While the Parents are Away the Kiddo Does Play.....

....with his grandparents!

Remember over a month ago when Mike and I went to Amsterdam? I know, it seems like a life time ago since so much has been going on since then. I wanted to do a post on what Dylan did with his Mimaw and Pipaw on his vacation away from us. Unfortunately, most of the cute details from that long ago have been pushed out of my mind to make room for big life decisions (like where we're going to move and what exactly do we want in a house). So, here is a brief post, mostly in pictures, of their time together.

Reading (Dylan's Favorite Daily Activity)

Music Together Class

Lots of Swinging (sometimes with good friends Yaya and Haha)

Candy and Cookies

More Reading

And Even More Reading

Watching the Little League Parade Down the Street from the House

And then we came home!

Playing in Dad's Shoes

Sporting His New Dutch Boy House Shoes

Swim Class with Daddy
(I'm so glad my Mom took this picture for me since I never get to see Dylan play in the pool.)

All in all, the week was a great success. Dylan had tons of fun with his Mimaw and Pipaw, my parents had tons of fun with their grandson and Dylan didn't seem to miss us at all. With the exception of outings to Music Together and the parade, and my in laws coming over one night to play and visit, they just hung around the house for those 4 days and stayed occupied with all the fun things we have there - toys, books and the swing.

Even though we missed Dylan like mad, Mike and I had a great time on the trip together and I'm so happy that Dylan got to bond more with his long distance grandparents. Everything worked so well, that we might just have to do it again someday! Hmmm...maybe I should start dreaming of our next destination.....

The Hunt is On

Hello dear, loyal readers. Been wondering where I've been? Have you been saying to yourself, "Kara promised she was going to do a post about Dylan's time with his grandparents while she and Mike were gallivanting around Amsterdam. Where is it? What's up with that?" That post is still coming, I promise. Since we got back from Amsterdam, life has gotten a bit topsy turvy. Here's what happened.

After we got back, we had only a couple of days to unpack, spend the last of our time with my parents before they headed back to Dallas and recuperate from our whirlwind travels before we got back to working on something that we've been stewing since October - the addition on our house. We had a meeting with our architect that made the record scratch and us to go into complete shock. Not only was the addition going to go WAY over the top end of our budget, but it was going to take twice as long as we had estimated AND absolutely cause us to move out of our house for most of that renovation time. Yikes!

Given that we've already invested more into our house than we can recuperate (in the present market at least), putting that addition on would somewhat overbuild us for the area which didn't fare well for our add on investment. If we were absolutely, guaranteed to stay in the house for another 10 years, we probably would have gone forward. But, here's the thing. The schools in our area are tricky. Boston is on this wacky lottery system. Even though we have several great schools in our community, the lottery system doesn't provide any guarantee that your kid will get a slot in your "chosen" schools. And given that we'll have a little one in school in 3 years or so, we had a lot to stew over.

After a lot of debate, weighing pros and cons, and several sleepless nights, we came to the very difficult decision that we would not do the addition and would, instead, use that money to make a down payment on a new home in an area with a more secure school system. We're still very comfortable in our house and there's no hurry to move. However, after getting active in the real estate market in our desired town for a week, we were hit with more harsh realities. If you see something you want, you have to get it RIGHT THEN! On our first day out, we saw a house we liked very much that ticked almost all the things off our wish list. So, the next day, we thought we'd inquire about it. It had 6 (!) offers and to get into the game you had to offer 50K over asking with no contingencies on financing. Gulp! We learned very quickly that the competition would be stiff.

So, what does this mean for us now? It means that we are actively looking. The thing is that our wants lead us to about a half dozen towns. That makes shopping pretty time consuming. We're working with no less than 4 different agents in different capacities, going to open houses Saturdays and Sundays, quite often even seeing several different houses on lunch break or after working and are constantly pouring over new listings. It's pretty much overwhelming our lives.

