Happily Ever After

Finally!

2009-09-29T21:00:00.003-05:00

Nathan, Eleanor and I have lived in our house for about I week now.. I think. Anyway we FINALLY have internet access. I'm loving my house and will send pictures when it's tidier. So maybe next year. d: I'm tired and catching up on a LOT of email, so I will have more to say later.

Happy Birthday Eleanor. (:

2009-08-29T21:42:00.005-05:00

So.. I kind of owe you an apology. We closed on our house yesterday. (: We love our new house and can't wait to paint it and move in!!

Today was Eleanor's 2nd birthday, so we had the pleasure of throwing her a big ol' party at OUR HOUSE. That was nice. She had a great time. She got cranky a couple of times, but moments later she was always running gleefully around with her cousins or doing something terribly fun. She got fat lootz. She actually blew out one of her own candles. Her uncle Zack said, "She's cool. Other two year olds aren't like that." I was so proud. Here's some birthday funtime pics.

But, really I have to tell you the present that really was the show stopper. Nathan and I didn't have time to wrap it, but we wanted it to be a surprise for everyone, so we just hid it in the laundry room. It was very exciting. Wanna see?

That's what I get for wanting this to be over..

2009-08-03T21:41:00.004-05:00

So.. It the make believe world where everything runs smoothly, and we get to keep out 5% interest rate, today would have been closing day. *Sigh*

Here's what happened: In the process of our appraisal it was discovered that the house was purchased at a Sheriff's sale about 10ish days before we put an offer on it. We actually saw it a few days before, so the current owner didn't own it for an entire week before putting it on the market for a flip. Really, is that such a big deal? As far as our still wanting the house, no. We had the inspection, and we're comfortable with the results. The house isn't any different than before we had that information. However, it makes a great deal of difference to our bank. We've been applying for an FHA loan, and with an FHA loan the previous owner had to have owned the house 90 days before the beginning of the contract, to prevent flipping. Grr! So, okay, no FHA loan, what about a conventional loan? We have the 5% required to put down on it now. No? No conventional loan either, because you have to have had the 5% for at least 2 months prior to applying for the loan, which we did not. GRR! Okay, what's left to us? Rural Development loan? Well, it's a lesser known loan that allows 100% financing. There is a maximum income requirement, which we meet, and the house has to be "rural." Well, the house qualifies, and in this case "rural" means "about 1/4 a mile outside the city limit." Or something. So it's good, right? Well, it's not that simple. Since the Rural Development loan is run by the USDA it has to be approved by some government authority. That process lately has been taking about two and a half weeks. Oh, and it requires a second appraisal. GRRR!!! We'll deal with the waiting, we're relatively sure it will be approved. We'll deal with the appraisal, that falls under "closing costs, which the seller agreed to pay up to $5,000 of anyway. But we're waiting on the approval before getting the appraisal, since there's no point in an appraisal if it's not approved. Also, unlike the FHA loan, there's no mortgage insurance, which helps keep it affordable for us, even at a higher interest rate.

So we are relatively certain we're still getting the house and that it will be totally affordable. I don't want to be relatively certain we're getting the house, I want the keys! But really, if we're just patient, we will get those keys. Someday. *sigh*

I want this to be over.

2009-07-14T18:24:00.003-05:00

We've just started the process and I can tell already, I'm not having fun. We had the inspection today and it turns out that the air conditioner is about Nathan's age. It's broken right now. I don't know if we're going to get them to fix it or replace it or what. I don't think they'll be all smiles about the idea of ponying up the money to replace the thing, so we may have to meet in the middle on that. But where's the middle? Are we going to spend all of our money and not be able to get a new washer and dryer to get to the middle? The AC wasn't the only thing, but it was definitely the big thing on the list. Also, we apparently lost all of our tax information for 2007. so now we're having to request our W2s from work and get a copy of our tax papers from the IRS, which could take several weeks. We only have our rate locked in until August 3rd. I like our rate, I don't want to lose it, but it may just end up expiring while we wait on the mail. Good news though, no termites. So that's something.

So, are we real life adults yet?

