The Free Agent

As you all know, I’ve been neglecting my blog. I didn’t mean to but real life took over for a while. We are planning a large project that includes expanding our kitchen. It sounded pretty simple but then we found out that we don’t need to just move the gas meter but that the gas company needs to move the actual gas line that goes into the house. I’m a bit of a worrier so I’m pretty sure I will keep the kids away from the house that day, just in case they don’t know what they are doing. I’m sure they do but still, I can’t help but worry about them blowing up the house.

One of the other projects I have been working on is stripping the wallpaper in the upstairs hall. It has been there forever but I hate stripping wallpaper because it is usually way more work than I think it will be. This was a rather pleasant surprise- it came off so easily that I’m thinking that it must have gone on in the depression and it was barely glued on. The girls were thrilled to help, even Marin. I swear when it comes to tearing things up they are all masters at demolition. Which brings me back to Marin…

Two year-olds certainly have their charm; with the cute way they say things and their chubby little cheeks. But the things they can get into still surprises me. Let me start by saying that Marin has been moved to a toddler bed. I hate having her out of the crib but she had mastered going over the rail. The last day she was in the crib, she climbed out four times when I tried to get her to nap. Needless to say, she won that battle in that she didn’t take a nap. Come to think of it she also won the war in that she’s now in a toddler bed and for the most part, a free agent. I never know what I’m going to wake up to in the mornings anymore.

A couple of days ago I awoke to someone knocking on the door. I thought that was odd since we have a doorbell. Then I realized that the knocking was coming from the bathroom next to my bedroom and that clearly wasn’t company. I went to investigate, noticing that Marin’s bed was empty on my way. I found her knocking on the side of the bathtub and completely covered in shampoo. A couple of days later she tp’d the entire bathroom. I usually wake up with her standing by my bed looking at me. Sometimes she’s wearing my glasses at the time. The other day I peeked in at naptime to find her bouncing on her bed wearing a shirt, pull-up and a witch’s hat. I don’t even know where that came from but I think Claire was a witch last year.

Taking Marin out of the house can also be challenging. She always insists on packing a bag, as if we are actually going away for the weekend. I just let her, because it’s easier. I don’t let her take her bag into the store though, because there is a high risk of her leaving the store with more than she started with. Yesterday, I got Marin ready to go to the store and then she jumped up to get her purse. I noticed her putting more stuff in her over-sized Ciderella bag but wasn’t paying much attention. When we got to the store Marin was insisting that she needed to take her bag and I was insisting that she didn’t. It was at that time that I saw that the contents of her purse included a cup of milk and a whoopee cushion. She’s the life of the party already….