Time to move on...

...in more ways than one. The movers will be at our condo bright and early next Saturday to whisk us away to our temporary digs (hopefully very temporary). The following Monday, Miss Elaine will begin her transition from her beloved Koala room at daycare to the Chimp room down the hall. Time to leave the babies and start mingling with the toddlers!

We met with her new head teacher today and checked out the classroom. It's a bit on the snug side, but it does have windows that face the street. Lainey loves her people watching! Instead of a high chair, she'll sit on a tiny chair at a group table for meals; and instead of a crib, she'll sleep on a cot. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see this all transpire that first week (we'll be sticking to the high chair/crib situation at home). We're happy that one of Lainey's Koala teachers just switched to the Chimp room and  hoping this makes the move easier. Our girl has a bit of "stranger danger" these days. When the new teacher started in her classroom it took her four days to not scream and cry and cling to the other teachers when Ms. Tracy came in the room.

And I do hope the transition does go smoothly, because it's going to be a stressful week. On top of the move, I'll be working from 7:30am-8pm Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday (plus a commute to the 'burbs on two of those days.) So, Mark will basically be playing single parent for the week.

All-in-all we're happy she's making the move. She's bored with the babies and needs new stimulation. She's growing up and becoming her own little person, full of personality! But, the time is going too fast. It seems like just yesterday I was taking her little three-month-old self to CLP for the first time. Before I know it, she'll be getting on that school bus. Sniff, sniff!



Look out Chimps...there's a new boss in town!



The Family Dinner...Urban Myth?

Okay, help me out people. Give me some tips. How do I make a family dinner happen during the week? 'Cause it ain't happening around these parts.

At the very earliest, I get home with the Laineybug at 5:45pm, but usually closer to 6pm. If I really stretch her and she's in a particularly good mood, I can hold off feeding her until 6:30pm. Maybe, just maybe, that will be the one night of the week Mark makes it home before 7pm. So, you might be thinking, "hey, 30 minutes is enough to toss a quick meal together." And I agree. Except Lainey has mommy static cling in the evenings and that makes it hard to get much cooking accomplished. I know I could ignore her whines and tugs at my legs and force her to play on her own, but I don't want to. I'm gone from her all day, so if she wants to hang out and play or cuddle with her mom, then that's what we're gonna' do!

Of course play time means sacrifice at meal time. I'm thankful she gets a hot, balanced meal at daycare, because I'm usually throwing whatever I can make quickly with no real thought to a cohesive meal...some mixed veggies here, a slice of cheese there, a fruit cup to top things off. Still hungry? Uh, here have a peanut butter sandwich. She eats a lot of avocado and tofu, because they're easy to dice and toss on her tray before she has a total metldown. I'm feeding her nutritious stuff and try to hit multiple food groups--although I won't lie, there have been nights she's had just cheerios and milk for dinner--but I still feel bad that I haven't planned a "meal." (QUICK TIP: The Safeway brand of multi-grain Os actually have BETTER nutritionals than Cheerios--so go ahead, save a few bucks. But, I'll admit they don't taste as good.)

So, do I just have to make a choice? Either spend quality 1:1 time with Lainey after work or give up that time, so we can dine as a family? I know there's got to be a way to find a balance...I'm just struggling on how to get there.

Pool Time!

So, it only took us two months, but we FINALLY made it over to Holstein Pool on Sunday to give Elaine her first dip in a big pool. Looks like she's a water baby. She absolutely LOVED it! Not an ounce of trepidation or a single whine...except when it was time to leave. We tried taking her over to the baby wading pool for a bit, but she showed no interest and looked completely bored. So, back to the big pool we went. We pulled her around by her arms and let her kick her little legs. She looked ready to take off and do a few laps on her own!

The weather was perfect, the water was warm, and the pool was crowded. It was so nice to have a few hours of relaxing together as a family! Much needed fun for us all.

She doesn't have a silver spoon, but...

