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quick ben update

I haven’t updated on Ben’s development milestones in a while… and there’s a ton!! He is saying a LOT of words now, but still haven’t heard him string any together. Just this week we heard “mine”, “ba-ey” (Bailey) “poo” (when he sees Poof) “pew!” (me mocking his smelly diapers), “bus”, “car”, “toe”, “up-ay” (up high, meaning pick me up!), “go!” (and likes to ask “wha go?” when he drops something behind him), “hans” and grabbing our hands when the picture showed them in the book, “pree” (pretzel, which he is now obssessed with after every meal), “waa” (water), and “kee” which we THINK means either “keys” or “cracker”… hard to say. Aside from talking, he will mock us sneezing, will get us his shoes (even if we ask for a specific color, he’ll bring the right ones to us), will climb up on stuff (mostly the couch and the stool in the kitchen, which we promptly moved), and, big one here, is GIVING UP HIS BOTTLE (or ba-ba, as he screams). We’re now down to one ba-ba in the morning, but after Labor Day I’m putting them away for good. I was convinced during our Lobsterfest trip, when he had a meltdown at the restaurant screaming for his “ba-ba”, and wasn’t content until we had a waiter bring us a glass of milk to pour in it (thank god we brought one in his diaper bag)… that it was time. He’s way past the point where he needs it, he can drink out of a cup without a lid, and he’s now using it as a comfort, for when he’s upset or tired. NOT good. So I want to get them completely gone before it becomes a nightmare, and even HARDER to break the bottle habit. We’re fine at night at having a cup with milk instead of a bottle… so I think he’ll be just fine once we drop the morning one, and it’s Joe and I that have the hardest time admitting our baby is no longer a baby anymore :)

We’re also considering putting the highchair away and leaving his travel seat on the kitchen chair as a booster, and having him sit at the big table. But I think I’m not quite ready for that change, yet! As for growing, at 20 months he’s now in size 3T shirts and pj’s, and still some 2T pants… but definitely growing bigger! He wears a size 7 toddler shoe, and loves his crocs and “Nelson” (New Balance) shoes :)

We’re off to see Nonna, Grandpa Bob, Grandpa John, and GG this weekend, in upstate NY for Labor Day… and to visit with baby Tyler in Syracuse for his christening. Should be a great holiday!!

(Ben is 1 year 8 months 2 weeks 4 days old)

 
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Small Savers needs your help!

Ben’s daycare is located inside the Office of Thrift Supervision. We. Love. It. Here. The staff is amazing, the center has been operating for about 27 years, and I found them through many glowing referrals from the moms in my neighborhood.

However, the OTS agency, as part of the new Reform Act, has been dissolved, and its responsibilities are being distributed into 3 other agencies: the FDIC, OCC, and the Federal Reserve. But because OTS technically no longer exists, it cannot support the Small Savers daycare as of July 2011. On Friday afternoon, we received news that unless someone else steps up to sponsor the center, it will have to close its doors for good.

The staff and families of Small Savers are therefore trying everything in our power to reach the “transition teams” at each of the agencies, to make sure they know we are here, and that we need their help to continue! Someone needs to make sure we are included in the transition, and that we are not forgotten.

It’s a sad consequence of the Reform Act, but I’m determined to help get the word out as much as possible. The teachers are amazing, and the center really is a family… we’ll do everything we can to keep everyone together!

So if you can help, LET ME KNOW!!

(Ben is 1 year 8 months 2 weeks 1 day old…. and really hopes his favorite teachers will be there to teach him over the next few years!)

 
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lobsterfest

I finally uploaded my photos from Lobsterfest, the annual party held by Joe’s friends from college on Long Island, NY. This was my 6th Lobsterfest, but it started in 2001, so next year will mark the 10th celebration! It’s come a LONG way, and this year was the first year at the new house. We had a blast, and it helped that little Christopher is almost the same age as Ben, so he had a partner in crime all weekend. We nicknamed them “trouble” and “more trouble”… and we can’t wait until next year when baby Tyler can join the crew!

