So Long Richmond Lane....Hello Springhaven Drive

It's been a long, exhausting month.  Lots of paperwork, lots of small dramas, lots of planning.  Yesterday, it all finally came together - we sold the old house and bought a new house.  The movers packed us up and had us out of the old house Thursday night and we've now moved in to a lovely hotel room until Christmas.  If moving at Christmas time in Chicago weren't enough stress, we opted to do some improvements to the new house before we move in.  All of that kicked off today with full steam in the hope that before Christmas, it will all be done so that the moving truck can arrive on the 27th.  Lots of before and after pictures are in this blog's future, but until then, we are so incredibly happy to be moving to a lovely new house, in a lovely new neighborhood, with a lovely commute for me, near a lovely new school for Luke. 

Luke has truly been the light of the whole process.  Yesterday, we're sitting at closing which can be a fairly long process.  It's Luke's naptime, and he's already been trucked and hauled around to all kinds of places, staying in a weird place, eating out a lot, having very few toys to play with.  There he is at the conference room table, perfectly entertained with scribbling his "signature" on blank sheets of paper, sorting paper clips, and putting his Thomas stickers as notary seals.  Yes, we did bribe him with the promise of ice cream, but I wouldn't have suspected that even that could bring about such amazing behavior in an almost-three-year-old. 

Tonight, we were leaving yet another dinner out when Jingle Bells came on the radio.  Luke made up his own lyrics:

Choo Choo tracks
Choo Choo tracks
Choo Choo all the way
Oh what fun, it is to ride
On the Choo Choo open tracks

Oh, to have have a video camera.  Now that I'll have about 10 hours back in my week, I expect blogging to be more prevalent.  We'll post pictures as soon as we're a little more settled.  Luke and I will head to Papa and Gramma's house next weekend and then Mike will fly down after the construction is done.  Then, we bring everyone back with us for moving in on the 27th.  Lots of hotels between then and now and a lot of living out of suitcases.

We are under contract!

Apparently, deciding to take your house off the market can actually be a help in selling it!  It turned out that a couple was waiting, hoping that we'd drop the price.  Instead, we cancelled our listing.  Their realtor called to inquire, they saw it today, and by 6:30 this evening, we had a contract.  And, we close on Dec 10th....holy crud!  Needless to say, many wheels are in motion - finding the new house, finding a new school.....oh the fun of moving, just in time for Christmas.   At least, Santa Claus came early for us.  What a crazy year! 

I am 3 days late in posting the pictures from Halloween.  My little chef was quite the character.  As he walked down the opposite side of our street, he kept shouting at me to show me his candy.  He was totally into it!

The "Punkin" Farm

What else would you do on an 80 degree October Saturday but go to Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm?  Lots of firsts on this trip:

• First Pony Ride
• First time feeding a giraffe
• First time eating Apple Cider donuts
• First time seeing a Pumpkin Eating Dinosaur
• First time being in jail
• First time pumpkin climbing was more fun than pumpkin picking

Fire Engines

Today was a special open house at the Bartlett Fire Station!  As you can see, a big hit!

Visit with the Tiemans

A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a fantastic visit with our dear friends from Richmond.  Luke had a complete blast with Michelle and Allison, and we enjoyed reminiscing and catching up on everything.  It was truly as if we'd just seen each other a few weeks before, and that's the best part about good friends.

Engeeo

First my story, and then general updates....I mean, after all, a 4 month hiatus from blogging deserves proper updates.

Luke and I were riding home from school jamming to our new toddler tunes CDs.  He says, "Please, Mommy, Engeeo song."  Now, I realize moms have a certain way of understanding what their kids say, but I was stumped.  "What song was that?"  He replied, "Engeeo."

Well, we started at track 1 and I asked him to tell me when to stop.  "This one, Mommy!" B-I-N-G-O...there was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name...B-I-N-G-O.