2009-07-11T22:32:00.008-05:00

Welp, we have a house under contract. It's a small house, but we like it, and so we put an offer, and they countered, and we accepted. Now we need a home inspection, pest inspection, appraisal, to turn in our check stubs and W2s to the lender, and to close. And then.. we will be homeowners!!

There is so much I'm looking forward to. I want my dishes. I want my furniture. I want to wander around the house in my underwear looking for my left shoe. I want to let Eleanor make a mess and know that the only people it really affects are her parents. I find that in our crazy experimental household (my parents, my sister, her husband, her child, me, my husband, and my child) there isn't a whole lot that the others do that irritates me.. sure maybe a little, but nothing worth worrying about generally. The hard part for me is knowing that there are things Eleanor and I do that others find irritating. I'm tired of worrying about Eleanor being too loud and messy. She's almost 2. No matter how cramped the house is and how respectful of other people's needs we need to be, she's still almost 2. When I don't feel like following her around all day picking up after her (which is most days) I'm tired of feeling like an enormous burden. I know I could do a lot better than I do, and still not be totally un-lazy, but I'm tired of worrying about it. Nathan is just as non-irritating as he is non-irritated. It's like a superpower. While I know everyone here loves both Eleanor and I very much, it' will be very nice to have a place where we don't bother anyone ever. I think I might even be a different kind of parent when it's just me and my husband and my kid. I'm not sure about that, but I do wonder sometimes.

You should come see the house. I think we're going to be happy there. It's small, but it's so homey. It's nice just like it is, but it would benefit from a little sprucing up over time, which I'm very much looking forward to. Heck, I bet I'd be happy if we never did anything to it. I could just sit there and plan and know that it's ours and I don't have to ask some other authority if I want to repaint a room or widen the driveway. I'll finally really be able to unpack. Not just my stuff, but myself. That's exciting. I feel like I've been packed since high school.

I hope Kelley and Chris get to feel this way soon. They deserve it.

Queue triumphant music..

2009-05-21T21:37:00.002-05:00

Eleanor used the POTTY!

It was slow going. She's still really little for potty training. I'm not really trying to push it, but she started showing signs that potty training might be a good idea a couple of months ago, when I saw Eleanor holding her crotch and doing a potty dance. So we bought a potty. I got the cheap, hard plastic one because I didn't think it would really matter. But for some reason they built the thing so the place were her legs would hang over was extra big so they couldn't hang over. It was really dumb and uncomfortable. So we got one of those cushy ones and it was shaped better in general, and she enjoyed sitting on that one. So Tuesday night after I had gotten her undressed for her bath, she sat down and used the potty!!! Yesterday she wasn't remotely interested. But then today she tried twice. The first time she got so involved with flipping over the cushion (she has to place it just so) that she peed squatting on the floor in front of the potty. The second time, she was sitting on it and then stood up to pee on the floor.. It's a work in progress.

Just some updates.

2009-05-01T21:28:00.009-05:00

We went on our big trip last week. Woot! Definitely had the feel of a practice run. A great time was had by all, and we'll do it better next time. First we went to Nathan's grandmother's in Maryland. Eleanor charmed everyone present. She loved the stairs and got comfortable at Grandma Judy's and Papa Scott's right away. Amy came over and got to spend the night. (Sleepover!! woohoo!) Nathan's Dad surprised us all by driving up on his motorcycle unexpectedly. That was really nice. Thus ends the relaxing part of the trip.

Then we flew to Massachusetts, and on the way the plane got struck by lightning. Right on the engine. Lightning? That really noisy bright flashy thing that destroys? Apparently planes, including their engines, have an immunity. Totally no big deal. In Massachusetts we spent the remainder of the week running around seeing as much of Nathan's Grandfather, Aunt Nancy, and Fuzz (the dog); Shanna, Randi, Ryan, Ms. Loraine, and Evie; Sarah, Bob, and their little boy Isaac; Auntie Alice; Ms. Ellie; Aunt Karen; Gail, Matt, Jason, Manny, Manny (yes, two of them), and Smokey (the dog); and my cousin Nathan, and his wife, Sarah as we could. In the process, Eleanor pretty much got over her fear of dogs. Fuzz and Smokey are both big friendly, but docile black labs, and she loved them so much. (: Her vocabulary also had a growth spurt. She now says milk, book, Ashton, Ella (what she calls pictures of herself), good dog, baby, nap, bed, bath, circle, oval, ready (as in Nathan's Dad: "Ready?" Her: "Ready!") and several others that I'm just too tired to think about.

