Not long after our last post things kind of fell apart... literally. We did manage to get moved in for Memorial Day weekend (after a total of 4 weeks in 2 different rentals) and have a few friends over for the holiday to cook out and swim (our first swim in the newly restored pool). So that was nice. But it got crazy from there... We had a massive fly infestation (likely from something dead in the chimney), the electrical was kind of a mess, the front windows/wall leaked massively in the living room during the tropical storm, the brand new roof leaked over Clementine's room so badly the ceiling fell in (thankfully not while she was in there), we had to rip out a huge oak that was getting under the foundation and was too close to the house (leading to the leaking), our fence install was a stressful hell during the rain and a disagreement over where we could put the fence, and we lived in Clementine's room most of June and couldn't start using our master bathroom until July. And that's only the stuff I can remember. There came a point when I couldn't take any more pictures because I honestly just wanted to forget it was all happening. It was just too much. Trying to juggle fixing the house and keeping Clementine from losing it amidst the chaos was pretty overwhelming.
So, when the ceiling fell in days before we were due to head to NC I looked at Wade and cried and said please just stay here and fix all this and I'll get C out of the house because it was so torn up she couldn't even move around in it anyway. So we did. C and I flew alone for the first time to visit Poppi and Granzie and thankfully it was a direct flight (lugging her and her carseat was a little tedious but we survived). We had a lovely visit and even went camping in the Smokies and visited C's cousins, which was a lot of fun, and just what we both needed. For Wade's part, although he worked hard getting the house back in order, he did enjoy nights watching guy movies, drinking wine, and eating popcorn so it was a break for him too.
We got back just in time for Father's Day, and we took Wade to the aquarium again this year, always a bit hit with him and C (she touched her first sting ray and LOVED it). For his birthday, all he wanted was a kayak, so C picked out a lime green one that's just perfect for us. It's been wonderful and we've already seen manatees, dolphins, lots of birds, fish, and even a bonnethead shark just minutes from our house!
The summer has been a bit of a blur actually. We've been spending every waking moment it feels like trying to get this house back into shape: painting, caulking, cleaning, rebuilding, cleaning, scraping, cleaning, electrical, painting, regrouting and sealing, you get the idea. But we're finally feeling settled now and are ready to turn our attention to the outside. The pool cage is set to be finished up in the next few weeks (the deck work to prep for it has been a nightmare) so we'll be thrilled when that's finally done. The house still looks like a bomb went off out front after removing the tree because we just haven't had the time or money to do anything about it yet. It's kind of killing me... like walking around with a thorn in your foot... We're hoping we can get a reasonable quote for some of the landscape demo work we need done (removing old railroad ties and reinforcing the terraced deck, removing the awful soil in the decaying beds, etc) so we can start doing the fun work on our own - building garden beds, planting some trees and bushes out front, getting the edibles planted in the yard...
It feels like 2016 has been a time warp so far since we've spent the whole time fixing up, selling, and buying houses. We look forward to being settled and are starting to enjoy the benefits of our wonderful location and floor plan (paddling, a pool, and room for guests and talking at full volume in the evenings!). C also started Montessori preschool 2 weeks ago (she's going 3 half days a week) and that's also been a huge transition, but she is being "very brave". We had her almost sleeping through the night right before we left the old house and since then her sleep has gotten worse and worse with all the changes, so I'm back to not getting much sleep at night which has not really helped my outlook on things. Once she seems settled into school we're going to try and do a little more light sleep training again in hopes we can get back to that better place.
We lost our photo site (Google Sucks) so I've been trying to figure out how we're going to replace photo storage for the site. We've been forced to use Google Photos (they supposedly transferred our Picasa photos for us), but it's been a lot of hassle trying to work around it so it's been tough getting pictures up. Here are some summer pictures for now and some house renovations in progress pictures.
On a positive note, we weathered the last hurricane without any leaks - hooray - thanks to a ridiculous amount of caulking Wade did to all the external openings on the house just before the storm. Ah, there's nothing 5 tubes of caulk can't cure, eh?
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Monday, May 23, 2016
Still in the rental...
Well, we are still in rental #2 and just extended for a few more days with the intent of being out on Friday. Sigh. It's been a busy two weeks. Hard to believe it's only been 2.5 weeks since we closed given how much we got done.
Remember that little washing machine blow up? Well, it led us to more closely inspect the closet that backed up to it and we found tons of mold in there as well as sweating AC supply lines (the lines hadn't been used for years and the rats had eaten the insulation so our new AC was pumping moisture into the wall between the laundry room and guest bedroom). We also discovered mold in the walls behind the toilet in the guest bath (so now we know why they shut off the water and didn't use it) so we had to rip out that drywall too. The good news - the mold seems limited only to the areas where there was water damage and had not spread to other areas of the house, and our contractor was there to be able to help us repair and deal with it in short order. The bad news - it's eaten a ton out of our budget so replacing all the broken windows is suddenly not doable. At least the house will be healthy and clean for us... The workers and I were all getting sick from the mold and I can report that today we're all feeling much better and the house smells infinitely better.
Thankfully my dad was also here to help get some work done - he converted the hall closet into a much-needed panty, rebuilt the disintegrating kitchen island cabinet and plumbing, took down the crumbling laundry room cabinets, helped cut out all the random utility holes in the rooms (many had two cable outlets and other random panels!), fixed our side garage door, and most importantly - he ripped out the over-sink cabinets and lofted the ceiling in the kitchen turning it from a dark, low, cave into a bright open space! Since we absolutely can't afford to touch the kitchen this cosmetic fix helps it feel nicer but also improved the lighting of the area making it more livable. He was also able to sort out some electrical problems for the appliances but then discovered some issues in the kitchen wiring we haven't been able to fix yet. We upgraded everything to GFI to bring it all up to code, but something in there is tripping the circuits so most of the outlets don't work. Sigh. We're trying to call in another electrician this week to sort it out. We really enjoyed his visit and I was so thankfully Clementine got to spend some quality time with him. It was all too short though!
When Dad was removing the kitchen ceiling, insulation and a literal rain of rat poop dropped on him (ick!) so he kindly bagged it all up and took it out to the curb. Apparently the rats had a nice little den up there to keep them warm in the winter.... oh my. We're having the rest of the insulation sucked out this week and the attic sprayed down then we'll blow in new insulation this weekend. Just in time before the summer heat really kicks in.