Top five updates from us:

1)  Mike is doing AWESOME.  He's graduated physical therapy and had his 10 week check up today.  Slowly life returns to normal and he's basically pain free.  Truly amazing!
2)  Luke is everything that a healthy, spunky, 31-month old should be.  He migrated to a big-boy bed this summer, he loves Puff the Magic Dragon, he continues to love all things associated with trains, and he is a mighty independent kid (gee, where does he get that from?)
3)  We have entered the Apple world with a new iMac.  Once I figure out how to insert a picture, I'll post a recent one of Lukeman.
4)  We had the most wonderful visit with our dear friends, the Tiemans!  Lots of great pics and Luke discovered how wonderful it is to have two doting young ladies at his beck and call for 3 days.   See previous comment about
5) Still no serious bites on the house.  We continue to wait patiently on that front.  Great feedback, but no one seems to be buying right now.  Bring on another tax credit!

Family is amazing.  We could not have gotten through this summer without the various friends and family who gave up their free time to come and do work for us.  Thank you, everyone, for all the hands and meals and prayers.  In general, 2010 has not been our best year, but we figure that it must be better from here on out.  Plus, it's September - wonderful fall-like temperatures and the start of college football.  Exciting things ahead!

Update:  I figured it out!

The Verdict Is In....

I'd like to say that I had better news, but alas, we weren't quite done with one of those 3 issues.  Mike has had 2 rounds of cortisone injections without much help.  He's in enough pain that we opted to consult a surgeon today.  The bottom line is that some sort of discectomy is in Mike's near future.

The only question to be answered now is whether there is a disc herniation or one or two discs.  His MRI is a little inconclusive on the 2nd disc, but his reflexes and symptoms indicate a possible problem with a 2nd disc.  He'll  undergo additional scans in the next week or so and then we'll determine exactly what type of surgery is needed.

This isn't exactly the type of summer we had hoped for.  Mike is heavily medicated for pain which means he can't work or drive.  The hardest part is that he really misses being able to pick Luke up, and that isn't going to come for several months yet.  Luke understands that Daddy has and ow-ee, and we've done really well to make some accommodations.  I think we all just know that the next few months will be a challenge, but it's amazing the type of strength you can find to pull through.

We all appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers from everyone.  We're taking things one day at a time, but with lots of help, we'll get through this.  As I told Mike today on the way home, this will all pay off in the many years to come in all of the things he'll be able to do with Luke.  This is just a little hiccup on the map of life. 

They Say Bad Things Come in Threes

I would much rather be just getting home from a fantastic weekend in Richmond visiting friends, telling Mike all about it, and hearing about all the fun things he and Luke did together on their bachelor weekend. 

Except that none of that happened.  Instead, I'm sitting here trying to make sure #3 has already happened somewhere along the line because I'm ready for a better week.  Mike returned early last week from a trip to Fort Wayne with such horrible back pain, he could hardly walk.  It progressively got worse, so he wisely got an appointment with an orthopedist on Thursday morning.  It turns out that my hubbie is and will be a bit prone to "disk problems," and the latest is a classic case of L5 bulging disk.  The good news is that it will likely resolve itself naturally, once the inflammation has gone down, but in the meantime, heavy doses of pain medication and steroids are making our life lots of fun.  He's not allow to drive, do much of anything, or lift anything over 20 lbs - seeing as though Luke is pushing 30, you can see why the trip to Richmond was a goner.

Then, there's the second bad thing.  Mike didn't feel that he could pick Luke up from day care on Wednesday (smart thinking, given what the doctor told us the next day), so I headed home as soon as I could from work to collect him.  I was actually only about a mile from our house heading to pick him up, when a teenager and I had a slight miscommunication at an intersection.  The results....well...

The poor girl isn't 17 yet, and I'm the one sitting there, blubbering like an idiot because it's the last thing I needed.  You see, the light turned yellow as I entered the intersection, and she needed to complete her turn in front of me.  So, she thought I would stop, which I had no ability to do, and tried to turn.  Well, $5000 damage to our car, but luckily, all of that can be replaced/repaired, and no one was hurt. 

I was unaware, but just so you all know, even if a child isn't in the car seat, if it's been in a car accident, the warranty is void.  Hence, a new car seat is already on order. 

