Merry Christmas!

I love love love Christmas.  I love the sparkling lights, the holiday treats, the cheesey movies, spending time with family, everything.  And having a kid makes it 100% more fun, more magical.  This Christmas is the first one where Jude really understands what's going on and is so very excited for Santa to come tomorrow.  We went and saw Santa earlier this month and Jude was super pumped to meet him, tell him in detail about all of the toys he wants and to give him a big hug.  So here is my holiday cutie with Santa and I hope all of your days are merry and bright!

Love, Liz 

Advice for New Parents

Yesterday one of my dearest friends told me she is pregnant for the first time.  I am so excited!!  And talking to her last night about it got me thinking about first time parents.  Oh the mistakes we all make!  And all of the stupid advice we hear!  So many things that you need to decide on.  The whole thing is so exciting and at the same time so overwhelming!  So I thought I'd put together a few blogs on the subjects that I was the most interested in when we were first becoming parents.  I'm thinking that I'll post about cloth diapering, feeding baby, baby showers, and a few other things I'm mulling over.  But first I wanted to just put together some basics.  Of course it goes without saying, though I will say it anyway, that these are just my opinions and what worked for me.  Everyone and every baby is different.  And I'm only an expert in Jude, nothing else.

1.  You will get so much advice.  And the more pregnant you look, the more advice you will get from well meaning strangers.   Try to take it with a grain of salt and remember that no one is the expert and you are allowed to disagree with them, even if its your own mom.  People, even stupid rude people, are just trying to be helpful.

2.  Decide what is important to you and how you want to do things, but recognize that babies don't really care about the plans you make.  Some of the things you decide will work out just fine, others not so much.  Try not to let it bother you or make you feel like a bad parent.  As long as you and the baby are healthy and mostly happy, its not a  big deal.

3.  Get stuff done early.  It is so hard to get even the smallest things done at first when there is a new baby in the house, like really, even taking a shower is an effort.  So get done what you can that will be helpful as soon as possible.  For example, do you have an office or junk room that you are planning on making into a nursery?  Well, get it on it.  Start clearing the room out now and getting it ready.  Don't wait until you are 8 months pregnant and huge to do it.  Take will make it harder.  Have a project around the house that you've been meaning to do?  Get it done now.  Remember you will have family and friends all over your house once baby is here.

4.  Have fun.  Go to movies, eat fancy dinners, read books, sleep in, go shopping, have long conversations about adult things.  Do all of the stuff that is hard with kids in the house.

5.  Treat yourself.  Your body is going to get all sorts of wacky while you are growing this tiny human.  Do stuff to make yourself feel good.  Feeling frumpy and big?  Get a sweet new hair cut.  Feet swollen and sore?  Go get a pedicure, the good kind where they rub your feet and legs for 30 minutes.  And if you can afford it, get at least two or three pregnancy massages.

6.  Try not to buy baby clothes.  Trust me, even if you don't know anyone with kids, you will still end up with so much baby clothing.  You will get tons at any sort of baby shower you might have, a co worker will bring you a box of their kids stuff, etc.  And if you do have friends or family nearby with kids you will get their hand me downs.  So don't buy much if you can help it.  Babies don't really wear stuff out so chances are good that you will get hand me downs that are in good shape.

7.  Don't be afraid to buy stuff used.  There is so much stuff that is nice to have with a baby in the house, but you don't need half of it.  And the half you do need can normally be found in a thrift shop, a garage sale or Craigslist for a fraction of the price.  But don't start buying stuff till that spare office that is becoming the nursery gets cleared out!

Ok thats a pretty good start!

And PS I am so excited about the craft exchange!  I drew the name of a blog that I really love which makes it so fun!
-Liz

Holiday Craft Exchange

Hey guys, it's time again for the annual Holiday Bloggers Craft Exchange!  If you have a blog and would like to participate, just follow the link http://2momstobe.blogspot.com/2014/11/holiday-craft-exchange.html

The Mommas are Tired

Jude has always been a crappy sleeper.  I feel like from day one it has been something that we struggled with.  But things were going good for a little while, he slept more or less through the night in his toddler bed and though he got up early, it wasn't all that bad.  And then, we got him a big boy bed, a full sized bed to be exact.  And of course he slept fine in it juuuuuussstttt long enough for us to think it was a success and get rid of the toddler bed.  Then all hell broke loose and we have been battling him every night since.

