Happy Early Easter

My son asked me to buy him bunny ears. We found them at Target. They aren't the most masculine thing ever, but who cares. Old bunny is in the front.

If you notice the couch in the back is a different shade than normal. We got a used sectional from a friend. Why anyone would get a used sectional to move across two states is beyond me. But yet it sort of felt like a tithing blessing. We have too many other things to buy, to buy a second couch, but yet our TV will be in the basement. Luckily there is a slip cover that goes on top of it. Yes, it does feel like a blessing, because a slip cover alone cost more than I want to spend on a couch right now. I know some people wouldn't move crappy used furniture 11 hours. (Lets be honest in a moving truck, 11 is a goal.) Is my crappy used furniture even worth anything? I don't know but I know I wouldn't be able to replace it all right away, so its worth it to move, because my husband isn't about to get rid of our books and bookcases.  Not to mention our TV, and computers, are worth moving. Plus we have a lot of food storage. So if we are moving all that, I want to bring the boxed up baby clothes, now our moving bill is already up, which means its cost effective to move my furniture. Lets not forget our beds which weren't used when we bought them.
This was suppose to be a Happy Early Easter Post, not a guilty conscious post.

Stuff

We have way too much stuff.
Like seriously, I'm packing packing packing, wondering why I'm bringing it all.  But yet I keep packing most of it.  That's not entirely true, we have gotten rid of TON, but not nearly enough.  I hope to never shop again once I move.

Wyoming

We spent a lot of time driving through Wyoming this past weekend.  I have no recollection of driving through Wyoming in my lifetime.  But anytime I hear of people driving through Wyoming to get to Utah I think of the Mormon pioneers.  That along with Alisa's blog posts about Nauvoo made me really think about the Pioneers this weekend.
Here are my jumbled thoughts about Pioneers:

• I'm pretty sure Wyoming is mostly the same was it was when the Pioneer crossed it, minus the Interstate, telephone wires and windmills, take those away and add buffalo herds. Thank goodness for fast food, cars, and toilets.  Although the almost eradication of the buffalo herds seems a shame.  Brent and I always try to imagine what they would look like when we are in the middle of nowhere western United States.
• If Brent and I were born a 150 years earlier, I'm pretty sure I would have had to cross mostly by myself.  Not that I think that Brent is a deadbeat, not that at all, he just always seems to be gone, for Church, work, or school, so he probably would have already been in Utah, with those scouting missions, or with some Battalion, or on a mission. I don't really know that much about Pioneers so maybe I have my history mixed up.  But I'm pretty sure if I was a pioneer I would have had to do a lot on my own, while he would be off being a Priesthood leader.  That just seems to be our life.  I can't picture being a pioneer with Brent around, but instead I can only imagine being with my kids waiting to hear something. Then again that is pretty much our life now, we just get have him check in more often, thank goodness.  I can't tell if that is sad, or good that I think my husband is so capable.
• Years ago I told Brent I could have never been a pioneer I just couldn't endure that.  He said of course you could have, you do what you have to do, and get it done.  I still remember that because it was nice to have his vote of confidence.
• In one of her posts, Alisa, wrote, "Hostility had followed the Mormons into Illinois.  In June 1844, Joseph Smith, their prophet and leader, was martyred in nearby Carthage.  After the murder of Joseph Smith, agitation against the Mormons continued, until the Latter-day Saints finally fled, leaving behind their homes and the newly constructed temple.  Many families had just barely moved into their brick homes, looking forward to a peaceful life on the flats and bluffs above the River--only to find themselves crossing that River in the frigid winter, never to return." I thought about that a lot on our drive back to Utah in Wyoming.  I thought about all those poor women with their children in heavy cotton clothing, that was hot in the summer and cold in the winter, crossing Wyoming.  In some ways I could really relate to the Pioneers, and in some ways I'm glad I can't.  Brent and I have moved a lot over the last 6 years, in fact 9 times.  That is not counting, the three moves we both made individually after we met before we got married.  We never moved because we were getting kicked out but I can related to no stability, and just up and moving. Packing up everything you own and moving a week later, when you had no idea you were going to move a month previous.  I can relate to plans that went awry and canceling hopes and instead moving. But now after all those moves, we are moving, to a nice big house, three stories, bedrooms for all, big kitchen.  We have the hope of stability, the hope that we will be in our big house for at least 5 years, if forever.  (I don't think we will, but its weird to know the first house we ever bought would fit us for the rest of our lives.) It would really quite be terrible, if within the year, after we got all settled, if we had to move, and shut the door and never return, leaving behind almost everything.  
• Overall my heart bled for those poor pioneers who had to cross the plains.  Leave the green lush east, for the Utah desert. But I guess that was the point, it was so far away and so secluded no one would try to take it away when once they made the ground fertile.  Which they did gardening is so much easier in Utah that in many places, and it has great soil.
• Lastly, has nothing to do with Pioneers.  I love the big sky that Wyoming has, but is is COLD up there.  I think I'll skip Wyoming in future places to live. I'm a big fan of big skies.  That's why I'm excited for Colorado, big skies and mountains. Thats pretty much all I want out of life. But Wyoming has bigger skies, so I'm happy to drive through it.

