Update, Part 3--Yeah, yeah...I'm trying to catch up...

So one of the very first visitors we've had over to our new house is Brent's mom.  My fantastic mother-in-law came down for a few days over our Spring Break and it was so great to hang out with her, and more importantly, to have Nate hang out with her.  Unfortunately, living in NY, she doesn't get to see him all that often, so it was nice for them to get to hang out for a few days.  And boy, did she spoil the little guy!  New pull-out, baby sofa, new pic-nic table, new guitar (more his size than the ones Daddy plays ;) ) and lots and lots of love!  They got along famously and we were all sorry to see her go.  We'll be going up to NY this summer, but we're also hoping that grandma will start coming down more often.  Hey...that's what retirement is for, right?  She managed to spoil us some too.  Not only did she and my father-in-law help us buy this house, but she also insisted on a housewarming present for us--a new fridge!!!  We were having to deal with the awful, inadequate replacement fridge the sellers' agent has put in here and it is wonderful to have a brand new, HUGE fridge! :D  Thanks Mom!!!

So here are a few shots of Mom's visit!

And...you can kinda see the new fridge.  Don't mind Nate in the picture, LOL!!!

Update--Part 2. Still a lot of work to do!

Some pictures of our yet unfinished house...

And the lil' man enjoying his new back yard! :)

New home and lots of work! Update--Part 1

Ugh, it's been over a month! Shame, shame, shame! I tell myself I'm going to keep up and I honestly love to write, but so many things get in the way.

We did finally move into our new home on March 21st and we've been going NON-STOP since then! Moving day was more than a little stressful. I wasn't looking forward to moving and having to keep track of an extremely active 15-month old, but my wonderful mom and my awesome aunt volunteered to come over and be in charge of the little man while Brent and I did the hard work--with more than little help from our friends! :) So I brought Nate over to the new house early in the morning where my mom and my aunt were going to keep him and headed back over to the old house to start helping with the move. Well...there things got a little out of hand. In the midst of the chaos, someone left the front door open and Moxy and Ceres got out. We lived in that house for four and a half years and they NEVER got out. It figures that on our last day there, something like that would happen. Let me tell you--Ceres is hands down the most loving, sweetest, angel pup in the world--UNLESS you're a small animal. For some reason, she'll got after any small animal she sees--cats, squirrels, raccoons, small dogs...she's on them. So I've always been very careful not to put her in a situation where she might come across a small animal hurt them. Unfortunately, on this day, she did come across not one, but two, very aggressive small animals. A Chihuahua and his buddy, the CAT! My big, bad Pit Bull Terrier got her ass KICKED by a cat!!! She managed to get a good bite into the Chihuahua, but the cat really did a number on her. So on top of all the stress of moving, there I was, with my bleeding, freaked out dog. Thank goodness for my friend Emily who was there helping. She managed to keep me calm as we drove Ceres to the vet. So 6 stitches later, she finally made her way to her new home. And Nate did very well with grandma and "titia" too. By that evening, we were in. Living in a mess, but we spent our first night in our new home! And boy, did it feel good!!!

Space, space, sapce!!!

So I haven't updated in a while, but we've been busy and I've been stressing. Things were moving sluggishly slow in regards to our new house and the longer it took to finalize the deal, the more worried Brent and I got that something was going to fall through. But I'm VERY happy to say we finally closed yesterday and we own a new house!!! Brent and I left the closing and went straight over to our new place to really explore. It felt so good to unlock that door ourselves and let ourselves in! There is so much SPACE in that house!!! I'm sure we'll find some way to fill it all up (Nate mostly, LOL), but it's almost twice as big as the house we're in now. I'm so thankful that this opportunity presented itself to us and we were able to make it work. We'll be moving into our new home this coming weekend and while we're very much looking forward to it, a little part of me will be so sad to leave our current home. We've been living here for over four years and they've been very happy years! This was our first home and this is the home we became a family in! This was Nate's first home and I will never forget walking through the door with him in my arms for the first time. So it is not without a little wistfulness that we will pack up our belongings and leave this house behind. We will be taking some great memories with us! Of course, what we're not looking forward to, is the actual moving process. They do say that the only thing worse than packing is unpacking, LOL! I have to agree. Packing up this house has definitely been very time consuming and frustrating. It's like the more we pack and put away, the more stuff I find--ugh. At least this might serve for a good cleaning! Get rid of junk that's been accumulating for the last four years. Brent has a rule--if you haven't seen it or thought about it in the last year, it's garbage. He's got a point, I guess, but I get attached. Not always easy to get rid of some things. Luckily my mom and my aunt have been coming up and helping us pack up. And we have several friends that will be helping us with the move on Saturday. I'm wondering if maybe I can talk them all into staying and helping us unpack after we're all moved in??? :D

Renaissance Festival 2009

So anyone who knows Brent and I, knows that we LOVE Renfest! We go every year and it's such a blast. Last year was a little different going with a 2-month old, very colicky baby, but this year has been a blast so far. Nate has a lot of fun when we go. And why wouldn't he??? It means he gets to outside, dance to live music and run around and get dirty! He's also getting to meet all our "Rennie" friends that we only get to see once or twice a year. So I promised some Renaissance Festival pictures and they will follow this post.

