success!

We have ironed out our technical problems, which are a whole long tale of woe that I won't get into here, and so there will be updateyness more regular now. Also, photos will be uploaded here in a bit. We've got some from our first scouting mission, I think, that still haven't been uploaded, so there are some shots of the new neighborhood in somewhat warmer times.

The weather here, as I'm sure you all know, is not so pleasant. We've got icy steps out the back, and all our lumber from the old place that used to be shelves are now vaguely woodish icicles on the back porch two floors down. But our neighbors there are very generously not using them for frozen firewood. Huzzah!

How's Gaz handling the move? Not quite how I expected. I was waiting for sleep disturbances, because that's historically how she's handled routine disruption in the past (also grumpiness, but I'd always just filed that with the sleep issues). She's sleeping like a rock, but she spends a lot of the day screaming and getting mad at me for various random things. I would not trade this for the night terrors, though. Those have taken years off my life.

Some days, Gaz wants to go outside without coat or even pants:

Me: If you go outside without pants today, you'll freeze your legs right off!
Gaz: Then I will walk around on my blood!

[Insert stern glance at Auntie Aiiiiiieeeee for starting the whole blood thing.]

But pants have prevailed more or less. Gaz even wore the scarf I crocheted for her yesterday. It wasn't even a very scarf-worthy day! I glow! I think this is the first time she's worn something I made from yarn since she was small enough to wear the baby hats on which I ruined my tendons.

But anyway. We are here, we are sorting through boxes and contemplating exciting new shelving arrangements to accomodate all of the box contents. And now we can do some comparison shopping for needful things with the awesome power of the Internet. Most importantly, Gaz can play games on pbskids.org now. We know where our priorities are in this family.

Right now, the Gaz priority is explaining to Mark about proper application of (imaginary) perfume. I still don't know where she gets this stuff.

we're all still alive

Just technologically impaired at the moment. This will hopefully be corrected on Monday. ::crosses fingers:: We have new address and phone number, so drop us an email somewhere and one of these days we'll actually be able to access it. Or call one of us on a cell phone, because those were not affected by the relocation.

We're mostly moved in, mostly unpacked, and barely sane. Gaz loves her new room and all her "new" toys. She has been ordering me to call various people so that she can tell them endless and surreal knock-knock jokes that she makes up on the spot.

We're all a little worn out and grumpy, so there's not much else to report, except that we've been having a mighty laugh at our governor's expense. Ah, Illinois, where corruption reaches across the aisle! (And that's all the politics you'll get here, so enjoy.)

the big update

Hello! We've had a lot of stuff going on here, and now we actually have some things nailed down that we can go on the record about.

1. We're moving back up north next month. Yes, that's soon. No, we aren't nearly packed enough yet. Yes, we're working on it (actually, Mark is doing some work on the library as I type). We are gratefully accepting the help of a number of locals, and if anyone wants to send piles of money our way, we wouldn't say no. ;) The new apartment is right by the Chicago River (picturesque!) and there are not one but two parks less than a block away (convenient!). We'll also be just a short bus ride away from Auntie Aiieeee, which is another good and useful thing. The rent is also cheaper, which is a big motivator.

2. Proton, our beloved/reviled feline companion of more than nine years is currently on his way to his new home in Kentucky. My mom came to fetch him, and is taking him to a lovely new home that's way bigger than anything we are likely to own any time soon, with fewer scampering, tail-pulling three-year-olds. He's been progressively more irritable the past year or so, and while this change of venue is definitely increasing his stress in the short term, I hope that he can now live the rest of his kitty life in more comfortable surroundings. The rest of us here are, of course, very sad at his moving (thought I'm not sure why, since he did his level best to destroy everything we own in recent weeks) but it's for his good and ours. Most notably because our new apartment doesn't allow pets. We will still be able to visit him, since we have a built-in excuse to be in Owensboro as long as Uncle Sean and Aunt Hillary reside there. We're hoping to see him again (hopefully settled) when we are in the neighborhood around Christmastime.

Why all this change and why now? Money. Until we can manage to increase our income, we need to trim our spending. After the first of the year I'll be looking for work (freelance and otherwise), which will bring even more change if I end up employed once again out of the home. I'm not looking for work now because 1) we're moving and 2) this might be the last chance we have for a good long while to visit grandparents without screwing up anyone's work schedule and 3) I'd rather look when the seasonal-hiring thing is over for the season. Once we're settled in our new place I'll be in a much better position to find employment that we can all tolerate as well as possible.

There are a lot of issues involved in all this, which I'm not going to get into here, but I hope everyone knows that we are factoring everything into our decisions and doing what is best for our family.

sleeping better, cat worse, jumping fun (for a while)

Nap time
Originally uploaded by georgiegrrrrl.

We're all sleeping better these days. Frequent or long-duration naps during the day have been the magic bullet for Miss Gaz, so the night-screaming-that-cannot-be-countered is at a minimum. Now that the settling is feeling more settled, we're all a lot less stressed. Which leaves only the usual stresses of work, trying to keep the dishes/laundry/etc. from taking over, and trying to keep the cat from breaking/ruining everything in sight.

