2nd Annual Hines\Lee Storyland Adventure

Saturday morning (now over a week ago) we continued our NH trip by spending the day at Storyland! We got up, had a quick bite and hit the road. Thanks to hurricane Irene and roads being washed out, we would have to take a detour to that side of the white mountains forest. In the end, it was a nice drive....only about 15-20 minutes longer than usual and very scenic. All the kiddos had short naps on the way there so we were hoping they would be energized to get through the rest of the day without their usual naps.

The weather was sunny and cool...absolutely perfect for a day outside. We arrived about 45 minutes after the park opened and left just before closing. It was a long day but the kids (and parents) had a lot of fun. I have lots of pictures of random rides. Here they are.

Antique Cars - Dylan had no interest in driving so I took the wheel.

Log Ride - They didn't allow preggos on.

The ""Big" Drop (Remember, this place is geared towards very young kids.)

The Ball Funhouse
This was definitely a family favorite.
The boys loved it and everyone, parents included, participated in a foam ball fight .

The Lee Family in a "Hot Air Balloon"

Dylan's First Roller Coaster!
(He and Mike are seated in the 2nd row from the back.
This was another ride I wasn't allowed to enjoy.)

The Cuckoo Clockenspiel
(Dylan loved looking at all the working parts,
inside and out, of the big clock.)

Cinderella's Castle
Dylan and I rode in the pumpkin carriage back down the hill.

The Carousel

Justin's Ready to Ride!

Mike's Ready to Race!

All Three of Us

Ryan, Dylan and Justin on the Plank to the Pirate Ship

Mmmm....Slushy! Ryan drank the whole thing!

The Flying Fish
It was tough to get a great picture, but Dylan and I loved this ride.
Dylan had a lot of fun controlling the fish sail.

The last ride of the day was a family event - the Turtle Twirl!
I was shocked that a ride that whipped you around so much was a "safe"
one for me. I loved it and couldn't stop laughing at the turning and
Dylan's confused expression during the ride.

While Dylan mostly had the deer in the headlights look during every ride, he was always ready to go on the next one. When he got off a ride, we would ask him if he had fun and he would always reply "fun." I did hear a few "wee's" on a couple of rides I got to ride with him. Of course, there were only a few that I could go on since pregnant ladies weren't allowed on most. I guess I should have expected that but for some reason I thought that rides meant for young kids would be gentle enough for me and the baby in the womb. So, I was a little bummed but it worked out for the best since it minimized the amount of arguments Mike and I had over who got to ride with Dylan on what ride. What can I say, we both love amusement park rides!

It being Saturday, September 10th when we were there, it was also a very special day - Mike's b'day! (Also my Mom's birthday and I called her after our day to wish her a very happy one.) I was hoping that guest services would have something super embarrassing to inflict on a birthday boy, like a crown or something. They didn't but they did have a sticker where they would fill in how old you were turning!

Michael's Birthday Boy Sticker

After a long day for everyone at the park, there were naps on the way home (for kids and me) and then it was a mad rush to get dinner ready for the kids, the cake made so that the boys could enjoy it, and then dinner made for the adults.

I made (what I must say) was a delicious cake. I thought we'd had candles for the cake at the condo but we didn't so we improvised with a yankee candle.

We sang and Mike blew out the candle. Dylan told us all that we had done a "good job." Good job is one of his new cute things. He compliments himself and us after a task completed. Not only is it cute but it makes me feel like I'm doing something right as a parent that he's mimicking positive reinforcement to us. Then, it was time to enjoy the cake. Yummy!

With the little ones in bed and the adults fed, the hectic pace continued. Mike, Dylan and I had to leave very early in the morning for Mike to get to his soccer game back in MA so we had to clean, pack and prepare the condo to be abandoned again for who knows how long. It was a very long and exhausting day! I was counting the tasks down until I could get to bed.

2nd Annual Hines\Lee NH Trip

Well, we are now well into packing land. Most of the weekend was devoted to getting our house ready for the move. With only one more weekend before the big event, there's no time to mess around! Since blogging about packing is not at all exciting or interesting, I figured I would reminisce back to the weekend before when we were having some fun.

