April 3

We had MOPS and preschool this morning, along with several really good storms. But when we left the house for the morning, it was dry, so I didn't make the kids wear rain boots or rain coats.

When it was time to leave MOPS to pick Caleb up from school, it was raining again. HARD. And Daisy is the kind of nearly-three-year-old who freaks out if she gets wet and it wasn't her idea. Luckily, it was babywearing for the win. I put Lily on my front in the sling, Daisy on my back, all of our stuff in my purse, and we were off! It worked so well that we did it again when we went in to pick up Caleb, only this time Lily was on my front in the sling and Daisy was on my back in the Ergo. I'm not going to lie; wearing two children at once absolutely made me feel like SuperMom. It was awesome. (and exhausting)

And then? After lunch? All three children napped.

At the same time.

For three hours.

Yep.

This doesn't happen so much anymore, so I savored it. Even better was that another round of really good thunderstorms came through while the children napped. It was beautiful.

After I relaxed for a bit, I got to work removing baseboards (we are beginning the process of pulling up the flooring in our dining room and hallway so that we can replace it with hardwood that matches the rest of our floors). And then Lily woke up. 

Luckily, she was content to look out the back door while I worked.

(Her hair looks funny from all the wind and rain earlier.)

I know she's slightly out of focus, but I love that mischievous/curious look in her eyes. As soon as this girl is mobile, she is going to be a handful!

For now, though, she's sweet and stationary.

(The floor she's sitting on is one of the ones that will go. Hooray! I love hard wood, but hate that stuff. It's just terrible on so many levels.)

Meanwhile, this was my task.

The paneling will also go, and we'll replace it with drywall. And we'll sand and re-paint the baseboards. 

After dinner, Chris took the kids swimming while I stayed home to work on the baseboards.

Removing baseboards is really therapeutic. I love demo.

And the floor I'm sitting on? Also will be gone, and replaced with wood. Praise the Lord. That floor has been my biggest embarrassment about our house since the day we moved in. I'm so ready for it to be gone!

While the kids were swimming the tornado sirens went off again, so Chris dried them off and got them home before the storms hit.

Caleb and Daisy were thrilled with my progress, which included half of the dining room and almost all of the long hall. I also removed the doors to the coat closet and linen closet, and finally pulled out that disgusting old carpet that had been lingering in the bottom of them. Surprisingly, the closets had hard wood under the carpet, even though the hallway is linoleum. Weird, huh? Our goal for the new flooring is to match that wood as closely as possible.

Caleb especially liked the accessible closet floor space. He quickly declared, "This can be where we hang our coats, and where you can take pictures!"

What? The boy wants me to have an in-home studio?

He wants me to take his picture?

Okay!

And then, of course came the silly faces.

Meanwhile, Chris was bathing Lily and Daisy was getting ready for her bath. She came running - buck naked - to be in the picture, but I refused to photograph her unless she put something on. 

She ran to the bathroom and came back wearing this: 

It's a hand towel. My sweet little pea is so tiny that a hand towel wraps around her perfectly.

Also, look at how much she adores her brother. It melts my heart.

Aren't they funny?

Hopefully I'll finish the baseboards tomorrow, and this weekend will find us pulling up old flooring, pulling down old paneling, and (yikes!) knocking out a wall. Hooray!