We're Back :(

J had his last day of preschool last Thursday.  Yes, its two weeks before we leave, but its a long story a mother's decision, and it involves spring break.

Then we got in the car and drove to our new house.  It was the first time the kids got to see and they love it.  It was in better shape than I remember, and now that I own it I have fell madly in love with it.  (Before I was trying to stay unemotional, trying to make a financial decision, not an emotional plea.) 

We went out to make sure it was still there, and clean it.  We now have a garage door opener!

I still think the outside of the house is dated but as Brent wisely pointed out, it is.  Apparently it was the first one built on the street. 

The whole interior needs to be repainted, and they hung more pictures and anchored more things, than I would think was possible, and this is saying something coming from me, I loves wall hangings. The house is 12 years old, and other than a few really bad paint jobs, it hasn't been painted since it was built, which means the walls looks very sad.

First thing we bought as silly has it sounds was a TV stand at walmart. Its all set up and waiting.  Eventhough our TV is mounted on the wall.

We bought a fridge, we went back and forth between finding one on Craigslist and buying one new.  We ended up buying one new.

We bought pergo for our dining room.  Ideally we would have matched our dining room floor with our kitchen floor since they are really the same room, but that would have been an extra $1000, and so we decided to save that for another date if we decided.

We also bought a bathroom vanity for our master bathroom, because that really was dated and I hated it, and my husband was being nice.  Not to mention there is a big hole in the bathroom linoleum so we figured if we are going to replace, we are going to replace, we have tile to match. 

We got enough tile to replace the tile in the kid's bathroom while we're at it.  There vanity isn't hideous and dated, but the wood is water damaged.  I don't know if we'll buy a new one or not.  Ideally we would put the wood of our vanity with their counter top, but I'm not sure things work like that. 

We checked out ward.  And now we are back to finish packing and such.  Brent also has a few finals.  I want to go home.  I miss my house :(

Separating Posts- The Dog

This story is a repeat, but I took it out of the previous blog post to added these pictures.

Ever since my daughter was about 4 months old my husband and I have joked she is a dog whisperer.  Dogs really love her, and she loves them.  But she is quite jumpy and easily startled by their jumpy behavior. Lately every time my daughter has to say good bye to a dog she cries.  So a few days ago I asked her if she thought her daddy would ever buy her a dog.  She calmly said "no" and then started crying again.

Wet Phone

Two Saturdays ago I dropped my phone in the toilet.  Which is totally lame.  It worked fine for a day, but then it slowly got worse.  Soon I couldn't hang up, I just had to wait for the phone to disconnect from the call.  A friend suggested that I take out the battery and put both the phone and the battery in a sealed bag of rice.  So tried it, unfortunately the on off switch was the same as the hang up button.  Which means I couldn't turn my phone back on.  I was a little worried, when I couldn't turn it back on, Brent was already at work and I don't have a house phone.  I started googling how much phones cost.
When I thought go phones, they take sim cards just the same as any phone and are around $10.
So I have a new phone, it cost $12, I miss not having a camera, but other than that I like it better than my previous phone.  Would have thought?
My broken phone was a full touch screen with no number buttons.  Turns out I'm old fashion, I hated not having buttons.  When we got our phones a year and half ago, they were suppose to be pretty awesome for not paying for a data plan.  But I hated our phones, and they are heavy. So I'm quite happy with my lightweight go phone.  If only had a camera.  This is the first time I've ever owned a cell phone without a camera, my first phone back in 2003 had a camera, and MP3s.  This is also my first phone without music.  But I'm so much happier with this phone, I either want to stay with cheap phones or get a blackberry.  I know that is so like pre-iphone era.  But I really have no desire for an iphone, and my husband plans on one day getting an android, but I think I would much rather the keys of a blackberry.  But that is just me.
By the way there is a good chance if your number has changed in the last two years and you want me to call you, I don't have your number. Along with all the downfalls of my previous phone, apparently I was not saving my numbers on the SIM card.

