jennanddave.com

Seriously. Nails-being-pounded-into-my-skull kind of headache.

We went and looked at the house again on Friday and loved it, loved it, loved it. We were ready and willing to make an offer right then and there, but our realtor said she didn't have any time to do it until Monday, so we scheduled an appointment for today at 3. On Saturday we started fixing up our current place to get it ready to be put on the market. By Sunday we were having serious second thoughts. Looking at similar houses that have been sold recently in the same price range, we should be expecting a lot more than what this house would give us. Although it's bigger and way cooler on the inside (by the way, the pictures online don't do it justice) than our current place, both this house and the other would require approximately the same amount of refurbishing, just in completely different capacities. We ultimately decided we might as well just stay here and work on this place. So we cancelled our appointment.

And then had second thoughts.

Dave and I just had a long conversation on the phone. We've come to the conclusion that we're not particularly happy with either house, hence all the vacillating between the two. There aren't a lot of areas/towns around here that we would want to move to, and within the areas we would like to go, there aren't many houses that knock our socks off. We're feeling kind of stuck. I told Dave the only choice we have is for him to get a great job in Boston so we can move back to our beloved Salem and leave the nightmare of Central PA behind us, but after pausing a moment to chew wistfully on that thought, we decided that a better plan of action would be to start paying a lot more into the principal of our current place and next Spring (at which point Dave will hopefully have tenure) really start to look around.

Frankly if we don't find anything here next year, I'm going to start stumping for this place.

Posted by Jenn at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

...when you have a toddler is you get everything done by 10 in the morning and then you each look at the other like "Now what do we do for the rest of the day?" This is especially problematic when said toddler has a cold and it's still too early in the day to have warmed up enough to go outside and run around. So instead of doing anything constructive, we embarked on a two-hour journey that eventually led to each of us incessantly plucking the other's last nerve. This all would have ended up with both of us flinging banana nut bread batter at each other out of sheer frustration, but then Megan showed up and saved the day. What would we do without Megan? I shudder to think...

Over the weekend we went and looked at a house. Both Dave and I loved it so we're looking at our finances to see if there's any way we can afford it. Meanwhile, because interest rates are falling so much so fast, every mortgage broker in town is swamped, probably with refinances, so we haven't been able to meet with anyone to go over numbers yet which, when you're excited about a house that could potentially go under contract to someone else at any moment, is pretty tortuous. I finally talked over the phone with someone at a local bank this afternoon and we have another meeting with someone else at yet another bank tomorrow morning, so, progress!

As if dealing (or not being able to deal with) the financial end of things isn't bad enough, we're going through the 5,000 pro's and con's of whether we should move at all. There are two major items on that list. The first is, we have a small house and right now we're in desperate need of one more room. If we have another kid, we'd need another room on top of that first extra room. So we could either renovate this place ($$$) or buy a house that already has all the room we'll ever need ($$). To add to the conundrum is the fact that I love where our house is. It's in a quiet downtown neighborhood, it's not near the students, but it's not in the "historic" part of downtown where all the houses, albeit beautiful, are crammed up against each other. After having spent the last four-five years wandering around town, I know that this is the ideal downtown location for us. Which, in a long-winded way, brings us to major item number two: the house we're looking at is not downtown. It's about a mile away. Which is kind of a bummer because if you're going to live in a small town like this, isn't it ideal to live within walking distance to downtown? But the more I think about it, not really. Most of where I need to go to get basic items I have to get into a car to drive to anyway. The only shop I really frequent is the yarn shop and it's not like I'm going to give up shopping there because we've moved a mile away. Last summer we spent more time at the park near the pool than we did at the one downtown. Moving out of downtown probably wouldn't change our lifestyle as much as we think it would.

So in a few days time we'll either be:
- drowning our sorrows in vodka
- madly getting our house ready to be put on the market while thoughts of a summer spent chilling out on the deck of our new house dance in our head
- bbq'ing in our backyard thinking about a summer filled with long walks down to the river.

Kind of exciting, actually.

Posted by Jenn at 02:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Okay, not really a detox, but half of the blogs on the internet today were all about coming down off of sugar highs, which I find hilarious because I'm reading them while feasting on chocolates from the Whitman's Sampler Dave got me for Easter. No problems with sugar in this household. Nope.