Here are all the photos, with some highlights of Ben below. We get to see the whole gang again this weekend as we travel up north for baby Tyler’s christening in Syracuse! Sorry for the million photos of Ben with the parachute/balloon… he LOVED it, and was squealing with laughter. I tried to capture just how much he loved it, but not so sure I got it. He also met his first pet bird, and thought he was the BEST… definitely not timid at all! Glad to know we have another animal lover in the house ;)

Lobsterfest 2010 Slideshow

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This past weekend we made a lot more progress on the house, got a few more boxes put away, bought a dehumidifier for the basement (which has made a huge difference down there), and actually cooked a few more meals with our new stainless steel pans. We are excited for this weekend though, since the humidity still hasn’t let up, and we can’t wait to get back upstate where the nights are actually cooler. I can’t wait to pull out the long sleeves and long pants! Hooray for Fall!

(Ben is 1 year 8 months 2 weeks old)

 
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happy ben

First things first, here are the updated photos of Ben’s room that were missing from the previous post. The blue is awesome, and I’m super happy with it. I have always wanted a “blue” room, and Ben’s Peter Rabbit theme lent itself well to those colors. Thanks again for my awesome mother-in-law and husband for painting it all!

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(new crib, similar to the old one, just a little lower to the ground, and NO drop side)

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We also met up again with my “Mamistad” friends, and what a riot these guys are! You can see how active everyone is, and I loved watching them interact:

Click here to view the whole slideshow: August Meetup

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It was a great time, and next month is our turn to host it at our new house. I really hope it’s ready!

For the house, we finally made the trek out to IKEA, and found the perfect desk/armoire, with a matching hutch to make it tall enough to use with my external monitor. Perfect! I can’t wait to clean up this desk area disaster.

This weekend we’re finishing up the last of the boxes (that we can), and then we’re off to NY for Labor Day weekend. After that, we’ll be ready to get the rest of our furniture, and have a few items repaired (chimney cap, rainhat, fuse box, backyard, to name a few). Here’s hoping we have enough left over for blinds, rugs, a tv stand, a couch, and the new IKEA desk. Eh, we’ll get there eventually!

(Ben is 1 year 8 months 1 week 2 days old)

 
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recovery

Still not quite out of the woods yet as far as stress goes… but I can say with happiness that we’re dealing with the drama MUCH better nowadays. Ok, *I’m* dealing with the drama much better. Joe already had his stuff together, and Ben’s just a happy camper all around.

Work is still insane, and will be until the end of the month, when we deliver (hopefully) a finished product that we’re all proud of. In the meantime, the house is s-l-o-w-l-y coming together, with a HUGE HUGE thanks to Joe’s mom and grandmother who swooped in two weeks ago to help us clear everything out. They did a fantastic job out in the yard, and even helped transplant a lot of our plants from the old house:

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(look the hydrangea made it! we hope!)

Sadly, we didn’t quite get all the poison ivy out, and Joe’s mom found out the hard way :( I feel terrible, and she apparently had a pretty bad reaction. So we are definitely hiring someone to come and do a thorough sweep of the entire yard, and we are planning on just starting from scratch all over again back there. Lots of work, but I know it will be totally worth it!

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His mom and grandmother cleaned a ton, cooked dinner for us, watched Ben so I could do some work from home… it was just REALLY nice and I really appreciate their visit. It really meant a lot! Joe and his mom worked really hard to finally get EVERYTHING out of our old place, and with no time on our hands to spare, we hired someone to clean the empty place so that could finally check out, and check that off our list. So this week, after everything was moved and cleaned, we sadly said our goodbyes at the old house’s management office. We have been in our co-op for 8 years… so it was very hard to turn in the keys and wave goodbye to our old neighbors. Well, the ones we liked anyway. We gave a big, immature-but-totally-worth-it middle finger to the people that lived below us. We let Ben take one last romp and let him run and bang to his heart’s content before we signed the paperwork… and god help the people that move in after us. I sincerely hope the a-holes below finally realize that they need to MOVE already, and let someone who can actually handle the noise you’d expect in a basement apartment live there. God knows the management company wishes they would ;)

