Yikes! It's cold (in the house)!

It's been a chilly 36 hours here in the van Poppel home. Sunday night, I noticed that the heater didn't seem to be heating as well as it usually does. The fan was blowing, but the air was not very warm. By 1:30 am Monday morning, the whole heating system didn't work and it was 64 degrees in our house. By 6 am it was 60 degrees. I called our landlord and she called her warranty company. They say that they can't get anyone to our house until the afternoon, between 1 and 5 pm! The kids and I go to the YMCA in the morning, eat lunch out and try not to get home till 1, hoping that the repair man will get to us sooner than later. Understandable the kids didn't want to take naps in their very cold rooms, so we all huddled under the comforter in my bedroom and watched TV. Ian fell asleep and Payton got bored. She went off to play.

I kept the oven on most of the afternoon because it usually helps warm up the kitchen. It didn't seem to help as much as I had hoped. Everyone was still dressed in a couple layers of clothing. I told Payton that we should bake something since the oven was on. She got all excited and retrieved 'her cookbook' from the shelf and started thumbing through the pages. She asked if we could make a football field cake. I had a cake mix, so I decided why not. The picture in the book had teddy bears for football players. We didn't have any on hand, so we used animal crackers instead. Payton helped with a lot of the decorations. She took the cake to school today :)

Anyway, the repairman got to our house around 4:15 p and said that the part he needed wasn't on the truck, so someone would have to come out tomorrow (but not him). I was pretty deflated after he said that. Facing another cold night did not sound too fun to me. Scott went to the store and got some space heaters for the kids' rooms. We all weathered the night remarkably well even though it was 57 degrees in the house when we got up this morning! I was so ready to get out of the house to take Payton to school and didn't want to go home. I had to stay close to home, of course, because we didn't know when the next repairman would get to our house. I went to a friend's house for about an hour and finally the repairman called. He was at our house at 10:40a and we finally got the heat back at 1:30p!

Evidently the first repairman was Jr. repairman. The second repairman was Sr. repairman. Jr. repairman didn't know what was going on. Sr. repairman saw Jr. repairman's work in the heating unit and just shook his head. He never said anything directly, but I got the just of Sr. repairman's frustration. When all was said and done, there were 4 things wrong with the heater: a bad connector,a blown transformer, a burned wire to the compressor, and a burnt out heating coil. Jr. Repairman just thought it was something called a sequencer. Ah, well, it doesn't matter anymore anyway because we have heat. And tonight I'm enjoying my nice and toasty 70 degree house.

During quiet time today Payton decided to put on some 'fancy clothes'. Her idea of 'fancy' was a bathing suit inside out and backwards, a pair of pajama shorts, two mismatched socks, and a frilly red velvet hat. I guess after having the house so cold, it felt downright hot to her. I don't get it, but I'm not three and a half.

Payton

Yesterday, Ian and I went to Payton's field trip to SciWorks (a children's science museum). The children seemed to have a good time. We went to the planetarium first. The kids have never been in one. Ian flipped out a bit at first, and then he fell asleep during the show. Payton enjoyed the show. She can tell you all about constellations now - 'they make pictures out of stars'. Go Payton, saying her four syllable word. How many of us say that we can say a word that has more syllables than our age?

 

I'm glad Ian fell asleep because a 45 minute show for an active 2 year old must seem like forever. As it was, the 30- 3 and 4 year olds were pretty antsy by the time we left. After the planetarium, we only had half an hour to explore the museum until lunch. Payton's class left after lunch, but we stayed a little longer.

Today at lunch, Ian, Payton and I are sitting there eating away when I hear Payton say, 'STOP!' I looked at Payton and asked what was the matter. She was kicking her chair and it was making noise, so she was telling her feet to stop and be quiet :) And then she would kick her chair some more. I told her that people usually don't talk to their appendages. She just grinned at me. 

By then Ian was done with his food that he had inhaled and he said, 'Mommy, all done. I want to go play with my truck.'  Ian's not 2 yet. He might end up being more talkative than Payton. Only time will tell.

It's the end of quiet time and Payton is chanting, 'I want to get up! I want to get up!' She'll probably want some juice, a snack and her favorite episode of the Backyardigans right now entitled 'Garbage Trek' (which we've watched now about 20 times in the last 2 weeks).

Snow Day!

