The title of this post describes how pretty much everything in my life has been left over the past week - save for, of course, my lovely sweet daughter and all things real estate.
Our beautiful new place is no longer that: Ours. At least for now. We had a very slight problem with our little financing plan and as such, we've had to hurry up and list our current place for sale in hopes that we make a quick sale for the price we need. Then, if all goes as hoped, we will rush back and put in our offer again (provided the new place is still available) - this time in cash.
This is a better (and by far a financially safer) plan but time is certainly of the essence. And holy moly have I risen to the occasion. I guess it's partly because I am no longer working and I'm enjoying this little challenge on some level. And it's also because I really want to get that new townhome. But let me just tell you: We found out about the financing issues on Wednesday night, I met with our realtor and listed our place on Thursday night, had our home clean and staged on Friday and held an open house on Saturday and three private showings since. I am on FIRE! I've got another showing tomorrow and again on Tuesday. So fingers crossed that we get an offer really, really soon, and in time to snap up that beautiful townhome -- again. *Sigh*
In other news, Maya is FIVE months old now and to celebrate, the era of baby babble has officially begun. She loves to say da-da-da-da and ba-ba-ba-ba and bwa-bwa-bwa-bwa. It's so funny because she makes really elaborate facial expressions when she does it. It's ooohhhh so cute.
Maya's also obsessed with drinking from a glass. A glass! Seriously!! It all started a couple of days ago, I was drinking a glass of water and she kept grabbing for it. So I let her hold it and the minute she got her cubby little paws around it she put the rim up to her lips, tilted her head back and started trying to drink. So I slowly poured some water in. Just a little bit. She made a weird face because I think it felt strange to have something cold in her mouth. And then...she wanted to do it again! And ever since, no glass is safe around my kid. She just wants to drink like a big girl so bad. So that settles it, I'm going to buy Maya her very own cup...AND perhaps this means that the little baby girl who won't take a bottle might just take a CUP instead!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
yup, even more photos of the new place - last time i promise
linen closets
looking downstairs to the entrance
front porch - the window looks in on the living room
looking from the master bedroom, past the his and hers walk through closets and into the master bathroom
TWO sinks in the master bath! Ah heaven! No more fighting for space in the loo. I've longed for two sinks since the day I got married...
more photos of the new place
master bedroom - looking out onto the balcony off the master bedroom (ignore the box and junk left out there by the builders...)
fireplace
view from the front porch
kitchen island
another view of the kitchen - that stainless steel drawer you see is the dishwasher
More photos to come - must go for now - baby stirs...
Sunday, January 18, 2009
a new home!
My little family had a really big day today. But I'll get to that in a minute.
D and I, as you may recall, were considering a big move a couple of months ago. We were torn between moving out to the country or staying put in the city. Well, during the seriously treacherous and unusually snowy December we just had, we realized that we are just not country folks, nor are we meant for country living. It was fun to consider for a while, but we're happy in the city. And if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
That's not to say that city living doesn't have it's problems with regard to raising a kid. But I guess we'll just have to deal with those issues as they come up. The bottom line is that we don't want to own a car, we don't want to be responsible for the care and maintenance of a house, and we don't want to be away from all the city conveniences and amenities that we've come to totally depend on.
The main draw for considering a move to the country was the fact that I am not working any more, and I don't plan to be working again anytime soon. Which means that poor D is saddled with the entire financial load for this family. The mortgage on our place was a lot for him to bear and he wanted to be able to work less and spend more time with Maya. We wanted to downsize to a less expensive place, and we thought that meant moving out of the city.
But we were wrong. We've been eyeing a great little townhouse a few blocks away for months now. We found out the selling price dropped after the new year and after running the numbers, we realized that we could cut our mortgage in half if we bought it. So we did. Today. Just now. We bought a new home!
It's smack dab in the middle of the best part of the city, right in a heritage district neighbourhood. It's just the right size for our little family - 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, plus a den and a little office. Not only are there awesome boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants, and everything else right we could possibly want right outside our door, but the best part is that my husband's job is quite literally across the street. I am not exaggerating when I say he could walk to work in under 60 seconds. Which means, he can come home for lunch and spend more time with us in general. We love that. And we love our new place! Can you tell I'm super excited?
I took a bunch of photos on my iPhone today - the quality is not great. But here are some pics of our cool new pad:
the front
kitchen
kitchen
view from Maya's bedroom
front loading washer and dryer - yeah baby
I've got a ton more pictures to show you but it's bedtime and my head is swimming. More later I promise.
