Megan's World

getting ready

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:51:58 GMT

First an update to the countdown: 2 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!

There's not much left to do in a practical way besides wait, but I feel like my brain is starting to really get wrapped around the notion of 1. living in Falls Church (SO excited!) 2. OWNING a house (SOOOOOO excited!). Life is about to change in a big way, and I cannot wait.

We've enrolled Kate in daycare in Rockville, and she starts there next Tuesday. It was a hard decision of where to put her. At first it seemed obvious that she should be in Falls Church or nearby, but maybe partly because there aren't many centers in that area and I was struggling with the inspection reports of the licensed in home care, I started to consider bringing her to Rockville with me. The downside, obviously, is that Kate has to spend all that time in the car everyday (I expect ~75 min round trip). The other downside is that I have to be responsible for drop off and pick up; it's basically impossible for Jay to be involved because of where he works. This will be an issue on those rare occasions where I have to travel out of town for work, but otherwise I think it will be fine. In actuality, I think the decision has better upsides:

Yes, Kate will be in the car a lot, but it's another hour we get to spend together. Can't complain about that, although I will miss my decompression time on the way home...
Working ~7min from the daycare gives me a ton of flexibility that I didn't have when we were living in Ashburn. You'll recall the stories about me not making it back by the time the center closed at 6:30, and I can't even describe how stressful a situation that is. Being only a few minutes away means that I can work late if needed without having to gamble on whether I'll make it home on time.
That leads into the third upside - there will never be a question that she will be picked up on time. Since Jay and I are both working a good distance from Falls Church, we both have potential traffic issues to contend with on any given day. So those frantic calls from me saying that I'm not going to make it in time - well, maybe Jay won't make it in time either. Having Kate in Rockville completely eliminates this concern; and it's a big one considering that we don't know anyone who lives in Falls Church and could act as a back up pick up option!
Because I will be in charge of her in the morning, Jay has no obligation to stick around THUS he can go to work early and somewhat curtail his hours at the end of the day so that we can all be home in the evening together - what a concept!

So, I figure that there will be some days when traffic is just horrendous (it does happen, after all) and Kate and I will simply get off the highway and wait it out. We'll grab dinner somewhere and play, and hop back in the car when things are looking better. It's going to be an adjustment for me to be in charge of her in the mornings again (although I have missed it), and as I've said I think that I'm going to miss my little bit of alone time on the way home.

I can't wait for my commute to be cut in half! This whole driving an hour to Ashburn and then another half hour to South Riding has me ready to pull out my hair at the end of the day. It's going to be interesting to see how it all goes with Kate, but I've bought a tray for her carseat that will allow her to color and snack, and potentially we may get a DVD player to be used on the trip home when we're both a little tired and cranky. We'll see how it goes.

With regards to the daycare, I think it's going to be great. There will be tears for a little while, I suspect, but it's a great place and I have no concerns about the center. At least that's one less thing to stress about!

one step closer

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:32:29 GMT

We had our homeowner orientation with the builder this morning, and it went really well. The house looks great! We only found a handful of pretty small things that need to be addressed, so that was a relief. The guy who was with us clearly had a schedule to keep to, so at the end Jay and I ran around quickly and did some of the testing (mostly of the plumbing) that we'd wanted to. We learned all about our furnaces, the fireplace, our appliances, random maintenance issues, our warranties, etc., etc. It was useful and educational, and I guess that's the point. The pile of manuals on the kitchen counter was daunting! Being that we pretty much bought our dream house as our first home, the whole thing is a tad overwhelming I guess we're just going to have to get up to speed on home maintenance very quickly. Luckily, since it is a new home, we won't have to worry about replacing anything anytime soon - it's just going to be a matter of staying on top of all the periodic maintenance. I'm considering making a generic maintenance calendar so that year after year we'd say, ok, it's March, so we know that we need to do this, this, and this. I suppose eventually it will all just be part of normal life, but it's going to be a while before that really is the case.

Jay and I are SO excited to move in. It's starting to feel very real, especially considering that the house hasn't changed much in the last 2 or 3 weeks - it just feels like, ok, it's done already, let's go! A week from now we'll be spending our first night there...can you believe it?!? We really are totally in love with this house. I swear it has one of the best floor plans I've ever seen, and having had the opportunity to customize it and see the results...it's fabulous. I honestly don't think there's anything we don't like about the house. That probably sounds like an exaggeration but we are so happy with how it turned out, I can't really imagine how it could be better. Can you tell I'm happy?

Oh, and an update on the fridge situation. It took almost 2 weeks, but last weekend we got the word that the builder doesn't feel like there is a problem with the standard fridge because there is a way to position it such that the door swings past the island. What? That only works if there's a 10in gap between the fridge and the counter! Yes, that's functional but so ugly in a beautiful kitchen. Anyway, because their position is that there is no problem, they only offered to upgrade the fridge at cost. So, that's what we did, and now we're going to have (it will be delivered tomorrow hopefully) a french door fridge. Woo-hoo! We saved ~$400 by upgrading this way vs. upgrading when we picked the appliances, so it all worked out well for us; this is the fridge we were planning on getting in a short while anyway, we just didn't want to pay the builder's premium on it when we picked out everything. That extra money has to be added to the closing costs, but that's ok. The fridge is the one thing that isn't quite done...6 days and it's ours!

what fun

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:54:58 GMT

The whole experience of staying at Nikki and Steve's house has turned out to be surprisingly easy and fun. It's like being in college again in some ways - there are so many people around all the time, there's always a lot of activity and a lot of fun. In addtiion to us, Nikki, and Steve, another co-worker of Jay and Steve's stays here during the week, so it's really a constant party. Nikki is a serious cook, so the evening activities always center on the kitchen between the cooking, eating dinner, cleaning up (the boys are good about helping), and me prepping lunches for the next day (Kate's and mine). Again, the generosity of Nikki and Steve is incredible, and very much appreciated. It's just been an added bonus to make new friends!

the countdown is on!

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:36:44 GMT

Get this: we take possession of our new house in 8, yes that's 8!!!, days. Holy moly!!! Jay and I are busy getting final details wrapped up, but the pace of things has slowed dramatically in the last couple of weeks. We have our homeowner orientation Thursday morning; it's part orientation to all of the house's features and part us looking for anything that needs to be fixed. Next Wednesday we settle! Next Thursday we've scheduled a ton of vendors to come to the house - service installations as well as delivery of goods (washer/dryer, king bed, and installation of garage door openers). It's also the day that the movers will transport Jay's tvs from their storage place at a friend's house in Ashburn out to Falls Church. It's going to be CRAZY at the house that day. Friday we'll move in with my parents' help; they're both making the drive down on Thursday and after the physical move we're putting them to work. We are so inexperienced in the whole homeowner arena, and they're pretty much perfect at home maintenance, so why not take advantage?