It is getting better, don't get me wrong.  He is no long for the most part take two or three hours to go to bed (man that sucked).  And he isn't getting up every 15-30 minutes for the most part anymore.  But he is still getting up at least 3-4 times a night and I am still sometimes having to spend the early parts of the morning sleeping in his bed with him.  I'm just so ready for him to go back to sleeping through the night and not having this battle.  We got this cool bunny clock to hang in his room that has a picture of a bunny walking and a picture of a bunny sleeping and the theory is that when he sees the bunny is sleeping he knows he should stay in bed and that when the alarm goes off and wakes the bunny up (silently), then he can get up too.  I think it is helping some, but he is still getting the idea down.  Fingers crossed he keeps just getting better and better with the sleeping.  

Jude, as he getting closer and closer to 3, is turning into quite the talker.  He just has so many things to tell me and ask me about all day long, it is so cute.  Last night going to bed he asked me what the names were for the two stuffed monkeys he sleeps with.  And I told him that one of them was Curious Geoge and he liked that and told me maybe they were both Curious George.  But then he pointed out to me that on TV Curious George doesn't have a tail and this monkey did, so it couldn't be named Curious George after all.  So funny.  A few days ago S was trying to get him to say please for something he wanted and she told him he needed to say the magic word and he replied to her "magic word!" Instead and cracked us all up.  He loves to be funny and he loves to tell us when things are funny.  He is a silly guy.

In other news, I'm doing better than I have been in a while.  Menopause is hard guys, especially when you can't have any hormones.  My mood swings have been out of control and I've just been so darn angry all of the time and depressed that it was really starting to effect our family.  So I'm taking Welbutrin and I'm starting to feel less and less like a crazy person.  I guess that's probably why I haven't blogged in weeks, I had nothing good to say. I'm going to try to get back on the blogging though, I miss it!

-Liz 

Potty Training Part 3

We have now been potty training for several months and I'm happy to say that in the last few weeks we have finally made some progress!  It was starting to feel like Jude was never going to figure it out and I was really starting to question if he was ready for potty training after all.  But all of a sudden he seems to "get it" and has been telling us he needs to go potty, going on his own and even pooping in the potty!  Yay!  Of course he is still having the occasional accident, but it seems more to be because he is having fun and doesn't want to stop rather than a lack of awareness.  He is also still wearing a diaper for nap and bedtime, which I figure we will phase out once he starts waking up drier or waking up asking to go to the bathroom.  

Not much else to report.  We are still waiting for the beginning of next year to move forward with baby #2.  Jude is a talking machine and has developed a huge love for books, which I love.  He is so funny, he loves to make us laugh.  And he is just the sweetest little guy.  He is also becoming less of a picky eater and eats regular meals at least some of the time now, which is awesome.  Oh, nap time is over, that's all for now!

-Liz 

Cutie With a Haircut

Jude got his haircut today and he is looking so dang cute!  hope everyone is having a happy Friday!

More Fun in the Sun

We are having the best time in California, we are sad to have to leave tomorrow.  But all good things must come to am end.  Jude is going to be such a pain next week when he is adjusting back to our central time zone along with no more limitless juice boxes and grandparents spoiling him, no beach, etc.  Hopefully I can come up with some fun stuff to do.  Yesterday we went to the San Diego zoo, which was amazing.  Seeing the pandas was probably my favorite part.  You will have to wait till we get home for pictures from that, they are on a different camera. Here are just a few from the last day or two.  I wish everyday was vacation!

Life's a beach

We are on vacation right now in sunny California, visiting the in laws.  We got here Friday afternoon and don't have to go back to real life till Wednesday.  It's been an awesome trip so far starting with the smoothest flight we've ever had with Jude.  It was a direct flight, which we haven't managed to do before with him,mdo that itself made for a much easier time.  Also this was our first time flying where he hasn't just on our laps, we had the whole row to ourselves.  To prepare for the flight we went to Target and raided all of the dollar stuff we thought he'd be interested in and able to do in his seat.  We got coloring books, small cars, silly putty, ABC and shape flash cards, tons and tons of little snacks and some weird stuff that might get his attention if all else failed like paper clips and post it notes.  We also got a few sticker books where the stickers are repositionable and they are sort of activity books where they complete the pattern and stuff like that.  We got those from Michaels, Jude is crazy about them so I highly recommend them if you have a toddler and need a sitting still activity.  We also made sure the ipad was loaded with cartoons and toddler games.  So with all of that he was a happy and entrained boy through the whole three hour flight, hurray!

