Yes. We may just be nuts. Who knows. However, as nuts as we may be, it still seems to be the right thing to do. We have put our home up for sale. Yikes! I'm not sure what the "scariest" part of it is... but right now I think it's the idea of having showings. Need I remind you that we have THREE (yes 3) dogs, and now TWO (yes 2) five month old babies?! That makes for a lot of toys laying about, beds to pick up (dog beds), baby/dog gate obstacles to get out of the way for showings, etc. How in the WORLD will I keep our place tidy enough to be ready on short notice to get all FIVE (yes 5) of my kiddos out the door, into the car, and stay there to hang out during showings?! I have no clue. Especially considering that E & O sleep about 5 hours out of the day... nap times will really make showings a pain. Alas, getting this place sold would be nice.
Those of my readers (like I have any these days!) that have followed our adventure for a while will remember that our house WAS on the market last year and nearly sold before the couple we were under contract with decided not to buy and see where the market went. At that point we kept our place listed another couple of months and then decided we would focus on the adoption and wait to sell until sometime in the future when we had our kids home. Well, apparently that "some time in the future" came sooner than we'd originally thought it would. There are a NUMBER of factors that play into why we're listing again NOW. I don't want to bore you with that though. Suffice it to say we're ready to move up to a slightly more spacious pad as these kiddos grow and begin really stretching their limbs and running about.
On another note, I am incredibly saddened to say that my mom is moving back to Colorado. I am trying to be happy about it and supportive, but mostly I'm just grumpy,
pouty, and quite a bit LESS than pleased. My mom is my best friend and I can't believe we'll be so far apart again. She moved out to California a year and a half ago (while waiting for my dad to finish some remodels on their home in Colorado and get it sold) and is STILL waiting to be able to get my dad out here. There's been a number of factors that have played into why he's not moved yet... getting the house finished has been a huge challenge, blah, blah, blah. But, she had no plans to head back that way until about 3 weeks ago when she got a call from an old co-worker that had an INCREDIBLE job opportunity for her. After much uncertainty and stress she decided it was the right thing for her to do. I think she's also hoping that ultimately it'd be the right thing for Joe and I to move back to Colorado too since the cost of living is much, MUCH lower, and somehow that her moving will bring us back that way. Who knows. We don't really want to give up the lifestyle (and year-round warm weather!) we have here, but I do hate the idea of not having my parents close-by. Never say never I guess. If Joe got some CRAZY amazing job offer in Colorado we'd probably consider it.
Speaking of jobs... Joe will be starting with a new company in a couple of weeks and it's an INCREDIBLE position. Really, truly exciting for him. I'm so proud of him. He's such a driven, incredible, hard-worker that really deserves this huge, new opportunity. It's quite an undertaking, but I know he'll handle it with no problem. I'm excited for him like you wouldn't believe, and thankful as it also should provide some security for us as I continue to stay home with the kiddos. I am NOT ready to return to the life of a consultant and risk being asked to travel and be on the road (aka OUT OF TOWN!) 4-5 days per week. No way. I hope to be able to get into another remote position/contract where I can work from home, but if I can't, it won't be a big problem anymore, THANK GOODNESS! Talk about a stress relief! Taking care of the kids is probably as much work as my job ever was, although more rewarding by far.
Soooo, if I haven't bored you to tears just yet, let me fill you in on E & O updates. On the SAME DAY the two of them decided it was time to start rolling from their backs to their fronts. Constantly. Non stop. Ugh. It's super cute to watch, but they can't roll from their tummies to their backs yet so it's a huge nap-time issue. They both get rolled onto their stomachs and cry like there's no tomorrow. Thankfully, Olivia now seems to prefer sleeping on her tummy so no more fussing from "accidentally" rolling over and getting stuck.
Ezra on the other hand... Oi! That little man rolls over then cries like the dickens until I fix him. Sometimes he continues to cry after he's been put back onto his back as though it takes a moment for him to relax and realize he's comfortable again. Then, as I walk away, he rolls onto his tummy again and wails! So NOT a fun game to play! ;-) Makes for a cranky little guy when he does this throughout his nap time. We have a sleep
positioner but that just gets him upset from being constrained (and his head is now beautifully symmetrical with no flattening on the right from ONLY sleeping on that side at
Toukoul). So... using the sleep
positioner didn't solve the problem. He seems to be starting to nap better now that the novelty of rolling over is wearing off. He's also doing MUCH better with upper body strength and seems to enjoy being on his tummy more than before.
On the "mobility" front I think we're in trouble! Olivia is now wiggling forward and backward. Not crawling yet.... but on her tummy she gets moving/pulling/pushing enough to move forward & backward. She can hold her self up for short periods with her arms straight under her and will undoubtedly be crawling much sooner than we'd like! ;-) We're THRILLED with their progress, but once they're mobile I know we're in trouble! Especially with Olivia... that girl is a mover and I imagine she'll be all over the place! As far as progress though, there's nothing cooler than seeing Ezra finally make a big step forward with the upper body strength. We've worked on it for so long and so hard and it's finally paying off. It seemed like he was making very little progress and now he's pushing up and able to stay up with his arms straight under him for very short periods and he's "helicoptering" when on his tummy, keeping his upper body/head UP (as opposed to slumped over) when in his
Bumbo seat, etc. Yahoo! He'll be pumping iron in no time! :-D I doubt he'll be too far behind Olivia with the crawling... yikes again!
Ezra is still a screamer. It's what he seems to do for pleasure. He SCREAMS and then smiles at himself for being so shrill. Seriously. He's got the most high pitched, shrill scream of anyone out there. He LOVES to do it. I keep telling him it's really not the best indoor voice... but he doesn't seem to care. ;-) He's also seeming to attach the scream to anger. He seems a little young for it, but he's starting to scream before crying when he's waiting for his slow mama to get a bottle into his mouth, or if he isn't getting what he wants. We're in big trouble when we hit toddler-hood and tantrums if this is going to be the case. Gulp. Thankfully Olivia is still a MUCH quieter talker... her voice is much less mouse-like than before, but she's not a screamer (yet?!). Let's just hope it's not one of those things that she picks up from Ezra!
Oh... I nearly forgot! They fought over their first toy the other day! It was actually REALLY cute! I know, I'm terrible. I couldn't help myself, I couldn't stop laughing. Picture this:
They are both sitting in their
Bumbos, up next to each other at a right angle so their feet are together and overlapping. I set this fun, new toy on their legs and they both grabbed it and started pulling towards themselves. It was this cute little tug of war that lasted about 30 seconds before little Miss Muscles ripped it from E's much weaker grasp and giggled about her success. Ezra just sat there (rather slumped over since he wasn't showing the upper body strength improvement yet at that point) and grasped at the air towards the toy. He had this look of disappointment and shock. Poor little guy. I know soon he'll be able to keep everything away from his tiny peanut of a sister so I'm happy for her that she was able to enjoy the victory. Her brother is growing
SOOOO quickly and definitely outpacing her on that front. He's going to be a big boy at this rate!
Okay, that's it for now! Gotta get the kids up from their naps and feed them dinner! They've started on meats and fruits so their palates are enjoying lots of variety these days! They haven't disliked anything up until meat... then made some funny faces the first few times they had turkey. Now it's back to sucking down whatever I stick in their mouths. Yummy! Oh, and I started making my own baby food finally (only sweet potatoes so far... but I have lots of veggies in the fridge to make all sorts of other goodies during their naps this week!).