I can't even express how excited Jay and I are. We were able to go see the house with the sales manager on Saturday - it was the first time we'd seen the floors uncovered, and it's really gorgeous. We are SO pysched to live there, and our minds are going a mile a minute making plans and dreaming. Just a little over a week to go. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes, I'm here!

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:04:59 GMT

This entry was written off-line on Friday, August 1^st, so all references are from that day.

Jeez, it’s been so long that I don’t know where to start. I’ve been really wanting to post an update but things have been so nuts that it just hasn’t happened. I guess I’ll break things down by topic.

The move

We officially moved out of our house last weekend. Jay was in Anaheim for a conference for almost a week (including last weekend), so we actually did the physical move of our stuff two weeks ago. My mom and a friend came down and were an enormous help. Unfortunately we had to move our stuff into storage because our house isn’t going to be ready until the end of August and our landlords wouldn’t extend our lease for a month…so storage was necessary. Regarding the move itself – everyone knows how miserable moving is. By the end of last weekend I was pretty fed up with the whole process, but with extra help from Claire we were able to get it done. It would have been nice if Jay could have been around for the last big push, but it wasn’t an option. Kate wasn’t too much of an impediment during the process, but it’s not easy to be super productive when a toddler is running around, no matter how agreeable the toddler is.

The current living situation

Since we have this gap in housing we’re staying at Jay’s boss’s house. Steve and Nikki (his GF) have a huge, beautiful house and were extremely generous in offering us two of their bedrooms (we were planning to stay in an extended stay hotel). Jay and I are in a room that has an attached bathroom, so our family has its own space. Steve and Nikki were out of town with Jay and are now somewhere else, so it’s been kind of nice/strange to settle in without worrying about stepping on their toes right away. For example, our stuff isn’t completely organized yet, and we have time to get it all straightened out before they return on Sunday. I’m intent on minimizing our impact on their lives, although anyone with half a brain knows that adding another family that includes a toddler to a household isn’t painless. We’ll be in their house for 5 weeks, so that’s another benefit to having them be out of town this week – one week is almost over and we haven’t imposed on them in any practical way yet. We are clearly very indebted to Nikki and Steve. I’ve got to think of a nice gift for them…

Our house

OK, this is the most fun topic. Our house has come so far! We’re settling on August 27, and when we got that date ~2 weeks ago we were ecstatic to just have a date. Although we won’t take possession until the 27^th, the house will be done on the 12^th. The builder does a “quality walk” on that day where someone from their quality department walks through and looks for problems that need to be addressed. They have one week to fix those issues, and then our homeowner orientation is on the 21^st. Any issues we find will be fixed in the next week, and then we settle! Very exciting. Anyway, my point is that our house is going to be done in 11 days! The cabinets were installed two weeks ago; the granite counters were installed last week; hardwood floors were laid last Saturday; the driveway was laid Wednesday; carpets went in yesterday; appliances went in today. Serious progress! Ever since the drywall went up it’s been so much fun to see things progress. The paint, the crown moulding, the fireplace and mantel, the tile, it just goes on and on. Building a house has been really fun but a lot of work. We had some issues with our foundation that required us to hire an inspector (all is well), and every time we visit we find something that we have an issue with/question about. I wonder what it’ll be this weekend? Since our appliances have been installed the house will now be locked up (appliances are too easy to steal), so we have to schedule visits over the weekend with the sales manager. We’re hoping for Sunday morning. Monday they'll be planting our landscaping and then on Tuesday the sod will be put down - wow! Sunday update: We were only able to see the house yesterday, so we went out for a visit in the afternoon. Across the board we are absolutely thrilled with how everything looks and just cannot wait to live there. This weekend’s problem is a big one: we chose to get the standard refrigerator, and the door is too big for the space. It hits the island…not ok. We’ll see how they handle this one.

Tomorrow we’re going to go buy our washer and dryer and hopefully a bed as well (a king for us, our queen will move to the guest room). Sunday update: we bought a washer and dryer yesterday! Jay and I decided to take the last three days of August off; Wednesday the 27^th we’re busy all day with settlement, and then Thursday we’re hoping to have installations/deliveries taken care of. Potentially we’ll move our stuff in on Friday, but that will depend on whether my dad can come down in time; if not we’ll move our stuff in on Saturday. We’re planning to start sleeping in the house on the 28^th – Kate will be the only one with a real bed, but that’s ok, we just want to get in (the 27^th is so busy that we figure adding the move out of Steve’s is too much to do in one day). So Wed-Fri that week we’ll be at our home and then we have the 3 day Labor Day weekend right after that, so we’ll have a nice chunk of time to get at least somewhat situated. My mom and dad are coming down to help us get moved in and hopefully to tackle a few little projects; I know we’re going to grateful for the help.

Kate

She’s doing great. She’s definitely a toddler – lots of ‘no, no, no’ and some tantrums – but she’s a pretty sweet kid, all told. I’ve been pretty pleased with how well she’s handled the move into Steve and Nikki’s. Sunday and Monday nights she woke up and was frantically calling ‘Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!’ Kind of sweet but I felt bad for her; she was just scared. Monday night she slept with me all night, but since then she’s slept great. Well, except for Wednesday morning when she woke up a few min after 5 and didn’t go back to sleep until 6 – only to have me wake her for the day at 6:30.

We pulled Kate out of KinderCare on July 3. My mom stayed with us from the 6^th until last Sunday (the 27^th), so Kate was able to stay home with her. Claire was laid off from her job, and her last day was the 11^th, so now she’s watching Kate for the 5 weeks that we’re at Steve and Nikki’s. Their house is in South Riding, about 20min from Ashburn, so for Mon-Wed this week (while Jay was in CA) this was the routine: I’d get up and get ready for work, wake Kate ~7, drive to Claire’s 25min, leave Kate there, and then drive the nearly one hour to work. On the way home, reverse and repeat. 3 hours of driving a day SUCKED. On top of that I had an extremely busy three days at work at the same time. Talk about absolutely exhausting. Jay got home Wednesday night from his trip and I went to bed 10min after Kate, I just couldn’t function anymore. Happily I am now only responsible for picking Kate up in the evening, so that’s a half hour savings in my day.

