There is something about having a baby that makes life fly by much too quickly. The impending "first birthday" is going to arrive much too soon, even though a few months ago I was worried it would never come (because I could not wait to have a child I could put down to entertain herself, feed herself, and entertain enough to stop crying). 7 months appears to be our "sweet spot" where Lorelai isn't into crawling, but you can give her just about anything (water bottle, T.V remote...a breadstick) and she can stay entertained pretty easily.
As you can tell, we've gone through some visual changes on the blog. It was through some kicking and screaming I finally gave up designing and coding my own blogs (something I'd taught myself to do through the often forgotten Xanga and myspace). The maintenance and desire to have it look "just so" fizzled out recently, and I decided to go with a simple template provided by Google. So there you go...perhaps we will look just like any other blog now...but I didn't have hours to devote to designing and updating.
What else is new? We've been talking about selling our home next Spring (I know what you're thinking...you JUST moved there) but this may come as a surprise to you...but your priorities change a lot when you have a child...including that of what you'd like in a home. We've been doing a lot around the house to start preparing for putting it on the market. Everything from growing grass in the large mulched area of the backyard where the prior owners had a trampoline, to drywall to remove the texture on the entry way, to painting an accent wall, wood paneling and baseboards. Truly, we love this home and are so glad we bought it for our first house.
We love that we bought an old 1920's home with a lot of character, we go the "old home" out of our system, and now we know we really should not own an older home since we are not "handy people" and hiring contractors was WAY more work than we ever realized. We love those neighborhood, full of young professionals, bikers, walkers, and a strong sense of community and history. We also love this area of town. The fact that I can go from work to home in 6 minutes, then another 6 minutes to class for night school is absolutely priceless. If we lived further away, I would not be able to spend that precious 1 hour at home in between class and work, allowing me to see Lorelai each day when I otherwise would have been spending entire days away from her. That being said, we've decided we are "new home" people, and need a home with a little less maintenance, we care a lot more about school districts than we did when we closed on our home (since we didn't have a baby!) and being closer to family would certainly be a perk with as much as Lorelai likes to visit with her Aunt, Cousin and Grandparents. Our home is not conducive to having guests due to space, and Lorelai's Colorado family loves to visit...and creaky wood floors are not great for a napping child! We previously spent the majority of our nights and weekends in the downtown/midtown area doing all the cool young hipster events, so being 10 minutes away from everything was important...we've quickly learned that isn't a priority now with Lorelai! So there we have it, we plan to start the home search again next spring!
Speaking of class, the countdown has begun! After next week, I have two more courses in my MBA program! Again referencing priorities above, obtaining my MBA moved significantly down the list of priorities once Lorelai arrived, so I knew getting through the program as quickly as possible during her first year was a priority. Thanks to summer classes and strategically planned schedule, it looks like I will be set to graduate just weeks before she turns one.
Lately we've been learning a lot about auto insurance and health insurance thanks to some unfortunate events. My prized used mini van, which I purchased about 10 months ago is now totaled thanks to a hail event and rear end collision happening the same week. Kevin taught us about middle-of-the night trips to the ER when he woke up having incredible stomach pain...turning out to be kidney stones rather than our assumption of appendicitis. Lorelai loved meeting the ER doctors and nurses, and decided that is what she wants to be when she grows up!
We had our first family photo session last month! Lorelai gave us so many amazing smiles it was impossible to pick our favorites.
Lorelai had another flight (her third roundtrip flight to date) so we are learning more and more about flying with babies! We even brought along our 1 year old niece for this one, which means we learned more about traveling with TWO lap babies. You can see our most recent updates on flying with babies here.
Wedding photography is full-speed ahead! We still have 7 weddings over the next 2.5 months, so it will be a busy fall. Learning the balance between work/family is something I constantly struggle with, but I will get there. Kevin is doing AMAZING being a stay at home dad. This week they went to the zoo together, the botanical gardens, met me for lunch at work, went out grocery shopping...they have so much fun together!
This has been a busy year so far, but we always love sharing updates with our readers. We know there are a lot of topics about finances and parenting that our readers care about...and would love to hear from you regarding any topics you'd like to see addressed on the blog!
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Bobbie Allgood