Random title, I know. I love Gilmore Girls. I never really watched it when it was in it's prime on tv. I can remember, before Dexter, coming home from work. I'd finish grading papers or whatever I had to do, but then I'd still have awhile before Rob came home from work. Nice days, I'd go for a walk. One day, the weather was awful so I was flipping around and a Gilmore Girls rerun happened to be on. Until that day, I had never realized what a truly brilliant show it was. So then I had to buy all the past seasons so I could catch up. At any rate, I have all 5 seasons now, I cried when the last show aired, and I watch them anytime I have nothing better to do.
Title explained. It has nothing to do with what I'm going to post, but that was the brilliance of the show.
Rob and I have been looking to buy a house for awhile. We've seen a ton of houses. Some good, some not so good. I've noticed a trend. Why is it that a homeowner lists changes they have made as "paint" and then expect their house to appreciate $50,000 in 3 years? That's some expensive paint! We found this house that we love. Absolutely love. The house has been on the market for a number of months. The asking price has dropped 3 times. Why? Well, the housing development it's in is very nice. Unfortunately, these people have only owned the house for a couple of years and made changes that do not equal the money they have "put in." Not only that, but when they bought the house, they (admittedly) paid more money than the house was worth. Now they are trying to sell it for way more money than it's worth. If a buyer bought the house for it's current price (dropped 3 times) there is little possibility of ever selling it for the same price anytime in this decade even if the recession ceases. Literally, the value of the entire neighborhood would have to increase considerably. I think our realtor said it well, it's better to be a small fish in a big pond than a big fish in a small pond. We've seen where we currently live. There's an area with all these gorgeous, massively expensive houses and one little podunk house. The podunk house has a much higher value than it should because of the value of the neighborhood. Well, that's what's happening in reverse. Our realtor thinks we need to be aggressive with our offer to see what their motivation for selling is. We shall see. We're going to give it a try and see what happens. We love the house, we feel bad if the couple is having some financial woes, but not enough to overpay for a house. There are tons of homes out there and we can always find another house we love.
:)
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
playing on the floor
I'm sitting here watching my husband play on the floor with our son. Dex is going all kinds of crazy! He loves playing! As I watch them, I think, wow, we have really outgrown our townhouse. We've lived here for 3 years now, which seems impossible. I like where we live. It's been a great home, but we just don't fit here anymore now that we're a 3 person family.
Yesterday, we continued our search for a new house. We've been looking since before Dexter was born. We kind of hit a snag when he showed up 3 weeks early. That's a whole other story. Anyway, we went out again yesterday with our realtor. We've been looking at a lot of different types of houses. We're going out again on Tuesday and really looking at some really nice places.
We are so ready to move out of here. The worst part about our townhouse is that we share walls. Our neighbor on one side is okay. He has a few oddities, but is generally a nice guy. The other side? First we had this crazy guy. He would randomly have any of his multiple children there of whom he had with multiple women. He and his son would randomly start fighting at 3am or so, swearing, hitting each other. The police would come. It was crazy. Thankfully, he moved out. After 2+ years, he moved. The place was empty for months and it was great! Then we learned a new couple was moving in with their 2 year old son. We figured it would be nice to have neighbors our age. That was a joke. These people are ridiculous. They fight, yell, their child screams and runs around throwing things against the wall. They like to vacuum in the middle of the night and hit the wall that they share with our son's room. It's insane. Needless to say, we're ready to leave.
New house---we're there!
Yesterday, we continued our search for a new house. We've been looking since before Dexter was born. We kind of hit a snag when he showed up 3 weeks early. That's a whole other story. Anyway, we went out again yesterday with our realtor. We've been looking at a lot of different types of houses. We're going out again on Tuesday and really looking at some really nice places.
