boat (also below...) - and we have to remind her that we left, but she is really happy to be here, and she's been having fun helping us straighten up the house.

She is getting so grown up. The wild-eyed toddler still makes regular appearances, but overall she is learning to find the words to use when she's upset, obey our requests for her to be quiet (when Blake's sleeping), and help with simple tasks around the house...and actually do them well! She's using full sentences more and more, and she is starting to consistently verbalize when she is tired/hungry/etc, rather than just whining unintelligibly and then proceeding to a meltdown.

The last few weeks that we were in Mukilteo, we pretty much threw in the towel on potty-training. It was going downhill fast. I think we were trying to do it halfway - encourage her but not push it - which sounds great when you say it that way, but it just wasn't working. She just got into the habit of waiting until we needed to leave the house, because then she got to put on a diaper. Knowing that we were going back to Wichita soon, we couldn't not leave the house (too many things to do one last time!), so we just gave up and put her in diapers 24/7. She didn't object one bit. We recently started asking her about using the potty again, and she has seemed pretty excited about it. She remembers the whole process of wiping, flushing, and washing hands. As soon as the house get into decent condition and we're not using every spare minute to organize or unpack, we're prepared to try it for real, and I think Hollie's ready, too.

Blake is doing very well. Just before we left, she started smiling for real, and shortly after that began making little oohs and aahs. Adorable. Sleeping pretty well - generally a 5 to 6 hour stretch, wake up to eat, and go right back down for a 4 to 5 hour stretch. I am so so so lucky that both my kids were such great sleepers at this age...I thank my lucky stars every day. She's lifting her head really well during her tummy-time, but she doesn't enjoy that very long. Her big sister is getting better and better at containing her love (ie - giving gentle hugs and kisses).

Here are some photos from our last full day in Mukilteo. I spent the day before running around like a headless chicken, packing up the apartment and driving Hollie and Blake crazy, so that day we had a break and took our last opportunity to spend the afternoon at our favorite park.

It was a good idea, because the weather was spectacular. It was an awful idea, because then I was super bummed that we were leaving.