...she likes her purple plastic one just fine! We've been working on using a spoon for about a month, but Elaine's really starting to get the hang of it. She did great with her oatmeal and yogurt tonight--she ate almost the whole bowl on her own! Until about a week ago, we couldn't get her to take more than two bites before reaching into the bowl with her hand. (As you can imagine, oatmeal and yogurt don't make great finger foods, but I was always impressed by how much she managed to get in her mouth.) We still have a way to go before she meets Miss Manners' standards for table etiquette, but we're on the right track!

These are from a few weeks back. You can see the progression from spoon to hand...
and perhaps understand why I don't even bother with a bib.

Holding Pattern

I know people are dying for an update on the housing situation. Unfortunately, I don’t really have one. The good news:  looks like the sale will go through okay. We came to terms on the final contract and the buyer paid the rest of the earnest money yesterday, so that means our appraisal came back okay. Whew!  The bad news:  we’re not much closer on finding a place to live by the end of the month.

The house hunting on Sunday went okay. The last house we saw was in Edgebrook. It was soooooooo close to being perfect! But, not close enough to make an offer. There’s no master bath, which isn’t a deal breaker per se, but the shared bath is really tiny. The house does have the potential to add an addition to the second floor, but who knows how much that would cost…

We’re off to see an apartment tonight, and I’m crossing my fingers we like it, can get a lease signed, and be done. That would take A LOT of stress off the situation. We’ve decided to look at one-year leases that will allow us the option to sublet. Our realtor has advised that there won’t be a ton of inventory coming on the market between now and next year, so we don’t want to run the risk of a short-term sublet running out on us and then having to pick-up and move to a second rental. It’s a risk (what if we can’t find people to sublet when we need them), but I think it’s the most stable option. Plus, rent is MUCH cheaper for one-year leases.

On top our housing stresses, Lainey came down with a viral something or other this week. She was sent home from daycare on Monday morning with a fever.  We had to keep her home Tuesday and Wednesday and hire a temp nanny, because neither Mark nor I could miss any work this week.  So, by paying the nanny (and of course still paying the daycare tuition), I actually paid to work the last two days. Not to mention, I just feel crappy about leaving Lainey with a stranger when she’s sick and needs her mommy the most. Poor thing isn’t sleeping either…poor mom and dad have been averaging about four hours of sleep the last four nights. Crossing my fingers that she’ll be back on track tonight!

Pending and Perturbed

I know I have been absent for the blog for quite sometime, but we've had a busy few weeks.

• Visit from Dad to celebrate Lainey's birthday (and to finally get his Segway tour--I have to admit I had a lot of fun, even wearing the dorky day-glo vest)
• Travel to Moline to celebrate our nephew Ben's birthday (and Lainey's for the second time--but WITH cake!)
• Hectic work schedules and closed daycare on July 5 & 6
• Our annual Pitchfork Festival outing (big shout out to Frank and Lonnie for watching Lainey for two days!)
• Various other social engagments
• Oh yeah, and we accepted an offer on the condo...

Which we're happy about, but has sent us into a stressed-out tailspin. We're still under attorney review and are haggling over some requested buyer credits, so it's not a done deal, but we're hopeful it moves forward. We really, really want it to move forward.

One little problem...where the heck are we gonna' live? If we'd gotten this offer even three weeks earlier, there were several properties out there we were interested in seeing. Now, not so much. It seems everything has been snatched up. So, we've hit the ground looking for short-term rentals or sublets, which are WAY pricier than I had assumed they'd be. Poor research on our part, I guess. We viewed a few places last weekend and found one that would be doable short-term and not blow our budget. But, we can't sign a lease until we get out through the lawyer review and settle on all the terms. Right now, this guy could still walk.

We're hitting the real estate listings hard this weekend with scheduled stops in Andersonville, Evanston, and Edgebrook/Sauganash, which, hello!, I had NO idea about this area and am pretty pumped to check it out. It's still a Chicago zip code, the schools are great, and the houses look awesome and are very much in our price range. There would be some definite trade-offs, but good public schools and beautiful yards may be worth it.

Keep your fingers crossed for us! (And maybe your spare rooms open...we could be homeless on August 29!)

Let Her Eat Cake!!!

So, it had to wait a few days until her tummy recovered, but Elaine finally got her birthday cake this weekend! It was worth the wait...