Our House, in the Middle of Our Street...

Wow...we've been busy. We just bought a house (or, you know, are in the process of buying one for the next 30 years or so). Yeah. We weren't really looking to move so soon, but everything kind of fell into our laps. It wasn't something we could really pass up because we were already beginning to outgrow our little rental. Well, more like our daughter was outgrowing it. Her room was the office/nursery, which is quite possibly the worst combination ever. Every chance she got, she would scramble onto our office chair and bang on the keyboard which would cause it to come crashing down to the hardwood floor. And break. That, along with the fact that she has about 450 tons of toys and will likely procure even more, was what got us thinking.

It was kind of one of those opportunities that comes along, and will most likely never come again. So, we took it. I'm so happy that we did because it feels so nice to actually have a place of our own! Also, we can have more than two people over at once (our rental was that small).

So basically, I've been busy moving/sanding/priming/painting/cleaning/etc. which takes about three times as long with a 17-month-old in tow. Oh, and we've also been dealing with a new stage called "I CAN HIT/THROW THINGS/WRITHE ON THE GROUND AND SCREAM TO GET MY WAY!". Which isn't actually true-the getting her way part, not the screaming and hitting-but she still tries. I really hope that she gets all of this out of her system before she turns 12 because, seriously, I'm tired. I can't get anything done because when I start something like painting, she spends every second trying to get attention by, you know, eating paint chips, or something equally as dangerous, and then protesting wildly if I take them away. Sometimes she even bangs her head against the wall ("Monica BANG!") to see what I'll do. Which just ends with more crying, somewhat because she didn't realize how much it might hurt to bang her head into the wall, but mostly because I don't react to it. If I do, she'll just do it more.

But, aside from all of the whining and hitting and head-banging, we're doing really well in this house. We love it here. And here's proof that sometimes we really do get along. Here we are bonding over our mutual love of snow. This was the first time she actually got to see snow since last year at this time she was about six months old. She kept looking up at the snow that was falling and saying "OH!" and then trying to catch it.