We are so ready to move out of here. The worst part about our townhouse is that we share walls. Our neighbor on one side is okay. He has a few oddities, but is generally a nice guy. The other side? First we had this crazy guy. He would randomly have any of his multiple children there of whom he had with multiple women. He and his son would randomly start fighting at 3am or so, swearing, hitting each other. The police would come. It was crazy. Thankfully, he moved out. After 2+ years, he moved. The place was empty for months and it was great! Then we learned a new couple was moving in with their 2 year old son. We figured it would be nice to have neighbors our age. That was a joke. These people are ridiculous. They fight, yell, their child screams and runs around throwing things against the wall. They like to vacuum in the middle of the night and hit the wall that they share with our son's room. It's insane. Needless to say, we're ready to leave.
New house---we're there!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
what to do, what to do
If you read my last post, you know that we have stopped the soy formula. Lord, almighty, give us strength. My poor child has been through way too many eating changes in his soon to be short 7 weeks (tomorrow!) First we started with breastfeeding. After being demeaned by the 70 year old lactation consultant, my real doctor and I (easily learned) that I simply wasn't producing milk. It was a sad, sad day. We moved to formula. Had some questions about some things and one of our pediatricians changed him to soy. The soy has been horrid, so we went back to regular formula. If you've never changed your infant's food, I can tell you, it's hard! He's had a bellyache most of today, and didn't poop until 6pm. What does that mean? Crying. Endless crying. I want to make it all better, but I just don't know how to do that. What does that mean? I cry. I haven't been sharing much, but I'm working through some post-partum depression. It's not as horrible as some women have. So far, I'm doing well without medicine, but I know my doctor is a little concerned. I definitely am a mom who wears her heart on her sleeve. All I want to do is comfort my baby boy, but I just don't know what to do.
We called our peds tonight and spoke to the same UPMC nurse, Stephanie, who is obviously reading off a cue card. I know she's just CHA, but still I need more than, "it sounds like belly pain." No shit. I've already said that! It seems that unless my baby has a temperature, no one wants to help us. Needless to say, if it's still going on tomorrow, I'm demanding to talk to the main doctor in the practice, and if need be going into the office and waiting until someone sees us. I refuse to have my baby be in pain if there's something we can do. This isn't just about a formula switch. We've been dealing with him having belly pain at least one day a week since the soy switch. When we first switched, he had belly pain for 3 solid days and he had a low grade fever. I was on the phone with the office daily. Their answer? It takes some time for a formula switch. All I can say is, from my experience, don't use soy unless you REALLY need to. My cousin's baby, same thing. They wanted her to switch her daughter to soy and the soy was 10 times worse.
Okay enough about the formula. I know I've gone on about it for 2 posts now, but I can't help it. Dexter is my darling son and I love him too much to sit around and wait and see. No book you read or friend can tell you just how hard it is to watch your child be in pain. I would gladly be in the worst pain of my life to take Dex's pain away. Hopefully, tomorrow, we'll see some improvement.
We called our peds tonight and spoke to the same UPMC nurse, Stephanie, who is obviously reading off a cue card. I know she's just CHA, but still I need more than, "it sounds like belly pain." No shit. I've already said that! It seems that unless my baby has a temperature, no one wants to help us. Needless to say, if it's still going on tomorrow, I'm demanding to talk to the main doctor in the practice, and if need be going into the office and waiting until someone sees us. I refuse to have my baby be in pain if there's something we can do. This isn't just about a formula switch. We've been dealing with him having belly pain at least one day a week since the soy switch. When we first switched, he had belly pain for 3 solid days and he had a low grade fever. I was on the phone with the office daily. Their answer? It takes some time for a formula switch. All I can say is, from my experience, don't use soy unless you REALLY need to. My cousin's baby, same thing. They wanted her to switch her daughter to soy and the soy was 10 times worse.
Okay enough about the formula. I know I've gone on about it for 2 posts now, but I can't help it. Dexter is my darling son and I love him too much to sit around and wait and see. No book you read or friend can tell you just how hard it is to watch your child be in pain. I would gladly be in the worst pain of my life to take Dex's pain away. Hopefully, tomorrow, we'll see some improvement.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Rockies and the tale of two formulas
Yesterday we took Dexter to his first baseball game. We really weren't sure how this was going to work out. The child is, after all, only six weeks old. I know we could have waited, but really we couldn't. My sister in law's brother pitches for the Colorado Rockies and they were playing Pittsburgh in a 3 game series this weekend. Since Sunday had a day game, we really wanted to get there. It was the only day that Dex would be able to go at all.
