conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

Or, two trips to the doctors in one week.

Colin has Jim’s cold, only the baby version of it, which means, he sounds much worse and is acting much worse. But is no sicker than Jim was, according to the doctor whom we saw today. He had cranked up a decently high fever last night, added in a large dose of both crankiness and mucus, and had us worried enough to get him checked out.

He’s becoming more chipper, which means that right now he is roaming around my office (aka, the spare room), keeping me from being very productive.

Which means that I’m not getting very much time to play with my new toy — a 20″ iMac. It’s probably my first new computer in about four years. I got one before I quite working, but it went to Don after he went back to work, and I got his old PowerBook. Which I have grown to love. But it is starting to show it’s age and also does not have to capability to edit video, which is next on my to-do list. I have about 45 minutes of tape since Colin was born, and it’s just sitting there.

My “office” is coming together. As we piece the house together, we’re all finding what works where. I have Don’s old desk, which was actually my desk (before I quite work). It is a great desk, very big, with a shelf overhead. So, it’s in the corner of the spare room. I just re-oriented the twin bed that we put in here, and low and behold, there’s some floor space too. I’m planning to put my table next to it and use it for the printer(s) and sewing. But it may not be long enough, there’s is an option at Ikea for a longer table. But I like the table I have since the drop leaf makes a good size area for sewing.

What I like best is the view from the window. From where I’m sitting, I can see between the house behind us and across the street from them, into the field and then the next development over. With trees beyond that. It’s one of the nicest views from the house. I’m loathe to cover it up, but I will need to.

We’ve got Dad’s office done (it’s suh-weet, I’m jealous) and the entertainment center installed in the family room. We’re trying to work out toy storage for the family room. And we’re disagreeing on what to do with the old storage we were using previously.

Well, cranky Colin is back, time for bed.

The marathon is over.

There has not been a day in the last three-plus weeks where I have been able to do what I’m doing now. Sitting in my jammies, eating leftover pizza for breakfast, and relaxing. There are no doctor’s appointment, shopping trips or anything going on for today, and no big events in the foreseeable future.

Not that it hasn’t been wonderful. It was a dream come true to have as much family here for Thanksgiving as we did. Jim’s party was chaotic but fun.

The house is slowly coming together. We’re enjoying some of the new things, like, hey, two people can take a shower (in different bathrooms) at once. We’ve made three trips to IKEA so far — Dad’s office looks great, with built-in shelves and a huge desk. I’m looking forward to doing the same to my office, but I haven’t had time to map it out yet. With all the company, we got alot cleaned up, which is helping out tremendously.

I finally got curtains up in Colin’s room. I’m calling the theme “world music jungle” — he’s got some crazy colorful curtains from IKEA, and safari animals stick-ons on the walls.

Jim’s room is coming along slower, but I got a curtain rod yesterday, so hopefully he’ll get his curtains and shades up today.

Speaking of window coverings, we picked up Levolor blinds from Lowe’s the weekend we moved in — the middle grade aluminum ones, and had them custom cut. They’ve been nothing but a disappointment — difficult to install, operate poorly, and several were bent. They weren’t super expensive, but still, they weren’t worth the money we spent.

Jim had his five-year-old doctor’s appointment yesterday. At 40 pounds, he’s down to 50th percentile for his age (from 75th percentile last year). So, it’s back to fattening foods for him. Apparently a summer and fall of eating fast food nearly once a day wasn’t enough. Otherwise, he’s fine, despite a crazy year. To listen to the doctor read off his list of ailments, you’d think he would be living in a bubble. I really like the doctor that we saw too, because she spent a lot of time with us, and also asked about how his seizures presented, for her own information.

Colin is on the move. He’s fully furniture/cabinet/box surfing — lifting himself up on whatever he can find. He has even been standing a bit on his own, for a few seconds at least, before plopping down again. Sleep is still our biggest hurdle with him — some nights he’s getting up every 90 minutes to two hours. Then, we had one night where he slept four or five hours in a row. Now that company is out of the house, I’m working on several things at once. (A) Getting him to nap in his crib, which is related to (B) getting him to sleep without nursing him first. So I’m trying nurse him, then keep him up for a bit before putting him to bed. I’m also trying to get him to use a sippy cup, so that when he’s a year, we can transition to cow’s milk.

Well, it’s back to cyber-Tuesday for me — time to continue Christmas shopping.

We got the washer, dryer and fridge yesterday. I don’t know which one I was happier to get. But I had to level the washer, and that took about an hour this morning. But it is good and level now, so no shaking the house down.

And wow, it does nearly twice the amount of clothes in one load than the old one did.

The fridge is good too. I went to the store and hardly filled it at all, but I still don’t really have enough food for a real meal.

We’re still unpacking. I get a couple boxes done a day, or I get organizing done on days I don’t unpack a lot.

Two signs that this is the country (besides the fact that the house was built on former farmland). Sears only delivers twice a week, which is why we won’t have a fridge or washer and dryer until tomorrow).

And I just filled out my Postal Rural Delivery Form to get the post office to deliver our mail.

Colin’s top two canines came in over the weekend.

Oh, and we’re moved into the new house!

Closing went well, although it was not well run. We were able to get into the house (apparently some people have had problems with keys). The move in went well — it only took about 45 minutes for three guys to pack up the storage unit, and then we had six guys to unpack the two trucks back at the house. There were quite a few mix-ups with the boxes, and we’re still sorting it out. We had a lot of help yesterday, and the kitchen is mostly unpacked, and the kids’ rooms are pretty much together. I’m missing a lot of my clothes.

