Moving on up...

NOT to the East Side, but rather, four streets over.

This is our new house.  I've tried to not talk about it very much, because I'm the kind of person that doesn't believe something until it is actually happening.  I didn't want to get too excited about it in case something in the wild world out there kept it from coming to fruition.  But this is it.  This is going to be our house.  This week.  (I'm still not sure if we'll close tomorrow afternoon or Thursday or Friday, but that is neither here nor there.)

We're moving!  The house is in the same neighborhood, so that should make the actual move just a tad bit easier.  Our current house is a good house, but we've outgrown it.  We're moving from a 3/2.5 to a 4/3 - having a guest room/office is a big deal to me, especially when you half of your family lives in another town and you enjoy having friends visit, too.  This house is going to be our forever house - after all of the hassle we've been through to buy it, I'm not ever planning on moving again!

Plus, I love it.  I'm excited at the thought of our kids growing up in this house.  As a former Army brat, I've always been fascinated by people who grew up in the same town accumulating memories with, give or take, the same group of friends until they left for college.  I thoroughly enjoyed moving and constantly meeting new people, but I'm ready to give my kids a go at a different way of life.  Ahh, that could make for an entirely new blog post, or book, really, but we'll leave it at that...for now! ;)

If you have any interest in viewing the collection of pictures I took today, click here. Look to the captions for explanations.  (I have since added the backyard pics to the collection since I published this post last night.  Don't know how I left 'em out as those were the only pictures I was able to take weeks ago!)

A warning - these were taken mainly for my reference, so they are not very pretty shots.  I regret not taking "before" pictures of our current house prior to any of the changes we made to it, and I don't want to make that mistake again.  Plus, I was able to find the answer of one of my most pertinent question following today's tour...just how many cabinet handles will I need to replace in various rooms?  Kitchen cabinets - 50.  Yikes.  Kitchen desk - 4. Living room cabinets - 12.  Bathrooms - double yikes.  Yeah, we'll start with the desk and living room cabinets...

The Great Pacifier Purge of 2010

Well, we're finally here.  I finally decided to make a go of Harper giving up her pacifier, or "pass" as she so lovingly refers to it.  Ditching the pass has been on my to-do list for the past several weeks, but I hadn't come to the right moment until last night.  Jeff wasn't going to be home, and I thought it might be easier if only one of us had to listen to her protests.  Plus, we were down to one last pacifier, and I had no idea where in the hell it ended up after her nap.

So, I put her down to bed last night without her pacifier.  She seemed confused at first, wondering why her silly mommy had forgotten that most important bedtime fixture.  Then she became upset.  She cried.  I tried to comfort her and explain that the pacifiers were gone because she had thrown them in the trash (true story).  She even asked to look in her bucket for proof, as if I had mistakenly overlooked one last silicon savior.

"No pass?," she asked?    I tried to give her the old "you're a big girl" pep talk, but that didn't go far.  After about 45 minutes of crying off and on, she feel asleep.  All in all, it didn't seem too bad from my end.

She made it through her first night, but lemme tell ya, the pacifier was on the front of her mind all day long.  It was the first thing she asked me about this morning.  She pointed out every single baby and pacifier as we were out running errands this evening.  She seemed particularly suspicious of a little boy sweetly slumbering in his stroller, sucking ever so softly on his pacifier.  He was bigger than Harper, so maybe that was what threw her off.  Either that or she didn't care for his romper outfit.  Who knows?!

Her afternoon nap went off without a hitch sans pacifier.  I was really getting excited at that point.  Maybe I got a little ahead of myself as I thought how well Harper seemed to be transitioning.  Yeah, I definitely got ahead of myself on that one!

Tonight has been a nightmare.  We put Harper to bed nearly two hours ago.  She is still vehemently crying in front of her bedroom door.  If she was upset about the pacifier last night, then she is downright pissed off about it tonight.  Even so, I am sticking to my guns.  No pacifier.  We will make it - well, I hope we will!  Jeff and I may kill each other in the process, and leave Harper to live a happy parent- and pacifier-free life for the rest of her years.

I have heard of a three-day rule for breaking habits such as this one, and I'm really hoping for a clean break after tomorrow.  Harper is strong-willed, to say the least, so there is really no telling how long this will take!  At least I know if I can't sleep, I can pack.  Looks like we're moving at the end of this week!

See, there is a method to my madness.  Ditch the pacifiers now, and that's one less thing we have to move!

Oh, and I did find the last remaining pacifier.  I instinctively put it on the butter shelf in the refrigerator.  (I have no idea what led me to that decision, so don't ask.)  Kinda reminds me of a fire alarm behind a glass case!  I think I'm going to toss it in the trash now, too.  Seems like the right thing to do - and that is only easy to say at this moment because it sounds like Harper has finally given up her fight for the night.

Sleep tight, all, and don't let the pacifier bite you in the ass! ;)

Weeks & Months

I never know the answer when someone asks me how far along I am into this pregnancy.  Oh, I can tell you the number of weeks, but months?  Forget about it!  It usually ends up in a conversation about how "they" tell you pregnancies last for nine months, but it really seems more like ten.  Regardless, it's a looooooong time!  So, anyhoo, if you want weeks, you got 'em!  We're fast approaching 24 weeks on Friday, which looks a little something like this:

I couldn't remember what my pregnancy with Harper looked like, so I had to dig through the ol' blog archive to find the following photo.  Looks like I'm about par for the course...

And just for kicks - here is the finished product! This is me (and HP!) at 39 weeks and 5 days - the night before I was induced.  Little did we know then what we were getting ourselves into! ;)

We've got waaaaays to go!  Whew!