Two steps forward

A.'s starting to walk! I'd expected there to be a distinct day that she started walking, but it's been a two steps forward, one step back thing since Saturday. Where she used to turn away from whatever was supporting her and look across the room as if to say, "I wonder if I could...", and then plop on her bum, she now actually takes 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6) steps to her destination. Any further than that, or any sense of urgency, and it's back to crawling. Most of the time, as is typical, she wants no help. No help! But once or twice she's allowed us to take her hand and walk beside her for a few steps.

I'm excited about her walking, but a little apprehensive as well. She causes enough trouble as it is... what about when she's walking and has two free hands while toddling around, or when she wants to be put down to walk and explore when out in the world? I see a lot more vigilance in my future.

Settling

Well, we've been living here for a week now. Our stuff and things are slowing finding their places, although most of the non-furniture items are still in boxes in the garage.

Our progress got slowed significantly when the entire family was hit by a really nasty illness. A. came down with it first, on Saturday night. It took me and JJ down on Monday afternoon, and by Monday night had gotten so bad that it necessitated a trip to the emergency room for JJ. A liter of IV fluid and some tests later, and he was sent home to sleep it off. The next morning he was much improved, but I wasn't. By mid-day I was in a bad state, way behind on my liquids and calories. JJ finally put an IV in me and gave me 2 liters, and that got me over the hump and on my way to recovery.

Now that that's over, we can finally start to put some energy into unpacking before the family starts to arrive for A.'s first birthday (!). Of course, living in the house has led us to notice more small fix-ups that need to be done, so there's a new list starting. Weather stripping, a better shower head, a quieter dishwasher... a house is a blessing and a curse, I guess.

Long time, no see

We finally have internet, but it's late and I'm tired so elaboration is going to have to wait. Suffice to say that we've been living in the new place since Wednesday night, and we've spent the last 3 days hauling truckloads of our things from the Lake Katherine house to here. All that's left is the random detritus that accumulates wherever you live for a while. Moving is cleansing, in that regard.

Details later. When it's not so late.

Almost done

We're so very close to being done with the house fix-ups. And that's a good thing, because JJ and I are exhausted. All we can talk about is how wonderful it'll be. We'll have our free time back, be living in a much more baby-friendly house, and finally be able to unpack the room full of boxes.

The three bedrooms, den, dining room, kitchen, nook, and living room are all painted. The trim in the whole house and all of the doors have been repainted or touched up. The light fixtures have been moved, replaced, or cleaned. All of the hinges and door handles have been replaced. And nearly everything has gotten a thorough cleaning.

We're making an Ikea run tomorrow, as well as a first trip with the pre-packed boxes. The carpet arrives Friday, and we'll let it sit and off-gas over the weekend. Next week, it's into the fray of moving.

There's still little things to be done in the house (cabinet door knobs, new house numbers, paint the front door), dreams of painting the rest of the house (the mud room, the hallway, the bathrooms), and all of the yard work. But we're close enough to move in and do the rest as weekend projects.

I just hope we can get moved before one or the other of us collapses.

Belated 11-month update

I feel really lucky. Because I'm with A pretty much all day, every day, I get to see her change and learn. I don't go away and then come back to a bigger or smarter baby -- when something clicks, I know that things just connected in her brain.

Lately, she's been having an explosion of language understanding. Not speaking -- everything that isn't babbling or "hi" sounds like "daddy" or "dat", although she seems to be getting close on "duck". But she's understanding lots of new words. She has nurse, foot, hug, cat, duck, and drink down pat. This morning she's working on clap and head and as many others as we take the time to teach.

A still has no interest in signing. She understands signs for "cat" and "nurse", but has only possibly signed "nurse" twice. She's so contrary.

In other news, still no walking, just free-standing. She continues to grow into her interactive toys, using the stacking rings and ball-drop more and more appropriately. Less and less goes into her mouth, so we can let her explore more and examine more things. Right on time, she's growing out of her 12-month clothing and into 18-month. We've avoided sleep training because of the stress of house fix-ups, but her sleep is slowly improving on its own. There are still some bad nights of 3 wakings, but 1 waking nights are less uncommon. And although A continues to eat anything that isn't nailed down (with any kind of sausage being her number one favorite food ever), she only has those two bottom teeth.

11 months. Wow. Time to start thinking about a first birthday!