Another Story

In January, I told my husband one year, and that is it.  I can only handle one more year in this apartment.  We toyed around with the idea of long we could stay in our apartment after he finished school, how much money we could save in the apartment without tuition due. I had decided one year.  Six months until school was out and six months of saving, at the most.  That would mean in July we could sign a 6 month lease.  I told him, come summer I am meeting with a new realtor.  I said I don't care if we buy a house, but nothing changes if nothing changes and so we have to go look at house before we can decided if we should buy or rent a house. The only way I know to make that decision is to go look at what we can buy.  Because at this point after school is over, and tuition payments are over, living in this state, there is no reason to live in apartment with two kids based on the cost of housing and our income. Or even a rent a townhouse, I don't care, but I'm not staying in this apartment for more than a year. Then two months later we bought a house out of state.
Go figure. When I made the ultimatum, I didn't expect to move out of state.
But I'm not sure we would have found the opportunity to move if we wasn't ready for change.

Can I tell you a quick story...

At the end of the day two months ago when my husband and I put an offer on our house.  We were extremely exhausted, I was having some altitude lag, and we went to bed hoping we made a good decision.  A little stressed about everything! I mean everything!  Its been a long time since I've went to bed that heavy, from tiredness and everything.  Brent and I are extremely aversion to debt, and so make a home offer was not something we were entering lightly. We had chosen not to buy a house yet.  We were never forced into renting. Sometimes we thought we might never buy, renting is so freeing in someways. (sure not paint color ways.)
Then a miracle happened, we woke up well rested, happy, peaceful and the sun was coming through the curtains in the hotel room.  Then we went to sign papers for three hours, then we flew home.  Once again we went to bed stressed wondering about what we had just elected to do.  But once again we woke up well rested and peaceful.  This has been an ongoing habit during the house buying process.
Now, sure money still stresses us out a little, it always does, we are control freaks when it comes to our money.  But yet, its surprisingly unstressful. There has been plenty of morning I've woken up dead exhausted in the last two month, and Brent might not agree for himself. But I can safely say, it tiredness has not been from stress about the house. Anytime I go to bed stressed about the move, I wake up feeling totally at peace, (although I might be tired for the rest of daily life).
And that is a very good sign for me.
I refuse to act in life until I get that gut feeling.
I know it doesn't work for everyone, but my gut feeling has never led me astray.
I'm glad for my peace.

Educational Milestones

My mom pointed out Nan is talking in sentences.  Her favorite sentence, by far is, "Where daddy go?" But she also gets a lot of use out of, "No, Hoshy's Turn".  She loves to talk on the phone, and then when the adult says they have to say good bye, she calmly says good bye and hands me the phone.
When J was two every time he would scribble on a paper I would write his name.  I hadn't really thought about that, until I started doing that with Nan too.  I'm not sure why I do it I just do.  Well because of that she is making progress.  She was "chatting" with her dad online, and she kept hitting the N key and saying her name.  She then said Daddy, and looked confused.  I do write all four of our names on the paper for her when she asks but she definitely doesn't have the rest of our names/titles down.  By the way I write daddy not Brent. She seems to know how to write a N but who knows if I'm just a mom imagining it. She also can draw pretty much a perfect circle.  Which she likes to do, because I got super excited the first time she drew a perfect round circle with all closed up.

