6 months

Getting bigger by the day!

A few new (old) house pics

We officially closed on the house a month ago tomorrow.  Eric's mom was kind enough to stay about two weeks with us during which time she got us organized and got a good many boxes unpacked.  The first few weeks were about meeting with lots of different people to get bids on projects that we had to get done on the house, so Becky being here was invaluable so that we didn't have to take much time off of work.  

I am posting a few of the pictures of our house, but sparing you bathrooms and bedrooms.  Take my word for it when I say that each of those rooms is a square box with lots of packing boxes.  As time goes on and we can actually decorate the rooms I will probably post updated pictures.  As a side note, I LOVE our new commute.  I am super close to work and Eric is close to the train station.  We are close to restaurants and shopping and it only takes us a few minutes to get anywhere.  What I love about our new neighborhood is that everyone is so active: biking, running, playing in the parks.  When I am not as large, I hope to partake in those outdoor activities!  It would also help if we stopped hitting triple digit temperatures.

Kitchen

The view from the living room to the backyard.  The large windows are what sold me on the house.

View from the living room. To the left is the entry into the kitchen and to the right is the foyer.

Another view of the living room from the kitchen.  I love the heavy beams on the ceiling. Notice the different colors of paint that we are trying out.  We are not trying to be odd!

Backyard.  The child safety fence was the first thing we had installed.

Dining area. We enclosed the formal dining room to use as a 4th bedroom. 

 

 

 

In some ways we feel more settled in our new home than we did our old home.  Even though the size is the same, it has a layout that is more conducive to our lifestyle. We feel very blessed to be able to move and expand our family this year.  Hopefully I will post additional pictures at some point!

On the fritz

I were to give a title to the last week, the chapter would be called, "On the Fritz."  That seems to sum up our days here at the Pate Household.  I came down with a wicked stomach virus on Monday night which stayed with me for a few days.  I even missed two days of work.  Possibly the closest thing I had to a summer vacation?  Sadly, yes.  I thought that with rigorous hand washing and reduced snuggles with Liam, that the virus would pass him by.  Until I picked him up from school on Friday and learned that I had passed the darned bug on to him.  I had a feeling we were all due for some ickiness around here.  But the run had been good.  Fast forward to this evening where he has stopped experiencing everything that comes with the stomach gunk and is finally eating a normal meal!  Hallelujah!  It is difficult to make your child a whole separate meal which they won't even touch.  Then even more hard when they wake up sick in the middle of night and there is nothing you can do but clean them up and ride it out.  We have a dear friend who is a physicians assistant for a pediatrician so she gave us some handy tips for getting through it.

It is not too often that I have the opportunity to go see a movie.  So when my book club planned a few weeks back to go see "The Help" I jumped at the opportunity.  We woke up on Saturday morning to the sweet sweet sound of rain.  I thought that perhaps I had made the sound of thunder up in my head since we hadn't had significant rain since April.  In fact, if you were to drive around in an air conditioned car right now and look around, you would guess based on the dead landscape in the area, that it was actually November and not August. Any how, my wonderful husband agreed to watch our poopy, vomiting child while I had a little time away.  Upon arriving at the movie theater with my girlfriends we were greeted with the announcement that the theater was experiencing a power outage and that all films were being cancelled in the morning!  Argh!  So home I returned to help take care of our ill one.  He was so out of sorts for the day, that we even cancelled dinner with the first friend we made here in the Dallas area when we moved 7+ years ago. 

In house news, we have been spending LOTS of time rehabbing our new house.  It is totally different from buying a truly new home as we have learned.  It is not uncommon to spend lots of hours and money on projects that really leave us with nothing to show for it.  If any of  you come by the house and I offer you a tour of our new breaker box or GFCI outlets, please humor me and tell me that they look lovely.  I have a feeling that it will be awhile before we can do the superficial projects in the house like painting and putting up artwork, curtains, etc.

And I keep joking with Eric that our projects seem to spawn new projects.  For example, when he put new ceiling fans in our living room, we found that the circuit was overloaded, prompting him to go up in the attic to run a new electrical line (I don't really understand the whole process, but I nod my head a lot and ignore receipts from Home Depot).  While in the attic he decided to run other lines while he was up there.  Then he accidentally put his foot through the ceiling of the foyer. Which led to a trip to Home Depot for spackle and dry wall. The fact that I can now see him from my position in the kitchen through the living room into his master closet needs no explanation.  You get the idea.  But some how his projects always come out looking super awesome so I have learned not to doubt him in this area.  So for right now we were on the fritz but in repair.  Hope your weekend was a good one, and filled with a lot less mess. 