As far as Gaz is concerned, he's a wonderful cat. He lets her grab big fistfulls of his face or back or tail or belly, sometimes even an ear, and only complains a little when she pulls with all her baby might (which is not an insignificant level of might, I must say). No, he's only a bad cat with the adults. Like today, when I finally get Gaz down for what I hoped would be a longer than average nap (average nap this weekend: 15 minutes) and he just can't stop screaming at the bedroom door or the hall door, which is right next to the bedroom door. I spray the alleged pet deterrant on both doors, and he looks at me, screams, and goes right back to screaming at the doors. So I confine him to the back bedroom and what does he do? He uses the playpen for a litter box, and Gaz's toys and a blanket as litter to cover his business. Then no sooner had Mark cleaned up that mess, Gaz had a little explosion in her pants. The poop bucket is full tonight.

So the cat is driving the adults insane. He still gets attention, just like we've been trying to do since Gaz was born. He was just fine for the longest time, but the older she gets, the worse he acts out. I don't know what we're going to do about that. Is there cat prozac?

But enough whining about the cat.

Right now Gaz is wearing some jammies that Grandma Cel brought up last weekend. Just a week ago she was routinely crawling out of the legs because while the top half of her is definitely 18 mo. size, her legs tend to be a bit shorter and her feet are definitely on the stumpy side so far. I'm sure that'll change once she starts walking and her little hams will become perfectly serviceable strolling apendages. But for now, ham feet. Ham feet that don't fill out jammy feet all that well. She's filling out the jammies so well, I can't believe it's only been one week of growing. Right now she's bouncing in her doorway jumper, but we've almost exhausted the fun of that. She's jumping wildly, which is soon to turn to jumpin maniacally, which then becomes jumping and crying hysterically. It's interesting to watch the progression. And she's still got a cat toy in her hand, so if anyone was wondering how long cat toys are fun for, the answer is "at least a month."

So we're okay, but now I definitely have to move her to another entertainment device.

Sorry this is so fractured and random. It's hard to be coherent while keeping an eye on her. More later, perhaps when sleep happens.

New home, new tricks

Gaz-n-cat
Originally uploaded by georgiegrrrrl.

We're fully moved. Expect an email with our new address and phone number (yes, new phone number) to appear in your inbox soon. Well, soonish.

We're chock full of crawling now, especially now that we've got the rug down in the living room. Last night she was even able to traverse a small section of hardwood flooring, too. At first she was stymied by her pajamaed knees' inability to find purchase on the shiny floors, but now so long as her feet are bare (now that we've got the heat figured out we can do that sometimes) she can propel herself fairly well. She can also drag around toys as she crawls hither and yon by "kneeing" things that get in her way. I'm sure it's more accidental than anything, but it's always a hoot to see what was in her way when she was en route.

Another fun new trick is that she's figured out that she can stick her fingers in her mouth to pull out any food I've just given her that she doesn't really want to eat. Problem is that she's doing that every time I've fed her since the move. I'm hoping that this is just her little protest over being uprooted, and that she'll settle down over the next week or so. Anyway, it's amusing even if it is somewhat frustrating. She's clearly in no danger of wasting away from lack of smushed sweet potatoes.

We're still settling back into our usual schedule of life. I expect the occassional fuss-fest, but Gaz has really been a champ during the madness, much better than the cat, so I don't anticipate too much additional baby-generated insanity.

woooosh!

Has it only been a couple of weeks? Because everything's been crazy busy around here, it feels like months. Turn around and they are grown; turn around and they are old bots with young bots of their own, dontchaknow. :)

First, we're moving to a new apartment. Farther south and not horribly far from our current place, but there's seven years' accumulation of stuff to contend with. Grandpa Charley is helping us out with childcare/packing/lifting/driving/etc. right now, and he's already gotten to the point of saying "can't you just throw this out?" We aren't even half-way through yet. I suspect a lot of clothes are going to go into the donation boxes in the area soon. Anyway, expect another mass email soon from Mark once we've got all the contact information nailed down.

Second, Gaz is moving. As in crawling. Usually after the cat, but also after spoons, her hairbrush, etc. She doesn't get too far before she loses focus and coordination, but she's figured out how to get to something she wants. This morning she figured out how to crawl on top of the cat in order to get to something she wanted (packing tape, for some odd reason). On the top of the list of things to buy for the move is some baby corral fencing of some sort. The apartment we're moving into has only the barest hint of wall separating the living room from the dining room, which looks nice but spells child containment issues.

We're up to five teeth now: two up top and three on the bottom. The last one that came in on the bottom went so easily that I didn't even know she had more teeth coming in! Just ::poof:: and there it was. She's getting a lovely toothy grin, even if it is a little lopsided sometimes. The next two uppers are working their ways down, but just as with the first two uppers they're taking their sweet time. She's fussy, we're fussy, everyone's fussy. I just wish she could have gotten a break at least for the move. The strangeness of our belongings disappearing to the new apartment is only making the sore gums more disconcerting.

We shall prevail, in any event, and I'm sure Gaz will love her new surroundings once they get to look less like a cardboard wasteland.