2015: an overview

Since I rarely blog anymore and I like to use my blog to travel back in time and reminisce, I thought I’d do a 2015 timeline entry. 2015 was a pretty huge year for us.

January

• Packed up all of our stuff and moved our family (including our 3 cats) from Los Angeles, CA, to Raleigh, NC (1/22)

February

• Found our home (2/8)
  We went from 1300 sq feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms to 2600 sq feet, 3 (incredibly large) bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a YARD!
• Experienced our first NC snow – first time either boy had seen snow (2/24)

March

• Monkey started at a new preschool…
  …which was a disaster.
• Monkey quit the new preschool

April

• First Easter with cousins in SC (4/5)
• Monkey loses first tooth (4/10)
• Moved into new house (4/26)
• The MM turned 2 (4/29)
  It was a quiet affair at home with balloons, gifts and cake. It was enough of a feat to get the sunroom orderly enough to put his new train table there.

May

• The MM’s first hospital procedure/got front teeth capped (5/15)I didn’t blog or FB about this because I was actually rather embarrassed. The MM had some discoloration on his top 4 front teeth, so I took him in to the dentist for the first time in April. Turned out that it was decay (!!) and they recommended capping them. Since he was so young, it needed to be done under anesthesia (!!) in a local hospital (!!!!). I was freaked out about it, of course, so I got a second opinion, and, yes, this was the recommended course of action. I called every local ped dentist to see if there was anyone who could do this in their office and nope.I took him in super early in the AM after an overnight fast. They put us in a room to wait. They wait until they are in the OR to give gas to get them out quickly and then do IV, procedure. Then one of the worst things ever – they took him screaming and crying from my arms to the OR. It. Was. Awful. I waited for an excruciating 1.5 hours and then they brought me back to hold him as he came to. Again, just awful. He was so upset and disoriented. I nursed him, took him home, and put him to bed. He slept for a few hours (with constant Mama checks) and then woke up and was absolutely fine. And that was that. The capped teeth will fall out as normal when his permanent teeth start coming in.The dentist blamed my nursing him overnight as the cause of the decay, which is why I felt embarrassed and ashamed. I’ve read that breastmilk doesn’t pool in the mouth and lead to this problem like formula from a bottle overnight does. Who knows. I just know that I did what felt right for him and for me and that’s that.

July

• Our first ER visit: The MM gets stitches (7/9)How we made it 5 years without an ER visit is beyond me. This one happened because Monkey was chasing the MM through the house and of course the MM fell right on the edge of the fireplace (Note: We’ve since purchased guards for the edge.) DW tried cleaning him up but we quickly saw that his poor lip was split. I first took him to Urgent Care as they said they do stitches. On arrival, however, they said since it was on the face, they wanted us to go to the ER.The MM was a freaking rock star. First they applied topical numbing cream with a cotton ball taped to his lip. Then they did some sort of nose spray that makes you very woozy and out of it. Lastly they sewed up his lip. Dude didn’t even cry during the stitches and barely did for the other stuff.He did great! And now he has a small bad ass scar on his upper lip. Dude has been through it this year.
• Monkey started Kindergarten (7/7)

August

• Trip to Wilmington (8/10)
  First time to NC beach for any of us. Granny came along (my mom). We went to the beach (but only for one day as the kids really wanted to be in the pool at the hotel), did a lot of swimming in the pool, visited the USS NC Battleship and NC Aquarium, and Mama and Mommy went out for dinner did the Ghost Tour.

September

• Baseball for Monkey!

  This was actually t-ball, but ended up being coaches pitching. Monkey was much more focused and into it than he ever has been and did well. We found a great league nearby and loved Monkey’s coach (a former NY Yankees player!). We found that out when the team was invited to coaches’ house for a post-season wrap up. Dude lives in a freaking $2 milion dollar home! Cray. We just signed up for Spring ball and are really hopeful we are on his team again (his son is the same age as Monkey).

