I was reading another website the other day and the author made the following comment about her son, “He messes with outlets and power cords like an uninsured electrician”.  That pretty much sums up Adam.  If it has a cord he wants to pull on it.  If he does manage to get something out of an outlet he wants to plug it back in.  The word “handful” doesn’t even begin to describe him.

And I have the sinking feeling that things are about to get even worse for those that attempt to wrangle our two foot terror.  Last night he starting walking.

We were in the living room and Adam was standing next to the couch, he turned (and with no prompting) took about four steps to get to where Dave was sitting on the floor.  He was so pleased with himself that he turned around (with the help of the footstool) and walked back to me (this continued for probably 10 minutes – mommy, daddy, and Grandpa Kurt provided the necessary positive reinforcement for him to think it was a really fun game).

We’re all in trouble now.

Adam had his 12-month checkup today.  Our little peanut weighs 20 pounds 10 ounces and is 28.5 inches tall.  He’s a bit on the low end for height and weight – but he’s meeting all his milestones, eats like a champ, and is an extremely active baby.  The way I figure, he’s Adam-sized and will grow according to his own schedule.

The poor kid got two shots today too.  He’s having a bit of a rough day.

The doctor does want me to increase his bottle size (again) so that he’ll have more “energy”.

I’m not sure I can handle Adam with more energy.

I’ve got to give Aunt Stacy credit for taking Adam and Bruzer for a walk (Bruzer is my brother and sister-in-law’s 12 week old puppy).  I’m not sure I would have attempted it.  However, she not only survived the walk, but brought back a sleeping baby.  What can I say?  Aunt Stacy is awesome.

Bruzer is an adorable dog and he was really good with Adam too.  The little dude loved watching him and petting him.  Adam was less impressed when Bruzer repeatedly licked his face (I’m guessing he was just cleaning up some leftover lunch).

For those of you wondering at home, yes we’ve talked about adding a pooch to our family.   After discussing the matter at length we’ve decided that every boy should grow up with a dog, and so we will be getting a pup of our very own…..in about 4 years.

Before we started looking for our new home we came up with a wishlist of features that our dream home would have.  The list had two columns: Wants and Needs.  One of the really important things to us was a nice big area where we could spend time as a family.  A room where we could all hang out and be together (even if we were each doing our own thing) without being too crowded.  For us, this was categorized as a “need”.

At the end of our week of house-hunting we had it narrowed down to two choices (both had huge family rooms).  One was a gorgeous ranch home that had recently been renovated and had all of the bells and whistles.  The kitchen in that house looked like it belonged in a magazine.  I’m not sure what I would have done with it.  I’d have had to get a fancier crock-pot.

The other house (the one we ended up getting) was a bit outdated but had so much potential and when you listed each homes’ attributes (and ignored anything cosmetic) it came out ahead each time.  In the end we made the right choice for our family (and our savings account).  Plus, by purchasing the house that needed a little TLC, we were able to really make sure it reflected our tastes and style.  There is no denying that the ranch house, our 2nd choice, was a stunning property – but it wasn’t really “us”.  It’s not just the crock-pot, we’re not that fancy either.

Here are some before and after pictures of our current family room.

A huge difference right?  Gone is the outdated bookshelf with its saggy shelves.  It’s been replaced with a cool half-wall that mimics the shelving around the room and really opens the space up.  We also added some trim to create a faux-shelf on the adjoining wall.  This allowed us to continue our two-tone paint scheme.  It’s tough to tell in the “before” picture, but the ceiling was actually a light green color.  It’s white now and the carpet has been replaced as well.  The recessed lights were cleaned and given the proper wattage bulbs.  In the back corner (it’s hidden by the fan) is a new dehumidifier.  Kurt had the fantastic idea to get a self-draining one (we were emptying the one the old homeowners left twice a day).

Here’s another before and after comparison.  I didn’t take the photos from the same angle, but you can get a nice idea of the size of the room from the two of them.

