It's possible we're closing on the house on July 10. That was the original plan, and despite the best efforts of the sellers, we might actually achieve it. There will be some contracted work to be done when we close (electrical stuff), some immediate landscaping, and some lighting/painting, which should be a good deal of fun. Then we finish packing. Then we call the movers. Then we bail on this place.
We're looking forward to so much about this house. Counter space. A private yard. A basement for the litter boxes. Wearing what.ev.er. I want to do the laundry. Space. No one upstairs.
For those who recall the Angry Ghost situation, you are probably not surprised to learn that we will be very glad to move to a place of which our former neighbor knows not. What I haven't shared is that he continued to come back for several months after he was evicted. Once, he came in the common area of the duplex. Several times, he tried. He had to have several conversations with the local police and the local police with the landlord before he stopped. Until he showed up again last week.
I watched his car drive by as I made dinner. It slowed just past the gate and started to veer into the driveway. Brooke was on her way home from work, but our neighbor was home. It was, I imagine, the new neighbor's car in the driveway that reminded former neighbor that he no longer lives here. So it is not completely surprising that when I heard someone trying to get in the back door a few days ago, my heart raced. It was just Sanna, having run well ahead of Brooke. I will be glad when sounds at the back door no longer leave me in a panic.
This morning in the car, Sanna announced, "We lived with Uncles B and B!"
Yes, we told her, we did.
"Because Mr. Neighbor was sick."
Yes.
"Yeah, and then we came back to our house. When are we going to live in the new house? I want to live there."
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
NTM Does Diapers
A very long time ago, several of you asked a number of very good questions about cloth diapers. I am up alone in the house, have eaten all of my snacks, and don't feel like going to bed just yet, so I will finally get to this.
Jessica asked: Would love to hear more about your cloth diapering choices. Any differences with Karl vs. Sanna?
Yes. Huge ones. Sanna (a fetus who produced little amniotic fluid) was not what is often called a "heavy wetter." Karl (who produced much more amniotic fluid) definitely is. Sanna only leaked out of diapers if she was in one way too long or had some of the cotton stuck out of the cover. Karl's outfits get changed due to urine leaks probably 1-2 times a week at daycare. We have adapted. Karl has always been more uncomfortable when wet than Sanna seemed to be, but Sanna's skin reacted poorly to disposable wipes, residues on diapers, and strange fabrics. Karl's does not.
They also have very different bowel patterns, and we ended up with far more poop leaks with Karl, even though we more frequently had to wash the cover post-poop with Sanna.
The size stuff almost goes without saying, but I will mention it. Sanna stayed in medium diapers until she was a full-time potty goer. Karl still fits in them, but we can see the future and the future says buy large.
Caramama said: I would love it if you did a post about cloth diapers. I've always been interested, but they seemed too difficult to use with our first. We were already overwhelmed with all the new-to-us things we had to get used to.
...and stacey wrote: I have always wanted to use cloth diapers but have no idea where to find good resources on sturdy and easy cloth diapers that do not cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestions at all?
I have written about this before, so I'm going to refer you to some stuff I wrote previously, because although I do like my own stories, I am also very lazy.
Diapers (or, More On Poop)
Diapers and Praise
Coffee Grounds and Ultrasounds
Here is a nice website that lays out cost estimates based on some pretty reasonable assumptions. We use the cheapest kind (prefolds and covers) at home and the fancier kind with daycare and sitters and when out (all-in-ones or pockets). Fitted diapers (specifically a diaper called Kissaluvs) are convenient for tiny babies, but once they start peeing more than two tablespoons at a time, they're not so great.
We LOVE Imse Vimse covers. They're expensive, but they wear well and are really nice to use. If you're not going to use prefolds daily, they're probably not worth the cost... but if you don't love your covers, you probably won't use prefolds daily. As for the prefolds, regular old unbleached cotton is the way to go. We don't fasten with pins. We use a little rubber device called a Snappi. It has little teeth on it and hooks the diaper closed. The good people at The Little Seedling in Ann Arbor will be happy to show you.
For convenient diapers, the best/our favorite is the bumGenius all-in-one with a pocket for extra stuffing. It's the closest to a disposable in terms of how it's worn (velcro on the front and done), so it's great for daycare and grandparents/sitters. We also use Fuzzi Bunz. They're very popular, but I could take or leave them. Pockets come completely apart, so they do dry faster than all-in-ones. Daycare inexplicably cannot (sometimes) figure out how many snaps to do on a diaper or which ones and how tight. The bumGenius velcro (I'm sorry--hook and loop closure) is easy even for daycare.