So we’re back to owning one place, and really trying hard to figure out what the heck to do with all of our stuff. We are ordering a new couch (and putting the old ones in the basement), so that the living room will have just a couch, and a chair (maybe two, eventually). That will really open things up, and give more room for Ben to run. Then we want to get a computer armoire to house our laptops, and so that we can hide them when not in use, and get rid of the fugly folding table that they currently sit on. And lastly, we need a new TV stand, one that fits the TV, and works with our room. For the time being, everything is thrown around, but I wanted to post some photos so that we could see progress later :) Forgive the insane amount of boxes, clothes strewn about, and general over-the-top clutter… it’s a work in progress!!

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(this we got for free from someone on my mom’s list. It’s an old diaper change center, cleaned up of course!)

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(bad glare, but we finally can put our good china set out in our cabinet!)

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(new washer and dryer!)

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(this is our dumping area for boxes… excuse the disaster)

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The only photos I’m missing are of Ben’s room… he was napping at the time of the above photos :)

And of course Ben is doing great. We got our photos from his 18 month photo shoot at the Capitol back, and we LOVE them! Stacey Blomstrom of Labor of Love Photography met us on a hot, super humid day, and took on the task of shooting a cranky hot toddler. She did a great job, and I’m excited to finally have a photo of Ben and I that looks decent and is actually in focus. Here’s a link to the album, and some of my favorites below:

Ben 18 month photos at the Capitol

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(all images above © Stacey Blomstrom, Labor of Love Photography)

As for sickness, we did go through another round of antibiotics recently, as his “suspected” pinkeye turned out to be true, along with an ear infection. And when those antibiotics didn’t work, and he ran fevers of 103+ for 4 days in a row, we found out his ears were STILL infected, so we had to try another round, and this one seems to have worked. Poor little man!

So house is coming along, work is insane, and we’re still dying from the heat, but hey, summer is almost over, and we can’t WAIT for the fall! We’re off to NY this weekend for the annual Lobsterfest celebration, and I can’t wait to see all our Long Island friends!

(Ben is 1 year 7 months 4 weeks old)

 
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crisis mode

That’s what I feel like I’ve been operating in these past few weeks. When I think things couldn’t get worse, they do. First it was the moving drama… then the ungodly heat and the resulting misery that ensued. Then the appliances breaking down, my car a/c breaks during THE hottest days of the summer where people are DYING without a/c, things not getting fixed, and not being able to find the time to unpack. So our house is in chaos… work deadlines are approaching, and then, we have sickness. Ben gets sick and I have to take another 4 days off of work these past two weeks. Did I mention the work deadlines approaching??? Last week he was diagnosed with conjunctivitis and an ear infection… so we started antibiotics and thought we were on our merry way. Sunday we have a crazy storm with 60mph winds, and *blam*… we lose power. Having lost my mind already at this point, Joe tried to turn our situation around and decided to take a family adventure. We had air conditioning in HIS car, so by this point, I was more than willing to sit in a car, even willing to go so far as to sleep out there. Joe really wanted to find a “beach”… and yep, we drove out to the Chesapeake Bay and visited “Chesapeake Beach”, about 30 miles east of DC. It was great! They had a small pier, which Ben *loved*, and we ordered some chicken fingers and ice cream for dinner. I forgot my camera but did have my iPhone with me, and managed to catch a cute video of Ben walking up the pier:

And the gorgeous sunset:

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With improved moods and thinking things were finally working themselves out, we headed back home… but quickly discovered a neighborhood blackout and still no power. Rather than stumble around in the dark and heat, we opted to just grab the pack and play and the aerobed and headed back to our old apartment (which still had power) for the night. The minute we walk in, Ben pukes. And is now running a fever. WONDERFUL. Thankfully, we still had some items left there, including some ibuprofen and whole milk :) So after giving Ben some relief and a late bottle, he went to sleep, and we managed to clean out our refrigerator, now that we had nothing else to do in the bare apartment. Thinking the worst was behind us, we woke up on Monday and Ben seemed to be doing great. So we left the apartment, got back home (still no power), and left for the day. Of course Ben’s daycare calls and lets me know that he is now running a fever of 103, so he’s coming home and can’t return until Wednesday. Fast forward to today… after 3 days of temps above 103 and multiple puking episodes, it turns out the first round of antibiotics didn’t work, and poor Ben has been suffering from a double ear infection all week. *sigh*

After a meltdown at home, things are slowly coming around. Joe took my car in for an a/c recharge, and voila, everything is back to working order (THANK GOD). I don’t have to melt on my way home and listen to Ben cry and sweat to death as we sit in traffic. We also now have backup care for Ben, so if he were to get sick again, we have someone to call on so that I don’t have to take time off (because I’ve now literally exhausted all of my sick leave). Not my ideal choice (I hate leaving him when he’s sick) but it is what it is when we both work full time and have no family in the area. The hazards of being working parents, I guess. We also worked out a better schedule so that I can afford to put more hours in at work, in order to make sure I am available when I need to be. Joe’s parents are visiting this weekend, so we can finally clear out our old place once and for all, and I can check that stress off my list.

So, we’re surviving. I know I’ll look back on all of this one day and laugh… but really, I’m still knocking on wood that the worst isn’t yet to come. *knock knock*

(Ben is 1 year 7 months 2 weeks old)

 
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ben playing

We’re at home today since Ben was suspected of having a case of pinkeye from daycare. THANKFULLY, we’re just getting over a nasty cold, so we’ll be back at daycare tomorrow! (Updated weight check from the doctor: Ben is 30lbs, 9oz at 19 months, 95th percentile!) In the meantime, I pulled out some of his old toys that we had hidden at our previous apartment. Our neighbors downstairs made it abundantly clear their opinion on these toys (read: they pounded on our floor relentlessly whenever he used them). So he was REALLY happy to see these again!

In other news, we had a contractor visit us yesterday to give an estimate on installing central air into our house. We’ve been MISERABLE in this heat and humidity… it’s made me cranky, Joe cranky, and no one wants to MOVE, let alone unpack or do anything productive. Given that we do not have any existing duct work AND given that we’d need to drop more power to the house and install a new circuit breaker box to have enough “juice” for the central a/c, their quote of $22,000 doesn’t seem all that far fetched. This guy came highly recommended… so it just looks like we’ll have to work through the next few years of hot summers while we save up for it. We are looking into a few other solutions for the summer… whether it’s a larger window unit for the living room, or a room a/c unit… SOMETHING needs to be done for us to function. We’ll figure it out. Soon, I hope :)

Unpacking is coming along slowly. I’m happy to report I found my work badge, so at least I can stop my daily trips to the security office :) I also unpacked all our towels, AND managed to do a few loads of laundry in our NEW washer/dryer. We purchased the front loading Kenmore from Sears. It was rated the highest and recommended by Consumer Reports AND it was 15% off :) We had a minor hiccup during the installation when our outlet turned out to be the WRONG kind (our old dryer was OLD)… but a quick call to the local handyman (who we have on speed dial now) had the outlet rewired and the dryer working in a few hours. THANK GOD. So we’re getting there! We also managed to find a new crib for Ben that looks very similar to his old crib, and that gets delivered today (and hopefully assembled tonight or tomorrow morning). No more pack and play for poor Ben! Then we can finally get his room in order. The biggest problem area for us is still the kitchen, and storage there. We desperately need shelving both upstairs and downstairs… maybe a trip to IKEA next weekend is in order.

We also had some fun exciting news… Joe’s cousin Ann had her babies yesterday!! So a big CONGRATULATIONS to Ann and Richard on twins Grace and Frances! We can’t wait to meet them, and wish you a speedy recovery!!