Judgey McJudgerson

Recently, I came across this article on MSNBC entitled, "The Mom Judging Olympics: A competition that nobody meant to enter."  Essentially the article talks about how 90 percent of moms judge each other.  This I believe.  But I actually believe that the number should be 100 percent of moms judge each other.  And if you count yourself in the 10 percent that is supposedly non-judgmental, then I am judging you right now for not being honest with yourself.

One example that the article discusses is judging other moms for not breast-feeding.  Then judging them if they breast-feed too long, or not long enough.  Having a bratty kid, letting them watch too much television or allowing them to eat certain foods all make the judgment list. However, I would like to think that most moms keep their comments to themselves.  You know, the whole, "If you don't have anything nice to say...."  Sure we might confide in our husbands or close friends with a few of these remarks a-la "I can't believe they are bringing their 4 year old to a 11:30 p.m. showing of Hell Raiser." And part of a good friendship is keeping others accountable if they are making choices that are dangerous.  But for the most part, we keep day to day parenting advice to ourselves unless explicitly asked.  Which by the way, if someone has the secret on how to ensure that your toddler sleeps past 6:30 a.m. on the weekend, I am all ears.  I am not, however, all ears to hearing that your child always sleeps from 8 pm to 8 am "just cause."  Nobody likes the person who claims to have no problems at all. 


So why do we do this as moms?  Why do we judge each other in the first place?  And why would we ever vocalize to other moms all the things that we think they are doing wrong? Whether a mom makes every bite of their children's food or buys them Gerber vegetables, that is their choice.  If they dress them in pricey organic cotton outfits because they are eco-friendly or shop the sales at Target, again, their choice.  I had a friend once tell me that she was so judged by breast feeding moms in her play group, that she used to excuse herself to go "breastfeed" her son while she really gave him a bottle of formula.  And another mom once said that she used to drop her kids off at the gym daycare and leave through the locker room to go have a cup of coffee at Starbucks and read a magazine.  These are the things that women don't usually tell each other, primarily because of the fear that if a mom is going to judge you for the small stuff, why wouldn't they judge you for the stuff that makes us all human?

Being a mom is hard work and a lot like having a mega serving of humble pie.  And being a first-time mom is a little like trying to sink or swim when it comes to figuring it all out.  I oftentimes seek advice from those parents that I truly admire.  However, other parents seem to "offer the goods" without being asked.  And truthfully, I would rather they didn't.  Like I said before, I would be a big ol' hypocrite if I said that I didn't ever judge other moms or humans in general.  But it usually has more to do with things that I think might be socially unacceptable (i.e. cussing in front of your kid or allowing them to play barefoot in the snow). Which, forgive me if I am wrong, but allowing my child to watch Sesame Street is not quite the same thing as letting them run with scissors.  Big socialist scissors.  

22 Weeks

Well being behind (as always) with my updates, I decided to take a 22 week picture today. I had an appointment last week and the baby looks great.  Towards the end of my pregnancy with Liam I had a few issues with my placenta and fluids so Liam stopped thriving.  So after my next appointment in 4 weeks, I will start having precautionary growth scans to make sure the baby is right on track.  As of now, she is completely healthy and perfect!  Sleeping is starting to get more difficult.  I broke down about a month ago and bought one of those pregnancy pillows.  I definitely have to say that it has been a major improvement. 

Liam (and Eric) are loving our new swimming pool.  I have to say that we did not intentionally look for houses with pools.  However, in our area, it is difficult to find a house without a pool.  Eric grew up swimming competitively and did not stop until college.  So this has been like a dream come true for him.  Growing up in the desert, having a pool is sort of a novelty.  But with the high temperatures, we have been enjoying getting in each evening after Liam has dinner.  It is definitely a great way to beat the heat!

Liam still needs formal survival swim lessons.  But our pool has a shallow end that starts at 3 feet so he has enjoyed wearing his little swim vest and paddling around the shallow end.  He definitely has no fear of the water so we have to keep a very close eye on him.  And having a pool fence installed was something we did the very first week we were here.  Plus our house alarm has the sort of annoying/sort of useful announcement every time an exterior door opens ("back door open", "garage door open", etc.). 