We had to order a new washer and dryer as the hand me down one fell through and with the holiday weekend sale we decided to bite the bullet now (they arrive tomorrow). Ugh. We likely will have to do the water heater next, so fingers crossed we get a break on that for a little bit. The dishwasher went in today too which we're excited about since neither rental has had one.
In good news, the pool looks downright inviting now and I am itching to do a cannonball into the deep end! It is nothing short of miraculous what our pool guy was able to do. We'll be spending Memorial Day at home for the first time in a decade and we're kind of sad about that - its traditionally a beach weekend for us, but we'll be getting a truck to haul our boxes from storage this weekend. We're hoping we can at least grill out and swim on the actual holiday.
A funny side note, our house is apparently notorious in the city waste department... when they showed up for the 4th pick up I apologized to the the guy (who was incredibly nice and thorough) for all the mess and he said "oh yeah, when I saw the address I knew what I was in for since I've already been here twice". I laughed, but also felt awful. Hopefully the worst of the mess is coming to an end. I spent my evening last night vacuuming our grass for garbage scraps with a shop vac since there was bits of insulation, glass, and styrofoam everywhere after the pick up. We had a pretty huge pile - it was bagged rat poop insulation, the kitchen ceiling, MORE of the seller's junk we found in the attic, the old pool equipment, the rest of the carpet, moldy drywall, the old toilets... even the neighbors can't believe how much stuff has come out of this house (apparently the seller even took two loads of junk to the dump before we closed!).
I have lots of pictures and some video, but the internet connection at this rental is ridiculously slow so I don't think we'll get to upload them until this weekend. Thankfully we have internet and phone up at the new house and Wade's cracking through the painting. We still have to put up our closet organizers so we can actually hang clothes, but at least Clementine's room is somewhat functional so she has somewhere to hang when we take her over to the house. It's been hard to stay positive with all the crazy crap that's gone wrong, but I think once we're in the house and can swim it'll feel a lot better. I did spend all afternoon yesterday scrubbing the kitchen cabinets, which were literally the filthiest things I have ever seen... I had to shop vac them first to remove all the roach poop and bug bits then scrub all surfaces to remove a nasty brown layer of grime all over everything. Most of the cabinets are falling apart and most of the drawers were literally turning to saw dust while I cleaned them (insert laugh/crying here), so we'll be using more of our ikea cabinetry in the dining room for dish storage than we had before. It was another shocking instance of not believing humans actually lived in this house 3 weeks ago as if nothing was wrong?! You would swear this house was abandoned when we bought it!
We have been enjoying all that the location has to offer though! Wade took Clementine on a quick maiden paddling voyage in the creek behind us (and she keeps asking to go paddling again), we've had bunnies in the yard just outside C's window, possibly a bobcat eating a catnip toy in our garage, bats at dusk, a downy woodpecker nest outside our bedroom window (so cute!), and lots of wading birds and fish plopping in the distance. We're so excited for all the nature that surrounds the house!
Remember that little washing machine blow up? Well, it led us to more closely inspect the closet that backed up to it and we found tons of mold in there as well as sweating AC supply lines (the lines hadn't been used for years and the rats had eaten the insulation so our new AC was pumping moisture into the wall between the laundry room and guest bedroom). We also discovered mold in the walls behind the toilet in the guest bath (so now we know why they shut off the water and didn't use it) so we had to rip out that drywall too. The good news - the mold seems limited only to the areas where there was water damage and had not spread to other areas of the house, and our contractor was there to be able to help us repair and deal with it in short order. The bad news - it's eaten a ton out of our budget so replacing all the broken windows is suddenly not doable. At least the house will be healthy and clean for us... The workers and I were all getting sick from the mold and I can report that today we're all feeling much better and the house smells infinitely better.
Thankfully my dad was also here to help get some work done - he converted the hall closet into a much-needed panty, rebuilt the disintegrating kitchen island cabinet and plumbing, took down the crumbling laundry room cabinets, helped cut out all the random utility holes in the rooms (many had two cable outlets and other random panels!), fixed our side garage door, and most importantly - he ripped out the over-sink cabinets and lofted the ceiling in the kitchen turning it from a dark, low, cave into a bright open space! Since we absolutely can't afford to touch the kitchen this cosmetic fix helps it feel nicer but also improved the lighting of the area making it more livable. He was also able to sort out some electrical problems for the appliances but then discovered some issues in the kitchen wiring we haven't been able to fix yet. We upgraded everything to GFI to bring it all up to code, but something in there is tripping the circuits so most of the outlets don't work. Sigh. We're trying to call in another electrician this week to sort it out. We really enjoyed his visit and I was so thankfully Clementine got to spend some quality time with him. It was all too short though!
When Dad was removing the kitchen ceiling, insulation and a literal rain of rat poop dropped on him (ick!) so he kindly bagged it all up and took it out to the curb. Apparently the rats had a nice little den up there to keep them warm in the winter.... oh my. We're having the rest of the insulation sucked out this week and the attic sprayed down then we'll blow in new insulation this weekend. Just in time before the summer heat really kicks in.
We had to order a new washer and dryer as the hand me down one fell through and with the holiday weekend sale we decided to bite the bullet now (they arrive tomorrow). Ugh. We likely will have to do the water heater next, so fingers crossed we get a break on that for a little bit. The dishwasher went in today too which we're excited about since neither rental has had one.
In good news, the pool looks downright inviting now and I am itching to do a cannonball into the deep end! It is nothing short of miraculous what our pool guy was able to do. We'll be spending Memorial Day at home for the first time in a decade and we're kind of sad about that - its traditionally a beach weekend for us, but we'll be getting a truck to haul our boxes from storage this weekend. We're hoping we can at least grill out and swim on the actual holiday.
 |
| Papa John and Clementine (on the right) watching the huge garbage pick up truck - she was fascinated with it! |
I have lots of pictures and some video, but the internet connection at this rental is ridiculously slow so I don't think we'll get to upload them until this weekend. Thankfully we have internet and phone up at the new house and Wade's cracking through the painting. We still have to put up our closet organizers so we can actually hang clothes, but at least Clementine's room is somewhat functional so she has somewhere to hang when we take her over to the house. It's been hard to stay positive with all the crazy crap that's gone wrong, but I think once we're in the house and can swim it'll feel a lot better. I did spend all afternoon yesterday scrubbing the kitchen cabinets, which were literally the filthiest things I have ever seen... I had to shop vac them first to remove all the roach poop and bug bits then scrub all surfaces to remove a nasty brown layer of grime all over everything. Most of the cabinets are falling apart and most of the drawers were literally turning to saw dust while I cleaned them (insert laugh/crying here), so we'll be using more of our ikea cabinetry in the dining room for dish storage than we had before. It was another shocking instance of not believing humans actually lived in this house 3 weeks ago as if nothing was wrong?! You would swear this house was abandoned when we bought it!
