This too shall pass

Update on the swallowed fork...

For those of you who weren't at my husband's extended family's birthday party gathering yesterday I will give you the scoop. N and I were sharing a bowl of ice cream and cake. I had a plastic spoon in the bowl for N to eat from and a plastic fork in the bowl that I was going to use to eat with. Before I knew it N took the plastic fork, bit into it and bit off the tips of two of the fork tongs. He started to cry when the pieces were in his mouth, so I attempted to scoop them out of his mouth with my finger, but that didn't work. He ended up swallowing them.. Ugh!! N was breathing well, he did not choke or gag on the fork tongs, he continued eating (w/ a spoon), and started to play with the other kids again. Everyone collectively decided that he was probably okay and that we should watch his diapers for the fork pieces to pass. The things mommies and daddies do! D got the first dirty diaper, but no signs of fork pieces. I got the next diaper, nothing. Then, at about 9 this morning the fork pieces passed!!! Yay!! I brought the fork home with me so I could compare the missing pieces to the passed pieces. That way I would know when all the "foreign objects" (as the phone nurse at N's doctor referred to it) had passed. I compared the two and sure enough everything came out okay. The phone nurse at N's doctor said everything should be okay if he passed the objects without other symptoms. I'll spare you those details. She said to monitor his eating and his activity today. She's going to let N's doctor know of our phone conversation and if the doctor has any concerns they will call me back.

I cannot help but think of my Grandma Evelyn while writing this story. Whenever we're in a stressful or frustrating situation she always says "Honey, this too shall pass." Well, in this case, her wise words could not be more true!

Take care,
C

Closing

One quick note in addition to what I wrote below.
We closed on our old house yesterday and everything went smoothly!
D and I were able to sign all the paper work a few days ago, so we did not have to attend the closing meeting Friday morning. I did meet the buyer of the house. I didn't talk to him very long (just long enough to make sure he got the garage door openers) but he seemed to be a nice guy. He complimented us on our work on the house and said he's excited to move in. He said he's painting what was my office and N's room because the colors are not appropriate for his kids. Other than that he is keeping all the other rooms the same.. I told him we had lots of good memories in that house and we wish the same for him.

- C

New pictures!!

I have had several people ask me to post new pictures of our house. Below are pictures taken of the kitchen (composite, so it looks a little crooked), desk in the kitchen, living room, and the "loft."
The kitchen turned out just as I had imagined. It is so beautiful and has so many neat features. My favorites are the cabinet that holds two garbage cans (so N can't get into the trash), the ice cube maker (How did we live w/o an ice maker?), the plug ins in the island, the island, and the sink. The sink is huge! I think we could bathe N in it right now and he's 30" tall. :)

The desk in the kitchen is very handy. I had a very proud moment when I installed the computer all by myself. :) We designed the computer set up so that the cords lace through the counter top and into the cabinet where the CPU is stored. This way the cords are concealed from line of sight and from our son. N really enjoys the desk. He has a keyboard for toddlers that sits on top of my keyboard. We sit together at the desk and play with his keyboard and the software that came with it. N calls this his "A, B, C, D's." He tugs at the cabinet where the keyboard is stored and says "A, B, C, D's" until we agree to play it with him.

The living room is very comfortable. Hanging pictures on the living room walls last weekend made the room feel even more like home. I have placed an order for mini blinds. They are being shipped as they are made. So far we have recieved our blinds that will cover the sliding glass door in the nook, but we haven't installed them yet. I am looking forward to getting the blinds up for the times of day when the sun is blinding, but I hope they don't block the gorgeous light that comes through the kitchen windows in the morning.

D did his part to make the house feel like home... in addition to hanging pictures and unpacking boxes inside the house, he pimped out the garage. Look at the pictures below and you will know what I mean. He built our garbage can and recyling center near our back door. We will eventually add hooks where our brooms, mops, etc will hang. In another area of the garage he built "the loft." I jokingly call it that because it reminds me of the way my roommates and I would loft our beds in college. These shelves D built are great because they store a lot of garage items that we don't use on a daily basis.

I will post more pictures as we decorate (and I clean, ha!). We have N's room all decorated, but I'm not going to post pictures of that for safety reasons...If you saw his room at the old house you pretty much know what it looks like. I kept the same decor because I want the room to feel like home.

Other that that, we are continuing to get boxes unpacked.

