conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

Tonight we interviewed the last of three realtors. The sign should be up this weekend. All that’s left is minor touch-ups and major cleaning. We’re so close.

The interview process was interesting. The first, as we somewhat expected, fell far short of our expectations, stumbled through her “presentation, and tried to entice us with an inflated sales price. The other two are quite similar, are we are trying to decide between them.

Colin is officially rolling over all the time, from back to front. He’s moved onto oatmeal from rice cereal, and tried peas tonight. He was surprised at them.

We picked out floors, countertops, and the exterior colors for the house this week, and finalized the add-ons for it. I’m trying to track down all the papers for the mortgage application. We paid the rest of the deposit/down payment, and the builder is looking to start construction in eight or nine weeks.

All right, it’s bedtime for me…

It seems like we knocked out all the big stuff this weekend. The hallway upstairs is painted and we have furniture in the living room. But now there are thousands of little things to do. Touch-up paint, cleaning, putting more stuff in storage. And we’re quickly running out of storage space.

Yesterday I took a whole pick-up truck FULL of stuff for the electronics and hazardous waste disposal, since the next one isn’t until September. And wouldn’t you know it, I still forgot stuff. But we got all the old computers out of the attic, along with two monitors and a printer.

Colin is rolling over more and more. Half the time I put him down on the floor, he’s rolled over. I never get to see it, just the end result. His latest obsession is water bottles, although right now he’s playing with a half-gallon lemonade jug.

Well, gotta go put on another tv show for jim, and get back to trim painting.

Jim’s neurologist states that there is nothing cognitively wrong with Jim, which of course, is awesome. He even thinks he’s a bit advanced for his age, and warned us that the problem with that is that he’s smart enough to hide what he’s not good at…

Anyway, this week Jim has asked me:

1. Why aren’t there GO signs on the road?

and

2. Why aren’t tires any other shape besides circles?

It’s starting to feel like last summer, with multiple trips to Jim’s doctors. We’re following up on his asthma (bloodwork), his kidney infection (tests, doctor), and epilepsy (doctor visit, increase medication, bloodwork). On top of, applying for a mortgage for the new house and getting this house ready.

After leaving Jim’s neurologist and getting some lunch, we stopped at the bank, and for some reason I decided to check on my phone, which I’ve been charging in the car. Two new urgent messages saying that Jim’s tests had been scheduled and please call back or they’ll cancel it. Dude, all because you can’t reach me within a few hours. So I call back and get to leave a message myself. And of course, he can’t see the urologist the same day like he’s supposed to, so we’ll be going back to the hospital twice next week. Oh, and they left a message at home, too.

So we made a quick stop home for food (Colin) and bathroom breaks, and headed over to the local hospital to pick up the films from the scans Jim had while in the hospital. Because the urologist doesn’t like reports. Won’t read them until after she looks at the films.

And then onto a local linens store where I finally found a shower curtain that matches the roman shade I already bought for the upstairs bathroom, which means I have to take back the white towels I got and replace the with nice brown ones for “staging” the bathroom.

Dad had to work late, so I packed up four more boxes and took the kids out for water ice. It’s so hot and I’m so thirsty! And Jim didn’t eat any of his.

More work on the house before the weather gets nasty and we have to shut it up. I got the bathroom painted last Sunday and Monday, except for the trim, which I haven’t had a chance to do yet. I hung the new light fixture and shower curtain rod. The first mirror I bought doesn’t fit, but the light was the big thing we needed — now I can paint when it’s dark outside if I need too. Also, while spackling the bathroom, I worked on the ceiling by the attic stairs, and by working with many light coats, I got it looking real good. There’s just one low spot that needs finishing before we can start painting the hall.

A big thing I got done Thursdya and Friday was to paint the front and interior garage doors. It takes 24 hours between coats to dry, and being oil based, really stinks up the place. Plus, someone has to be here, because we couldn’t lock the doors — the hardware was off. But they look really good (although I’m skipping the second coat). Besides putting new hardware on the door, I got a cool magnetic door knocker. Also, I found brass spray paint, and I’m going to paint the screen door hardware to match.

I hung new curtains I got from Ikea in Colin’s room (white replaces brown) and over the kitchen slider (white with black flowers). Plus a new black curtain rod in the kitchen slider as well — it really brings together the black accents in the room, and will look good when the table has the tablecloth removed again.

What else? Packing Colin’s room and closet, now I can put his stuff into it and make it look like a real closet. I picked up new towels to stage both bathrooms with, and towel bars, but I have to take the bars back — the metal matches, but the design doesn’t.

