Ten Things on a Monday

1. I haven’t blogged in ages, and I keep wanting to sit down and write, but it’s been so long and I feel overwhelmed and I don’t know where to start. And so, here’s a ten things post to summarize the past couple of months. (That’s thing number one.)
2. A month ago, we decided to look at a condo that my wife found online and really liked. We weren’t really even seriously looking, but we went to see it, loved it (it’s bright and homey and has lots of windows, and only shares one wall with another condo), and then we bought it. We bought the first place we looked at, isn’t that kooky? We offered a quick close because that is what the sellers wanted, and we took possession on Thursday. I still can’t quite believe we are homeowners. We’ll keep living here at the campground during the summers, but in the winters we’ll stay in the condo.
3. We also bought a car (before we had any idea we were buying a home) which we picked up last week. Neither transaction went entirely smoothly, and July kind of disappeared in a haze of tediousness, but hey – new car, new home.
4. D is 26 weeks pregnant. We’re so busy, I sometimes forget. So does D, but baby M is doing lots of kicking these days and generally making her presence known.
5. Because our new condo is in a different city, D has transferred OBs. I suggested she see my OB/GYB because I love her, and so we had an appointment with her but she is going on maternity leave (the nerve, right). Her replacement sounds good though, so we’re going to go with her. Their office has pictures and write-ups about famous women everywhere, and it’s an all-female practice. It has a good feel to it.
6. J is going to be two in a month. She is so much fun, I am really loving this age, despite the emotional tumult and the struggles for autonomy and the constant “NO, thank you’s”. She speaks like she’s three. She uses 10-15 word sentences and uses the past tense, and talks about yesterday and tomorrow and tells us SO much about her experience of the world. It’s fun, and makes things much easier because she can communicate so well. She’s so ahead on most milestones that I feel awkward talking about it, because I don’t want to be all “my-kid-is-gifted”. Also, she is so quiet when we’re around people she doesn’t know very well that if I were to tell them the things she says it would sound implausible. So when people ask if she talks, I say things like, “oh, yeah, she’s pretty chatty at home”, and there’s a weird sort of dissonance between out-in-the-world J and at-home J.
7. I made a friend! We met at J’s music class, and she has a son who is a couple of months older than J. We had a playdate this morning, and it’s pretty exciting to meet someone who I actually really like who has a kid that’s J’s age. Unfortunately the kids don’t play that well together yet (they are basically total opposites), but I’m hoping that will come with time. J definitely likes them both – though she was silent the whole time they were here, after they left she chattered away about them for a good long while.
8. I think our 15 year old cat is getting close to the end of her life. She’s had a bad UTI and is just ending her second course of antibiotics. She is thinner, not terribly happy, and I just feel like she isn’t going to bounce back. Maybe I’m being pessimistic. And when she does die, there will be an extra layer of grief because she is also J’s cat – J loves her so much, and the thought of her experiencing that difficult to understand loss guts me.
9. J is still a terrible sleeper. I feel like a bit of a failure. I really thought it’d just come, in time, and it has not. Right now we’re working on getting her to fall asleep alone, and then we tackle the staying-in-her-bed-all-night issue. I don’t mind co-sleeping if she sleeps, but she kicks – not accidentally, on purpose. In order to annex more bed. I hate it, it’s making us all miserable, and it needs to stop.
10. We’re going camping tomorrow! Yurt camping, at Macgregor Point. Any tips on camping with a toddler are welcome!