Catching Up, Vol. 2 - The Concert

We were supposed to leave Virginia on March 28th and head west. Only one thing could keep us there an extra day: Will's patriotic music concert at school. We had figured out "the plan" to get from VA to CA, leaving on the 28th as soon as our stuff was loaded up...and then Will comes home and tells me that his program is the NEXT morning (29th). When I said that he couldn't go because of our move, he was devastated. So, change of plans! I figured that since we were making him leave all of his friends and his school and home, the least we could do was let him sing with his class one last time. The concert was great. They sang the sounds of Americana, from "You're a Grand Old Flag" to James Brown's "Living in America". Will gave quite a performance, complete with hand gestures! I've seen several school concerts in the past years and he really sang his heart out this time. I was so glad we got to stay one more day. As soon as the concert was over, I grabbed Will from his class. It just about broke my heart to watch Will's classmates tell him goodbye and say how much they were going to miss him. I cried and cried and his teachers joined in. We have so many good memories from Great Bridge Preschool. And with that we loaded the kids into the already-packed van (complete with 2 cats!) and headed out. The adventure was underway!

Catching Up, Vol 1 - Haircut

It has been a LONG time and a lot has happened since my last update. To say we've been busy is an understatement! We are now semi-settled in California. We still don't have much on the walls but we're getting there. The move across the country was good...lots of pictures to come but I'll save those for another post. First I have to go way back to Virginia to catch up on all that happened there before we left! This is volume 1 of several...so check back!

On our last Friday in Virginia, Archer got his first haircut (just above is the "before" picture). Oh man, he's growing up. We took him to Pigtails and Crewcuts in Virginia Beach, which is the same place Will got his first hair cut. Archer chose to sit in the police car and held on to two "choo choos" the entire time. He didn't seem too interested in the actual haircut itself; there was plenty to distract him. It was a quick process and $16 later we had ourselves a cleaned-up little boy. No baby left there! It's now been almost a month since his first haircut and he's in need again. I think I need to learn how to cut hair; I could save a fortune on these boys and then spend it on myself! Here he is in the middle of the action:

Here's the handsome guy afterward:

One down, many more to go!

Storm, as in talking

I'm so pleased that Archer is picking up more words. All sorts of things are coming out of his mouth lately, including a lot of vomit...but I'll get to that later! He has been practicing more and more words; it seems like he's coming up with new words daily. Some new ones are: up (which actually sounds like bup), brush teeth, choo choo (actually doo doo but it's close!), mine, no, and the occasional mama. Before he'd only say mama on accident or if heavily coerced. Now he says it when I pick him up from the childcare at the Y, which incidentally he has decided he hates. He used to go willingly and now wails and wails when I drop him off. Luckily it only lasts a few minutes and then he happily plays. And as a bonus for me, he's so excited when I pick him up that he runs over yelling "mama mama!" I'll take it. However, he still holds a special place for dad (and always will)...here is he trying to fill Keith's shoes,literally.

Archer's current fascinations are with brushing his teeth, washing his hands, and trains. Hmmmm...maybe he's going to be an OCD conductor some day? He also really likes clementines. He climbs into the fridge to get one and if I don't peel it quickly enough, he'll try to eat it with the peel on. (He must get that from the Heyen side.) And, as mentioned before, he also had the stomach bug this week. He managed to throw up all over himself, all over me, and (most frustratingly) all over my freshly mopped floors. Ugh. It was a mess. So far Will and I have managed to avoid getting sick (knock on wood...for real!) but Will is now complaining that his stomach hurts. As you can see, they like to play in tight quarters. Looks like I'm in for another round. Oh and where is Keith you ask? Florida. No where near the land of vomit.

With all that, we continue to prepare for our move. We're hoping to get on the road on March 29th. We were planning to leave early in the morning but found out that's the day of Will's spring concert at school. Of course it is! He was so upset when I told him that he'd have to miss it that I told him he could go and we'd just leave a few hours later. I'm such a sucker! It will be a great way to end our time in Virginia.

Snow fun

So it actually snowed last weekend...we got an entire half inch of the white stuff. Yippee! I've been hoping it would snow a lot this winter since it's our last in a "snowy" area. Alas, we're having more of a typical Southern VA winter, in that we may get one more dusting but that's about it. Regardless, the boys (well, actually Will...Archer by proxy) were thrilled and we headed outside to play in the white wonderland (we had to use our imaginations) as soon as we got up. Unless my memory is wrong (happens all the time), this was Archer's first time playing in actual snow. Fun! So we bundled ourselves up to face the mid-20s temps and played for roughly 10 minutes before we were frozen solid. And by "played", I mean Will ran around making tracks in the snow and Archer stood there looking bewildered. Our play came to an abrupt halt when Archer took a face plant into a pile of snow that had accumulated on a beach ball left outside (hey, we live in a beachy area!) Still not sure if it was intentional or not. But he had a face covered in snow, which didn't go over well. We warmed up inside with hot chocolate and a TV show (this is all before 8am, mind you). Since we knew the snow wouldn't last, we then headed back out for a second round once Keith got up. He's much better at snow play than I am. They boys (all 3 of them) had a great time. And the good news is that the weather man on the local news said it may snow more tonight. Yippee!

Archer before venturing out...he's ready to go!