My sister was also here for the weekend, and we had a great time hanging out. I hope she and Jamie had fun being tourists, even despite the ridiculous heat. Ben got a big kick out of Martini (the pug puppy), and I know for sure Lily misses her already :) Hope to see everyone again sometime this fall!

(Ben is 1 year 7 months 5 days old)

 
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getting there

First week in our new house, and we’re getting there. With more sleep and finally using the A/C at night, I have a much better outlook on the move :) Boxes have been semi-unpacked, and while most of the house is still in chaos, and I can’t find my work badge or Ben’s nail clippers, it’s coming along. We have most of our dishes unpacked, and were able to cook dinner two nights this week. The heat is awful… I won’t lie. We totally overestimated our ability to deal with not having central A/C in the house. We actually have a contractor coming on the 19th to give us an estimate for installing A/C in a house with no duct work (we have a steam boiler and radiators for heat), and that has moved to the top of the priority list. Sleeping at night is no problem with the window units… but wow, just hanging out downstairs is tough, let alone trying to move and unpack furniture and heavy boxes. Our home inspector gave a rough estimate of about $20k for the A/C… here’s hoping he was grossly overestimating. Otherwise it will be a few more summers before we can get it installed.

We still have a few problems that need to get resolved ASAP. The first is Ben’s crib… it got broken when we attempted to dismantle it for the move so he’s been sleeping in his pack and play for the past week. It breaks my heart because I loved his crib, and had hoped to use it for the 2nd baby (eventually). But the railing split near the bottom, and I don’t trust it to be safe enough to salvage. It was a craigslist find, so it wasn’t expensive, but I just have a lot of sentimental feelings attached to it, and I’m really, really sad that we can’t assemble it in the new place. So now I’m on the lookout for another crib on craigslist, and I have a few leads. He’s not *quite* ready for a toddler bed yet, especially since we haven’t babyproofed his room or the upstairs yet. So we can’t trust him to be running around unsupervised. So crib it is.

The second is our washing machine. It broke the second night when we attempted to try a load of laundry. Joe called me down to point out a puddle of water collecting at the base, and when we consulted the local handyman, he confirmed it was probably a broken pump. So now we’re in the market for a new washer and dryer, and hope to have those installed this weekend.

After that, we just need to focus on getting all the last items left at the old house transferred over, and then scrub down the place and turn in our keys. I’m hoping we can get that done next weekend, and be ready to turn everything in by the 1st week of August. Then we need to order a new couch (courtesy of Joe’s grandparents and parents), an area rug, a new TV stand, and a new computer desk. We are beyond ready to ditch the folding table and metal filing cabinet we’d converted to a makeshift desk… it looks horrendous in the living room. So our plan is to find an armoire that can fit an external monitor and a laptop so that we can hide it for company, and also find a matching or coordinating file cabinet. That should help tremendously, and make our room a little more livable.

Once we have that, we’ll need to finish putting up window treatments in the rest of the house, hire somone to repair our chimney cap and rainhat, repair the windows that won’t stay up on their own, put up a fence along the back wall in the yard for Lily, and clear out all the poison ivy that’s left. Those are our priority items, and I feel like the list just keeps growing…

In more fun news, Ben loves the new house, despite the heat. He can bang and throw and make as much noise as he wants, and it’s SO much less stressful not having to yell at him for it :) He also loves running in and out of all the rooms upstairs, and pointing to all the ceiling fans. He’s a pro at opening and closing doors, and even figured out how to move things out of the way if he can’t close it. He now says the words “Go!” and “toe” and “door”… and is fascinated every time I tell him something is “stuck”. He tries really hard to say the word, but it always just comes out “uck” or “ick”. He is obsessed with blueberries, and will point to the refrigerator and say “buh-bee” for “blueberry”, and still refuses to eat any sort of vegetable. At least he’ll eat any fruit we give him! We’ve branched out to eat more ham than chicken, but still LOVE LOVE ketchup with chicken nuggets. He’s also a big fan of chips if we bring some home from Subway, but his favorite is still strawberries, blueberries, and chicken nuggets. Never turns those down! We set up his table and chairs that he got as a Christmas present from Nonna and Grandpa Bob, and he loves just sitting at the table and playing. We have a little “Ben corner” in the living room where all his toys and books are, and as soon as we clear out the furniture, he’ll have more room to go crazy.

