quiet time, reflecting on my homelessness

The boys are in bed, the house is clean, and brownies are baking in the oven. What I should be doing is working on Dexter's first year photo book, but that's a lot of work and I'm feeling a little lazy right now. Can I just say I didn't really get the rage about an iPad until we got one? Love this thing.

So I'm just sitting here, looking out the window at our big, pretty backyard, thinking how much it's going to suck in a month WHEN WE'RE HOMELESS. Yep, we sold our house in 12 days, and if everything goes smoothly from here on out, we will be closing at the end of May. And living out of suitcases in our car. We haven't found anything we want to buy and since we'll be spending a lot of money and a lot of our lives on this purchase, we're not going to rush because our lives are inconvenient right now.

Could someone please remind me why we thought it would be a good time to do this with a two year old and an 11 month old? Can't remember for some reason.

We are still having Dexter's party at the house in a couple of weeks. Weird to think that it will be the last time most of our friends and some of our family ever see this place. It was so much fun buying this house and making it our own. I wish I had photos of the transformation over the past 8 years. It has been a work in progress, that's for sure. It's home to us and it's hard to imagine any other house feeling so much like home. Home sweet home.

It's where we became a family. We loved here, we fought here. We rejoiced here and cried here and celebrated here and lost here. We are only the third owners of this fifty year old house. We are as much a part of its story as it is a part of ours. We are really going to miss this place.

~C~

having your house on the market is for the birds.

Our house has been on the market for 10 days.  We've had 14 showing and two offers.  The first offer came on the first full day it was active and it was a good offer.  We responded with a fair counter offer that we were sure would be accepted. We couldn't believe how easy and fast it happened.  Then the buyer totally flaked and we never heard from them again.

Then we got an offer tonight and it was a complete joke.  It's hard not to get offended when someone low balls you.  After, you know, you spend weeks and weeks working hard to get the house ready to list.  When you run around like a crazy person to get it show ready on a moment's notice, meanwhile scrapping your dinner plans and waking kids up from their naps (and if you have kids, you know this is a monumental sacrifice).  These 10 days have been the most stressful days we've had as homeowners.

We have been on edge for the last 10 days.  I don't know how people survive in this state for more than a couple of weeks.  I so hope something comes through soon, before we all lose our minds.  At the same time, we have nowhere to go.  We looked at five houses on Friday night and none of them meet our needs.  I sure have a lot more sympathy for the owners of the homes we visit, knowing we are displacing them for the time frame we are supposed to be there.  Knowing that they are waiting to hear if we liked it, if we are going to make an offer.  Knowing they probably ran around like a crazy person trying to clean it up at the last second before our showing was scheduled to start.

Potential buyers are kind of annoying.  Like the way they leave the toilet lid up.  Um, hello. We have cats.  We'd rather they didn't go swimming while we're not home.  Realtors are kind of annoying too.  Like the kind that take our furnace cover off and just sit it there instead of fastening it back correctly...because that means the furnace cover falls on my car and cracks my windshield.  Yeah, that happened.  So now I guess we get to eat $300 to get it replaced because we invited him into our home and he was too lazy or dumb and disrespectful to do the right thing.  Thanks, guy.

I'm over it.  Can you tell?  Maybe we'll just stay here.

fed up,
~C~

Come on.  Who wouldn't want to live here?  (Besides us?)

Project 365 (april 5-april 12)

Days 95 through 102-

95/365: Daddy's home!

96/365: Theo discovers chocolate-filled twinkies.  As should you.

97/365: An apple so big your nose will squish.

98/365: Happy Easter

99/365: Matching jammies and matching tractors.

100/365: FAIL

101/365: FAIL 

102/365: Our humble little home.

Yep, I missed two more days.  No excuses. Maybe I'm not cut out for commitment!  Well, at least I'm getting these pictures up in the same month they were taken.  It has been a busy week with Easter, getting our house ready to list and normal day to day life.  I'm looking forward to a no-plans kind of weekend.

I just love the picture of Dexter on Easter, is it just me or could he not be a supermodel baby?  Hello? Gerber?  Which is your favorite from this week? 

~C~

and just like that...it was over.

I've blogged and blogged about my decreasing milk supply and how sad I was when I realized I wasn't going to make it to my goal of nursing Dexter for 12 months.

On March 17, Dexter drank his first bottle of formula.  We started with a bottle a day.  By the following Saturday, March 24, he was down to nursing once a day.  That Thursday, March 29, I nursed him for the last time.

And just like that...it was over.

I had a pretty good idea that it was over that day, but I wasn't positive so maybe it wasn't as sad as it would have been, had I known for sure.  By Friday, I knew for sure.  I hadn't nursed in 24 hours and didn't feel like I needed to or could if I wanted to.

The transition to formula was pretty easy.  We've learned that he likes it at a certain temperature or he tosses that bottle like a hot potato.  It feels weird to feed my baby a bottle because I never really had until now.  It makes me ache when he turns onto his side, trying to bury his face in my chest.  I know what he wants and I can't give it to him.  Soon enough, he'll forget.

I can't stop thinking about how my baby days are almost over.

~C~

Easter

These three are some of my favorite pictures from Easter and some of my favorite pictures of Dexter, ever.  He's just growing up and changing so much lately.  Lots of people have mentioned how he's grown recently. I ordered his birthday party invitations over the weekend and I wish I had waited to include these pictures from Sunday.  Speaking of his birthday invitations...I can't believe I just ordered them.  How is my teensy weensy almost ONE already?  He's not walking.  Yet.  But it feels like he's getting close. 

Then there's my little Justin Bieber, oh I mean THEO.  The boy has some crazy hair, but we like it long and think it looks cute.  R's hair was just like that when he was little.  The stuff is water repellent.  In the bathtub, we pour a bucket of water on his head and it just rolls off like he's got Rain-X in his hair.  Nuts. 

Theo was the perfect age for hunting eggs in our backyard.  You know, hunting eggs that were left in plain sight.  Next year, when Dex can really participate, it will be even more fun.  But the little guy knew just what to do and his face lit up and his feet moved faster every time he spotted a plastic egg.  Too cute for words. 

As soon as we told him he had found them all, he quickly dumped his basket out and began opening the eggs to see what treasures were waiting inside.  A few pieces of candy, dimes, and some band-aids (hey, we all like different things) made him one happy boy. 

There may have been some Easter bunnies hiding in the trees.

We were supposed to travel south to visit my family for Easter but we had too much left to do before we get our house on the market so we regretfully made a last minute change in plans.  As disappointing as it was, our quiet, easy holiday weekend turned out pretty nice.  It's not very often that we celebrate a holiday, just the 4 of us.  It was fun.  

Hope you had an easy, simple, wonderful Easter too. 

xo, 

~C~

an adorable hat and a juicy apple

R's talented mama knitted up this little hat after I mentioned that I'd seen a cute crocheted one at a local toy store.  Isn't it so sweet?

The model is pretty cute too, if I do say so myself. 

There's just something magical about dandelions.

Have you seen all the teeth this dude is sporting lately?

Theo insists on eating everything "big" these days.  I start to cut his toast in half and he says "no mommy, I wanna BIG one."  I go to slice his apple into slivers and he says "no mommy, I wanna BIG one."  

Okay, little boy.  I get it.  You're getting pretty big. 

He carried that juicy, messy apple around, nibbling on it for a half hour or more.  

The highlights of my Friday and Saturday, folks.  Not too shabby. 

love,

~C~

Happy Easter.