Offer Accepted!

Lisa and I started looking for houses a few weeks ago, and we immediately saw one online that looked promising. After we saw it in person, we knew that it would work for us, and it was a great value, too. After negotiating for the past two days, we have a verbal agreement, and we're signing the formal paperwork tomorrow. The house is in Braintree, MA, and has 4 bedrooms. It seems so big right now. The family room alone is bigger than the first floor of our condo! We still have to go through the inspection, but we expect it will go well. Here's a couple of pictures of the house:

The front of the house. The color scheme is kind of bland, and it would look much better with a new coat of paint.
Lisa is really excited for the pool, even if we can only use it a few months of the year. The sun room in the back of the house has a southern exposure, which will be really nice anytime of the year.

A Spoon, a Brush, and a tin lid

What do these articles have in common? Well, they are the current favorite toys for Vince. He even prefers them over the loads of colorful, noisy, moving trinkets that we have managed to collect.... and that lay over most of the house. I can take away a stuffed animal from him when it's time to put him in his crib, but God forbid I try to take away his brush while he is inspecting it! The kid has a total breakdown. I often just give in and give the brush, or spoon right back to him just to calm him (and my nerves) down..... but could this be starting a bad habit? Will he realize that if he has a fit he'll get something? Anyone have any advice about this?

Here's an example of Vince's love for his brush. In this video he's sitting in his exer-saucer... which is this ingenious contraption for keeping them entertained (and giving mom a few minutes). It has various colorful widgets bobbing in his face for his playing convenience.... but he wants none of that and is only satisfied by getting his brush back.

Feels Like..... Hell Froze Over!

The weather Channel says it feels like -18 out right now. But don't you worry about us because the actual temperature is a mere -6, practically bikini weather. It wasn't until I moved to the Northeast that I came to know that there is such a thing as reporting what temperatures are vs. what it "feels like". What the hell is the difference once it gets below zero! I'm doing this post right now in an attempt to evade having to leave the house and get myself to work. Maybe the temp will go up a few degrees in the next 10 minutes. It does say that it's supposed to climb to 15 degrees today... watch out for melting snowmen!

Stay tuned, I'll let you know what -6 but feels like -18 is.

Rockin Out in the Bouncy Seat

From the very first day that Vince came home, he's loved his bouncy seat. In fact, for the first 2 months of his life he was in that seat for the greater part of the day... and night. He slept in it at night, napped in it during the day, and played in it during awake times. When we first received it, the little vibrating motor still worked, and I think that was what he liked most about it. Mike and I always wished we could have an adult bouncy seat complete with vibrations! Well, Vince liked it a little too much... as the vibrating motor has been dead for a couple months now. Vince, being the son of an engineer, has configured his own little motor to keep himself happy and bouncy. He keeps a good beat with his foot, and rocks himself to sleep. Again, being the parents that we are, we think this is total genius... and very cute. I've captured some of his talent on video for your enjoyment. As he's grown over the months and increased in size and weight, every time we put him in his bouncy seat the thing gets a little bit closer to the ground. Don't know what we're going to do when it finally just lays on the ground completely when we put him in it!

First E.R. Visit

We have a few more firsts to report from last week. Wednesday, Vince was sent home for the first time from daycare. No, not for bad behaviour.... but with a fever of 101, apparently over the "fever limit" for kids being able to stay there during the day. Mike took him in to see the pediatric NP, and he was diagnosed with an upper respiratory virus. Fortunately I was home the next day so I was able to take care of him, but I couldn't get his temp to stay down during the day at all, and he was so irritable and wouldn't eat. He also felt like a little heater.... his temp rose to 104.4 at it's highest; and being new parents we freaked out and phoned the on call provider. She wanted us to bring him in just to be safe... so a large part of that night was spent at Boston Children's Hospital ER.

Thankfully there was no ear infection and no other serious illness. What we ended up realizing was that we were basically just under dosing him on the Tylenol and Motrin. Apparently the dosing guides on the bottles can be too low sometimes. Yes, I know I'm a nurse but it's different with your own kids!! And I deal with adults.....

The last couple of days have been tough for us, Vince's temp is getting better and he's eaten a bit more today... but most of yesterday we had to hold him and rock him constantly. This time he really knew he had a cold. We are not used to him being fussy constantly.

Anyway, another first was that we went looking at houses! It's really exciting to walk through a 4 bedroom house and think that we'll have all that space! Now we just have to figure out what to put in all that space once we finally pick a house. I think it'll be largely empty for a while. At least we'll have a bigger total income..... as I accepted a Nurse Practitioner position! More on that later, I have to enjoy my last couple of weeks with only working part time before I take the plunge into full time work.

Happy New Year!

Ok, maybe it is already seven days into the New Year but I figure it's still early on enough to be wishing everyone all the best for the coming year! I've been enjoying friends blogs that have pictures of their little ones from a year ago and seeing how much they really change after just one year! I'd have to get an ultrasound picture to compare Vince from last New Years to this one, but I trust you'd notice a big difference....and instead I put together a photo movie.... so here's to the last 1/2 year of Vince's life, enjoy! I even put some appropriately cheesy music in it....

As for me, I do remember celebrating last New Years with too much fondue while watching poor Dick Clark continue to insist on ringing in the year by hosting the Times Square bash. I had freshly gotten over my (all day) morning sickness but the fondue did a number on me that almost put me back to square one, probably because I must have eaten most of the pot myself, doh!

And for this year, we had planned on going to about three parties.... starting around 7pm with the first one, in order to bring Vince along. Those plans changed though when the daycare reported that the little one had a mild temp of 100.4. Nevertheless, our New Years ended up being celebrated at home with a Netflix movie, some wine, and another round of Dick Clark. We celebrated the count down by going straight to bed at 12:00:01, knowing that the Vincinator wouldn't sleep in late on New Years Day.

I spent most of the next day watching the Pasadena Rose Parade and being homesick for sunny California weather. I remember spending so many New Years on the Rose Parade route with crazy party goers who came to camp out all night... bringing their couches from home and grills to make burgers. I tried one year to bring Mike along to share with him my excitement for the parade and it ended up pouring down rain, of which it hadn't done in the past 40 years!

I suppose that naturally the next thing I should mention are my New Years resolutions.... but I haven't really thought that much about it this time around. Of course I have the garden variety resolutions I'd like to work on: exercising more, eating healthier, etc. When I look back on the last year, it's been BUSY.... finishing school, becoming a mom, passing my boards, and now looking for a new job.... I suppose I would like the year to come to be one of settling in... that is... settling in to "life after grad school", settling in to life as a mom, settling in to the full time work idea, and settling in to the thought that we should probably buy a house sooner than later. Yes, I think it will be another very full year indeed.