I’m doing ok. I could really use some true relaxation time as I’ve gotten to this point that happens with me when I’m continually stressed – I’m just incapable of relaxing and being pleasant. I desperately need a massage – I finally had a keyboard tray installed at my desk two weeks ago, but the 3 months of crunched shoulders really did a number on them. The whole house thing is just stressful, and the financial aspect of all of it is pretty consuming as well. It doesn’t help that Jay has been running at 150% capacity for this entire time as well – between the two of us we’re definitely handling way more than most people’s normal lives. We’re almost through it, but I think these last 5 weeks might do me in. Living with people I don’t know, all of this godforsaken driving, the final push to the end of the house…it’s just a lot.

So, that’s it from this end for now. We’re happy but very busy, hence the utter lack of blogging. It’s not that I don’t want to write, it’s just a matter of time.

I just have to relate this...

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:30:40 GMT

I just took a quick work break to get some coffee, and I can't stop laughing and shaking my head about this story. I simply can't wait to tell it, so I'm sneaking a few minutes in.

Kate woke up at 2am this morning. When I went into her room she was asking for water. I know, however, that when she wakes at unusual times it's often because she wants her diaper changed, so while she's still laying in her crib I reach down to assess how full it is. Hmm...I'm feeling around, and eventually I stick my hand down her shorts to confirm - she doesn't have a diaper on at all! I was utterly confused in my grogginess, but once I was absolutely sure that there was no diaper (only after I removed her shorts to add a diaper) I was alternately amused and relieved. Amused - How in the world can it be that she doesn't have a diaper on?? Relieved - She'd been asleep for over 6 hours and we didn't have wet pjs or sheets to deal with. Jay put Kate to bed while my mom and I went to visit our new house, and I guess he just missed the diaper during the changing from clothes to pjs (he had mentioned earlier that she gave him a really hard time throughout the process).

When I climbed back into bed Jay's eyes were open but I had a feeling he was still pretty sleepy. I made sure he was really awake and then told him the story. I don't know if he really grasped it, so I can't wait to talk to him about this later. I still feel like I must have dreamed the whole thing because...seriously?!?

cute Kate stories

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:19:56 GMT

Our little girl is getting so big! I thought I'd share some of our favorite things...

Kate is very into walking up and down stairs (with assistance still, of course). Every step she takes she says, "step" in this adorable little voice, the end of the word higher than the beginning. I was showing her yesterday how to hold onto the rails next to the stair with one hand while holding my hand with the other - she loved that trick!

Utensils are a given at this point. Kate has become very proficient with spoons and forks, and she'll insist on a spoon if you don't immediately provide one, "spoo!" She's quite the master of navigating soup and cereal with milk, and I love watching her concentrate on what she's doing. There's still plenty of finger feeding, because really, what utensil do you use to eat frozen blueberries?

Speaking of eating, three molars are in, and the difference in her eating is amazing. It's clearly so much easier for her - the poor girl apparently has really been struggling to chew with her meager assortment of teeth! Molars make all the difference. The count at this point: 8 teeth. Two middle, top and bottom, three molars, and one to the right of her bottom center teeth. I think the ninth one will be to the right of her top teeth, and that fourth molar is due soon as well. Someday she'll have a full mouth of teeth, I swear she will...

Airplanes are her obsession. She has an incredible ability to pick up the sound of a plane in the sky no matter what the background sound is, and she generally hears them before I do. She'll squeal "ah-pay!" and point to the sky. We always look to see if we can find the plane in the sky, and if we do she'll wave bye. Most of the planes we see are leaving Dulles Airport, so I always say, bye, have a good trip! And she says, bye! while waving.

Every evening when we get home from work/daycare we go for a little walk in the neighborhood. Depending on her mood (I guess?) she'll either collect rocks or twigs along the way. There's a house around the corner that we always stop at; they have a walk leading to their front door, but there's an initial step right at the sidewalk. Kate loves to sit on it, and that's where she'll assess her collection (I never let her leave it behind, though).

Animals are still a big deal. We have a regular bunny visitor in the backyard, and seeing the bunny is a very exciting event. Butterflies are also a favorite and her enunciation has gotten dramatically better recently "bu-er-fy." Dogs are a perennial favorite unless we get close to one; then she's quite apprehensive. Dogs are good in theory but not in reality, apparently. She's become an expert meow-er, too. Even though "kitty" was her first word, we could never get her to meow. Well, those days are gone. She lays in her crib meowing, meows at the cats, meows at pictures of cats. The girl loves to meow, and she does it in the sweetest voice and with this little head tilt. Happily she's moved past animal sounds for the other major animals and now will say what they are; for example, if I point to a cow she'll say "cuh" instead of mooing; it always bugged me a little bit that she wouldn't even try to say the animal names. That said, I hope she never learns to say "elephant" because watching her make the sound makes me smile a huge smile everytime. She flings her arm up in the air with her hand bent at the wrist and blows raspberries. It's just about the funniest thing she does. You can imagine when she did it out of nowhere (another daycare trick) Jay and I just about lost it laughing. It's truly adorable.

Speaking of cats, I bought her some Hello Kitty band-aids recently, and she is in love with them. She had scraped her knee badly enough to need a band-aid a few weeks ago, and she screamed while I put on a "normal" band-aid. Even after the first experience and learning that band-aids don't cause pain, replacing that band-aid was no easier. I decided that perhaps having cute pink band-aids would be helpful, and man, was I right. Who knew that the appearance of a band-aid made such a difference? I always assumed the cute band-aids were to help distract a hurt child from their pain, not to actually get them to be willing to use one! She has a pink band-aid on her knee right now, and I'm sure she's going to talk about it all day at daycare tomorrow.

The girl is quite preoccupied with shoes. She's loved her shoes for months now (whatever pair might be in rotation), and now she's quick to point out anyone else's shoes - in person or just in pictures. At first she was pointing out the cow's shoes (hooves, of course), but when I told her they were feet she quickly adapted. Now we talk about the cow's and horse's feet before she'll go to bed. I bought her a pair of pink Crocs a couple of weeks ago and she is in heaven with them. She's nearly figured out how to put them on all by herself, too.

Kate's vocabulary has gotten so large that I'm not sure I could easily make a comprehensive list in one sitting. She's saying more and more two word phrases, but the most fun is that she'll try to repeat just about anything we say to her, particularly if we ask her to say it. There's still way more gibberish than actual words, of course, and from the sheer volume of gibberish that comes out of her mouth I think we have a serious chatterbox on our hands. A year from now I'm just going to be wishing for a moment's peace, I'm sure.

