Family room almost ready!

Exciting things are happening with our basement! We are almost there with our new family room! It is painted, the trim is in, the trim is on the canned lights and Eric put 95% of the floor in yesterday. Today the wood is getting puttied, the floor's being finished and the base shoe will (most likely?) go on. We are waiting for the door to the storage area to be completed by a millwork shop. We will put pictures on when it's done. As soon as we can, we are going to get a Christmas tree and put it up in there. Kaylee is so so excited for that!!! Kaylee helped us paint the basement. Really just the lower part of one wall. It was amazing how much she liked being treated like a big girl. She was practically a different kid! She was so polite! “Mom can you please help me refill my paint brush and I will try not to drip on the carpet. If I drip, I will tell your right away so you can help me clean it up!” Wow. I think we’ll have to find more chores to help encourage this big girl attitude in her! Maybe she needs to feel more a part of things, productively. She loved being a part of her playroom construction!

I asked Kaylee what does she want for Christmas and her response was, "A Pink Star." Who knows what that means? Oh well! It seems to me that her favorite 'toy' is her brother. She loves playing with him, tucking him in with blankets on the floor, playing forts with him, chasing him, harassing him...(hey she's not perfect!). Levi however really loves his toys. He spends long periods of time quiet, focused on his toys. He has a good attention span and is really interested in how things work. He turned over his train with all these buttons for animal sounds and instead, examines the wheels looking for how they work and what they do exactly. He loves to be chased too, and beams at you when you say "I'm going to get you!" Eric told me that Levi loves to come up to him with a little stuffed animal and say to him, "Rahr!" He doesn't do this with me, so I find that very interesting. When Levi smiles, he looks a lot like his cousin, F. The two have bright faces that glow when they smile.

Levi already has some dance moves. He has added two new moves lately to his repetoire. It's the rolling of the hands and the hand/arm up right/left alternating. He also loves to clap and then clap/slap his belly too.

I tried to take Kaylee sledding yesterday but she was having none of that. She was scared. I better take her with the neighbor girls so they can show her what it's all about. This weekend I took the kids to the city on the commuter rail line. Kaylee and Levi loved it. Rant alert! I was shocked that people would let me with a baby and a preschooler stand instead of offering their seats. There were some very able-bodied looking folks around. I appreciate anyone who helps us out. Whenever you see a mom with kids, please help them out! Open doors...if a kids having a fit, I appreciate instead of staring or looking annoyed, people who distract Kaylee or try to talk to her calmly instead. She doesn't have many public fits anymore, but something got me going....sorry! Also I had trouble with the number of buildings inaccessible to us, with no accessible entry for our stroller when I was waiting for Eric to come pick us up, I had to walk four blocks to find and open entry we could get inside and keep warm! But we did have a good time, kaylee loved the train and the muppet movie! They both needed an intermission though and we left in the middle and the ran around outside the theater for a bit. Kaylee loved Mary and miss piggie, but was very confused when gonzo blew up his building. Understandably! They both enjoyed the songs and wanted to dance.