Mixed Reviews

We've had a week of mixed reviews.  We have been frustrated by some complications and delays regarding the closing date for our new house.  We were all sick over the holiday weekend, and then there were definitely mixed reviews of the fireworks on the 5th (that's not a typo...the 4th was rained out).

We continue to work out some of the requirements for closing on our new house.  The underwriters for our mortgage have gotten burned in the market crash, so despite our credit score in the 800s, 2 new jobs with confirmed stable salaries, no education debt, and a 20% down payment, they are putting us through the wringer.  We have had to submit an incredible amount of paperwork and documentation of our financial history. The most recent request was for us to submit a copy of Steve's CPA certificate and his W-2 from 2006 and 2005!  Ridiculous!  That has absolutely nothing to do with anything. We also had to write a letter a while back explaining why Steve would be working 20 hours per week in the off season and 40 hours a week during tax season instead of 40 hours per week all year round.  It really shouldn't matter because he has a stable salary paid out every 2 weeks for the entire year.  Why do they care how much he is working?  We had to explain in a letter that we have arranged our work schedules in such a way that we will be able to have a parent home with our children each day instead of putting them in daycare.  Somehow, I have a feeling that if I were the one working half time, they would not have needed a letter to explain that!  Anyway, we got through all that rigamarole and everything was looking good for us to finally close on 7/16.  Then we hear that the carpet we picked out a month ago won't be able to be installed until 7/19 even though it is completely measured, cut, and ready to be put in...just needs to be installed.  Home Depot refuses to move the intallation date up.  That will delay our closing quite a bit because the carpet has to be installed, then the appraiser has to go back through the ensure that the carpet had been installed, and then the underwriter needs an additional 24-48 hours to have all the paperwork ready for the mortgage so we can close.  So now we're looking at pushing the closing date back to 7/21!  I've been done with residency since 6/25 and we're just waiting to move before our jobs start and Michelle's wedding is here.  So frustrating!  We are very excited to move into our beautiful new home, it has just been stressful getting there!  Meanwhile, we haven't had a showing on our house in Rochester in over 2 months despite dropping the price seriously low.  We might have a "vacation home" in Rochester for a while.

We're still smiling, though...

My big boy is looking so grown up!

Our holiday weekend was less than restful.  It has been really nice to be off work for a while, and though I've been busy starting to get the house packed up, we have had some fun quality time with the kids.  We also had some down time while all recovering from being ill.  Thursday night, Steve was up all night sick.  After going to bed at 2am, I got up with Austin at 6am when I heard him on the monitor gagging!  Oh no!  I got thrown up on and then got Austin set up on the couch with a pillow, blanket, and a bucket.  He slept for an hour or so, then woke up and threw up again.  Luckily that was it for him...he was sick for all of about 2 hours, then was totally back to normal.  He was demanding Cheerios for breakfast and bouncing around the room shortly thereafter.  Steve took much longer to recover and bascially slept for the next 48 hours (awake for maybe 3-4 hours during that 48 hours).  Steve was finally getting back to normal on Sunday, July 4, but by Sunday evening I was sick.  Right as I was really feeling pretty sick, I went to bed and, as soon as my head hit the pillow, heard Sarah cough and gurgle a little on the monitor. I went in to check on her and I was absolutely shocked at what I saw.  She was still asleep, but was covered in vomit.  She had thrown up more impressively than I had ever seen an infant vomit before - and I'm a pediatrician!  She had it head to toe, in her hair, all over her crib sheet, up on her crib bumper, and even dripping down the back of the crib. It was unbelievable!  So I called Steve in and he cleaned up the crib while I put Sarah in the tub.  We got her all cleaned up and back in bed, only for her to repeat this performance on an only slightly lesser scale minutes later.  Back in the tub she went (for her 3rd bath in one evening).  She only spit up one more time after that (and didn't require another bath that night).  She slept the rest of the night and was doing much better in the morning.  She still seemed to have a bit of an upset tummy during the next day, but was generally back to normal pretty quickly.  Just as Sarah was getting sick, I was too.  I was up much of the night sick, but recovered fairly well the next morning and advanced from flat 7Up to chicken noodle soup to normal food pretty well the next day. 

The 4th of July was rainy in Rochester, so the fireworks here were postponed to July 5. That was probably better for us, because by Sunday evening, Sarah and I were sick, but we were all better by Monday evening.  We decided this would be a good year to introduce Austin to fireworks and we got a great tip on where to go to watch them.  Austin took a great nap on Monday (about 3 hours) and we let him keep sleeping that long anticipating keeping him up late to see the fireworks (scheduled to start at 10pm).  We made an event out of it and took him to his favorite dinner place, Noodles.  Then we headed home, got him bathed and in his jammies so he was ready for bed as soon as we got home (in case he fell asleep on the way home).  We headed out around 9:30pm and made it to a great watching spot about 10 minutes before the fireworks started.  We put down a blanket and situated ourselves on a hill leading down to the sports fields for a local middle school and we had a great view.

Austin was excited for the fireworks!

Here he is grinning ear to ear in the car on the drive over there...

Ready for the fireworks to start...

He loved them at first.  He would say "Wow, pretty!" and "I like them, mommy!"  However, by about 10 mintues in, he was complaining about how loud they were and laying down on the blanket, and saying "I don't like fireworks." By about 15 mintues in, he was crying and begging to go home.  I think some of it was being tired...it was definitely past his bedtime and despite the 3 hour nap, he was stil pretty tired.  We were only a short 10-15 feet from the car, so we got back in the car so it would be quieter for him.  He continued to cry and beg to go home, but we couldn't leave during the fireworks because we would have to turn on the headlights to drive out of the parking area and that would disturb all the people nearby watching the fireworks.  So we tried to keep him calm and watch the rest of the fireworks from the car.  The fireworks themselves were not that great anyway. I think the rain from the previous day had affected some of them because they had a few groups of duds that didn't work and there wasn't enough breeze to get the smoke out of the way, so by the end, the finale was hidden in the smoke.  Oh well.  Worth a try. Sarah slept right through it all in her carseat.  What a trooper!

Some other recent fun...

While Steve was sick, I taught Austin how to play Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders.  He doesn't quite understand the concepts of winning or losing and doesn't seem to quite get the goals of the games, but he LOVES them.  He is so excited to get the "lollipop card" in Candy Land and thinks the really big ladder in Chutes and Ladders is pretty cool.  We're working on taking turns and playing by the rules of the games.  He wants to play every day!

Not sure what this is all about, but Austin has started doing this and other silly moves lately. 

His favorite phrase right now is "That was weird," usually in response to an unexpected noise.  He also has been really into Toy Story lately, after discovering it in the DVD cabinet a week or so ago and requesting to watch them.  He likes Toy Story 2 the best.  We may take him to see Toy Story 3 in the theater for his first movie in theaters.

Sarah continues to grow fast.  She is getting more and more of a personality and is just at that adorable age where she is interactive and happy and smiley and developing more and more every day.

Sarah has been enjoying her exersaucer a lot more lately.

"Hey, check it out...I figured out how to push the buttons on this thing.  Sweet!"

She also has started giggling, usually at her brother's antics, but sometimes just because she is happy.  She is a pretty happy baby much of the time and she loves to snuggle!  I just got a bunch of cute crochet headbands and bows and flowers for them, so cute pictures of her in her new headbands will be on the way.

She makes cute little stinker faces sometimes, too...

That's about all from us for now.  That was our week of mixed reviews.  We'll be hanging out this week, getting the house packed for our eventual move, and heading up to the Twin Cities again next weekend for another wedding shower for Michelle and a visit from Jon Byrer.