I took off the Friday before last for the 2nd annual Hines\Lee NH trip. Last summer, we had Mike's cousin and his family (Erik, Jessie, Justin and Ryan) up for a trial run of Storyland fun. And while it was fun, it was also really blasting hot. With that not a distant enough memory, we opted to try for a 2nd annual trip when we might be in for a little cooler weather. So, back in the spring, we picked the weekend in September to be the time. Little did we know then that it would be our last bit of fun before moving madness.

Thursday night, we all arrived late and just unpacked and got kids in bed. Friday morning was when the fun would begin. And what's more fun than pancakes for breakfast followed by the Polar Caves? Almost nothing!

Ryan, Justin and Dylan Waiting for the Grub

When we arrived at the parking lot of the Polar Caves for the second time that morning (the first we were there 45 minutes before it opened so did a detour to Walmart down the street first), I gave Erik a demo of our back pack. We thought it would be great for him to carry Ryan through the caves in. Since Dylan's very used to the backpack, I used him for the demo. Well, my little lazy boy then refused to get out of it. So, I was a pretty silly sight for a while - a big ol' pregnant lady carrying around a big 2 year old!

Dylan, Preggo and the Bear

Feeding the Deer

After looking at the pretty pheasants they have and feeding the deer and ducks, I convinced Dylan to get out of the pack and walk around. It was time to head to the caves!

Erik, Ryan and Justin

Smooch on the Kissing Bridge

The Lee Family

Dylan and Justin did an amazing job of climbing up and down all of the stairs (and there are TONS of them) and were brave little boys adventuring through all the caves. Mike, Jessie and I accompanied the boys in all of the caves but Erik and Ryan only went through a few. The backpack wasn't working all that well for him since he was a) not used to it and b) pretty nervous about knocking Ryan's noggin' on the rocks. He also came to the decision that Ryan was far too heavy to carry while climbing through the caves. So, they patiently waited for the rest of us to go through the caves.

Cousins in a Cave

Justin and Jessie on the Descent

Mike and Dylan Following

I think the timing was perfect for the trip. The weather was great, 2 out of 3 kids were big enough to walk through with assistance and I didn't get stuck anywhere (a few more weeks along, that might not have been the case)!

After all that climbing, we stopped at a gazebo on the grounds for some snacks. And since everyone did such a great job, it was "Polar Cave High Fives" all around.

Back out towards the entrance, we stopped again to watch the ducks. The boys really enjoyed them. Especially Dylan.

And we had one more attempt to get a family picture by their bear statues. Dylan wasn't into it so you just have to be happy looking at Mike and my mugs.

After our adventure, we stopped at a sandwich\pizza spot for lunch. With full bellies, it was time for naps all around (since the previous night didn't give any of us a good night's rest). And by all around I mean in rounds. The kids napped while some parents did then other parents napped while the boys were taken outside to play for a while. Then we fed the kids and got them to bed. The adults stayed up for a while talking....probably too long since the next morning called for an early start and a long day. We were all going to Storyland!

2 years, 2 months and some change

It's been a couple of months since a Dylan update. Mike and I are constantly in awe of watching this little human being develop in so many ways. It seems every week brings something new, and usually cute, to note.

The boy is still running on little to no food yet growing like a weed. I seriously don't understand it. At the beginning of the summer, size 2T clothes were too big for him. Now, he's already starting to grow out of that size. Where is the food energy coming from for all this growth? Quite the mystery.

With all the TV watching we did during the house search and prepping the house for sale, he became a bit of an addict. With less time in the car and more time to engage with him, we're trying to curb that addiction. He very often says "watch TV." When we say that it's not time to watch TV, he normally follows up with "read a book." Now that's definitely an activity that has my stamp of approval!

Not only is he great about sitting and listening to books while we read to him, he's starting to "read" to us! He has a couple of very simple book that he can narrate to us. One is a "this baby is happy" kind of book where you then lift a flap to see the words "hee hee!" Dylan's great at "reading" it can read it all the way through to us. We also have a Peek-a-Boo book where you read a blurb and then have to lift the flap for the answer. Dylan loves lifting the flaps and "reading" us all the answers. Perhaps he'll be an early reader like his Mom was...no pressure or anything though. :)

His language continues to develop by leaps and bounds. He's great at repeating things we say to him and you can see the wheels turning and processing all the new information. Now, he's relaying information to us that happened previously, not always about what's currently going on around him. It's great except for one thing - it's more difficult for us to translate his words when they're out of context! That means I've been relying on Mike a lot more to translate for me since I'm not around him most of his week day life.

