6 months old (and moving day too!)

My little princess is 6 months old!

A little bit about what Sarah is like now...

She is sitting up really well now. She loves to sit on her blanket and play with her toes.  She enjoys her exersaucer and school house toy.  She got her first tooth on moving day, 7/21.  She has been eating rice cereal and now starting vegetable baby foods.  She is happy and smiley most of the time.  She is chunky and has lovely chubby baby thighs.  I think I see dimples every now and then when she smiles (I thought she didn't get the dimples...maybe she did!).  She smiles at pretty much everybody she meets.  She says "baba" and "mama".  She scoots herself around when she's on her tummy.  She loves her pacifier and blankie for going to sleep and goes to sleep pretty well on her own.  She sleeps through the night, typically from about 8pm to 7am or so.  She is about 19.5 pounds and wears 6-9 month clothes.  She wears size 3 diapers, but has been peeing through them with just about every nap and bedtime.  She loves her big brother and likes to watch him play.  She loves to chew on toys, clothes, carseat straps, fingers, her own toes, and basically anything she can get near her mouth.  She is just precious and we adore her!

Life has been busy lately...

We moved last Wednesday (7/21).  Things didn't exactly go as planned, but we made it through with the help of family.

The kids were actually really well behaved while we scurried around packing up the house.  We tried to leave their toys out until the very end so they could stay busy while we packed everything else.

On 7/20, we brought the kids up to Nanny and Grandpa's house, stayed overnight there, then divided and conquered on 7/21.  Nanny took care of the kids while we went to closing to sign all the papers and hand over our down payment and Grandpa met the movers at our house in Rochester so they could get started while we were at closing. Then we headed to Rochester as soon as our closing was done.  The movers were close to done when we got there...except that we didn't fit all our furniture and boxes into the biggest UHaul truck we could rent.  So we ended up having the movers go get their truck and we had 2 trucks to move with (plus the piano movers).

Here is a glimpse of the chaos...

The second truck loading up while the piano movers take the piano out of the house.

The UHaul truck (loaded full and ready to go).

Dad stayed behind for a few minutes to vacuum the house and sweep out the garage.

It was so strange to see the house so empty!

We hired the same movers as last time we moved because last time, they did a really great job....not so much this time.  They worked hard, but we were disappointed with their service because they would not take their shoes off in my new house and got dirt stains on my new carpets, some of our furniture got damaged, and by the end of unloading, they just started putting boxes in random places and not paying attention to what room was written on them or what direction we were giving them for where to put things.  Oh well!  They won't be getting our business again.

We had supper at Nanny and Grandpa's, got the kids to bed, then went back to the house to take out the existing vent hood so our new microwave/convection oven could be installed there the next morning. We also stayed to get the kids' playroom cleaned and unpacked a bit so that the kids would have somewhere to play the next day while we tried to get unpacked.

The next morning, the parade of installers started - new microwave/convection oven, washer/dryer, Comcast cable internet and phone, and Direct TV.   The Home Depot folks came with our new microwave and refused to install it because there was a tile backsplash that went up to the cabinets and would be behind the microwave.  All they would have to do is drill through the tile, but they refused.  Home Depot had already lost our business because of the whole carpet debaucle which delayed our closing...but that's a whole other story.  We had to hire someone else to come install the microwave.  

Then the guy from the gas company came to install our gas dryer...only to find out that we didn't have a gas dryer!  We thought our dryer was a gas dryer, but it was an electric dryer and we don't have a hookup for an electric dryer in the laundry room.  So we had to buy a brand new dryer...gas this time and then hire the gas guy to come back out to the house again to install the dryer.  It is difficult to move in when you don't have laundry for about a week!

We have been working hard to get settled in and my mom has been an absolute incredible help! She and I unpacked the kitchen in record time and got the house cleaned bit by bit so we could walk around without getting black socks, etc. We finally slept in our new house on Saturday night.  We got the kids' rooms, the playroom, and the kitchen done first, then the family room and our bedroom.  We still have a fair amount of unpacking to do, but it is difficult to do much when the kids are awake and needing attention, so we typically put the kids to bed and then stay up until around 1-2 am every night unpacking.  Needless to say, we are VERY tired!  

The kids have been doing pretty well in the new house. Austin keeps talking about his "brand new house" and especially his "brand new playroom".  I'm not sure he fully understand that we live here, though.  He did say "I want to go home" at one point when we were putting him to bed the other day.  He is otherwise adjusting pretty well.  I'm actually surprised at how well the kids have been sleeping and napping in their bedrooms because we don't have any window blinds yet, so it is bright in their rooms during the daytime and they sleep right through.

Sarah with spikey hair from her naptime bedhead.

Austin full of smiles!

The playroom!

Austin loves to play Candy Land!

He especially loves when he gets the special cards, but doesn't seem to understand that the goal is to get to the end to the candy castle. He is really excited when he gets one of the special cards even if it gets him all the way back to the beginning.

Sarah is also up to some new things...

She is eating more baby foods now. She has done really well with rice cereal and now has moved on to some vegetables.  She has tried sweet peas and carrots so far.

Today, she was banging on her tray and started fussing, but seemed like she still wanted to eat, so I figured she didn't want her tray on.  I took the tray off and she was very happy about it.  She kept eating her cereal and sweet peas, but decided she wanted to eat her toes too!  Rice cereal toe jam...yummy!

Sarah also has been enjoying the big tub in our new house...the ducky tub has made its repeat appearance!  She sits up so well now, she can now have her baths sitting up and the ducky tub is just perfect.

We continue to work on getting settled into our new house.  We went down to Rochester today for Sarah's 6 month photos, which we scheduled before we knew when we'd be moving.  We got some really cute photos of Sarah and Austin individually and together and even attempted a family photo.  We got to take some photos outdoors at the Plummer Gardens too.  It is a beautiful spot.  I can't wiat to see the photos!

We also stopped by the house to pick up a couple small things we left behind.  It was odd to be back in Rochester but not live there.  For once, Rochester was the destination and not the home base.  We got to see our neighbors there again, too.  We'll sure miss them!  We did meet some of our new neighbors and they seem great.  There are 2 little boys across the street (5 and 2 years old) so that will be great!

Work starts next week and I will have to hit the ground running, as they've got me scheduled with a pretty tough patient first thing in the morning on my first day!  I guess I figured there would be some kind of orientation, but it will be more learn as I go, I suppose.  I did get some introduction to the electronic medical record the other day...it made my head want to explode.  I think it will take some getting used to.  Steve starts work on Tuesday.  Then Michelle's wedding is next weekend!  We are so excited!