The daycare called me today at 4:15. I get off of work at 4:30. Eleanor had a fever of 101.2, and as you can imagine, they aren't taking any chances with sick kids at this time. So I bring her to the emergency room, since the Dr's office is closed. No flu. She has a double ear infection. This is her first ear infection since she got her tubes, but we know they fell out about a month ago. I REALLY hope this isn't the rebirth of Eleanor's chronic ear infections. She had 8 by the time she was about 7 months old. She had an ear infection anytime we brought her to the doctor for anything, including vaccinations. I don't want to go through that again.

At least it's not the swine flu.

I never knew doors were so scary!

2009-03-26T20:22:00.006-05:00

Well, we had a little scare today. It's the kind of thing that happens when you have 6 adults in the house. Surely SOMEBODY'S watching the toddler, right? The door that leads into the garage has to be deliberately closed, if you want to be sure that it actually closed. Often enough, if you just pull it behind you as you walk through, it will bounce and remain open. So leaving the door open is easy enough to do. I was in the kitchen cutting up Eleanor's pork chop, Dad was in his office, Chris and Kelley had gone out to their car, and Mom was at a neighbors. Ellie had been playing in the kitchen, but she went to go play in the living room, in the opposite direction of said door. The pork chop required some special attention because there was Tony's all over it, and Ellie doesn't do the spicy thing yet. So I hear her playing noises fade into the back of the house, where she can potentially get into things, but I'm not overly worried. So I'm finishing up with her pork chop after a minute or 2 of not hearing her and I go to the back to get her for dinner. She's not in the back. Maybe she's with Dad. She's not with Dad. "Dad, I can't find Ellie." He says, "I think your mother took her over to the neighbor." I knew that was wrong, because Ellie was playing in the living room when Mom left. I run to the door to the garage and there it was. Wide open. Our garage opens out to a neighborhood street, but it's fairly high traffic with enough of a speeding issue that speed bumps were added about 5 years ago. Ellie's not there. "MOM!!" I started running to the front yard. "ELLIE!!" No Eleanor. I go back to the side yard and start heading down the other way, when I hear "Bridget!" from the front. I double back to the front and see Kelley holding Eleanor with Chris, just heading into the house. They were in the doorway, so I didn't see them the first time. Then Kelley tells me that Eleanor was found by a nice lady across the street and 2 houses down, playing in somebody's yard. The lady saw Kelley and asked if Ellie belonged to her, and Kelley took her and answered, "Yes and no." Thank God for nice ladies. I feel bad for Mom. We think it was her that left the door open. She's beaten herself up about it pretty badly, but Ellie's okay, and this won't happen again, and Mom will let it go soon. Besides, she walked less than 5 feet from me to get out of the house, and I shouldn't have let the quiet toddler go unchecked for that long. At least she really enjoyed her pork chops.

In other news.. Nathan and I are going to see his grandparents in April!! We're flying to Maryland to see his grandmother for a few days. While we're there we are also going to see my Amy. Then we'll fly to Massachusetts and see Nathan's grandfather, aunt, and some other family and friends for a few more days. Then we fly home. This will be the first time most of these people will see Eleanor. We're super excited.

Oh, I talked to Emilie Laiche the other day (via email). She was going to be near Natchitoches and wanted to know if anyone was still around. She and her boyfriend are living in Florida and have a cat and a fish. They're doing great, and Emilie wanted me to say hello to everyone. Hello Everyone!

Okay, now for some fun new pics.