We left later than most would have, but Dexter had to eat lunch first. We got on the road and I actually ended up sitting in the back seat with him on the way down. He hates going into his car seat and hadn't had much of a morning nap, so he was a little Mommy-clingy. He was in a great mood by the time we got down there. Even though we are sure Pittsburgh sports fans all the way, we were also supporting the Rockies this weekend. So Rob and I had on t-shirts and we bought Dex the cutest purple onsie and put him in a pair of jeans. Okay, have I mentioned that I think my kid is the cutest thing ever? Well he was. We told ourselves, we just want to try and make it 3 innings. That will be great. Dexter? He made it 6 innings! He probably could've gone longer, but we figured we wanted to beat the rush of people anyway. We stopped in at Rob's parents after the game where Dexter and Rob promptly fell asleep. Oh and get this, when we were leaving, the Rockies were winning 4-1. The Pirates scored 10 runs in the 7th. ?!?!?!?!
Now for something totally different. Dexter started out on Similac. At about 3 weeks, he started puking up his 8:30am feeding. At a doctor's appointment, I mentioned my concerns about him puking. He certainly wasn't upset. I was. I'm still hormonal from pregnancy. I cried. Every time. The doctor recommended we change him over to soy formula. I wasn't crazy about this. I didn't see it as a milk problem. One puking a day doesn't a milk problem make. Alas, we did it because we didn't want to argue with our doctor. So we're at what, 3 weeks of soy? Okay, I'm sure there are plenty of soy supporters. I HATE SOY. My child has gone from puking once a day to maybe puking every few days, but instead having gas pain. He has to strain to poop. He gets terrible gas and every 7-10 days has a day full of belly pain where he SCREAMS all day long. I do whatever I can to make him comfortable. Well today, I HAD IT. He started the day with a somewhat solid poop (sorry if it's tmi, but come on) and I knew it was going to be a bad day. He was fine all morning...then 11:30-3:30...oh my. The poor little guy was just a mess. He was crying and crying. I was doing it all even giving him a midday bath (which he looooved). Finally, after his 2:30 bottle, he cried and cried and eventually wore himself out. He fell asleep in my arms and I didn't even bother putting him in his bed even though he's always there for his afternoon nap. I'm done with soy. I'm taking him off of it. He never had this much gas without it. My cousin's daughter...same exact thing happened with her. We have a doctor's appointment next week. We'll see what they say, but I'm done.
We left later than most would have, but Dexter had to eat lunch first. We got on the road and I actually ended up sitting in the back seat with him on the way down. He hates going into his car seat and hadn't had much of a morning nap, so he was a little Mommy-clingy. He was in a great mood by the time we got down there. Even though we are sure Pittsburgh sports fans all the way, we were also supporting the Rockies this weekend. So Rob and I had on t-shirts and we bought Dex the cutest purple onsie and put him in a pair of jeans. Okay, have I mentioned that I think my kid is the cutest thing ever? Well he was. We told ourselves, we just want to try and make it 3 innings. That will be great. Dexter? He made it 6 innings! He probably could've gone longer, but we figured we wanted to beat the rush of people anyway. We stopped in at Rob's parents after the game where Dexter and Rob promptly fell asleep. Oh and get this, when we were leaving, the Rockies were winning 4-1. The Pirates scored 10 runs in the 7th. ?!?!?!?!