Dylan also likes to play games where he asks questions and gives his own answers. Like he'll say, "Mommy in the kitchen? No!" or "Oliver sleeping? Yes." It's very cute. Might be, probably and could be are favorite new words\concepts for him. For instance, in the morning he'll see Oliver going downstairs and will say "Oliver go downstairs. Might be eating." Of course whenever the cats (or anything for that matter) is out of sight it's always that they're "probably sleeping." In the cats' case, Dylan's likely right.

He continues to improve leaps and bounds with his independent play which is giving us more time to do things other than entertain him. Even if I'm not playing with him, I do like to stop often and watch him play (something Mike has the luxury of doing a lot more than I do). It's adorable to watch him create dialogue and stories with his toys.

Dylan still loves swinging. We've found that going to parks without swings is a lot more fun for us. Otherwise, our park scene pretty much plays out with us pushing the swing with Dylan on it for about a solid hour before we force him to get out of the swing and leave.

Despite our early efforts to get him on the potty training track, he's shown absolutely zero interest in that potty business. After bath time, he very often wanders around in his cute hooded animal towels. For some reason, a couple of weeks ago,his time was always when he needed to tinkle and he would just do it right on the floor. We would remind hi tm when putting on the towel that if he needed to tinkle, he should use the potty but 30 seconds later, there would be a puddle on the floor. After this scenario was repeated several times (luckily without any major collateral damage), he wants his diaper on pretty immediately to avoid the piddle on the floor. I know a lot of folks swear to having their child run around in the buff to help with potty training, but it seems that's not going to help in our case. With the upcoming move, holidays and new baby, I have no plans to push any potty training on Dylan. We'll keep reiterating the concepts and wait for him to be ready to be a big boy. Honestly, I don't mind at all. After recently being around some older boys that have potty trained within the last year and watching their parents drop whatever they're doing to find a restroom immediately, the diapers almost seem more convenient!

One thing you can't say about Dylan is that he's a dirty kid. I bet he's one of the cleanest 2 year olds around because he ALWAYS wants to take a shower. Whenever one of us is getting in, he must come with us. In fact, if there's some reason we don't have the time for him to jump in with us, he gets very upset about it. So, pretty much every morning, he showers with me, stays in the tubby after I get out then showers with Mike. Many times we have to coax him out after all that time as well (usually 30 minutes or so). He's a squeaky clean kid!

Well, that's my little guy in a nutshell. The next month or so it will be interesting to see how he handles all the trials and tribulations of moving and adjusting to a new home environment. Something tells me he'll likely be better at it than any other humans or critters in our household!

My Cool Dude

Pile It On

Why is it when you think you're plate is so over filled, stacked high and threatening to overflow that somehow another scoop of crap is added to the top? Stressful life events seem to get all stacked together and truly test how much you can handle.

All the house stuff, while busy, stressful, frustrating and taking up every spare moment of our lives, was a lot. We've been trying to be diligent in tasks and doing whatever we can to make the transition easier. For example, we had already purchased a new couch, treadmill and washer\dryer for the new house and scheduled delivery as well as put in our change of address with the post office. Of course, we had to go and change all that this week, essentially doing all the work twice. Yay, I love wasted time.

Another thing we wanted to do to ease into our new neighborhood was to get the cats' annual exams, due at the end of October, done before we moved to buy us some time in finding a new vet. Taking the animals to the vet is really low on my "want to do" list so Michael has always had this lovely responsibility. Last year, Dylan accompanied the crew and it was a disaster! Oliver goes crazy, which upset Dylan and Mike was trying to calm a 1 year old and essentially having to ignore the cat that seriously needed attention. It was not a good scene. So, this year, we thought we'd see if Dylan could be removed from the chaotic situation.

As our luck would have it, our two wonderful neighborhood friends we can usually call on in a pinch were unavailable to take Dylan. Mike decided to bite the bullet, as opposed to reschedule, and take Dylan in with the two cats. Literally, more than two handfuls.