So today Dad got his TV, and a PlayStation 3. I ordered some area rugs and a new phone that won’t break a wireless connection.

So, I’m probably wrong about the countertops. A big box home improvement store carries the same line that the builder installs, and we went there today and I pulled a sample. Now I remember that Dad must have wanted the beige-ish greenish one, and this was the one I wanted.

I’m getting excited!

I’m also happy that a good night’s sleep has helped tremendously with my back pain (and the meds have too), and I’m back to almost normal form. I booked another night at the hotel, so that I don’t have to (not) sleep on the floor the first night in the new house.

In the past week, Colin has progressed from crawling, kneeling, and bouncing to pulling up, standing, and climbing stairs. I’ve caught him (more than once) up two or three stairs. And, at least one of his canine teeth will be in by the end of the weekend.

Today we sold our house. There were no last minute hassles with regard to the sale. Getting out of the house proved more difficult. The movers were fine, although they took too much from the house (both playpens) and not enough from the garage. We dealt with it, although we look like the Clampetts with the cars stuffed to the gills with belongings.

We’re in a hotel, waiting for Dad to get back from school now.

I went the doctor’s before the closing; he wanted to run some tests then and there, but I didn’t have time (we were late to closing as it was). So I go back next week, and have more pain meds in the meantime. He said I need muscle relaxers, but that with still nursing Colin, they’re out of the question.

This hotel is great — lots of amenities, including a birthday party in the common area for one of the staff members, with cake! and lunchmeat! and soda! It is however, very difficult to baby proof, with a fireplace and stairs. But a full kitchen rocks my world. Oh, and I forgot the free wireless! And complimentary microwave popcorn!

Dad went to the new house walkthrough without me — I couldn’t take riding in the car after the closing. He said it looks beautiful. However, we think that they put in the wrong countertop. I distinctly remember a yellowish-green color — it was one of the things Dad gave me the final say on. However, it was an “old” color when I made the choice — between the time we signed the papers and the time I choose the countertop, the colors had changed. Now that we know that we have some money, I’m going to look into getting solid surface countertops instead of laminate.

Later… the kids are asleep, and all is well for now.

I was able to get up and out of bed with little pain, and then switched the carseats and felt great. Then, driving Jim to school and carrying Colin into the bank (because I forgot the stroller) did me in. Then picking Jim up from school REALLY did me in. I couldn’t even bring the boys into the house — I just took a pill and climbed into bed. I fell right to sleep and woke up feeling good again. I spent about two hours packing dishes and glasses, and now I’m in bed again, debating on taking one of the two pills that are left. I don’t get to see the doctor until Wednesday morning.

Regular Advil is an option, but both the Advil and pain meds (which contains Advil) are making me really sick to my stomach.

Reinforcements are here for the night to help pack and baby wrangler — although Colin was pretty good at keeping himself happy in the kitchen with me. I think that the kitchen and our room are the biggest “to-be-packed” rooms left, but I knocked out the dishes, so that should make things easier.

It’s so hard to not be able to contribute to the last bits of the packing effort. Dad has worked so hard, he’s gotten the garage done, and the boys’ rooms. He and Uncle Mike are working on the basement now. Now we’re running out of boxes.

The one good thing is that I’ve been stretching out my pain meds up to 8 hours apart, and even so I’m able to get up and around.

There are more in the 2007 October gallery.

Colin pulled himself up to standing in his crib tonight, AND crawled up one step onto the landing in the basement this morning!

Everything is on track for the two closings. Except me. Last night Dad had to take me to the ER because I hurt my back. It’s flared up off and on for the past two months or so, but last night was the first night the pain wouldn’t go away with lying down. So I got a shot of a serious painkiller, and 10 pills to get me through until who knows when. I’m flat on my back in bed, only getting up if I really have to.

I did make an appointment to see my regular doctor on Wednesday before we close on this house, so hopefully I’ll get some therapy to get things straightened out.

This is hard on Dad, because now he has pack the house up himself. And it’s hard on Colin, because I can’t nurse him as much. We were going to try and wean him right away, but after doing some reading, it seems like a bad decision.

This was such a nice Halloween. I finished the costumes in a relaxed manner, the night before. But I took three weeks overall to make them, so I never felt rushed. So while I fudged the bands on Jim’s sleeves, I was able to add a bunch of finishing touches to both costumes that really made them. I’m just so happy the way they turned out.

I thought it would be weeks before you got to see pictures, because yesterday (or the day before) I lost the cable to the card reader for the camera. No way to easily get the pics off the camera. But I just went downstairs to get sweater, and there it was, sitting on the love seat. It must have just fell out of my camera bag, and I missed it because, you know, a black cord on a dark blue couch in a clue basement.

Another photo that I have to take this morning is all the trash Dad and I threw out last night. Hopefully it’s the majority of it, because this is our last trash day before closing.

The kids had a great time trick or treating. Jim really loves to give out candy, and it was hard to pull him away from it. But after he got that first bit of candy, he was hooked. No holding back like he did last year, he ran up to every door, even one’s with the lights out. Colin got some candy, but often I took him up with Jim but didn’t hold out his bag, because I felt greedy — he’s not eating it, after all. But sometimes people wanted to give him some anyway.

Luckily a few people (mostly kids) knew Jim’s costume. We got a couple funny comments, like, “does the arrow tell me where to put the candy?” Colin wasn’t so lucky. He was often called a bunny (?) or Gizmo (from Gremlins). But kids who knew Jim’s costume knew Colin’s.