So far we have been spending lots of time at the beach, for sure Jude and my favorite thing to do.  We have also been playing with the crazy amount of toys the grandparents have gotten him like a big crazy power wheel and a remote control car, nerf guns, and more.  Jude is so spoiled!  We have more adventures scheduled for tomorrow, so lots of pictures to come.  The new header photo was taken this morning on the beach.  Happy boy!

Our adventures so far-

-Liz 

Mr. Itty Bitty

Jude had his 2 1/2 year check up yesterday and the results are in!  He clocks in at 26lbs which puts him in the 11% for weight and I can't remember exactly how tall he is but he is in the 16% for height.  So yeah, our guy is a small guy.  But, the doctor thinks he is perfectly healthy, and he is growing, so everything is all good with that.  And no other issues, so we got a clean bill of health, always good.

-Liz 

One Year Cancer Free!

Today marks the one year anniversary of the five hour surgery that made me cancer free.  Wow, how crazy to be on the other side of this!  My sweet wife ordered me a box of warm, freshly baked cookies from a local business here that delivers them fresh, so nice.  And we are having a big party on Saturday to celebrate.  I'm so thankful to be here, to have my beautiful family and so many loving friends.  My little brother designed me a pretty cool invitation to my party (the other side says "she defeated death and now she's ready to party!), here it is for your viewing pleasure along with some random pics.  More updates on toddler life another day!

Someone likes helping mom cook and someone really really loves homemade icing!!

-Liz 

Potty Training Continued

Well we are a week into potty training and I have to say it's going well.  On the first day I used a pull up once only to realize that Jude can pee in them just like a diaper with us none the wiser, so those are out and it's 100% underware if he is awake.  The first few days were lots of accidents, but. It nearly as many as I expected.  He fought with us about it and threw fits about not wanting to sit on the potty, which was frustrating.  But now a week later he is pretty good about it and hardly ever throws over it.  Yesterday he didn't poop, so he had 0 accidents!  And over the last two or three days the only accidents he has had have been pooping.  So he still hasn't pooped in the potty, but hopefully that will come with time.  We tried to bribe him by saying he would get a new car if he pooped in the potty but it didn't work despite how he tried.  I think he just doesn't quite understand how the pooping thing works yet.  He also isn't telling us when he needs to go, we just take him every 30-40 minutes.  Again, I'm hoping soon he starts telling us he needs to go.  I have a pretty cute picture of him sitting on the potty but I don't think he'd ever forgive me for putting that on the internet, so I'll save it for future girlfriends, haha.

-Liz 

Potty Time

Jude I think is finally ready to take the plunge into potty training.  For the last several weeks he has been telling us if he has pooped and has been pretty obsessed with talking about people pooping.  He will also on occasion tell us when he is wet.  We tried potty training a few months ago, but after a day or two it was clear that he wasn't ready.  So we layed off and now as of yesterday afternoon are back on the potty train.  We would have started a little sooner but we had a vacation to Oklahoma last week to visit family and friends and meet our new adorable nephew.  It was a wonderful visit and so getting back to real life plus potty training has been a bit rough.

But so far the training is going well.  Yesterday we started after his nap because he had "school" that morning.  He peed in the potty three times and had no accidents and was in underware all afternoon/evening.  We are going to keep doing diapers at bedtime till he seems ready for that.  Then this morning so far he has peed in the potty four times and is in underware, no accidents yet.  We are giving him one fruit snack for every success as he is crazy for them and no longer normally gets them due to his obsession.  I'm worried about him pooping, but oh well, he will learn.  He isn't always happy about going to sit on the potty, he cries and throws a tiny fit most of the time, but he quickly calms down and does the deed.  Fingers crossed for success!  And any tips or encouragement accepted! 