My hope is that the third bad thing was Mike's recent challenge with arthritis in his hand.  I think it likely qualifies that has been recouping from some pretty tough pain there.  That must be #3, right? 

Great!  That means only good things for a while....like someone buying our house?  Reinforcements in the form of Gramma and Pawpaw arriving on Monday night??  At this point, that may be the best news yet!

How to Summarize the Last 3 Months?

First of all, I've been away so long that Blogger did an "upgrade" which may be the straw that broke the camel's back about moving to Typepad.  This really seems to stink, so not sure whether it will look right or not in the end. 

But, let me summarize what has happened since I last blogged:

1. Luke has grown a LOT, and as you can tell, he's started becoming more like a little boy and less like a toddler every day.  We have a ton of fun, and he chatters non-stop, narrating life to us.
2. We've listed our house on the market to try and move closer to both of our jobs.  This means the daily ritual of tidying, cleaning, etc. that just makes blogging less possible.
3. We rode the roller coaster of finding out I was pregnant and then finding out that it just wasn't meant to be.  These things do happen, and we're all doing just fine and looking ahead to the future.

There's a lot more fun stuff to catch up on, but for now, some pics of the cuteness that makes me smile every day!

How Do You Explain...

Luke and I ran to Target last night and were on our way home. As is typical for our outings, Luke repeatedly asks for "choo choo tracks" in the hopes we would turn the direction that carries us over the tracks. Since he was so good at the store, I told him we could go over 2 sets of tracks and went the long way to do so. As we crossed the first set, Luke says, "Choo choo tracks hug, yes?" In toddler speak this means, "I want to give the train tracks a hug." As I tried to explain why one does not hug the train tracks, Luke says, "Choo choo tracks kiss, yes?" I just don't know how to answer that one.

This was sort of the theme for the night, as later it was, "Potty hug, yes?" And, oh yes, "potty kiss."

Ah, toddlers.

Luke is obviously all better. The strange high fever broke within 24 hours and he was back to normal. No other symptoms, and so far, Mommy and Daddy have stayed healthy, thankfully.

Luke is 2, Part Deux

The official tallies are in...Luke weighs 27 pounds 14 ounces and is 35 1/2 inches tall! A growing, healthy boy, according to the doctor.

In the course of his visit to the doctor or through his daily interactions with classmates, he has come down with a fever. My kiddo is not usually one for much cuddling, but when he's sick, he only wants his mamma. So, we spent the day just cuddled up, the poor thing. We're hopeful that he'll be on the mend soon.

New Vocabulary Words

Thanks to a trip to Disney World, Luke has discovered a whole lot of new phrases and words. Here are a few of our favorites. Despite the cold, we had a magical time!


"Castle!"
"I'm too short to ride Test Track?"

CHOO-CHOOs!

"Ball!"

"Umbrella"

"Nemo"

"Bye-bye choo-choo train"

"More Teacups!"

"Cold, Daddy"

"Smile!"

"Dumbo"

"More yummies, peez"

"Jungle Boat"

"Genie Ride"

"Mickey Mouse!"

And, last but not least, Luke's new words include "Fireworks" and "Boom!" which he enjoyed every night before bed.

Pepper, Anyone?

Luke found a great deal of entertainment tonight with sprinkling salt and pepper on to a sugar packet which had found it's way onto his plate. He was "cooking." Before I could grab it fast enough, he had the pepper shaker inverted into his mouth with the funniest look on his face. I can't imagine pepper tastes that good to a toddler.

Luke is 2!

Lukeman today turned two
A party surrounded by lots of choo choos
A steam engine cake
That Mommy did make
And Paw Paw and Grandma came too.

Pizza a la Luke was yummy
Luke sampled the toppings for his tummy
Black Olives were good
Even raw onions could
Cause Luke to make faces that were funny.

Opening presents took a while
Each thing brought a big smile
New things for the train
And books for the brain
Plus a tricycle with lots of style.

Luke's height and weight is a mystery
We have to add for his growth history
This poem will end
With a promise to amend
After Luke pays a visit to the doctory.