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 Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

Sunday, February 24, 2013

13 Months



Weight: 21 pounds, 11 ounces

Length: 29.5 inches

Favorite activity: Playing with her new activity table: sorting magnet letters in the baskets, making alphabet soup, playing with the gear board, fiddling with the locks and shapes, ringing the bike bell, it's pretty awesome! 

Favorite food: applesauce

Favorite spot: Anywhere she can move and crawl

Cutest moment: lots of baby cuddles this month, with all the teething. Also, Lorelei has taken to bringing me every single book in her book box to read!
Naughtiest moment: Going down the slide...face first!

Important milestones: Her top two front teeth are working their way through! The one on the left is here, the one on the right is working it's way out. Pulls herself up to a standing position pretty frequently now, no steps yet, but she can stand on her own for about 20-30 seconds before falling down again.

Teeth: 3

Words: 3 (dada, mama, woof)

Signs: 3 (more, all done, dog)
How Mom's Feeling: Lorelei is really, truly, officially a 1 year old! She hasn't started walking yet, but she will soon! It's amazing to see her growth--and watch her brain develop. Her favorite game this month is to take an item, hand it to someone, then crawl back, grab another item, and take it back to that person. Over and over and over again. It can be diapers, puzzle pieces, books...She's gotten into stuffed animals this month, too. She has a few favorites: a bunny puppet and a big green frog. She likes to carry them around and cuddle them. Her spacial awareness is increasing--she's been working hard on those puzzles and shape sorters. She's pretty good at circles and can get those in the holes. But even if she can't get them through the hole, she knows where they go!

There are so many other things she does and is doing, it's hard to list! She'll initiate a game of peek a boo or storytime. She for sure can say Dada--and mean Daddy, is working on mama and baby. I'm sure I'm missing something!

The house hunt continues. Lorelei has been a champ through the whole thing.

This month has been pretty crazy, but I feel like we're getting through it. While it has been incredibly frustrating (house hunting pretty much blows and has taken up our entire life) we're doing good.

Here are a few pics that we've taken this week:

Smoothies are delicious!
Daddy's girl: playing with her Legos!
Morning mayhem!


Shopping with mama!




Monday, February 18, 2013

Pics of our Week

Ok, so I'm not going to be doing a weekly photo anymore. Instead, I'll be doing random posts about what is happening in our life (i.e. house hunting) and a weekly photo dump with pictures of our week. And on the 24th of each month (more or less) we'll do one of our staged monthly photos with a review of Lorelei's stats.

This is our first weekly photo dump. And yes, it actually is more of a 3 week photo dump. We've been busy!

Art is delicious!
All done!
First cupcake at Danica's birthday party!
Cooking!
New art table

Reorganizing the cabinet
Combing her hair with a fork!
Lorelei's first hockey game!
SCORE!
The SF Bulls Stadium


A-Hunting We Will Go

So the house has been sold. It was crazy and fast and weird. One day, we were mentioning to our real estate agent that we might be interested in moving, then a month or so later we get a call saying someone is looking for a house in our neighborhood and were we interested in selling. Sure, why not, we thought. The prospective buyers came to the house a week later (a crazy week full of cleaning and reorganizing the house and getting it in something close to showing condition). The next week, they came back to see the place with their parents. A few days later, they made an offer and we countered. Almost 1 month to the day we got the call that someone was interested in our house, we shook hands, signed a contract and got this ball rolling.

So...the house is sold. We officially have 3 and a half months to find a new house. That's not scary at all. Especially since we can't even make an offer until our taxes are done...But we're almost there. So this weekend, we started house hunting.

House hunting is a depressing business. At least it is if you live here on the peninsula. We have what seems like a lot of money, but there is not a lot out there for the amount we have. What we want: a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house, with a bonus room, in a nice neighborhood with good schools. Sometimes it seems like we are reaching for the moon. The thought here is that we don't want to move for a long time. It should be big enough for Brian to have a workable office, Lorelei to have a bedroom, and space for a guest/play/mommy's craft room. We also need some sort of backyard area for the pups to play in. And I'd like something big enough to entertain in.

What we have found:

House #1-Cute Cottage
3 bedrooms, 2 baths...check
Nice neighborhood...check
Good schools...check
Bonus room for Brian...nope
In our Price Range...yes. Just barely.
Verdict: no go. While it is a nice house, it is just barely bigger than our current house. No room for entertaining or to grow. Oh, and it has very old wiring.

House #2-Property Brothers with a View
4 bedrooms, 2 baths...check
Nice neighborhood...check
Good Schools...check
Room for an office and a guest room...check
In our price range...no, but seriously overpriced
Verdict: the big problem with this property is that it needs to have the drywall totally ripped out to update the old wiring. The floors need to be refinished. The kitchen needs to be ripped out. But...it has an awesome view on the edge of a hill and if we got it for the right price, we could update this sucker and have a showplace.

