Family of action

Lots of exciting things going on around here. A list seems appropriate.
1) Mark got a job. And there was great rejoicing.

2) Jennifer is actively looking for apartments, starting around June 1. Happy birthday to me! (We will really miss her, but I think we're all ready.)
3) Meg is potty training. I'm not ready, but she is. She pulls down her trousers in public places annoucing, "poo poo" which is universal for number 1 or 2. About 2/3 of the time, she actually goes. Amazing.
4) This potty training is tough because I can't keep her in clothes in general. She's constantly trying to take off everything so I have worked to find clothes she can't take off, making it that much harder when she announces her need to use the "flush."
5) I am going to have to rethink my strategy.
6) I've been getting my garden beds ready for planting vegetables.
7) I was bummed to realize I'm not supposed to plant my garden or annuals until Mother's Day. Boooring.
8) The tooth fairy came for Andy. He got $1. Just a plain dollar bill, too, although his name was written on it. A two dollar bill or a gold dollar would have been cooler, but my friends' advice to go for something easy to replicate made sense.
9) Shocking to me is how many of my friends give out $10 and $20 for a lost tooth. Seriously? I think Mark would start pulling out his teeth for casholinis like that.
10) Bjorn and I have been working our way through the Star Wars prequels. And you know what? They're really kind of bad. Natalie Portman's hair was pretty awesome, Hayden Christiansen's hair was remarkably bad and Yoda is downright awesome.

For the record

* Andy's gone nine days with a dry pull-up/underpants at night. Certainly a record.
* I am bitter at Toys R Us in Fair Lakes. I returned Andy's defective Razor Carvr scooter. They were out and not only refused to sell me the store model, but wouldn't call other stores to see if they had it in stock. "You can order it online," isn't a fair response for a Christmas present for a four year old.
* Bjorn found it at the one in Manassas.
* The kids and I trucked out to find it, for $20 less than what I'd returned. That that Toys R Us.
* Mark is home from college and isn't going back.
* This house has gotten very crowded, very fast. We've gone from four people to six people in two months, including four adults.
* The non-BCS bowl games are a joke. Who cares about the EagleBank bowl with Temple and UCLA? It's just an exhibition game really.
* We are three months away from March Madness. By then, hopefully the adults in my house have some kind of plan.
* Seriously, Blogger? No spell check in the new editor?

Plans

In the midst of a long-winter funk where we've all been trapped in the house, sick and sick of being indoors, I'm trying to stay positive by thinking of all the fun stuff I want to do in the relatively near future (sorry, Bjorn, you might even have to come with me on some of these). These are in no particular order except how I was writing them in a staff meeting the other day. Some are obviously longer term than others.

1). Teach Andy to read and Meg to walk.
2). Visit the Newseum.
3). Get move involved in my community, like the pool and soccer for Andy.
5). Write a book. My plan -- to write a book on having a second kids. Thousands are out on the first baby, but I haven't found anything practical on handling two.
6) Start taking master's degree classes at Mason again.
7). Teach the kids to grow a vegetable garden.
8). Go to the beach, possibly even with friends (are you listening Mo and Bill?)
9). Win an award personally (I have no idea what, but it would be fun).
10) Present an award.
11). Climb the stairs of the Washington Monument.
12) Join a church.
13). Take a yoga class.
14). Publish a paper.
15). Teach a class.
16). Take and frame more photographs for around the house.
17). Get Andy involved in swimming lessons.
18). Leave the kids overnight and go somewhere just the two of us!

To be continued...constantly...What else should I want to do?

Edited to add:

19). Get tickets to Mason basketball games.

This and that

Apparently my kids don't understand the concept that "fall back" daylight savings is the good one where you get to sleep an extra hour. Instead, they seem to believe they can stay up later and wake up earlier. Good times. So in lieu of a decent post, here are the highlights:

• Meg can crawl. No, not fast. Yet. But she gets up on her knees and actually ooches forward.
• Meg doesn't seem to answer to Meg, or even Baby Meg, but her head turns for Margaret.
• Andy is obsessed with a book we found on the shelves about Professor Poopypants. It's a chapter book in the Captain Underpants series. In Googling it for this post, I found the Professor Poopypants Name Changer. My name is Flunky Toiletsniffer. You're welcome.
• Bjorn has been working hard on this election for Obama. He was up until 3ish last night walking a route and putting "Vote" doorhangers throughout Fairfax. The cooler thing is he took a 17-year-old neighbor and her boyfriend to get a route, too. (When I typed that, it somehow seemed sketchy taking a teenager and her friend out at midnight, but it really isn't. Promise.)
• I got a job working the polls today at my local elementary school. It's a non-partisan job. I get to stand outside the school and hand out sample ballots. Then after the polls close at 7, I get to help as they add up all the numbers. I'm actually pretty excited about it. I hope it's not totally lame.

Week of firsts

Lots of things happened last week, I can't really believe it all fell in the same week.

• Meg went to school/daycare for the first time.
• Andy went to his new school for the first time.
• I went back to work for the first time since Meg was born.
• I had my first night away from Meg, going to New York for work this week.
• Mark moved to Virginia Beach, taking with him all his furniture and leaving a fairly empty room.
• Bjorn drove to Virginia Beach to give Mark his car (Mark drove in the U-Haul).
• Bjorn took the Amtrak regional train back (which was 2 1/2 hours late).
• Andy got his first sinus/ear infection since getting ear tubes in December.
• Andy started antibiotics (augmenten) for the first time since he had ear tubes.
• Bjorn had a work meeting this weekend for a start-up he's helping with.

Is that all? No wonder I'm tired.

P.S. I added a few new pictures onto Flickr. I can't figure out how to start a totally new set and have it appear on the right so right now I'm just adding to the old set. If you know how to change that, please let me know.

My list

Inspired by this site, here is a list of things going on around here:

1. Operation big boy pants (i.e. potty training) has been temporarily suspended due to a sudden bout of diarrhea. Yes, it's as gross as it sounds.
2. Last week, we had potty training boot camp at a friends where we let the boys run naked in the back yard for several hours. Andy did great. Then I went to another friends and he went on the carpet. We ended up having to give the boys a bath to get Andy clean.
3. Is there a Hallmark card with the sentiment, "I'm sorry my kid soiled your home?"
4. Andy said unbidden last week, "There is no crying in baseball." What a good boy.
5. In response to me telling him he could do X, Y or Z after he did something else, he said, "No, Mommy. I'll make you a deal." I was so surprised I wanted to know what deal he would offer me. He didn't have one (and doesn't seem to quite get the phrase), but it cracked me up because I must say that a lot.
6. Meg slept from 8:45 last night until 5:15 this morning.
7. That would have been great if Andy wasn't up at 4:45 this morning wanting something.
8. I have hurt my back, probably lifting the car seat in and out of the car and have been sleeping with a heating pad.
9. Meg is smiling and talking a lot. However, I can't seem to get her to smile at the camera. It clicks just as she stops smiling. I took about 20 pictures of her after-smile this weekend.
10. My tulips in the front yard are gorgeous.
11. Our tax return is on its way to the IRS in Atlanta. I even went and mailed it personally at the post office to ensure it had enough postage for all 47 pages and the check.
12. Bjorn is out of town until Wednesday. Boo hoo.
13. I watched the E! True Hollywood Story of Owen and Luke Wilson. Who knew they grew up so close to me in Dallas?
14. The laundry is totally done. And folded. And (mostly) put away. I want a medal.