Brady Walking

I apparently have no picture of him actually walking.  Oops.

This week was a big week for my little man.  He took his first steps and then some.  He can now take about a dozen steps before falling.  He is getting himself up (without holding onto anything) and walking.  I would say he only is walking about 20% or so of the time but I know that will all change quickly.  He is definitely staying on Calleigh's milestone schedule as she was about this same exact age - - 13 months and some change - - when she started walking.  I was curious to see if Brady, as a boy, would do things motor skill wise at an earlier age than the girls but the answer to that has been a big "no."  Also this week, I noticed he has two more teeth coming in (the ones next to his top front teeth) to bring him to a grand total of six.  Thankfully, like the girls, teething has not been an issue.

In other news, this week has left me very frustrated with the whole townhouse rental thing.  I had several viewing appointments set up and both times, the ladies failed to show.  One called a few minutes after her appointment was scheduled to say that she had locked her keys and phone in the car (very sketchy sounding) and then the other just never showed up and when I emailed her to say where she was a few hours later, she replied saying she forgot and that we were just one of many places she was looking at....as if that is a valid excuse for not showing up.  I get very aggravated with things like this because being late, let alone not being there at all, is probably tops on my list of things that I focus on for myself so I think it's hard for me to tolerate it in others.  Anywho, I guess these are things you just have to deal with when looking for tenants.

I think one of the things that particularly ticks me off about it is how much work goes into preparing the place for someone to see it.  Anyone with kids can understand that it's not a simple process.  Even if you had it in showable condition one day, the next day you basically have to start all over again because things are all out of place, there are fingerprints on your white cupboards, toothpaste stains on your sink, glitter has now been dumped all over the patio, etc.  Duncan joked with me that it will all a ruse on his part.  He's been having people call to schedule fake appointments just so I'll keep the place in pristine condition.

This is why things get messy again. They will invade my closet and try on hats, clothes, shoes, you name it.

So two of our mornings this week were tied up waiting for people who never came.  The other mornings we did some errands although Thursday we did go to the mall and enjoyed the playground there.  It's definitely too hot for any playgrounds outside these days although honestly, it may be cooler down here than some of the weather they're having up north.  The hot weather is a give and take.  When the weather is warm/hot, we can go in the pool which we're in several times a week at Grandma and Grandpa's.  But then when it gets cooler so we can go to the playground and do other things outside, it usually means it's too cool for the pool.  So which is better?

The girls took forever to get to the point where they could climb up this. Brady zipped right up it like it was nothing.  

These last two weekends we've spent some significant time at our new neighborhood.  Last Saturday, late afternoon, we headed out there since we hadn't seen our new house in about 10 days (we were also going over to the Isidros but we stopped at the house first).  We were not impressed with the progress that had been made although this didn't bother us particularly.  We've been hoping not to close until after Nova Scotia so a delay until then would be fine by us.  We did, however, notice a few things in the house that bothered us like a hole in the ceiling in the master bedroom and then also a bigger one in the master bath.  As we were upstairs looking out our back window, I saw our back yard neighbor, smoking on her patio, I might add (thankfully this will be covered by a fence).  She saw me and started waving frantically.  I opened the window and she yelled over if we were the new owners of the house.  I replied yes and she says "I have been waiting for you to get here forever.  I wanted you to know that they leave the windows open in the house and the rain comes through and just pours right into your house."  The husband then comes by and says "Yeah, I would definitely get your own inspection because that could cause mold."  This was obviously a little concerning to us so Duncan fired off an email to our builder.

Duncan, in particular has been having some frustrations with this building process, so he laid out his concerns in his email.  We finally heard back from them on Tuesday afternoon and some of it allayed our fears (apparently the windows were only open before the dry wall was in).  We set up a time to meet the builder personally.  That happened yesterday and I found him, Mike, to be very nice.  We couldn't help but notice that they seemed to have accomplished way more this past week as our wood floors are in, the carpeting, the backsplash, our ovens, and some other items.  Apparently the squeaky wheel does get the grease.  Of course, it's not like we want them to finish things too fast but thankfully Mike did tell us we would close on August 22 after we do our final walk through on August 15.

The stone work on the outside will be done this week.

Front entrance.  The wood is covered up so you can't really see it.  We went with something much darker than in our current place.

The backsplash was done all wrong but has now been fixed.  Note my double ovens.  Very happy.

Breakfast nook.

The view upstairs.  Carpeting now put in.  The A/C will be on come Monday so we won't pass out from the heat any more while doing our little tours.

We can see Lake Apopka from our upstairs windows.

Community pool.

Ron and Elaine hadn't seen our house yet so they came with us yesterday.  Afterwards, we met up with a bunch of others, including the Isidro's and Bergherms, for a trip to the food trucks.  Food trucks, as you may have heard, are all the rage these days so we thought it was due time to get in on it.  They come the third Friday of every month to "downtown" Ocoee. It's actually a pretty setting right along the banks of a lake and people spread out all over the grass.  They show an outdoor movie there as well but for obvious reasons we did not stay for that. There were probably about a dozen trucks there all offering some different variety of cuisine. I had an apple and cheddar grilled cheese which I found to be good, but could have been better.  Duncan said it was a bit different then he expected. The prices are pretty much like what you would pay at a restaurant and he had been thinking it would be cheaper, with smaller portions, so you could sample things from different trucks.  I guess you just have to go every third Friday so you can try something new each visit.  Anyway, we very much enjoyed the experience and no doubt will be back.  

