More fans, and train tents

You might not think that installing a few ceiling fans would take up the majority of the work time while Dean and Jenny visited us. But, getting them wired in properly made it a challenge.
I'm so glad for Dean and Stacey's hard work - now you can go into any of the bedrooms, flip a switch on the wall, and, PRESTO! - a main light comes on! The fan lights before were mostly on pull chains.
At top, we have the multicolored pastel fan in Cora's room, complete with flowers and butterflies. (You can see that yes, Stace does need to do a little ceiling repair work there before it is fully finished.)
The second photo shows the new fan in our bedroom. And, no photo, but the old fan that had been in Cora's room is now in the spare bedroom.
While Dean was here, our windows arrived, so the guys spent a few hours putting in the biggest of the windows. I'll help Stace put in the others. Of course, having that nice pretty window makes me anxious to replace the horrible old sliding glass doors...

Stace and I are really loving not having cable these days. Several nights this week, after dinner we've all played together, coming up with new games and songs to sing.
Tuesday night, Stace and Cora made this tent fort in the playroom, and were entertained for a long time. It got really good when Stace brought in a flashlight and we turned off the playroom lights.
Today, after Stroller Strides Cora went straight back into her tent, this time playing with her new Percy train (from Thomas the Tank Engine).

In the video, she talks about playing in her tent, and Percy going fast. Also, she calls him a "choo choo train." That marks one more word change - she used to say "tee tee" for trains, just like she used to say "more ta" for please and "ta ta" for thank you. Now she says those words very clearly.
Speaking of speaking - Cora has picked up the word "mine" and "my." She uses them a lot now, which is really fun! (You can hear my sarcasm, right?) I'll be changing her diaper and I'll lift her feet in the air to stick a new diaper under her bum, and she'll shout, "My feet!" and try to take a foot out of my hand. I just humor her and normally she ends up laughing.
On the positive side, she really is going through a better-behaved stage lately. Not that we don't have our (daily) moments of willfulness, but in general I feel more confident taking her out in public.
Last week we had a meal out with Dean and Jenny (well, several of them), and it struck me that I no longer have that sense of anxious foreboding that I felt every time we attempted to eat out in the last year or so. I can now expect that things might go well, that she might sit quietly, eat her food, and chat to us, rather than throwing a tantrum. What a relief!