Then there are diaper accessories:
* wet bags (for putting a wet/poopy diaper in when you're out)
* doublers/inserts (for extra absorbancy in a diaper)
* liners (a layer of something, usually fleece, to keep the baby's skin drier)
* wipes (little squares of flannel for, uh, wiping)
* diaper sprayer (toilet attachment for hosing toddler poop off a diaper)
* ... and more.
As for washing, it's really not that big a deal. We use a detergent made in Michigan called Allen's Naturally. We use, literally, half a teaspoon for diapers and 1 tablespoon for regular laundry. You can't use fabric softener or dryer sheets on diapers because it leaves a repellent layer on the fabric, and you DO NOT want that, as I'm sure you can imagine. We also just use a $15 cheapo diaper pail from Babies R Us. Nothing special. When it's full, we run a cold soak (no soap), then a hot wash (1/2 teaspoon liquid Allen's), and an extra rinse. Covers hang dry, and the diapers go in on hot.
Baby poop can stain, but one day of direct sunlight removes stains like nothing else.
We'd recommend 24 prefolds (4x8x4 infant--dark green stitching) and 4 newborn covers to start. For newborn covers, we really liked Proraps. When you get to smalls, move up to 6 covers, but it won't be until medium-sized covers (which Karl The Cube started wearing at 6 months, so it takes a while) that you'll need to upgrade the prefold size to the premium (dark blue stitching). Wait until your kid is ready for daycare/nanny to decide what size bumGenius/Fuzzi Bunz to put her in. At that point, I'd recommend probably 12-15, depending on how many hours she's in someone else's care and how often she tends to poop.
24 infant prefolds = $42
4 Proraps = $35
6 Imse Vimse smalls = $96
12 bumGenius = $191.40
3 Snappis = $6.50
===$370.90
For Sanna, this kind of a supply held us until she started group care at 18 months. Karl needed medium covers and premium diapers in the 5-6 month range.
Jessica asked: Would love to hear more about your cloth diapering choices. Any differences with Karl vs. Sanna?
Yes. Huge ones. Sanna (a fetus who produced little amniotic fluid) was not what is often called a "heavy wetter." Karl (who produced much more amniotic fluid) definitely is. Sanna only leaked out of diapers if she was in one way too long or had some of the cotton stuck out of the cover. Karl's outfits get changed due to urine leaks probably 1-2 times a week at daycare. We have adapted. Karl has always been more uncomfortable when wet than Sanna seemed to be, but Sanna's skin reacted poorly to disposable wipes, residues on diapers, and strange fabrics. Karl's does not.
They also have very different bowel patterns, and we ended up with far more poop leaks with Karl, even though we more frequently had to wash the cover post-poop with Sanna.
The size stuff almost goes without saying, but I will mention it. Sanna stayed in medium diapers until she was a full-time potty goer. Karl still fits in them, but we can see the future and the future says buy large.
Caramama said: I would love it if you did a post about cloth diapers. I've always been interested, but they seemed too difficult to use with our first. We were already overwhelmed with all the new-to-us things we had to get used to.
...and stacey wrote: I have always wanted to use cloth diapers but have no idea where to find good resources on sturdy and easy cloth diapers that do not cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestions at all?
I have written about this before, so I'm going to refer you to some stuff I wrote previously, because although I do like my own stories, I am also very lazy.
Diapers (or, More On Poop)
Diapers and Praise
Coffee Grounds and Ultrasounds
Here is a nice website that lays out cost estimates based on some pretty reasonable assumptions. We use the cheapest kind (prefolds and covers) at home and the fancier kind with daycare and sitters and when out (all-in-ones or pockets). Fitted diapers (specifically a diaper called Kissaluvs) are convenient for tiny babies, but once they start peeing more than two tablespoons at a time, they're not so great.
We LOVE Imse Vimse covers. They're expensive, but they wear well and are really nice to use. If you're not going to use prefolds daily, they're probably not worth the cost... but if you don't love your covers, you probably won't use prefolds daily. As for the prefolds, regular old unbleached cotton is the way to go. We don't fasten with pins. We use a little rubber device called a Snappi. It has little teeth on it and hooks the diaper closed. The good people at The Little Seedling in Ann Arbor will be happy to show you.
