Prepping

      I didn't write at all last week because there isn't a whole lot going on. We have hit a couple of milestones recently though. Sorry, no pictures.
      Jessica finally went 7 nights keeping her diaper dry, so she is now in underwear at night! Yay! Officially fully potty trained. Definitely glad of that. Back down to only 2 in diapers. Much less expensive. ;) Of course, she was generally only using one diaper a day (night) so it wasn't actually all that much more expensive, but still.
       Timothy hit a milestone as well. He has now slept through the night a few times. Like, slept from 7pm to 4 or 5 am. 9 or 10 hours. I'll take it. I think I've only slept all the way through that once, because of being used to getting up, and because of my body being used to feeding him then. I don't think I'd quite say that he's "sleeping through the night" because it isn't consistent, but still, it's pretty good to get that occasionally. Makes for a much more functional Mama.
      I also hit a milestone. ;) I recently received my Facilitator's certificate, meaning that I had completely finished my schooling. (that I'd gotten the extension for finishing the clinicals) So this past Tuesday, I gave my first process as an official Emotional Health Facilitator, instead of as a student.
      And last, but not least, we've found a house that will actually allow us to apply without having met us, which is great since we're about 850 miles away. So we put in the application, and they're doing a background/credit check. Here's hoping. We put it in Thursday night, and they said 24-48 hours, so we're not expecting anything until Tuesday, because of business days, so I doubt anything happened on the weekend. We really love this house, so we're really hoping that it goes well. (Plus, it's a lot of stress off my mind to actually have a place rented.)

Outings

      So, lately, I've been trying to be better about taking the kids on some outings. I am very much a homebody, so going on outings, even just to the park, or even just out into the front yard, have to be planned in, or I get super stressed and overwhelmed. We have a pass to the aquarium, and to Thanksgiving Point, so, especially with us moving next month, I'm trying to take them to at least one of those places every week. That's mostly all that's been going on around here, other than trying to find and rent a house in Washington, and trying to get rid of junk so that I don't end up moving a whole bunch of junk with me. So, with that being said... Pictures!

This is what we do while Jessica's at preschool. There is a park very near the preschool, which is almost always completely deserted. This entire year, I've seen people there once. That's it. So we go there, and Jacob, rather than playing ON the playground, prefers playing UNDER it. (Seriously though, he spends very little time on the equipment, and most of the time digging in the bark.

Due to our Thanksgiving Point membership, Jessica and Jacob got to ride the ponies. And obviously, Jacob LOVED it. Though, he had a harder time staying on, hence me holding on to him.

I didn't dare leave Jacob's side while the ponies were moving so I could get a picture of Jessica from the front, but here's proof that she rode too. ;)

Jacob wasn't sure what to think of me letting go of him so I could get  picture proof that he was actually on a live pony, and not just on some random saddle.

And here's what Timothy did the whole time we were there. Love my wrap. Sure makes doing things just me and the kids a lot easier.

I don't think they were learning anything at all about gardening/farming, which is what this little room is supposed to do, but zoom in and look at that face on Jacob, I couldn't NOT post it.

Looking at the peacock showing off for the ladies.

And a close up of said peacock. I don't think I've ever actually seen one with his tail fully spread. I'm pretty sure that tail was taller than Jessica. And gorgeous! seriously

Jacob, about to fall off the couch. The crib is in Nathaniel's office (so computers) and Jacob can and does climb out of the crib given half a chance, but he still needs naps (obviously^) So, on Saturdays, when Nathaniel isn't in the office, we rock him to sleep, and then set him down on the couch. The first time we did this, he did fall off, so we started taking the cushion off the other side, and placing it under him, so he's at least cushioned if/when he falls.

The aquarium has a new, much larger location. This one was built specifically for them, and is huge. Especially in comparison to the small grocery-store building they used to be in. The exhibits are much larger, some of them are open to the air, which is awesome, and all-in-all it was just a lot more fun to walk through. I especially loved the penguins and the shark tank.

Here are said penguins. If you look closely you can see them swimming straight at me. There are two places to view the penguins. Here, where the window curves out over you, and then up around the corner, where you're at ground level with them when they're on land.

The shark tank is similar, though you can't see any of the sharks in here. It has one of those tunnels, where you walk under the water, which I thought was awesome, though I don't know what they thought, and then you walk into almost a show room (seriously, it's got seating steps facing the glass) where the entire wall is the tank and you can see all the sharks and fish, and rays, and the sea turtle swimming around.

       They loved the aquarium so very much that I basically (literally) had to drag them out to the car to get them to go home. That wasn't quite so fun. It's really difficult to drag a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old, especially with a 2-month-old strapped to your chest.

Speaking of said 2-month old, who hit 2 months on Saturday... Here that little (big) chunk is. He's started smiling, and most (if not all) of you know how difficult it can be to catch those first elusive smiles. So, this isn't one of his grins, but at least its a smile. And besides... double chin. :D I haven't had his well-baby checkup for 2 months yet, so I don't know exact sizes yet, but hopefully I will soon, and can tell you next week. (But I'm expecting around 16 pounds, and really long, based on the outgrowing of the 0-3 month clothes)