A reason for my silence and updates

It has been a long time since my last post for a good reason.

Days after Valentine's Day and our trip to the zoo, we put an offer in on a house. As anyone can imagine, this experience has consumed me. Not only am I going through a ton of paperwork and making a dozen phone calls a day, but I'm also sorting through a thousand what-ifs. We are about to clear the final hurdle before our sprint to the finish line: The appraisal. If that goes through for us, the house is as good as ours. If it goes sour, well... that could potentially become a dealbreaker. So, understandably, I am a bit of a mess waiting for the appraiser's report.

The girls are excited about the upcoming move. They got to go with us to the inspection and had a blast running through the house.

The girls running wild in the new living room (Entry way to the right, master bedroom to the left, kitchen behind the wall in the middle)

Connor's first birthday is right around the corner, though. Poor boy has had his first birthday entirely consumed by my house thoughts, since closing date is a few days before and our move date is a few days after. So he'll turn 1 while we're in transition. Everyone tells me not to worry, he won't remember, but I'm a sucker for making memories and documenting them. Even things like first birthdays.

So, while his actual birthday may be overlooked, he'll certainly have a birthday to remember. If things work out, the boy is getting a puppy for his birthday. ;-) Well, that and a toddler basketball hoop. And probably a toy car, since he loves all the ones we find at various playdates.

These darn kids insist on growing up!

Cadence is so ready for kindergarten it's not funny anymore. We drove by the school we would be zoned for after the move (knock on wood, cross fingers and pray) and pointed it out to her. Rather than whine about not wanting to go as she has done in the past, she kicked her feet and grinned. Yesterday, she sat down and worked her way through an entire book. It took a little coaxing on my part to get her through the last few pages, but we did it. She was so proud of herself when I announced "the end!" When we talked about school, her first question was "will it have books to read?" Yes, my dear, there will be dozens of books to read. She's slowly gaining confidence.

Her art skills remain above par. During church, James kept tapping me on the shoulder and pointing to her drawings with a look of shock on his face, because even he could recognize the characters she put on paper. She was able to draw the main group of ponies from "My Little Ponies", except she was drawing them from the back, because they were looking at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. You could recognize each of them due to the little details she put in. Next, she drew Elsa and Anna and Olaf from the movie "Frozen" and added sparkles and snowflakes.

Megan is right behind Cadence in so many ways. She tries to keep up, but she doesn't quite have the knack for fine motor skills Cadence has. She wants to read with us, but she's so eager she gets her letters mixed up still. However, if I help her sound it out, she can blend them in an instant (that was the part Cadence struggled with) and tell me what the word is.

She has the most amazing imagination, though. The stories this girl can tell! She carries around an old cell phone of mine and tells me her prince is going to call, then I'll catch her "on the phone" talking about a dance. I giggle a little when she tells me her prince is going to kiss her in an excited voice. I warn her not to let Daddy know and she'll laugh and run off. The other day I caught her in the bathroom talking to her reflection, who I was informed is actually her friend from the mirror world. I still remember 2 years ago laying on the couch as she pointed out the friendly red dragon flying around on our ceiling and discussing how he bit her once but it was an accident.

And Connor... He's such a character. He loves stairs and gets mad when I block them off. He loves food and gets mad when I don't share. He loves remotes and cell phones and all things babies love and gets mad when I take them away. He adores his sisters and wants to be with them at all times, unless he's getting tired and demands to be in my lap while he refuses to sleep. He loves to climb and wrestle, though he hasn't quite figured out that just because someone's on the floor doesn't mean they want to wrestle. I have to sit on the couch to fix the girls' hair now because he tries to play with us.

His new trick is putting things in buckets, whether that's where they belong or not. I put Megan's laundry on the floor by the closet and when I went back, Connor had put all of it in their toy bucket. Yesterday while cleaning, he found puzzle pieces on the floor in the girls' room and attempted to put them in the doll bin, much to Cadence's distress. We could not convince him to put them in the smaller bin. He wanted to put it in the big one. Once we moved the doll one out of his reach, he contented himself with putting the pieces in the smaller one and dumping them back out again. And no cupboard of mine is safe, anymore. If I forget to put the kitchen baby gate up, my pots and pans are rearranged by my little helper.

No place is safe from this little dare devil! Climb, climb, climb!

He's much like Megan in his walking, though. Two months after his first step, he finally got around to figuring out the walking thing. So, now he's walking everywhere. Unfortunately, he feels that he should now get the same treatment as his walking sisters and wants to walk whenever we go out into public. He doesn't want to be held. It's impossible to keep pants on him with all this walking, too. He's got his father's build, all torso and shorter legs. So pants that fit his waist are too long and he'll step on them until they come off.