Happy 200th Birthday, Incredibly Historic Person of Choice! kazoo

2009-02-12T23:10:00.010-06:00

Today is both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Do you know what that means? That means that Charles Darwin, and Abraham Lincoln were born on THE SAME DAY. I don't know about you, but that completely blows my mind. It seems strange to me that there are a bunch of people celebrating one, and a bunch of people celebrating the other, and not very many people celebrating them both. I don't really know a lot about either, but I feel like saying a few words about both.

Lincoln. Well, what can you really say? There really isn't a more famous president in US history. As it turns out, I really don't know anything about him at all, except how he died, but you don't talk about things like that on a man's birthday. Does anyone else think it's poetic that on this man's bicentennial birthday, a man who gets a fair amount of credit for helping to free the slaves, the first black man is doing his old job. Not only that, but he's from Illinois, is extremely charismatic, and took the job at a time of great strife. Now I don't mean droves of American citizens killing each other to defend their ideals, kind of strife, but a lot of people are really scared. It's scary. Happy Birthday Abraham. Thanks for helping us get here. By here, I mean closer to true racial equality, not the strife thing.

Darwin. I read some Darwin in college, and it turns out I'm actually a really big fan. The man was quite silly. He used to toss iguanas into the ocean just to watch them swim back, and ride on the backs of giant tortoises. It's his fault we know that worms are good for the soil, and not just gross pests. When doing experiments he would often solicit his young children to help, and engage them in the learning process. As a parent, I really appreciate that. There's a zoo in Australia owned by the family of the late Crocodile Hunter (who's name escapes me just now) and in that zoo is a tortoise that was found by Charles Darwin. He's met him. I want to meet that tortoise. Happy Birthday Charles. Thanks for helping make our differences make sense.

Gratuitous pictures:

Running late

2008-12-16T22:13:00.009-06:00

My annual public service announcement is a bit late this year. What with all the babies and happiness, it's been a bit too cheery for it.. but then, that's the time to be the most careful. Sometimes bringing balance to the force is not a good thing.

Ahem:

It's that time again! Take your vitamins, drive defensively with your seat belt on, and keep an eye on your very old and very young. It's December! The deadliest month of the year, even when you exclude the holiday suicides. We've got a lot of little people this year so be extra cautious. We like having them around, and we want them to remember you.

Everything has been great here. Eleanor is completely wonderful. Garret (my sister's baby) is just a smiley, drooling, lump of goodness. He's starting to kick and wave and hold his head up. Good stuff. Eleanor likes to sing and dance and sort things. She's a strangely orderly child. She rearranges the shampoo bottles in the tub, the contents of the bottom shelf in the pantry, the VHS tapes in the cabinet, and the tupperware in the kitchen cabinet, just to name a few things. That doesn't stop her from knocking everything off of the coffee table onto the floor, but even that is often a very methodical process. (:

We brought her to see the Christmas lights at Acadian Village. She had a great time, but it had very little to do with the lights. She just liked being put down and allowed to walk around on her own. She loves to explore new places. We got to see a few friends there. Regan was drumming with the belly dancers and Cheramie was with him. We also met Jeremy and Bri there, while they were in town visiting family. It was an awful lot of fun.

Nathan's almost done with training, and will soon have his regular schedule. His hours will still be pretty late, but he'll have 2 out of 3 Saturdays off! Woot! Working at the Lafayette office has been fun. It's great being in the same building with Kelley. Though I will admit, I'm missing my Natchitoches office buddies. I also miss Chanel. That's pretty much it though. Oh, and the land people. We had great land people. But it's great here. I like it a lot. Now for some pics to reward you for reading this whole thing. If you just skimmed, go back to the top and re-read before you can see the pics. Just kidding.

Here's Eleanor stacking some cups. She did this totally on her own!

And here she is helping me decorate..

And loving Garret, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically..

And just smiling for the camera.. (:

There you go.

I.. live..

2008-11-08T22:48:00.002-06:00

IN LAFAYETTE!!!