One of the more amazing things to Jay and me is the development of her memory. It's astonishing to hear her tell you what will come next in a song or on her favorite show (Jack's Big Music Show rocks! We have 15 episodes recorded). Her operational, for lack of a better term, memory has been clear for a long time (where her shoes are kept, where the snacks are, etc), but this more abstract memory is really cool to witness.

The daycare is helping to develop a very polite child. She says thank you all the time ("day do"), even sometimes while she's asking for something - as if by thanking us early we might be more motivated to do what she wants! *lol* It's astonishing how pervasive it is - she thanks us for just about everything, so we're encouraging it in those instances when she doesn't volunteer it. We, of course, ALWAYS say "you're welcome" in return, and we're working on "please" now.

As you can tell, we're totally in love with our little girl. Everyday we say, could she be any cuter?!? It doesn't hurt that she gives huge hugs and loves to cuddle, either.

my turn :(

Sun, 25 May 2008 02:58:46 GMT

I woke up yesterday morning with an absolutely horrendous headache. By 1:00 I was freezing and could not get warm and dizzier than all get out. It was all I could do to get through the work I was doing. Around 2:30 I went from my absolutely freezing state to being hot but still dizzy. Sarah had told me to leave work at 3 to get a jump on the long weekend, and I probably wouldn't have taken her up on it if I hadn't been feeling so crappy (I didn't get in until 11:15 because Kate had her physical). I left around 3:20 and after sitting in horrible holiday weekend traffic for a while got into bed at 4:40 - and didn't really get up until 11:30 this morning! When I got home last night my temp was 102.2 and when I checked it a few hours later it was 103.4. I felt like SHIT (sorry, there's no other way to say it). Jay got up with Kate this morning and I took over from 8-9 while he got ready to go out, and then Kate and I went back to sleep at 9. Other than that hour, I slept the other 18. Isn't that INSANE??? Clearly I was a. sick and b. sleep deprived. Needless to say, here I am at 10:30 and not tired at all.

I'm feeling better now in terms of my head - the headache and dizziness subsided this afternoon and my fever was gone ~2:00. Now, though, I'm getting a sore throat. So all this comes back to Kate, who we now know had a mild case of hand, foot, and mouth disease. The doc yesterday morning pointed out that she had pinpoints on the soles of her feet that never turned into the full blown HFMD rash, and she has some spots around her mouth as well. Her fever lasted exactly one day...Early signs of HFMD are a fever followed by a sore throat...Apparently it's very rare for adults to get it, but it is highly contagious, and maybe my immune system isn't set up to fight this particular virus. Lovely. We'll see if I end up with any telltale rashes - wouldn't that be pleasant?!? Actually, cases in adults are generally very mild and last ~3 days, so that's good. Or maybe I just have some other random bug.

Kate's physical went ok yesterday. She was really tired and cried the entire time, so that made the whole thing far less pleasant and leisurely than it might have been. She 23.5 lb (not quite 50%) and 31.5in (50%). She had to get two shots, and on top of the fact that no one ever likes shots, her crabbiness just made it horrendous. She regrouped pretty quickly, but she was not happy. I dropped her off at daycare and that just made her day worse - she was so upset with me. She's been doing really well at daycare and runs into the room to play on most days. I think that yesterday she thought she was going to be home with me all day since we'd been playing all morning (her appt wasn't until 9:40), so daycare was an unhappy surprise - plus she was tired and had just had two shots. I'd have cried too.

So I really think that Kate would take 2 naps everyday if she could. I guess that M-F she just pushes through the pain in the morning while she's at daycare, but seriously, on the weekends she sleeps the entire day. She napped today from 9-12 (she was up at 7) and then from 2:45-6; she happily went to bed at 8 (slightly later than normal). Um, hello Kate, your parents would like to see you on the weekends! She'll do it again tomorrow and Monday, I guarantee it. It's amazing how much she'll sleep, because she always sleeps a good 11 or 12 hours overnight. CRAZY. She's pretty old to be wanting two naps, but the doc said not to worry about it, so we try to not mess with her too much on the weekends; for whatever reason, this kid needs her sleep. The thing is, having to accommodate 6+ hours of naps both days pretty much shoots down any major plans and as I mentioned, doesn't give us much time with her. A definite bummer.

OK I'm off to bed - hopefully I'll be able to sleep...

my periodic update

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:56:51 GMT

It's been an interesting week. My dad, Linda, and my grandma were here last weekend for a quick visit. It was a nice weekend, and I was so happy to see my grandma. She lives in Wisconsin, and I never know when I'll see her next. It's actually worked out to be every year for the last three years, but that was after a few years of not seeing her at all. She stayed with us, and I was glad to have her around. She's 79 now and in great health but you just never know about how things will go. Anyway, it was a really nice weekend, and it was great fun showing off our new house on Saturday.

Things are going well with the house, by the way. As of last week we had a foundation, so we're hopeful that the framing will get started in the next couple of weeks. The weather has been dreadful, though, so things have repeatedly been delayed to allow for the ground to dry up a bit. I think we're probably 1 1/2 - 2 weeks off schedule at this point. I've never been one that cares all that much about the weather forecast, but I'll tell you that I'm paying attention these days! The weather really impacts the schedule until the roof is on, and we're nowhere near that point. I've stopped by the lot on my way to work a few times, so between those visits and our weekend visits we've taken a lot of pictures. They're on two different cameras, but once they're organized I'll post the progression. Jay and I are so excited about it, and I'm spending more time daydreaming about decorating as the reality of a brand new and nearly empty house sinks in. Very fun indeed!

Jay took Kate to the doctor last Thursday for an ear re-check, and the doc said she was totally healthy. Kate had a great weekend with no indication that there were to be problems...then Monday morning she woke up at 5 with a 99 temp. Not high enough to talk about, but unusual and worrying nonetheless given her recent recurrent ear infections. That afternoon the daycare called to have Jay pick her up early because she had woken up from her nap with a 101.5 temp. We were so frustrated - what the heck was going on?!?! We knew she couldn't go to daycare on Tuesday, so we booked the back up care that Microsoft covers. That worked out great! Jay had booked Kate for a physical (18mo ) yesterday morning, but instead it turned into a sick visit. The doc (same one as last week) said she either had strep (RapidTest was negative) or hand foot and mouth disease (a few confirmed cases at the daycare). Just great...but the thing was that she was not feverish anymore and had a great day. By the time I got home yesterday evening I was totally unconvinced that she was sick at all. However, since the doc had made those suggestions we thought it was best to keep her home again today. Again we used the back up care, and ignoring the fact that there were some issues with timing this morning it again worked out great. It's clear, though, that she is NOT sick, so tomorrow she'll be going back to daycare. Jay rescheduled the physical for Friday morning so we'll see what the doc has to say about all of this. I'm of course glad that Kate is feeling better, but it's weird that she was sick on Monday and had so much inflammation in her throat on Tuesday at the doc's. Who knows...

