Ben Vs. Nachos

Nachos won.

Pool Season

The pool opened yesteday and since Joel is working all weekend I took the kids by myself, which I counted as a success because there was minimal yelling and no one drowned ( always a hallmark of a successful pool trip). Caroline seemed to love the water!

Sitting! And Other Milestones.

Baby Caroline has been racking up the milestones this week. She is starting to sit unassisted (though wobbly, with mom hovering) for a few minutes at a time before she loses her balance and falls over. She started eatiing her first veggie, squash, which brings her solid food repertoire up to 3 items (rice cereal, oatmeal, and squash). She seems to enjoy the squash, and eats it right up, along with a bowl of oatmeal, every night at dinner this week. This I think has led to her third milestone, SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! Three nights in a row, now. Also tonight I let her cry herself to sleep, which was stressful but only lasted about 20 minutes before she fell asleep. Hopefully her new sleeping-through-the-night routine will develop into a nice habit, and she'll start putting herself to sleep without all the drama. The helmet (here pictured without it, during her one-hour daily break) seems to be working out fine. Already her head seems a little more symmetrical in the back to me, though her flat spot is still pretty pronounced. We go back for a follow-up next week.

Although she doesn't know it yet, Caroline will have her first trip to the pool tomorrow!

Don't Look Down

This is Ben scaling a 60 foot vertical climbing wall at camp Blue Star this past weekend. He made it all the way to the top! Joel, being rather afraid of heights, remained safely on the ground.

Helmet Baby

In all the chaos of moving, Caroline and her new pink helmet have been almost forgotten... Here she is, shortly after receiving it on Friday. After taking some time to ease up to wearing it 23 hours a day, she is getting used to it nicely and tomorrow will be her first time wearing it for 23 hours straight. She goes back to the therapist for a follow-up next week. Already her head is looking slightly less flat to me, though it might be my imagination ;)

Becca and Grandpa

Grandpa came down Friday afternoon - Sunday morning to help with moving preparations. Ben and Joel were at Camp Blue Star, so the help was much appreciated! Becca enjoyed his company too of course, being her usual dramatic/cute/exasperating/not-shy-at-all/stubborn self ;) She cried when he left, but is looking forward to seeing him in Hilton Head in a couple weeks! The weekend marked baby Caroline's first introduction to Grandpa, and the two got along quite well, too.

Moving Day Souvenir

Yes, this is a large moth with a large safety pin protruding from it's back. We found this moth in the garage of the old house on Sunday while in the middle of the move. Since Ben's class is studying butterflies and moths in science, and his teacher spent her college days collecting and preserving bugs, Ben decided that he needed to take this moth to school. His teacher had apparently previously instructed the students on various methods for capturing/killing insects without destroying them. So this moth ended up in an empty tissue box, covered in packing tape, in the freezer until Ben took it to school yesterday.

Apparently, from what Ben tells me (and from the email his teacher sent me) the moth caused quite a surprise when it was unveiled yesterday morning. Not only was it much larger than his teacher was expecting to see when she unwrapped the box, it was also,  ahem, not quite deceased. Ben's teacher rose to the occasion and made a make-shift display to preserve the specimen, using a tupperware container, a large safety pin (which unfortunately ended up being the final manner of death), and some play doh (which we replaced per her instructions with styrofoam when Ben got home yesterday). So now Ben has a perfectly preserved specimen of a white-lined sphinx moth (as was determined by Ben and his teacher). Forever reminding him of moving day ;)

Moving

I think moving must be one of those things like childbirth that after it's over, you forget exactly how bad it was, and after a few years you start thinking about doing it again... well... moving sucks!!! Even when it's only 3 doors down. Or, perhaps BECAUSE it was only 3 doors down, it was a complete disorganized mess. A complete, disorganized, sleep-deprived with a really bad cold and whiny kids in the way MESS.

As of this writing, the garage of the new house is so crammed full of stuff that no cars can fit in, the contents of the master bedroom closet, refrigerator and freezer remain largely at the other house, and the garage at the other house needs to be cleaned out. Since trash day is tomorrow, a monumental task looms at both houses of getting what garbage we can out to the curb that the trash men will actually take.

