Wednesday, March 21, 2007
I Seem To Feel Like Blogging Again
I just didn't feel like it for a while. I was kind of busy. But I've been doing plenty of blog reading!
Let's see:
August - found a house to buy in a new town.
September - Non-stop work on renovating (then) current house.
October - Preparing house to sell, preparing self to give birth, packing.
November - Moving. Unpacking. Cleaning. Nesting. Selling. Chasing toddler. Freaking out.
December - See November. Multiply by 2. Add enjoyable holiday.
January - Giving birth. Hanging out in NICU. Enjoying bringing baby home.
February - Going insane. Attempting to balance caring for the needs of 2 kids under 2.
March - Returning to part-time job. More child rearing. More freaking out.
Soon I'll tell you about the baby!
Sunday, August 20, 2006
I Was 4 A Score and 7 Years Ago
Today is my birthday. It has been fabulous.
Bridget woke me for an early birthday greeting a little after 4am, but I got to sleep in until 10:30 after I got her back to bed. I had a near-breakfast in bed of my standard pregnancy banana nut muffin and decaf coffee (near because it was on it's way to me as I was getting up - I should've been lazy a while longer!). After wtching a little worthless TV and doing absolutely nothing for a while, I took a nap. It was over 2 hours long. 2 hours. We just had some Burger King lunch at dinnertime, which means we'll probably have some dinner at bedtime. And now we're back to the worthless TV-watching. I've received several lovely phone calls today and tickets to a wonderful Boston Symphony concert, featuring one piece I love that I never thought Husband would remember the name of, and of course a little Shostakovich (Husband knows that in my book, you can never go wrong with Shostakovich). As if a house weren't enough of a birthday present!
Off to go watch more TV and listen to Bridget chanting, "Hi Kitty." Happy Birthday to me! Yay!
Friday, August 18, 2006
We'll See If I Can Keep This Up
I just tried to give my blog a fabulous new template, and managed to lose just about all my data while failing miserably. For the life of me, I've spent hours trying to figure out why there are spaces between some of the blogs listed in the sidebar! I think I've got it down to just one, but does anyone know how to fix that? I am a real computer idiot.
I did manage to get a Flickr thingy on here - I hope it works. If I'm good, I'll keep adding pictures as things come up. Mary from Mom Writes (my favorite mommyblogger) posts cute pics of her kiddos all the time. What a great idea (again piannist, let's jump into the 21st century). I'm making an effort!
We Got the House!
Yay! After an afternoon of negotiating, we got the house. The final price was $21.5K less than the asking price, so I think we did all right. We close at the end of October, so we've got a few months to get ourselves into gear.
The thought has crossed our minds to keep the current house as an investment property. I'm going to try to research this a bit this weekend (well, maybe not on my birthday - I'll just eat cake instead). It would be pretty nice to make a little extra cash on a house that we worked so hard on to renovate. Plus, it would be really difficult to sell the place where we got married! But the money would have to work.
I feel much more relaxed now. It has been such a long week. Tomorrow we'll go by the new place to take some pictures.
We'll keep calling it "It" for a little while longer
The ultrasound yesterday went really well. Everything looks good. The baby seemed bigger than I thought it would be at this point. Bridget was not pleased - ultrasounds mean that mama can't hold her right now. That's not a good thing. But baby #2 looks healthy and has been moving around quite a bit.
I did something I've never done before. I was curious about the sex of the baby, but I wasn't dying to find out. So we left it, and we'll find out when we meet him/her in person. I've heard that this is the best kind of surprise there is, and I'll try anything once.
On the real estate front, we've finally heard back. They counter-offered around lunchtime today, and we counter-offered back. Then they countered our counter, and we just countered their counter. Their last offer was $5k above our absolute upper limit, so we're hoping they'll split the difference on the last two offers. If they decide to hold where they are, we'll probably take it anyways, and I'll (yikes) take on some piano students or something. Who am I kidding? I'll be doing that anyways. All I know is that I will be very glad to get this negotiating over with so I can sleep soundly tonight (or just start stressing out about a whole different set of problems). We'll see.
Still Waiting...
The offer went in yesterday afternoon. They have until 6pm today to respond. We haven't heard anything yet. If it were a flat out "no," we would've heard by now, right? Maybe they're still thinking. My brain is fried right now.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Boy or Girl? Yes, Definitely
Tomorrow is my mid-pregnancy ultrasound. Husband's got the day off work, so we'll put in the house offer following the appointment. The pressing matter is: should we find out the baby's sex?
We had planned to be surprised with Bridget. At that appointment, the tech said, "It's a good thing you don't want to know because the legs are crossed and I couldn't tell you anyways." So then of course I was dying to know. By the end of the appointment she had uncrossed her legs, and I just had to find out. Plus with a first baby, it was nice to be able to plan a few things girly.
This time around, there's not really any planning. All the nursery decor is gender neutral, and we have all sorts of clothing that would work for a girl or a boy. The only planning related thing I can think of is picking out the name, which we're already having some trouble with. I also enjoyed being able to think of Bridget as having an identity, not just being a sexless "it." But since I feel so strongly that it's a boy, I'm not having that issue this time around.
If you know me, you know that I've spoiled every surprise ever intended for me. I feel like I could go the distance and not find out, but I might slip at the appointment and find out anyways. Hopefully Husband can keep me in line.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Housing Update
Well, lots has changed since 5 hours ago. We're putting an offer in on a house.