Henry had a pretty great Easter as far as we can tell. When we ask him if he had fun he says "Yeah." Of course if we ask him if he had a really lousy day he says "Yeah." The Easter Bunny filled his basket with a penny whistle, a triangle, a bunny nerf-like dart shooter thingy (Which, because we're equally lousy parents in exactly the same way, both Dave and I instinctively took aim at our kid with when we finally got our hands on it. I got Henry in the neck and Dave missed completely. I WIN! Then we realized we probably weren't teaching Henry a very good lesson so we started aiming for the dining room instead.), and various chocolates, his favorite being the hollow SpongeBob Squarepants, a character he loves so deeply he just had to ingest him. So far our only regret is the Penny Whistle because Henry can get a frighteningly ear-splitting sound out of it. We only regret it a little though because he loves it so.

Yesterday evening we went over to Megan and Adrian's house for Easter dinner. Megan used a recipe for ham that calls for Coke as one of the main ingredients. It was the most amazing ham I've ever had. She said she boiled it for four hours before baking it to get a lot of the salt out. I'm definitely doing that next time we make ham; it made a huge difference in the flavor. She also made this amazing potato casserole that they make every year and which I start to look forward to again the day after Easter which makes for a very long wait. We brought Brussels Sprouts, dinner rolls, and Dave's Amazing Apple Pie which was truly amazing, as usual. Tonight after dinner he said that his latest batch of pies were much better than the batch he made a couple of months ago. I told him that whatever pie of his that I happen to be currently eating is always the best one.

By last night it became clear that Henry was getting a cold so we came home and wrestled him into bed. He started developing a little bit of a cough overnight and during his nap today so we're jumping on it straight away this time with his nebulizer in the hopes that it doesn't develop into anything else. So far so good.

Posted by Jenn at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

You know what would be fantastic? If just once when I say to Henry that it's time for a nap, he goes upstairs, reads a book with me, climbs into his bed, lays down, accepts kisses from all of his stuffed animals, snuggles in under his blankets, and goes to sleep. Although if he did do this once, that would create an expectation that he'd do it again and I'm sure it would only lead to disappointment. My kid sure can protest. And procrastinate.

Meanwhile, ever since Dave got back from his conference, whenever I'm around Henry insists that I be the one to do things. This is especially true when it's time to wash his hands and face before bed. We go into the upstairs bathroom and if Dave is with us, Henry insists that he leave the room. In fact, he insists that Daddy go into Henry's room. When we're all done in the bathroom, Henry then kicks him out of his bedroom and wants him to go downstairs. The other night he asked Dave to leave so Dave stood around in the hallway. When Henry noticed him in the mirror, he said "No, no daddy stand in the hallway, go like this!" then he climbed down off of his stool, walked into the hallway, then walked into his bedroom, physically demonstrating exactly where he wanted Dave to go. It was hilarious and odd all at the same time. This isn't a problem if I happen to be out of the house; as long as I'm nowhere to be seen, Henry's perfectly fine with being put to bed by Dave.

There are three things I'd like to accomplish by the end of the summer: lose the binky once and for all (we had a minor setback), get him into a big boy bed, and potty train him. The most important one is the potty training since he's going to be going to preschool in September and there's a moratorium on diaper changes there, but I'd like to wait on that one until the weather gets a little warmer. I'm not terrifically pushed to get him out of his toddler bed and I'm also not terrifically pushed to spend money on a new bed period, so losing the binky got bumped up to the top of the list. We started with his nap yesterday. So far so good. He asked for it a lot yesterday afternoon and evening, but today he only asked about it once. He's been a bit crabby but that's understandable. Hopefully it'll soon be a distant memory. I'm pretty proud of him for handling it as well as he is, and I'm also proud of myself for managing to put off the whole potty training thing. Again.

Posted by Jenn at 02:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last night after belly dance class I stopped by the local ice cream joint to buy a couple of treats for myself and Dave, knowing that after the previous night's failed attempt to watch "The Bourne Ultimatum" that he'd be raring to go for another try. Dave was still putting Henry to bed when I got back so I took Flash out for a walk. When we came home and opened the front door we were greeted by the roar of the popcorn maker going full blast, a sound which invariably sends Flash into ecstasy-filled fits of happiness (this is Flash we're talking about so, you know, she wags her tail a bit then sits and looks hopeful) which are only slightly tainted by the fear that maybe we won't give her any popcorn at all. (Which, for the record, hasn't ever happened, but she's a bit of a worrier.) I show Dave the ice cream I hid away in the freezer and we both had a hearty laugh over our mutually preparing snacks because we both knew we'd want to watch the movie tonight and aren't we perfect for each other, etc. etc. then we retired to the couch and turned on the DVD player.

tv: Goa, India *pan over to Franka Potente*
dave: *rowr* Franka...*rowr*
me: Sooooo...didn't she die at the beginning of the second Bourne movie?
dave: Ummmm...yeah?
me: And didn't the second one start off with them living in India?
dave: Uhhhhhh...I didn't get the wrong movie did I? There's no way I got the wrong movie.
me: Well, if they're living on the beach I'd say you got the wrong movie.
tv: Matt Damon opens a door and walks out onto a porch that overlooks the beach.
dave: NO! NONONONONONONONO! I WAS SO IN THE MOOD TO WATCH THIS TONIGHT! Why didn't they name them "Bourne's 1, 2, and 3"? WHY???

