We made it!

We are in our new house and loving it! I took pictures of every room yesterday so that I could give you a tour (we just got internet up yesterday), but both Jacob and I are sick. We are heading out to the doctor soon and hopefully we both have something, not just a bad cold, so that we can get some medicine and get better. I hate it when you feel awful, but there is nothing wrong and so you just have to deal with it. Jacob deals with it by screaming for hours in the night and during the day. Fun stuff! I'll let you know what our doctors say and hopefully start getting pictures and stories up soon!

Absurd

OK, so I wasn't going to blog until we got into the new house (that way I could focus on what I had to do and not let the computer distract me), but I just have to share this crazy story.

My dad has a mean neighbor. There is no other way to put it. My dad has a pie shaped property and the top of his driveway takes up the entire property line in the front. What does my dad's neighbor do? Put his mailbox right next to my dad's driveway. It is on Steve's (the neighbor) property, but is 30 feet away from his driveway! Why? We don't understand. He also has put concrete pegs along his property line (so when you are backing out of dad's driveway, be careful; if you go off the driveway a little you will ruin your tires!). There are many other like stories. It doesn't sound that bad when I type it out, but it is.

I have never had a run-in with Mr Steve before. In fact, when I lived here he liked me. Steve is a snow bird and runs a bed-n-breakfast in Maine (I don't know how someone with his personality has any business, but I digress...) and he is back here for the summer. If Garnet doesn't know someone, he barks and barks. Barking is a problem for Garnet, but we try really hard to help him with that.

About a week ago, Garnet was barking at midnight. Adam went out to check on him and he was barking 'cause crazy neighbor was in his yard making noise. At midnight!

Anyway, I get home from work Tuesday to Steve standing at my dad's front door. I was the first one home, so I was greeted by Steve and Garnet. Steve, in a mean/gruff voice, told me that Garnet has barked in the middle of the night and barked for 30min straight at him. No “hi”; no “do you live here”; no niceness at all. Just mean talking (Garnet would not stop barking at him while he talked to me).

I was mad at Garnet for barking non-stop and not obeying (something we are going to work really hard on at the new house and if it doesn’t work he is off to school), but I was upset at Steve for how he approached me and the lack of just plain human niceness.

So, Wednesday I was packing and heard Garnet barking again. Now I have to explain this barking. It is not normal “come play with me” barking, it is protector-dog, ferocious barking (he sense something about Steve and doesn’t like him at all). I finished what I was doing and went to get Garnet to stop (mind you he was barking for 2min, max). Garnet of course didn’t listen to me and charged out of the porch. Steve was mowing at his lawn and yelled at me that if it didn’t stop he would take legal action. I finally got Garnet back inside and was shaking. I was mad at my dog for not obeying me and making me chase him to drag him inside, but I was really rattle by the mean man out there. What did I ever do to him and why can’t he at least try and be nice about it? We didn’t know that Garnet barked at him when we weren’t home and have come up with a way to fix that (we are putting a blanket over his crate when we leave so he can’t see out).

I don’t know if I am making sense. Don’t think I am crazy. Other people in the neighborhood think Steve is odd and confrontational as well. Why he has to pick on little me, I don’t know.

Anyway, after Adam and I left for youth last night, animal control showed up. Now Mr Steve said he would take legal action if Garnet didn’t stop. Garnet was inside the rest of the day and didn’t bark again, but Animal Control was still called. Anyway, dad said the man was really nice and asked for the back story on Steve. He understood and was on our side. He had to fill out a report, but said for anything else to happen Steve has to get another household to complain (which will be difficult considering he is mean to everyone and we are leaving Saturday).

I just don’t understand how someone could act that way and not at least try and be nice. Garnet is a great dog and would do fine if Steve would be nice enough to say “hi” and let us introduce Garnet instead of throwing mean words and threats our way.

Garnet will not bother him anymore from our new house, but it is sad that Steve is so angry at the world. Oh God, help me see him how You see him ‘cause right now I just don’t understand.

Garnet now has a record; that rebel!

On a lighter note, it is Jacob and Mommy day today! After being watched for 7 days while I worked and did stuff at the house, we finally have a day together. He is almost ready for his nap and when he gets up we are running errands together. I love running errands with him. I leave him in his seat and put him in the cart and we have the best conversations! We are off to Pet Smart to buy Garnet a new bed and some treats for the new house, Costco, Target, etc. Fun stuff!

My little man is telling me that it is nap time NOW. Off to start the long process of getting this precious kid to sleep!

My new house

Well, we are almost ready to move into our house. Saturday and Sunday we painted all day long. Martin and Beth came over and help most of the day on Saturday. We couldn't have done it without them. The paint looks so good. We painted everything except the room Jacob is going to move into when he outgrows his crib and the kids' bathroom (I have to find a shower curtain first).