-Liz 

Mr. Cute Stuff

Jude is being so cute these days and talking up a storm!  Remember how I was taking him into a speech therapist to get evaluated?  Well he came back within the normal range so no speech therapy for him and ever since he has been talking non stop!  A short list, mostly for my own memory of what he has been doing to amuse us:

-he loves cars, but for some odd reason he calls them "guys"

-if you are holding him and he wants your ful attention he will use his hand to turn your face so you are looking at him while he goes "mom, mom"

-he is crazy crazy crazy for our new roommate Thatcher, whose name he can say just fine but for some reason about half the time he calls him "owa"

- he likes to play a game we call snakes and monsters, where he makes snake or monster sounds and points to the invisible snake or monster in the room and we run away to escape

- he is obsessed with bugs and really hates them.  If he sees one anywhere it must be picked up and thrown away right then

- he is crazy for fruit snacks to the point where I don't buy them anymore because it's all he wants to eat.  He calls them "nacks"

- for my birthday my mom brought me a copy of a book I loved as a little girl called Annie and the Mud Monster.  It's super cute and Jude always wants us to read it when we do books before bedtime, but about half way through he gets scared (it's totally not scary) and has us stop.  It's cute.

 And a cute picture of my babies to finish the post with

not quite ready

I came to the conclusion the other night I am not quite ready to try for a second baby quite yet. Jude woke up from a weird dream around 11pm the other night and I jumped up to comfort him. It is the only time I am excited he wakes up in the night. When he makes up that shortly after falling asleep, he is so sleepy that if I go in there he is a little cuddle bug and I can comfort him and pat his little head and watch him sleep for a minute before I step out of the room. Sleeping children look like little angels. So innocent. It always reminds me of how much he needs me and liz and how much he relies on us. The screaming mama as he falls asleep is because he loves us so much he does not want to be apart. Not because he is trying to make me crazy angry, but because he would prefer to keep us around always.

It just hit me in that moment. I am not ready. I am not ready to be pregnant. I am not ready to spend the next 9 months feeling nauseous and exhausted.  Then the next 6 months struggling with a newborn and a toddler and just trying to get by.  We have had a rough couple of years and everything right now is soooo good. I want to just live in this moment with my family of 3 before we are on to the next big thing.

I still think we are going to be a family of 4 but right now, I want to soak up my only 1 kid time. To try to truly enjoy every minute of my time with my son and wife and how very happy we are right now.

I am working on two major thing right now. Patience and living in the moment. Both of those things are super hard for me as a go go go onto the next big thing kind of girl. But, both are important for me and I am proud of myself for being able to pull back right now and say, "this is where I want to be for now. Right here with my loves."

I feel a little guilty, but overall, relieved.  Liz is totally on board and thinks we reconsider in 6 months how we feel and go from there. She is the best and when I was upset and told her I wanted to wait, I asked her if she was disappointed and she said, "no baby. This is something we should both want right now if we are going to do it and when the time is right, we will both know it and do it."  What a sweetheart:). Then, she promptly started planning a vacation. So I think we are to grab some of our besties and try to go on a mini vacation. Because where can you live in the moment better than at the beach with the people you love?
S

TTC 2.0!

We are officially back in the trying to conceive game and I am so excited!  Nothing has happened yet, but we have made the decision to start trying in probably August or September.  Today at the grocery store we bought a pack of OPKs and it just made it seem really real.  I have such baby fever and it seems like everyone is either pregnant or has a new baby, which is making me crazy!  

From the few people we have mentioned it to (and if you know us IRL or Facebook please don't mention it), we have gotten a lot of questions on of we will use the same donor again.  And we will if we can, but our donor only has a limited number of samples left and they are only for siblings, so I feel like it could go either way.  We will just have to see, though I think our fertility doctor will store it for us for free, so in that case we will jump on it.  If not, we are going to just cross our fingers.  It's just not that important to us that Jude and his sibling be fully genetically related.  

So we will keep you posted on it all, S meets soon with the fertility doctor and we will get this show on the road!  It's going to be so different this time around with Jude around and having a little more experience with the whole thing.