Now for something totally different. Dexter started out on Similac. At about 3 weeks, he started puking up his 8:30am feeding. At a doctor's appointment, I mentioned my concerns about him puking. He certainly wasn't upset. I was. I'm still hormonal from pregnancy. I cried. Every time. The doctor recommended we change him over to soy formula. I wasn't crazy about this. I didn't see it as a milk problem. One puking a day doesn't a milk problem make. Alas, we did it because we didn't want to argue with our doctor. So we're at what, 3 weeks of soy? Okay, I'm sure there are plenty of soy supporters. I HATE SOY. My child has gone from puking once a day to maybe puking every few days, but instead having gas pain. He has to strain to poop. He gets terrible gas and every 7-10 days has a day full of belly pain where he SCREAMS all day long. I do whatever I can to make him comfortable. Well today, I HAD IT. He started the day with a somewhat solid poop (sorry if it's tmi, but come on) and I knew it was going to be a bad day. He was fine all morning...then 11:30-3:30...oh my. The poor little guy was just a mess. He was crying and crying. I was doing it all even giving him a midday bath (which he looooved). Finally, after his 2:30 bottle, he cried and cried and eventually wore himself out. He fell asleep in my arms and I didn't even bother putting him in his bed even though he's always there for his afternoon nap. I'm done with soy. I'm taking him off of it. He never had this much gas without it. My cousin's daughter...same exact thing happened with her. We have a doctor's appointment next week. We'll see what they say, but I'm done.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Look at that Little Face!
We took Dexter to get his first studio pictures taken today. He was 6 weeks old Thursday, so we really weren't sure how that was going to play out. He isn't a baby who acts weird around new people. He may give them the once over or test them with his crab faces to see how they'll react, but he is generally a very pleasant child and adapts to new people well. That being said, he did extremely well with the photographer. He was happy around her and put up with a few outfit changes from Mom and Dad. He cried a few times, but once he had his pacifier for a second, we could take it out and he was happy.
Let me stop for a minute and say, those who know us well know we are HUGE Penguins fans. Rob and I are in our second year as full season ticket holders. We have awesome seats and we just love going to the games. We actually snuck in right before they created the waiting list. I looked at Rob one day and said, "you know, instead of buying single seats or 6 game packages, why don't we just get season tickets and sell off what we don't want?" We called immediately, got our seats, and literally days later, the Pittsburgh Penguins established their first ever season ticket waiting list. We really lucked out. Huge hockey fans in this house.
One of Dex's picture sets included him in his diaper with his Pens blanket wrapped around his lower half. We happen to possess a miniature Stanley Cup. I'm not exactly sure where we got it, in fact, Rob may have gotten in pre-us. We decided to take it with us so that our son could hold it with his blanket. At the last minute, I tossed our Pens jerseys in the car with us as well. I can tell you, the pictures with his cup and blanket...ADORABLE. Other people were "awwing" at the cuteness of the pictures. The photographer was a 10 1/2. She was awesome. The family shot was everything we had hoped for!
Dexter's other pictures were great as well. Ever since he was born, I've called him "Little Face." Weird, I know. I can't help it. He has the cutest little face I've ever seen. I'm biased as every mother is, but I do refer to him as Little Face. The photographer took one photo with him on his belly, kind of looking up with his mouth in that "ohh" expression. I melted into a huge pile of Mommy when I saw it. Soooo cute.
All in all, I must say, first pictures...great experience! I told Rob, we have to have this same photographer for all of his pictures. She was fabulous. She should really leave this studio and open up her own business. She is that good. Many people I know have awesome cameras and take great pictures. I imagine this girl to have started that way. She just has that touch of artistic ability that makes her special. I wish I could have that. I know people that truly take artsy photos as their own hobby at home. I'm glad this girl has gone and made it a career for herself! Awesome!
Let me stop for a minute and say, those who know us well know we are HUGE Penguins fans. Rob and I are in our second year as full season ticket holders. We have awesome seats and we just love going to the games. We actually snuck in right before they created the waiting list. I looked at Rob one day and said, "you know, instead of buying single seats or 6 game packages, why don't we just get season tickets and sell off what we don't want?" We called immediately, got our seats, and literally days later, the Pittsburgh Penguins established their first ever season ticket waiting list. We really lucked out. Huge hockey fans in this house.
One of Dex's picture sets included him in his diaper with his Pens blanket wrapped around his lower half. We happen to possess a miniature Stanley Cup. I'm not exactly sure where we got it, in fact, Rob may have gotten in pre-us. We decided to take it with us so that our son could hold it with his blanket. At the last minute, I tossed our Pens jerseys in the car with us as well. I can tell you, the pictures with his cup and blanket...ADORABLE. Other people were "awwing" at the cuteness of the pictures. The photographer was a 10 1/2. She was awesome. The family shot was everything we had hoped for!