For convenient diapers, the best/our favorite is the bumGenius all-in-one with a pocket for extra stuffing. It's the closest to a disposable in terms of how it's worn (velcro on the front and done), so it's great for daycare and grandparents/sitters. We also use Fuzzi Bunz. They're very popular, but I could take or leave them. Pockets come completely apart, so they do dry faster than all-in-ones. Daycare inexplicably cannot (sometimes) figure out how many snaps to do on a diaper or which ones and how tight. The bumGenius velcro (I'm sorry--hook and loop closure) is easy even for daycare.
Then there are diaper accessories:
* wet bags (for putting a wet/poopy diaper in when you're out)
* doublers/inserts (for extra absorbancy in a diaper)
* liners (a layer of something, usually fleece, to keep the baby's skin drier)
* wipes (little squares of flannel for, uh, wiping)
* diaper sprayer (toilet attachment for hosing toddler poop off a diaper)
* ... and more.
As for washing, it's really not that big a deal. We use a detergent made in Michigan called Allen's Naturally. We use, literally, half a teaspoon for diapers and 1 tablespoon for regular laundry. You can't use fabric softener or dryer sheets on diapers because it leaves a repellent layer on the fabric, and you DO NOT want that, as I'm sure you can imagine. We also just use a $15 cheapo diaper pail from Babies R Us. Nothing special. When it's full, we run a cold soak (no soap), then a hot wash (1/2 teaspoon liquid Allen's), and an extra rinse. Covers hang dry, and the diapers go in on hot.
Baby poop can stain, but one day of direct sunlight removes stains like nothing else.
We'd recommend 24 prefolds (4x8x4 infant--dark green stitching) and 4 newborn covers to start. For newborn covers, we really liked Proraps. When you get to smalls, move up to 6 covers, but it won't be until medium-sized covers (which Karl The Cube started wearing at 6 months, so it takes a while) that you'll need to upgrade the prefold size to the premium (dark blue stitching). Wait until your kid is ready for daycare/nanny to decide what size bumGenius/Fuzzi Bunz to put her in. At that point, I'd recommend probably 12-15, depending on how many hours she's in someone else's care and how often she tends to poop.
24 infant prefolds = $42
4 Proraps = $35
6 Imse Vimse smalls = $96
12 bumGenius = $191.40
3 Snappis = $6.50
===$370.90
For Sanna, this kind of a supply held us until she started group care at 18 months. Karl needed medium covers and premium diapers in the 5-6 month range.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Table it
- Sanna can reliably report left vs. right. Brooke claims that she was "embarrassingly old" when she really learned. I remember cottoning on to left vs. right, and I was older than 3. When asked who taught her to do that, she said, "I taught myself!"
- Our real estate attorney is totally worth the
big bucksreasonable sum of money we're paying her. We're thrilled. We never actually used one before, but just relied on our agent, and this is amazing. If you're in the area and in need of a real estate attorney, allow me to recommend her. - Is it just me, or is it way easier to conduct home buying business than it was in 2002? The Internet does everything. From writable PDFs to scanning and emailing forms to setting up homeowners insurance through websites, it's so much easier to get this stuff done than when we bought our first house. I spent hours and hours photocopying everything from two-sided to one-sided and then reordering and faxing. And not just faxing once but multiple times because the documents were so many that the connection kept failing. This scanning stuff is a breeze! Plus Brooke's doing most of it this time.
- When Sanna started standing and cruising, her head went entirely under the dining room table. Karl is not yet standing and cruising, but his head, as I learned when I stood him up as I sat under the dining room table (which I was doing for reasons that are still unclear to me, but I was down there and so was he), does not fit standing under the table. He really did lengthen!
- Karl is also eating solids like they're going out of style. Tonight's rice noodles with kohlrabi and asparagus was a huge hit. He and Sanna had noodle races and slurped up their dinners like champs. He might have eaten more than she did, although it's hard to tell how much stays in his toothless mouth and actually goes down when so much of it ends up on and under his chair.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Fate
It was a trying day. After a rough night (Karl grousing and thrashing from roughly 10pm to 12:30, at which point we dosed him with ibuprofen and Brooke went to sleep in Sanna's bed for a few hours, and then he slept adequately until 4am, plus Brooke and I had it out before bed over the hours I work and my short leash from the office), we woke to go to the home inspection. Sanna was dropped off to her first day of her best friend's transition into the preschool room.