Yesterday morning, the cats were loaded into carriers, Dylan was dressed with shoes on ready to go and Mike headed out to start the car to head to the vet. His battery was absolutely dead! No neighbors were around to help him jump his car (I had already left for work). Being the adventurous and resourceful guy he is, he plopped Dylan in the stroller, put Luci's carrier in the storage compartment underneath and balanced Oliver on top of the sun shade\handle of the stroller. I only wish he had been able to get a picture of that because I'm sure it was quite a sight to behold!

Being the practical people we are and having cats that aren't great travelers, we go to a vet only 3 blocks from the house. Good thing, otherwise that stroller solution wouldn't have worked so "easy." Apparently, Dylan being a sweet boy and a parrot to boot, repeated his Daddy's "It's ok Luci" and "It's ok Oliver" to the unhappy cats en route. What a good guy!

Unfortunately, the morning drama caused Mike to be 5 minutes late for "crazy" Oliver's appointment and they took the next appointment that had already arrived which meant the boys had to wait. Yeah, not good for scared kitties.

Upon entering the exam room, Oliver upped his protest to make sure everyone knew he was not happy about being there.  Dylan was semi-watching Bugs Life on our iPad and trying to take in the odd surroundings of a vet's exam room.  Luci was huddled on the floor in her carrier with the top open trying not to move too much.  Dylan would frequently go over, sit on the floor, and try and make sure she was ok.

As soon as the Doctor entered the room, Oliver greeted her with a loud cry and a hiss.  As the doctor and Mike spoke for a few minutes about Oliver and how he was doing his protests grew louder.  The doctor called for some backup to restrain Oliver during the exam and off they went.  Screaming, hissing, crying at the volume of an opera singer he went through his exam.  Dylan looked at Mike several times and Mike had to reassure him that Oliver was fine, he just didn't want the doctors touching him.  Mike promised they were not hurting him and that he would be ok.  A sad 2 year old looked up at him with a slightly extended bottom lip and watery eyes.  After saying it's ok he then put his hands over his face.  He loves his cats and doesn't want them to be unhappy.

After Oliver's exam he was placed back in his carrier and left to be grumpy in the corner.  Luci is the exact opposite of Oliver.  Mike picked her up out of her carrier, gave her to the vet and she just sat on the table quietly while the doc did her exam.  She didn't move or make a peep the whole time. She was terrified, but held it together well!

After all that drama and the vet not being too concerned about Oliver's weight loss, we just had to wait on the blood test to come back this morning to confirm all was good with our furry baby. The vet called this morning with the results. Here's where you insert the big ol' game show "WAH WAH!" Oliver does have a problem. My poor little 15 year old insulin dependent cat now also has a hyper thyroid. Yuck!

After the vet gave us the options (including a now mostly defunct surgical procedure to remove the thyroid and some crazy process where they cure him by giving him radioactive iodine and then cage him for 3-5 days to keep his radioactive urine away from the outside world while charging you a month's mortgage payment or more), we settled on the "easy" twice a day pill pop. While Oliver doesn't love getting a pill (literally) shoved down his throat, he (and we) are already accustomed to a twice daily medication schedule so we figured what's one more to give?

We'll start him on the medication tonight and then need to call the new vet by our soon to be new house to make an appointment in 3-4 weeks to do a blood test and see how we might need to adjust the dosage.

So, there's today's new brick to add to our loads. Anyone else have bad\stressful news they want to give to us? I mean, we don't have much going on so we can handle it. Har har.

Labor Day Minus the Labor

Labor Day weekend was glorious and gloriously labor free.

Realtors, mortgage brokers and lawyers were all trying to do what we were trying to do - forget about the responsibilities of life and enjoy the "last weekend of summer." I did a really great job of not thinking about all the chaos (well, as much as possible) and just enjoyed some good ol' family time with my boys.

We definitely did a few fun things out of the house. The times when we weren't out and about, we were just blissfully hanging out at home. When Dylan napped, I read and\or slept. When Dylan was up, we played and did fun things. I really couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Here are some of the things we did do.

Swung - at home and at the park.

On Saturday, we went to the Zoo with Mike's Sister, Kristina, and Her Two Boys

There, we fed the budgies,

Enjoyed our time together,

And were entertained by the animals.

Sunday, Mike's parents came over for an evening cookout. Monday, we met up with friends Ross and Tamara and their little girl, Elsa, for some park time and a walk along the Charles River. And, Monday night, we painted!