D and I, as you may recall, were considering a big move a couple of months ago. We were torn between moving out to the country or staying put in the city. Well, during the seriously treacherous and unusually snowy December we just had, we realized that we are just not country folks, nor are we meant for country living. It was fun to consider for a while, but we're happy in the city. And if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
That's not to say that city living doesn't have it's problems with regard to raising a kid. But I guess we'll just have to deal with those issues as they come up. The bottom line is that we don't want to own a car, we don't want to be responsible for the care and maintenance of a house, and we don't want to be away from all the city conveniences and amenities that we've come to totally depend on.
The main draw for considering a move to the country was the fact that I am not working any more, and I don't plan to be working again anytime soon. Which means that poor D is saddled with the entire financial load for this family. The mortgage on our place was a lot for him to bear and he wanted to be able to work less and spend more time with Maya. We wanted to downsize to a less expensive place, and we thought that meant moving out of the city.
But we were wrong. We've been eyeing a great little townhouse a few blocks away for months now. We found out the selling price dropped after the new year and after running the numbers, we realized that we could cut our mortgage in half if we bought it. So we did. Today. Just now. We bought a new home!
It's smack dab in the middle of the best part of the city, right in a heritage district neighbourhood. It's just the right size for our little family - 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, plus a den and a little office. Not only are there awesome boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants, and everything else right we could possibly want right outside our door, but the best part is that my husband's job is quite literally across the street. I am not exaggerating when I say he could walk to work in under 60 seconds. Which means, he can come home for lunch and spend more time with us in general. We love that. And we love our new place! Can you tell I'm super excited?
I took a bunch of photos on my iPhone today - the quality is not great. But here are some pics of our cool new pad:
the front
kitchen
kitchen
view from Maya's bedroom
front loading washer and dryer - yeah baby
I've got a ton more pictures to show you but it's bedtime and my head is swimming. More later I promise.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
smell it like it is
The whole family is currently sick. We picked up some kind of yuck recently and we're all plagued with a sore throat / coughing / flu kind of thing. It's been a milestone of sorts, as it's Maya's first cold. She's handled it like a trooper though. Other than wincing when she sneezes (I think it kind of hurts when she does) and a mild bout of green poo, she's been managing pretty well.
I have felt really, really tired and just totally run down in general. My throat hurts, my head hurts and my nose is running like a faucet. At times like these, oh how I miss my old friend NyQuil. But NyQuil's not a friend of breastfeeding so I just gotta tough it out. But that hasn't stopped me from jealously eyeing the lovely green bottle I picked up for my sick hubby this afternoon. Love the 'Quil.
I would at this time like to voice my displeasure with Pampers diapers. As mentioned in a couple of earlier posts, we are a very loyal gDiapers clan. However, they're really expensive if you buy them here in Canada so we order them directly from the company in the states. Sadly, we are fresh out of diapers and our order has not yet arrived; so I bit the bullet today and went and bought some regular disposables to tide us over.
I chose Pampers because I remembered that, unlike Huggies, they don't have those awful sticky tabs that always seemed to stick to poor Maya's tummy when I'd change her (before we started with the gDiapers). Didn't like that. So a big bag of Pampers came home with me and it wasn't until I got the bag open that I realized that they are...shudder...scented. A horrible baby powder scent at that. Yuck.
IF I WANT MY BABY TO BE SCENTED I WILL SCENT HER MYSELF.
Uh-oh, watch out, here comes the rant:
What's worse is that nowhere on the package does it mentioned that they are scented. Are all diapers scented now? Is it just a given that they are scented after you get to a certain size diaper? What's the deal? (We are in size 3 btw)
I just had to vent that. I'm about to get kinda crunchy granola on my organic soapbox here. I just feel that there are already so many dyes, perfumes, fillers and chemicals that are nearly impossible to avoid in the land of all things baby-related, it would just be great if there was, at the very least, some clear labeling that would allow the consumer to make an informed choice about what they're buying.
It's not like baby powder scent is a necessary thing to make a diaper work, for goodness sake. And baby poo isn't that bad anyway. I'd much rather have Maya smell like Maya, for better or for worse, and change her diaper when it needs to be changed. I don't need any help from fake perfume to make the process more enjoyable thankyouverymuch. It's bad enough that all these disposable diapers are going to end up in a landfill anyway, but now they'll be extra-fake-sweet-smelling all perfumed up to boot.
Okay, I'm done.
I have felt really, really tired and just totally run down in general. My throat hurts, my head hurts and my nose is running like a faucet. At times like these, oh how I miss my old friend NyQuil. But NyQuil's not a friend of breastfeeding so I just gotta tough it out. But that hasn't stopped me from jealously eyeing the lovely green bottle I picked up for my sick hubby this afternoon. Love the 'Quil.
I would at this time like to voice my displeasure with Pampers diapers. As mentioned in a couple of earlier posts, we are a very loyal gDiapers clan. However, they're really expensive if you buy them here in Canada so we order them directly from the company in the states. Sadly, we are fresh out of diapers and our order has not yet arrived; so I bit the bullet today and went and bought some regular disposables to tide us over.
