Turning into a busy March too.

Saturday night Annaliese discovered her light switch. Standing in her crib she can reach it, and has in the past flicked it on a couple times. On Saturday she suddenly knew what she was doing. I put her down, and didn't hear a peep, but then noticed the light coming from under her door. I marched in, to find her standing on the far side of her crib, waiting for me. I leaned on the edge of her crib and flicked the switch off. She marched over, flicked the switch back on, and looked at me with a big smile. I flicked it off, she flicked it on, and we did that a dozen times. Then A came in and I got distracted, so Annaliese flicked it back on, and dove onto her blanket and buried her head, bum in the air.

I flicked it off. She howled (first time, she had been smiling and mischievous up to this point) stood up, marched over, turned the light back on, and looked at me with the most hilarious look I think I've ever seen. Lower lip sticking out, brow furrowed as tight as she could get it, hint of an angry tear, defiant, challenging, and just a touch of an angry but humorous glint in her eye. I scooped her up and brought her back out into the kitchen, sat her in her highchair, and she ate a bunch of peas while A and I continued to make dinner and dance in the kitchen to the music A had playing on Pandora.

On Sunday I was priming the house, (inside) in preparation for the new floors, and sorting through the tail end of the massive pile of refuse we had accumulated behind the house during the renovation. I burned the porches last summer when I tore those off, but since then the entire back side has been replaced, all the siding, and then there's the scrap from the various new materials. It had all been piling up, and getting larger than was safe to burn. Not to mention all the treasures in there. The pile was I'd say 50+ feet long, 20+ wide, and at least my height. It took 2 weeks of sorting and burning to get through it, but we finished yesterday.

Annaliese was very helpful, playing in the line of emergency water buckets, begging for wheelbarrow rides every time I emptied it, and every once in a while picking up scraps of wood and putting them into the wheelbarrow. I've been working pretty steadily, with A managing the little one's schedule to keep her rested and fed. That means I'll look up every once in a while to see A and Annaliese leaving our house to walk across the street to join me. Annaliese usually notices me when they get to the street, and I love it when she starts yelling at me, waving both her arms, and getting excited about coming to see me. On Saturday A was taking laundry down on the porch and Annaliese noticed me all the way from there. She hollered, and tried to climb through the railing. Makes me feel super special.

And if I'm rambling, it's because I'm a bit tired, and have had a blurring day of bringing all my office work up to date and prepping for a busy week, here and on the projects at home. If you're still reading then I assume you're along for the disjointed ride.

A is doing well, though is battling her pre-disposition to worry. We're going to move into our new house on April 15th. There's much to be done before then. Much. But that's what she wants, and she wants things very strongly nowadays. The building continues to truck along. I'm still working on that Tues/Thurs evenings and some of Saturday, and it's getting to an exciting place. I have 5 windows left to do on the second floor. That should take me maybe another 2 weeks, what with the work I'm doing on the house. The house is Monday/Wed/Fri and Sundays. Which makes for a draining week, but there's obvious progress being made all around, and we've got a baby on the way. Not to mention I don't generally do things the easy way.

Speaking of, the little man seems to be coming along. A is eating well, resting, and generally doing everything right. She just has the little hereditary issue of getting anxious over things. Which makes for the fun unwinnable race of fixing the things she is anxing about, only to have her find something new. That girl can find things to worry about that I would never dream of. But she's cute, and in between pressuring our workers at the house, her cousin who's living with us for another week and working for us, and me to do more-faster, she's sweet and has that pregnant glow. I would hold up the fun dancing session we had in the kitchen just the other night as exhibit A, juxtaposed with exhibit B: the earth-shaking question of curtains for the new house.

That's pretty much everything that's consuming my days. The weather has had a nasty spell, but generally we're in Spring mode, with buds on A's freshly planted fruit orchard, daffodils everywhere, and two dogs that tend to disappear for hours at a time around the neighborhood. Haven't seen Dido for 2 days.

oh, I'm running for Alderman of Beat 3. Still haven't decided if I want to go for it hard. I'd like to lend my efforts to fixing the town, but I've never been one to ask people outright for favors, and asking 1,000 people to vote for me doesn't feel natural.

Anything else? These updates are never very complete, but hopefully they convey a general sense of how things are going.

Cheerios.

And Picture:
Windows, in poor light, freshly installed.

Pre-windows.

Annaliese's first snowy morning.

My beautiful building.

This was the sun setting as I drove home some time in the last 2 weeks.

ahhhh.

You MUST go to A's blog to see the video of this.

An my darling. glowing, in't she?

New house, coming along.

My little girl.

If you ask Annaliese "what does a dog say," she says "woof" and losses it in a giggling fit.