On another note, things with the new house are moving along--SLOWLY! We were hoping to close next Friday and move in over the weekend, but it looks like we may have to push it back a week. Apparently things are moving very slowly with lenders and things that used to take 48 hours are now taking almost a week. We're very anxious to move into our new home and get settled in. But in the meantime, we happened to get a great deal on a pool fence! Brent and I knew that a pool fence was our #1 priority for the new house. NO way Nate is going to be running around in that patio without a fence around the pool. So I started researching. Even the do-it-yourself fences were going to run us about $650 for the 46 feet of fence we need. That is way more than we wanted to spend, so I started stalking Craigslist. I saw an ad for a huge yard sale going on yesterday not too far from where our new house is and one of the things they had listed was a pool fence. I had no idea how big it was or how much they wanted for it, but I figured it was worth a look. Guess what??? We ended up getting close to 90 ft of fence for $150! And it's in great shape! It was a little dirty, but Brent washed it and it's all ready to be installed! And Nate had a blast "helping" Daddy wash the fence, LOL! I've got some video of that too. Enjoy!

My kid is a genius???

I used to ooh and aah at my family and friends when they told me about the 'amazing' things their kids were doing. Silly things--or so I thought. Silly like, "oh my gosh! so-and-so knows how to turn on the light", or "my daughter can point at her own foot". Yeah...I thought they were silly, but always managed to display the had appropriate reactions. Funny how it's all about perspective. Last night I just happened to ask Nate, "where is your nose"? He looked at me for a second and then he showed it to me!!!! He brought his chubby little finger right up to his perfect little nose and touched the tip of it!!!! How do I describe the feeling? MY KID IS A GENIUS! Too much? LOL, maybe. But I could feel my heart swelling with pride and trying to break out of my chest! Brent and I giggled and cheered and clapped, so Nate giggled and cheered and clapped. :) Suddenly showing us his nose is his new favorite thing. ;) Ah, the joys of motherhood...

Busy, busy, busy...

Yep, it's been over a month since I've "blogged". Oh my! What can I say though? Life moves fast! We've had a lot going on over here in Higley land. We're moving!!! Yep...all my "obsessing" (as Brent calls it) over houses seems to have paid off. I found this house online and it looked really nice in the pictures. The caption read "this is NOT a short sale--easy closing" and THAT more than anything else, caught my attention. Over the last couple of months, having looked at several short sales and become more familiar with what that entails, the fact that this wasn't a short sale just seemed like a blessing. And a more than a little weird. So I called my realtor and asked him what the catch was. No catch. The house was a available! Long story short--we're moving!!! :) Yep, we got it and we're so very, very excited about it. It's much bigger than our current home, has a HUGE backyard, a pool with a waterfall hot tub and a beautiful screened-in patio. It truly is a home where we can raise a family. It's definitely a little sad to leave our current home. We've loved this house from day one and we've definitely become a family here. It was Nate's first home! But I know he'll love his new house too. All the room he'll have....aaaahhhhhhh--I love it!

Speaking of the little man, he is just awesome! He's growing and learning so much and he's so much fun to watch and hang out with. With every passing day, he becomes more of a person and shows us a little bit more of his personality! He loves to dance and tries to play guitar with Daddy at every chance he gets. He runs everywhere and is becoming a bit of a climber. Definitely keeping mommy on her toes so he doesn't fall down! He tries to climb his toys, the coffee table, the couch--even the kitchen cabinets, LOL! He's still not talking very much. Not that we can understand anyway--I'm quite sure he's having full-on conversations only he can understand. :) I have moments where I worry about that, but I know it's normal. Not to mention the fact that Nate gets spoken to in two languages--English and Portuguese. So it's only natural that it'll take him a little longer to talk since he's processing two different vocabularies. He did however, say "Dada" the other night. He's been going around babbling and saying "mama" and "dada" for a couple of months now. But half the time, we're never really sure whether it's being directed at us or not. But this time there was no doubt! The "Dada" was most definitely directed at Brent and I loved seeing him swell with pride and love as he picked up his boy and asked him to say it again. So cool! I wasn't even jealous. Well...maybe just a little! ;)

