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| Gots the Handy Dandy NOTEBOOK (Where's my thinking chair?) |
We got listings upon listings upon listings. Notes in the notebook. A realty duo and plenty of weekend to buzz right up.
Let's
Get
Home-Searching!
Uh maybe not the weird old house with the sliding door patio toilet and the unseasonably internal icy chill though...
Yeah. How about something in an urban village townhouse kinda model. Open floor plan. Private bathrooms... ok I'm listening.
OOOH fancy demo couch... now we're talking like the oldest bestest of friends!!
Yep, we've started looking. On Saturday we checked out 7 houses in a wide radius of acceptable commute times to Blue Origin. Learned that Andrew still doesn't like the suburbs. Learned that toilets come in weird places. Learned that "a quiet toilet" is the absolute selling point for Chaya. Learned that downtown Renton may be darling, but the houses there are "fixer uppers" to be kind and "tearer downers" to be accurate. Learned that probably we're gonna end up somewhere in the bottom little bits of Seattle. Learned of one or two opportunities for pre-construction townhoues that we're gonna look into.
Learned that if you wait long enough, Chaya will be excited about lunch.
And so on. It's an experience in the making.
Once you've got a new fancy schmancy spacemobile family car, where else can you go but up through the eschelons into home ownership??
We have a lease that runs out in June, so we have actual time to look and consider and whatnot.
Except only sorta.
First off this stuff takes forever. And you know there will be something in any inspection and close calls and maybe a lost opportunity/potential life. Heartbreak. Angst. Crying in the rain.
Oh and also, Kindergarten registration starts now. And I have no idea what they mean when they say "registration fills up soon" for public schools. But it'd still be nice to have some idea of where Chaya's going to end up taking her next steps into the land of joyful learning and social whatevers. And Zooey. Not to forget about Zooey. She matters too.
Zooey - Chaya's imaginary twin sister - came back with eclat this Christmas break. I think Chaya was missing her preschool friends and turned back to her twinsie for spiritual sustenance. But Zooey's not going anywhere now. Now I get to help Zoey pee. Help her into her imaginary carseat. Give her kisses at bedtime. Which is good. I'm glad Chaya stands up for her sister, so I don't forget her like I sometimes do. Zooey's just such a good girl, it's not as easy to see and hear her over Chaya screaming about them being Easter Superheroes who are also bunnies and fairies. At a ninja Easter party. Did I mention Easter is her favorite holiday?
Zooey is pretty independent luckily. She gets plenty of transportation from Chaya's imaginary snake, Orange. Yes orange. Which is a cute name for a smallish red snake with polka dots. Why not! More and more of Chaya's animals and pals are getting names - we also have Penny Bear, Marlon Bundo, Wesley, Sky, Dr Bear, and several more trying on for size names. Mommy and Daddy also get a variety of names recently. Of course she loves to call us by our proper names. "Mommy's you're ADEEEEEELLA. Your name is ADEEEEELLA Linsey Wright!" Thanks Chaya. I do forget sometimes. I'm also Momba. And a few times she's called me Tuba, but that didn't stick.
Getting back to school was an exuberant heavenly experience for all involved. Zooey and Chaya and Mama especially
Fresh into 2020, we had Spirit Day! Which in preschool usually means "dress up a little bit" day. Last year Chaya could give a rat's tush about these special occasions. Since she as often came to school in pajamas as dresses as costumes, most dress up days had a certain meaningless to her. This year though SO EXCITING.
Like pee your pants (except not, because we're also making huge strides in potty training - FINALLY, did I just jinx us?) EXCITED. Pajama Day. This was a pajama day. Two Pajama Days in one week, since many kids just do either Monday through Wednesday or Thursday through Friday. The first PJ Spirit Day was on Wednesday. She'd been talking about the pajamas all week and I'd given cursory attention to pursuading her to wait until the actual day. .
Finally free to indulge, Chaya wore her Christmas penguin pajamas proudly. She was the only kid, I swear, who wasn't wearing either Disney or some Marvel themed stuff. Where are all the cute unlicensed pajamas? Ah well. I swear some were night gowns with more bling on them than any of my old tango dresses, and of course some Disney princess glowering somewhere in a skirt or bodice.
Regardless, it was a hit. Chaya arrived at school jumping up and down and grunting even more vociferously than usual. And she was raving by the end of the day.
Paislee, I'll have you know has a Frozen Sleep Sack that has legs. I think that makes it a sleeper, but this is not how Chaya's gonna label it.