Work is going really well for me. I'm enjoying my position and getting to know my co-workers. My boss (Sarah) is really happy with the work I'm doing, and I feel like I'm actually being pretty effective. My technical background is really nice - Sarah has a totally different background (public health) so between the two of us we can cover a huge breadth of topics. The other project manager that worked for Sarah was fired last week (ugh!), so I've been moved to a different project (check it out here) - one that's much higher profile and much more important to the company overall. It's exciting yet daunting because it's so complex, but it's great not least because I'm getting to really work side by side with Sarah. We are two peas in a pod, I swear; we were laughing the other day about how well we get along. I think we're a good team, and it's so nice to like her as a person as well. We have a new person starting on the 2nd, and it seems like he's going to be great. Sarah also has a new boss (the Chief Commercialization Officer) who is fantastic and is clearly going to have a huge impact on how we do our work, so we're both excited about having him around to help mentor us. I'm so glad to be working - as difficult as it's been for our family to adjust to it's definitely been the right decision for me and for all of us, really.

OK, that's it for now.

they're back

Tue, 06 May 2008 14:38:11 GMT

Kate wasn't really ok to go to daycare yesterday, but we sent her in anyway. Isn't that awful?? Her temp wasn't that high when Jay dropped her off, and we figured that they'd call us to get her as the day went on (101 degrees is their trigger to send a kid home). But nope, no call. Then things got crazy at work for me and Jay, we both had to stay late, and Claire picked Kate up for us. When I picked her up and got her home her temp was 102.3, so who knows if the daycare just never realized it or if it had gone up higher since she'd left. Jay and I were so upset last night, we felt just awful but we had no options. Claire couldn't watch her all day, and Microsoft has a benefit that provides in home care for sick children, but the service was unable to find someone to come in (we booked the time with them Sunday late afternoon). How many back up options are you supposed to have for these things?? So we sent her in to daycare and I'm sure we accumulated bad karma for doing that. She's such an innocent victim...

Anyway, after I saw that she still had her fever last night I said, that's it, we're going to the doc in the morning. This morning she woke up crying at 5ish and had the fever still and I thought, I cannot send her to daycare today. So I took her to the doctor where they confirmed that, yes, in fact she has two ear infections again ("how weird" that the doctor on Friday pronounced her perfectly healed!). We went to Walgreens to fill her antibiotic prescription, came home and had a snack, and she went right to bed. I'm hoping that she sleeps the day away - she needs it and I can get more work done. It's not great that I'm home today, but it's not that big of a deal and Kate already was sacrificed yesterday; it just couldn't happen again today. The antibiotics should help dramatically today, so I'm expecting that tomorrow she'll be happier and at daycare with no problems.

Back to work...

such a nice day

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:04:00 GMT

Kate and I survived our time without Jay with little difficulty - thanks in large part to help that Claire gave me Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Kate's doctor proclaimed her ears "fluid-free" yesterday morning, so that was great...until the afternoon when I picked her up with her runny nose and today when she started a fever again. Really?!? *sigh* Hopefully it doesn't turn into new ear infections and importantly I hope she's able to go to daycare on Monday. I absolutely cannot take the day off from work and neither can Jay. *crossing fingers* Maybe lots of sleep today and tomorrow will help push it out of her system quickly, whatever it is.

Jay got home ~8:30 this morning. Kate was taking a nap so we chatted for a bit before he hit the sack. Kate and I went to TrU later on to get her a little picnic table. We're keeping it inside for now and will move it outside as the need arises. She doesn't have anywhere to sit and color, and eventually we'll get her a table and chair set but now is not the time. She loves her little table, it's just perfect for her. We spent a ton of time outside today, and Claire and the girls dropped in for a bit this afternoon. The girls all had fun blowing bubbles and running around, although Molly took the opportunity to play with Kate's toys (inside) while no one could bother her since we were all outside. I thought that was pretty funny - she's so cute!

Jay and I are hanging out tonight. We actually went to Blockbuster and rented a movie! I literally don't know the last time that happened; it was definitely in Seattle, and I think it was after Kate was born, but maybe not. He's out right now getting dinner (carry out Italian), and we're looking forward to catching up and relaxing together.

Tomorrow morning we're planning to go see a college friend and hubby, but we'll have to see how Kate is, I guess. Hopefully we can go - our friend is pregnant and we haven't seen her in a long time, and - bonus - we're meeting her very close to our lot. The hole for our foundation should have been dug this week, and we can't wait to see it. They were supposed to dig on Tuesday but we had so much rain Sunday and Monday that the construction manager couldn't tell us whether they'd be able to. Luckily the rest of the week was dry and sunny, so I'm sure it got dug. We can't wait to see it. We have an odd shaped lot and our house is on a curve in the road so it's been hard to envision exactly where it will sit and its orientation to the rest of the houses. The hole should help a lot in firming up our visions. Ooo, I can't wait to see it!

a quick post

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:20:53 GMT

I'm avoiding the inevitable - I have to do some work in a bit...hopefully not more than an hour's worth. Ugh. I knew it was going to start soon, but after the day I had today I couldn't put it off any longer. The evening working shall begin. Lovely. Oh well, I knew that it would be the reality when I took the position. It's good to be busy, but right now things are a little too busy for my taste.

Jay is on his final business trip to Seattle. He's leaving Microsoft at the end of May to join a start up that was started by an acquaintance from Cornell. He is really excited about the whole thing although right now he's working two full time jobs so he is stressed. Anyway, he's in Seattle. He left very early this morning and will be back Saturday morning. Claire is helping out with Kate - I brought her to Claire's at 7:15 this morning so that Claire could hang out with her and delay her arrival at daycare for a bit. We'll do that again tomorrow. Friday I need to take Kate to the doctor for a follow up check on her ears (she had two ear infections the week my mom was here, no wonder she was crabby!) and then I'll take her to daycare myself. Wait, this isn't about me and Kate, it's about Jay. He's in Seattle, and I hope he has a good time. He has so many Microsoft friends (9 years with the company after all), and he doesn't have much time to visit. I wonder what he'll think when he gets on the plane to come home. I honestly think the move away from Seattle was harder on me last year than it was on him, and I attribute that to the fact that he knew he'd be back on a regular basis for business trips. Now here we are, the last trip, so who knows when he'll be back there? We constantly insist that we will be regular visitors to the city that we love, but will it really happen? Man, I hope so. The finality of him leaving Microsoft has re-opened the wound for me. I got a bit upset last night while we were talking about who he's going to visit. I don't know, I just need to deal with it. I feel like Virginia is home now, especially considering that we both have jobs and have bought a house, but there's still such a strong draw to Seattle and all of our wonderful friends...