Lily also loves her new yard… and it was really fun watching her run like crazy the past few days. We still take her for walks in the morning, and it’s really nice walking around our neighborhood and seeing everyone’s house.

So things are settling. My mom was here to help wrangle Ben during the move, and she was a super big help. She left on Wednesday morning, and my sister is actually driving in from Michigan as I type this. I’m excited for the visitors and can’t wait to make more progress, and hopefully host other people over soon!

(Ben is 1 year 7 months 1 day old)

 
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why did we move again?

I feel like I should start off by saying that even though this weekend felt like a disaster, really, nothing *major* went wrong, and we did get most of our stuff moved to the new house. But… really, we had an awful time with this move.

It started on Friday when our moving help called and asked if we could move our time by a few hours. Since we had rented a truck for most of the day, moving our initial start time from 10am to 1:30pm didn’t seem like it would matter. It still gave us 6 and a half hours to get everything loaded and unloaded… seemed like plenty of time. So I gave the go ahead and figured we’d use the extra time to pack more items, and get better organized. Well, we woke up Saturday morning to pouring rain, and two cars parked directly in the area we had put out signs to reserve for our moving truck. We live on a wide street, but there was no way we could double park the behemouth truck, so we had to call the police department to help locate the owners… but only managed to track down one person. Our only alternative was to park as close as possible to the remaining car, and hope that the back of the truck wouldn’t impede traffic too terribly. Thankfully around noon some folks managed to move their cars and we found a big enough space to re-park the truck, right in front of our door. However, because of the rain, the moving help was now delayed, and estimated a 3pm arrival. Now we started to panic since our truck was due back by 7pm, so we were really cutting it close on time.

The movers arrived, and just when it looked like we might actually make it… we ran out of room in the 24′ truck. I knew we had a lot of crap, but good LORD… so now not only are we short on time, but we have a slew of items left in the old place. Still trying to make the 7pm deadline, we rushed over to the new house, and we finished about 30 minutes too late. Thankfully, U-Haul has an overnight drop off policy (which I wish they had told me about in hindsight!), so we were able to drop it off after hours, and not get charged for the extra day. It was still MUCH later than I had wanted to be packing and unpacking, and we had to scramble to unpack and move Ben’s pack and play and sleeping items, so that we could make room to put him to bed when he was ready. It also meant we didn’t really have time to clear room for him to move around… but we managed to get him to sleep and then stayed up late organizing the main living room to clear a pathway for the next morning.

We woke up on Sunday with high hopes that our luck would turn around. The DirecTV installation person was supposed to arrive between 8am and 12pm, and that meant our TV would be up and running first thing. I had scheduled our Verizon DSL service weeks ago, to ensure that our Internet was up and running for moving day. Only when I plugged in our modem, no DSL lights would appear… and after checking multiple phone jacks in the house, we took a tour outside and realized that Verizon had not visited the house, and had never repaired the broken outside line. So no internet for us. DirecTV shows, and what do you know, we also have no direct line to the satellite, due to the humungous tree our neighbors own. We’ve been customers for over 10 years, and it was devastating to hear that we had to cancel our service. I surveyed our options, and it looked like Comcast was our only alternative for cable and Internet… so I called their customer service, and scheduled someone to come out on Tuesday afternoon for installation. So now our plans to have TV/Internet up and running were squashed, and it would be two more days before that was ready.