Now for my son, he might be reading. A week ago I would have said, he knows how to write just not read.  In fact I did say that.  But he might be reading now, if not he is probably 90% there.  He can sound out pretty much any sight word his teacher sends home with it.  Most kids in his preschool class aren't sent home sight words, but J probably has 50 or so words in a flip chart from his teacher.  Each time he gets a new set of words he sounds them out and then I'm pretty sure he memorizes them after that.  He started to read board books the other day, you know ones with a sentence per page.  But who knows if he is reading or memorizing.  I'm glad I spent the last year watching Electric Company with him on PBS, because now I know how to explain the reading rules to him in a kid friendly way. We learn so many useful things on PBS.  Brent always rhymes, but I never thought about it until PBS told me to.  Silly me. J loves to rhyme, and I swear anytime he think he isn't getting enough attention and Brent and I are paying too much attention to each other he says, lets rhyme.  He way more into writing than reading.  He also likes to count.  He will count to 99, then count by 100s, then I guess by 1,000s.  He eventually gets to 9,999.  I know he skips a lot, but he usually does it in an orderly fashion. Once again he normally does this while Brent and I are talking, so I'm not sure what pattern he uses.
Did I mention yet, I'm goal is to teach him how to tell time this summer.  He has the hours down, so I have to work on minutes.  I refuse to teach him how to read a digital clock, he can pick that up after analog.  Then again we don't really have any analogs, just the microwave, computer and cell phones.  Way back in the day I got a work book for telling time at the Dollar Store, but I didn't let him use it, I let Nan scribble in it instead because it taught digital first.  I don't know if I'm going to buy the kumon telling time book, or just teach him on a clock that has minutes printed on.
That being said, don't think I'm tooting my own horn, he is 5 and can't buckle his seat belt.  We should probably work on that too.  But I never remember until I'm in a rush.

Girl Room

You should know we have a clear girl room.  

When peek in you think oh the previous owners were enthusiastic about having a daughter.  But its doable, I do have a daughter after all.

 Until you walk in and turn around and then if you know me, you should know a terrible paint job like that will not last in my house. Word to all you out there, that skinny light pink should have been hot pink, or the hot pink door way should have stayed light pink.  Every other color is wrong! Two tone is fine, but alternating is bad.

So the question is what am I going to do with my daughter's room? Obviously I'm going to repaint but how.  Lots went through my head, but I ended deciding I wanted girly, but that could quickly turn boy in case they switch rooms, without repainting. I found these inspirations.

I'm not painting a tree in my daughters room, and one is not actually a bedroom. But I do plan on painting the room a light powder blue and put pink curtains.  We have plenty of pink and light purple bedding so we should be good to go.  Although we have only ever had one children's room, so we need another dresser and a bookcase.  I believe every bedroom should have a fully stacked bookcase. So I'll have to start hitting up thrift stores and garage sales. Then in less than a year we probably should give our daughter a bed, since she still sleeps in a crib.
The best part of the blue is it is currently Nan's favorite color.  She yells "blue!" and the demands it actually be blue,  Its the only color she consistently recognizes with the name.
Lastly my decorating addition other than the curtains is butterflies. She loves butterflies so much, and yes I know its a phase, but it I could inexpensively add them to the room.  I'm either going to stencil butterflies, or get vinyl decals. I think I'm going to get these from amazon. I really like this customer upload on amazon.

But I think stencil could also work, although I can't tell if the second picture has birds or butterflies, I wouldn't use that exact shape.

P.S.  I have lots of plans for my house, and almost a paint chip picked out for every room in the house, and some would say, Lesli you aren't actually going to paint your whole house.  All I can say, is you don't actually know me very well, I would bet I have the whole interior repainted within two years.  Other than maybe the bathrooms. I was raised my a mother who either took us on vacation or paint a room when there is a break from school.

Boy Room

This is my 5 year's room in less than a month.  I think the window nook looks so awesome, and fun.  My boy loves to curl up with a good book, what better place than a corner with a lot of sunlight. My son up front asked to paint his room yellow.  Its his favorite color, I said sure! Imagine my surprise and relief when he picked a very light yellow almost neutral cream yellow.  I also plan on making a pillow for his window seat/ledge.

 His room will be one of the first to paint because if you look in the mirror you can see the previous owners started a Lion King Mural.  It needs to be painted over quickly! That is one of my first to dos after navy blue sponged stairwell.  Way before I paint the kitchen (that is long term).

I have to decorate rooms, I just can't not do it. Like a shark not swimming.  My son needs s room that is not a baby nursery, but I don't want something that he would out grow in a year or two, and nothing with licensed characters. Then one day it hit me a map of the world on wall and a map of the United State on different wall, my son loves geography.  I googled it, and found this room. This is totally what I'm going for except I don't think I'm going to paint his dresser teal and his bed will definitely not look like that.  But look the room is even a light yellow/neutral color. 

My last course of action, is to only put the head of J's bed against the wall. Right now the head and the length of his bed is against the wall, and his dresser is at the foot.  I would like him to start learning how to make his bed, but with his personality it is pretty unrealistic to try and get him to make his bed right now.  So I'm excited to have the bed in the middle of the room, with only the head touching the wall, because then it will be one of his jobs to make his bed every morning.  I can't wait!

