More Contruction Progress

Ding dong the witch is dead! After a few days of chipping and grinding, I can officially say that there is no more pink tile in my house. The laundry room was the last remaining spot of the previous home owner's fondness for pink everything and it is finally gone. Now, we just need to disconnect everything so we can lay the new floor. Oh, and I should point out that hole in the wall near the door is an "oops" by Jim while putting in a light switch for the laundry room in the kitchen. Oops is right. More drywall to repair cause we don't have enough of that :-)

can we bring any more stuff to school?

Actually, we can. This was a photo from this morning. Wa-wa (water) check. staberries (strawberries, which are Jessica's favorite food at the moment) check. baby check. still to come with us are jacket, backpack with snacks, and ba (milk). Of course, mom is left to carry those as Jessica only has 2 arms.

mmm...good

Jessica enjoys her snack. This is the face she gives when she thinks her food is mummy (yummy).

Construction Day 2 -- Some Progress to be had

After the water heater got moved on Saturday, Jim had to tackle knocking down the rest of the laundry room wall, moving electrical wires, and putting the wall back up. Before he could get to any of that, however, he had to fix the doorbell, that somehow got disconnected the day before. Jessica figured that one out early on Sunday morning as we were coming back from the grocery store with eggs for pancakes. She has to ring the doorbell on her way into the house now, and it just didn't work much to all of our surprise. One hour later, Jim had fixed the problem. Because he was working on that, I made breakfast. The good thing is that the doorbell works (although with Mousse and his barking at the doorbell, no doorbell might be a nice change). The bad thing was that I cooked breakfast. Not my area. I screwed up pancakes. I can't even tell you how I did that. Jessica was the only person who ate them. Anyways, people wonder why construction goes overtime. It's because of little unexpected things like the doorbell. Anyways, here are some pictures from the Sunday progress. The laundry room wall has been knocked down, the frame is about 2 feet back (yeah! that gives me room for cabinets), and the electrical is a work in progress. I really love navigating through the hanging wires to do laundry.

Elmo has to eat too

Jessica feels that Elmo needs to eat too -- maybe even more so than her dolls. He goes in the high chair and she tries to feed him -- both pretend food and real food. She looks at me quite perplexed when he doesn't eat the cheerios that she puts in his mouth. Of course, Duke and Mousse are thrilled by this as it means extra food for them.

And, yes, Jessica has two play high chairs. The second was meant as a replacement for the first, but she wants to play with both of them. The best is when she tries to cram all her dolls (more than 2) into the highchairs. She gets very upset when they don't all fit.

Jessica has fun at gym

Jessica had lots of fun at gym last week.

Jessica has fun in the rain puddles

Jessica likes the rainy weather. She went out and played in the puddles for the first time recently.

Jessica is ready to party

Jessica is ready to go to Mary's surprise birthday party.

something must be wrong with our cat

Something must be wrong with our cat Squishy. He actually seems to like Jessica and comes around looking for pets from her. He doesn't even mind too much when she tugs on his tail.

Jessica's new thing -- wearing Mommy's shoes

Jessica's new thing is trying on my shoes and walking around the house in them. Check out this video.

Construction Day One

Today was the first day of real construction. There are many projects in the queue, but the first one is to move the water heater to get more room in the laundry room. The walls were off this morning. Can I say I am tired of taking dry wall on and off? Anyways, the guys are still working on moving the water heater this evening. Construction always takes longer than you think.

Miss clean is at it again

Jessica, aka Miss Clean, is at it again and tries to clean up the outside of our house with a broom.

POD #3 is delivered

We're now onto POD #3 for current home construction projects. Jessica had fun playing in it before we stuffed it full.

Jessica enjoys her Elmo video

Jessica has fun while watching her Elmo video.

Jessica still loves her baby dolls

Jessica still loves playing with her baby dolls. She has started to bring one or more of them everywhere we go. This new baby is a gift she got from her nana Sunday night on dinner. This one has a blanket and bottle that Jessica insists come along with the baby too.

Jessica loves to cuddle Duke

Jessica spends a lot of time giving hugs and kisses to Duke. He's really good about all the "special" attention she gives him.

Jessica still loves her flashcards

Jessica still loves her flashcards. She likes to cuddle on the couch with them and look at the pictures. She yells at anyone who is around to "Sit Down" with her and read them to her.

Jessica makes her valentines

Jessica had lots of fun making drawings for people for V-day. She loves to color.

Jessica is starting to jump

For the longest time, Jessica has been wanting to jump. She watches older kids at gym (in an effort to copy them perhaps) and tries her best on the trampoline, but she just hasn't been able to do it. All of a sudden though, she's been able to jump a few times. We're still hit or miss, but she has gotten "air" a few times so far. This video shows you what her efforts look like most of the time. We still haven't caught a real jump on video yet.

our little couch potato

Today, Jessica was a bit of a couch potato. She camped on the couch reading books and lounging around. This is a very good indication that she is not feeling well.

Chocolate is good

Today, Jessica and I were feeling under the weather, so we didn't do much of anything. About mid-day, the whole family (dogs included) was getting cabin fever so we walked down to the ice cream store. Jessica enjoyed a good trike ride in the process and the boys got a bit of outdoor time. We learned a couple of lessons from this experience...

#1 Jessica really likes chocolate ice cream (evidence is the chocolate ring around her mouth even after Pebbles, the neighbor's dog, got a good lick of her face)

#2 Walking home from the ice cream store presents problems. Jessica goes "more" or "ah" about every 5 seconds (indicating that she wants more ice cream) and the walk home takes forever.

Jessica is obsessed with Elmo

Jessica is currently obsessed with Elmo. He is by far her most favorite stuffed animal. She goes to bed with him and he is normally the first thing she asks for in the morning. She also prefers her Elmo books now. She has quite a collection and will camp out on the couch reading only Elmo books. And, anytime you get near the TV, she goes "Elmo" in hopes that an Elmo DVD will appear.

Jessica enjoys the warm winter weather

This weekend, Jessica enjoyed the warm winter weather. All she wanted to do was go outside. She had fun playing in her house, on the slide, in the swing, and in her sand box.

Jessica goes to Roaring Camp Railroad

Today, Jessica and her friend Isabella went on a steam train ride near Santa Cruz. Both girls seemed to enjoy the train and the ability to run about in the fields. It didn't hurt that it was near 70 degrees either. Here are some pictures that we took.