We have been enjoying all that the location has to offer though! Wade took Clementine on a quick maiden paddling voyage in the creek behind us (and she keeps asking to go paddling again), we've had bunnies in the yard just outside C's window, possibly a bobcat eating a catnip toy in our garage, bats at dusk, a downy woodpecker nest outside our bedroom window (so cute!), and lots of wading birds and fish plopping in the distance. We're so excited for all the nature that surrounds the house!
Thursday, May 12, 2016
We can even make this sh*t up
So we are wrapping up two weeks in our little rental, to spend another week in a rental Wade found last night. Hahaha... where to begin....
Well, we closed on our old house successfully and uneventfully and had a fairly lovely day but ended up having a quiet night at home for Cinco de Mayo since we were all really wiped out from lack of sleep. We've scheduled a make up day with friends for next weekend so that'll be exciting.
But then came our actual closing day... Going into this, I always expected the seller to not actually be out on the day of closing. I just had that feeling and they just has SO.MUCH.STUFF that I had a hard time imaging them being out on time. I had taken to driving by every night looking for progress the week before we closed and although I saw signs of progress I was not entirely convinced it was going to happen as it was supposed to. (Which led to our realtor prodding the other realtor to check up on her client, in theory.)
We showed up for our final walk through at 8:30am and there was junk on the curb, and I mean there was so much stuff, the pile was bigger than our two cars. The good news was that the storage pod was gone and so was their car, so that was promising. But we were a bit early and walked around back to start the walk through until the other realtor came and it became quite apparent that the lovely sparkling clean house we left for our buyers was not what we were getting from our sellers. There was stuff all over the porch (plants, a grill, broken bits of stuff) and we peeked into the windows to see stuff all over the floor inside the house too as well as wrapping materials and garbage. When the seller's realtor got there, she was pretty livid (and surprised) which cracked me up because this was entirely predictable. So we talked through options with our realtor and with her and she called the seller who clearly was not in touch with reality and didn't get it that she needed to be out, let alone clean the house.
Realtor: "Your stuff is everywhere and needs to be gone. We talked about this - you should be out of the house and the house was supposed to be cleaned by this morning. They are offering to call a junk service to remove everything for you.
Seller on speaker phone: "Junk service? But those are my things?! My clothes are there, I have a printer!"
Realtor: "Ok, you need to bring me the house key so we can get in for the final walk through right now, closing is in a half hour."
Seller: "Well, I need to brush my teeth and I'm in my pajamas, and I need to eat some breakfast...." (It was 9am)
So we said, fine, get her to sign papers, let's walk through the house (the realtor had to run and grab the key from the seller in a hotel 15min away), and see what we're dealing with. It was pretty bad - the house reeked of pet (and rat) urine, the fireplace was overflowing with ashes, the cat box had spilled on the floor (complete with poop), there was personal stuff everywhere and garbage on the floor, the fridge was full of food, the kitchen sink was backed up and dirty dishes all over the counter, the toilet was backed up with stuff in it, and there was a new beehive in the soffiting... it was a general disaster. The silver lining was that all the neighbors came out to greet us and were sweet, lovely, and helpful people. We feel so lucky to live in such a wonderful neighborhood!
So we documented everything - pictures and video - and got the seller to closing. My theory was, we just needed her to sign the papers and I could deal with anything after that. I just wanted to get working on our house. We negotiated an escrow holdback and gave her until the end of the day to get her stuff out then asked for cleaning and steaming of the carpets. Once the paperwork was mostly signed and they finished the finer points of the escrow holdback I left with Clementine who napped in the car and Wade kept me up to date by text while I sat in the car with a sleeping C. And this text exchange generally summed up how our closing went:
Wade: So Denise (seller's realtor) just came in and said there's a dead parrot wrapped in a towel in the freezer.... did you get a picture of that?
Me: HOLY F*CK, WHAT?!
Me: And I am now crazing laugh-crying in the car
Me: We are throwing out that fridge TODAY
Wade: Yeah, Toby (our realtor) and I are dying too
Me: We can't even make this sh*t up!?
Me: Can't stop laughing.... Might pee my pants. I needed that.
Me: That does explain the empty parrot cage in the garage!
Wade: Toby said we can have his old stove and fridge to replace the contaminated junkers
Mercifully, a mild front blew through just before closing so we could open all the windows and air out the house for the first time in years we've been told (oh yeah, most of those don't work either!) As soon as we were closed the hive of activity began - our rodent/pest control people, a locksmith, and pool people were there while the seller's movers arrive to finish taking everything. The junk pile grew to a size larger than 4 cars and finally by 8:30 at night I was alone in the house with nothing but the rats in the walls and attic for company (ick). Finally a cleaning lady showed up and I called it a night. The next morning the steam cleaners showed up and even they told us to throw out the carpet. Everyone kept asking us how long the house had been vacant for - assuming it was a foreclosure! The plumber was shocked people were living there very recently given the state of the plumbing (sink backed up, toilets shot, old crappy connections, but thankfully we have good copper pipes everywhere!). We cleaned some things and replaced the garbage disposal that was the culprit for the blocked kitchen sink.
On Mother's Day our furniture arrived and we stacked it all in the garage. We also used the movers to go get our hand-me-down fridge and stove and when we took out the old ones I discovered what looked like years of spilled, burned coffee underneath. So I spent the day on my hands and knees scrubbing our floors and our "new" appliances. Whee. Thankfully Poppi and Granzie were here to keep C entertained while we moved and cleaned then we had a nice dinner with tropical mimosas!
The contractor we hired to get the wallpaper down was working at an impressive pace but the more we saw the worse it got. So fast forward and now we have a shiny new AC unit (planned), and solid new roof (planned), and the wall paper removal has grown to gutting the bathrooms and ripping out all the carpet and staining the concrete subfloor so we can live in a clean house rather than a filthy one. (Yeah, there was even carpet in the bathrooms!) Under the carpet we found all sorts of lovely animal pee smells and lots of bugs and some water damage/mold, so we decided it had to go and we could live with clean, stained concrete for a while. We also did some wall repair where water damage was hidden behind the wall paper. It was amazing how getting all the wall paper down and painting the walls has really brightened things up! One other good thing - the pool should get cleaned this weekend and we should be swimming by next weekend!
