Crazy with a Toddler

Life has been turning round and round in our house hold over the last six months, and that doesn't even include the whole house selling and buying process. We went through the process of graduating from having a baby to having a toddler (even though it still pains me to call him that, makes him seem too old).

This little guy doesn't just walk anymore but runs (which is very cute to watch with his clenched fists and tiny legs moving so quickly). He is also so much more independent or at least when he wants to be. 

Here are some basics on what he is up to now...

• Loves to play outside. We were so blessed to receive hand-me-downs of many toys such as a slide and cozy car for him. He also loves to play basketball with the hoop that we got him, saying "miss" even when he makes it.
• Still loves to cook. How he has graduated to helping me cook. He is very good and mixing up marinades in ziploc bags.
• His vocabulary has exploded! And he is adding new words every day.
• He can make many animal sounds...dog, cow, bird, snake, pig, squirrel, owl, etc.
• Most meals he feeds himself everything, only sometimes needing our help getting the food on his fork or spoon. This leads to many dirty shirts and shorts but the happy, proud look on his face makes the extra work with a stain remover very worth it. 
• Has truly learned what TV is. On a day that he was very fussy I took a friends advice and turned on an episode of VeggieTales (thank you Netflix!). Now our smart little boy knows that in order to watch VeggieTales we need the Blu-ray remote. A couple times a week he will find it and bring it to one of us asking for "Veggies".

I know I am missing a lot of things that I should list here but I can't think of them all right now. Our baby boy is definetely a little boy (aka toddler) now and I hold tight to those moments when he still truely needs Mommy to do something for him because I know soon enough those moments will be gone too.

House Comparison Through Andrew's Eyes

The first house that we owned and the one that we do now are completely different. I find it interesting to see how Andrew reacts differently to this house than he did the other one so I thought I would show the differences through his eyes.

Space...I have so much more room to run! And I take full advantage of that on a daily basis.

Down, Down...I now have a toy room, it is downstairs but I quickly mastered that after moving. I will even play down there by myself for short periods of time but Mommy and Daddy make sure the gate is closed to the laundry room and the bedroom that is down there.

Bathroom Space...I now get to share a bathroom with Mommy and Daddy. They say it is only temporary though until I get bigger and they can move to the "master bedroom" downstairs.

Pets...I got a lot of pets when we moved. They come and go as they please but they are a lot of fun to watch. They consist of two squirrels, a ground squirrel, occasionally bunnies and birds of all types. I did have a bumble bee for a while too but he is gone now.

Office...I now have a whole room to go into where I can get Mommy and Daddy's books out to read; sometimes they are a whole lot better than mine, even if they don't have any pictures in them.

Outside...I have a great backyard to play in that has lots of pretties to smell. I also have a great patio and drive way to play on. They are both pretty flat so I can ride my toys on them without them getting away from me and my balls don't roll away from me as much.

Those are some of the highlights. We downsized our bedroom space but gained living space greatly. We went from one living room to three, and added a separate dinning room instead of an eat-in kitchen. We are enjoying having a lot more storage space and we seem to find more and more every week.

When we started discussing what our dream home would be (minus the ultimate dream of owning an acreage of course) we said it would be an older ranch style home with four bedrooms and a finished basement that also contained a separate dinning space. Well that is exactly what God blessed us with. 

We hold tight to the memories that were made in our first home and look forward to all the ones that we will make in our new home. We couldn't be more thankful.

First picture outside of our new home.

Saying Good-bye to our first home

                      

House Update

I started writing this a very long time ago but in the middle of writing it we had a hiccup and after that I refused to finish it until I knew we were on safe ground! 

After 2 1/2 weeks on the market our house sold! We were praying that the process would go by quickly but we were still surprised at how quickly it all went. We ended up having 17 showings in that very short time frame which kept Andrew and I out of the house a lot. The call came that we had 4 different showings on that Saturday and within an hour of one of them we were called for a second showing scheduled for Sunday. 

Sunday evening our realtor called and said that we had an offer. There was definitely some negotiating to do but by Monday evening we had agreed on a purchase price. The house was sold! We couldn't believe it and praised God for the quick sale. This left us about a week to find our new house in order to time out the closings.

The following Wednesday we went out on the hunt for our new house. It was snowing like crazy and very cold. We ended up looking at somewhere around 10 houses that morning; Andrew was such a trooper through it all, never really complaining too much. We left that morning with two houses that we kind of liked (yup that's right only kind of). There were a few more to see that afternoon so we decided to go back to those kind ofs again as well. We thought we really liked the one after seeing it again but there was still something holding us back.

On Friday the home inspection was scheduled. As I was driving to do some shopping while the inspection was going on I received a call from our realtor. She proceeded to tell me that our buyers had some issues with their financing and were not going to be able to buy our home. My heart just sank. After the shock wore off some we realized that God had a plan and a reason (we now knew why we didn't fall in love with anything that we saw earlier in the week). But we knew God would provide.

And He did. Monday morning while I was at our library letting Andrew run around in the kids area (don't know what I would have done without this during these few weeks) our realtor called me saying that the original buyers just faxed her another offer...they had their financing! 

We went back out looking after negotiating a little more time to secure a house for us. Our maybes were still on the market but we decided to start fresh. There was one house that was in a completely different area of town than where we were originally looking but after Todd assured me he wouldn't mind the extra drive we went and looked at it. We all fell in love!

Now we call that house our home! 

The whole process was a whirl wind experience. It definitely gave me a refresher in patience and trust. It was a rough road, but God provided!