The call came from the school at 5:48 am. 'Due to current weather conditions and forecast, there will be no school today' Yeah! - for Payton who was still sleeping soundly. I peeked outside, sure enough - SNOW!  By the time Payton woke up at 7:20 the snowing had stopped, but we still had a nice dusting of it. After breakfast, we went out to explore. Immediately, Payton was excited about making footprints. Ian ran around making footprints, but then they didn't know what else to do with themselves. Like last time, there wasn't enough to do much with. The greatest accumulation of snow was on our deck. I gathered some of the snow up and made a little snowman. Payton complained, 'Mommy, I want to make a big snowman!' That wasn't going to happen, so I tried to get the kids to scoop some snow together to make little balls. I yelled, 'Snow fight!' and there one of the little balls of snow at Ian's chest. He gave me the most confused/incredulous look like, 'How dare you, Mommy?! You're not suppose to throw things at me!' I threw one at Payton and she giggled. Ian finally giggled a little and we had a little snow fight. Well, that was about it. The kids got bored and cold so we went inside. I made them some hot chocolate and we all sat down at the table to warm up. The kids thought it was pretty cool for about 3 sips and then they both said they were done and went to play.

Alright, so the new comforter theory didn't work. Ian and I still had to go 'round and 'round till he got tired enough to give up and go to sleep for nap time. I even tried giving him a couple of toys to play with in his room. I have a feeling I'm going to have to take more drastic measures. Maybe I'll put his new toy garage in his room. Payton has a doll house in hers. Hopefully, this is just a phase that he's going through and he'll come to appreciate quiet/nap times. Payton has in her own way. She can stay in her room for up to two hours (on good days) without complaining. She reads and plays with her toys. I realize she is probably the exception when it comes to young children and naps, but I'm hoping that Ian inherited whatever Payton has when it comes to quiet time.

So, today is not nearly as cold as it has been. The temperatures in the 30s actually seem mild in comparison to when the temperatures were in the single digits and the teens. But the kids still don't want to go outside (actually neither do I). So why not have a TP party when you break open the huge pack of  toilet paper from Costco?

Bye-Bye Crib

The crib is gone. The baby bedding and decorations are gone. sniff, sniff. I'm a little sad. My baby is grown up and now comfortable in his big boy bed. Ian has actually been in a big bed for several months now, but I didn't do anything about the crib in his room. I don't know why - maybe laziness, maybe I just wasn't ready to let it go. In any case, Ian and I had a moment this week that pushed me to change his room.

I always read a book or two before the kids take their naps or have quiet time. After books,  I tried to lay Ian down and he started throwing a temper tantrum. He wants me to stay with him until he falls asleep and I refuse. I had to put him back in his room 3 times. Finally. I had to hold the door closed so that he would settle down. This all took us half an hour before he finally gave up. I know that if I just stayed in his room and sang to him he would go to sleep, but I can't do that every day. So, after the 30 minute fight with him, I decided that maybe if he loved his room, he wouldn't mind taking a nap in it. That was Friday night - the night that the family and I braved 20 degree weather to buy Ian a new comforter/sheet set.

Ian loves his new sheets, but I don't know if it'll be enough. The last two days he's fallen asleep in the car on his way home from somewhere, so I haven't had to battle the start of nap time. We'll have to see how it goes tomorrow.

Since the temperature at 3 pm yesterday was suppose to hit 32 degrees (F) and it suppose to stay below freezing for a couple of days, I decided to perform a little experiment with the kids. We filled different containers with water and set them outside. We talked about what would happen. Payton understood, of course, a lot more than Ian. Ian just liked playing with the food coloring that we put in the water to make it look pretty. Before we went to bed there was a little ice on top, but by the time the kids woke up, the water was frozen solid. They had more fun playing with the colored water this morning. Payton didn't want me to throw it away. We had to do a second ice tray with toothpicks and colored water. I also tried layering different colors (picture on right) but they seemed to diffuse together. But it was still fun.

This morning it was in the mid-teens, but we went to the gym anyway. It's not icy - just flippin' COLD. Tomorrow the low is suppose to be 8! I don't think we'll be doing much outside.

Ups and Downs

Last night Payton went to her first birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. The birthday girl is from Payton's class at school and turned 4 years old. Payton was on cloud 9. She had the best time with her classmates. What's not to love about pizza, cake and a singing mouse? It was a little much for a school night, but Payton actually didn't take long to settle down to go to sleep. Daddy took Ian to the mall for Chick-Fil-A and the play park, so he wouldn't feel too left out. They seemed to have a good time as well.

Yesterday afternoon, we ventured out into the 40 degree weather for a play date at a park near by with Samuel and Sarah. Their Mommy brought me hot chocolate which made the cold easier to bear. The kids didn't seem to mind at first, but after about 40 minutes Ian was ready to go because his hands were cold. I tried to get mittens on him, but he wouldn't have it. After me holding him for about 10 minutes warming up his hands, he was better and played a little longer.  It's nice to get the kids out and let them run around. Playing inside all day gets very old! I don't know how people do it farther north. 

