A new door opens

We made it!!

We successfully moved a 3 bedroom, 2 and 1/2 bath home, with a basement, shed and lots of storage into a 2 bedroom 2 bath, no basement, one car garage rental in under 4 hours!

Last week is already a blur to me but I do remember on Wednesday my sitter and I hauling soo many things into the rental that I thought my arms were going to fall off.

I was sick on Thanksgiving day and it remains a mystery if it was allergies or if my mom's secret syrup (pickle juice, garlic, onion, etc.) cured me but I was all better by Friday to move more things with R and Saturday to supervise for the big move.

Thursday we wanted to forget about the move and enjoy the holiday. The day started with watching the Macy's Parade. Daniel enjoyed the Yo Gabba Gabba characters singing and dancing.

After a quick visit from Grandma and Grandpa M we were off to my mom's for dinner. Before we left we tried to take some pics in our old house but making a 19 month old smile and cooperate is a battle.

Our last family picture at our old house.

We stuffed our faces with a very delicious turkey.

This child ate so much I thought he was going to explode. He ate EVERYTHING on the menu including the stuffing.
but he worked off the calories chasing after my sister's dog. I see a puppy in his future. He just squeals with delight as soon as he sees him. Kuba loves chasing after D too and licking his ears.

Can you tell that his two older cousins just love the company of a toddler?
Saturday the move went well. No tears were shed. The house is ready for the new home owners. I bought the couple a congrats card and left them a bottle of champagne. I couldn't help myself especially since they will be walking into a house with a broken dishwasher AND oven! The good person that I am I turned on the self clean cycle on the oven and the darn digital display must have melted away because everything shut down and the door remains closed. Thank God for home owners insurance that we purchased. Again being the good person I am we will pay the deductible of $75 and hope it will be fixed for them.

The movers were worth every penny and we loved them and are planning to hire them again for our "real" move. We also loved them because they smelled the gas leak we discovered right outside our window. Nicor came out quickly and fixed it. Never a dull moment!

Daniel is enjoying the new house. He hasn't really played with any of his toys because he is just fascinated by the new rooms and features of the house such as the...

old laundry basket he pushes all around the house. He does lock himself constantly in the bathrooms and then yells for help.

I wanted to make sure to decorate his new room as close as possible to the old room.

Pretty good, huh?

Our new living room

and kitchen

Can you tell we've been eating a lot of take out? The other rooms are in no shape to take pics of, the garage is packed to the ceiling and door but we hope it's all worth it in the end.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

We are on a search for our new home and hope next year we'll have a family picture in our new house and a bird on the table.

Outsourcing AND blogging break

Aside from more packing and planning out this crazy upcoming week nothing really has been going on if you consider nothing closing on our house on Friday and signing our lease on "purple lady" the same evening.
As I planned the week out I realized there is only 5 days remaining before our big move and I needed help, help with getting "purple lady" up to my standards of cleanliness. Anyone that knows me knows that I can be anal about a clean house and although "purple lady" is temporary it will be our home and it must be clean. My co-workers convinced me to get a cleaning lady for the rental so that I wouldn't waste a vacation day scrubbing and cleaning and I agreed completely. Not only will I not have to wear rubber gloves and smell like bleach but I'm helping someone else at the same time to earn a few bucks.
Aside from leaving the rental in not so great condition and 2 broken toilets in the back yard the house looked decent.
I'll be taking a blogging break all week but next week I'll post pictures of our crib.
WISH ME LUCK!
Oh and Daniel said "dada". I can die now! I'll be reminding him who gave birth to him until he makes it up to me.
He tends to say "dada" when Ryan offers him a chip and asks him "who am I?" before giving him the chip. Evil!

Roles Defined

When you become a parent of a boy or girl somehow your role in their life is pretty much defined without reading too many text books on the topic.

Boys will be boys

and girls will always try to make their man love the arts.

These moments are a good distraction for me from the usual packing, taping and labeling that I have been doing around here.

We found a rental and we'll be moving next Saturday!

I'll be taking a blogging break next week to clean and move our stuff into the new house I am now calling "Purple Lady". Why you ask? Well, the exterior of the house we are renting is a fine shade of not one but two purple colors! It's only temporary, it's only temporary....

