The hunt for the nest is on!! Since our Westland house is no longer ours (bittersweet I know), we have really felt the crunch to find a place of our own. Sure this apartment is great.........for a hamster, but we're beginning to feel like we're literally on top of each other. We can only find so many places to hide the cat food from Bela in this shoebox.......yes, our 8 month old has ingested more "ocean whitefish" than Scout. Yuck! So it's time to find a house!
This past Thursday me and the girls headed to the real estate agent's office (yes, we're in this together since the only babysitter these kids have ever had lives in Canton, MI). We were supposed to check out the houses that we had driven past that we liked from a list that she had emailed us. But first we had to meet at her office. Once inside, Emma wanted to touch EVERYTHING that was off-limits, but at least she is like Jamie and tells on herself before doing anything! This is always helpful in stopping a two-year-old (though judging by experience, it won't be so helpful after age 5). Then Bela started getting whiny (and stinky- she had pooped in the car, niiiiiiiice!). So I knew this was not going to be a good day, but thank God this real estate agent was a mama herself and such a Southern Sweetheart! Whew! After changing a nasty diaper in the parking lot (while the two year old pretended to drive the car, all the while flipping on the hazards, headlights, radio, and wipers!) we were off. Somehow, God knew I couldn't handle drama, so he made angels of our little devils! Whew! They were wonderful while their mama checked out houses- one crawling with bugs (the real estate agent actually got bit by a flea!), one with power lines out back, and about a half dozen more.......but we made it. We'll let you know when we find our perfect "house of dreams"! Here's hoping and praying! But nonetheless, Emma has decided that she loves and wants a "backyard". We let her play in the dirt in a neighborhood that was under construction while we talked to the builders for a couple of hours (they're a couple of fun young guys who brought Braden a beer!), and she managed to COAT herself in the red dirt that is so famous in the south. And yes, if you're wondering, it DOES leave a nice red ring in the bathtub!
We have a new family pet, a puppy of sorts......Bela. Poor hungry, chubby Bela, feels that her baby food is just not enough to keep her satisfied anymore and she gets a little jealous when the family eats without her (it's not our fault that she can't wait until dinnertime because she is STARVING by 5!). So she has taken to parking her not-so-little foofoons right under Emma's chair (really, what better place for scraps, right?). So Bela has eaten stuffing, ramen noodles, corn- all kinds of contraband foods for a one-year-old. Now, here's what happens when you have two kids......the first one you are sooooooo strict about what goes in their mouth, reading every study conducted in the past ten years about what will impact growth or affect future allergies. Then number two comes along and you're more peeved about the fact that she ate your business card that you needed for a phone number than the fact that she just inhaled four inches of cardstock. So, call me a bad mother, but sometimes a quiet dinner is worth allowing the 8 month-old to scavange for scraps under the two year-old's chair. I just wish Emma wasn't so Jamie-esque and didn't find it quite so funny to feed Bela by throwing food at her.
Bela's doing great! She's happy and pulling up on everything (this crawling thing is for the birds!) and even trying to walk. In the last couple of days she has begun to play peek-a-boo with everyone, thinking it absolutely hilarious (and it is!)! But at the same time, she's napping a lot more and getting a bit crabbier at times because her bottom two front teeth are coming in. She sure does look funny (but oh so cute!)
Emma is a PUNK!!! Braden is convinced that he is going to get gray hair just like Grandpa Cobb since Emma is JUST LIKE AUNT JAMIE! Seriously, what are we going to do? She thought it was funny to feed Bela a Kleenex today while we were househunting in the car. Thank GOD she said "Uh oh- Bewa's eating it the kweeeenex!" Otherwise, I wouldn't have even noticed that she was scarfing it down. Hmm......I had just given Emma a tissue to clean the peanut butter off her hands and now Bela is eating it.......gee, can't do the math on that one! She is ALWAYS doing punk stuff like that to Bela and to us- so now I ask Jamie, how do you deal with someone like you? I'm open for any suggestions you may have. But at the same time, she's the court jester and the love of our life. The real estate agent described parenthood as Christmas morning every day- you never know what you're going to get and you're soooooo thrilled to find out! Some of the stuff she comes up with comes out of left field and is hysterical! The latest is that she's just learning prepositions ("under" "on" "in", etc.). So when she's trying to describe where something is, she always says that it's "onnahinda" (a combination of on and behind). How funny! But she'll learn!
Sowf Carowhine-a is getting more tolerable in temperature- the 100 degree plus days have melted away to a cool low 90's. Whew, thank the Lord. Since we don't have a backyard, park days were getting earlier and shorter and for about two weeks, non-existent! So Emma stopped napping and I went insane! But we're getting back to normal slowly.
In just one month me and the girls will be heading to Detroit for a week! We're so excited, though I think I'm just nuts, taking them on a flight that stops in Atlanta first before going on to Detroit. Seriously, what am I thinking? But you can't keep me from my extended family! And we'll be visiting the Buffalonians soon as well when the little wee cousin of the girls is born, so we're very excited about that as well!
We miss Michigan, but truthfully we've never been so close as a family. This has been a wonderful experience for all of us and we're slowly making this state our home. The people are so sweet and welcoming, and the weather is turning beautiful again.......we love this place, our home!