To balance out the unexpected bathroom renovations (thank you IKEA!), we managed to get used appliances for the kitchen (but will have to buy a new dishwasher) and will get a used washing machine tomorrow. (Of course the washing machine hook up blew and sprayed water all over when we unhooked it which helped us figure out where the past leaking came from in the second bedroom.)
Another fun tidbit - we found a safe in the floor of our closet!! But it's totally corroded and we can't get it open. It's set into the foundation concrete so there's no way to get it open but we all got a huge laugh out of it and one of the AC guys and the contractor tried using a torch to cut it open, but no luck. Oh well. The curiosity is killing us though!
Clementine is already having fun exploring her new room and she seems to think her big walk in closet is a secret play room! :) We've also been picnicking in the yard to enjoy the weather and to start to feel at home even though we aren't living there yet. I've been trying to capture the change as much as possible, but with the crazy pace we're moving at it's been hard to catch it all.
This house could easily be called "the money pit", but on the first day of real work I had this vision while standing in our master bedroom with the breeze rolling in through the open french doors - the morning sun was shining on our pool, the birds were chirping, and I could look out into the mangroves and the water and I felt so at peace despite the chaos and filth around me (to anyone else they saw a pee-stained carpeted room, torn up porch, mucky pool, and unkempt backyard) - all I could see was nothing but incredible potential and secluded water access as far as the eye could see. :)
 |
| C enjoying the front windows at the rental |
But then came our actual closing day... Going into this, I always expected the seller to not actually be out on the day of closing. I just had that feeling and they just has SO.MUCH.STUFF that I had a hard time imaging them being out on time. I had taken to driving by every night looking for progress the week before we closed and although I saw signs of progress I was not entirely convinced it was going to happen as it was supposed to. (Which led to our realtor prodding the other realtor to check up on her client, in theory.)
We showed up for our final walk through at 8:30am and there was junk on the curb, and I mean there was so much stuff, the pile was bigger than our two cars. The good news was that the storage pod was gone and so was their car, so that was promising. But we were a bit early and walked around back to start the walk through until the other realtor came and it became quite apparent that the lovely sparkling clean house we left for our buyers was not what we were getting from our sellers. There was stuff all over the porch (plants, a grill, broken bits of stuff) and we peeked into the windows to see stuff all over the floor inside the house too as well as wrapping materials and garbage. When the seller's realtor got there, she was pretty livid (and surprised) which cracked me up because this was entirely predictable. So we talked through options with our realtor and with her and she called the seller who clearly was not in touch with reality and didn't get it that she needed to be out, let alone clean the house.
Realtor: "Your stuff is everywhere and needs to be gone. We talked about this - you should be out of the house and the house was supposed to be cleaned by this morning. They are offering to call a junk service to remove everything for you.
Seller on speaker phone: "Junk service? But those are my things?! My clothes are there, I have a printer!"
Realtor: "Ok, you need to bring me the house key so we can get in for the final walk through right now, closing is in a half hour."
Seller: "Well, I need to brush my teeth and I'm in my pajamas, and I need to eat some breakfast...." (It was 9am)
So we said, fine, get her to sign papers, let's walk through the house (the realtor had to run and grab the key from the seller in a hotel 15min away), and see what we're dealing with. It was pretty bad - the house reeked of pet (and rat) urine, the fireplace was overflowing with ashes, the cat box had spilled on the floor (complete with poop), there was personal stuff everywhere and garbage on the floor, the fridge was full of food, the kitchen sink was backed up and dirty dishes all over the counter, the toilet was backed up with stuff in it, and there was a new beehive in the soffiting... it was a general disaster. The silver lining was that all the neighbors came out to greet us and were sweet, lovely, and helpful people. We feel so lucky to live in such a wonderful neighborhood!
So we documented everything - pictures and video - and got the seller to closing. My theory was, we just needed her to sign the papers and I could deal with anything after that. I just wanted to get working on our house. We negotiated an escrow holdback and gave her until the end of the day to get her stuff out then asked for cleaning and steaming of the carpets. Once the paperwork was mostly signed and they finished the finer points of the escrow holdback I left with Clementine who napped in the car and Wade kept me up to date by text while I sat in the car with a sleeping C. And this text exchange generally summed up how our closing went:
Wade: So Denise (seller's realtor) just came in and said there's a dead parrot wrapped in a towel in the freezer.... did you get a picture of that?
Me: HOLY F*CK, WHAT?!
Me: And I am now crazing laugh-crying in the car
Me: We are throwing out that fridge TODAY
Wade: Yeah, Toby (our realtor) and I are dying too
Me: We can't even make this sh*t up!?
Me: Can't stop laughing.... Might pee my pants. I needed that.
Me: That does explain the empty parrot cage in the garage!
Wade: Toby said we can have his old stove and fridge to replace the contaminated junkers
Mercifully, a mild front blew through just before closing so we could open all the windows and air out the house for the first time in years we've been told (oh yeah, most of those don't work either!) As soon as we were closed the hive of activity began - our rodent/pest control people, a locksmith, and pool people were there while the seller's movers arrive to finish taking everything. The junk pile grew to a size larger than 4 cars and finally by 8:30 at night I was alone in the house with nothing but the rats in the walls and attic for company (ick). Finally a cleaning lady showed up and I called it a night. The next morning the steam cleaners showed up and even they told us to throw out the carpet. Everyone kept asking us how long the house had been vacant for - assuming it was a foreclosure! The plumber was shocked people were living there very recently given the state of the plumbing (sink backed up, toilets shot, old crappy connections, but thankfully we have good copper pipes everywhere!). We cleaned some things and replaced the garbage disposal that was the culprit for the blocked kitchen sink.
 |
| Closing day - we bought a crazy house! |
The contractor we hired to get the wallpaper down was working at an impressive pace but the more we saw the worse it got. So fast forward and now we have a shiny new AC unit (planned), and solid new roof (planned), and the wall paper removal has grown to gutting the bathrooms and ripping out all the carpet and staining the concrete subfloor so we can live in a clean house rather than a filthy one. (Yeah, there was even carpet in the bathrooms!) Under the carpet we found all sorts of lovely animal pee smells and lots of bugs and some water damage/mold, so we decided it had to go and we could live with clean, stained concrete for a while. We also did some wall repair where water damage was hidden behind the wall paper. It was amazing how getting all the wall paper down and painting the walls has really brightened things up! One other good thing - the pool should get cleaned this weekend and we should be swimming by next weekend!