P.S. Update on the X-Mas pics some of you emailed me about feeling sorry for me---we have a X-Mas card!! Daniel did much better the following day!

Take number 9999999

Today we ventured out to take the dreaded professional X-Mas pics at the mall! They were running about 20 minutes behind, as usual.

We always have a vision of Daniel sitting on a little couch with his legs properly crossed, holding a beautiful ornament, with a sparking X-mas tree behind him and his face beaming with delight that X-Mas is almost here. I envision everyone opening a card from the Marron's and thinking "what a cute boy and look how he poses, he's so well mannered".

All I have to say to that is "It ain't gonna happen this year"!!!!!

Daniel would not sit, pose, smile or do anything the photographer wanted him to do. I left sweating (just like from his 1 year photos) with not even ONE picture to purchase. I had a coupon for 50% off!!!!!!!!!! Doesn't he realize what a great deal that is?

I tried even posing him by trees in front of Macy's thinking it's less pressure on him. The bottom line is he just wants to do what he wants to do.

Let me leave with this...if the photos below are of him AFTER the session with no pressure, what do you think happened during the actual session? Pure ugliness. Bahumba!

"Thank God that's over"

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"Look where?"

To be continued....

Looooong post/Weekend recap

Yesterday D and I went to my sister's because the day before I forgot my cell phone. D had a great time with his cousins but mostly with the dog!
Here he is with his cousin Lexi.
A family photo

Here he is running after Kuba. Daniel walked him on his leash but I left the camera in the car and by the time I got it he didn't want to hold the leash. It was hilarious and he was laughing so hard until the dog yanked on the leash and D fell.

Playing some ball with cousin Chris.

Family fun

Mommy trying to pose D for a cute fall pic, D wasn't interested.

"Wait you go in the bushes AND lift your leg up?" Hmmmm. Actually Daniel did go on the potty for the first time on Saturday. He went pee pee!!!! I don't think he gets it at all but the fact that he sat on his potty for more than 10 seconds is a first. We'll take it.

"Me and my best friend"

Saturday we went to D's morning class. He was BAD! He didn't want to share.

He threw a fit during circle time!And wanted to do his own thing. He had another boy join him. Leaders not followers, I guess.
He wanted nothing to do with craft time. Daddy had to do it for him. It was just down right embarrassing! Until it was open gym time and he went wild.

After all that fun, I finally packed a few boxes and took them over to my mom's. These are boxes with my China in them. I took all the pics off the walls and the house is looking emptier.

We went to look at a few rentals yesterday and all I have to say to anyone that is trying to flip a house is "PUT IN A TUB IN AT LEAST ONE BATHROOM!!". 2 rentals did not have a tub in them. 2 full bathrooms and not one tub! How am I supposed to give a toddler a bath?! One rental that we thought was a done deal last week just went under contract. This adds to the stress we're already under BUT it will work out, we just know it. If my in-laws are reading this they will start to worry about it all so I'm sure I will get a call from them. I'm right aren't I mom and dad? They have lived in the same house for 30 years so moving to them is more traumatic than to me as I have moved multiple times. We love you guys but once again WE'LL BE FINE!!! :)

Speaking of great in-laws how cute is the little Halloween house that my MIL made with D last week! He keeps trying to take the pretzels off the roof! Great job you two!

Procrastination

Instead of packing, which is what I should be doing as we need to be out of this house in 3 weeks, I spend my evenings doing more important things, like hanging out with the cutest little man around.
He's been waking up during the night and wanting to sleep in our bed since he got used to that when he was sick, so I've been exhausted, but when I get home I can't help but put on some good music and just hang out.
I've been bringing boxes from work to start packing but they are just piling up in the garage. We haven't found a house so we are searching for a decent temporary rental in hopes that our dream home out there is just waiting for us. I've been praying for that and have faith that by being patient I will be rewarded with a great house.
Tonight I spent a quiet evening with this little guy while daddy is away on business.
Playing in the family room with his helicopter.
Dancing it up in the kitchen.
I hope this little guy doesn't find the transition too hard!