Okay, so a few weeks ago it looked about like this (living room):
Then it was primed and suddenly it looked like a real house. For living in, even:
Then we painted it (I know, it’s a different wall–but same room, same colors):
And it dried and looked even better, but you’ll have to wait for the next batch of photos. I LOVE IT! I want to live there!
She sure is. When daddy came in for dinner (before returning to the almost literal grind) Ada had him laughing like I hadn’t been able to.
My darling is working day and night on our addition before he has to get back to “work” when the money runs out. He is amazing, and completely deserves Ada!
I just try to be worthy of both of them by keeping the fresh bread coming. And I have plans to clean the living room too!
(oh, man, that’s not really a sex magazine in my wholesome picture–I swear, it’s the cover of Creative Loafing, our local weekly paper thing)
Our friend Tal had a birthday party at the park today. Ada and I had a blast. David had to stay home and work (I know, it sounds like a contradiction). He works constantly. Our money is almost gone, so he has to finish building our house before we need groceries!
The house is coming along spectacularly. Tomorrow the exterior will be painted. He’s tiling the shower right now, and let me tell you, it is worlds different from the showers he puts in for investors. We have so many tiles, and no more (we shopped at a fundraising Habitat for Humanity outlet and you only get what they have), and we mixed and matched (as many as Habitat for Humanity had, plus two square feet of $11 per sq ft fancy tiles from Home Depot to use as an accent, plus a short stack of beautiful slate tiles from Tons of Tile to complement them), so some creativity is called for. Just wait until I have pictures. You will be wowed!
Um, right, Tal’s party (sorry if you’re reading this, Tal)!
David’s absense not withstanding, we had fun. We don’t see our friends nearly often enough and this was a good chance to see several of them. As if that wasn’t enough, Tal’s thoughtful parents Mandy and Wayne gave Ada a monkey–her first! She immediately told me that he wanted to climb the telephone wires, then put him to work shimmying up a pole. It was perfect! On the way back to the car, the monkey walked on the sidewalk with Ada. When we got home, the monkey wanted to meet Ada’s daddy, and go inside to read a book. He had to have a popsicle with that.
Imaginative play is the best and Ada just knocks me out! She has a green plastic bucket (think beach) and a smaller version of the same. This morning the buckets were nursing on the couch. Just now as I write this, Ada is handing me what she calls the “big drinks.” Two amplifier cords for me to suck on, while she “drinks from two speaker plugs. What? Bad idea to encourage sucking on wires? Bad idea to provoke the cat too, but try explaining that to Ada. Consequences don’t teach her a lesson–they just make her self-riteous.
sigh
Late, I know! I’ve been painting, shopping, baking, nursing . . .
Ada loved Halloween. She was (is?) a little monster: grey floofy pajamas with a furry brown stripe running down her back to make a dragging tail. There were black wings too, but she declined to wear them (even though she helped me paint them and enjoyed talking about her black wings). No horns, no makeup . . . she is two, and we try to enjoy a simple life!
She was great! She stomped about declaring that “Ada is a monster!” and “Ada is scary!” She felt around for her tail and held it in her hand saying, “Oh, Ada has a long, strong tail!”
And she pestered us to go trick-or-treating while we ate dinner. Then she took up her tiny plastic jack-o-lantern and off we went. We went to maybe five houses and had a grand time saying, “trick-or-treat!” (sometimes). The tiny jack-o-lantern fit about seven pieces of candy, then we returned to Grammy’s and Grandaddy’s house for delicious sugarless treats: pumpkin brownies, mulled cider, and a few nibbles of Grammy’s wholesome Halloween candy (okay, David and I brought some chocolate stuff and we nibbled on that too).
Ada stripped and took a bath–she makes herself at home.
After hours of inactivity from the front porch, someone knocked! David went to dump the bowl of candy into the kid’s bag but it turned out to be about twenty kids. So it was two candies apieace! We were left with three or four for ourselves . . . and leftovers had seemed like such a sure thing!
A couple of blocks from Grammy and Granddaddy’s house there is a beautiful house with a stone wall and two black metal jack-o-lanterns swinging on poles in front of the gate. Ada loves those jack-o-lanterns. She and Grammy frequently walk down to admire them. Once they met the family who lives there. The eight year old daughter suggested that Ada could fill the jack-o-lanterns with leaves. The five your old son became distraught at witnessing this activity so that wrapped it up. But the next day there was a note for Ada and a packet of candy in one of the jack-o-lanterns!
So sweet!
Ada is really looking forward to next Halloween. She has expressed interest in being a witch, but time will tell. She is very fond of her monster costume. Today she was suggesting to her monkey that he wear a monster costume!
