Big Changes!

I feel like such a slacker since it has been almost three months since I posted anything on this blog. Life has been a little crazy for us. In early October I had this thought. I thought, "It's a horrible time to sell a house...but that means it's also a GREAT time to buy one!" Shame on me for having thoughts at all...

So, Clint and I decided to take a stab at selling our house in West Jordan. We met with our realtor (who had helped us buy the house in the first place) and worked out the details. Getting the house ready for showings was much more stressful than I thought it would be. It required lots of cleaning and de-cluttering and some quick remodeling as well. When the house was finally ready to go on the market, I was exhausted. But keeping the house tidy with 2 dogs and a 17 month old (on my own since Clint was traveling) was even more stressful!

We tried not to get too excited every time a showing was scheduled. We figured that if the house didn't sell, it was ok because we still loved it and weren't in a hurry to move anyway. But we got an offer before the home had even been listed for 5 weeks. Naturally, the buyers wanted to get in and settled before Christmas. So we spent most of November packing and cleaning our lovely 4 bedroom 3 bathroom West Jordan house and moving into a tiny 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment in North Salt Lake while we search for a new home.

It's pretty rough to move back into an apartment after almost 6 years in a house. Every little noise makes our dogs bark and it seems like our upstairs neighbor wears combat boots around the apartment! Our upstairs neighbor also likes to get up at 4:45 am to shower for the day and since this apartment complex is pretty old, the pipes make SO much noise. It's not a pleasant wake up call each morning. But I do feel blessed that we even have a place for Christmas.

We are currently in negotiations on a home in South Jordan and if all goes well we will be moving in near the end of January. So hopefully "apartment hell" will be short-lived.

But I am still in mourning for our West Jordan house. I will miss it a lot. It was a great first house and we made so many memories there. Unfortunately, my camera is packed so I can't even find a nice picture of the house for this post. So this one below of Seth on the fridge will have to do.

Also....

Seth is now 18 months old! I can't believe he is already at this milestone! I have really struggled with Seth lately. I'm sure part of it is because he wasn't getting much attention while we were packing and moving but he has been such a little beast lately.

Do I sound horrible for being honest about this???

I don't really know how to sugar coat things. Seth has always been a very active child. He crawled early, walked early, climbed early...he has never been one of those mellow babies that just sits quietly with a toy or watches cartoons. He finds a way to get into everything...yes, folks. That is bubble wrap that he creatively used as a step stool to get into a drawer full of knives!

He doesn't really like playing with normal toys. He likes weird stuff. For instance, when we were packing things up I brought out a brand new dump truck equipped with legos and a lego man driver. I thought it was pretty nifty. Seth took one brief glance at it and then proceeded to carry a table lamp around the house. Weirdo.

So, suffice it say that I have really struggled to find toys that will stimulate my child. At daycare they say he is such a happy baby but the moment I come to get him he becomes an absolute terror and whines and throws little tantrums for the rest of the night. His pediatrician says he is just intellectually advanced and that just makes for more difficult parenting. Yay for me.

I shouldn't complain too much. He isn't bad ALL the time. He is learning to say 'I love you' and gives kisses at bedtime. He also says 'hi' to everyone he sees. He said 'hi' to a man in the parking lot today who just ignored him and I instantly felt bad for Seth so I said 'hi' back to him instead. And I am learning to be a little more patient with him when he would prefer to play with the cardboard box instead of the cool truck...seems to be helping.

I guess I'll keep him around for a little while longer.

A high school friend of Clint's took these pictures of Seth last week to celebrate the 18 month mark:

This is my favorite one...

Is he yawning? Screaming? Hungry? Or just smiling big? You decide.



The best attempt at a family photo. Seth just did not want to sit still.

Doesn't he just look like a "Harvard grad" in the making?