What's even more frustrating is that, despite the fact that we're not in a hurry, we are in a hurry at the same time. By the mere fact that the house hunt takes over your life, you want to minimize the amount of time that it does so. The decision to move has been made. Now we feel in a state of limbo. Not only that, but it creates a ridiculous amount of stress. We've seen houses that we like and could see ourselves living there but are not sure if it's "the one" and then there's the discussions and number crunching and city researching that goes along with it. Plus, the self doubt of "will we know if it's the one?", "do we feel pressured to buy just because of the fierce competition", "do we really want to compromise the mud room?", etc, etc, etc...it drives me batty.

On top of all that, we have to face leaving our house.....our HOME. We have put years of love, renovation and personalization in that place and making it a wonderful place to live. There are so many things we love about the house, our neighbors and our neighborhood that leaving it is going to be a very sad thing to do.

And, on top, top of that, we have to deal with the thoughts of putting our house on the market to sell. I've only sold one place in my life, my beloved condominium. And, even though I spent 2 years completely making over that place, all the little details that had to be attended to in order to make it "market ready" were a serious pain in the booty! Thinking about doubling that square footage and adding in a kiddo to the mix....well, let's just say the "to do" list is already growing at a ridiculous rate for that. And, we don't even know when we'll be putting it on the market yet!

Top 15 Things We Love About Mr. O

(Note: I originally posted this on the 11th, as the post is dated, then realized I made a mistake and made a quick edit. Apparently, I somehow unposted it at that point and didn't notice my mistake until today, the 18th. So, if you visited the site in the last week and then noticed this odd back dated post magically appear, you're not losing your mind. Apparently, I am.)

Today is a big day at our house. It's Oliver's birthday! And not just any birthday the big 1 - 5. That's right, my little Mr. O is turning 15! To honor such a big event, Mike and I wanted to share the top 15 things we love about the big guy. It was a hard list to make since there are so many things to love about that cat, but we did our best.

15) His one black whisker. All of his whiskers are white except for one that's black. It's very cute.

14) His disproportionately small paws. For such a big cat, he's got some small, cute paws.

13) His love for his sister, Luci. He is a great kitty big brother. He likes to snuggle and groom Luci all the time. And, like any good big brother, he usually follows that love by starting a fight with her.

12) His love of human food. Oliver often sits and stares at you while you eat and moves his head from side to side. And, even though you try and convince him that he'll have no interest in the food you're eating, he'll persist until you let him try and it. And, oddly enough he usually likes it. Some of his favorites are green peas, hummus and popcorn.

11) His chest. Oliver has the absolute softest chest fur and it's so nice to pet.

10) His cross eyed look when you scratch at said chest fur. He leans into your hand and goes all doughy eyed.

9) His love of the nip. While normally above all the silly things cats are supposed to play like chasing mice or other interesting cat toys, the boy is a sucker for catnip. Give him anything with a little nip in it and he's all over it.

8) The crimps on his head. Like a boy who loves a good 80's hairstyle, Oliver's hair has natural crimps on the top of his cute noggin'.

7) His facial expressions. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a picture of Oliver's face is millions. He is very expressive and there's usually no doubt how the big guy's feeling about something when he flashes you a look.

6) His grunts. When Oliver is peacefully laying down (which is most of the time), he'll give cute little grunts when you pet him.

5) His love of comfort. The boy has good taste. Every time Mike buys himself a super comfy chair or super fluffy\soft blanket, Oliver rarely gives anyone else a chance to enjoy it. He swoops in and claims it as his own. Luci has taken his example as well. If there are 3 throw blankets on the couch in our living room, Mike and I are lucky if we get to use half of one of them.

4) His party animal instincts. Oliver loves to be in the middle of the party. If there are a group of people clustered in the living room, he wants to sit down and be in the middle of the circle. The tough part about that is, at the same time, he pretty much doesn't like anyone but us. So, he'll sit there and be really annoyed at all of these people and make very boisterous unhappy noises if anyone dares to touch him or even just come too close to him.

3) His powerful lungs. If people at our parties think that our little party animal is loud, then they should come and accompany him to see the vet. While taking him to the vet is definitely not on my list of favorite things to do, I'm always in awe of the psychotic sounds that come out of that animal. Just the vet simply being in the same room with him will set him off and folks in the waiting room (and within a mile radius) are in for a treat - the lovely sounds of a screaming cat. Seriously, even the vet gives him the prize for being the loudest patient.