I know we will spend a lot of time as a family in this room.  I can picture us on a Sunday afternoon this fall – Dave watching football on TV, Adam playing with his toys, me scrapbooking.  I can see the three of us snuggled up on the couch on a Friday night watching movies or reading stories.  It’s going to be awesome.

One of the adventures that comes with moving is getting used to a whole new grocery store.  Earlier this week, we stopped in at Price Chopper to sign up for their rewards program and pick up some groceries.  Who knew a quick trip to the store could be so entertaining.

Diet Foods and Candy in the same aisle – someone has a sense of humor.

Perky Jerky.  The first performance enhancing meat snack.  It’s caffeinated beef jerky and contains the same amount of caffeine as two energy drinks.  No, we did not purchase the Perky Jerky – we just took its picture and moved on down the aisle to where we found these gems.

Dave was powerless to resist.

We’re getting there, slow and steady, but we are getting there.  It was a bit overwhelming at first with all of the mislabeled, poorly packed boxes.  Plus, for some reason I had the mindset that I needed to get everything unpacked right away.  Adam is in the expert care of Aunt Stacy and my parents and I just felt like it all needed to be done NOW, before the two foot terror officially moved in.

This go, go, go mindset was not only unrealistic (we need to get closets in place still), but also unnecessary.  Plus, as I’m sure Dave will attest to, it made me miserable and cranky.  So I’m trying to relax.  The kitchen is 97% in order (we’ll be finishing that tonight), the little dude’s toys are waiting for him in the family room, and his crib is all set up (just need to wash his blankets).  We have beds to sleep in (the air mattresses have been officially retired) and the furniture is all in the rooms it belongs in.

So we’re in pretty good shape.  I just need to keep reminding myself that it will all eventually get done and it should be a fun process.  We’re moving in to our first real home and we should enjoy this experience.  If it takes a week or two to get all of the boxes unpacked, that’s fine.  If people come over to see our new place and there are a few cardboard boxes and totes piled up that’s okay too.  The world won’t stop spinning if I take an hour or two to relax on the couch with my husband and watch TV.  And really, it’s something we both need.  These past couple of months have been a whirlwind and it’s good for both of us to have a little bit of downtime.

We’re in the midst of unpacking.  By my calculations we should have everything out of boxes and put away two months before it’s time to move again.  That’s just a guess though.

The unpacking is not going well.  Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.  Basically the crew that packed up our things in Virgina was Horrible (with a capital “h”, but you’re reading this, so you already knew that).

Here are some of the highlights:

– A box labeled “Kitchen”, it contents included an afghan, some shoes, and darts.

– Food items packed in the same box as household cleaner and two garbage cans (needless to say we threw a lot out).

– Adam’s baby seat was packed inside of our large outdoor trash can (thankfully it’s made of a material I’ll be able to easily disinfect, but still, it’s a baby item – in a trash can?!?).

– They packed 50 lbs worth of weights in the bottom of a box and then added books on top of it – brilliant.  The poor guy that had to carry it off of the truck just about fell over.

– A box labeled “stuffed animals” contained the contents of Dave’s desk.

Most of the boxes were used in at least one other move (sometimes two or three) so the boxes have other family’s names on them and content descriptions – not at all helpful to me.   We couldn’t even have them put the boxes in the right room when they were unloading.  It’s making unpacking very difficult since we have no idea what to expect inside each box.

That doesn’t even touch on the things we’ve found that are broken due to poor packing.  It’s been a pretty upsetting and stressful time for me.  I am fully aware that they are just “things” and not at all important in the grand scheme of things.  But, they’re our things and to see items we care about ruined for no other reason that the negligence of “professional” movers is really disheartening.

That box says, “Nice L/R (living room) Shade, Do Not Crush”.  I don’t even want to think about what the box would look like if it didn’t have that warning on it.

The day after we closed on the house we had the flooring guys come over to take measurements.  They took a peek under the existing carpet and realized that the floor beneath it was made of particle board.  This wouldn’t have been a problem if we were planning on recarpeting the upper level, however they can’t nail hardwood floors in to particle board, it has to be plywood.