I chose Pampers because I remembered that, unlike Huggies, they don't have those awful sticky tabs that always seemed to stick to poor Maya's tummy when I'd change her (before we started with the gDiapers). Didn't like that. So a big bag of Pampers came home with me and it wasn't until I got the bag open that I realized that they are...shudder...scented. A horrible baby powder scent at that. Yuck.
IF I WANT MY BABY TO BE SCENTED I WILL SCENT HER MYSELF.
Uh-oh, watch out, here comes the rant:
What's worse is that nowhere on the package does it mentioned that they are scented. Are all diapers scented now? Is it just a given that they are scented after you get to a certain size diaper? What's the deal? (We are in size 3 btw)
I just had to vent that. I'm about to get kinda crunchy granola on my organic soapbox here. I just feel that there are already so many dyes, perfumes, fillers and chemicals that are nearly impossible to avoid in the land of all things baby-related, it would just be great if there was, at the very least, some clear labeling that would allow the consumer to make an informed choice about what they're buying.
It's not like baby powder scent is a necessary thing to make a diaper work, for goodness sake. And baby poo isn't that bad anyway. I'd much rather have Maya smell like Maya, for better or for worse, and change her diaper when it needs to be changed. I don't need any help from fake perfume to make the process more enjoyable thankyouverymuch. It's bad enough that all these disposable diapers are going to end up in a landfill anyway, but now they'll be extra-fake-sweet-smelling all perfumed up to boot.
Okay, I'm done.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
babies are people too
...And they have feelings, and do not like to be treated like pincushions. Which is probably why my sweet baby screamed her head off at the mere sight of the doctor today. She turned herself bright red and absolutely wailed before the doctor even did anything. Which is so incredibly strange because honestly, Maya's not a crier. She maybe cries for 5 minutes once a week, if that.
The doctor came in and just smiled at her and just that was enough to send poor Maya into hysterics. I really don't understand what happened. The doctor had barely even said hello to us. Maya was smiling and giggling one minute and when the doctor approached, all of the sudden she was lobster-faced and absolutely losing her shit. So unlike her.
Her four-month exam was hurried, due to the wailing, and when it came time for the vaccinations, Maya turned it up a notch. To eleven, actually. I had honestly never heard her make sounds like that. It was like a suffering type of cry, and it was awful. She was so upset, in fact, that she didn't even want to feed afterwards. Again, so unlike her. One interesting tidbit did come out of today's exam though: Maya is in the 75th percentile for height and 85th percentile for weight. Yup, we sure do grow 'em big here in Canada!
I handled myself much better than last time (if you recall, at the two-month appointment, I cried as hard as Maya did), and I think it was because I knew what to expect. But my poor little girl sure screamed, harder and more desperately than I've ever heard. My heart just broke.
Luckily, by the time we got home, baby girl seemed to have forgotten the whole ordeal. She was happy and smiling and shouting at her toys for the remainder of the evening. Thank goodness. She was exhausted by the time bedtime rolled around, and she passed right out. What a big day she had. She is still on "fever watch" and will be until about 3pm Friday. So far so good, though.
In other news, we had a big whopper of a milestone at our house yesterday -- Maya rolled over for the first time! And she's done it a total of THREE times so far! Today, rolling over. Tomorrow, driver's license. She's growing up so fast!
The doctor came in and just smiled at her and just that was enough to send poor Maya into hysterics. I really don't understand what happened. The doctor had barely even said hello to us. Maya was smiling and giggling one minute and when the doctor approached, all of the sudden she was lobster-faced and absolutely losing her shit. So unlike her.
Her four-month exam was hurried, due to the wailing, and when it came time for the vaccinations, Maya turned it up a notch. To eleven, actually. I had honestly never heard her make sounds like that. It was like a suffering type of cry, and it was awful. She was so upset, in fact, that she didn't even want to feed afterwards. Again, so unlike her. One interesting tidbit did come out of today's exam though: Maya is in the 75th percentile for height and 85th percentile for weight. Yup, we sure do grow 'em big here in Canada!
I handled myself much better than last time (if you recall, at the two-month appointment, I cried as hard as Maya did), and I think it was because I knew what to expect. But my poor little girl sure screamed, harder and more desperately than I've ever heard. My heart just broke.
Luckily, by the time we got home, baby girl seemed to have forgotten the whole ordeal. She was happy and smiling and shouting at her toys for the remainder of the evening. Thank goodness. She was exhausted by the time bedtime rolled around, and she passed right out. What a big day she had. She is still on "fever watch" and will be until about 3pm Friday. So far so good, though.