Lastly, we were at Home Depot pricing out dining room floors.  While there we found this fan, and we all thought it would so awesome for J's room.  But we probably won't buy it, unless its miserably hot during the summer without A/C in the summer.  Everyone says you don't need it there in the summer, and not a single house we looked at had one, and we weren't exactly looking at ghetto houses.  The majority of houses we looked at were much nicer than the one we bought.

Kitchen

Would you like to see my kitchen? We need a fridge. I sometimes I say fridgerator. Someone recently laughed at me and asked if I was from somewhere. I can't remember where they thought I was from or if I was from there. We are ripping out the florescent, like stat! 

Here is the dining room/ kitchen. Sorry for the terrible pics.

Here is the dining room.

My husband and I both really like this picture. I have no idea where I found it.

We are going to paint the kitchen and dining room a green, probably not that dark, because our cabniets are darker than the picture. Eventually we want to paint/stain them a lighter shade of something. But that is in the long term future, just like replacing the tile counter is a long term future. There is carpet in dining room, which my husband is promtly ripping out. I think we are going to put a cherry colored laminate or other dark color wood. I can't handle light wood color laminate with our kitchen cabinets, too much light wood.

Doll Houses

I think my mom and I might be slightly obessed with doll houses. This doesn't include the giantic doll house in the huge box in my bedroom. (That is quite similar to this. It was mine when I was little.)

 

Pre-Owned Shoes

My daughter's favorite shoes right now are pre-owned camo crocs hand me downs from her brother.  (Actually they are Airwalk brand, back when airwalk was still good at copying crocs.)   Some might say get that girl needs some shoes of her own.  But she has loved them for 6 months or so.  She found them last fall when I was organizing the baby clothes.  She loved them but I hid them for the winter because I have a strict no sandals in snow policy.  I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, she loved them and they were perfectly good shoes but they were boy shoes.  During the move they have resurfaced again and its all she wants to wear.  She loves crocs, and she definitely loves the multi-color of these camo.  Last fall I wondered if it was too ghetto of me to let her wear her brother's shoes.  But this spring I've decided camo doesn't have to be boy only, she can wear camo shoes if she wants.  There are plenty of females in the military that wear fatigues. So if you see my daughter in her favorite shoes, don't worry we aren't being ghetto we are making a style choice.
Plus I try not imposing cultural gender standards on my children. When my son was 2 and half when I was pregnant with his sister, and the only phrase out of his mouth was baby sister, blah blah blah, his favorite color was pink. I let him cuddle in pink blankets and use the new pink baby towels.  He loved it and in less than two months he his favorite color became yellow.  Where it has firmly stood. If you watch my children you probably think I do in impose gender roles, my daughter often wears dresses, and more often wears pink and has a baby firmly attached to her arm.  My son... well he won't touch a baby doll with a ten foot pole unless he is throwing it and he has always been that way.  But I promise I do not impose, I let them choose.  Which is why my son says his favorite thing to do is art.  And my daughter loves matchbox cars almost as much as dolls.  And why every child that enters my house is allowed to play with the toy kitchen, boy or girl the toy kitchen is the first toy friends want to play with.  Second toy, tools, the girls love tools just as much as the boys, and everyone loves to cook. Which all comes back to my daughter is wearing camo crocs.

New Car

One day I will get a new car, because I can't have a new baby until I have a new car.  It won't actually be new it will be used.  But the baby will be new.  My current car can't hold anymore kids, so in about a year you can expect to hear about a car and/or a baby.
This unconceived new baby is very expensive, we needed a house (at least a third bedroom) and a car before we can have a third baby. Luckily for the baby we don't need a new couch.  Anyway back to the car.
Brent and I have been discussing for months what type of car to get.  His ideal would be an all wheel drive Nissan Pathfinder, around a 2005-2008.  I don't know if I have an ideal car, a pathfinder would be infinitely cooler than a Honda or Toyota mini van, but I watch the other moms who can actually walk in their mini vans to buckle carseats and boy does that look nice.  My ideal car for this stage of life fits seven people, is navy blue, has all wheel drive, because driving in snow scares me, and can take my family camping.  The other day Brent and I were talking about this future car, its one of the hot topics in our lives.  Brent said I want to get you a Cadillac Escalade.  I started laughing and said whatever, can you see me dropping J off to kindergarten in an Escalade?  His response was a serious yes, you would look great in one.  A few days later we were stuck in traffic and I said I've been laughing for days about you saying you want to buy me an Escalade. Brent said I'm glad you are enjoying it.  But I would only buy you a white or gold Escalade, black would not fit you. I still honestly can't tell if he is joking or serious, does he really think I would look good in a pearl white Escalade.