So Dave was in charge of tearing out the particle board on the entire upper level (minus the kitchen and two bathrooms).  That I think was the first unexpected project that was added to the already lengthy “Honey-Do” list.  The pile of debris shown in the photo below was from just one of the bedrooms.

It wasn’t long after this photo was taken that we started looking around on the internet for a place to rent a dumpster.  We called bright and early Monday morning, and two hours later this was in our driveway.

So here’s the first before and after comparison for you – see if you can spot the difference between these two photos.

Did you find it?  That would be 2.04 tons of fun.  The dumpster turned out to be a really good idea.

I think I’ll start off by listing some of the house-wide changes that have taken place in the last two weeks.  That will keep me from having to repeat myself on a room-by-room basis (though it might happen anyway, I like to talk and I’m pretty excited about how nice everything looks).

The previous owners had a very eclectic collection of switch-plates and outlet covers.  There were plain metal and plastic covers (in white and various shades of beige), there were decorative wooden covers in several designs, there were also some fancier silver and brushed nickel plates.  Some rooms even boasted a mix of covers.  It was truly a treat for the eyes and an electrician’s nightmare.

However this beauty was easily the pièce de résistance (and Dave’s favorite).

I think it needs to find a new home in the garage.  We’ve already replaced it with a nice, boring, white rectangular plate that matches all the others.  All of the outlets are being changed as well to tamper resistant ones (have to keep our curious little guy safe).  They are so tamper resistant that I can’t use them.  I’m sure I’ll get used to them, but Dave had to plug my laptop and phone charger in for me.

We have repainted almost all of the rooms in the house.  The three bathrooms are the only ones that still need to be done.  Before we started though we noticed something odd about the ceilings.  In most of the rooms the ceiling was painted the same color as the walls.  We had green ceilings and blue ones, there were off white ones and I think even a purple one.  The kitchen and the laundry room were the only two rooms that actually had white ceilings.  So with the help of a paint sprayer, my wonderful, fantastic, amazing (get the idea?) father-in-law repainted them white (he painted the insides of the closets too).  His reward –  our extreme gratitude, the satisfaction that comes from a job well done, and really sore arms.  The end result was awesome though – the rooms look so much brighter and nicer.

It really is incredible how much of a difference paint and proper lighting make.  The rooms look so fresh and new now.  The family room in particular was really dark and dated.  It is probably the room that saw the biggest transformation.  Even something as simple (and inexpensive) as cleaning the recessed lights and putting in the proper wattage of light-bulbs made a huge change in the appearance of the room.

Another design element that contributed to the dark feeling in the family room was the dark brown mini-blinds on the windows.  We’ve taken those down (along with the light blue ones and dark green ones in the upstairs bedrooms) and will be replacing them with plain white ones.  So if anyone has a hankering for some fun colored blinds let me know, I can help you out.

I should probably state here that I’m not really trying to mock the previous owners’ tastes (too much).  They took wonderful care of this house and we’re very thankful for that.  The pride they had in the house was evident the moment we first walked in the door.  We really didn’t have to do anything to the house if we didn’t want to – it was in great shape and we could have just moved right in.  The changes we’ve made were mostly cosmetic and have really made this house feel like our home.

Two semi-inflated (or deflated – depending on if you’re a glass is half full or half empty type of person) air mattresses resting on top of one another, do not make for a good night’s sleep.

Yep, we have two air mattress with leaks.  One is 5 years old and we knew it had a hole in it.  The other was just a month old and did not have a hole in it – at least not until Dave made it his mission to bounce me off of it.  He tried (unsuccessfully) several times to jump on the air mattress, hoping the force would result in my being catapulted off of the other side.

So last night we blew up both mattresses and stacked them on top of each other – thinking that might help keep us off of the floor.  I am pretty sure the bounced on one is completely flat right now.  It was a very squishy bed.  It’s a good thing I’m not prone to sea sickness.

Thankfully the movers are delivering our things this morning (they should be here before 8).  I wonder if I can convince them to bring my bed in first and then, very quietly, unload the rest of the truck while I go back to sleep…