Dexter's other pictures were great as well. Ever since he was born, I've called him "Little Face." Weird, I know. I can't help it. He has the cutest little face I've ever seen. I'm biased as every mother is, but I do refer to him as Little Face. The photographer took one photo with him on his belly, kind of looking up with his mouth in that "ohh" expression. I melted into a huge pile of Mommy when I saw it. Soooo cute.
All in all, I must say, first pictures...great experience! I told Rob, we have to have this same photographer for all of his pictures. She was fabulous. She should really leave this studio and open up her own business. She is that good. Many people I know have awesome cameras and take great pictures. I imagine this girl to have started that way. She just has that touch of artistic ability that makes her special. I wish I could have that. I know people that truly take artsy photos as their own hobby at home. I'm glad this girl has gone and made it a career for herself! Awesome!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Show me "sand the floor"
Those of us who are in our late 20's can truly appreciate the power of that phrase. I can remember growing up and watching the first Karate Kid movie. The girls thought Daniel was cute and secretly thought Johnny was a babe. Admit it, that bad boy image was a turn on. The boys walked around quoting Mr. Miagi in all of his wisdom. We waited impatiently for the second movie to come out. We didn't care for the third because it seemed to break out of the original mold, but we enjoyed the character of Terry Silver. The fourth movie was just insane because, um hello, no Daniel. He was getting older by that time, but come on Ralph Macchio didn't look his age until he was 40 and even then he only looked 30. How about I just went onto IMDB and according to the site, he's almost 50. That's insane.
Anyway, now that I've rambled on for a paragraph....So I'm Dexter's Mommy. My little guy was 6 weeks old yesterday. He is my first and I just love him to bits. I was on facebook the other day posting new pictures. He likes to sleep in this bizarre manner in which he puts his arms out, wide-stretched. It looks like the crane technique from the Karate Kid. One of my friends from high school made a Mr. Miagi comment and I was like, niiiice! It was fabulous really. Dexter is just the cutest thing. I am totally biased of course, but he is a big bucket of cute!
I've never really been much of a blogger. That's not entirely true...I've had a few blogs before, but they were less personal and more about things happening around me. Me and my ironic statements. I've been journaling since Dexter was born and I figured it was time to join the world of Mommy bloggers. I am supposed to be going back to work in September, but I'm not really sure if I really want to do that or not. I'll probably end up back at work, but we'll see. I know there are a lot of people speculating about what's going to happen, but frankly, I don't really pay much mind to that right now. We'll see what happens. I'm hoping that things just work out the way they are supposed to. We'll see.
For now, I'm loving being home with my little guy. He is so sweet! I can't imagine wanting to do anything else but be with him day in and day out. How do other working moms do it? I hope if I do end up going back to work, I get some great advice from those moms that work outside their homes.
Anyway, now that I've rambled on for a paragraph....So I'm Dexter's Mommy. My little guy was 6 weeks old yesterday. He is my first and I just love him to bits. I was on facebook the other day posting new pictures. He likes to sleep in this bizarre manner in which he puts his arms out, wide-stretched. It looks like the crane technique from the Karate Kid. One of my friends from high school made a Mr. Miagi comment and I was like, niiiice! It was fabulous really. Dexter is just the cutest thing. I am totally biased of course, but he is a big bucket of cute!
I've never really been much of a blogger. That's not entirely true...I've had a few blogs before, but they were less personal and more about things happening around me. Me and my ironic statements. I've been journaling since Dexter was born and I figured it was time to join the world of Mommy bloggers. I am supposed to be going back to work in September, but I'm not really sure if I really want to do that or not. I'll probably end up back at work, but we'll see. I know there are a lot of people speculating about what's going to happen, but frankly, I don't really pay much mind to that right now. We'll see what happens. I'm hoping that things just work out the way they are supposed to. We'll see.
For now, I'm loving being home with my little guy. He is so sweet! I can't imagine wanting to do anything else but be with him day in and day out. How do other working moms do it? I hope if I do end up going back to work, I get some great advice from those moms that work outside their homes.
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