Dejected, we started unpacking more items, and first broken thing we discovered, the outlet on the countertop where the microwave needed to go does not work. Somehow that got missed in our all repair jobs… so as a workaround we used an extension cord and plugged it into the same outlet that the refrigerator uses. Not ideal, but better than going without an appliance we depend on daily. Add that to the list of repairs needed.

Meanwhile, we also realized that our furniture is just NOT going to fit well with the layout of this house. We have too many bookshelves, and not enough wall space. So some beloved items will either need to go to storage, or be sold. To make matters worse, we went to bed last night hot and exhausted (have I mentioned we don’t have A/C in the new house?)… only to wake up in the middle of the night to discover our ceiling fan was not working. Thinking we had blown a fuse, we start checking other lights… and then noticed our entire block was dark. The whole neighborhood lost power last night. I started trying to think about a backup plan, in case it wasn’t on for the morning or the following night (or days even!)… would we go to a hotel? Would I have to reschedule our installs again… and then at 4am everything miraculously came back on. THANK GOD.

So now today I’m exhausted, only have about 10% of our things unpacked, and Ben is getting really tired of us saying “no-no!” to EVERYTHING he touches. Thank goodness he could go to daycare today, and actually sleep in a nice cool room, and play with his friends. I really hate moving, and it’s hard to feel excited about being in our brand new place with all the things falling apart. I know it will be better once all our things are put away… but so far, this move has me second guessing our decision to leave our old apartment. Putting up with the jackasses downstairs was nothing compared to the hell we went through last night.

But I’m going to try and be patient, and hope that things start to turn around! And keep reminding myself to look on the bright side. At least the movers showed up, the truck didn’t break down, and most of our stuff has a home. We have YEARS to make it our own, and get everything right… I just wish it was a much faster process ;)

(Ben is 1 year 6 months 3 weeks 6 days old)

 
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family and friend reunion

We’re back from our annual trip to Michigan over the 4th of July, and it was fantastic catching up with friends and family. Ben LOVED playing in the kiddie pools that my aunt and uncle had prepared, especially the “alligator” pool that hooked up to the hose. He lived in the water the whole day, even after we had changed him into his regular clothes ;) We got to meet my sister’s new “baby”, Martini, the pug puppy, and Lily ate her weight in hamburgers and nachos from the other kids. We spent one night at my aunt and uncle’s for the family reunion, then made the trek out to my high school/college friend’s house the following night. Her daughter (Charlotte) is only 7 months younger than Ben, so it was nice visiting a house that was already baby proof, with tons of new toys for Ben! I loved watching our kids all play together, and was happy that I could snap some photos of all of them playing nicely. Another college friend managed to swing by, and her daughter (Allicea) also entertained the other babies, even though she’s years ahead.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, and as always, too short. We plan to make another trip in the fall, even if it’s just Ben and I (or just myself)… but hopefully the whole family can make it.

Here is a link to the slideshow of the photos from this weekend, and some of my favorites below:

4th of July, 2010 Trip to Michigan

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This weekend is the BIG MOVING weekend! We have our signs posted out front to reserve space for our moving truck, and the movers will be here at 10am sharp! We are super far behind on packing… still haven’t packed any kitchen stuff, or any clothes. We DID pack all the bookshelf contents, so at least we can move all the really heavy furniture. But we really need to pack FAST to get it all done by Saturday morning. Then Saturday night we should be spending our first night in our new house!! Joe picked up the smaller air conditioner for our room today, so at least every bedroom will have A/C to get us through the night :) My mom is flying in today to watch Ben for us over the weekend, so we can finish packing, and help get everything moved without worrying about Ben being underfoot. Sunday Joe plays baseball, and I’m driving out to pick up our new coffee table that will hopefully fit in our space better. We’re ordering a new couch (courtesy of Joe’s parents and grandparents), so little by little it will all come together. I’ll be sure to take photos, but for now, it’s packing time!

(Ben is 1 year 6 months 3 weeks and 2 days old)

 
Posted in Benjamin, House, Michigan | Leave a comment

 
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