So, it's been a while...

I didn't anticipate taking a hiatus from blogging this long, but one thing turned into another and now it's been well over a week... and my head's just spinning trying to think of all that's happened. We've have two months of generally nothing going on (just same old, same old)... with living in someone else's house and moving to a new community, there's not a lot on the calendar to talk about. However, we've been making up for lost time this week.

We sign papers on the house next Friday, so I've been busy with prep stuff (getting utilities turned on, checking the status of the basement repairs (the structural specialist started work on Tuesday), still getting insurance quotes (we just now final settled on who we're going with on home owners insurance... yes, I've been last minute on that))... in reality, that's been fun stuff and hasn't required much work. I'm going crazy figuring out how we're going to get everything done soon after we move. We have all our belongings in a rental unit until the 21st, which gives us one perfect week-long opportunity to get all the renovations done before the furniture comes in. We have plans of painting every wall, taking the popcorn off the ceilings, adding trim to the corners of the wall, redoing the tile in the entry and bathrooms, putting in new light fixtures/fans, cabinet hardware, buying new kitchen appliances and a kitchen table and two sofa chairs, installing a baby gate... and then there's the endless amount of cleaning that needs to be done. If our budget is not completely shot by this point, we also plan on having new carpet installed in all the bedrooms and on the stairwell. Just talking about it exhausts me... the scary part is, we haven't bought a single thing mentioned above. Eek. Add to that, Nick is still working every weekday during that week we have to do all this before all our stuff moves in and I have no idea how we plan on doing this with a baby in tow. I'm feeling in over our head. And then there's the fact, that Nick's parents will be away the entire week. Double yikes. Nick & I are hardly renovation pro's but we were feeling confident that we could do much of the work ourselves because Bill had mentioned "Oh that's nothing, I can show you how to do that." So much for that idea! So, we may learn trial and error. I am really thankful couples in our small group have offered to help because I will need to take them up on the offer.

So, needless to say, there may not be a lot of blog activity within the next few weeks. :( Sorry guys. But when all is said and done I'll have some before and after pictures of our house. That makes up for it, right?

Luke has been such a joy (always is, but I've just been relishing in it a lot recently). I think much may be due to the fact we're getting more sleep. That's always a plus. ;) Luke's nighttime schedule (or lack there of) left much to be desired up until recent. He fights sleep like none other and getting him down was a nightmare of an ordeal... sometimes taking several hours. I don't know what made the difference this week, but I have been able to put him in his crib, and lay next to him on our bed (playing oppossum and "sleeping"), and he'll then go down within 5 minutes. This is such progress. Up until a few weeks ago, he wouldn't have anything to do with his crib. I've had to get him to sleep in my arms and hope he would stay asleep when I got him in his bed... which is a challenge because he's such a light sleeper. So, it's so nice not having to deal with that anymore. I will say it took some work at first. The first time I tried doing this (putting him in bed awake, while I laid nearby on our bed) resulted in lots of tears and it took almost an hour before he went down. The next day it took half an hour; the day after that 15 minutes. And then last night, he gave in after 5 minutes... and didn't even bother crying. Success! ;)

This afternoon Luke was in for a special treat when we drove down to Parkville to visit with Nick's cousin's wife Jen, who owns the local Gymboree (educational center, not to be confused with the clothing store). Jen had offered for us to come any time for Luke to play and enjoy the facilities and we took her up on the offer today. It was absolutely amazing out so it made for a great drive and I was blown away with all the neat stuff they have for babies in their play area (Nick was more thrilled when I told him that they use Clorox wipes on everything.... ha! Nick and his germ fear ;)). Anyways, here are some pictures of our day: