I’m sitting with the girls in the bathroom while they take a bath. Both of them are such splashers that I have to curl up in the corner so that my computer doesn’t get soaked. Grace is very territorial, have I ever mentioned that before? She has ‘her seats’ all over the house. Her seat in the tub (right by the faucet), her seat on the couch (on the far right, if you’re looking at the couch), etc etc. Cate has gotten used to that, especially in the tub. These girls don’t take baths by themselves. It never happens. They both love bathing soo much that if one gets one, the other one wants one. So when Grace requests a bath when Cate is napping and needs a bath, I won’t let her. Because she will get out, and just want to get right back in when Cate takes one. What a waste of water.

Unfortunately we’ve reached that point with Cate where she… doesn’t necessarily understand that she needs to poop in her diaper.. and NOT in the tub. Yes.. pretty damned gross. And for the record, Grace went through the same phase.

Luckily she’s only done it once or twice.. and usually it’s not that big a deal. The toys and tub all get sanitized and we get on with our lives. But today she made the mistake of doing it while Grace was in the tub with her. Yeah.. you’d have thought that Cate went and slapped Grace right across the face.

Anyway, I got them out, rinsed and sanitized the toys and then needed to get them in to rinse them off and they decided they wanted another bath, so we just started all over again. Who knew a bath could last more than an hour? And I can’t even take a shower!

Lately we’ve been busy around here. Not just busy with our day to day stuff.. but busy keeping tabs on friends and family in other areas. Busy planning trips and future finances and budgets and everything else we need to do to keep our family or 4 afloat here in the Bay area.

My mom is here this week. She finished a course to learn composite drawing and is awesome at it! The course was in Seaside so we went and stayed with her there and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium (3 times), local parks, restaurants, and had a great week. She’s been staying with us the weekend and flies home tomorrow. Yesterday we tried to drive to Half Moon Bay to visit a pumpkin patch there, however I think everyone else had the same idea so we ended up turning around and visiting a patch here. Chris carved them this morning and did a great job.

So.. Yes. Yahoo is having massive layoffs. In December apparently.. No we don’t know much else. I’m trying really hard not to worry but in general its a bit stressful.

We’re going to Phoenix for two weeks in November for Thanksgiving. I’m going to brine a turkey and I’m SO excited about that. I’m also really excited to see all our family there. It’ll be awesome because aside from all our family in Phoenix, my parents will be in the area with their horses for some riding in the Superstitions and up in Prescott Valley. So I’ll get to see my mom and dad then too. I feel really blessed to have been able to spend so much time with my mom in the past year. It’s been really wonderful. Especially because my girls are so familiar with her now. Cate even says “gaga” (Grandma..haha).

I love this time of year and have decided not to let the economic woes of the country (and all the political crap) rain on my parade. We’ve settled on a responsible plan for Christmas for the girls that keeps things fun but doesn’t give us a heart attack for the first 3 months of 2009 because of paying the bills for Christmas. I can’t wait to spend Thanksgiving with our family and spend two weeks in Phoenix.

The girls are doing well! Cate is working hard to keep up with Grace and loves to be on the playground and go down slides and climb on things. She loves to sit on my lap while I’m working on my computer or eating breakfast (though I could do without her digging around in my cereal bowl with her fingers). She’s talking more and more though it’s not as clear as Graces’ first words were, we’re starting to understand her a little more. I understand now how parents could understand their babies’ gibberish now.

Grace is SO precocious! I was wearing a necklace tonight and Grace told me “it is so pretty! You should share it with me!”.. someone at the park the other day asked her how old she was and she replied “Why? Did I have a birthday?”.. I mean.. the girl has a response for everything!

BUT.. they are such a handful. I seem to fall further and further behind around the house. I try to just let it go and try not to let it bother me but it does. As it is we basically live in a closet.. but thanks for having NO time to myself we’re living in a filthy closet. I’m working on some ideas to spend less at the store and save time while I’m at it, so hopefully that will help.

Okay. So I promise to try to blog more. I’ll shoot for once a week but will try to update more if I can. Thanks for checking in!