Time to talk about being separated.

Woah, that's a shocking title!  Luckily for me and my husband it's less dramatic than you think ;)  I'll give you the brief version:

May 25th our house went under contract.

July 6th due diligence was supposed to end.  (In NC due diligence is the time period that the buyer has between going under contract and once it ends, if they back out of the contract, they lose their escrow money).

July 3rd:  A digging machine busted the back left corner of our fence.

July 4th:  Supposed to be the buyers' last walk-through of the house before due diligence ends...they walk through and see a busted fence.  Of course we are now in July 4th holiday mode, so no one is available to fix the fence!

Had to extend due diligence to July 11th (also our 9 year wedding anniversary), in order to get fence fixed and appease buyers.

July 17th:  Initial date of closing...postponed until July 23!!

July 10th:  Moved nearly everything out of our house.

July 12th:  Took the kids, the dog, and the cat to my parents' house in the mountains.

July 13-15th:  Volunteered at a Catholic Engaged Encounter weekend in Charlotte.

Since then......the kids and I (oh yeah, the dog and cat too) have been living at my parents' house in the mountains of NC, while my dear husband has been living at his mother's house 4 hours away (so he can keep working!)... so technically, we are separated...but just physically! ;)  We figured it would be a good way to save some extra money before we get into a new house, rather than having to rent in the meantime.

We have an offer in on a short sale house, but since it is a short sale, it could take months to hear back from the bank.  In the meantime, we are still looking for other houses.

The goal is to be back with Rob by September, because at that point, Isabel needs to be in Faith Formation on Sundays, and our homeschooling co-ops start back up as well!  

We all miss each other, and can't wait to get back together under one roof again, but are certainly blessed to have such generous parents who would let us room with them in this transitional time!  I think the kids think we are just on an extended vacation at their grandparents' house!

So that was my very busy July, and my excuse for a lack of blogging!  Not only have I not been writing my own posts, I have not gotten to read hardly any posts either!  I need to catch up.

Quick Takes #14: "Ian Time"

1.  It seems like all I have time for lately are 7 Quick Takes (visit Conversion Diary for more)!  So this one is all about Ian.  We had his 15 month check-up today and the little guy weighed in at a shocking 18 pounds 15 ounces.  Okay, not shocking if you are me or my husband...but to the rest of the world, yes!  Our pediatrician is so laid back about his weight because his length and head circumference look great, and of course Isabel is a wee little thing too.  So basically the kid needs some cheeseburgers, fries and pizza, oh and top all that with butter and full fat ranch dressing.  Anyone have their fave toddler-friendly high-cal, high fat foods?  Hahaha...last thing you hear a mom ask for, right?

2.  When asked how many words Ian can say, I told the pediatrician "about 12".
They are:  mama
                dada
                up
                pup pup
                hello
                bye
                help
                peek-a-boo
                uh oh
                shoes
                lizard
                Kee (our cat)
                fish
             
She said, "Oh that's great...it should be about 3-6."  And I was like, wow, great!  Until I read the little take home sheet:  Your baby should say 3-6 words clearly.  Oh well that's a different story.  Lizard is more like "izz-er", shoes is "sooz" and peek-a-boo is more of an inflection than it is an actual spoken, understandable word ;)   Dada, Mama, Up, Pup Pup and Uh Oh are his perfectly clear words ;)  So he's right on target!

3.   The poor kid had 4 teeth break through over the last month.  The 2 bottom molars and the 2 bottom incisors.  He's been drooling, chewing his hands...some days have been rough on him.   One of his fave remedies for teething has been his toddler toothbrush chilled in the freezer.  I just pop it back in when he's done chewing on it and it's ready for next time.

4.  Have you ever seen the show Ultimate Baby Tantrums?  Well, of course you haven't because it doesn't exist, but if it did, they could easily showcase Ian and I could probably make a million bucks.  We secretly call Ian, Drama Baby.  He has throwdowns the likes of which I have never seen when he doesn't get his way.  At home we try to catch him before he throws himself backwards in pure dramatic fashion and lay him gently on the ground where he begins the screaming, crying, kicking, flailing routine.  At that point we quietly walk away, or turn our back to let him know we are not amused, interested, condoning or encouraging this behavior....and he gets the message, but boy he lets you know he isn't happy about it for a good minute.  I remember baby tantrums with Isabel but hers were mild compared to what Ian serves up!  Please don't be a wayward son.....Saint Monica, Pray for us!!!

5.  Besides the baby tantrums, Ian is tons of fun.  The kid loves to play games like Where's the Baby? (hiding behind a curtain, or better yet, where he hides behind his own hands and thinks we can't see him unless he peeks out!), Chase Me! (mommy or daddy crawl around on the floor and chase after him as fast as we can- who are we kidding, the kid is FAST now....my 32 year old knees can barely take all that crawling!), or Chase You! (where he gets behind his plastic Tonka dumptruck and chases me around the house, crashing it into my heels).  His giggles and laughs are just the cutest and he really likes to be held upside-down and tickled under his chin lately.

6.  His new interest is feeding the pets.  "Ish", "Ish" for the fish...and they are always hungry, so we always have to feed them.  He has figured out how to open the cat's food container and will take one or two pieces of cat food just to carry around the house until he finds the cat or until he gets distracted and drops them.  Usually he drops them somewhere.  Nice.  And then the dog food which we keep in a minature garbage can with a flip-up lid, under a kitchen cabinet that is redneck-locked with a rubber band....(didn't I see that on a blog somewhere?)...anyway, the kid can get into all that and come out with a single kibble of dog food and he takes it to the giant german shepherd, Greta, and feeds her the one piece and then does it all over again.  After she eats it, he does the baby sign for "all done".  Hysterical!

7.  I'll leave you with a pic, just because.