-Liz 

License to Ill

Going to mommys day out twice a week and to the Y almost daily means that Jude has been exposed to lots of germs lately.  And of course as a result he has been getting sick a ton and so have we.  This week was the second time in three weeks that he was sick.  Mostly high fever, snotty, coughing, the classic cold.  But there has been some puking.  And it's kind of been a running joke with S and I that even though I'm the stay at home mom, she is always the one getting puked on.  I always seem to dodge the bullet.  On Wednesday Jude seemed particularly sick so S decided to work from home to help me out a bit as I wasn't feeling very good either.  S was working on her computer at the desk in our room and Jude and I were cuddling on our bed as he was really sleepy.  I realized it was time for more medicine but I wanted to take his temperature first.  So I ran downstairs to get the thermometer and Starr hopped into our bed for a minute to cuddle.  And just as I reach the bottom stair I hear S shout and run across the floor.  Sure enough when I get back upstairs not even two whole minutes later, he had puked all over her.  When I walked in she was holding him standing in the tub as he wasn't finished yet and all either of us could do was laugh as once again, I avoided the puke.

But yesterday my two year vomit free streak ended and while S was at work, I got puked on.  Though I'm sure if she had been here it would have somehow been her.  Seems like the little dude is feeling better now, thank goodness.

-Liz 

It's Getting Better

Thanks for your thoughts on the Jude sleep issue.  Things have been going a bit better, 8pm seems like a good bedtime and I've been trying to up him down earlier for naps and wake him up if he is napping too late.  We have also made a more solid bedtime routine and have a plan as far as what to do when he is crying and not wanting to go to bed.  It's still a struggle, but I'm hoping it will get better and better.

 A quick cute Jude pic

In other news, I have two new paintings up at the etsy shop.  Check them out! and visit the shop at www.vangoogoo.etsy.com and you can like the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LizVanGooGoo

Bedtime, more like scream time

Does anyone else have issues getting their little one to go to sleep?  Sigh, of course you do.  Things with Jude and bedtime had been going ok, but in the last two weeks it has taken a nose dive.  Last night was no exception.  We did our normal bedtime routine and put him in his toddler bed right on time, at 8:30.  It was 10 pm before he was actually asleep.  He spent the whole hour and a half screaming and crying and throwing himself to the floor and it is making us crazy.  Like CRAZY.  We go in and hold him, rock him, put him back in bed time and time again, try to get him to sleep on the floor, talk to him about bedtime and sleep, sing songs, let him cry, threaten and yell.  Everything.  Nothing works, nothing helps.  We leave the door open, we close the door, we sit in the room, we leave the room, we turn on and off his night light, nothing works.  And he only finally goes to sleep once totally exhausted, really not even going to sleep so much as passing out.  It's ridiculous and has to stop.  Oh and once he does go to sleep he is waking up at least one or two times.  And then he is back up for the day between 6-7am.  Naps have been hard too, but not nearly as hard as bedtime.

So our only plan today is for me to try to run him ragged all day and to try bedtime at 8pm.  I'm also thinking about cutting his naps out, but dear lord I don't want to do that if I don't have to.  Anyone have any advice?  I'm about ready to call Nanny 911 on this!

-Liz 

Happy Easter from our little bunny

He had fun hunting for eggs, but the candy was not nearly as exciting as the cars!

Van Goo Goo is open!

My etsy shop is officially open for business!  Please go check it out and let me know what you think!  The address is www.vangoogoo.etsy.com

Here are a few samples of what is available on there.  

Biting and Scooting

On Jude's second day of "school" aka Mother's Day out, I picked him up and hand to sign a discipline form about him biting another kid at the program.  Apparently the kids were going somewhere in their giant 8 kid stroller and the kid next to him wouldn't stop touching his arm and so he bit him.  I hate this.  I felt so bad that he did that and bad that he was being hurased by another kid and just bad.  I teared up talking to his teacher about it, I just want him to be good and fit in.  She didn't make too big of a deal out of it and he isn't going to get kicked out or anything.  She thinks and I think that being there is really good for him, so he will continue on.

In other news, we got Jude a scooter the other day.  He is a big fan and just looks so grown up scooting down the street.  It was getting dark when he went out for the first time, so please excuse the grainy pictures.

Also, I have been having a hard time commenting on everyone's blogs recently, so please don't think I'm not reading because I am!