So we still haven't seen the third installment. Maybe one day...

Posted by Jenn at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Last Thursday was our last full day in Boston and when I asked Henry what he'd like to do he said "Ride on the train." My kid's so easy.

We headed out the door and on the walk to the closest train station I decided that since people usually go somewhere specific after they get on the train, we'd head over to the Aquarium to check out the seal exhibit (which is right outside the entrance and therefore free).

Henry got the true commuter's experience since he not only rode on the red line, but on the green and blue lines as well. Later when it was time to get back on the trains to go home, he summed up how he (and many others) felt about this particular adventure by emphatically declaring "No ride the blue train! No ride the green train!" True, true.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Long Wharf and I try to go at least once whenever we visit. I love being near the water and watching the planes take off and if you're lucky in the summer you might catch sight of a tall ship. Despite the many field trips I took as a kid to various historical sites around Boston and Concord, I feel like there's nowhere else in the area that is as steeped in history as that one spot, for me anyway. Before heading over to the Aquarium Henry and I walked down to the waters edge and looked at the occasional boat that would motor by and watch the planes taking off and landing. Henry particularly enjoyed throwing rocks down a set of stairs onto the lower level of the plaza.

Eventually we headed over to the seal exhibit at the Aquarium, making our way through scores of school kids who were congregating near school busses that would take them back to school, so we couldn't have timed things better. Henry fell madly in love with the seals, and spent a full five minutes with his nose against the glass. I asked him if he wanted to go in and look at the fish and he actually seemed pretty excited about the prospect. When I tried to buy a ticket the woman behind the glass said she happened to have an extra ticket so I totally got in for free which, you know, score!

Although the penguin exhibit was closed for maintenance, Henry really enjoyed wandering around and checking everything else out. He loved seeing the crabs in the Harbor Island exhibit and the giant turtles in the main tank, but by far his favorite thing about the Aquarium was the giant red lobster lollipop we bought on the way out of the cafeteria. When we walked outside some kid came up to Henry and started saying something until he caught sight of the lollipop that was half hanging out Henry's mouth. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared, wide-eyed. Later he passed us again with his dad and I heard him say "Dad, that kid has the biggest lollipop!" His dad looked, laughed, and said "Yeah, he really does."

A (short!) trip on the green line and long ride on the red train later we were back at home, waiting for Grammy and Grandpa to get home so we could get in one last hurrah before we headed back to PA the next day.

Friday was a very long and sad car ride home.

Posted by Jenn at 09:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday morning my Dad and I strapped Henry and the dog into the backseat of the car and drove off to brave the wilds of the westernmost regions of the state. Not that the Berkshires are all that frightening, I just have a tendency to give in to dramatic impulses once in a while. "Once in a while" being, let's say, every ten minutes or so. Give or take nine minutes. Or so.

The point of the trip was to visit with my Grandma. I haven't seen her since last April which is completely unacceptable. My only excuse is that once Henry got past the age of one year, it became harder to travel with him overnight to places because he was a bit sensitive about whether or not we would be there when he woke up if he wasn't completely familiar with his surroundings. Now that he understands that when we say "We'll see you in a few hours," we actually will see him in a few hours it's become easier. This has been a very recent development and it's made life quite a bit easier in certain respects. Of course the flip side is when we say "You can have your chocolate bunny later" he actually remembers. Now we have to be very careful.

Anyway, he was a bit shy around my Grandma at first but then warmed right up to her after she encouraged me to go ahead and cut him piece after piece of chocolate-frosted cake, which I did because I'm afraid of her. After lunch we went into the living room where I flipped through a huge bag of family pictures, Dad and Grandma lounged on chairs, and Henry ran back and forth between the organ and piano she has. Perhaps needless to say, he was in heaven.

While Henry was napping, I got to sit down and talk with Grandma, take the dog for a walk, throw snowballs into the stream that runs through her backyard with my Dad, and generally slow down and enjoy being there. After dinner Henry didn't particularly want to leave the house that had the chocolate-frosted cake and piano in it and only after a bit of coaxing did we manage to get him out the door and into the car. Although he was too shy to give her a good-bye kiss, I'm sure the next time Henry sees her he'll remember her.

