18-month check-up

So Noel's well visit was this past Tuesday, March 30th.

We hadn't seen Dr. Shauer since her 12-month appointment, so it was nice to see her again. Noel did NOT cooperate this time like she has in her last few appointments. She did not want the doctor putting the stethescope on her skin, or looking in her ears.

Oh well! I'm sure they've seen much worse, and even if they hadn't...no big deal. It's pretty normal to feel violated when a stranger is taking your clothes off and putting cold instruments on you and sticking things in your ears.

I asked her about some of Noel's severe tantrums, where she will begin gasping for air between her sobs, and kicking and screaming for 15 minutes +. I wasn't sure I agreed with her "remedy" to it, so I've just devised my own way of dealing with it. I'm hoping to be able to calm her down a little quicker the next time.

And just for the record, I'm not trying to calm her down for every tantrum. These tantrums I believe are called "distress tantrums" and are different from regular ones. They are EXTREME, and while they are originally set off by something fairly insignificant, their brains undergo a "storm" of emotion. I described it as having a "night terror" but during the day and obviously while awake.

Anyway, Noel measured just fine. She was

21 lbs 1 oz
31.25 inches tall
Head circumference was 46 cm.

No shots this time! And won't have to go back for 6 more months!

Pictures of our First House

Here are a few pictures, and a video tour of the house. The house is a foreclosure, so while we got a fantastic deal on it, the house does need some cosmetic work.

In the immediate future we're planning to fix the front porch ceiling (which has fallen down. Pretty simple fix), put new carpet down in the bedrooms, install shoe molding along the baseboards in the living room and hallway, install a new fridge and oven, and paint everything. Along with our regular schedules, plus my final exams, plus a week-long beach trip in May, we REALLY have our work cut out for us!

We will be closing April 28th, so we'll have a month to do these renovations before we actually move into it. If any of you know of a good carpet store is in the area, let us know. We went to Lowe's, but were wondering if maybe a carpet STORE would have better deals.

The house is only 5 years old, but whoever owned it must have taken pretty poor care of it. The carpets in the bedrooms really need replaced, and generally they left everything pretty dirty.

Anyway, here are the pictures.

Front of the house

Side

Living Room

Master Bath

Hallway

Looking out of the front door

"What are these buttons for??"

Darn! Video won't upload. And Sadly I let Tim take these pictures, so there aren't any of the hall bathroom or kitchen! Bah.

We got the house!

Yayyy!!!

We are set to close on April 30th. I know I said I would post no pictures until closing, but I can't contain myself.




Here's a breakdown of the info...

1200 finished sf/1200 unfinished sf (basement)
3 bd/2 ba
Master Bedroom has two walk-in closets and attached Master Bath
Built in 2005, so we won't have to worry about appliances failing
Eat-in Kitchen
Deck off of the back
Walk-out basement

I don't have any pictures of anything else, but I'm hoping to go back tomorrow to take some, along with taking a few measurements.

SO EXCITED!! It's a bit farther out than where we currently live, but it's just something we'll have to adjust to.

House Hunting: Days 3 & 4

Well, we did NOT get the house that I posted pictures of in my previous blog entry. Therefore, I am not posting ANY pictures of potential houses from this day forward!

The only pictures I will post will be of the house AFTER we close. Hopefully we will find something.

There is a house we're considering right now, but neither of us are very gung-ho about it. We'll see...I'm pretty certain I won't be as excited about any other house like I was about the last one. Oh well. You can't have everything you want in a house I guess, especially if you're a first-time home buyer.

Stay tuned for more info!

Four Wheelin'

Spring Break Playtime

This week is my spring break, and I promised myself I would study everyday and also get a lot of my "to do" items checked off (which seems to be growing by the day). Somehow even on my spring break I can hardly even find time to go grocery shopping!

House hunting is very time consuming!

Today Hunter and Maia came over. It was a breakthrough for Maia, because she hardly cried at all! She's been here 3 times before, but has cried on/off for the entire time, and refused to eat or drink.

She cried when her mom left, but recovered, and we played in the front yard until our landlord's realtor arrived. She ate all of her lunch and even laughed and played - I was so happy!

Anyway, the weather has been wonderful and Noel LOVES being outdoors. I honestly think she would stay outside all day long if I let her. I have been doing some leaf-raking this week and gravel-removal from our yard. It seems that when we shoveled the driveway, a LOT of gravels ended up in the snow, and now, in the grass. I hope to get most of them up before Tim starts mowing - the last thing we need is to break out a window.

Here are a few pictures from this evening. This is what you get when you say "Smile, Noel!"

House Hunting: Day 2

Today was much more low key than yesterday, but Julie (our realtor), Noel and I went to check out a house that was a little over our price range, but that the listing agent said they were accepting all offers.

Without much hope in it working out, we went to check it out. It is not our ideal lot/location or even layout. BUT, It's in pristine condition, has all new carpeting/flooring, and kitchen appliances. It's on a huge level lot and will have lots of outdoor space for Noel to play!

I was sure to take lots of pictures, and I even did a video "tour" of the house so that Tim could see everything that we did. After talking it over with our mortgage broker, Tim and I decided to just go for it. We have a time limit that is rapidly approaching (Under contract by April 5) and we don't have time to wait around for new houses to come on the market.

She delivered our contract tonight and we should know something by Monday. It's easy to get my hopes up, but I know that these things fall through pretty often. A couple of years ago we had three houses fall out from under us.

House Hunting: Day 1

Our first day of house hunting didn't go as well as we had hoped! We visited 5-6 houses and most of them were in desperate need of renovation/repair.

Noel did great though, and enjoyed being outside and wandering around all of these new and exciting places!

Here are some photos of Noel:

Our Busy Life

I haven't updated in a LONG time and I apologize!

We have a lot going on right now. I'm busy with my classes, taking care of household stuff, preparing to sell my car, and we're also searching for a new house.

We tried buying a couple of years ago, and it did not work out. We had the worst real estate agent EVER, and we just could not find the right house for the right price. We put down several contracts but all of our offers were rejected! I recently found out that a house we put an offer on was relisted for 20k less than our offer. HAHA! I bet they wish they would have negotiated with us. But thankfully it did not work out--we're looking to move out of this neighborhood because our water bill is so high.

Anyway, we're at it again...with a new mortgage broker and realtor. We are set to look at 7 houses on Wednesday. It'll be a lot more interesting with an 18-month old running around!

Tim thinks we should see 10 houses, pick the best out of 10, and buy it. Last time we came up to C'ville weekend after weekend, seeing house after house, for months. It was very stressful! I'm hoping that this time around will be much more productive and also less stressful.

As far as Noel-news goes, she is talking a LOT more than she used to. She's using phrases, like "What's that one?" and "Hi Puppy". But she will NOT answer with a yes or no. The other day she said "yes" and Tim replied "You CAN say yes!" and she shook her head..."no". Oh boy!

She's been testing her limits a lot, which will end up in 'time out'. She's been biting and hitting me too, but it's not as bad this week as it was last week.

Our realtor said she's looking forward to meeting Noel and said she'd "hold" Noel while we looked at the houses. Haha! Noel won't even let me hold her anymore, unless I'm cooking or involved in something she can't get into. Her independence is growing so much by the day that I often wonder what her teenage years will bring!

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks!

"Ki Ki" sleeping

Story time with Poppa

Noel's showing me how to properly blow your nose

Her new carseat! Many times more comfortable
than her old one!!