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Moving is exhausting

November 1: we closed on our first house.

November 4: Start of an endless weekend: baby-less to prepare for the move (Ben had a sleepover and Granny’s). We decidedly to quickly vacuum and steam clean the carpets at the new house to get up some of that new-carpet fuzzies. Little did we know that new carpet really fuzzy. A 20 minute activity turned into 5 hours.

November 5: the quarter-hourly beeping of the dying batteries in the bazillion smoke detectors in the house were driving us crazy. So trip to Lowe’s to buy a ladder and batteries, as well as an additional bazillion CFLs. Bought the wrong ladder – not tall enough to reach the last smoke detector. The evil’s thing’s dying beeping turning into sinister laughter. Return trip to Lowe’s. Then trip to IKEA to decide on furniture, etc. to make tomorrow’s trip as quick as possible.

November 6: washer and dryer delivered. picked up U-Haul. drove to IKEA for the second time in as many days. get there, forget the list from yesterday. quick trip turned into 5+ hours. By the end of the night, we had most of our stuff moved in and half of the IKEA furniture built — I did not know the even IKEA couches come in boxes. We spent the first night in our first house.

November 7: I went to take my first shower in my first house and discovered that shower rods aren’t always included with the house. Who new! So I had to take a bath before work. Went to assemble the dining chairs and barstools, wrong color.

November 12: another trip to IKEA to get replacement barstools – sold out of our color. Instead spent the money on decor.

November 13 thru 18: spent even more money on decor in preparation for Ben’s first birthday party/our housewarming party. Y’all thought our apartment looked empty? Hah!

And the house still isn’t done, nor is the apartment, but we’re getting there.

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Ben learns to drive

While Blake was moving the carseat in his mom’s car to the forward-facing position, Ben was being such a wiggleworm that I just couldn’t hold him anymore. So I fastened him in the car… and he looks just like he’s driving.

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Ben meets — and attacks — his second counsin


At my counsin Jade’s 3rd birthday party a couple weeks ago, Ben got to come along to meet his second-counsin. My mom is holding Ben on the right and Jade is sitting in he babysitter (didn’t catch her name) on the left. Right after this photo was taken, Ben lunged at Jade, stuck his fingers in her mouth and made her cry. What a charming, well-mannered boy! Ben hasn’t had much interaction with other children… something we need to work on.

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We’re buying a house!

We’ve signed a contract on a 1,770-square foot house in Tavares. It has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a 2 car garage. It’s huge and I don’t know how we, as transient hobos, will be able to fill it, but IKEA will be very helpful. The photos below were taken during our home inspection (our realtor Debbie is  in a few as we’re waiting for the inspector to do his 3 hour business). We’re waiting to close – hopefully any day now, but by 11/8 at the latest. So this will be our first house as a family.

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Ben and his balloon

Yesterday Ben accompanied Blake and I to a charity bowling tournament event for a great organization called LovExtension (they provide home visits to seniors who have 4 or less family visits a year). After the event, they let us take home a couple heart-shaped balloons for Ben. He loved them! And due his great mascotting at the event, my org New Vision for Independence won a 2nd place trophy!

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Kids are like cats

Ben is a lot like a cat a lot of the time. They cry when they’re hungry. They cry when they need attention. They’re messy as hell. They get mad when you don’t clean up their toilet areas (diaper v. litter box) in a timely fashion. In this particular instance, he was following the Wii cursor on the screen like a cat would a laser pointer. Couldn’t help but video it. 🙂

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Ben learning to walk

Blake’s parents bought Ben a push cart from IKEA. We bought him something like that a few months ago but he doesn’t like ours nearly as much as his new one.