Ready to Read

I had a total Proud Mommy Moment today when I picked Will up from school. He had gone to the "stay and play" extended care at school because I had an appointment. Stay and play is less structured; the kids just hang out, read books, play, etc. When I picked him up his teacher, Miss Janeen, told me that he had been looking at books and she noticed that he could read several (in some cases all) words in them. She asked Will if he had books at home that he could read all the words in and he said yes. So she invited him to bring one to school tomorrow and read it in front of his classmates! We went right home and picked out a book...I Like Bugs by Margaret Wise Brown. It really is a little thing but Will is so proud of himself that he is able to read and that he gets to show off his skills to his friends. Miss Janeen said that there are only a few readers in the class and Will is one of them! I'm so glad I've been harping on this...kidding! I'm just glad he likes to read and I hope he continues to enjoy it. There is nothing I'd rather do than pick up a good book. I think it may be time for Will to get his own library card when we move! Such a big boy!

Shenanigans and Tom Foolery

It has been a crazy month around they Heyen house. Both boys have been sick, Archer multiple times, which has resulted in a lot of time being stuck in the house. We don't do well when we're stuck in the house; we all start to get a little crazy, including Mom and Dad. The boys do a pretty good job of entertaining themselves...and each other. Legos are the most popular toy in the house right now (with the trains and train table coming in a close second). Both boys spend time creating Lego wonders every day. Will's gotten pretty good at letting his creative juices flow; he created this house complete with a guy on the roof holding a fish! Creative AND realistic! Archer can even create little sculptures of his own. Keith also likes to get in on the Lego action.

Archer has recently become obsessed with the kitchen cupboards. He wants to get into them, root around in there, dig out all kinds of stuff to play with. His favorite is the K-cups for my Keurig coffee maker. They are the perfect size for his little hands. He stacks them, arranges them in pretty patterns, carries them around the house. He figured out how to defeat one of the child locks on the cabinets so now he's got easy entry.

Once Will recovered from his virus, he was back at school in time for Cowboy Day. How fun! He really enjoyed dressing up, eating "cowboy" food (hot dogs and chips apparently qualify) and getting his own sheriff's badge at the end of the day. Keith taught Archer to say "yee haw"; he likes to get in on the fun too.

Speaking of Archer, he turned 18 months in January. Wow...time flies. He's picking up more words (recently aquired: apple, bubble, ball, the aforementioned yee haw) and is trying his best to keep up with Will on all accounts. He's gaining weight (this kid actually ON the growth charts...a first for one of ours) and currently tips the scales at a portly 21 1/2 lbs. A lot of that might be head though...he's got quite the melon. Perfect size for Tupperwear though.

We are busily finalizing plans for our move to California. Our renters will move in to our Virginia house on April 1 so I guess that means we have to be gone by then. :) We even think we found a place to live in Coronado. We haven't seen it but a friend looked at it and said it's small, slightly dated, and quirky but clean and in a great location...right in downtown Coronado across from the Hotel del Coronado. It will be a departure for us not to have a yard (nothing to mow!) or a lot of extra space (this place tops out at just under 1200 sq ft!) but I think we can make it work for a few years. The options in Coronado (of what we could afford) were pretty limited so we feel lucky to have found something that will work. Keith can bike to work, the boys and I can walk to school, and we're a block from the beach. We will have a small (that's the theme here) space for guests in our loft so I hope our family and friends will consider a Coronado vacation. There are also plenty of hotels for those who enjoy more than a corner of a tiny townhouse. :)

The Year of Productivity

Well we're already 10 days into 2012 and I realize I'm way behind on blog updates. Oops! But it's not my fault. 2012 hit and we became a super productive machine over here. A giant to-do list was made and Keith and I have both been busy checking things off. We got our current house on the rental market and started seriously looking for housing in California. We thought we'd found one but unfortunately the owners just strung us along for a while and ended up finding a renter who could move in sooner. Drat! But it's okay; there's something out there for us...there had better be, I don't do well in tents. While we search, we'll continue to unload boxes and bags full of unused "stuff" from around our house (so we can actually fit into what will presumably be smaller CA digs). It feels so good to purge!

Our Christmas was great, as expected. The boys got a ton of great gifts and we really enjoyed spending time together. Christmas is so fun with kids. I did figure out that for Will, it's all about quantity and not quality. Size matters for sure. This year we opened all of our "non Santa" gifts on Christmas Eve and saved Santa gifts and stockings only for Christmas morning. Mistake! Will was disappointed because he only had a few gifts under the tree from Santa and wondered why in all the books Santa brings a whole sleigh full. Aha! He'd forgotten about all the goodies he got the night before...how quickly we forget! So next year I'll have to devise a better system. Regardless, all of their gifts were a hit. Luckily Archer is willing (ie: he doesn't really know better) to share his gifts with Will. It doesn't always work the other way.

The boys are both doing well. Will is back in school and we're all thankful for the routine. Archer has been battling some virus this week and is dealing with recurring fevers. Poor guy. Hopefully he'll be on the mend soon. He has such a good attitude that even when he's sick, he still likes to laugh and have fun. He's quite the ham. When he knows he's done something wrong, to try to smooth things over, he'll give the cutest squishy face smile. He scrunches his whole face up and smiles through it. Hilarious. Over Christmas he discovered a new game of poking Aunt Jill on the back and when she turned around and acted surprised, he'd double over laughing. Love that sense of humor. We'll continue our pre-move craziness for the next few months. Check back for more updates!