October

• Color Run (10/3)
  Monkey LOVES to run and this seemed like something he’d enjoy. Did he ever! The whole family went but only Monkey and I did the actual run (let’s be real, Mama mostly walked). We got covered head to toe in colored powder, much to Monkey’s delight. Afterwards, they had a big dance party where they handed out more color packs and everyone got even more covered in color. On our walk to the car, there was a powder station that a bunch of kids were playing at (purple powder EVERYWHERE), so we stopped and let the kids go to town. You guys, they were seriously covered in purple powder. They loved it. Monkey still asks when we can do it again. LOL.
• NC State Fair (10/17)
  Meh, we are not really fair fans, but the fairgrounds are super close and everyone said you must experience it. It was hot, parking was hell, there was disgusting fair food, there were smelly buildings full of farm animals, and overpriced tickets to ride crappy rides. Kids loved it – Mamas, not so much. Mommy was like, “We aren’t doing that again.” I was like, “You know you’re dreaming, right? We have kids!” LOL!
• Mama starts new job (at same company)
• First Halloween in new house
  In LA we lived in a security condo building so we never got trick-or-treaters. Monkey thoroughly enjoyed handing out candy. In fact, he cut his own TOTing short so that he could go home and hand out candy. DW also really did up the house for Halloween. Orange lights around posts on front porch, skeleton lights along front walkway, tombstones and flashing lights in yard, and spooky sounds via a speaker in the front window. Pretty impressive 🙂

November

• Mommy’s band plays first gig
• Mama has work trip to LA – first time away from the MM overnight (11/17-11/19)
  Highlights included staying at The Standard hotel, going to The Broad museum, partying on my last night there with my old gay work boyfriend (we did drinks at the rooftop bar at The Standard, hit Clifton’s for dinner, and walked around downtown LA, which is really lovely these days). Bonus? I was not at all homesick for LA – I was totally ready to come home to NC 🙂
• Wean the MM (11/17)
• First Thanksgiving with my family in SC

December

• Monkey turned 6 (12/21)
  No party or huge activity planned this year, which ended up making Monkey sad. We hit up the local kid’s museum, went out for brunch and went to the trampoline place. Then home for gifts, dinner and cake. Next year we’ll do a party at our place.
• First Christmas in new house
• Mommy visited Grandma in LA (12/26-12/29)
• Mama and boys visited family in SC (12/26-12/28)
  Highlights include exchanging gifts with family, visiting the Riverbanks Zoo with cousins, and seeing The Good Dinosaur.

So far, we’ve had a pretty busy January 2016 as well!

• The MM saw his first movie in the theater – Hotel Transylvania 2 (1/3)
  We have a $2 theater near our house so we thought we’d try it. He did great and we’ve already been back to see The Peanuts movie, too.
• Monkey received a character award at school for Respect (1/8)
  There were around 6 total character awards per grade. Very proud!
• Toured and applied to a magnet school for Monkey for first grade (we find out if he got in 2/5)
• Had our first snow in our new house (1/17)
• Scheduled a tour of a local pre-school for the MM for next August (1/22)
• Monkey’s first school performance (1/22)
• Roller skating for the first time  for a school fundraiser (1/30)
• Mommy’s band has scheduled their second show (2/6)
• Researching soccer and/or karate options for the MM, and track options for Monkey
• Work on potty training the MM (ughhhhhh)

Whew! Non-stop action over here.

we’re still here, y’all

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I updated this blog. I’ve thought of shutting down, but now and then I like to get some stuff out and I’ve been her for so long…

We have been in our house for 6+ months now and we still love it. We have an empty dining room and mostly empty living room, but we’ll get there. Even though our house is redone, we are still finding items we want/need to do. Like getting the fireplace hooked up to the gas line, installing a disposal (who doesn’t have a disposal in this day and age), landscaping the front yard, painting upstairs, and doing some work in the bathrooms. That said, we’re still paying off the new washer & dryer and the kids’ swingset, so we’ll likely wait a bit. We love our neighborhood and are just thoroughly pleased in general.