Being silly while eating an orange on the way home.

As far as church this morning...the kids are all in different Sabbath Schools now so we all go our separate ways.  Calleigh is still in the same class with the four- and five-year olds.  Aubree had moved up to the three-year old class, which at the moment is pretty small.  I've volunteered to help with her class so I'm with her while Duncan takes Brady to his class for the 0-2 year olds.  Every ones seems happy with their class (except maybe Duncan who probably wishes he was in his own class) so that's good.

Apparently something very dramatic most have happened after Sabbath School.

This evening we were invited to Tiffany and Anthony's for supper along with David, Yully, and Megan.  Tiffany and Anthony, as I've mentioned, are building a house right around the corner from our new house but already rent a house just down the street from where they are building.  So once again, we made a trip out to Ocoee.  I think it's starting to feel quicker and quicker each time we do it!  How ironic since we used to call the trip "going to Tampa."  Anyway, none of them had seen the inside of our house yet so after supper and before dessert, we took them over for a showing.  Not to be overshadowed, the meal was quite delicious and we had a great time of fellowship.  Brady, however, got pretty perturbed on many occasions when he would start climbing the unblocked stairs only to be thwarted each time on about the second stair up.  Sorry buddy!

"Who is that handsome guy?  Oh wait.  It's me!"

Just a few things about the girls I thought I'd mention....Aubree calls shorts, "short pants" as in "I think I'm going to wear a shirt and short pants today."  And when she says "today" she actually means "for the next hour or two."  I say that because, seriously, that girl must change her outfit AT LEAST six or seven times a day.  She often gets dressed before we go downstairs for breakfast and then as soon as she's done, she'll disappear.  I'll call up the stairs to ask what she's doing and she hollers back "Nothing!  Just changing."  In her defense, she does at least put the stuff she's taking off back into her drawers.  On the downside, she puts EVERYTHING back into the drawers even if it's filthy dirty so I have to go through it all anyway.  I don't recall Calleigh going through a stage quite like this.  Here's hoping this is one of those short stages.  

It was really quiet one night at around 10-something so I was like "Oh good.  They're asleep."  I poked my head in.  Nope.  Just putting on their leggings and tights.  Look at Aubree's drawers all open as she weeds through looking for some outfit to put on at 10:15 at night.  

They put their pajamas on for the night and then change into clothes right after.  I've given up.  This is not a battle I choose to fight. 

Yup, more sleeping in clothes AND dress up clothes.

This week Calleigh has been focused on reading bedtime stories out of the one Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Story books that we own.  The whole set is 20 books and I had been thinking about buying the set since I have such fond memories of them as a kid.  But now, I'm rethinking it.  The stories are very outdated and really, not in a good way.  One of them this week was about a "naughty" girl named Gertie who appeared to be like six years old and went to the store with four of her friends.  All her friends got candy but she had no money and couldn't buy any so she was very sad.  As they walked down the street, a lady saw her and noticed how sad she was without any candy so the lady offered to take her to the store to buy her a lollipop.  The reason Gertie was naughty was because she never said thank you to the lady.  But I would propose that she was very naughty because she went somewhere at her young age without an adult, talked to a stranger, and then went to a candy store with said stranger....alone.  Yikes!!  After we were done reading it, I think had to spend the next five minutes going over all of these points.  I very clearly stated that we do not talk to strangers unless they were with Mommy or Daddy.  But Calleigh clarified my point, "We can't talk to strangers unless we know them." 

One can only hope that "Gertie" is not one of those old fashioned names that comes back into style.

I'm hoping that now that Brady has taken his first steps, and soon many more, that it will cause him to sleep more.  He's been waking up at 6:30 every morning almost like clock work.  Too early!  The nursing only takes about ten minutes or so in the morning so then we still have at least another hour to kill before the girls get up.  We usually hang out in Brady's room where I get out all his toys.  He's pretty cute though...at about 7:45 I ask him, "Do you want to go see Calleigh and Aubree?"  He lets out a little squeal and crawls to the door as fast as his arms and legs will carry him.  He's pretty darn excited.  It's neat that, even though he only says a few words, he can still understand a lot of what I say to him.  For instance, it I tell him to give me his binky, he'll pull it out of his mouth and hand it to me.  Anyway, back to his sleeping.  He's usually in bed by 8:15.  Last Saturday night we probably didn't get him to sleep until an hour after that because we were at the Isidro's.  What extra time in the morning did I get out of that?  He woke up at 6:40.  So an hour later to bed nets you a stinking ten extra minutes.  Thanks a lot.  His naps in the afternoon have been subpar too only lasting an hour, tops.  If I get him a lot of exercise (like when we went to the mall playground) it expands to almost two.  Very nice.


Proof that children have no sense of distance...
Aubree: "Where we you born, Mommy?"
Me: "Far, far away up in Massachusetts."
Aubree: "Past Publix?"


I think that's a wrap.  Have a great week.  

He may be little but he already thinks he can take Aubree down.