The next one was Friday so I coaxed Chaya out of her PJs for Thursday school. For contrast. Miss Chaya, who usually can wear a single outfit for a straight week, changed dresses several times between Thursday morning and evening. She plotted to wear her polar bear pajamas to school on Friday. But by Friday morning, she was in a dress she'd demanded the night before. A cute, very clearly not-night-gown gown. Unicorn dress that she dubbed a "night dress" and insisted on wearing to school.
She was still excited the other kids had on pajamas. Though nobody could hold a candle to Paislee's Frozen "sleep sack."
For the record, no, Chaya has never seen Frozen and doesn't seem anxious to do so. We're working out way through Dora the Explorer right now, which is a bloody relief after that month of Paw Patrol schlock.
And then, just as we were settling into our 2020 schedule... horror of horrors.
EXTREEEEEME WEATHER!
I'd call it a snow day, except we didn't get a ton of snow. More like a week of very cold weather and icy enough roads that Tuesday and Wednesday were special mother-daughter "bonding" days.
Painting days, actually.
After an initial survey of the snowy(ish) terrain and several runs around the snowy playground, Chaya proclaimed the outdoors "too cold" and refused to leave the house again.
Day one, we painted. A lot.
I'd say we did about 25 original pieces of "mommy draw/Chaya paint" brilliance (this is what I put on my Instagram just in case you've been curious - reams and reams and reams of Chaya-mommy art). In between coloring and/or painting on the table and some cardboard around the house. Chaya got pretty stir crazy by the end of the day despite her escape outdoors, and mommy nearly died.
Reading! We also did a ton of that. Typically Chaya doesn't have patience for chapter books that lack pictures on every page. We've tried The Little Prince a handful of times, and it always ends with flipping pages and talking about the pictures. BUT this week Chaya requested and then actually listened to Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, the third in the Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar. One of my favorite books as a kid and I have no idea why I still have one of them kicking around. But we read it from beginning to end and I kind of want to get the first two now!
Day two, Chaya "helped" de-ice the car so we could make it as far as Fred Meyer's for some much needed snack replenishments. The absence of graham crackers and prospect of a sample at the bakery department enticed her to retract her "never leaving again" stance, and we were able to shop. There was a little more painting, but mommy had learned Chaya was a kid with energy to bleed, so we went back to the old indoor playground configuration with the couch.
Between the mountain damage to the springs, and Chaya's artful markings on the couch (with whatever M&Ms and goldfish have been trampled in in between) I'm looking forward to helping Chaya move this couch into her first apartment! It was a good investment, that'll last that long in some bedraggled form.
And finally. Finally. We got back to our normally scheduled gray dreary weather. And back to school...
Except of course tomorrow is MLK Day. All I want for 2020 is one full flipping week of school! It started so nicely!
In medical news, I feel much better - though not 100% yet - "down there." The medicine seems to be working. It also seemed like maybe it was causing my resting heart rate to get kind of high. Then I went off it for a week and no difference, so... guess that wasn't it after all.
Since my resting heart rate started off as "nearly dead," nobody seems concerned that it's higher now. Because it's in human range. Like not-fit human range. Which is fair insofar, as I basically am not fit.. Except that's been true for like two years, so why now? Why so promptly? But hey, we carry on. With tissues, because I do have an awful sniffly cough thing.
As always - I have absolutely stellar medical tests across the board. I think I have the blood of the healthiest fucking person in the world, quite possibly. They're probably pissed and probably want it back. The blood transfusin of Dorian Gray over here.
Anyways a cardiologist thought some regular checks wouldn't hurt (though he's pretty clearly on the "you probably just need to start working out again and maybe chill the F out when you aren't doing that" camp), so I have my second ziopatch ever (though crap the medical tape itches like hell and I'll probably tear it off before getting any useful info from it) and will get another echo. Hopefully it'll be boring and I can go back to fretting about my lady parts.
It's definitely reminded me that I've let my "self care" (e.g. "personal suvival") meditation and yoga practice lapse during the move. So those are back in. Which isn't all that was there yet, but a start. Getting a regular massage and figuring out some way of exercising without hurting myself would be huge. So, shoehorn that in for a 2020 goal, if not resolution.
Maybe open up my mother-daughter art studio.
Ok 2020, bring me your bounty. Or at least can we get Chaya registered in a Kindie and know where we're gonna live next year!
Or... chocolate. I'll take chocolate!
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