OK, that's it for now. Oh, and just for information sake - my space was taken down two weeks ago due to a photo of Kate from when she was 2 months old (naked on the changing table). When that happened things got funky and my previous post never showed up on anyone's 'what's new' page. Hopefully that's all fixed now!

an entry I wrote offline this morning...

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:40:50 GMT

It’s 7:30, and I’m sitting in Starbucks eating a scone and having a wonderful latte. I haven’t slept well for the last two nights, and I’m feeling the pain. I really wanted the day off from the gym, but today of all days is not the day to make the commute during rush hour from my house. The pope is in town, and the Mass is this morning. 40,000 people have to be at the stadium at 8:00, so you can imagine what the highways look like right now. So, instead I tried something different. I got up at 5:30 (oh, the pain of it!) and drove to the gym simply to shower. It felt a little ridiculous, but I did avoid traffic nightmares and still got my day off from working out. And, bonus points, now I’m taking a little ‘me time’ to relax and finally blog. Granted I would sooooo much rather be in my cozy bed, but that’s just not a possibility. I’d love to sleep in this weekend – maybe Sunday…

My mom is still in town, and I feel so spoiled. I come home at night and dinner is waiting, Kate is fed…ahhhhh. Unfortunately Kate has been sick since Monday afternoon, so my mom’s trip has been consumed with taking care of a moody, feverish toddler. It has worked out great for Jay and me because Kate wouldn’t have been allowed at the daycare since this whole thing started. I’m hoping that she doesn’t have a temp today so that she can go in to daycare tomorrow. If she does have a fever I’m going to have to call them to clarify the sick policy. I know some daycares have a 24 hour with no fever (without medicine) policy, but I don’t think that is the case for us. Certainly the paperwork doesn’t read like that. Anyway, my mom has been a godsend this week given all that’s going on. She’s leaving tomorrow morning, and it’s going to be a rude shock to be back on our own.

Kate has definitely bonded with Nonnie in their few days together. It’s been like night and day – Sunday evening we weren’t sure how Monday afternoon ( the first time my mom would have her alone) would go since Kate wasn’t being all that friendly toward her, and Tuesday evening Kate cried and carried on anytime Jay or I tried to take her away from Nonnie. *sigh* I guess this is part and parcel of having someone else take care of your child – especially when the caretaker loves your child and isn’t just a random third party. I’m sure that Kate knows the difference! Last night was better. Kate and I went outside to play for a bit, I gave her a bath, and when we said goodnight to Nonnie and Daddy there were no tears or leaning out of my arms.

Tuesday night I brought Kate to bed with me very early in the night – in fact, I’d only been asleep for 20 min or so, but I woke up totally out of sorts. I was tired that my brain just said, bring her to bed. So I did. We both spent a good amount of time awake overnight, but it may have been better than being snatched out of sleep by the sound of crying. Last night Jay was in the bed, so bringing her in with us didn’t seem like the greatest idea. After being up a handful of times, though, I’d had it. I was so tired, I just wanted it to end. So, into bed with Mommy and Daddy. It took a little while for her to fall asleep – it wasn’t until we took off her pjs and left her in her onesie that she fell into a deep slumber. I’m hoping that tonight will be better. This bug she has should be easing up, so hopefully she’ll get some good sleep all on her own. With this kind of sleep this week, though, I just know that she’ll be sleeping all weekend as she tries to recover from being so overtired.

Oh, one more quick thing before I head to work. Claire, my mom, and I went to the design studio on Saturday to pick out all of the finishes for the house, It was a lot of fun, and it was so nice to have them help me run through the various combinations of choices. We ended up upgrading some things more than I had planned, but I know the house will be beautiful and the cost isn’t that much different. As everyone keeps saying, we’re not going to be replacing our kitchen cabinets anytime soon, so we should get what we want. I need to set up a time for Jay and I to go in and finalize the choices, hopefully late next week.

OK, with that my 20min of ‘me time’ is over. Work has been really busy this week and it’s all going to culminate today. Getting a jump on the day would be a good idea…

a moment

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:35:46 GMT

Pat and Duane came into town last Friday and left this morning, and I was barely online in the time they were here. We had a really nice visit. Saturday we showed them the model house (I should say 'showed off' - we're so excited!), and then Pat went with Jay and I to the 'design studio' where we get to make decisions about cabinets, flooring, counters, fixtures, mantels, etc. etc. etc. So Saturday was busy but fun. Oh, and it was my birthday! We postponed the celebration to Sunday since Saturday was so packed. Sunday was much more relaxed. Pat and Duane accompanied Jay to Costco and Wegmans to get food for our big dinner and that trip took awhile so I had a long time to myself while Kate napped. It was a nice change of pace - it seems like just about everytime Kate is asleep these days Jay and I have something to accomplish. Anyway, we had a great dinner and a nice day. I went to work on Monday and Tuesday, so I didn't get to see them very much. That was pretty sucky, and I guess that's how visits will be from now on. I get 12 days of vacation (and luckily the week between Christmas and New Year's is additional paid time off) which isn't horrible but it's not a lot either. This year especially I'm going to be really careful in using it because there are so many construction meetings that have to happen on weekdays. Anyway, I wish I could have had more time with Pat and Duane, but it was great that they made the trip down to visit. They, of course, loved seeing Kate.

My mom is coming down on Friday, and I'm putting her to work. *lol* Not really, I just really need help making all of the design choices for the house. She, Claire, and I will be spending most of Saturday working through the list of things to decide for the house. Jay has opinions about these things and I'll run my decisions by him, but he doesn't want to be involved in all of the hypothetical conversations about style, etc. It's going to feel good to make these decisions, but I'm nervous about how much it will all cost. We didn't build enough into our offer for the upgrades we want to do, so...cash out of pocket. Eek. We're definitely planning to show a lot of restraint in things that are relatively easily changed in the future...I don't want to think about all this right now, so I'm going to stop writing about it. It's overwhelming.