It's not the same house as earlier today. There were a few issues with that house that we were waiting for answers on. The answers ended up not being in our favor. I felt kind of relieved, because I had started thinking about the runner-up place we saw last weekend. The more I thought about it, the more I kept thinking, "We could live here for a really long time."
This house has a great layout, lots of space, and a huge, flat gorgeous backyard. I can visualize little kids having fun there, me making music there, Husband having plenty of projects to work on (the right kind of projects - no work needs to be done, but we can always come up with updating projects down the road). There's plenty of space for a baby grand piano in the future (the dream lives on). We did a second walk through tonight, and were greeted by neighbors who made sure to tell us that their daughter is a great babysitter.
I drove us home listening to Husband's lengthy cell phone conversation with his mother. After they had discussed just about every aspect of the house, how expensive the market is, and how excited we were, I realized that the length of that conversation matches the length of time that he'll save on each trip to and from work. We could have family dinner at 6pm - 5:30 on some nights. There would be time for Husband to play with Bridget before bedtime. We could have conversations about how our days went in person.
At dinner tonight, I said out loud in a serious conversation, "What would we do with the extra bedroom?" We would have an extra bedroom.
We're meeting the realtor to put the offer in on Thursday, right after the ultrasound. It seems that Thursday is turning into a big day. I'll know by my birthday where I'll be spending Christmas this year.
So How Was Your Summer?
After numerous (well, three) requests to get some posting done around here...here you go!
I have lots of half written posts. They're all very exciting. Lots of storytelling, random facts about motherhood-related things. But probably the most pressing thing now is to tell you what I've been up to for the last three months. Of course, for those of you who actually know me (which just may be my whole audience), not much of this is new.
Baby B is no longer a baby. She is a full, very grown up, 15 and a half months old. She has finally had a well baby doctor's appointment where she was not at the bottom of the weight curve (we strive for average!), and she's one inch short of half my height. She took her first steps on Saturday, unassisted. She's strong and beautiful and shares her food with anyone nearby and will wipe your face with a napkin for you. She's happy and playful and likes the Teletubbies and says, "Hi Kitty," "Bye bye kitty," and today - "Hi Baby" - while pointing at my stomach. But wait, you say. Stomach is not baby. Which brings me to the next bit of news.
Yea, we're pregnant. Today marks the 20 week landmark, which is halfway to the due date (January 2). We are very excited, and I have not been nearly as sick this time around as I was last time. I've been more tired, but I expected to be - carrying around 22 pounds of baby in itself is quite tiring. We have an unltrasound on Thursday, and I'm going to try really hard (or maybe not that hard) to NOT find out the sex this time around. For the record, my gut says it's a boy. (Off the record, I'd like another girl!)
And, we might be moving. We've been wanting forever to get closer to Boston, and will need to be in a better school district within the next few years. We found a house that we love over the weekend, and are most likely putting in an offer this week. I won't get all excited with the details until I know what's going to happen, but I'll tell you: I love this house. It really feels like piannist's house. So we'll see. Buying this house would also mean that we really have to hurry up finishing the renovations on our current home. Ah, more stress. But more house! 20 miles closer! Fair trade.
August is National (or World?) Breastfeeding Awareness Month. Baby B has been on the boob her entire 472 days on the earth, and I have become a lactivist extraordinaire. I've been kind of quiet on the blog about this subject, but that will probably change since it is such a huge part of my life (and with #2 on the way). Breastfeeding has saved the B and me in more ways than one. I'll tell you all about it sometime.
Sometimes I don't post because I feel like my subject matter is all over the place. I mean, lately I want to talk about my family, my life as a mom, music, breastfeeding, things that get on my nerves, personal finance (still excited about this topic! and you thought it was a phase), and house hunting. I think that I'll try to post about whatever I want, with the understanding that if you don't want to read it, you'll quietly leave and wait for my next topic. That way, I can feel free to rant about whatever I want, and will have one less excuse to not post more than once every few months.
By the way, the new job is going well. Paychecks are especially welcome here.
And although Husband still prefers to remain anonymous, Baby B is requesting that her identity be known. So if you're ever in southern Massachusetts, stop by and say hi to Bridget. She'll share some french fries with you.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
I Got A(nother) Job!
Hooray! Not that I don't have plenty of jobs already, but only a few of them pay. I am the new personnel manager of one of the orchestras I perform with.
It's part-time, mostly working from home. Lots of emails and phone calls, booking musicians for concerts, rebooking when they cancel, making sure people show up, stuff like that. There will be a good chunk of work in the summer to get ready for the season. I can pretty much set my own hours, except for rehearsal and concert times that I'd been planning on being at anyways.
Not that I really enjoy any kind of work, but if I had to pick a part-time job that fits my life right now, that I could see myself at for awhile, this would be it.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Chomp Chomp
Those sleepless nights of teething pain have big rewards.
I'd like to welcome Baby B's teeth numbers 5, 6, 7, and 8. You heard right - we're doubling the amount of baby teeth around here. Number 5 came in strong yesterday, and 6, 7, and 8 are little bits that I spotted today. This means 6 on top, 2 on bottom. 4 teeth in 2 days. That's a lot of growing. That's some strong biting power.
Baby B is turning 1 on the 30th (Husband has a birthday on the same day, boy do I feel left out). I've been getting very nostalgic the last few weeks. The first half of the year went fairly slow, and the last 6 months have just breezed by. Baby B won't be a baby much longer. Toddler B maybe?
