Three Months

It's been three months since our sweet girl was born. She is still as mellow, happy, sweet, and patient as she was when she was born. Here is a list of ways she is different from the day she was born.

Analiese can:

1) smile
2) stand up on her legs, with a little help for balance
3) recognize our faces
4) coo and imitate certain sounds
5) hold her head up and look all around
6) ride in a car without crying the whole time
7) sleep for four hours at a time at night (sometimes five!)
8) reach out and grab things
9) suck her thumb
10) almost giggle

Why Me??

I am sure that everyone can relate to "Why Me?" scenarios. Lately, I feel like I've been immersed in a whole forest full of "Why-Me" trees.

It all started out when I was on bed rest. That alone was a "Why Me?" Then, through a series of cosmically linked events, my husband was offered a great job - - - 200+ miles away - - - and he had to start immediately. "Why Me?" (side note: Actually - when I think about it, this all started in the "Why Me?" moment when Kevin lost his job at a great Cafe when it closed. He ended up having to work in St. John, USVI for four months....where he met his current boss). Anyway, I have to admit I threw quite a pity party for myself as I laid there in bed, surrounded by copies of O Magazines and crinkled packages of Hershey's Bars with Almonds. But I pulled myself up by my maternity boot straps and thought about how "this too shall pass" and all the other garbage one says to oneself to emotionally survive these kinds of things.

Then Kevin's job turned out to be so busy and successful that the original plan of "Kevin will be home 2 days a week to be with us and help pack up the house" turned into, "Kevin won't be comin' home at all girlfriend, so pack up the house and visit him in between times!". That was a definite, "Why Me?"

Anyone who has moved knows firsthand that moving, in and of itself, is one big series of, "Why Me?" moments so I'll spare you those details. And moving with a newborn, while you are mostly all alone, just compounds the issue. But the ultimate, "Why Me?" moment occurred on June 2.

As you are aware from my previous post, my family was kind enough to move all of our stuff down to Palm Desert where Kevin met them at a storage unit. Most of our stuff went into storage and the rest was moved into the studio Kevin had been renting for the previous two months. I had the brilliant idea that if we sucked it up, taking advantage of Analiese's lack of mobility, we could stay in the studio for a while to get ahead financially. Isn't that responsible??? Doesn't that sound like a smart plan?? Plus, after two months of dealing with packing, schlepping, new mommy-ing, and running around like a crazy woman, the thought of only having one large space to deal with sounded great!

Well - on June 1, Analiese and I arrived with the last of the stuff we wanted to keep with us in the studio. Although we were surrounded by piles of boxes and unsorted junk - we basked in the glow of our reunion and the knowledge that we were done moving for a while. Whew! It felt great....for about 19 hours.

Fast forward to mid-day June 2nd, when my husband enters the door with a stricken look on his face and says, "You won't believe this. But I just talked to Landlady X and she said we can consider ourselves 30-Day Noticed because she has changed her mind and doesn't want a family with 2 cars here. She wants to rent it to a single person."

THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE MY EMOTIONS IN THIS MOMENT - - I will leave them unwritten.

Sooooo after two-months of packing, and organizing, and cleaning - all with the needs of a newborn in the mix - I got to pack, and organize and clean - all with a newborn in the mix - all over again. On one hand, we had 30 days to find a place. On the other hand we were surrounded by boxes of unpacked, disorganized chaos which made it difficult to stand up, move, or sit down without rearranging at least 10 things into a new configuration. The only real option was to find somewhere, find it fast, and get the heck out of Dodge (or DeAnza Way).

After 10 days of answering Craigslist adds, trying to sell ourselves to perspective landlords, trying to find the next 'perfect' spot - we found a 2-bedroom, 2 bath apartment in a nice complex.

We rented a U-Haul (again), loaded it up (again), and unloaded it (again). Even Analiese, our ever-sweet-and-mellow girl couldn't smile about this one (as evidenced by her expression in the U-haul in the picture at left). Apartment life was not what either of us were looking for but after what we have been through these past three months - it feels like a little slice of heaven.

Kevin, Carrie, Analiese, Marshall the dog, and Clover the parakeet are now settling in FOR REAL in our new home. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this one lasts...

...because we are exhausted!!