What the What!? We bought a house...

Well we've almost bought a house anyway, just hanging out in a little place we like to call escrow. To some of you it's already old news, but to others it might come as a surprise. Surprising still when I tell you that this is actually the second house we've "bought" in the last two weeks. It's true. Two weeks, two different houses, two inspections, one canceled contract and one good contract equals one really great house.


We started this process in the beginning of March when we realized it might actually be possible to have a lower mortgage payment than our current rent, I know that's some crazy rent. So some encouragement from Aaron's dad, a few phone calls and one tax return (to put towards a downpayment) later we were on the hunt. 


We walked through 52 houses, not including the many "virtual tours" we took online, and our kind and patient Realtor was happy to oblige. Within the first week we found house #1. It was nice, with a huge yard and just enough space inside. It was the best one we'd seen and in an area we loved so we offered and the sellers accepted. A few days later the inspection revealed more hidden issues than we realistically would have been able to deal with so we walked away confident that this wasn't the house for us after all.

we don't really like ranches anyway

A week later we were deep into another round of house hunting. In the opposite direction of house #1 we found house #2 coming in at double the square feet and a lower price. The inspection went significantly better this time and we're looking forward to officially buying the house (closing) at the end of April.

much to my mother's chagrin the awnings are NOT staying

A lot's happened in the past few months and between becoming parents and becoming homeowners I'm not sure how much more "adult" we can get. Unless of course we buy a minivan...


P.S. Steve this one's for you:

so handy!

Some Observations for March

Greetings, all.  I thought I'd take a break from meeting Jath at Starbucks and offer some suggestions for the month ahead (hopefully not an indicator of the time before my next blog post).

Suggestion 1: Layer appropriately.  Today's high = 40, Tuesday's = 59 Thursday's = 45.  Temperature at the office = freezing.  Temperature in the car midway through the commute = balmy.  So I'll be walking out of the house in this:

And returning in this:

(And of course I'll look good doing it; I'm an F-18 bro).

Suggestion 2: Send me some Starbucks gift cards, cause it's trenta time.  Among the more exciting benefits of the warmer weather on the horizon is the justification it provides for iced coffee.  Fortunately for me, Howard knows that when America loves 20 ounces of something, it can't help but love 11 more.  Even without iced coffee, I've been to the local Starbucks enough in recent months that the employees know both my name and my order.  I can only imagine that by June, they'll have my 200 liquid calories ready to go.

Suggestion 3: Check you email!  After spending the last 10 years living with a cell phone that--gasp--only made phone calls (and sent a few txt messages here and there), I've finally upgraded to what the kids these days are calling a "Smartphone".  Using some money gifted to me in celebration of The Feast of the Nativity, I traded in the A767:

for the HTC Inspire 4G:

So far it's taken me 6 hours to figure out where my contacts are, I've twice accidentally called my parents and once been unable to end the call, and I have no idea how to get rid of a pre-installed app from Blockbuster (really AT&T/HTC...Blockbuster?  Ever heard of Netflix, Redbox, or even the concept of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy?).  Also because this phone is intelligent, it apparently requires a steady diet of "data".  And data, I'm told, is money--much like "time" used to be until they invented free nights and weekends, free mobile to mobile, anytime rollover minutes, and text messaging.  So be prepared for copious amounts of communication headed your way.

Suggestion 4: Keep mid-to-late April free on your calendar.  Why?  Well that's a post for another day.

A cut for Toby

Poor Toby. 

Life has been a little busy at our house these past few weeks leaving Toby to sit on the corner of the rug waiting for his turn at some attention. He's warming up to little Oliver though, or at least he pretends to be when we're all looking. 

It's sad, tragic even. He's visibly happy about three times a day: in the morning when he eats breakfast, in the evening when he eats dinner and shortly there after when Aaron comes home. The rest of the time he looks pretty depressed. And if you couldn't tell by the look on his little puppy dog face you might get a clue when you look at his 10 week shag. He looks homeless 1) because his hair really is long and 2) it's so long you can't even see his collar anymore.

okay this picture is misleading he doesn't look this cute with this hair in person

But today he became a new dog, in the hair department anyway. A close shave and a nice bath makes him look a little less homeless and little more loved. Unless you're my friend Robin and then you think he just looks silly.

Drinking Coffee from a Bottle

Or at least that's how it feels sometimes.  Greetings from a world at once highly routined and utterly chaotic.  It is  baby bottle, burp cloth, bedtime bliss.  Of course, "bliss" takes on a different meaning entirely when 5 hours of sleep becomes "Wow, a full night!"

I'm glad to share that baby Oliver is doing well, despite our complete lack of training/skills/experience.  After 3 weeks of finicky eating (at best), he finally decided to throw in the towel (#1) on breastfeeding. Unfortunately, Oliver hasn't taken sixth grade English, so he didn't know how to communicate this desire via a tired sports cliche.  Instead, he picked from his baby's arsenal of 5 functions and screamed like a banshee (#2) every time we attempted to feed him.