At the house, our realtor called to tell us one of the properties he was listing, a foreclosure, had a break-in last night, and he was off dealing with that. Then we met up with the inspector and the real fun began. Three hours later, we had lots of information and no answers. To start, the pest dude found carpenter ants both inside and out. Yuck. Doable but yuck.
And to finish, well, the inspector listed roughly $12,000 in work that should be done prior to move-in. The house is sold by a bank, as-is, but under these conditions, it won't pass the FHA inspection, and we are on our way to an FHA loan. Fortunately, we have an attorney who will advocate for us and get us as much cash as possible for required repairs.
I missed both my train and a bus, so Brooke and I ate pizza in the car in the rain and talked. Are we giving up a chance at a third child by spending this kind of money on housing? How much is this really going to require of us? Due to a mortgage lender snafu, we have to borrow money from my dad for closing already--and borrowing money from my father is the last thing I wanted to do at this age and in this income bracket. In a startling display of logic, we concluded that we would get the inspection report to the attorney and not roll through the what-ifs.
We went off to work. On my train ride home, I read our horoscopes from today's paper. I am not a superstitious person. Other people begin talking about "signs" and I tune out. I didn't know Karl's sign until someone told me. But I read the horoscopes because they show up on the same page as the comics and Ask Amy, both of which I find entertaining. Sometimes, about as often as random chance, they are appropriate to the situation.
Em: Taurus (April 20-May 20): 6. A sense of foreboding means you should get back to work. Something will become more expensive if you don't take care of it soon. The good news is, doing it now could bring in cash.
Brooke: Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): 6. Money's still tight, but there is enough to make a household improvement. If you see something you've been looking for on sale, go ahead and grab it. You'll recognize it immediately as the perfect thing.
At the house, our realtor called to tell us one of the properties he was listing, a foreclosure, had a break-in last night, and he was off dealing with that. Then we met up with the inspector and the real fun began. Three hours later, we had lots of information and no answers. To start, the pest dude found carpenter ants both inside and out. Yuck. Doable but yuck.
And to finish, well, the inspector listed roughly $12,000 in work that should be done prior to move-in. The house is sold by a bank, as-is, but under these conditions, it won't pass the FHA inspection, and we are on our way to an FHA loan. Fortunately, we have an attorney who will advocate for us and get us as much cash as possible for required repairs.
I missed both my train and a bus, so Brooke and I ate pizza in the car in the rain and talked. Are we giving up a chance at a third child by spending this kind of money on housing? How much is this really going to require of us? Due to a mortgage lender snafu, we have to borrow money from my dad for closing already--and borrowing money from my father is the last thing I wanted to do at this age and in this income bracket. In a startling display of logic, we concluded that we would get the inspection report to the attorney and not roll through the what-ifs.
We went off to work. On my train ride home, I read our horoscopes from today's paper. I am not a superstitious person. Other people begin talking about "signs" and I tune out. I didn't know Karl's sign until someone told me. But I read the horoscopes because they show up on the same page as the comics and Ask Amy, both of which I find entertaining. Sometimes, about as often as random chance, they are appropriate to the situation.
Em: Taurus (April 20-May 20): 6. A sense of foreboding means you should get back to work. Something will become more expensive if you don't take care of it soon. The good news is, doing it now could bring in cash.
Brooke: Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): 6. Money's still tight, but there is enough to make a household improvement. If you see something you've been looking for on sale, go ahead and grab it. You'll recognize it immediately as the perfect thing.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Taken
My phone rang this morning at 7:30 as we rushed to get out of the house. It was a private number, and I didn’t get it in time. While we waited to see if a voicemail alert would pop up, we speculated about who it was, where they were calling from, and why at 7:30. It must be our real estate agent, but why was his number coming up as private? When the message came in, it was my best friend from childhood. I had tried to call her early yesterday morning to chat, hoping to catch her, but she’s in Eastern time and was just starting rounds as I dialed her number.
She lives in New York and is moving to Maryland in two months, after she finishes her residency. Her husband left this week for a job in Maryland, working as an engineer. She found a job that satisfies her scholarship requirements to work in an underserved community. They will take along their two children, one girl just older than Sanna and a son only two months old.
I think of how our lives, once parallel and later very divergent, have realigned in their similarities. We were close through middle and high school but in college found different lifestyles to meet our needs. She graduated pre-med in three years and left for South America with the Peace Corps. I stayed close to our college town, became a full-time lesbian and underpaid academic minion, and bought a house. She married in Bolivia and returned to the States to marry the same man a second time, and that is how we both served as one another’s matron of honor—my wedding took place between hers. While she went to medical school and had a baby, I fought to conceive a child and keep afloat on finances.