But despite all that, we got a remarkable amount of stuff unpacked, got internet, tv and phone up and running today smoothly (all email addresses and phone numbers remain unchanged). Below are some pictures of the house. Ben and Rebecca's rooms are finished but the rest of the rooms aren't, or at least we have not hung any pictures, mirrors or anything yet so it looks a bit bare. We'll get to that stuff eventually! Take a moment to read the captions, I took a moment to write them ;)

House Update

So the previous owner did return for his cats - actually there were two of them - and did finish "cleaning" out the house of his remaining stuff. I say "cleaning" loosely because the house was A MESS! We sent a two person cleaning crew over there yesterday and it took them five and a half hours to clean the house. The bathrooms were a mess, everything was a mess. Now everything is kind of a mess again, because the painters have set up shop and in addition to painting they are having to install a couple of light fixtures, which means drilling holes in the ceilings, which means lots of dust on the floor. Also, both the upstairs bathrooms had wallpaper on them, which was scraped off today in preparation for painting. So there's shredded wallpaper all over the floors of what were nice clean bathrooms... The knee-high grass in the back yard got mowed and we hired a lawn service to mow and maintain the yard for $175 a month (going to ditch the lawn service we have at our present house, since this other guy is supposed to be better and does more work for the same amount of money).

On tap for tomorrow is Dad's arrival, Joel and Ben's departure for Camp Blue Star, Caroline's introduction to her helmet, more painting, and the delivery of Caroline's new crib and dresser. WOW, full day. Dad you have quite a treat in store for you this weekend - hope you are prepared to pack some boxes! And to put together some office furniture from Ikea ;)

For Your 5 Month Birthday I Bought You a House

Which may have come with a cat. Hopefully they are planning on returning for it....?

Property Owner, Times Two

So now - after a very aggravating delay of a day because the loan documents were not quite ready in time - we now are the proud owners of a house! Another house! Two houses, on the same street. (I wonder if we can live in one and our kids can live in the other? Is that legal?)

The current homeowner is still in the process of moving his stuff out - we gave him until the end of the day - and Joel, who has been in there this morning, has advised me NOT TO SET FOOT IN THE PLACE until after it is cleaned. And possibly after new carpet is installed. And after someone mows the foot high grass in the back yard. It is rather a mess. So I am taking his advice and staying away for now ;) We have our cleaning service coming tomorrow morning, and Joel is out carpet-shopping at the moment (we had scheduled Empire but Joel felt like we were getting ripped off and decided to shop around on his own instead). Thursday and Friday we are having basically the entire interior painted, including the bonus room which is being painted midnight green, silver, and black (1/3 green, black stripe, 2/3 silver) in honor of the Philadelphia Eagles. With a big Eagles helmet Fat Head on the wall. (Hey, Joel bought me a house, I had to concede something). Not to be left out, Ben has garnered a single wall of Eagles green in his room, and a LeShaun McCoy Fat Head, and Becca is getting Disney Princess Fat Heads, though if you call them that she will vehemently deny that they are "Hat Feds" as she usually accidentally calls them.

Food for thought - our soon-to-be new neighbors on BOTH SIDES of us drive Porsches.Way to give someone a complex ;)

Settlement Day

We had a nice few days with Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen visiting, got to go out for mother's day, go to the Whitewater center, etc. They left yesterday and we got busy with the moving prep -- We sold the elliptical on craigslist since we're not taking it with us, bought office furniture at IKEA (strange place which Joel swears he is never setting foot in again), bought boxes, and did some grocery shopping. Today is Settlement Day, and I am still waiting to hear from the bank/ closing attorney because we've yet to review the settlement statement or be told what the exact dollar amount we need to bring to closing is. Closing is scheduled for noon, so I am hoping enlightenment on this topic will be forthcoming soon, so that I can go to the bank for the cashier's check. The current homeowner is not moving out until tomorrow - we gave him the extra day - and then wednesday through saturday a variety of people are scheduled for cleaning, painting, carpet installation, taking apart the play set and moving it 3 doors down.... Sunday is the Big Move, but we're hoping to have a lot of our stuff like dishes, clothes moved over before all the furniture gets moved. Will be sure to keep you updated!

Uncle Mike!

Poetry Tea

Ben's class put together a special "poetry tea" today in honor of mother's day. The turnout was great - all the moms came, and even one Aunt Kathleen.... :) It was beyond super adorably cute. They had a microphone set up at the front of the room, with the lights out and a floor lamp "spot light", and each of the kids came up and read a poem they had written in honor of mother's day. Some of the kids even tried to dress like poets, wearing dark shirts, sunglasses, one kid even wore a black fedora. The poems were all super cute, there are definitely some future poets in Ben's class! Ben's poem:

Your heart is like the stars
I want to travel with you to Mars.
Make me a cup of tea
And then it will be you and me.
You're as sweet as the tweet tweet parakeet.