 Liam LOVES to be tossed in the air by Eric.  He tries to get Mommy to do the same thing with no luck!

Denial

About two weeks ago when I picked Liam up from school, one of his teachers pulled me aside for…a talk. “ Oh no,” I thought.  What had my child done to warrant me being called into the figurative principal’s office.  As it turns out it was nothing.  His teachers believe that Liam is ready to start potty training.  Her comment left me a little dumbstruck.  I mean, Liam didn’t crawl until 10 months old, walk until 14 months old, etc.  I had come to the conclusion that he was going to be a late bloomer in this area as well.  So it floored me that they were ready to potty train him.   And even more shocked at their motives.  They wanted to train him…because he is “ready.”  Only one other child in the class is potty training so it is not about peer pressure.  But I guess that he has been showing all the signs. 

So over that weekend I went and bought him many pairs of big boy underwear, an attachable training seat, reward stickers and a small package of Pull-Ups. I packed 6 extra pairs of complete clothes for school and sent an extra pair of shoes.  The other thing is that his school doesn’t believe in transitioning from diapers to Pull-Ups.  They are used just for nap time.  They even sent his diapers home with me!  I have been having heart palpitations over this whole thing (perhaps they are in my head).  I thought there was no way that Liam was ready.  I mean, I am not even ready.  I thought I would have time to read books and articles, ask other moms for their advice, write a mini-thesis on what my plan of attack was going to be.  And I had hoped that he would be trained before Fonzerella came, but I had no idea it would be this soon. 

Still, I thought, they don’t know my baby like I do.  This won’t take.  On day one of PT at school: one accident.  Day two was a little shakier.  Day 3: No accidents, just slightly missing the toilet which required a change in clothes.  Day 4: Poop accident (I guess pooping is a whole other battle).  So maybe my baby is more ready than I gave him credit for.  It is bittersweet to see him growing into such a little man.  But the thought of one less diaper to change is definitely welcome news!

Living on the surface of the sun

Ok.  So this title actually has nothing to do with this blog post.  But I just felt like whining for a moment about the Texas heat and how difficult it is to be pregnant when it is 109 degrees outside.  Today I found myself silently rooting for the tropical storm brewing in the Carribean (how awful is that?).  The fact that we are now in second place for the hottest summer in Texas history, strangely enough, makes me want to beat the first place winner: 1980.  The year that both Eric and I were in utero. I feel like I need to have this story to lament my teenage daughter with (i.e. "The summer I carried you was the hottest summer in Texas history" sounds so much better than the "second hottest summer in Texas history."  Speaking of which, I am now officially more than halfway through my pregnancy.  I sort of feel like I am having the gestational period of an elephant.  In the summer heat.  But I digress. 

To catch you up, we moved out of our house in mid-July.  I didn't think that I would be emotional about leaving, but it was bittersweet to leave that empty house one last time.  The rooms looked so empty and small without furniture.  It was our first home.  The place we brought our first child home to.  The place where so many memories were created.  But I am also happy to be starting this new chapter in our lives.

We stayed for a week at the Kuykendall Estate (my dear friend, Deanna's house).  Really the K.E. was pretty dang awesome.  Beautiful swimming pool, free wi-fi, full use of the kitchen and laundry facilities, etc.  The fact that we had the entire second story to ourselves didn't hurt the situation either. We are so incredibly blessed to have such great friends who were willing to open up their home to us!  Believe me, three extra people and two dogs create quite a ruckus. 

We were able to close on our new home in Richardson less than a week after we moved out of our old home.  Living out of boxes is...about as much fun as one can imagine.  I show up to work slightly disheveled, with wrinkled clothes (just recently found the iron), and I am pretty sure Eric wore the same four ties to work for about two weeks.  Poor Liam had quite a time being bounced around between homes and sleeping in a too-small pack-in-play.  But now that we are settling into the house, things are normalizing.  I still wonder how it is that one can misplace so many items when they were packed for such a short period of time? 

Little by little we have been unpacking and settling the house up.  There are a few challenges of living in an older home that we are having to adjust to.  Today we had our cable and Internet set up.  Because it is an older house they practically had to move walls to wire for the system.  I exaggerate of course, but only slightly.  Once I have taken some pictures of the house I will post them. But for now I have to spend time with an old friend: Cable and DVR.