OK, I have to relate a funny story before I head to bed. I met a trainer at the gym this morning and when we were first talking he asked how old I am (to figure out my max HR), and my mind was totally blank. I said 29. Where the heck did that come from?!? I said it and then a few seconds later said, no, that's not true, I'm 31. I have no excuse for that - sure, I just had a birthday but I wasn't 29 the other day, either. Too goofy! The trainer thought it was pretty funny, needless to say.

Oh, ok, one more thing. I think Kate is getting molars - one on the bottom right side of her jaw is right at the surface. I think it's pretty ridiculous since she still only has 4 teeth up front...someday she'll have a full mouth of teeth, but man it's hard to imagine!

what a day

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:16:39 GMT

I got to work a little earlier than normal so I thought I'd take a few minutes to relate my day yesterday...

Work was crazy. I'll just leave it at that - it was really busy and a lot was going on all day. I was right in the middle of it all.

It rained most of yesterday afternoon, so when I left work I knew that there was a chance traffic would be worse than normal. Over the last few weeks it's gone both ways - sometimes rain has no impact, sometimes it slows things down. Once it slowed things down a lot (that was the 1hr45min trip home). Yesterday was the worst yet. Augh! I knew within 10min that there was no way I was going to be able to get Kate by 6:30 when the daycare closes. I called Jay on two phones, texted him, and sent him an email saying that he had to get Kate. No response. I called Jay again on both phones, still no response. Our home number wasn't going to the answering machine, so I was pretty sure that he was on a call (his meetings are all via phone), but I was annoyed that he wasn't taking the call waiting. We have caller id, and I never call in this timeframe. If I'm calling repeatedly, there's a reason. At 6:15, when I was still in Maryland, I was starting to panic. I had already called Claire but she wasn't home as I had suspected, so our back up plan was out of whack and I still hadn't heard from Jay. I was really desperate, so I had my mom (in Rochester) log onto our mom's group message board and get me the info from one of the mom's, Alice, who lives close to the daycare. She was wonderful in agreeing to get Kate although highly amused that I was asking her - Kate has never met her! Ay. I just had no idea what else to do because obviously I wasn't going to be able to make it, Jay was AWOL, and Claire was out. AY. A few minutes after I talked with Alice Jay called and said, I just got your vmail, I'm going to leave right now. What?!? Alice is already enroute! So he called her house, her hubby called her, and everyone agreed that since she was already in the daycare parking lot she'd bring Kate to Jay. How nice is that?!? Apparently Kate was very quiet and just looked at Alice everytime she spoke to her. *lol* Once she saw Jay she started crying, the poor kid was probably utterly confused.

OK, that's my amusing story from yesterday. I owe Alice now in a big way - thanks again!!!!

quick entry

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:39:14 GMT

It’s driving me crazy to not be posting to my space! All day long I think of things that you all might be interested in hearing and that I want to share, but I just never have the time. I’m just so pooped by the time Kate is in bed, and all of my energy after that is needed to work on the various house-related issues that we have to deal with. I really hate that it’s almost 8:00 by the time I have a moment to myself in the evening because around 9:30 I’m starting to get things ready for the next day before I go to bed. That’s not a whole lot of time to get much of anything – or nothing at all would be nice sometimes – done. I know I’m taking the mornings for myself by going to the gym, but really, I don’t think that makes much of a difference. Right now I get up at 5:30 and get to work at 8:15. Yesterday (my day off from running) I got up at 5:40 and got to work at 7:50, and that was just a simple get ready for work and battle traffic morning. So, to sleep in ten minutes and get to work 25min earlier or to get up a few minutes early and get a 45min workout in…the choice seems straightforward and not really that selfish. Anyway, my point is that I’m never on my computer because I have so little time to myself…

OK, enough venting. It’s time to get to work. This has just been bugging me.

a quick lunch note

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:39:57 GMT

Just long enough to say: WE GOT THE HOUSE!!! Jay and I are so excited, and I cannot wait to go see the model home again tomorrow. When we saw it a couple of weeks ago there wasn't any furniture yet, but tomorrow it'll be completely done and it's going to be even easier to envision living in it knowing that we actually will!!! Ahh!! Everytime I think about it I smile. It's really hard to believe, but it's true - we're finally going to own a house!

well this is different

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:22:59 GMT

Jay went on a business trip yesterday morning (6am departure), and he'll be back late tonight. Of course that means that the normal Megan-leaves-the-house-at-some-ungodly-hour-and-Jay-takes-care-of-Kate-in-the-morning routine can't happen. Yesterday Claire was wonderful and came over to relieve me of my duties at 7. Claire brought Kate to her house for a bit and then to daycare, and I was so thankful for her help. Today I'm on point because Claire can't repeat the process. So, here I am, at home and ready for work and...no Kate. She's sleeping in, I guess, and normally I'd be thrilled to have that be the case because she's been so short on her sleep lately. Today, though, isn't a great day for that. I have a 9:30 meeting, so I'd really like to be leaving the daycare at 8 to be sure I'm not late. Certainly 45min is enough time to get her out the door, but I'm not sure she'll be up anytime soon. I guess if 7:30 rolls around and she's still not up I'll have to wake her. 30min will definitely be closer to a mad dash out the door, and she's going to be very unhappy with me when all is said and done.

On a totally different note - we put an offer in on the new house Tuesday afternoon! We really lowballed the builder and they countered yesterday with a number that's just a little high. We countered again, and I'm hopeful that by the end of today this will be done. We'll see. The idea of building a house is so exciting, but at the same time I feel like I'm going to be constantly disappointed during the process. My parents are both very handy and well educated about all things home-related, and they've been giving Jay and I wonderful advice about specific things. The problem is that this isn't a custom home and we can't just change anything we want. So now I feel like (if this deal goes through) I'm going to stuck worrying about all the things that could be done better. So all these things are piling up in my brain making me think that maybe this house isn't good enough (really, it is more than good enough) and we should buy a resale instead. In the midst of that kind of panic I always think, am I crazy?! What resale house is going to have all of these perfect little configurations and features that my parents are suggesting that we try to get?!? That always brings me back to earth. I think that I'm just nervous about it all. It's the first house for us and to be building it is a little intimidating. Yet absolutely wonderful because it'll be new and ours...oooh, I hope the builder takes our offer today!

