Baby in Blue

For a child who can be such a ham, Amelia generally will not sit still for photographs so most end up blurry, of the top of her head, or her running away. I actually got a few last night as she had her last bottle (she only gets a bottle first thing in the morning or the last of the day, otherwise she's a sippy cup girl who's toying with the idea of a straw).

If we didn't strap her into the highchair Amelia would eat all her food on the go. One bottle usually takes 20-30 minutes because she'll put it down and walk away, then come back. Plus she tries to share the bottle with Teddy, which is just nasty.

Lounging while drinking.

I would like to go outside please.

While Teddy stalks squirrels, Amelia stalks "babies", or the other kids in the neighborhood. There are a number of kids, especially right around her age, that she can see walking or playing outside. Even kids older than her are babies. Thankfully she hasn't told the four year old across the street that yet.

Old House, New House

So we had an interesting weekend. Our house went on the market on Tuesday, with an open house scheduled for Sunday. By the time Sunday came, there had already been at least a dozen agents/clients through the house. By the end of Sunday, we had an offer.
While our house was open, we went looking for a new place. We happened to find a place that had only been on the market since Friday, so it wasn't on many people's radar screens. We loved the house and had decided by the end of Sunday that we wanted to put an offer in. Monday we accepted the offer on our place, and placed a bid on the new house. We knew there was another offer on the table, so we were nervous wrecks until we got the call last night that our offer had been accepted. There are still a few details that need to be worked out, but it looks like early August we will be moving into our new place. I still can't believe it all worked out so quickly. We're very thankful that it did and all the dominoes are falling into place.
Oh my goodness. We bought a grown up house. Who let us do that? I don't feel like I'm old enough to own a grown up house (grown up house = master suite and formal dining room), but this place is going to work perfectly for us. It's 4 bedrooms (one will become my office because I'm now working from home), has a finished basement where Amelia can make a mess and we won't care, and a great family room. It also has the world's smallest half bath, so when you come over be prepared. I am aware that the distinction I make between our current house and the new one, is totally random and one of my quirks. And for the record it's on the sunny side of the street so I don't have to use as much deicer come winter, and there are no trees in the front yard, so the odds of coming out to a bird poop covered car just went down dramatically.

But the best part of this? We no longer have to keep our home in "show-ready mode", which is difficult with Amelia, Teddy and myself. Even Matt makes more clutter than we thought. Also, a big chunk of our stuff is already packed because we needed to clear it out for the open house, so we're a little ahead in that department.

Random Amelia Photos

I realize that photos of Amelia have been lacking recently, so here are some recent shots of her.

Amelia and her agua. She is obsessed with having a cup or bottle of water with her at all times. Even when she has a bottle of milk in her hand.

I can't even stand still in Cosi. I like to twirl too much.

Evidence point #1 why Amelia may be a only child. Poking her baby in the eye. Her baby (actually any of three acceptable dolls) are her other obsession. She sleeps with at least one, preferably two. For the most part she's pretty gentle with them, until she starts banging them against her crib to let us know she would like to get out now please.

Amelia and Teddy behind the storm door trying to get out to play in the front yard.

Fine, we'll just stay here then.

Amelia is a very verbal, and loud, child. While we appreciate this, she has a habit of repeatedly asking for the parent that is not in her line of sight, or for Teddy. This is especially annoying when the other parent has left for work or is out of town. She's got dada, daddy, mama, mommy, bye, hi, night-night, cookie, banana, bath, baby, up, please, agua, bottle, yummy, no, read, Eve (her old nanny share buddy), star, one, two, nose, eye, all done and some others that I'm forgetting. But Teddy or "T" must come out of her mouth 85,000 times a day. I think we know who her favorite is.

House Pictures

So today is the day of official real estate photo day for the house going on the market next week. Here are my unofficial (somewhat blurry) photos to give you an idea of the changes.

The perfectly staged, yet functional bedside table. And the orchid is real. I've kept it alive so far for 24 hours so far.

I actually made the bed today.

Amelia's room with new rug for a) staging and b) giving her a little padding when she climbs out of her crib.

Current contents of her crib. That's one of her baby dolls that she reads to every night before she goes to sleep. It's cut the crying before she goes to bed dramatically.

The bathroom with a clean curtain and shower curtains and the new "staging only" towels and bath mat.

Living room part 1.

Living room part 2, with a bit of Teddy and her leash.

And part 3. Nothing too huge, just a fresh coat of paint and moving pictures and removal of Teddy's crate.

Kitchen, with all baby related items removed.

By far the biggest changes were in the basement. It went from a dark green to a cream color. View 1.

View 2.

And view 3, with all baby gates removed. It looks like a totally different room.

While I'm not looking forward to keeping the house clean and neat, we're hoping that it goes quickly. It's not the end of the world, but between Teddy, Amelia and myself it's an ongoing challenge. And no one is allowed to bring anything else into the house. We're stuffed to the gills in the closets and our storage unit is now totally full.

Amelia at play and rest

Summer has arrived in DC. And it's disgustingly hot some days. Matt was watering the grass when Amelia decided to go try and run in it. She didn't care that she was fully clothed. And for the the record she's wearing more of a tulle skirt than a full tutu.

And here's Amelia in a rare moment of calm. She was watching golf with Matt and curled up with her stuffed puppy and a blanket. This is how she tries to lay on Teddy, so you can understand why Teddy isn't a big fan of it.


There's lots going on right now. Matt starts his new job on Monday, our house goes on the market (it's amazing how much stuff comes with a 25 pound baby) Tuesday, and Friday is my last day in the office. My company is moving to Chicago, but I will be staying on and telecommuting. I think Teddy's going to like the company, but still spend most of her time asleep on our bed. I have been traveling quite a bit, but with the summer it will slow down. Which is good because I really need to organize my closet before we have an open house. We've started looking for a new place, but we just haven't found the perfect place yet. There's one we really like, but we'd be looking at doing some remodeling within a year or two, and I'm not sure I'm up for that. So we'll keep looking and see what we can find.