Posted by Jenn at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Dave left for California this morning so Henry and I are in Boston living the good life for a few days. Since we drove up Friday night and would be around all day Saturday, my mom and dad offered to watch Henry so Dave and I could go off and remember what life was like before we had to chase a two-year-old around wherever we go. It was raining out so Dave suggested the Museum of Fine Arts. I hadn't been since I had just found out I was pregnant with Henry and although that trip was fun I do recall spending at least three-quarters of that visit thinking about how I felt like I was going to throw up and wondering if eating the clementine that was rolling around in my bag would make me feel better or worse. Oh, and I also remember keeping track of where the closest bathrooms were. In short, I didn't pay much attention to anything hanging on the walls or sitting under glass cases. Yesterday, however, it was great to be able to take everything in at a leisurely pace, and it was even better watching other people chase their kids around while we were taking it all in at a leisurely pace.

After the museum, we drove into Chinatown and wandered around in the torrential rain in search of dumplings filled with black bean paste and coated with sesame seeds. Every bakery sold them so we did a few taste tests and settled on the last place we went into, not because they were the best, but because we were ready to load up on all sorts of the other pastries we had been seeing all afternoon. We purchased an assortment of goodies and headed back home to taste them all.

It was a perfect day.

Posted by Jenn at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

You were a good fish.

Posted by Jenn at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

How about I regale you with yet another tale about my kid?

Last Fall we managed to break Henry of the binky habit, but then he came down with his first bout of cold-induced asthma (although we didn't know what it was at the time) and the only way we could get him to stop his coughing long enough to fall asleep was by giving him back his binky. Then came a few other colds and more asthma attacks and soon we weren't thinking about how to break him of his binky habit at all anymore because it was turning out to be pretty useful.

Then came the first really bad day of this latest cold. Naptime came around and I told Henry to grab his binky and sleepyhat and we'd head upstairs. He said "No. No binky. No sleepyhat." My first thought was that this was going to turn into a way to procrastinate going to bed once we got upstairs, but the joke was on me. He let me tuck him in, turn off all the lights, and close the door, with nary a peep about running back downstairs to grab the hat and binky. And so it went that night, and the next naptime, and still I was completely blown away that he had made this decision on his own and was following through.

Then last night I came home from walking the dog and all I could hear was Henry yelling "AAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" nonstop from his bedroom. I asked Dave what was going on and he said he had no idea. I ran upstairs, opened the door, and instantly the yelling stopped and Henry just looked at me, totally calm. We talked for a little bit then I asked him if he wanted his binky or sleepyhat and he said he didn't. As soon as I closed the door: "AAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" So I opened it again and stuck my head in and instantly he was quiet. I left the door open a crack and went downstairs. As soon as I got downstairs: "AAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

This went on for a while so Dave went up. Then he came back down and Henry started yelling again. We didn't bother going back up. We decided this was some weird way of settling himself down to fall asleep. A little bit later it was quiet. Around three in the morning he woke up coughing a bit, but then fell back to sleep after having a drink of water. Then at 4:45 he woke up again coughing so I gave him some albuterol and he fell asleep again.

I think we'll be taking an early nap today.

Posted by Jenn at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When my dad saw the lounge pants that I made for Henry he told me he wanted a pair too. I asked him what fabric he wanted and he said he didn't care, so naturally I told him that left me with no choice but to go with pink camouflage. He said "That's great! Whatever!" Honestly, there's no getting a rise out of him. Well, except for that one time I told him the clock on the old State House in Boston was 20 minutes slow because it was keeping Revolutionary War time. That he bought. Me threatening to make him pink camouflage pants didn't make him break a sweat at all.

So I looked for pink camouflage (which I really need to stop typing because I keep misspelling it and having to go back and correct it) but couldn't find any that would have made decent pants. All I found was stiff cheap cotton. But then I found orange camo in flannel. I thought it was pretty awesome. I personally love orange and here it was in camo. Cool! So I bought three yards. Then I showed it to Dave and he was all "Uuuuuuhhhhh. It's nice?" Then I got nervous.

The more I worked on them, the more I became convinced that I was making my dad the World's Ugliest Pair of Pants. And I began to feel kind of bad about it. He's my dad. He deserves a nice pair of lounge pants. I thought about making a last minute trip up to Joann Fabric to see if I could find something more suitable and less hideous but then Henry got sick and there was terrible weather and since we're giving them to him on Friday it was meant to be. Yesterday morning I took a picture of them and sent it to my mom to see what she thought:

She responded, saying "The fabric is pretty funny." That's when I realized the fabric is pretty funny, and now I can't look at the picture of the pants without laughing, which means whenever my dad wears them around me I'll be laughing. With him. Maybe.