In other news, we had a big whopper of a milestone at our house yesterday -- Maya rolled over for the first time! And she's done it a total of THREE times so far! Today, rolling over. Tomorrow, driver's license. She's growing up so fast!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
back to real life
D goes back to work tomorrow and the lovely extra set of hands I've come to find so helpful go with him, I'm afraid. It's been so nice having him home over these last two weeks.
So far my New Year's resolutions have been going strong, of course it has only been five days. But can I just say: I would love to get down and dirty with some of that leftover Christmas chocolate hanging out in the fridge right now. Ah well, probably has dairy in it anyway. I shall remain content with my cup of decaffinated green tea. This kind of restraint should be grounds for sainthood.
Maya was really hard to put to bed this evening. She just wouldn't fall asleep despite polishing off two full boobs and being rocked softly in the glider with mummy for nearly two full hours. I finally just laid Princess Sleepyhead down in her crib and presto! asleep within minutes. Kinda wish I'd done that earlier!
Maya is growing so fast. Even her little feet look bigger to me today.
I want to post a picture of said feet I took earlier today but alas I am posting this from my iPhone and I just don't think I can post a picture this way. I'll owe ya.
Better head to bed myself now. Another big day of child-rearing lays before me tomorrow. And I'm loving every second of it!
'Night all.
So far my New Year's resolutions have been going strong, of course it has only been five days. But can I just say: I would love to get down and dirty with some of that leftover Christmas chocolate hanging out in the fridge right now. Ah well, probably has dairy in it anyway. I shall remain content with my cup of decaffinated green tea. This kind of restraint should be grounds for sainthood.
Maya was really hard to put to bed this evening. She just wouldn't fall asleep despite polishing off two full boobs and being rocked softly in the glider with mummy for nearly two full hours. I finally just laid Princess Sleepyhead down in her crib and presto! asleep within minutes. Kinda wish I'd done that earlier!
Maya is growing so fast. Even her little feet look bigger to me today.
I want to post a picture of said feet I took earlier today but alas I am posting this from my iPhone and I just don't think I can post a picture this way. I'll owe ya.
Better head to bed myself now. Another big day of child-rearing lays before me tomorrow. And I'm loving every second of it!
'Night all.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
screaming & raspberries
Maya's two new skills.
Just in the last 48 hours, Maya has learned to scream at the top of her lungs and blow giant, spitty raspberries. We're so proud!
The screaming thing came along quite suddenly. D and I were eating dinner and Maya was getting impatient with us not paying her our full attention. She whined, she coughed (do other babies know how to cough to get attention or just ours?), she pretended to start crying and when nothing elicited the attention she wanted, she screamed. Really loudly. Upon realizing that this loud new sound came from her own mouth, Maya looked completely shocked and then smiled from ear to ear. So proud.
And for the rest of the evening, we were treated to a serenade of silly, happy screaming that had D and I laughing so hard. Ladies and gentlemen, my daughter has officially found her voice.
Blowing raspberries started suddenly too. Out of the blue yesterday, she just started doing them. And now it's like she's always been doing them. In fact, I'd go as far as to say she is a raspberry expert now. It's very cute.
---
In other news, this Wednesday is Maya's 4-month doctor's appointment, at which she will have her second round of vaccines. I am so not looking forward to it, especially considering how traumatic the first round at two months was. Does this ever get any easier? I am really dreading it. Thank goodness D is coming with us. I'd no doubt fall apart on my own.
Maya's been sleeping a lot more over the last couple of days. I think she's having a growth spurt. Either that, or all the screaming and raspberries are really taking it out of her!
Just in the last 48 hours, Maya has learned to scream at the top of her lungs and blow giant, spitty raspberries. We're so proud!
The screaming thing came along quite suddenly. D and I were eating dinner and Maya was getting impatient with us not paying her our full attention. She whined, she coughed (do other babies know how to cough to get attention or just ours?), she pretended to start crying and when nothing elicited the attention she wanted, she screamed. Really loudly. Upon realizing that this loud new sound came from her own mouth, Maya looked completely shocked and then smiled from ear to ear. So proud.
And for the rest of the evening, we were treated to a serenade of silly, happy screaming that had D and I laughing so hard. Ladies and gentlemen, my daughter has officially found her voice.
Blowing raspberries started suddenly too. Out of the blue yesterday, she just started doing them. And now it's like she's always been doing them. In fact, I'd go as far as to say she is a raspberry expert now. It's very cute.
---
In other news, this Wednesday is Maya's 4-month doctor's appointment, at which she will have her second round of vaccines. I am so not looking forward to it, especially considering how traumatic the first round at two months was. Does this ever get any easier? I am really dreading it. Thank goodness D is coming with us. I'd no doubt fall apart on my own.
Maya's been sleeping a lot more over the last couple of days. I think she's having a growth spurt. Either that, or all the screaming and raspberries are really taking it out of her!
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