Today, we're suppose to get the arctic blast of cold air. As I write this morning, I think we are nearing our high temperature of 37 degrees. By this evening it should be in the teens. I don't think we will be playing much outside for the next couple of days. We just don't have the appropriate clothes to enjoy that weather. Does anyone actually enjoy being this cold? 

Weekend at Uncle Kevin's House

The last weekend of our trip was spent at Uncle Kevin and Aunt Dawna's house. Payton loves their house because they have a trampoline in the backyard and a playground right next to their house. There was lots of playing with the cousins. My children were getting pretty tired by the end of the trip. Being away from home, their own beds and their usual routine was starting to wear on them. Thus, napping on Mommy.

We also celebrated Kiera's fourth birthday and my brother's 35th birthday. The kids got to eat lots of cake. Payton only ate the icing. Ian ate everything and then wanted Payton's too!

Let's Make a Deal

Scott and I made a deal. Deals are made often in this household. They are always formed in order to get what one person wants, but usually they benefit both people involved. A lot of times we will make deals with the children like, 'If you clean your room, you can have 2 M&Ms.' Anyway, Scott wanted to play golf this morning, so he said he would get up with the children this morning, and then give me some free time Sunday afternoon. I agreed. Poor Scott had to get up at 6:10 this morning and I slept in till 8! I can't remember the last time I was still in bed at 8 am. So I got up and Scott left for golf.

The children helped me put together and apple pie. I still have apples in the freezer from the trip to the orchard. Frozen apples do not fit neatly into a pie crust. It took an hour and 10 minutes at 400 degrees to get the thing done. I hope it's yummy.

Then we attempted to clean up the play room. (The deal was, that if the kids helped clean up, they could get one of their chocolate gold coins.) This morning was actually very pretty. The sun was shining. It was cool, but very nice with our coats on. We played outside for a while. The kids and I actually had a great morning.


Ian is still having a little difficulty putting himself to sleep after the trip to TX. He always wants mommy to sleep next to him, but I'm refusing to. So he ends up crying himself to sleep. It's kind of sad, but he needs to be able to put himself to sleep without my help like he did before our trip. Today during nap time, he was protesting sleep. After he settled down, I found him in his chair and moved him to his bed :)

The Week With Grandma and Grandpa

We spent the week with Grandma and Grandpa's house, half of it with my brother and his family. There was lots of arts and crafts, playing in the garden (aka: huge sand box), and playing with the cousins. Grandma bought lots of Christmas foam stickers and things to decorate with them.



Grandpa made four large holes in the garden for the children to play in. Payton called them houses in her neighborhood.





One day we went to a play park right on the bay front, next to a pier. It was a beautiful day for the outing - sunny and mid-70s. Ian was asleep for the walk on the pier, but we woke him up for the park.





After Kevin and Dawna returned home, we picked up fried chicken on day and brought it over to Great-grandma's house. The kids had a great time playing with all of her toys. She had some toys that Grandpa used to play with when he was a child. Ian especially liked all the tractors she had.

Catch Up...

It's been a while since I've posted for a couple of reasons. First, after the visit to Scott's parents' home, we traveled to my parents' place in Odem on Dec. 28th. My parents still have dial-up so I didn't even attempt to get on the net. I think it would have driven me a little crazy if I had. Second, we visited my brother's home in Cat Spring on Jan. 4th where we stayed till we came home on the 6th. At Kevin's, I didn't get much time to do much but play with the kids because Ian was/is having a separation anxiety issues. So, now that I'm home, I can catch up a little because the trip to TX was quite an eventful one.

The drive to my parents' home is about 3-3.5 hours long. It was uneventful :) but that evening we got together with some friends from medical school - two other couples, each with two children. The children hit it off right away which was great for the adults, not so great for the cat, Sammy. At one point, the children had formed a pack and chased Sammy around until one of the adults had to step in. It was very nice to catch up with everyone.

The next day, Dawna and Kevin came to my parents' home. We had 6 adults and 5 children sleeping in a 3 bedroom house. All the children had Superman sleeping bag pallets on the floor. My children are not used to sleeping in the same bedroom, so the thought it was the coolest thing in the world. They wanted to play instead of sleep, so unfortunately, either Daddy or I had to stand guard outside the door so that things wouldn't get out of control.

We opened our Christmas stockings together and Great Grandma and Aunt Lucy joined us. The kids received plenty of chocolate and bubble blower.