To balance out the unexpected bathroom renovations (thank you IKEA!), we managed to get used appliances for the kitchen (but will have to buy a new dishwasher) and will get a used washing machine tomorrow. (Of course the washing machine hook up blew and sprayed water all over when we unhooked it which helped us figure out where the past leaking came from in the second bedroom.)
Another fun tidbit - we found a safe in the floor of our closet!! But it's totally corroded and we can't get it open. It's set into the foundation concrete so there's no way to get it open but we all got a huge laugh out of it and one of the AC guys and the contractor tried using a torch to cut it open, but no luck. Oh well. The curiosity is killing us though!
Clementine is already having fun exploring her new room and she seems to think her big walk in closet is a secret play room! :) We've also been picnicking in the yard to enjoy the weather and to start to feel at home even though we aren't living there yet. I've been trying to capture the change as much as possible, but with the crazy pace we're moving at it's been hard to catch it all.
This house could easily be called "the money pit", but on the first day of real work I had this vision while standing in our master bedroom with the breeze rolling in through the open french doors - the morning sun was shining on our pool, the birds were chirping, and I could look out into the mangroves and the water and I felt so at peace despite the chaos and filth around me (to anyone else they saw a pee-stained carpeted room, torn up porch, mucky pool, and unkempt backyard) - all I could see was nothing but incredible potential and secluded water access as far as the eye could see. :)
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Transitions
We are officially in our rental house now and everyone is settling in. The only regret is that we weren't able to book this for an extra week to allow us more time to work at the new house, but oh well. Everything works out as it's supposed to I guess.
We close on our old house tomorrow morning (today the furniture gets packed up and the house cleaned), and Friday morning we close on the new house and the work begins literally that afternoon. We have to get as much done as soon as possible before we run out of time in our rental house. Our furniture will get delivered on Mother's Day (oh, wow, Mama got a new house for Mother's Day! haha) and loaded into the garage to stay out of the way while we attack the roof, AC, and wallpaper/painting starting on Monday. Most of our boxed stuff is in storage that we moved there over the last month, and some is here at the rental (along with all our potted plants). This weekend we've be taking an inventory of the status of things and prioritizing what we need to fix immediately and what can wait for a bit longer. We're also not sure of the working status of some of the appliance and the guest toilet, so we need a clearer picture of what we're facing. We also aren't sure how much clean up we have to do and what the sellers will leave behind.
We've trying to help C feel at home as much as possible and she was beyond thrilled when we broke out her kiddie pool under a shade tent in the back yard of the rental. Our sitter was able to get some pictures of her glee:
Thankfully this little pool will keep her happy for a while until we can fix up the pond, I mean pool, at the new place. I'm sure Clementine will be sad to see the frogs go! She's loved the grasshoppers at the rental house so far.
Another transition is that I plan to redesign the blog to update it with the new house. I'm going to use the blog to document our renovation adventures, in addition to Clementine's adventures so stay tuned for DIY antics.
And today is Star Wars Day - May the Fourth be with you! C has been listening to the music this morning and has been asking to watch the movies so we'll celebrate the move with that tonight.
We close on our old house tomorrow morning (today the furniture gets packed up and the house cleaned), and Friday morning we close on the new house and the work begins literally that afternoon. We have to get as much done as soon as possible before we run out of time in our rental house. Our furniture will get delivered on Mother's Day (oh, wow, Mama got a new house for Mother's Day! haha) and loaded into the garage to stay out of the way while we attack the roof, AC, and wallpaper/painting starting on Monday. Most of our boxed stuff is in storage that we moved there over the last month, and some is here at the rental (along with all our potted plants). This weekend we've be taking an inventory of the status of things and prioritizing what we need to fix immediately and what can wait for a bit longer. We're also not sure of the working status of some of the appliance and the guest toilet, so we need a clearer picture of what we're facing. We also aren't sure how much clean up we have to do and what the sellers will leave behind.
We've trying to help C feel at home as much as possible and she was beyond thrilled when we broke out her kiddie pool under a shade tent in the back yard of the rental. Our sitter was able to get some pictures of her glee:
Another transition is that I plan to redesign the blog to update it with the new house. I'm going to use the blog to document our renovation adventures, in addition to Clementine's adventures so stay tuned for DIY antics.
And today is Star Wars Day - May the Fourth be with you! C has been listening to the music this morning and has been asking to watch the movies so we'll celebrate the move with that tonight.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Moving day is upon us
We decided to break our move up into a series of steps which so far has kept the stress to a tolerable level and Clementine has responded (so far) by sounding excited about it. We started packing back in December to get the house ready for showing, so much of the awful work of decluttering had already been done. I've been slowly packing a box here and there everyday for the last month while we've stashed boxes of stuff in storage. The idea is to let the hired movers focus on the big stuff we can't do ourselves.
Tomorrow I'll finish packing and start moving some things to our rental. We'll be in a rental for 2 weeks while we work on the new house (did I mention it needs a new roof, a new AC, the pool is a pond, a deep clean of the carpet, add a pool cage, fence the property... the list goes on). We mostly are trying to stay out of the way while the AC gets installed and we scrape off large amounts of wall paper and do some painting. The rest of the painting we're going to do ourselves to save money so we'll pick away at it one room at a time. We'll also have the house cleaned and the carpet steam cleaned before we move in.
Our biggest challenge now that we've created some stability in Clementine's sleep cycle will be to try to keep the momentum going... so hopefully we can keep it up at the rental until we can get settled in the new house. She is like a different kid when she sleeps well... and when she can't sleep... just imagine the Tasmanian Devil... complete with gibberish and flailing arms!
Next Wednesday the movers will pick up our furniture and it will sit on the truck for 4 days until delivery on Sunday the 8th. We close on this house on May 5th and hope to keep up our Cinco de Mayo tradition with friends before getting up early on Friday to close on the new house. I already have a lot of appointments lined up for that afternoon to start assessing everything we have to do. It'll be an exciting week!