It looks like we’re going to be packing a lot of stuff away this weekend — we’re tripping over all the boxes we’ve packed this week. I can take stuff when I go out with the kids, but I can only fit four boxes in the car trunk.

We were busy early in the week. Tuesday I took Jim to a pulmonolgist about his asthma, and I have to say, I wasn’t too happy with the visit. They can’t test his pulmonary function until he’s six or seven, so the best they’ll do right now is a chest x-ray and some bloodwork. We’re going to see a urologist on Monday to follow-up from the kidney infection. I have to say that medical records has come a long way — the hospital was able to give me all the documents I requested immediately — no waiting because everything is computerized now, not just the lab and x-ray results.

In big Jim doctor news, we finally found his neurologist. Actually, I have to say, that BackSheGoes.com came through for us again. A while ago we had contacted one poster who was a social worker at a local children’s hospital to see if she knew how to find him (we’ve been asking every medical personnel we can). Well, last week she was working with a family who was raving about their kid’s doctor, and she got the name and it’s him. So she sent us the phone number. Turns out he opened his own practice literally down the street from where he worked, and stills has priviledges at that hospital, and we’re going to see him this Tuesday.

On the new house front, I took the kids over on Wednesday and got a bunch of stuff done. Got the descriptions of all the appliance options, which is good, because we wouldn’t have been happy with the “base” microwave and dishwasher. I compared the cabinets in the model to a floor sample I picked up, and they look good together, so now we’re decided on cabinet color. Found out that a lot of the lighting in the model is standard, so we will have the recessed lights in the bathrooms and hallway at no extra cost. Then, we got to see a model like our the day before closing, which has an office in it. It’s very nice and bigger than the space Dad has now, plus it has a window and overhead light. We got the homeowner’s documents, and found that the only thing prohibited (so far) are above the ground pools (good) and fences in the front yard.

As we bust our collective butts fixing up the house he’ll never remember, Colin turns five months old today. As I write this, he’s laying on the floor, playing with his new best friends, his toes. He wakes up and grabs his feet. He hasn’t rolled over anymore, but it seems like he’s grown so much in the last two weeks.

We’re getting him to sleep an hour or two in the crib, but then it’s usually into our bed, which is frustrating for me, because my sleep is suffering from it. But he’s cute as a bug when he wakes up happy and hungry.

Colin was on his best behavior when Jim was in the hospital. He had one hard day, when he was constantly woken up whenever he fell asleep, but otherwise he ate well and slept frequently. There were no protests when I got him out of bed at 7.00 or 7.30 to leave in the morning. And if I wanted to talk to someone, all I had to do was pick him up and walk into the hall — I could go no where in the hospital with Colin without someone coming up to see him and talk to him. I felt bad for Jim sometimes, with all the attention Colin was getting.

Colin is also getting into toys, especially the ones in the “arch” and anything he can put in his mouth.

Jim has been in the hospital since EARLY Monday morning with a kidney infection. Mom-instinct kicked in Sunday night, when he woke complaining that his belly hurt. My unspoken worst-case-scenario was appendicitis, because he had high fevers off and on all week. He had seen the doctor the previous Monday, and the game plan had been to see him again to start bloodwork. Since bladder infections are so rare in a boy his age, it was off the doc’s radar — usually they would show up much much earlier in life.

Now he’s on IV antibiotics and we’re waiting for him to be fever-free for 24 hours. The 24-hour clock last got reset Thursday afternoon.

Dad was staying with Jim at night, because I wasn’t allowed to keep Colin with me in the room. But last night Dad had to work remotely, and the hospital internet wouldn’t let him do the work he needed. So I had my first night away from Colin (hence, the hospital shower this morning). And the report is that he was very, very good for Dad.

Except for refusing to take liquid motrin anymore, Jim has been a trooper. He’s had two IV sites, bloodwork, an ultrasound, and a kidney/bladder scan, besides getting poked and prodded by doctors and nurses all week. Not to mention the boredom of sitting in bed most of the day.

We spent all day Friday and Saturday working on the outside of the house — in 90 degree weather no less. The rock wall is done, I just need to mulch the whole bed. Dad and uncle Mike power washed the front of the house, and cleaned up the back yard. Dad put in a new maibox and Mike put up new porch and garage lights. We’re going to re-paint the trim in the front, and the front door, when the weather gets drier. But it sure looks pretty, and we sure are sore….

In the meantime, Jim is getting better and seems to no longer have a fever, and Colin has found that he can grab his feet and toes. It’s his new favorite thing to do.