-Liz 

First Day of "School"

Jude started a Mother's Day out program this week.  He will be going Tuesdays and Fridays from 9-1.  I think it's going to be really good for him.  It will give him a chance for some socialization and hopefully get him talking more.  It was hard dropping him off for the first day for me, I don't like leaving him with people I don't know.  But he loved it and was so excited to go.  Here he is on his first day.

This is a nice little break for me as well.  I'm using the time away to paint and my goal is to open my etsy shop by the end of the month.  I'm making small paintings for nurseries and kids rooms and it's going to be called Van Goo Goo.  Here is my cute little banner.  I'll post a link for you guys to check it out once it's up and running.

We also have taken two different sessions of bluebonnet pictures.  They are in full gorgeous bloom here right now.  Here are a few pictures

Grumpy boy!

-Liz 

Potty Training

We started potty training Jude last week.  So far we have had very mixed results. We are trying to go slow and have him wearing big boy undies or pull ups when we are at home.  We have a piece of poster board on the wall and we have him pick out a sticker to add to it every time he uses the potty.  And at least half the time if not more, if you remember to ask him every thirty minutes or so if he needs to go to the bathroom he will successfully do it.  But the rest of the time he flat refuses or gets upset and won't even let me put the underwear on him.  He has had a few accidents and a few times of pooping in the big boy undies that was not fun.  So pull ups for the day until his morning poop, lesson learned.  Next week Jude starts a moms day out sort of program two half days a week and I'm not sure how this will effect potty training.  Anyone have any good tips?  

-Liz 

Kitchen Before and After

I

I have been a painting fool the last few weeks.  And my main focus has been painting the kitchen and the kitchen cabinets.  I thought I'd share the before and after pictures with you guys.  It's been a ton of work but I love how this house is turning out!

It wasn't too bad before, just not my style, especially the wall paper, yuck!

Scar Face

Jude got his first stitches last weekend.  Not a milestone we were looking forward to.  It happened Friday night about five minutes before bedtime.  He was running around the living room being silly with S.  We were having a dinner party that night with three friends and I was sitting at the table talking when S started screaming Liz, Liz! we have to go to the hospital and Jude started crying.  He had fallen down and hit his head on the corner of a low windowsill by the front door.  And he hit is just right so that it gouged a big cut right above his eyebrow.  There was a lot of blood at first and we scrambled to get shoes on and figure out where the closest hospital was.  

We went right to the ER and got in pretty quickly, but things slowed down from there.  They took one look at his cut and said real stitches would be necessary, no glue, and they would need to put a numbing gel on it for about thirty minutes before they got started.  Of course it took over two hours for them to come put the gel on and then another hour before they came back again.  Then it was stitches time.  They uses a big sheet to swaddle him and a tech came and held his head.  I pinned down his body and S held a cotton pad on his eye closest to the cut and tried to keep him calm.  He was naturally terrified and screamed and cried like I have never heard him do before.  At one point he changed tatics and asked to go bye bye, which made us all laugh for a second.  By time they were done putting in four stitches he was bright red all over and a sweaty mess from getting so worked up.  The whole ordeal took over four hours.  Luckily he was tired by being up way past bedtime and we had our ipad with us, so he was really good with all of the waiting.  It was after midnight by time we got home.  Here he is, with what will be a Luke Perry style scar.  Picture isn't god enough to see the stitches, but they are there :( 

He has really enjoyed getting to use the monster band aids we got.  You can see in the above picture how bruised his poor eye is right now too.  Poor baby.  Here's to hoping we don't have to do that again any time soon!

-Liz 

99 Problems But a Yacht Ain't One

Yeah,so, the yacht.... As you all know, we bought a new house recently.  What you probably don't know is that the house came with a yacht.  When we were first looking at the house we saw from the pictures that there was some sort of boat in the backyard and thought, weird but whatever, because the listing very clearly said "boat does not convey".  So when we went in person and saw this giant thing in the backyard we weren't too worried, it was obviously a very expensive boat at some point and it was on a trailer and the back of the fence was built to be opened wide enough to get the boat out.  So we didn't think much of it.  I mean after all, it was winter and storing a boat is expensive.  Fast forward to the week of closing and we come to the house to do the final walk through.  The yacht is still in the backyard.  Hmmm.  That's weird, it was almost a 60 day closing, so they had plenty of time to go get it at this point.  But we don't close for a few more days, so our realtor makes some calls and we get assured the boat will be gone by closing.  Here is the "yacht" in question.