Monkey started Kindergarten back in July (year-round school). He’s doing great! We were a little worried, but so far he is engaged and excited and moving right along. He’s in our local public school, which is rated 9/10 on Great Schools. While the school seems perfectly fine, it doesn’t really excite us in any way. We loved his preschool and were really hoping to have that same feeling once he got to K. So, I attended a Magnet School fair today to check out our options. There were two that sounded great and that I’m going to visit in the coming weeks. I think we’d probably just stick with our local public school (and we still may) but they redistrict here frequently and you have no control over where your child may end up. That is kinda scary and doesn’t happen for the charters and magnets so we’ll see what comes. In the meantime, Monkey is learning to write and read and is doing really well – even though the kid never EVER listens to us at home. We’re trying on that front 🙂 I also can’t believe our guy will be 6 in a little over a month. OMG! Wasn’t he just born????

The Marshmallow is 2.5 and boy is he ever 2.5. Tantrums and “no” and refusing naps, oh my. He is still nursing, but I’m going out of town on business in a little over a week so that may be the end of that. DW is really pushing me to be done, but I just don’t know how I’ll handle it if on my return, he’s teary and begging for milk. As much as I’d love to be done, there’s a lot to be said for extended nursing, too. We’ll see what happens.

In terms of work, I was really unhappy in the role I originally took at my company. It’s the type of work I enjoy doing, but it’s a new team and our management is AWFUL. Everyone on the team is in misery and looking to get out. So I pursued another job within the company and I got it a couple of weeks ago. Monday is my first day and I’m thrilled. Most of the team I’ll be working with is based in, wait for it… Los Angeles! So I’m flying to LA for planning meetings on 11/17, and will likely be in LA a few times a year. Yay! I have already worked with this team in my old role and really like them so I’m hopeful that this will be a good situation for me. Luckily, we love our new city and our new home, so it was still absolutely worth the move. How awful if that weren’t the case!

For Halloween, DW went all out and decorated our house and played spooky music and everything. I had no idea she wanted to do that, but I’m happy she did 🙂 We’re already buying stuff for Christmas decorating!

It was also the first time we’ve had Trick or Treaters come to the door (we were in a security building in CA) and Monkey LOVED handing out candy. We asked him if he wanted to keep getting candy or go home and hand out candy and he enthusiastically said, “Hand out candy!!!! Let’s go!” He waited by the door, looking out the window for ToTers. Adorable. My guys were Batman (M) and Robin (MM). There was a kids H’ween party at my office and they were Mario (M) and Luigi (MM) there – freaking adorable!!!!!

So that’s what’s happening around these parts. I’ll try to update more often, friends.

new house

First, thank you all for your comments, suggestions, etc. on our school situation. Will keep you updated…

Now for a super happy post! I never posted about our incredible new house. It was at the top of our price range and had multiple offers (after 2 days on the market!), but we got it. The catch? They wanted us to wait to close until April 22. Worked out perfectly in terms of our rental as we are in a lease through the end of April. We are DYING to get into the place. Less than a month now!

Feast your eyes on our gorgeous new home!

house

Well, we didn’t get the house. The bank basically pulled a fast one. First, my agent talked the agent for the house and found out that there were 8 offers in, all over the asking price but none over X amount. She said she was glad none were over X amount because the house would not appraise for X amount. So we bid $100 under X amount. Next came counter offers to multiple bidders (what happened to not going over X amount?). So we countered with X amount plus $100. Then came the fun part: they wanted us to sign an appraisal contingency removal. Yep, they wanted us to pay what we offered regardless of whether or not the house appraised at that price. We declined that fine offer. I guess some other sucker must not have because we haven’t heard anything since. I officially hate Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. This seemed so damned shady. “Let’s jack the price up as much as we can with these counter offers telling bidders to give us their best and final offer and then pull the rug out!” The mortgage industry seems to be plugging right along with their crappy ways.

We are now taking a bit of time off from house hunting to figure out what we want to do. Most likely we’ll keep looking after taking a short break, but we just need some time to calm down and de-stress. This was such a bummer – we were both already practically moved in mentally. We really loved that house and felt like we had a good shot at getting it.