I suppose there was a splattering of responsible stuff going on. I mean, we did manage to all shower every day, get in a little exercise and kept the house looking fairly well picked up. It was SOOOO nice to just not have too much going on though. It makes me long for more of those kinds of weekends. Is it possible we'll be able to have some of those after getting settled from our move, before the holidays and, more importantly, before the new baby arrives? I highly doubt it, but a gal can wish, can't she?

Having said that, I'm taking the day off tomorrow for a long ago planned weekend of fun in NH with Mike's cousin and his family. While we're sure to be packing in a lot of fun, I'm guessing that have 3 young kiddos about and being out of everyone's routines won't exactly feel leisurely. I'll still be very happy to have this one last hurrah before the moving rush begins though!

Delays, Delays, Delays

Now, I'm no naive person. I don't expect all processes involving buying and selling a home concurrently to go well. However, it seems that most aspects on both sides of this equation have been giving us headaches.

First it was the home search. Then it was the fire drill related to our home buyers almost backing out at the purchase and sale. Last week (and still ongoing) is mortgage problems.

I am not what you call an investment risk. Obviously, the climate for obtaining a mortgage today is a lot different than it was last time I purchased a home. So, I expected a few more hoops to jump through. What I did not expect was the complete obstacle course provided in order to apply for a mortgage. While that was hassle enough alone, I was absolutely not prepared for the roadblock that was hit last week.

Our original mortgage commitment deadline date was a week ago today. On that date, my mortgage broker was still requesting paperwork from me even though I had provided every single document requested within 24 hours of all previous requests, none of which I'd had in over one and a half week. I was also informed that my lawyer was requesting an extension of a week of that deadline (ie today) from the sellers. I was assured over and over that this extension request is VERY common in today's mortgage market. On Wednesday I got an email from my mortgage broker's assistant that was a little alarming in our status. However, after speaking with my mortgage broker that day, I was assured everything was a-okay.

Thursday morning, I came into my office and had received an email from my broker late the previous evening. Everything was not a-okay and I was indeed losing the mortgage we had applied for. Why? Not because I'm not a qualified lender, not because I don't have a good credit standing, not because I don't have all the finances necessary, but because my (apparently) incompetent mortgage broker didn't carefully read the parameters of the specific loan he applied me for that had outrageous reserve account requirements that we fell just a wee bit short of. Grrr!!!!

So, 2 days of phone calls, emails, research, scrambling and decision making later, our closing is now delayed by a couple of weeks. Why? Well, I either need to close on our current house first (there goes the nice 2 week window we had arranged for ourselves to get floors refinished in the new place and have a decent moving timeline) or wait for the new mortgage I started the processes on Friday afternoon (with a different broker) to get finalized. One way or the other, we'll be closing on the 30th. Doesn't closing on 2 houses and moving the same day sound like fun? Yeah, doesn't to me either.

Needless to say, I am furious at my original broker for costing me time, money (now we have to cover carrying costs of the buyer for the delay) and a good deal of stress. It's one things for closing delays to legitimately occur. I get it, it happens. We had padded ourselves fairly well between the closing dates of the two houses to give us some leeway for that. If I weren't a qualified lender then hey that would be my fault. But for a person that's supposed to be working on my team and whose job it is to get people a loan to be at the root of the problem, that's just unacceptable. I'm not sure which loan I'm going to take in the end. I will be receiving a mortgage commitment letter today from the original lender but am going forward with this new loan application. It depends which will cost me less in the long run which is yet to be determined. But, I will promise this, my mortgage broker won't be hearing from me again for any new business or referrals in the future!

The upside to all this is that our sellers are being really great about everything. Yes, they requested we pay the carrying costs of the house during the delay, but I would expect them to. However, with the snafu of closing times, they are being great about the floor refinishing situation. If we use their floor guy (the seller is a builder and has a relationship with this company), they will still allow us to have the floors refinished before we actually own the house. I feel like that's above and beyond expectations and appreciate it a lot! We may also be able to move in a day or two before closing, but that's not desirable for us as it presents a whole new set of liabilities and risks I'd rather not deal with. However, the logistics of 2 closings and moving in the same day....we might just need to be a little risky on that front.

So, though not a desirable development, we've accepted our options and are moving forward. I guess this means we have a little more time to pack!