Big girl bed and other adventures

I meant to make an entry last week, but as you can see did not get to it.

I was debating whether to get Erin a bunk bed or a toddler bed. Erin's room is too small for two beds, so bunk beds would be ideal for when the time comes for our baby-boy to migrate into a big boy bed. Erin would take the top and he would take the bottom. However that meant that between a good wooden bed and a mattress we would have to cough up about 500 buckos. Kinda pricey for us at the moment when uncle Sam is knocking on the door (see the post from 4 Feb 2010). On the other hand we could get a toddler bed, but bite me if I am willing to pay an average $200 for the bed my child will use for a year or two only. Thus I went with a sensible decision to look at used beds. To my surprise crazy people getting rid of their beds wanted insane amount of money for the used bunk beds, the toddler beds were more reasonably priced, but of questionable quality. Finally I came upon an add selling a used Pottery Barn bed. Ha! Now that is solid wood and construction that can make it through several toddlers hopping on it without squeaking (sorry Waldemart, your beds are no match for my kiddo). We picked it up last Monday! Here it is:



Erin transitioned very willingly. She even tried to help assemble it. She held up the headboard for papa to attache the sides to it. After almost getting injured by dropping it (again keep in mind we are talking about a solid rather big chunk of wood here. Ouch!) on herself she departed to watch some kid's show. Finally without Erin's assistance we put it together in a jiffy. I began cleaning and getting it ready for my babe to try out. When I invited Pook to come check out her new bed (completed with her old mattress, bedding and the "crib crew", aka monkey, bear, bunny, Murky, etc.) Erin would not sit on it, but kept coming back to the room when she thought we weren't looking to take a pick at her new piece of furniture. Eventually she became brave or curious enough to come sit on it and decided that the bed was worth her approval. She has been sleeping in it for the last week and enjoys the freedom of getting up when she feels like it and not when mama feels like it.



Andrew took Monday and Tuesday off (long weekends are so enjoyable), so I had both days planed. After picking up the bed , according to my agenda, we were supposed to enjoy a lovely late lunch at Jason's Deli and go catch "The Princess and the Frog". That was supposed to be Erin's first movie experience (the baby viewing of Harry Potter and other movies doesn't count). We got into the garage ready to go and my jaw drooped. The front tire was as flat as a loaf of bread when I bake it (I have a bread baking curse). I almost began crying. My perfect day was being ruined and you do not do that to a pregnant woman! Plus the cash register in my head made the till opening sound- tires are expensive. But oh well! It is the irony of life. Your plans hardly ever work....especially when they are perfect. Changing a tire turned out to be quite fun for Erin. Andrew got to it right away and Pook and I observed from the garage stairs. Erin found the process of taking the flat and putting the spare on rather exciting.

40 minutes later we pulled into a tire garage shop and 20 minutes later we pulled out only $22.33 poorer. Our invalid tire got patched up and that made the cash register in my head very happy! By the way garages could charge a fee to toddlers for watching mechanics at work. Erin was super entertained and well behaved. She stood there at the entrance squealing in delight seeing water bath for tires, tools and fire, though the loud sounds were a tad bit scary, she just grasped my hand tighter. We got in the car and she kept sharing her impressions of "tires" and "fire". Because of the accident we missed the movie, but the late lunch happened and that put us in a good sleepy mood. Instead going to the movies we all went home and took a nap. We'll just get this cartoon through Netflix.

Tuesday was great. Erin and I attended a play date and than went to leave Erin with aunt Theresa, one of her most favorite people in the world (and it is not because she has a dog, though Bentley, of course, is a bonus!) Andrew and I went out to another late lunch (we just never manage eating at normal times) at Chinese Buffet. Andrew goes there for Mongolian BBQ, I go there because he goes there and eat salad and their good deserts, the rest of the food there is not that good. By the way I think Mongolians would be rather surprised to find out that such thing as Mongolian BBQ exists. The same way as Russians would be surprise by the existence of Russian dressing (at least I was, never heard of it before and did not like its look and taste).

We continued our date by going to the Temple. I do not recall when was the last time we attended together, but it was wonderful. Stepping into quite and peace of the Temple after the hustle and bustle of every day is healing for a soul! Our friends were going for the first time and invited us to share this day with them. It was a beautiful experience for them, but not so much for Andrew. A kidney stone began to move and rained on this parade. It is impossible to enjoy anything when searing pain is travelling through your body. We had to go home and medicate poor Andrew. That made it better, but we missed a dinner at PF Changs, that we really were looking to. Grrr!. Not knowing whether a visit to the ER for pain control was in a very near future we decided to have Erin spent the night at aunt Theresa's (what would we do without her?).

Andrew turned out to be fine, the stone decided to sit quietly for the rest of the night. We were spending evening at home all by ourself. That just does not happen to us. It was weird not to have someone jump on me or Andrew and hear Erin's sweet voice! In fact, it made me sad and at some point I almost cried. Shhh! Don't tell Andrew or he'll make fun of me. Erin returned in the morning and Andrew went to work. Life continued!

Now a big secret about me. I do not drive. I had a learner's permit twice and took the driving test twice. I almost passed it the first time, but the second one was a disaster. I blame the testing dude. I was very uncomfortable in the car with him, so uncomfortable that I even forgot to put my glasses on and realized that only when we pulled to the speed limit sign and I had no idea what it said on it. NOT GOOD! I kept my mouth shut thinking he would just fail me riht there for driving "without correctional lenses". I drove like a blind mole with the results of a blind mole, he he! Or maybe I am justa terrible driver? Anyhow, soon after we were in the car wreck and became carless for next four years or so. Since we got a car again I just never got around fixing the driving situation. Now keep in mind that Andrew have been having kidney stone after kidney stone for the past year. Of course they come at the most inconvenient time in the middle of the night. I am the one who gets to secure the ride to the ER (imagine waking someone in the middle of the night asking for a ride, ha ha!) as you are in no shape to drive while agony becomes your second name. We have some very good friends, bless their hearts and they still talk to us! But every time I told myself, this is enough, you are going to get the stupid learner's permit next week after you read the stupid manual and start driving Andrew to the ER yourself. It has not happened until this last Thursday. I finally did it! I went into DMV (Thanks aunt Theresa), waited in the stupid line, took the stupid test (one of the questions was "is ss26 a motorcycle insurance?" why on earth would I care! I am not driving a stupid cycle), got the stupid learners permit and now have to remember how to drive the stupid car, ha ha!

Oi! this is a long post, but I promise, I am almost done. The last good news is this. On Sunday I learned that our stake is using one of it's fields for vegetable gardens for members. Yippee! I signed up for one plot! I have gardened my entire life and hated it! A good chunk of summer was spent watering, weeding and harvesting fruits, berries and veggies, while everyone got to watch TV and kick back. Bah! But now I really miss digging in the dirt and eating veggies and fruit that actually have a smell. Everything from the store has no smell after it was coated in whatever they coat it. That just drives me nuts! So am looking forward to having tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and all other goodies that smell like real food. We will eat what can be eaten, freeze what can be frozen and can if our almost ready to be born baby allows it (anyone interested in becoming my canning buddy? that means you do all the work and I sit on the couch and order around, he he). Anyhow, I am super excited about getting down to earth. The field is not too far from home and I am on a look out for a little red wagon to transport gardening tools and alike. Erin will be enlisted in watering and pulling the wagon, ha ha! She loves helping and I hope I do not plant an aversion to gardening into her. It is a fun thing to do!

There now I am done. Here is a cute photo of Erin in the tub to reward you for going through so much text.




Ta ta for now!