2) His purr. He has the deepest, loudest purr. It's my favorite thing to hear when he's laying next to me at night. I often put my ear right up to his belly so I can drown out the noise of the world around me.

1) His loyalty. He's a momma's boy. Always has been and always will be. It's me he wants to sit next to on the couch at night and me he wants to snuggle next to in bed. Mike's a close 2nd. Dylan's a very far 3rd (Oliver will come around to truly love him eventually, I know).

I'm a very lucky gal to have had Oliver by my side for the last 15 years. Through college, moving across the country, finding my way in this life as an adult, buying my first and second home, finding and marrying the love of my life and having my first kid, Oliver's been right by me through it all. And, even though it irritates me to no end when he wakes me in the middle of the night to let me know he's there, I am always glad he's there. He's a great pal. We love ya' Mr. O!

The "You've Interrupted My Sunning Time
and I'm Irritated With You" Look

My Little Snuggle Smooch

22 Months

Today hits the 22 month mark for Dylan and to celebrate we all went to a Red Sox game. Unfortunately, by the time we left, they were losing miserably. And, although I didn't actually see much of the game between talking with Mike and playing with Dylan, the plays I did see were really exciting. Dylan's learning new words (yes, plural) every day. At the game, he learned some great Red Sox terms like "bracelet" (the Red Sox Nation gift they gave him upon entrance to the park), "Youk" (what you scream when Kevin Youkulis steps up to bat), "Wally" (the big green monster mascot) and "Papi" (Big Papi is the nick name for David Ortiz). He had a fun time squirming around our seats, charming the folks around us and playing with his longhorn below our seats (don't worry, I plan to disinfect him very well during his tubby in the morning). It was a fun family outing.

Bracelet

Go Red Sox!

Longhorn

Wally

Dylan's vocabulary is growing like mad because his parroting skills are kicking into high gear. He loves to repeat phrases you tell him like "sit down," "put shoes on," and "take socks off." His sentences have gone from the occasional two words only a month ago to much longer. He said his first 4 word sentence while we were in Amsterdam, "Mimaw cereal all gone." He's also getting a little bossy with his sentences. He loves to tell Mommy and Daddy to get in places with him (like the play set or the shower) "Mama IN" or let his Daddy know when he's not pleased that there's been a break in attention to him. For example, last week, after Mike had been pushing Dylan in the swing for literally an hour, Mike stopped to check on fb\email on his phone and Dylan said "all done phone."

We have a bird feeder outside our back door and every time I see a squirrel getting into it, I open the back door and yell "GO AWAY SQUIRREL!" One of Dylan's favorite mimics is opening the door and yelling "GO WA SQRL!" Usually there's not a squirrel in sight, but watching his little body tense and yell to scare them is pretty amusing.

Another speech milestone for this month is that Dylan has said his name! In the past, we could not get him to try and say "Dylan" and he never referred to himself as anything other than "baby" in pictures. A few weeks ago, he finally started referring to himself by name.

He's also been improving his manners. Please is a much used word by the little guy and almost everything is followed by it. When you do something, like say tickle him, and he likes it, he'll smile and say "more please!" Dylan's also learned the word "welcome" as in you're welcome. He doesn't quite use it in the correct context yet, blurting it out at the oddest moments but at least it's in his repertoire somewhere.

My most favorite new phrases of his "hug, awww" and "love you." It's pretty magical for us to hear those words from him and get some lovin's. Those are the moments that get you through some of the more frustrating moments of having a toddler.

Dylan's new favorite game is "on your mark, get set, go" for which he just says "GO!" He likes to tell Mike and I that when he wants us to run around his swing set for his amusement (again with the bossiness). Also, the other night when I was getting ready for bed, he was in between clothes and pjs but right in delirium and started yelling "GO!" and running back and forth between the couch and the stairs in only is diaper. Super cuteness.

As early as a few weeks ago, Dylan didn't really get the concept of stickers. Ever since using some for egg decorations for Easter, he has a new found appreciation of them. We have a sheet of tiny Easter stickers and Dylan's usually sporting one on at least one of his hands all day long.