Head Case

Yesterday Caroline was fitted for her orthotic helmet. This involved putting a nylon stocking type thing over her head, which had a hole cut out for her face, and then wrapping her head in strips of plaster so that she looked like she had a skull fracture or something. All I can say is THANK GOD Joel's schedule got changed and he happened to have the morning off so could come to the appointment, because Caroline screamed through half of the fitting while I held her and Joel attempted to distract her, and when it was over and the mold was removed she was a plaster-y mess and required a lengthy scrubbing of head, face, arms, and torso to get her clean. She was pissed off and hungry, so while I washed her off, Joel held a bottle in her mouth to calm her down ;) We chose a plain pink helmet for her, which Joel is still insisting he wants to decorate with Philadelphia sports decals, and it will be ready for her to begin wearing in 2 weeks! 23 hours a day, 7 days a week, but hopefully only for about 6 weeks. Get ready for your round head, Caroline! ;)

Too Busy to Blog

The last few days have been really hectic - in addition to a lot going on at work, there is a lot going on at home too in an effort to get ready for our move. This weekend besides Ben's last flag football game and last Hebrew school class, dinner with friends, and dual sleepovers - we took Ben's friend Colby for the night Saturday and Colby's parents took Rebecca to have a sleepover with Colby's sister Sara - we also tried to get a bunch of moving stuff taken care of. We inconvenienced the current owner of our soon-to-be house by inviting a carpet installer and painter over on Saturday morning to get estimates for carpet and painting. We also picked out paint colors, bought paint for the bonus room and Ben's room, and bought a crib and dresser for Caroline's room.

This week the hectic pace will continue because not only do we have to continue with the moving to-do list (including starting to pack), we also have Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen coming for a visit from Wednesday-Sunday. Besides that we have mother's day plans, school events, and doctor visits to coordinate. Fun stuff!

My Princess on a Princess Bike

Urology Appointment

Rebecca visited the pediatric urologist yesterday, where she got to have an ultrasound of her bladder, pee, and then have another ultrasound to see how much urine was still left in the bladder. There was only about a tablespoon left, which was not too bad. So the conclusion was that she may be having bladder spasms which are causing some leakage and urinary urgency. She will be starting on a daily dose of Detrol, and also got some bathroom exercises to do such as making sure she is sitting up straight when she pees and she is supposed to sing the Happy Birthday song to herself and then pretend she is blowing out a candle (the idea being this will help to make sure she has emptied her bladder completely). She seems more cooperative about using the bathroom, at least until the novelty of that wears off ;) I have not gotten the prescription filled yet; will try to do it today so her first dose will be tonight with dinner. We are supposed to call in 2 weeks to report on her progress, and go back for another visit in 5 weeks.

2 Down, 1 to Go

Yesterday Ben had his ENT appointment, and today Caroline had her appointment with the funny-shaped-head therapist.

Ben's appointment was good news; there is no indication that he needs tubes, his adenoids removed, or anything else. His ear still has a little bit of fluid in it, but the doctor thought that it will drain by itself, with a little help from a steroidal nasal spray which he has to squirt up his nose before he goes to bed to help shrink the inflammation in the eustacian (sp?) tube and dry up the fluid. He has a follow-up appointment in a month, but the doctor said if he's still fine by then I can cancel it if I want.

Caroline had her appointment with an OT who specializes in infant head/ neck issues. Caroline was calm and happy and obligingly allowed her head to examined and measured from all different angles. She has some each of brachiocephaly and plagiocephaly (dunno if I spelled those right), which translates into the back of her head is flat and one side of her head is flat too ;) She will be going to therapy once a week, and she will be fitted for a helmet next week, which she will start wearing 2 weeks after that. The helmet + therapy will be another large chunk of change to add to the household budget for Way Too Much Money Spent On Medical Bills, to be filed under the Why Did We Sign up for the Stupid 80/20 Plan column... which column is already filled with large bills related to Joel's 2 day ICU stay in February. ANYWAY, the good news (?) is, that she might not have to wear the helmet for all that long. Because the helmet-wearing is dictated by head growth, and when I informed the therapist that she is 18 pounds at 4 months and is following in her brother's footsteps ie will probably be close to 22 pounds at 6 months like he was, she said maybe it will only be 5 or 6 weeks before she outgrows the helmet. Hopefully that would be enough time to correct her misshapen head and she would not need another one after that! We also got a lot of neck stretching exercises to do at home, and instructions to stop using the Nap Nanny (so long Nap Nanny, you were a good friend...)

Our last doctor appointment of the week is Rebecca's trip to the pediatric urologist tomorrow.