People have told me they love to hear stories posted about N, so here are a few:

The other day N was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. He had his milk cup in his hand and asked me to give him his water cup. Once he had both cups in his hands he pushed them around a little, shook them a few times and said "Diet Coke." As if mixing water and milk creates Diet Coke. ( By the way, I drink Diet Coke at lunch every day.)

N is really into singing and pretending right now. I purposely left his Farm out on the table in the pictures I took of the living room. I did this to tell you that he plays with this farm every day several times a day. He pretends to feed the "aminals," combine the field and makes all the animal sounds.

Every night before N falls asleep he either talks to himself or sings. He's getting pretty good at singing his ABC's and counting to ten.... He also likes the song "Shift Work" by Kenny Chesney. Ha! I haven't heard him singing it to yet, but he stops in his tracks and watches the entire music video whenever it comes on CMT. Too funny!!

Take care -C

P.S.

P.S.
One thing on my to do list is to send out our new address information to everyone, so please keep an eye on your mailbox and your email inbox. I'm either going to send a postcard in the mail or send out an e-post card. I haven't decided yet.

-C

Thanks to everyone who helped us!!

We survived the big move. We could not have done it without all the help we got from friends and family. N's grandparents were super helpful in watching N while we directed the people helping us move and while we moved stuff ourselves. Our friends were moving things so quickly I never got a real good head count of everyone there, but I'd guess we had 15 people show up! All fifteen people worked very well together and things ran very smoothly and rapidly. We started loading trucks at 9am and were done unloading the last box at the new house around 11:30. I took a picture of everyone's vehicles parked on the street (will post soon). It looked like we were taking over the neighborhood. It's been a long time since I have seen that many humungous pick up trucks in one location. I got a kick out of the guys checking out each other's trucks. I think it was a macho contest. One guy mentioned that he cleaned his truck before he came to our house that morning....Aren't you only supposed to clean your truck before you go to prom?? D and I would like to so a huge thank you to everyone who helped us. We truely appreciate it!!

The morning of the move D and I realized we hadn't packed our main storage room in the basement of our old house... Oops! The guys who helped us move were great about throwing things into boxes and moving things as best they could , but we really had to pack those items ourselves. So I spent the last couple of days pitching, sorting and packing that room. Let me tell you, by this time in a move I am ready to Goodwill as much as possible! Even though that room was a bear to clean out I did it and we have it all out of the old house.

I have cleaned the old house. D has patched holes and started painting touch ups here and there.
D put out a ton of garbage this morning for the garbage man to take. We still have a couple more loads to get rid of. We have several days before we officially close on our old house, so we have time to finish up our to do list and say one last good bye.

We are doing pretty well at getting unpacked in our new house. We have all the essential items in their new places. We're still getting used to where everything is, but it's all coming together. We are working on unpacking boxes that are still in the garage. I got a big chunk of it done last night. Now most of what we have left to sort through and organize are garage and outdoor items. D is working on setting up shelves in the garage so we can get that done.

N is getting used to the new house. He plays really well in the common areas (living room, kitchen, play room), but is scared of his room. For some reason he doesn't like the door to be closed. He cries when we lay him down for naps and bed time. He usually says "go home, go home" while he's crying. I feel really bad that he's scared in his new room. I have been making a point to spend time playing in his room with him so he feels comfortable. Tonight we are making a point of hanging all his pictures, decorations and drapes. We hope this will make the room more familiar to him so he's not scared anymore. I'm anxious for his new mini blinds to arrive. N has been waking up at 5:30 every morning when it starts to get light out because we don't have anything to fully cover his window yet. I don't want him to start a new routine of getting up at 5:30 every morning!! Those are farmer's hours and I don't exactly operate on farmer's hours. :)

Other than that we are excited to get back to normal life. Working on house stuff and moving stuff has consumed me for several weeks. It has taken up so much time that N and I haven't been to a playdate-like activity in weeks. We've been to the gym pretty often, so he's played with kids there, but we haven't had much of a social life for a long time. We went a playdate with friends this morning. N had sooo much fun!! He was running and jumping around and laughing. He loved it! We drove through McDonald's for lunch on the way home. I try not to do this too often, but I guess I do it often enough that N knows what we're doing because right after I placed my order in the little speaker I hear "fra fies, fra fies" coming from the backseat. Too cute!

Thanks again and take care.
-C

Hi!