The Great Hairbrush Caper

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:09:23 GMT

For the past few months Kate has been totally obsessed with putting things in and taking things out, and it's always way more fun when it can be done behind a closed door. It's happened a handful of times that we've 'lost' a sippy cup for days at a time because she finds some ingenious hiding spot for it. Unfortunately a few of those times the cups have had milk in them...the most recent was about 6 weeks ago. I had given up hope on finding the cup - I had looked in every conceivable hiding spot for days on end and had decided that although I had no recollection of taking it out of the house, I must have lost it while running an errand. One night Kate and I were in her bathroom; I was getting her bath ready while she went through her nightly ritual of emptying the vanity drawers. Well, I turned around and saw that she had a sippy cup. I didn't think much of it - we often bring her milk upstairs so that she can have one last slug of it before bedtime. Then it crossed my mind - wait, that's the blue cup, the one that's been missing for days! As I'm thinking all of this she's putting the cup to her mouth...luckily she didn't drink any of the extraordinarily curdled milk, probably because she could smell it through the spout (you should have seen her face). Yucko. Anyway, you get my point. She likes to hide things. I've found chunks of bananas in my pots, toys in my tupperware, and sippy cups just about anywhere you can imagine.

With that background, you can understand why I knew that she was the sole suspect for the hairbrush bandit. First of all, she loves my hairbrushes - she's always grabbing them and showing how to brush your hair (generally with the back of the brush, *lol*). Monday morning on my drive to the gym it occurred to me - I hadn't packed my hairbrushes in my gym bag the night before! UGH. I made do with the small comb that I had with me, and when I was packing up for my Tuesday gym trip I scoured the house for my hairbrushes. Not only were they not on the bathroom counter where I was sure I'd left them, but they weren't anywhere - not under the vanity, not in the drawers, not in my closet or dresser or laundry hamper or under my bed...not in Kate's room...where the heck did she put them??? I was sure she was to blame, but I have to admit that this morning (day three of doing my hair without brushes) I was starting to wonder about my theory. They simply weren't anywhere.

Then, lo and behold, just like it always happens, the missing articles turned up in the most ridiculous place. The rag bucket at the bottom of the linen closet. It's always when you least expect it; I just opened the door, bent down to get a rag, and there they were. If I hadn't been right outside the sleeping bandit's room I would have burst out laughing, and as it was I had an ear to ear grin at the silliness of it all. I wonder what will disappear next - believe me, I have no doubt that some new plot is afoot...

my turn

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:27:01 GMT

Yet another week has passed with no updates from me - and I just spent a solid hour reading everyone else's blogs. I really should try to keep up with them during the week, huh?

This week was good. I went to MS Project (software) training all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and it was such a treat - not because I wanted to spend 8 hours in training everyday, but because it was close to home. Ah, no commute. It was ~25min from home, and that was so nice. I was able to pick up Kate by 5:15 on Wednesday and Thursday, and that made such a difference in our evenings - that extra hour is a big deal for our quality of life. Wednesday I picked her up and then took her to her gym class, but since we had ~10min to kill before class we stopped at the ice cream store and split a bowl of cookies and cream before class (ok, split is an exaggeration - I ate most of it) just to have a little fun. She had a great class, and it was really fun because there were a lot of kids there. It's probably the last opportunity I'll have to go to class with her for a long time, if at all again in this session. *sigh* Thursday we came home and played outside because it was so nice out; additional motivation came from the fact taht our neighbor, her two kids (the little girl is 5 days younger than Kate), and, most importantly, their dog were outside. So that was fun. Friday Jay and I took advantage of the fact that my class ended at 3 and Kate could be in daycare until 6:30 to meet our real estate agent and check out some houses - it was so nice to be able to have adult conversations about houses without having to either carry or keep an eye on the little girl! We really have to figure out how we're going to be able to leave her home on a regular basis while we look at houses...

So the house hunt is truly on! We took the last two Sundays to see (on our own) ~15 open houses, and while we didn't find anything that was 'perfect' it was a lot of fun and interesting. Yesterday with our new agent was really interesting - three houses (one that we would build) and all very promising. We, of course, would love to own something brand new, but it's just not likely to happen in the area we're looking, so we wanted to check out this new neighborhood. We were only able to walk through a framed out house at that site, though, so this morning we met the builder and our agent again (with Kate in tow this time) to see the finished model (same exact house) at another development. All I can say is OMG OMG OMG! There are drawbacks to the neighborhood that we're considering - namely, the lots are pretty small - but that house is amazing (even without all the crazy fixture upgrades that the model had) and meets all of our requirements (we're pretty picky ), so I think we'll be really crunching the numbers and visiting the site again pretty soon to really assess the whole thing. I just loved that house...we'll see. We're still waiting to hear back from a couple of lenders regarding the mortage we qualify for but we think that we should easily fit into this home. The whole process is really exciting but so daunting. It's hard to figure out the balance of location, lot, and house - obviously the location and lot can't be changed, and if both were not good it'd doom the house. It's just complicated to weigh it all, but we're in a great spot - we can afford a nice house, it's a serious buyers market here, and we don't have to sell a house before closing. Our lease is up at the end of July, so we have time to figure it out, but it's hard to resist the idea of just making a decision.

OK, I think I'm going to go lay down - I'm watching Anna and Molly right now but I still need some sleep...Claire's couch is calling me...

Photo Album: Spring 08

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:46:01 GMT

Spring 08

Mommy's sunglasses are always fun

peeking

the return trip (from our house, of course)

romping with Mommy

look how long her hair is getting!

my darling girl

watching tv...from inside a basket

darling pigtails

how cute!

ready for school

More Photos...

Photo Album: Summer!

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:52:29 GMT

Summer!

Hi!

coloring

Kate LOVES her pool

she just splashed her face with water

aren't I so funny???

being silly

assessing her Hello Kitty bandaids that came off in the pool

what to do, what to do...

I'll put them on my legs!

There we go...

More Photos...

Photo Album: Kate's second month

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:39:56 GMT

Kate's second month

hello there

a big yawn

tummy time!

Kate loves her blanket from Aunt Claire

all bundled in a stroller

she was making cute faces while I washed her back

but didn't always cooperate with us

and she got annoyed with all of the photos :)

Kate is enthralled by Duane's voice

Kate and Duane

More Photos...

Photo Album: Blog Images

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:55:34 GMT

Blog Images

More Photos...

Photo Album: Superbowl Kate!

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:56:26 GMT

Superbowl Kate!

our happy little cheerleader

a quick squat

she was loving life

apparently she didn't know she was rooting for a team that wasn't playing...

aren't her pigtails darling?

Kate and me (stupid shadows!)

Photo Album: January photos

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:46:45 GMT

January photos

peeking around the door

thrilled to see Daddy

laughing at Daddy

on her new bouncing zebra

very fun, indeed

so cute, isn't she?

posing...

it took no time for her to learn to get on and off by herself

at the park on New Year's Day

it was colder than we had anticipated, so we didn't stay long

More Photos...