His hand eye motor skills have had some fine tuning. He works very hard to get things to fit. During his shower, he like to take out the drain plug and then carefully put it back in. Ipod and baby monitor charges are a bit more challenging but he will keep at it until he gets the pieces together.

Dylan's understanding of schedules and social situations continues to improve. He's learning to say sorry and give a hug when we tell him he's hurt someone and needs to say sorry. And on a happier note, when Daddy starts cooking dinner, Dylan knows that Mommy will be home from work soon and starts looking for me at the door. It makes my return home pretty happy when there's a grinning kid smiling out the door at me when I get to the back deck. And if he's not at his back door post and Daddy lets him know I'm home, he'll stop whatever he's doing in any room of the house and run to the back door to see me yelling "Mama home!" Love that boy!

Dylan - 22 Months

Amsterdam Day 3 - After the flowers

Conveniently, right across the street from where they dropped us after our Keukenhof tour, canal boat tours were offered. So, we hopped on a boat to see the city from that vantage point. The boats are these really cool, low, glass topped vessels. Low so they can fit under all the tiny bridges in the city.

Time to Cruise

No idea what this was but look closely. On the parking ramps
are bicycles......must have been thousands of them!

Along the tour, they had an automated recording, with several different languages, tell us what we were passing. Some facts were interesting but I found myself not listening to much and just enjoying the ride.

Skinny Bridge

On the right side of the bridge, there's a canal performer
in the boat. That's what all the folks on the bridge and the
other boat is stopped to watch. That's an interesting take
on "street performing!"

An Entrance to Central Station Below Water Level

After the one hour canal tour, there was one other stop I wanted to see before closing which was back near our hotel. We would have to haul bootyt. I walked quickly and tried to encourage a very tired Mike to do the same. It wasn't looking good....we weren't going to make it! Ducking into a small side street to get away from the crowded streets and try and make good time, we were approached by a bike taxi. We thought, "What the heck? Let's do it!" So, we were swiftly taken to our last tourist stop of the day.

Our View From the Bike Taxi

Self Portrait in the Bike Taxi

The last stop was the Museum Van Loon, which is a mansion on the canals. At only 30 minutes to closing, the friendly guide welcomed us in and told us to look around. It was a self guided tour.

Grand Staircase

Kitchen

Gardens

View of Back of House

Carriage House
The small top windows are faux windows with the glass painted to look like curtains.
Apparently the residents didn't want their servants over looking any not so stellar
activities that might be going on in the back gardens.

Front the Van Loon Mansion

After a VERY long day of sights, we went back to the hotel, checked in on our babysitters and refreshed for dinner. We strolled around for something delicious to eat and saw more cool stuff.

Abandoned or under construction?

Gorgeous Sunset Over the Canal

An ATV. Weird

Firemen and Fire Engine

We decided upon a very small Italian restaurant. And I mean small. We're at the very back of the restaurant in this photo:

We were not disappointed. Holland being much closer to Italy than Boston, it was some delicious Italian fare.....even better than some of the meals I've had in Boston's North End. So yum! And, we had a nice conversation with the Welsh couple at the table 6 inches away from us (kind of hard to have a private dinner in close quarters like that).

And at that, we called it a night. The next morning, we packed and headed straight to the airport. We didn't know exactly how long it would take (couldn't remember from our jet lag haze on the way in) and wanted to err on the side of too much time. Even though we hadn't used in public transportation since our way in, it seemed less daunting and we made the trip to the airport with ease. I couldn't believe how smooth the trains were. Being used to the jostling Boston system, it was amazing to watch a woman easily apply mascara on the train car....it was that smooth!

We made it to the airport with time to spare. That meant time to grab some last minute souvenirs (as if we hadn't gotten enough already) and some grub. The flight home was a lot more relaxing the the one in. With our personal tv's, Mike and I (separately) watched a few movies, read and just enjoying the journey. We had a spectacular trip but were ready to get home to our little guy. I'll have to put up another post on his adventures with Mimaw and Pipaw while we were gone.