Meanwhile, since Henry was indisposed on the couch yesterday I went ahead and used the leftover fabric to make a pair for him. For the record he hates the original pair of lounge pants I made him, which I personally believe to be made out of the coolest fabric ever printed in the history of fabric. When I pull them out he always says "NO YELLOW PANTS!" which, I mean, hello, they're not even yellow, kid, get it straight. So I didn't have much hope for the orange ones this morning when he finally decided he was ready to emerge from the cocoon of safety he's been living in the last couple of days (aka: his pajamas), but much to my surprise, he was all about his new "orange pants". Didn't fight me at all. So go figure.

Henry still looking under the weather and, amazingly, trying to escape his totally cool shirt and not trying to escape his relatively flashy pants. Like I said: Go figure.

Posted by Jenn at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Henry's sick. This morning he woke up with a slightly runny nose and now he looks like death warmed over, not that he needs a nap or anything, at least according to him. I just gave him some Tylenol and wrangled him into bed; I'm hoping against hope that he'll fall asleep quickly and easily and without a lot of coughing.

When Henry gets sick like this our rules about tv watching get pretty lax. When I'm sick I tend to watch a lot of tv because it helps take my mind off of my nose/sinuses/cough/whatever and it keeps my having to talk to people at a minimum because no one should have to put up with me when I'm sick and therefore crabby. I figure it's only fair for the same rules to apply to the kid. Henry's latest and greatest favorite thing on television is "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". This saddens me greatly because I'm more of a Bugs Bunny kind of girl, but maybe Henry will come around with time. A few weeks ago we went to playgroup at a little girl's house and she had a pink Mickey Mouse ears hat that Henry immediately fell in love with and wore for the most glorious five minutes of playgroup time there ever was. If only I'd had my camera.

Anyway, this afternoon while Dave was home for lunch I ran to the grocery store and bought things to help us get through a toddler cold: chicken noodle soup, cereal bars, sweet potato puffs, and orange juice. Oh yeah, and Kleenex. Lots and lots of Kleenex.

Posted by Jenn at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Today I'm too tired to come up with a title.

The day started out pretty good. Henry and I hung out with some friends, then came home for lunch, but then Henry threw up and I'm not really sure why. He had choked a little bit two minutes before it happened so it's possibly related to that, but it had also seemed like he'd worked it out, so I don't know. He had a fever the weekend before last and although it passed with no other symptoms at the time, he developed a cough a few days later. We started him on albuterol (which is an asthma treatment) a few days ago and although last night he seemed better, today he's been coughing a lot again. It's not a nice cough either. It sounds like it hurts although he doesn't seem to be too bothered by it. I'm not sure what to make of it all. We're carrying on with the albuterol as aggressively as the doctor recommended when he prescribed it to us, and if there's no improvement over the next day or so, we're going to head back to the pediatrician's. I feel bad for Henry. He's got a lot of energy and is still running around being himself, but he's not napping well because he coughs more when he's in bed than he does when he's up and about, so he looks pretty tired despite his upbeat attitude.

Meanwhile, after the throwing up episode at lunch, (which appeared to be an isolated incident but when coupled with this cough made me freak out just a little bit) (because really, when you're kid's healthy you worry, and when you're kid's sick, you really, *really* worry) I tried to get him to eat something else. He sadly shook his head at everything I offered until I waved a bowl of animal crackers under his nose. He took the bowl over to the coffee table and with each crunch, both of us felt better. After that we went for what was supposed to be a quick tricycle ride before naptime but which ended up being an hour and a half long excursion because nothing with a two and a half year old can be ever done in any kind of manner that might possibly be deemed "quick". He abandoned his tricycle in favor of walking because the allure of all of the puddles created by all the melting snow was just too strong to ignore. We came across one house that had a long puddle right under some gutters that were dripping. Henry squatted for five minutes and watched the water splash as each droplet hit the puddle. It was just so darned fascinating.

Now it's way past the time I usually get him up from his nap but we got home so late and it took him so long to settle into a coughless sleep that I haven't got the heart to wake him up yet. Poor kid.

Tonight I have a meeting to go to in New Berlin. I think Megan's going to have to kick me under the table a lot to make sure I don't fall asleep. Lucky girl.

Posted by Jenn at 05:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I should probably get this for Dave, huh?

Posted by Jenn at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)