Looks nice, right?  And this picture does not do it justice as far as the sheer size is concerned. This thing is 30 feet long and that ladder hanging off the back starts about three feet off the ground so you really need like a chair to get up onto he ladder.  

Anyway, the day before closin S drives by the house to see if the yacht is still there because it's clearly visible from the road, that's how big it is.  And the stupid thing is still there.  Our realtor tells us, oh they are elderly, as if this was any sort of good reason for this boat to still be in the backyard.  At this point I start to get worried that these people are planning on storing their boat for free in our backyard till spring and I was not having that.  So we have the realtor draw up paper work saying that they had until Sunday to get the boat or the boat became ours (closing was on a Thursday).  I thought, this will motivate them, they lose their expensive yacht if they don't come get it.

Saturday night rolls around and the yacht is still there.  It's become obvious that they aren't coming,  and we explore the boat more and realize how trashed it is.   All of the electrical is ripped out, the boat has sat uncovered for what looks like years.  Below deck is a bedroom and bathroom, but is smells weird and looks scary.  The wheels on the trailer are all flat and the side of the yacht not pictured only has 2 flat tires instead of three.  Oh boy.

Then we talk to the neighbors, the boat has been in the backyard like that for TEN years, never once moving.  Also, when the boat was back in Florida before here the people who owned it built a dock that blocked the water access for their neighbors.  This apparently really pissed the neighbors off so the guy swam below the boat in a scuba suit and drilled holes in the bottom of the boat and sunk it.  And to top it all off, apparently the boat was famous in our neighborhood for being the place all of the local cats liked to give birth in.  Yeah, yuck.

So we were basically tricked into dealing with the old crappy boat and I'm sure the original owners had a good laugh after signing the papers we stupidly thought would motivate them into getting their boat. But, this story has a happy ending.  I spent some time last week calling around to all of the local boat places and finally after lots of people telling me it was worthless and I was going to be stuck with it forever, some used boat guy gave the me the name of Capitan Mac, who runs a boat salvage yard.  And sure enough I gave him a call and sent him a few pictures and he was interested.  So he came out and I managed to talk him into buying the yacht for $800.  It took him and his assistant (his first mate??) about two hours that day to get it out of the yard and then another hour the next day to get it all of the way gone.  And while they were looking it over the first mate went below deck and his foot went right through the floor board and into six inches of nasty water.  Gross.

Once they moved the boat I was looking around at all of the snail shells and stuff that had collected under the boat over the years when I saw the body of a seahorse!  I was so excited I ran to get S, who was talking to the guys.  They were all like, really?? a real seahorse?  And I said, yes, come see!  And they ran over only to see the fake plastic seahorse I thought was real because it was so dirty.  Embarrassing.  

As the Captian and his first mate drove the boat out of the yard our next door neighbors came outside and clapped and cheered to see it leave!  Other neighbors stood outside watching open mouthed as the ugly boat they had been staring at moved for the first time in ten years.  I think everyone will love us now for getting rid of the thing in less than a week of living here.

So the yacht is no longer a problem, though we do have a boat shaped area of dirt in the yard where it once was.  And even if "Captian Mac's" check bounces, at least that yacht is no longer our problem.  

-Liz 

Whew! Moved!

This weekend was an epic weekend of moving. And I'm happy to say it is done!  My mom came and helped, not only physically but also helped out by providing her SUV.  We hired movers but because we had three days between getting the keys to the new house and the day the movers would come it seemed to make sence to move as much as possible ourselves.  It's about a 30 mile drive from one house to the other and with traffic it takes anywhere from 40-90 minutes to do the drive.  I think between our two cars and the SUV we took over 30 trips back and forth.  Now the process of unpacking has started.  The kitchen looks pretty good and is mostly unpacked but pretty much nothing else is yet.  I'm drinking my second cup of coffee right now in hopes of getting going on that.  S's mom came down this week to help watch Jude while I unpack, which is awesome.  We have great moms!