Since our truck of stuff will be delivered on Mother's Day we celebrated two weeks early with a day at the beach and had a lovely time... I have yet to download the photos, but here is one action shot of Wade pulling all our stuff and C on the beach (she's the blue bump in the front wagon). :) I have also found that Clementine really likes yoga (I got her some kids yoga story books for her birthday) and she loves doing poses at random, below she's modeling Tree Pose for my mom. :)
Tomorrow I'll finish packing and start moving some things to our rental. We'll be in a rental for 2 weeks while we work on the new house (did I mention it needs a new roof, a new AC, the pool is a pond, a deep clean of the carpet, add a pool cage, fence the property... the list goes on). We mostly are trying to stay out of the way while the AC gets installed and we scrape off large amounts of wall paper and do some painting. The rest of the painting we're going to do ourselves to save money so we'll pick away at it one room at a time. We'll also have the house cleaned and the carpet steam cleaned before we move in.
Our biggest challenge now that we've created some stability in Clementine's sleep cycle will be to try to keep the momentum going... so hopefully we can keep it up at the rental until we can get settled in the new house. She is like a different kid when she sleeps well... and when she can't sleep... just imagine the Tasmanian Devil... complete with gibberish and flailing arms!
Next Wednesday the movers will pick up our furniture and it will sit on the truck for 4 days until delivery on Sunday the 8th. We close on this house on May 5th and hope to keep up our Cinco de Mayo tradition with friends before getting up early on Friday to close on the new house. I already have a lot of appointments lined up for that afternoon to start assessing everything we have to do. It'll be an exciting week!
Since our truck of stuff will be delivered on Mother's Day we celebrated two weeks early with a day at the beach and had a lovely time... I have yet to download the photos, but here is one action shot of Wade pulling all our stuff and C on the beach (she's the blue bump in the front wagon). :) I have also found that Clementine really likes yoga (I got her some kids yoga story books for her birthday) and she loves doing poses at random, below she's modeling Tree Pose for my mom. :)
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Breathing deeply
From time to time I still get the quizzical look and have to explain why I am not on Facebook or really any other social media for that matter. I have a few chosen blogs I read and enjoy, but largely shut out most of the internet/social media world out there. It's just too much. Too many strangers sharing meaningless details (that generally make me feel worse) is something I can happily avoid (the psychological toll of social media: everything they do looks so easy and perfect and fun... and I suck at everything! No seriously, there is real research that illustrates this).
And part of why this affects me is because I am prone to depression. Yep, there it is. I have been through enough rounds to recognize it's symptoms (the most obvious: I stop being able to do anything creative - cook, bake, blog, take pictures, etc), but this most recent bought came under a new guise wrapped in a cute bow - Post-Partum Depression! Hooray! Pregnancy hormones can really do a number on a woman and the two miscarriages before our finally successful pregnancy didn't do much to help get me in a good place before Clementine's birth. Long story short, I've been nursing post-partum depression and didn't really come to terms with that for the last year and a half. It was coupled with not sleeping much (getting up at least 5-7 times a night since before she was born) so my poor brain didn't even have any reserves to defend against it. Socialization is a good salve for me with depression, but tack on the fact that with a sudden shift to zero ability to socialize last summer, it was only a matter of time before I crumbled. (C's napping shifted and her ability to get out for not much more than an 1.5hr was pretty limiting - and she would scream like a banshee if she awoke at night and I wasn't home) I finally did crack. By Christmas I seriously didn't even want to celebrate and we barely got a tree up in time (but we did get our first real tree that C picked). Some of my favorite bloggers also happen to struggle with depression or anxiety and their candid ability to discuss it has been really helpful in getting me to seek help. So I am talking about it too in case anyone else might need the same nudge and not even know it like I did.
The good news is that come January I started a holistic treatment plan that has really worked. I still have tough days, but I can keep them in perspective now and we've also made some big life changes to help me keep balanced and ensure I get enough "me" time to be the best version of myself. First, we finally decided to sell our house - our new family was like trying to fit a square peg into the round hole of our house - it wasn't working and no one was happy. We're extremely excited about a fixer upper we found nearby that is on a mangrove creek (paddling whenever we want!), it has a pool, plenty of yard for growing and playing, and a floorplan just perfect for us. We will actually be able to have other people over while Clementine sleeps! Oh my! It's been bittersweet selling our house, we love many things about it, but it just isn't a good fit for us anymore and we tried for all of last year to make it work (remodel plans, change of how we use the house, you name it). We will be moving Mother's Day weekend and are equally excited and terrified because the house needs A LOT of work - the good news is that the neglect scared off most people so we could actually afford to buy it! Haha! Kind of like how our current house was come to think of it...
The second big change - we also just finished finally weaning Clementine and are working to sleep train her a bit so she is not so reliant on me at night. We've managed to also improve how she goes down for a nap too which has been wonderful - we read her a book, snuggle, and she goes to sleep (mostly). Last fall I had to start going to a chiropractor since C was getting so big that the combination of how we slept together and wearing her in the pack so much was just more than my (already sensitive) neck and shoulders could handle. After 3 months of intensive treatment and changing sleep habits I'm finally getting back to a more normal range of motion (at its worst, I couldn't look over my should to check my blindspot while driving).
Wade also started a new job with PriceWaterhouseCoopers last month that he's enjoying and he gets to work from home a few days a week which is great, but also meant we needed a dedicated home office for him and for me when I have projects. The last few weeks I've been working trying to save up for the remodel and we've been juggling who gets to use the desk.
And last, our picture sharing site is getting rolled into Google Photos by Google so I've been trying to adapt it and make sure everything transfers which has been a little annoying. Please let me know if something doesn't work! If you're still reading then I am sure you're waiting for the goods (adorable toddler photos!) and you can check out pictures with these links.
Fall 2015
Christmas
Camping for Cara's birthday at Fort Desoto
Winter/Spring 2016
Camping for our 10th wedding anniversary at Fort Desoto
Clementine's 2nd birthday
Our little baby is officially a little girl now. She is talking in real sentences, has an ornery sense of humor, is learning her numbers and letters, and eats more foods than I do (fermented pickles and blue cheese!). She is only missing her last two molars and then we'll throw a real party because she is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when she teethes - everyone will be relieved when that phase is behind us. This spring we've been doing an art/science exploration class, swim lessons, and a music class each week to give her a schedule and tire her out so she naps better and it seems to be working. It's a little overwhelming, but it's also good prep for when we start her in Montessori preschool for 3 half days a week in the fall. She still LOVES playing in the water, loves music (her music class CDs, Love Shack, the Star Wars soundtrack, or one of the songs from the Hobbit are her favorite requests), loves coloring and drawing, loves the cats, likes to entertain small crowds of people she knows, is endlessly curious, and has a surprising ability to focus when trying to learn new things. She loves the times we've taken her camping and also enjoys paddling (she even fell asleep in the kayak!). She can't get enough of the beach and looking for shells too.