Hi!
Just thought I'd let you know we are still here. :)
I haven't blogged in so long it's taking me a few minutes to think of everything that has happened since my last entry.

We sold our current house! Yay! I'm nervous to say too much about it selling because we haven't had the closing yet. We are supposed to close on April 18th, but the buyer has requested an earlier close. I called the realtor to let her know that we can do it earlier, but I haven't heard back from her yet. Therefore, the closing date on our current house is somewhat in the air at this time.

We closed on our new house March 27th. So exciting!! Fortunately my Mom was able to watch N while D and I closed. She even stayed the majority of the day so D and I could work on the house. We finished the cubbies/lockers with mail sorting bins and hooks, we started baby proofing, I cleaned, and we went to town to buy N a new furniture set. The one that he has been using is a hand me down from my sister (Thanks again, sis) which I think she bought off a former coworker. We'll just say it's definitely gotten its use, but it's not sturdy enough to handle N any more. He's a pretty solid boy and he's very strong. The search for a new crib turned into a trek across the earth. D and I fell in love with a set at Target. The set is beautifully displayed on an end cap in the baby section for all the world to see. It might as well have a spot light and fancy music playing over it... but do you think they have any in stock?? No. They couldn't even locate one piece of the set in the entire state! After much searching and store hopping (we don't bar hop anymore, we store hop...for baby stuff. ha!) we settled on a set that was in stock. It's cute and it works, but it doesn't quite live up to the gorgeous set we had picked out originally.

Anyway...back to house stuff.
We had our final inspection (on old house) a couple weeks ago. N and I had to be out of the house for two hours for the "examination" (for lack of a better word) to take place. And wouldn't you know it they insisted on coming smack dab in the middle of nap time! Don't these people understand the importance of nap time? So N and I packed up and hung out at the new house for lunch, nap time, and snack time. It turned out to be a better experience than I thought it would be. N took a pretty good nap and I was able to get a few things done while he slept. The worst part of the whole deal??? The inspector had to test the outlets in the house and in doing so he reset our clocks, my kitchen radio, and the microwave. I still don't have the kitchen radio reset. Urgh.. But, if that's the worst of it I'd say we're doing pretty good.

We have been packing to prepare for the move. It didn't take me long to figure out that packing with a todller around is a major challenge. N is into to EVERYTHING!! I lay a box out to fill, he sits in it and says "we ride, we ride." I put items in the box, he pulls them out. I set boxes by the back door to load in the car, he climbs on them and says "Sit Down" in a very familiar tone... So, by the end of packing N has gone for a ride in a box, has removed (and added) item to boxes and he's climbing on top of them. Can't wait to see what's in the boxes when I unpack them and it anything is broken. I actually am a little excited to see what "treats" he has put in the boxes for me. I try to remind myself that any little bonus items I find are treasures. Some day I will look back at this move and N will be all grown up and I will give anything to hear his little voice and see him walking towards me saying "hug, hug, hug" or "We watch Elmo, we watch Elmo, we watch Elmo." He's very into repeating himself these days. :)

The hardest part of this move in the confusion it is causing N. For the most part he has done pretty well with it. He is familiar with the new house but he doesn't recognize it as ours. He has no idea that we are going to be living there soon. We talk to him about it, but how much can he truely understand at his age?? When we visit he plays with his toys, climbs the steps, looks at the fans (and potties). Then when he's ready to leave, he heads to the back door, reaches for the handle and says "Bye, bye house... Home please, home please, home please." I hope it doesn't take him too long to adapt. I hope we can do the right things to make our new place feel like home for him.

We are moving into our new house this Saturday April 5th. We'll have a couple of weeks to visit our old house before we have to give it up. I haven't made the mental leap that there will come a day when we cannot come into this house at our own leisure. I might just be putting up a mental block on that concept. Like I said before. It's going to be really hard for me to leave this house. We have finished the basement, built the deck, painted the walls. This was our first house together. We had cook outs, birthdays, anniversaries and holidays in this house. We brought our first baby home to this house... Ahh, the memories.... As I get choked up thinking about leaving this home I remind myself that I am able to figuratively visit this house in my memories and in my pictures/videos. I will take a moment to walk through the house when it stands empty of our belongings. I will relive special moments.... I will pack those moments into my memory, close the door and move on. As they say... "When one door closes, another opens."

(New pictures to come soon... Where did I put the camera?? Oops.)