BabyK's blog: New house!

New to us anyway :) We signed a lease in Burlingame, CA and moved in last Tuesday. Just got internet up this morning, so I can finally update the blog! The house is old and cute, being 1922 vintage, and is a good size. The house itself is listed as a 2+, which basically means it has three bedrooms, but the 3rd bedroom is pretty tiny (10' x 9'). We made the small bedroom into Colin's room and it suits him just fine :) Of course, now the unpacking madness has ensued, and we are making slow progress. The house is slowly becoming more livable, and I'm not even going to mention the mess in the garage. The best part about the house in my opinion is the back yard. The yard actually has grass (not so common around here) and is completely fenced in, so we are able to simply throw the dog outside instead of having to take him out every time he needs to go. Bonus because we are also going to throw the turtles out there in a preform pond to get them out of the house! We'll be ready to have visitors shortly - so let us know if you will be in the area!

Although life has been pretty hectic lately, we are happy to report that Bob is still enjoying his work and has adjusted somewhat to not having Colin all day every day. I'm loving the Colin time, though would still like to find some part time work in the future, and perhaps even a more full time gig in the next year or so. Colin has been busy as well. He now says 'mama' and 'dada' fairly regularly, and asks for 'nana' and 'papa' quite often as well. He's definitely turned into a toddler who loves to explore and will push boundaries right into time out. I'm often reminded about a post of my friends did a long time ago which included the Toddler Rules of Ownership and Sharing that I am now living every day. Here are the rules:
1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, It's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, automatically it becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours.
11. If it is broken, but you are having fun playing with the pieces, it's mine again.
12. If there is ANY doubt, it's mine.

Generally though, he is a happy pleasant child. We have been working on sharing things like sand toys in the playgrounds, and he has been doing really well. Of course, for every good incident there seems to be something less pleasant, such as the other day we went to the library and he was playing with some puzzles with a little girl. The little girl was waving hi, so Colin stood up and was staring at her (assessing her), and she came up and clawed him in the face :( So is the life of a toddler. Not everyone is nice, but hopefully he learns that it is important to be nice to others :)

Adding to our hectic life, we did take a trip back to MN last weekend. We had a 'free' trip home while we were staying in temp housing, and since we signed a lease, we decided to take that trip! It was a very quick weekend home, with an evening flight out of CA to MN on Friday, and a late evening/night trip back on Sunday. It was really great to see the MN family again. We went to the Renaissance festival and to an apple orchard - very fun fall activities (especially since fall doesn't really come to CA the same way). Colin especially loved seeing his cousins and playing with them. Below are some pictures of our trip, enjoy!