P.S. Don't expect to visit me and find an Escalade in my garage.  I'm pretty sure they don't come in my price limit.  I'm having a hard time stomaching this new car, luckily I have a year or so because cars are more expensive than I would like.

What I Wish I Would Have known/Listened To-

My 5 year old has very poor bike riding skills.  Which is mostly is not his fault at all.  He plays outside every day the weather is even tolerable, he can hike 5 miles, he rides his razor scooter faster than his friends, so its not that he is not active or outdoorsy it just lack of practice, equipment, and space.
What I wish someone would have told me, and what I wish I would have listen to, was at 2, buy him a tricycle.  At that time we were still very very frugal and I thought my child was perfectly fine with our $2 used plastic four wheeled toy as he was a fisher price trike. But at the time I was very very frugal and didn't even really know how to spend at that much money, and would have had a heart attack if I would have spent $25 on a bike for him.  That being said, I might have been a little prideful, because I believe grammy thought his vehicle was a little lame (it was) and I told her she was not allowed to buy him something better.  This would be totally sufficient for his needs. (I was wrong, I didn't think what you rode at 2 would effect your bike riding skills at 5.) Like I said what I wish I would have listened to.  Now in retrospect I realize a two/three year old needs a tricycle with pedals even if they don't use them.
What I wish I would have known, when J was three.  Was how to make an inexpensive balance bike.  I have seen balance bikes for years and always thought that is the secret. I know if J had one of those he could would be super fast and pro at it. But come on I wouldn't even spend $25, so you know I wouldn't spend $70+ for a bike that he would out grow in a year.  But I really believe in my heart of hearts that J would excel at a balance bike, something he could place his feet on the ground and speed forward. For years he has been a pro on a scooter, and balances great (assuming the scooter isn't broken).
At three we bought J a bike at garage sale for $5.  But life was not good when he was 3, I was either having contractions or taking care of a colicy infant.  Our driveway wasn't paved which made bike riding pretty impossible, and I literally just couldn't make it to the park with a bike.  Not to mention a $5 bike is not perfect, it needed some grease and some air in the tires, which it never got, I sold it $5 bound and determined to never push J around on a bike with training wheels again.  Josh wouldn't get another bike until he was four.  At that point our cheapness ran away from us.  We bought a crappy bike off Amazon clearance, that was and is too big for him.  He didn't know how to pedal, and I couldn't figure out how to teach him.  I honestly can't remember if Brent tried to teach him or not, or if he was just too busy with school and work to even notice.  J's friend's dad ended up teaching him how to pedal.  Yeah, I know we are losers, that is the point of all this story.  That and its hard to learn to ride bike without a drive way.  Anyway, J is no where near close to getting the training wheels off, he is no where near even close to get the training wheels highered so they aren't on the ground the entire time.  Its getting quite pathetic if you want to know my opinion, but I don't think its his fault at all.  I think a five year old with training wheels is pathetic, I'm sure my husband thinks its embarrassing.
So we are committed, at least I am to rectifying the situation. We are planning to get a bike that fits him better, and then make it into a balance bike, and once he understands how to balance and feels comfortable, we'll put the pedals back on. I would honestly rather him ride a pedal-less bike after he starts kindergarten than a bike with training wheels.  He has absolutely no mastery of a bike with training wheels.  I would rather him master balancing a two wheeled contraption than training wheels.
   One of the reasons he is so unskilled on his bike is first he can go twice if not three times faster on his scooter and he can go faster on his scooter than his friends can on their bikes with training wheels, so why would he ride his bike?  Two I know he feels unsure on his bike because its so big for him, and terrible quality he feels no balance on it, and my son hates to feel out of control.  Anyway, I'm so committed to this bike thing!  Seriously!  Even if the balance bike thing doesn't work, I'm going to find something that does.
My goals for the summer are:
1. Paint over the terrible paint jobs in our formerly bank owned house (I can handle dull white walls with scuff marks on them, but I can't handle blue, purple, black sponge paint job, and third of the way finished Lion King mural, or hot pink.)
2. Potty Train the 2 year old, she is so ready its pathetic on my part
3. Get the five year old ridding a two wheeler.
And all of these will be great things to distract me from spending money (that I should be saving) on my house.