Yep, I'm finally here. We're staying with my parents while we save up for our house. We'll be here a while, (2 or so years) but then at the end, we get a house. I can live with that. (: Working at the Lafayette office for Natchitoches Medicaid is actually going pretty smoothly. There have been some printer issues, but that's been the worst of it. Now I just need to find my reading glasses. Nathan is really liking his job with AT&T so far, but we work opposing hours. That's no fun, but he gets home before I go to bed (unlike our opposing hours with the hotels) and his hours will eventually and gradually improve. Eleanor is happy at her new daycare. It took a while, she was pretty mad at me for a week or two, but now I can tell she has a good time while she's there. Also, when I tell people where she goes, if they are familiar with the place they tell me why they love it. I really like that. There is so much craziness going on, we still have boxes in the garage, and my sister, her husband, and their child still live here while they actively look for their new house. My parents are inhumanly patient when it comes to the big stuff. If I don't post very often that's because a) that's kind of a general theme for my blog, if you've ever been paying attention, and b) It's crowded here and I'm in charge of the 1 year old and making sure she and her mess don't push someone over the edge.

Maybe TMI, your call.

2008-09-23T16:41:00.003-05:00

I'm actually on my period. I haven't had a period since I was 24! (I'm 26.) It cramps, it makes my back ache, and it makes me feel blah. It's just like the last one, and most of the ones before. How weird. Well, I'm not pregnant. Didn't think I was, but still good to know. Huh.

Here goes Nothing.

2008-09-07T21:56:00.003-05:00

Well, Nathan officially lives in Lafayette now, and Ellie and I are still in Natchitoches. My boss got an email from a big muckety-muck at state office that basically said that they see no reason why a worker can't work in one region for another, and they will do what they can to keep me on as an employee. So, hopefully it won't be too long before they are preparing my office somewhere in the Lafayette region, hopefully the Lafayette Parish office, specifically. Nathan has his first day of work at his new job in the morning. I hope he likes it. I hope he has fun. (:

In other news, I'm an aunt! This happened almost 2 weeks ago, on 8/26/08. My sister had her baby boy, Garret Norman Peterson 9 weeks early, but he is very big, strong, and healthy for his gestational age, so while still in the NICU, he is doing very well. My poor sister is also well, but dealing with a very large portion of the breastfeeding/first time mother stress, with a very small portion of the rewards. After almost 2 weeks I think she can still count on one hand the number of times she has been able to hold him. At least she can hold him now, though. I think one of the worst parts about that is that since the baby isn't around, I feel like sometimes the people around her forget that her stressed-out-Mommy switch has been flipped to 'on' and then the handle broken off, so she is still expected to behave like a normal human. I only say this because even I forget sometimes, then I feel kinda bad. I got to see him today. He's kinda got an old man thing going on, but he really is a cutie. So tiny, and so much hair. (:

Lafayette or Bust

2008-08-24T13:13:00.003-05:00

So, Nathan got a new job. In Lafayette. It's finally happening, we're actually leaving Natchitoches. I'm hoping to be able to keep my job, and work for the Natchitoches Medicaid office from the Lafayette Medicaid office. Crazy I know, but it just might work. If it doesn't, do you know anyone hiring in Lafayette? We'll be moving in with my parents for a few years, probably 2 or 3, then we'll use the money we saved up from minimal rent and utilities to actually put a down payment on a house. My sister and her husband are still looking for a house, but until they find one, it will be my parents, Nathan, Ellie, and I and Kelley, Chris and then their little one when he's born. Thank God we're an unnaturally close family to begin with.

I'm really gonna miss it here. It was nice having our own place and our own space. This was Eleanor's first home. My family's first home. We have a great landlady. You can see the fireworks on Front Street from our couch in the living room. The porch is a great place to read. I'll never forget that summer wit the birds. Every night at 6:30 about 20 large flocks of birds would swoop into our backyard to roost for the night. I've never seen so many birds. We have good friends here too. Really good friends.

I am so excited to finally be back in Lafayette soon. Things stay open on Sunday. You don't have to drive an hour away to find anything you can't get at Wal Mart. Eleanor will grow up in the same town as her grandparents and cousin(s). I can actually finally feel like our own real home is just a couple of years away. Then our friends can come over. (:

We're going to have to make trips back up here. I'm hoping once a month. That would be nice.

Wish us luck!

When it rains, it pours.