I am packing today and tomorrow Jacob and I are going to run last minute errands. Friday Adam will finish painting the trim in the guest room, hang fans and hang all of the blinds. I will be finishing packing (which shouldn't be too much) and then helping Adam.

So much is happening at the house between now and then, including the pod being delivered today and our new fridge is being delivered Friday! We move in on Saturday and I cannot wait.

On another note, my dad is really mad at us. He is happy we are moving into our new house, but mad that we are leaving him. He has enjoyed seeing Jacob (and us too) everyday for 5 months and will miss us (and our cooking).

I will be taking a short break from blogging as I get us into this house, but promise I'll post pictures and stories (you know I'll have some funny ones!) as soon as I can.

I AM MOVING INTO A BRAND NEW HOUSE!!! HIP, HIP HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!

We are home owners!

We closed on our house on Friday! We each signed our name 93 times and within 50min our debt went from 5 figures (student loans) to 6 figures. Yikes! We are so excited. We painted the whole house all weekend. I'll post more details and pictures later.

I cannot wait to move! Saturday is the big day!!!!

Big Day

Well, today is a big day. Today is the last day that Adam and I will not be home owners!

We had our walk-through on Tuesday and that went well. We really like our builder. We found a few things, but not too much. Since we are painting all of the walls we didn't have to worry about them touching up the paint.

We close at 10am tomorrow and I am so excited. Adam's step-mom is a closing agent so she is going to go over the paperwork with us tonight and hopefully that will help speed up the closing process.

We are painting this weekend (want to help?!?) and moving next Saturday (you know you really want to help!!!). I am sooooo excited and cannot wait!

Sleep Baby Sleep!

Jacob slept through the night and I couldn't be happier!

You see, my little man was sick all weekend. It started with him getting up early on Friday. He was hungry, tired and cranky. I fed him and we were both about to fall back asleep so we took a nap together. I had to work to keep him asleep as he kept waking up and fussing, but we slept until 10am. When he woke up he was burning up. I took him temperature and he had a 99.8 degree fever.

That started our long weekend of a constant low fever, lots of Tylenol and oragel. Friday was the lounge day as it seemed the fever bothered him more. He was just whimper and wanted to cuddly all day. I didn't complain as he doesn't sit still anymore (but it did make it difficult for me to get my shower in). He took 5 naps and only one of those was in his own bed!

Saturday I went to the Southern Women's Show (so fun; John and Kate from John and Kate +8 were there answering questions!) so Jacob had a Daddy day. His teeth were hurting him more. He cried a lot and screamed a lot. It seemed that nothing we did comforted him.

He didn't sleep much Friday or Saturday night (Saturday we were up with him from 1130pm-130am and 330am-5am).

After lots of tears, lots of medicine, exhausted parents, hardly any sleep - Jacob slept through the night last night. I love my son to death and although it took a ton out of me, I enjoyed every moment of taking care of him (and I did my fair share of worrying and crying as I felt so helpless). I think the worst part about this whole thing is . . . we still have no teeth! Oh my, what is he going to be like when they finally come in?!?!?

Flag Football

Adam played flag football with the guys Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day so Jacob and I went out to watch.

Just had to share . . .

At 8am this morning, in Arvada, Colorado (just next to Denver) it was 33 degrees.

Juli and Thomas are going to freeze and it is still the beginning of December!

Random

I put Jacob down to sleep last night and after I laid him down, I looked in his crib and there was a Canadian dime in there! Random! Don't know how on earth it got in there. I told God that if He was dropping money down on us to please use bigger bills. =)

And I Though I had a Crazy Dog!

This is too funny! It makes me want to video what Garnet does while we are gone.

Standing

Jacob is becoming a pro at standing now (which I learned at his developemental Dr's appointment is a 10-month milestone!). He pulls up on everything that he cans and then proceeds to climb on top of it! We went shopping Sunday and got him a play table (pictured below) and he loves it. Today was the first day he stood at it without being helped. After he stands and plays a little, he stretches his arms out and tried to climb on top of it - he even lifts his leg as if he is going to actually climb it. Oh my, I am going to have to watch this one.

He is doing better about standing in his crib during nap time (pictured is the first time he stood in his crib since we lowered it). He normally stands and cries soon after I put him down (he cry sounds different when he stands so I can normally tell when he does it) and I go in and pick him up and tell him that he is not allowed to stand in his crib during nap time and that I love him and it is time to go to sleep. I have done it several times and he has not stood up again during that nap (that is until he wakes up), so hopefully it will continue to work.

We are moving!

