This month has been WORK. As they say when it rains it pours. We started July out with a visit from my parents. I wish I could say it was all for fun, 
but honestly we worked the heck out of them! They planned their trip around when our renters of 18 months would be vacating the rental house (our former house) and we would be cleaning it up for sale. Originally they were supposed to be out by July 1st, but after a little nail-biting we got in to start cleaning it up on July 4th. We put in 4 LONG days painting, tearing out flower beds, putting in bark, cleaning, more painting, scraping paint…did I mention painting? For 3 of those 4 days my mom diligently watched both grand-kids (not that she minded) while Jason, my dad, and I went to work on the house. It was about 100 degrees all 4 of those days which made the outside projects a little toasty. Thankfully there was a good breeze and as they say it was a ‘dry heat’. I think my dad enjoyed working in the dry weather although it took some getting used to–screws and nails were not rusted off and his paintbrush kept drying out faster than he could wet it. In the meantime, our swamp cooler kept the inside of the house a slightly sticky 80 degrees for painting. We did take a short break to grill out with Jason’s parents and grandparents since we had company…after all it was a holiday weekend! Thanks to my parents for all their hard work and help. My dad thought we spent about 140 man-hours fixing it up and Jason and I only had to put in another 10 or so after they left. Thanks also to Lee for the use of his trailer and for scraping paint in the sun on one particularly hot day of our project.
Our old house was listed about a week ago. It looks better now than the day we moved INTO or OUT of it. We have only had a couple of showings so far, so we will have to decide shortly if we want to lower the price. I guess that’s what our real estate agent is for. He is the same agent who helped us get into our current home and we really like him. Hopefully it sells SOON!
Bear with me, I’m going to whine for a little bit. Paying two mortgages sucks. Paying twice as much daycare and not quite working full-time stings the pocketbook. We spent about an extra $500 getting the house ready to sell. The tooth that has been bothering me for 8 months finally has a diagnosis (cracked) and for a mere $500 I will have a crown and several new fillings while they are at it. The cat went to the vet and they called to suggest pulling 4 teeth (again to the tune of $500) which will have to wait. Both cars had safety/inspection/emissions/registration in the last 2 months, and both of them will need new tires for winter. I’m sure another $500 should take care of it. The money I managed to save in anticipation of selling the old house seems like it might not be enough. I sure hope we can make a few dollars on the sale. *end rant*
In brighter news I scored a killer deal for our yard off the classifieds last week. 113 edging blocks for $30. They were used but in excellent condition. I saw the same blocks at home depot for $2 each! If you do that math it saved us almost $200 even counting the gas to go pick them up. Hopefully if we get a few cool hours the entire lawn will again be edged by the end of next week. The garden has started producing. We’re done with peas and raspberries and now firmly into cucumbers. The pumpkins are setting fruit, and there are lots and lots of green tomatoes. The carrots and beets are presumably doing their thing under ground. Jason’s new grapes seemed to have taken although we won’t get any fruit from them quite yet. My only wish is that I didn’t have to water everything so much. I hate to see next month’s water bill.
Christopher continues to be a sweetheart! He is unbelievably happy and mellow. He is cooing more every day and is starting to grab things with his hands and pull them towards his mouth. 
He spends quite a bit of time on his play mat talking to himself in the mirror and chewing on the various toys he can reach. He’s so mellow I almost feel bad because he lets me get stuff done without holding him nonstop. He can still roll from front to back when he puts his mind to it and now and rolls from his back to his side but not completely over just yet. He’s SO CLOSE! In my opinion (and in comparison to his brother) he is sleeping pretty great for an almost 3 month old. He goes to bed around 10 and eats once around 3am. He will then continue to sleep until 6:30am. Unlike William he has never had fussy evenings which is SUCH a relief. I still think back to Jason walking William around the house for hours each night while he cried and I wonder how we ever survived it! I have started telling people this baby will trick me into having one more…which will probably turn out to be a tyrant. 🙂
William continues to be a very busy, VERY talkative almost 2 1/2 year old. He sings lots of 
nursery rhymes, counts to at least 15, knows his shapes, knows left and right, can identify most colors, and if you write letters on a piece of paper he can tell you what each one is. He is still resistant to potty training. We are not as consistent in trying at home as we should be. At daycare they sit him on the potty but he’s not training quick for sure. Today when I asked him if he pooped in his pants he told me “No. I pooped in my diaper. I’m not wearing any pants”….which unfortunately was true. I think I might try bribing him with M&M’s and see if that speeds potty training along a little bit. He continues to be totally OBSESSED with power rangers. I tried to find some action figures in the stores, but like everything, the quality of the newer ones I found just wasn’t that great so I ended up buying him some “vintage” ones off Ebay circa 1993. The few episodes of the show that I have watched with him remind me that not only was the plot pretty poor, the special effects and acting were also pretty bad. I have decided our adventure for next month is that I will start cutting William’s hair. We’re practically buzzing it this summer anyways so paying for haircuts seems less ideal all the time.
This week we had a surprise visitor one evening. The daughter of our home’s former owners called to see if she and her husband could stop by with a baby gift for Christopher. She only lives a few blocks away so we had left a birth announcement in her mailbox with the rest of the neighbors. It was the first time she’d been back inside her old home after she had been in charge of selling it two years ago. You could tell it was very emotional–her dad built the house and she and her siblings grew up here–but you could tell she liked what we’ve done with the place. She said for months after the sale she couldn’t bring herself to drive down the street. I’m really glad she likes what we’re doing here. It was very touching that they came by.
I’m enjoying being back at work. My coworkers at TOSH are great. I did really miss them when I wasn’t there. Other than some staffing issues things are fairly low stress these days for which I am thankful.
So there you have it. Please play the lottery on my behalf and/or send us a buyer for our old house, I’d really appreciate it!