2008-08-02T23:21:00.008-05:00

So, Ellie has been walking for just over a week now, and in this past week she decided to go ahead and grow a tooth. The first one seems to have breached the surface relatively easily, but I think the second one is coming and it's being a bit more difficult for her. Poor thing. As if walking and teeth weren't enough, earlier today we think she was trying to repeat our friend Chanel. Chanel took something from her and said,"Thank you." Then Eleanor said something that sounded very much like "thank you" three times in a row. Here is Chanel's response.

We said "thank you" several times to her after that, but she was finished trying that one. Then at story time tonight, we were reading a book about a goose and duck. She sounded a bit like she was trying to say "duck," so we would occasionally point at the duck and repeat the word to her. She tried it several times. At first it was "du" and sometimes "du, du" but there were definitely a few times when she could point at the picture and clearly say, "dut." I was so proud. :D Then she fell off the bed and hit the back of her head. Poor sweet one. She's okay, after she calmed down you could easily tell that the back of her head wasn't the slightest bit tender. I hope she didn't forget about the dut.

Here are some pictures of Ellie from when we took her to a playground, back when she still couldn't walk, had no teeth and wasn't using any English. You know, two weeks ago.

The plastic slide seems to have been electrically charged. (:

Short update on the short one.

2008-07-28T22:24:00.002-05:00

Well, Eleanor is now 11 months old, still has no teeth and is walking. She's not too steady, but she's practicing like she's got a marathon in two weeks. She loves it so much. I do too. I really need to clean the floor better. Well she is in bed and I want to be too. So that is all.

Fireworks? Really?

2008-07-13T22:29:00.002-05:00

The craziest thing just happened. My baby just went to bed at 8:15. Most of you are aware that her traditional bedtime is 11:00 and that we've recently been able to maneuver it to 10. I dreamed that one day she'd have a bedtime at 9:30. But She passed out in my lap tonight at 8:00. Nathan said lets put her to bed. I said I'm afraid. But we agreed that it was way too late for a nap and if she was that tired, who are we to argue. So she went down with no extraordinary amount of fussing. We were in shock. Then, apparently there was an event at the riverfront that just had to have a fireworks display. Now, normally this is a really nice perk to our otherwise humble apartment - at Christmas festival, 4th of July, New Years, and apparently random events at the riverfront we can enjoy the fireworks through the window from our couch in the living room. It sounded like a war had broken out just 3 streets away. a full hour before her new and improved bedtime, she slept right through it! I couldn't believe it! I still can't believe it! Now I'm betting that the downside is that she will be ready to start her exciting day at 4 am or so, but we're not there yet, and I can still dream!

Thank you, Dr. Ferber.

2008-07-06T23:24:00.002-05:00

Well, we did it. It's no fun listening to your baby cry, especially the first night. However, since apparently this method was tailor made for our baby, it went much better than expected and the usual 4 minutes of crying every night is TOTALLY worth the fun (not cranky) bath times, the pleasant (not angry) diaper changes and the generally improved mood overall. I love it. She started instantly sleeping all night, and she now goes to bed around 10:00 instead of 11:00. I bet we could make it even earlier. So yeah, should have done this months ago.

We also had a great weekend for the 4th, and she was even cheerier for that, even with all the traveling, different people, and screwy schedules. Eleanor even helped Mom with the dishes. Here she is sorting the utensils with wood from the rest. ...and maybe some forks.

Hey.

2008-06-25T23:00:00.003-05:00

Ellie's in bed. It's nice. She wants to be picked up a lot. I think she's old enough and particular enough to officially be considered spoiled. It's no good, I need to start getting meaner. She fed herself a jar of carrots the other day. I was so proud. (:

This weekend we're going to get tough about her sleeping habits. Shes too old to be waking up in the middle of the night every night and she needs to go to bed earlier than 11. There will be a LOT of crying Friday night. I'm already sad thinking about it. But hopefully it will make her sleep better and so be a happier wakeful baby, and me a happier wakeful Mommy. Dr. Ferber had better be right about this.

Have I mentioned how beautiful she is?

Well, she is.