Sunday best

This turn of events left us with (1) a tired baby, (2), a hungry baby, and (3) a baby with no weight gain.  Needless to say, we sprang to action as best two first-born children can, read through all of our baby books, calmly discussed a plan of action, and went shopping (far from cathartic, the shopping was for baby bottles and groceries).   One week, several doctors appointments, 2 oz of supplemental formula per feeding, and many hours of pumping later, Oliver has gained over 1lb. and counting.  Phew.  Now we just have to convince him that breastfeeding is still cooler than the bed side of a goose down pillow (#3).

A visit from Steve & Jolie = games, gifts, and green peppers on the pizza

In other news (and yes, there is other news), we're back!  This weekend we made it to church for the first time in a month, managed to attend over 1.5 hours of a rockin' Super Bowl party--through which Oliver slept...soundly, and did some non-baby shopping.  I even managed to get my haircut by a woman who both tactfully and professionally informed me that my head is misshapen (actually, she merely informed me that my hair grew out in an unflattering shape because people who cut with clippers simply follow the curvature of my head...no more Great Clips for me apparently).  Thanks, Sharon!

In sum, we've begun to hit our stride (#4), keep our head above water (#5), and make lemonade out of the lemons parenthood has handed us so far (#6).  Who knows, with all the growing free time, my brain might actually be able to form a complete thought without relying on the outdated creativity of the guy who first contemplated how difficult it would be to actually find a needle in a haystack.  If I were you, though, I wouldn't get my hopes up (Judges? . . . #7).

We Back

In the words of one of our favorite returning TV shows “We’re back!”

We actually didn’t go anywhere we just became parents which means that things like blogging take a back seat to more important things like napping. 

I would like to believe that both Aaron and I will be able to come up with really interesting posts that have nothing to do with our new baby…but let’s be honest that’s probably not going to happen, at least not today.

Recap: we had a beautiful baby boy on January 2^nd and his name is Oliver. Here is what we’ve spent the last 2 weeks and 5 days doing:

The hospital

Saved by mom

Family visits

Birthdays

General baby gawking/photo taking

 

Loving our new family

Baby Watch: Success!

This time, the noticeable lack of blogging for the past...well...many hours is an indication of good news!  John Oliver (we'll call him Oliver) was born on Sunday afternoon.  We woke up at 1 a.m. with some initial labor pains, headed into the hospital at 2:30 a.m. (at which point Jath was already at 7 cm), and had a baby by 2:30 p.m.  The journey was filled with a few twists & turns--I'll let Jath fill you in on the details as she chooses--but we were so thrilled to see our baby boy at the end of it.  Everyone is doing well and pondering life as a family of three.

A few pictures:

Thrilled but exhausted

Enjoying a post-bath nap

Baby Oliver

Kid has huge hands and fingernails

With our (hilarious) doctor

Our nurse (and hero)

Baby Watch: Day 10 (Happy New Year!)

So when I started the task of blogging every day until the baby's arrival, I honestly did not anticipate having to fill 10 days.  I also did not realize how difficult it would be to come up with ten fresh ways to say "Boy, are we really waiting for this kid!"  But here we are.  Hopefully it hasn't become too stale.

In an effort to combat the few downers of now reaching 2011 without a baby, Jath and I discussed some good things about the baby's waiting so long to arrive.  For example:

• The further from Christmas he's born, the more his birthday will feel like his own
• We got to spend ten full, well-rested days with Jath's family, whom we haven't seen since September
• He'll be a hardier kid
• We made it through one extra week without having to buy diapers

And of course, if he's defying the thoughts, prayers, and long-distance well-wishes of our friends and family, some really good reason must exist for him staying curled up in the womb (Mom suggested he might still be working on a fingernail or two).  

Jath's dad and sister ended up staying today (just in case), so we tried to ensure it was a fitting grand finale for our 2010 holiday bash.  We had lots of finger foods (assorted fine cheeses and crackers, crab-stuffed mushroom caps, meatballs), played more games (Settlers, Mystery of the Abbey, Canasta), and watched some college football.  Besides Christmas day, today was also the only day we did not leave the house.  I suppose we decided to greet 2011 by locking it outside.  

Toby in the Moby Wrap

One person who has been excited about the baby's delayed arrival is Toby.  Besides getting to spend the last 10 days playing with Charissa's dog Cody, Toby has also retained his #3 position in our family.  His feelings may change, however, if the baby decides to wait too much longer.  After all, we have so much fun baby stuff to use, and Toby is just the right size.

Clearly, the situation around here has grown desperate

Anyway, we're still holding out hope for tomorrow.  My mom (happy birthday!) informs me that I was due on a Tuesday and came the next Sunday, so maybe our "family Y" just has a 5 day lag built into it? 

And of course, we continue to be incredibly excited to welcome this little one into our family and thrilled at the prospect of visiting with so many of you in the coming weeks and months.