And now we are both juggling work and children, bills and chores. We try to connect, and our schedules much less our energies rarely allow it.
Karl’s butterfly-stroke locomotion is starting to give way to hands and knees crawling. Initially, he appeared to be attempting to swim across the floor. It looks a little more now like he pulls himself up and forward in the manner of upward dog, then pushes his upper body forward, moving his palms toward his hips, then reaches ahead of himself on the floor and does it all again. He is remarkably fast. His daycare classroom has to keep all of their safety gates closed all of the time, or else they find him trying to mine toys and Cheerios out from under the refrigerator, like he learned to do at home.
Sanna is on the brink of a growth spurt—or at least that’s what I’m telling myself, and it does seem to be true based on this morning. Since Sunday, she’s been physically out of control, doing things she well knows better than to do and is generally crabby. Monday morning, she kicked me twice while still in bed. Tuesday morning, she had to sit in her chair four times before leaving for daycare. She’s been physically aggressive with Karl while still being otherwise kind, so it really is like she just doesn’t know what to do with her body.
Last night, it struck me that it might have something to do with our uncertainty and anxiety over the house, so we had a talk about it. I clarified that we would like the house but don’t know if we’ll be able to buy it. After I explained real estate transactions (“If you had a toy you wanted to sell and more than one kid wanted it, you’d sell it to whoever gave you the most money for it.”), I told her that I knew not where we would live but how we would live. All of us, Mama, Karl, Sanna, and Meli and the cats will all live together, no matter what house we live in.
“I want to live in another house some time.”
Me, too. Our offer was accepted today at 5:01pm.
She lives in New York and is moving to Maryland in two months, after she finishes her residency. Her husband left this week for a job in Maryland, working as an engineer. She found a job that satisfies her scholarship requirements to work in an underserved community. They will take along their two children, one girl just older than Sanna and a son only two months old.
I think of how our lives, once parallel and later very divergent, have realigned in their similarities. We were close through middle and high school but in college found different lifestyles to meet our needs. She graduated pre-med in three years and left for South America with the Peace Corps. I stayed close to our college town, became a full-time lesbian and underpaid academic minion, and bought a house. She married in Bolivia and returned to the States to marry the same man a second time, and that is how we both served as one another’s matron of honor—my wedding took place between hers. While she went to medical school and had a baby, I fought to conceive a child and keep afloat on finances.
And now we are both juggling work and children, bills and chores. We try to connect, and our schedules much less our energies rarely allow it.
Karl’s butterfly-stroke locomotion is starting to give way to hands and knees crawling. Initially, he appeared to be attempting to swim across the floor. It looks a little more now like he pulls himself up and forward in the manner of upward dog, then pushes his upper body forward, moving his palms toward his hips, then reaches ahead of himself on the floor and does it all again. He is remarkably fast. His daycare classroom has to keep all of their safety gates closed all of the time, or else they find him trying to mine toys and Cheerios out from under the refrigerator, like he learned to do at home.
Sanna is on the brink of a growth spurt—or at least that’s what I’m telling myself, and it does seem to be true based on this morning. Since Sunday, she’s been physically out of control, doing things she well knows better than to do and is generally crabby. Monday morning, she kicked me twice while still in bed. Tuesday morning, she had to sit in her chair four times before leaving for daycare. She’s been physically aggressive with Karl while still being otherwise kind, so it really is like she just doesn’t know what to do with her body.
Last night, it struck me that it might have something to do with our uncertainty and anxiety over the house, so we had a talk about it. I clarified that we would like the house but don’t know if we’ll be able to buy it. After I explained real estate transactions (“If you had a toy you wanted to sell and more than one kid wanted it, you’d sell it to whoever gave you the most money for it.”), I told her that I knew not where we would live but how we would live. All of us, Mama, Karl, Sanna, and Meli and the cats will all live together, no matter what house we live in.
“I want to live in another house some time.”
Me, too. Our offer was accepted today at 5:01pm.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Place
The only news on the house today is that they're reviewing our offer very carefully. Details were cleaned up. A few missing sets of initials were applied. In our defense, we had about 45 seconds to do it and it was an 11 page offer.
We hope that cleaning up these details very quickly means both that they want to take our bid as well as proves us as interested and capable buyers.
We hope that cleaning up these details very quickly means both that they want to take our bid as well as proves us as interested and capable buyers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