There's no stopping her now!

2008-05-18T22:55:00.004-05:00

Well, Ellie has expanded her boundaries. I'd say last week she was still doing that funny inchworm crawl that requires her to use her tummy as an in between step. Now she crawls like a pro. Not only that, but the day before yesterday she would only occasionally leave the living room and go in the kitchen, but no further. Yesterday she started apprehensively crossing more thresholds. She would do it, but they seemed to make her nervous. Today she doesn't even notice them. She'll go from one room to the next, from carpet to wood to outside (we're watching, don't worry) and back in. She even came into the shower with me. That was pretty funny. She got her clothes soaked! And she shakes her head "no" when she doesn't want to eat something. Not that jerk to the side to move her mouth out of the way, but an evenly paced side-to-side "No."

In other news, Nathan experimented with cooking today. He sauteed yellow squash, corn, and pear together. It was surprisingly good.

Oh, and my family was not at all affected by the train wreck that leaked hydrochloric acid everywhere. But one of Nathan's best friends had to evacuate because of the fumes. She's fine though.

Happy 8 months!

2008-04-29T23:10:00.002-05:00

Ellie is 8 months old today, and to celebrate we dropped her mattress down a level because in the past couple of days she has started pulling herself up! (I mean, as of yesterday.) She's getting tubes in her ears a week from today, so wish us luck on that.

I got my hair cut again. I like it short. Short short short. (:

Nathan now has a new schedule at work. It's so exciting! It's actually Monday - Friday. He has Saturdays and Sundays off!! We've NEVER had the same days off. And now we have the same days off and roughly work the same hours!!! Kinda like real people!

Umm, I'm sleepy, so I think that's all I got. Everybody have a great night. ..next time it's night.. for you. Yeah.

Just some fun pictures!

2008-04-20T22:57:00.004-05:00

That's all I had to say. (:

I didn't know you could really do that..

2008-04-12T22:09:00.002-05:00

Today something crazy and truly momentous happened. Eleanor crawled! The crazy part is that I taught her how to do it! She's been so close for so long now, she was even getting on her hands and the bottoms of her feet, almost like she was trying to stand up, but she could not figure out forward mobility. So I was playing with her on the bed and she was on her hands and knees and I grabbed her hands and pulled them forward, then scrunched her knees up beneath her and did it again and again until I had "crawled" her the whole length of the bed. Then I did it again a couple of times. I didn't think she really learned anything from it, I was mostly just playing with the hopes that maybe some of it might stick, but she's smarter than I give her credit for! When we went to our friend, Chanel's place for dinner, Ellie was playing on the floor and she did it all by herself! It's still a little jerky. She gets on her belly before moving her knees forward, but in just a couple of hours her form has improved greatly.

So that's it! She's crawling! She's crawling and I taught her how! My God, I have to clean!

My tresses

2008-03-18T22:58:00.005-05:00

Apparently word got out that I might be looking a little different these days. Before the baby, I could tolerate my hair getting caught in car windows and doors, and the occasional fire extinguisher. I didn't mind so much the constantly moving it out of the way when I sat, laid down, rolled over, put on a shirt, put on a jacket, put a purse on my shoulder, leaned over, or moved in any other way imaginable. I even put up with the headaches from wearing my hair up and wearing it down. I did all that because I loved my hair. I had beautiful long wavy almost curly, just great hair. Had.

However when you can hold your baby at arms length and she still manages to get her little fingers tangled in it, sometimes, it's just time for a change.

See how the baby is not tangled in anything? It's really nice that way, trust me. I like it better in the mirror than in pictures. But the point is, I like it. A lot. My head is lighter, it never tangles, I don't have to braid it every night, no split ends, I can drive with the window down without being blinded, and I think it looks good.. in mirrors.

Have some more baby.

The moment I've been waiting for for 10 months!!!

2008-03-16T18:17:00.003-05:00

Eleanor...

Sleeps through the night!!!!!! It's not just a fluke, she's done it for a full week. Sleep is amazing. Going to bed at night and waking up in the morning is amazing. Okay, that's all I have time for for now. I just needed to share that with the world.