Finally!

We are finally in, somewhat settled and we have TV again. There is still a ton of work to do, but it's starting to look like an actual house. Our neighbors are nice...they actually speak to us, imagine that! And they have a 12-year-old daughter. Did someone say babysitter?

Keavan started preschool last week and seems to like it a lot. His friend Austin is in his class, so they could be doing nothing all day and he'd be happy. As long as they're together. He assures me that he's making new friends.

My job started 2 weeks ago and I actually like it. It helps that I only work 11 hours a week. My kids are adorable and are already making progress. It's amazing what a little structure and discipline will do for a kid with developmental and behavior issues!

A.J. is still not crawling. We assume he will eventually desire to move. Until then, I'll enjoy the fact that he enjoys sitting in one place playing quietly with his toys.

Moving day! Bleah...

I have determined over the course of the day that we have entirely too much crap. Although, it doesn't help that my parents and Chelsea's parents feel that they also have too much crap and decided to put some of it at our house. We spend WAY too many hours loading 2 UHauls, 2 storage units and our minivan with stuff. We still had to borrow space in a friend's garage for our bikes (that we ride so often all the tires are flat). Tomorrow, we get to clean and throw away all the trash. Yay. Someone save this and email it to me when I decide that the next house is too small. Instead of moving, I'll have an estate sale.

He signed back!

Our little A.J. has entered the world of the functionally communicative. Or at least my overzealous mind wants to think so. We've been signing to him since he was about 4 months old and we've suspected for several weeks that he's been trying to sign back. Tonight, without question, he signed "more" (somewhat spastically, but we'll take it) and the funniest thing was that he said "ma" when he did it! He'll probably take after his brother and be speaking in full sentences by next week.

Here is a recent picture of the little angel. He's not nearly the fan of his exersaucer that Keavan was, but it keeps him entertained for a few minutes at least. He's not mobile yet, but it's coming. I only hope he can hold off with the crawling until we're in the new house and it's childproofed!! Or at least be crawling slowly and not tearing around the house like Lightning McQueen. (Did you like the Cars reference? I'm sure there are people who read my blog who haven't seen that movie 400 times and might find the reference mildy amusing.)

As for Keavan, he is kicking tail at Taekwondo. Not actual tail, but pretend tail in the air in front of him. He loves it and is really doing very well. He has 3 stripes on his belt, in case that means anything to you. To me, it means his instructors believe in positive reinforcement and I am fine with that. He is also a recent graduate of the Reader Rabbit Preschool CD-ROM. He finished it in about 7 hours over 3 days. He worked for 3 hours straight before we MADE him take a break. He is nothing if not persistent, be it good or bad. He now wants to move on to the 2nd grade Phonics program. I hope he actually can't do this one in a matter of days. I bought these programs to give me some time to pack and give him an activity other than watching TV. At least he's interested, right? We've also started a sight word of the day. So far he's learned "the" and "I." He informed me that I is a letter and he already knows that word. Tomorrow's word is "a" so I'm sure I'll hear a similar story. He's a funny kid.

Lots of changes

Much has happened since I last posted. We sold our house after 22 days on the market! A week later we made an offer on another house and it was accepted without a counter offer. We are very excited about it, although we have a busy month ahead. Chelsea is going to Allentown, PA for 2 weeks for work, so I will be here packing and holding down the fort. I took the final for my summer class today, so I am finished with school until Aug. 25 - oh, did I mention that's our closing date?

The new house is a lot bigger, although we are giving up some kitchen space. It has 3 bedrooms on the main level and one in the basement that will be Chelsea's office. We are putting in another bedroom for the guest room/my office, also in the basement. It's on a cul-de-sac and near a very nice park, so lots of play space for the boys. It is also on the east side of town which will be an adjustment for us because we currently live on the west side. According to my sister, we will soon be living on the "right side" of town. It's only 10 minutes away...I think we'll live.

I'll send out the obligatory mass email announcing the change of address. We'll wait until all the t's are crossed and the closing is scheduled, not merely estimated. Things are generally going well. I'll post again and update the antics of my crazy kids and maybe new pictures if you're lucky.

Lessons learned...sorry, Mom.

The house has been on the market for 2 weeks now, with very little excitement. But I have learned that having a clean house is actually pretty nice. Yes, it takes effort to keep it this way all the time, but it really takes less time than it did when it was messy! Of course, it helps that we have a 16-foot POD in storage packed with a lot of our stuff. Overall, I believe that this has been a good lesson in cleanliness and I plan to carry it over to the new house. Sorry, Mom, that it took this to teach me to be clean, and not 30 years of effort on your part to impart your wisdom. We'll see how long it lasts after we move. :)

A.J. is finally joining the ranks of the not-so-lazy. He can roll over from belly to back, a feat that he has been capable of for quite some time, but seemed to not be interested in moving at all. He can also sit up unassisted for short periods of time, as long as he doesn't look up. It's nice to see that at nearly 8 months old, he has decided that there is more to life than laying on one's back and eating one's feet. He is also able to eat applesauce, bananas and occasionally squash without immediately projectile vomiting. This is a big step for a baby with reflux. Maybe someday we'll be able to take him off of his incredibly expensive Prevacid!

As for Keavan, as I write this, he is sleeping in the backyard in his very own tent, next to his daddy in his very own tent. Although we took Keavan camping on the beach for 4 days when he was 7 months old, we decided not to subject AJ to similar torture when his bed was 20 feet away, so I am sleeping inside to keep an eye on him. Yes, that's the reason that I am sleeping in my bed, rather than outside on the ground. Chelsea's a good daddy, no matter what you may have heard.

Need a house?

Our house is officially on the market. It's been crazy busy and I think we spend all of our time cleaning now, but it looks good. Click on the blog title to check out our online listing. We have our realtor walk-through tomorrow, so hopefully we'll start getting some traffic. Keep us in your prayers that we survive this whole ordeal and get some much needed space in a new house! I'll keep you posted.

Our hearing child!

We took AJ to Cardinal Glennon last week and got some great news. He can hear just fine! He has some moderate hearing loss in the lower tones, but they believe it is due to residual fluid behind his ear drum and is not really an issue. He can hear speech tones very well. The best result was that his brain responded to 70 decibels in his "bad" ear!! That means that the cochlea (inner ear) is intact and functioning. We no longer need to do a CT scan because we know that there is something inside his little closed-up ear. We will do something with it in a few years, but right now, it's simply not an issue. We are so very blessed with our beautiful boys and I thank you all for your thoughts and prayers over these last few months as we waited for answers. God is listening!