Speaking of Jude, he seems to love the new house.  He has been a hyper little fool ever sence we got here.  He loves having a play area and lots of new rooms to go In and out of and trying to get into the boxes, etc.  But sleeping isn't going that great, which we expected.  With everything going on his naps have been all over the place.  He is going to bed ok but has been waking up at 5:20 everyday on the dot, and last night he was up in the middle of the night too.  And even brining him into our bed doesn't get him back asleep, even though he is tired.  I'm hoping this will sort it's self out as he gets more used to living here, but until then, I'm one tired momma!

One last thing about the new house, every door knob in the whole house is a lever knob, which Jude can open, and he loves to do just that.  We have been doing a pretty good job of keeping all of the exterior doors locked, but it's annoying.  We thought about switching out the knobs but it's expensive and I think it won't be long til he can open round knobs too anyway.  And the child proofing stuff for the lever doors is almost as much as replacing them would be.  First world problems, right?

Here are a few before shots:

Kitchen!

Giant living room

Jude play room!

Hopefully I can post some "after" pictures soon!  For now we are loving our new house!

-Liz 

New House Suprise

This week is the big week, moving time!  Yesterday we officially sold our house and then on Thursday we will officially buy the new house.  I am so excited!!  I've been telling Jude all about it everyday to the point that if you ask him about the new house he shouts yay!  So cute.  And we had a major suprise yesterday with the new house.  We were meeting our realtor over there to do a final walk through and we were about twenty minutes early.  So we were exploring this little paved path that goes behind some near by houses and about three minutes down the path we discovered a park!

So I was excited before, but now, man oh man, I am over the moon!  At our house now there are two parks within walking distance but one is a school so during the week days it isn't an option plus we have to cross a very busy road.  The other one is about a 25 minute walk and the slides are too big for Jude to get up to by himself with the way they are designed.  And now we will live only minutes away from this awesome park.  I told S that if we had known this park was right here we would have jumped on this house regardless of loving the house or not.  But luckily we do love the house and now we have the park as a suprise bonus.  And it will make moving so much easier while all the toys are waiting to be unpacked and when we need Jude out of the way of the movers we have an easy solution.  Yay!

And Jude already loves this park.  We only got to play for about 15 minutes yesterday and he cried hard when we had to leave.  I have a feeling it will only take once or twice us walking over to it before getting him out the front door to go anywhere else will be really hard.  I can't wait to take him there again.  I have to admit when we first got a glimps of it I pretty much ran to it way ahead of S and Jude and then joyfully went down the slide.  So Jude isn't the only one having fun!

-Liz 

Mr. fancy hat

Yesterday, even though It was cold, Jude really wanted to play in his sandbox, which has been a huge hit with him ever since we got back from the beach.  Anyway, we got all bundled up when Jude saw S's hat and just had to wear it.  Normally I can't get him to wear a hat outside so I let him go for it.  He looks pretty darn cute!

Does your little one like hats as much as Jude does?  He really loves them, so I don't get why when it's cold outside he refuses.  Kids!

-Liz 

2 Year Stats

Well it looks like my little Jude really is a bit little, or petite as my doctor said.  He clocks in at 25.3 lbs (29%) and 34.2 in (39%) and with the always tiny head at 46.5 cm (10%).  Over all he is doing really well and is where he should be, with the exception of his verbal/social skills.  On those he lags a bit behind.  I was really worried about this and fully expected her to want him in speach therapy, but at this point she thinks he is just a little behind and wants to give him 2-3 more months before moving onto speach therapy.  I am so relived!  She also though that the social issues he is having are more to do with delayed speach and bein strong willed then anything else.  So hopefully we will get him into some sort of part time program where he can spend more time with other kids his age which should take care of both problems.

 Our pediatrician also recommended a few books to me now that the terrible twos are upon us, one of which I picked up last night called 1 2 3 Magic.  Anyone have any experience with this book?  So far it sounds like it could be helpful but I haven't done much more than skim through it at this point.  Anyone else having tantrums yet?  Or are we the only lucky ones?

-Liz 

2 Years Old!

On Sunday Jude turned two!  I can't believe it!  We had a really fun day to celebrate.  We went that morning for a few hours to our local bounce house, which he loves.  Then after his nap we went to Chuckie Cheese for dinner and more going wild.  He loved all of it and even the mommies had fun.  We got cupcakes as well and he really enjoyed blowing out his candles!

He also really enjoyed opening presents.  Happy birthday Jude!!