Ultrasound tomorrow.

stress

I can’t tell you how much stress there is in my household right now. We are in the midst of the following:

• Buying a house (still waiting to hear on THE ONE)
• Figuring out how to be landlords/rent out our condo, making small repairs that are needed before it can be rented
• Potty training (NOT going well AT ALL – we have one stubborn, angry dude on our hands)
• Pregnancy (“morning” sickness, “Are we having twins?” stress, insomnia)
• Sick grandparent (MiL called today saying Grandpa is going to the ER with breathing difficulties. He’s 94.)

It is officially TOO much. The bad part is we really need to be doing all of this right now. Believe me, I’d hold off on buying a house/renting the condo if i possibly could, but the prices are trending higher and who knows how long the low interest rates will hold out. I’d love to stop with the potty training, but that would be two failed attempts and I’ve heard the more of those you have, the more difficult you will make it for yourself and your child the next time. Obviously there’s nothing that can be done about the pregnancy or sick Grandpa. Out of our control, those two.

TOO MUCH!

Ultrasound on Wednesday.

house

We saw THE house that we want on Tuesday. After seeing so many houses that we were kind of “meh” about, it was so cool to walk into one, look at each other and say, “This is our house. WANT!!!” So we put in our highest offer and are so so hoping we get it. It is adorable, light, bright and has an awesome view. Yes, it needs some work, but nothing that we can’t live with for a while. Built in the 60s, 3 br, 2 ba, 1660 sq. ft. It’s funny because in pictures, it did nothing for either of us. We just went to see it because there is so little out there. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed because we will be heartbroken if we don’t get it. THAT IS OUR HOUSE!

6 days to ultrasound.

5 weeks 6 days

Today the nausea has begun! It’s not too bad (yet), but I’ve felt icky all day long. I get really hungry but about halfway through whatever I’m eating (English muffin, penne pasta), I get totally grossed out and feel like heaving. Yuck! But at least I know there’s still something going on in there, right? Here we go…

We saw a couple of houses today that I think we’re going to try for. Both are really smaller than we wanted to go, but we’ve discovered that in our price range, you can have one of two options:

• Big giant house (2000+ sq ft) that needs EVERYTHING remodeled
• Smaller house (1400-1500 sq ft) that is move-in ready

With a toddler and a baby on the way, we are so not up for remodel hell any time soon. So we’re considering the smaller house route, knowing that we’ll probably have to move again in the next 5-10 years. These houses are only ~150 sq ft bigger than our condo, but they have 3 bedrooms, attached garages, yards, and one has a pool. So we’d be gaining space in those areas. They are also in a great school district all the way through high school – our current schools are no good after elementary school. We’ll see if we even get either of these houses. We’ve put in 3 offers and have had no luck so far. Sigh.

dream house

First up, we had to move our RE appt. from tomorrow to next Tuesday morning. Oh, the anticipation!

I’ve been dreaming lately of when we get to move into a house with actual room for all of our things! And on that note, I thought it’d be fun to list our requirements versus nice-to-haves. What is on your list?

Must have

• Separate, reasonably sized laundry room (not the closet in the kitchen we have now – must hold cat litter box!)
• 3 bedrooms (master, Monkey, office/guest room)
• Decently sized backyard (room for swingset and general playing)
• Two-car garage attached to house (so sick of schlepping groceries up stairs or on the elevator and having to use a key to open a door from the garage to the downstairs lobby)
• Lots of storage!
• Good school district (duh)
• Not on a busy street (our condo faces a busy street and we can never have our sliding glass doors open as it’s way too noisey)
• Single story (ranch-style, no stairs)
• Bedrooms located together (at least, the master and one bedroom should be next to each other)

Nice to have

• Mud room in which to store sports equipment, strollers, misc. stuff that goes outside
• 4 bedrooms (this might become a must have if another baby makes an appearance, especially a baby of the girl variety as I don’t think I’d have a problem with brothers sharing for a while – would it be weird for young bro/sister to share? hmmm….)
• Pool/spa (we use the one at our condo so much, it would be nice to have it in a new place, though by no means a necessity)
• Patio area that is screened in or that could be screened in
• Located on a cul-de-sac

Wish we could move right now…