House Hunting

As you may know, we've been in the market for a house since moving down to NC, so we're done some serious house hunting. And I mean SERIOUS house hunting - I'm pretty sure we've seen at least 60 houses in Southwest Durham. Crazy. And the girls came along for almost all of our hunting. They are real troopers (as is our wonderfully tolerant real estate agent!).

I never did take any pictures of us on the hunt, but have enough little tidbits about house hunting that I thought I'd share. Hayden has learned A LOT about houses in our search. She now knows what popcorn ceilings are and delights in announcing "daddy there are popcorn ceilings!" though I think she's confused about their desirability. (Jason does NOT want popcorn ceilings, but I think Hayden wants them. They are popcorn after all!)

She has learned the word "trashed" and can use it correctly. We have been in a few foreclosure houses that are in not-so-great shape. I still don't quite understand why that means that the carpet is stained and destroyed and the place is such a mess but usually the foreclosure houses were trashed. We must have commented on this out loud, Hayden picked it up so that in one houses, as we were leaving and passing by a dining room that was actually in pretty good shape, she announced, "Mommy this room isn't trashed!" No Hayden, it was not. :)

Hayden has also taken a strong interest in our lovely realtor, always asking if she will be the one showing us houses (occasionally her husband stepped in), following her around and asking questions. Luckily our realtor was very patient and tolerant and dutifully answered her questions and comments. In one house that was wooing us with chocolate chip cookies, I saw Hayden heading upstairs with one in hand. I asked her what she was doing, since she already had one, and she said, "I'm taking it to Kim, Mommy!" We also had a conversation one evening about what Kim would have for dinner. (I pointed out that I did not think Kim would be having smoothies for dinner, which was something we were considering that evening.)

Hayden definitely enjoyed looking at all the different houses. She was eager to open every single door, all by herself. If we were told there was a cat, she looked all over for it. She wanted to see if there was a pink bedroom available. And was even willing to try strange potties, even as she was just starting to use the "big potty" by herself.

I think both Hayden and Eliza particularly enjoyed the houses without any furniture in them because then they could run around freely. They took advantage of that and ran around and around in circles, laughing all the while. Eliza delighted in climbing whatever stairs she could find and toddling as fast as she could go while Hayden ran around. Both were amazingly tolerant of getting in and out of the car over and over again. We didn't see too many in any one house hunting session, but there was still a lot of transferring. There were only a couple times that Hayden had to be carried out of the house.

Probably the best house hunting story is Eliza's. We pulled up to a house - that ended up being on my short list - and we stopped along the curb to wait for our realtor who was running late. I'd brought sandwiches for the kids, because it was dinner time. I'm feeding pieces to Eliza while she sits in her car seat when suddenly she THROWS UP all over herself, and the carseat. I pack my diaper bag to be prepared for most things, but wasn't really prepared for throw up. I got her out of the car, stood her in the grass while gingerly peeling off her clothes. We used all the napkins we could scavenge in the car to wipe up the throw up. And of course the house was not currently lived in, so there were no paper towels to be found. I did have a change of clothes, and we were able to leave the windows open so it worked out okay. That was the start of the stomach bug that came thru our house a couple weeks ago. And then, when we went back to the house the next week, Eliza spit up AGAIN in the living room. Needless to say, we did not pick that house.

So no pictures from house hunting, but here are a few random ones from our current housing situation. The girls LOVE the child-size rocking chair in the living room and can often be found in it. Eliza climbs in, sometimes stands up, and sometimes gets a leg stuck when she tries to get out.

The other big excitement of being at my parents' is Dooley dog who is the most patient, wonderful yellow lab you ever met. Hayden often takes naps with her. Eliza lights up when she sees her "doo-daw, doo-daw" while signing "dog". And Hayden loves to play chase with her around the house. While Hayden tells me we can't take Dooley with us to our new house, she has already requested her to come visit. Here's a picture of Hayden and Dooley waiting outside for Daddy and Poppop to come home.

Oh, and here's a picture of what WILL be our new house, if everything goes according to plan. Come visit!

Corn Maze

I was feeling a little down, because we were in North Carolina, far away from our favorite pumpkin patch we have visited the past two years. Luckily, Lori lives right near a farm that was doing lots of fun fall activities and invited us to go. That's how we ended up walking across the road from Lori's neighborhood to Green Acres farm, and spending a sunny October morning on a hayride getting licked by cows, wandering in a corn maze and jumping in a bouncy house.
Once we got onto the farm, we hopped right up on the wagon for the hayride. We drove past a little pond, through a field of cows and back to the main action. Jason got licked by a cow and we learned how to sign "cow" to Eliza, though she didn't feel like trying it herself. She was too busy taking it all in.

the cow that licked Jason - it's too bad we couldn't get a picture of that because it was QUITE the tongue.

After the hayride, Hayden insisted on going in the bounce house. It may have taken her awhile to get up the courage to enter a bounce house, but now that she's tried it, she's ready to jump whenever and wherever. She had a great time bouncing.

Then she tried her hand at milking a cow. You had to squeeze pretty hard to get any "milk" to come out but she managed.

Then we headed to the big draw of the day - the corn maze. This is what it looked like. Jason took a picture of it with his phone to use as a "map," though I'm not sure how much it helped us.