She will also tell you her favorite movies are Finding Nemo or Star Wars depending on the day (to survive an awful bought of stomach flu we all had a few months back I had to park her on the couch with me and we had a Star Wars movie marathon which she loved. Otherwise, we still don't watch TV but do an occasional movie on the weekend every few months for something fun.
Clementine's 2nd birthday fell on Easter this year, so we had a little gathering the day before then went to visit my family for the usual Easter brunch. We were happy that Wade's parents were able to make their annual Easter visit this year and be able to celebrate with us.
Lots of change is still ahead for us and I have to remind myself to take a deep breath and pace myself. I'm looking forward to documenting all the progress on the new house. Clementine sort of stopped napping this winter (teething sucks) so it made it nearly impossible to get any blogging done (also a challenge since my iPad died), but it seems we've turned a corner and I might have small pockets of time again to do some blogging when I'm not trying my hand at fixing things around the new house.
Hope everyone is doing well! I'm looking forward to having a social life again and finally fulfilling my lifelong dream of having a house with a pool. ;) Hope we can see you all by the pool soon!
And part of why this affects me is because I am prone to depression. Yep, there it is. I have been through enough rounds to recognize it's symptoms (the most obvious: I stop being able to do anything creative - cook, bake, blog, take pictures, etc), but this most recent bought came under a new guise wrapped in a cute bow - Post-Partum Depression! Hooray! Pregnancy hormones can really do a number on a woman and the two miscarriages before our finally successful pregnancy didn't do much to help get me in a good place before Clementine's birth. Long story short, I've been nursing post-partum depression and didn't really come to terms with that for the last year and a half. It was coupled with not sleeping much (getting up at least 5-7 times a night since before she was born) so my poor brain didn't even have any reserves to defend against it. Socialization is a good salve for me with depression, but tack on the fact that with a sudden shift to zero ability to socialize last summer, it was only a matter of time before I crumbled. (C's napping shifted and her ability to get out for not much more than an 1.5hr was pretty limiting - and she would scream like a banshee if she awoke at night and I wasn't home) I finally did crack. By Christmas I seriously didn't even want to celebrate and we barely got a tree up in time (but we did get our first real tree that C picked). Some of my favorite bloggers also happen to struggle with depression or anxiety and their candid ability to discuss it has been really helpful in getting me to seek help. So I am talking about it too in case anyone else might need the same nudge and not even know it like I did.
The good news is that come January I started a holistic treatment plan that has really worked. I still have tough days, but I can keep them in perspective now and we've also made some big life changes to help me keep balanced and ensure I get enough "me" time to be the best version of myself. First, we finally decided to sell our house - our new family was like trying to fit a square peg into the round hole of our house - it wasn't working and no one was happy. We're extremely excited about a fixer upper we found nearby that is on a mangrove creek (paddling whenever we want!), it has a pool, plenty of yard for growing and playing, and a floorplan just perfect for us. We will actually be able to have other people over while Clementine sleeps! Oh my! It's been bittersweet selling our house, we love many things about it, but it just isn't a good fit for us anymore and we tried for all of last year to make it work (remodel plans, change of how we use the house, you name it). We will be moving Mother's Day weekend and are equally excited and terrified because the house needs A LOT of work - the good news is that the neglect scared off most people so we could actually afford to buy it! Haha! Kind of like how our current house was come to think of it...
The second big change - we also just finished finally weaning Clementine and are working to sleep train her a bit so she is not so reliant on me at night. We've managed to also improve how she goes down for a nap too which has been wonderful - we read her a book, snuggle, and she goes to sleep (mostly). Last fall I had to start going to a chiropractor since C was getting so big that the combination of how we slept together and wearing her in the pack so much was just more than my (already sensitive) neck and shoulders could handle. After 3 months of intensive treatment and changing sleep habits I'm finally getting back to a more normal range of motion (at its worst, I couldn't look over my should to check my blindspot while driving).
Wade also started a new job with PriceWaterhouseCoopers last month that he's enjoying and he gets to work from home a few days a week which is great, but also meant we needed a dedicated home office for him and for me when I have projects. The last few weeks I've been working trying to save up for the remodel and we've been juggling who gets to use the desk.
And last, our picture sharing site is getting rolled into Google Photos by Google so I've been trying to adapt it and make sure everything transfers which has been a little annoying. Please let me know if something doesn't work! If you're still reading then I am sure you're waiting for the goods (adorable toddler photos!) and you can check out pictures with these links.
Fall 2015
Christmas
Camping for Cara's birthday at Fort Desoto
Winter/Spring 2016
Camping for our 10th wedding anniversary at Fort Desoto
Clementine's 2nd birthday
Our little baby is officially a little girl now. She is talking in real sentences, has an ornery sense of humor, is learning her numbers and letters, and eats more foods than I do (fermented pickles and blue cheese!). She is only missing her last two molars and then we'll throw a real party because she is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when she teethes - everyone will be relieved when that phase is behind us. This spring we've been doing an art/science exploration class, swim lessons, and a music class each week to give her a schedule and tire her out so she naps better and it seems to be working. It's a little overwhelming, but it's also good prep for when we start her in Montessori preschool for 3 half days a week in the fall. She still LOVES playing in the water, loves music (her music class CDs, Love Shack, the Star Wars soundtrack, or one of the songs from the Hobbit are her favorite requests), loves coloring and drawing, loves the cats, likes to entertain small crowds of people she knows, is endlessly curious, and has a surprising ability to focus when trying to learn new things. She loves the times we've taken her camping and also enjoys paddling (she even fell asleep in the kayak!). She can't get enough of the beach and looking for shells too.
She will also tell you her favorite movies are Finding Nemo or Star Wars depending on the day (to survive an awful bought of stomach flu we all had a few months back I had to park her on the couch with me and we had a Star Wars movie marathon which she loved. Otherwise, we still don't watch TV but do an occasional movie on the weekend every few months for something fun.
Clementine's 2nd birthday fell on Easter this year, so we had a little gathering the day before then went to visit my family for the usual Easter brunch. We were happy that Wade's parents were able to make their annual Easter visit this year and be able to celebrate with us.
Lots of change is still ahead for us and I have to remind myself to take a deep breath and pace myself. I'm looking forward to documenting all the progress on the new house. Clementine sort of stopped napping this winter (teething sucks) so it made it nearly impossible to get any blogging done (also a challenge since my iPad died), but it seems we've turned a corner and I might have small pockets of time again to do some blogging when I'm not trying my hand at fixing things around the new house.