So here are a couple of pictures of the new house and a promise of some great Nate pictures to come. We've been going down to the Renaissance Festival the past couple of weekends and I have over 100 new pictures to download off the camera. Did I mention we've been really busy? :D

Weekends

Man, I live for weekends!!! Don't get me wrong. I've always enjoyed weekends. Not having to go to work, getting to sleep in, watch TV all day or lay out by the pool. It's always been pretty great. But lately, I really LIVE for weekends. And not because I get to sleep in, lol! That doesn't happen anymore. But because I get to spend the entire day, all day with my sweet baby boy. It's the best thing ever! Especially because the older he gets, the more he interacts and I'm starting to feel like I might be missing too much. I was fortunate enough to be around for when he first started crawling and I got lucky that he took his first steps one afternoon after I got home. But I missed his first word! I'm pretty sure it's his first word. He's been babbling and saying "mamamamama" and "dadadada" for a couple of months. Sometimes I think he directs them at Brent and me and at other times I'm pretty sure it's just meaningless babble. But this was his first word! He said "light". Although when he says it, it sounds like "laaaaaaaaa". But he'll actually point right at the light and say it. Melts. My. Heart. Brent took him outside at night this past week and upon seeing Venus bright in the sky, he promptly pointed and and said "laaaaaaaaaaaa"! Yes, my kid is a genius!!! :D
At least his first word took place in the presence of his father. That's pretty cool. Brent works later than I do, so by the time he gets home, it's almost bathtime and bedtime. But he does get to spend part of the morning with him, so he got to witness the "laaaaaaaaaaa" incident. Pretty awesome!

One of the things Nate most loves is playing outside. Just being in the driveway, walking down to the sidewalk, plopping his little tush on the grass and pulling out clump-fulls. He could spend hours out there giggling and exploring, so that takes up a large part of our weekends. And he's just so darn cute doing it!!!

Back to Work :(

So the first week of being back at work is winding down and I must admit--it wasn't too, too bad. Although it's been more difficult being away from Nate and I've been missing him like crazy! I got so used to spending all day long with him, it just makes me sad to say goodbye in the mornings. Although there is NOTHING better than seeing him in afternoon and watching that goofy, beautiful grin spread across his face when he catches a glimpse of "muh-muh" as I walk through the door and call his name! :)

We decided to head to the Palm Beach Zoo on our last day of Christmas vacation and it was a blast. Brent decided that we're going to make it a tradition to always do something or go somewhere fun on the last day of every vacation. I like it! Instead of spending the day dreading the next morning, we'll instead be hanging out as a family and enjoying our last day of the break. We took Nate to the zoo back in May when Grandma was down from New York visiting. Although it was fun then, Nate wasn't much of a participant, given the fact that he was still in a somewhat "lumpish" stage of his development, LOL. This time we could really tell that Nate had a blast! He was engaged, giggling and checking everything out as Brent pushed him along in his new buggy (he LOVES that thing!!!). His favorite part for sure, was the fountain! The Palm Beach Zoo has a giant fountain right in the center where water rises out of the ground and dances while kids run through it and get soaked. Nate was fascinated and so excited! Before we left for the day, I decided to strip him down to his shorts and let him have a go. He was too funny! So excited to "grab" the jets of water shooting up out of the ground, but he'd turn and run as soon as it really splashed him! I'm posting a few pics of our last day of FUN!

Oooooh, big fountain!


Can I touch it, Daddy???


Riding the caroussel with Mommy is fun!


Ah, I get to touch it now!

A New Year

Another year. Our New Years was pretty uneventful, but that's definitely not something that bothers me. Ten years ago I would've been hitting all the clubs and partying until dawn, but now I'm actually content to stay in with my boys, watch a good movie and drink some good wine. I got a little nostalgic putting Nate to bed last night as I realized it was soon to be 2009 and not 2008. Brent and I have joked that 2208 was Nate's year because of the way it sounds when you say it. Two thousand and Nate, LOL! Silly, I know...but it must all be connected to the little twinge of sadness every mother feels at watching their babies grow up so fast. And Nate is growing--FAST! It seems like the past year went by in the blink of an eye and another year has come along too soon. Man, I remember thinking time DRAGGED when I was a kid! Now it just keeps speeding up. Regardless, 2008 was a great year for the most part. We're looking forward to an even better 2009 and great things to come!