You were supposed to find ten stations throughout the maze, but we only managed to find 9 before we got tired and hungry. Eliza got bored early on and took a nap on my back. Hayden alternated between being bored in the stroller and eating anything we offered, and walking while insisting on being the "line leader" and telling us she'd find the next station with her "flashlight eyes."

the view of the cow pasture from inside the maze

After making an escape from the maze, Jason and I tried to "ring the bell" at a strong man game. Jason was indeed a strong man and rang the bell fairly easily on multiple tries. I had multiple tries but was unable to ring the bell. It's a lot harder than it looks - I was too worried about missing the pad to swing with all my might!

Then Eliza woke up and got to try climbing on the huge mound of hay they had for kids to play on. She wasn't too impressed, I think she was still waking up. She did do a wonderful "GQ" pose as Jason called it.

There were also plenty of other photo ops with those funny scene face cut outs. Lori and Wes did one near the corn maze. Then Lori got Hayden in a couple. Cute!and then right before we left to go find lunch, we stopped at the pumpkin display for some seasonal photo ops. Pumpkins were on the pricey side, but they still made a great backdrop. I do love a collection of pumpkins for taking photos! Hard to get the girls both smiling and looking at the camera in the bright sunshine, but even so, they still look cute. Also, please notice their themed shirts!

Happy October!

Eliza's big birthday

I think Eliza was really excited about her birthday. So excited that she was awake (sort of) at 12:01 am - it may have been teething, or maybe she just wanted me to wish her a Happy Birthday at the first possible moment. I did say Happy Birthday and then tried to ease her back into her crib to go to sleep. It sort of worked. She was up around 6 am again, and she got whisked into our bed for a little more sleep. We all got up around 7:30 after Hayden came to join us for a family birthday snuggle. Then we made birthday buttermilk pancakes and started the day!

E had a little trouble waking up - H was trying to "be cute" for the picture.

E got dressed in her birthday outfit so she's be ready for the day. She was all smiles!

Most of her birthday was fairly routine, at least for Eliza. There were pancakes, playing, a nap, a trip to Target, balloons, another nap and lots of smiles.

While Eliza was having fun, the rest of us were busy getting ready for her party. The main task (besides that trip to Target) was making the cake. I had decided to make a pumpkin cake for Eliza's birthday. She had loved zucchini bread, so I thought she'd like the light spices. Plus it was a way to welcome fall (even though it was in the 90s!) and to incorporate a little bit of State College. We had a pie pumpkin we'd picked up at our last stop at Way Fruit Farm on our way down to NC, and we needed to use it. This seemed like the perfect time!

A couple days earlier, Hayden had helped me cook the pumpkin. We cut it in half, seeded it, cut it into chunks and baked it. Once cool, I peel off the skin and pureed it.
I had lots of experience with pureeing from making baby food, so the puree turned out beautiful! And then, we followed this recipe and it turned into this!

Grammy and Granddad came into town, so Eliza had all of her grandparents in attendance at her party. She had a fun time opening presents. She actually played with everything as she opened things. Hayden was a big help of course, and VERY interested in everything that Eliza got. She liked her new water bottle, her new magnetic blocks and was especially excited about her new zoo train. Thanks Grammy and Granddad!
For dinner we had her favorites. Macaroni and cheese (homemade by Daddy!), fruit salad, and edamame. The adults got a green salad too with local pears and goat cheese. (We've been exploring local food options in NC!). Dinner was a big hit, with lots of food consumed.

Then there was a short walk outside, a few more presents, and finally THE CAKE! Eliza wasn't quite sure what to make of the burning candle. I think we could have hypnotized her with it if we had known how. And I'm not sure if she made a wish when I helped her blow out the candle, but she was ready to dig in when given her piece.

She was actually a fairly neat eater at first. Not too much cake wasted in being messy, it all went into her mouth. But apparently, we didn't give her enough cake. After she'd finished, I think she wanted more, because she went after the plate. And then things got a little more messy.
Don't worry, she did get more cake - the next day. And she enjoyed it then too! All in all, it was a great first birthday for our favorite blue-eyed baby. It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since she was born. Now she's walking, and starting to talk (said "nana" for banana quite clearly this morning), starting to sign (dog, airplane, tree, drink, etc.) Can't wait to see what the next year brings!

From this...
to this!

Hat's off to you, Eliza!!! Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Eliza!

There will be a more thorough entry soon, but I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Eliza. She turned one two days ago. Can you believe it's been a year since she made her debut into the world? So far she's having a great time being one - walking at every chance she gets, eating whatever we will let her and just enjoying life. Happy Birthday Eliza - I hope your next year is even better than your first!

Eliza's walking!

A lot to post about, what with the move, and a family gathering of all the sisters and kids, meeting baby Charlotte, getting reacquainted with Durham, Hayden starting to use the potty, and everything else, but one of the biggest pieces of news is that Eliza is walking!!! She took her first steps just in time to be bragged about at the party we threw in honor of my mom's birthday, and has been working hard at two legged mobility ever since.

These aren't her first steps, but they are within a week. And as I write this she is actually toddling around the room! Today is the first day I've seen her really try to walk from point A to point B when there is some minimal distance involved. She's going to be running soon, I'm sure!





In other big Eliza news, she's starting to sign too. It is just so neat to watch her learn signs. I've seen her do more, cheese, drink, airplane, dog and baby. And she chatters up a storm. She actually "performed" for me just a couple minutes ago, as I was trying to capture her walking. Isn't she great?!