Hope everyone is doing well! I'm looking forward to having a social life again and finally fulfilling my lifelong dream of having a house with a pool. ;) Hope we can see you all by the pool soon!
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Struggling to keep up
The sun has finally returned after almost a straight
month of rain. We passed the rainy weeks by going to swim class,
setting up our camping tent in the living room (she and the cats LOVE it
- so it's now set up in the attic) and trying to do new things to keep
her busy... her first trip to Ikea, heading to the outdoor outfitter in
town to wander through their stuff, and playing with friends. It's
generally been working and she's been a busy girl - she eagerly climbs
on furniture now (yikes, we have a climber!), her molars are still
coming in (ouch), and she's trying just about any new word she hears in
conversation (this week: thunder, disgusting, oopsie-doopsie, good
girl). She's close to putting words together and has been practicing
her manners (please and thank you, and starting on excuse me) so
everyday is a new adventure in communication with her.
We're continuing swim lessons through the fall (she's really enjoying it and getting the hang of it now) and have signed her up for a music class that starts next month (we did a trial class last week and there was no sign of terrible songs like The Wheels on the Bus, so we'll give it a try, lol).
...................................................
So that was all from a post from AUGUST - whoops, so much for staying on top of things, that draft was sitting in my folder waiting to be finished, but instead I'm just jumping to where we are now. We've been camping, had our first family photos, visited the pumpkin patch, and are finally back to biking (hooray!). C's a chatterbox now with easily over 100 words, adding new ones daily as she hears them and there is rarely a word she says we can't understand. Said her first sentence last month as we were packing up to go camping at Oscar Scherer State Park: "Baby fall down" - she calls herself Baby and as we were doing chores in the yard she took a digger and announced it before picking herself up and going about her business - Wade and I were so surprised and it made us laugh. She also regularly says "bless you" now when we cough or sneeze which is pretty funny because we didn't even try teaching it to her, she just picked it up on her own!
We also finally made time to wage war on taking back the yard. It had become quite over grown and was in desperate need of mulching so we picked a weekend for Granzie and Poppi to stay with us to play with C for the weekend while Wade and I worked in the yard. We hacked, weeded, planted, and mulched and the yard looks lovely again (we were starting to wonder if coyotes were nesting in our yard - true story, we have coyotes here!). It's so nice to have it looking tidy and mulched again and all the weeding and trimming actually made the yard feel bigger so there's more room for C to run and explore - right now her favorite is picking flowers and eating mulberries right off the tree. Our veggies beds are also looking good and full of plants and C's been enjoying the fresh lettuce.
We're still doing swim classes and I think she's almost ready to move up to the toddler group class (right now she and I swim together in class, but the group class is just with the teacher); she is enjoying music class and some of the songs have become good soothers when she has a hard time settling down to nap (she loves music). She's also been working on potty training, and has it down pretty well, except when she's feeling lazy then she just goes in her diaper. Otherwise she runs around mostly without a diaper (or any bottoms) and we haven't had an accident in weeks. It'll be tough when it's finally cold and we can't let her run around without bottoms anymore!
She just finished getting her canine teeth (even worse than molars!) and having a growth spurt and some mental development too - she's running now, climbs all over and up on things, connecting lots of words, and remembers things from weeks ago (for instance if you ask her what she saw camping - she'll tell you about the Bald Eagle that buzzed the playground while she was on the slide). She also recently just started toddler tantrums, so that's been a new development that took us by surprise. She also is having fun making all sorts of faces to make us laugh and we like to make a game of it. Her scowl face is sure to get a laugh out of everyone and she knows it.
I just uploaded a bunch of pictures, so check them out on our Picasa site. Enjoy!
We're continuing swim lessons through the fall (she's really enjoying it and getting the hang of it now) and have signed her up for a music class that starts next month (we did a trial class last week and there was no sign of terrible songs like The Wheels on the Bus, so we'll give it a try, lol).
...................................................
So that was all from a post from AUGUST - whoops, so much for staying on top of things, that draft was sitting in my folder waiting to be finished, but instead I'm just jumping to where we are now. We've been camping, had our first family photos, visited the pumpkin patch, and are finally back to biking (hooray!). C's a chatterbox now with easily over 100 words, adding new ones daily as she hears them and there is rarely a word she says we can't understand. Said her first sentence last month as we were packing up to go camping at Oscar Scherer State Park: "Baby fall down" - she calls herself Baby and as we were doing chores in the yard she took a digger and announced it before picking herself up and going about her business - Wade and I were so surprised and it made us laugh. She also regularly says "bless you" now when we cough or sneeze which is pretty funny because we didn't even try teaching it to her, she just picked it up on her own!
We also finally made time to wage war on taking back the yard. It had become quite over grown and was in desperate need of mulching so we picked a weekend for Granzie and Poppi to stay with us to play with C for the weekend while Wade and I worked in the yard. We hacked, weeded, planted, and mulched and the yard looks lovely again (we were starting to wonder if coyotes were nesting in our yard - true story, we have coyotes here!). It's so nice to have it looking tidy and mulched again and all the weeding and trimming actually made the yard feel bigger so there's more room for C to run and explore - right now her favorite is picking flowers and eating mulberries right off the tree. Our veggies beds are also looking good and full of plants and C's been enjoying the fresh lettuce.
We're still doing swim classes and I think she's almost ready to move up to the toddler group class (right now she and I swim together in class, but the group class is just with the teacher); she is enjoying music class and some of the songs have become good soothers when she has a hard time settling down to nap (she loves music). She's also been working on potty training, and has it down pretty well, except when she's feeling lazy then she just goes in her diaper. Otherwise she runs around mostly without a diaper (or any bottoms) and we haven't had an accident in weeks. It'll be tough when it's finally cold and we can't let her run around without bottoms anymore!
She just finished getting her canine teeth (even worse than molars!) and having a growth spurt and some mental development too - she's running now, climbs all over and up on things, connecting lots of words, and remembers things from weeks ago (for instance if you ask her what she saw camping - she'll tell you about the Bald Eagle that buzzed the playground while she was on the slide). She also recently just started toddler tantrums, so that's been a new development that took us by surprise. She also is having fun making all sorts of faces to make us laugh and we like to make a game of it. Her scowl face is sure to get a laugh out of everyone and she knows it.
I just uploaded a bunch of pictures, so check them out on our Picasa site. Enjoy!
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