We got our closing date set. We close October 17th! I cannot wait. We are going to paint that Saturday and Sunday (we are painting the whole house before we move in). We have our walk-through on the 14th, but we have been emailing our builder little things throughout the process that we notice. Our moving date is October 25th (want to help?!?) and I am excited and nervous (I like to stress over moving). So many guys are going to not be able to help us so hopefully we can get enough muscle and it will go quickly.



The house looks so good. Here are some pictures - I'll give you a quick tour!



Our crocked doorbell. That will have to get fixed as it annoys me every time we visit the house (which they keep locked now that everything is almost done so we can only go see it when the Ryland office is open and can give us the key).





Our entryway. That is the dining room (with the ugly light fixture that we are going to replace asap) on the left and the living room is behind the front door on the right.

My kitchen window. To the left is where the stove is and to the right is the breakfast nook.

My island! I am so excited about this. The empty place towards the right is where the stove is going to go and to the back left, just outside the picture is where the fridge is going.

Breakfast nook. Another light fixture that we hate and want to replace asap.

My closet . . . wait for it . . .

. . . and the rest of my HUGE closet!

Master bathroom.

Kid's bathroom.

Adam standing in the hallway just out of the kitchen looking at the living room.

My wonderful digital thermostat that we can program differently for every day of the week!

My pretty crate myrtle that we didn't know we were getting.

Jacob's Appointment

I took Jacob to his follow-up appointment with the developmental Doctor on Thursday. I was really looking forward to the appointment and excited to see how far he has come. We had to wait 45min before they took us back to meet with the doctor. Thankfully I brought Jacob’s lunch and a book so the time went quickly.

The doctor asked me several questions at first. I felt like an unobservant mom as I didn’t know if he did certain things (like passing a toy from one hand to the other – we have watched him now and he does do that). At first I thought that was going to be all it was and I was feeling like I should not have come, but then she pulled out her bag and started trying to get him to do things. She watched how he responded to a bell ringing, had him pick up several different items (my money son is trying to climb up my leg right now!), had him try and pick up a small pill-like thing, asked him to pull a string to get an attached ring (he was just fascinated by the fraying string and didn’t want anything to do with the ring) and she tried to get him to pull a peg out of a hole. He did pretty good. I think he would have done better if I was trying to get him to do those things.

He showed her how he crawls (commando crawls) and how he can pull up to standing. He didn’t talk that much. He is so vocal when he is playing – he says da-da and his version of momma (he says it with an “n”). He gurgles and growls and makes a hissing sound, but he did none of that for the doctor. He just made raspberries for her. He did show her how he can wave (which he is starting to understand that you wave at people when you see them).

The doctor said he did really well. He needed to test at a 6.5-month level and he tested at 8-months for verbal (which would have been higher if he would have showed off) and 7.3-months on motor skills (picking up the various toys). The doctor was very impressed.

She was concerned about one thing – she noticed that his muscles (especially his left leg) seemed tight when she tried to work with them. She wasn’t overly concerned, but wants to keep an eye on it. I have another follow-up appointment in December and if it isn’t better then than he will need physical therapy (which the State has a program for preemies from birth to 3 years that is not based on financial need and they will send a therapist out to your house to evaluate your child. Hopefully if he does need physical therapy, through the State program, the therapist will always come to our house. The doctor said that it takes about 2-months for someone to get in the system so I’m going to get that started even though we don’t know yet if he needs it). Adam is going to start working with him now and has a friend from school that does pediatric physical therapy so we are going to get together with her when we get in the new house and have her look at him and help us work with him.

I’m not worried. I don’t like that he might have some residual effects of the prematurity, but I know he is going to be OK. Adam isn’t worried at all. He keeps trying to stretch Jacob, but the little man doesn’t like it. This is going to be interesting. The doctor did throw out the idea of him possibly having braces on his legs to help with the tightness. Oh goodness. It doesn’t matter now. We don’t go back for awhile and from now until then we will pray and stretch our favorite little boy.

I love him so much. I had no idea how much I would love him and enjoy spending time with him. I just have the best time with him. I love his smiles, his laughs, his noises – everything about him!

Oh, I uploaded more pictures if you grammas want to download some good copies of some. Here is the latest photo album with a few cute ones: http://picasaweb.google.com/AdamAndAngela/PicturesUploadedOct3rd#

Maggie update: After Jacob’s doctor’s appointment Thursday, we went over to visit Maggie since we were just next door to the hospital. She looks really good. She is breathing well on her own and should be weaned off the morphine by the end of today. Carrie tried breastfeeding her Thursday and it went ok (she only ate for 5min, but it was the first time). They have upgraded her to level 2, the final level before she is sent home. John and Carrie seem to be doing well, but look tired. I know that they are really ready for this to be over and just to have their little girl home. Good news is that they are closer to that than further away!