House #3-Crazy Winchester Mystery Cat-House
3 bedrooms, 2 baths...check
Nice neighborhood...nope
Good schools...kind of
Room for an office and a guest room...maybe
In our price range...nope
Verdict: No. Absolutely not. This place was horrible from the get go. A former duplex turned into a house, so it has weird flow. Carpets with cats that have clearly marked the territory as their own. Doors that open to NOTHING (on the second level). A tiny backyard. You have to drive around the block to get to the garage...Just...weird.

House #4-The Mary Poppins House
4 bedrooms, 2 baths...check
Nice Neighborhood...check
Good Schools...Check
Room for an office and a guest room...check
In Our Price Range...check
Verdict: This house is practically perfect in every way. Completely redone, beautiful everything. Lots of storage space, skylights...in our price range. Or it was until it got 26 offers, one of which was $80,000 above asking price!

House #5-Work That Gluteous Maximus House
4 bedrooms, 2 baths...check
Nice Neighborhood...check
Good schools...check
Room for an office and a guest room...check
In Our Price Range...Nope
Verdict: This house was really cool. 3 floors with an amazing view and lots of space. 2 balconies and a sunroom. Very cool fireplace. It's above our asking price, but hoping we can get it down since it's not in the greatest condition. The carpets need to be ripped out and the kitchen is a joke.

House #6-Bank Owned Fixer Upper
4 bedrooms, 2 baths...check
Nice neighborhood...check
Good Schools...more or less
Room for an office and a guest room...check
In our price range...yes
Verdict: This house has very good bones but it is beat to shit. The only things worth keeping are the floors...in some of the rooms. There is carpet that seriously needs to be ripped out, a kitchen that needs to be redone, a lot of work. On the plus side, it's cheap and we would actually have the funds to fix it up.

So right now, we are thinking about Houses 2, 5 and 6. We have our fingers crossed on #5. They all need a lot of work, but it's exciting to think about finding a place and making it our own. While I love our current house, they made choices I probably wouldn't have. With any of these places, we are going to have the opportunity to truly design it the way we want. It's just going to take a while.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Many Happy Returns


A week ago today, I was going crazy getting ready for Lorelei's first birthday party. Did I go a little overboard? Perhaps. But it was my little girl's first birthday, so I'm not going to feel bad about it!

As much as I might have gone a little nuts in the decorations, I thought it all came together very nicely--and for not too much money, overall. The theme was Hot Air Balloons, so we had red, white and light blue balloon garlands, hot air balloons made out of some old paper lanterns I had hanging around, some handmade pennants, a gallery wall with blown up pictures of Lorelei, her weekly photos and a big "hot air balloon" for kids to sit in and take pictures made out of a basket, some ribbon and a very big balloon.

Some of the biggest hits of the party: cheese cubes in the baby buffet, the kiddie pool filled with balls, the red and white striped paper straws (the thing to have among the under 1 set!), and the activity table handmade by Grandpa Dan.

I thought the party might be a bit bittersweet for me. How did my little girl get to be one year old??? She's no longer an infant, and just on the cusp of toddlerhood. She has two teeth, with two more on the way. She can pull herself up and is working hard on standing by herself. Next step is walking! She's got some basic signs down (more, all done, dog), and has a few words...maybe (woof, dada, mama, wow and possibly hi). But you know what, I feel good. I'm excited for this new stage. At the party, I got to hold little Logan, Lorelei's 6 month old cousin for a long time (the longest I've ever held him in fact) and while I relished getting to hold him and cuddle--since Lorelei is not much of a cuddler these days--I also didn't miss it. I even got to hold Grady, one of Lorelei's best buddies, and while he certainly wasn't light (he's at least 30 pounds!), it was cool when he asked me to hold him. It get's me excited for the future--a world of walking (running) and more talking. I've even been told that they start to get cuddly again.

Here are some pictures of her birthday--starting on her actual birthday up to her birthday party (this girl was well celebrated!)

First Birthday Cupcake (ok, so banana muffin with whipped cream). We were not a fan of the fire!
We were a fan of the muffin!
New puzzle from Grandmama!
Dumplings for the Little Dumpling! Dim Sum birthday dinner!
New puppy! At Wenchlette birthday party!
Waiting for our ice cream at Humphry Slocumbe
Mmmm...ice cream!
Birthday Party--the hot air balloon
Hot air balloon garlands and lanterns!
So. Many. Cupcakes.
Weekly picture wall
Gallery Wall
The food. Yes it was all white and red!
Birthday girl getting ready for her party!
In the balloon with her cousin!
Ball Pit!
Reading with Grady

Sharing with Lena!
Logan and Auntie Mel
Playing with the new activity table!
Cuddling with her Poppy (and her paper straw!)
Birthday cupcake (vanilla, with passion fruit filling)
Nom nom nom
Signing more. MORE CUPCAKE!
The activity table was a big hit!
Ribbon! Opening presents after the party
Testing out her new scooter
Thank you for the table Grandpa Dan and Grandma Janet!