Our new, grown-up apartment!

So I had a feeling that moving into our new place would automatically feel more like home.  What I didn't realize is how much it would light a fire under us (and our little guardian angel, my mom!) to update some of our furnishings to match the new, nicer apartment.

It started out with an entertainment center...

Old:


New:


(That's the photo from the Craigslist post...haven't gotten a good one of it in place yet).

Then, from there, it went to our couch.  We'd been using a hand-me-down from my parents, with a slipcover on it that was more annoying than anything. 

Old (you can see the pattern here):


New (again, from the Craigslist posting):


And last but certainly not least, we're now in talks with a friend to buy a queen-sized bed from him.  It used to be his mother's but for whatever reason, she doesn't need it anymore.  Our bed is perfectly fine, except for the fact that it's a full, and we just need more room.  It was my bed from way back when I moved into my first apartment (2002).  Worked just fine for one person, but we've been squeezing into it together for far too long (especially when I was pregnant with Ben!).

And of course we needed new bedding.  Here's what I picked out:



Our walls in the new bedroom are brown, but our furniture is black.  Hopefully this strikes a good balance.  The new bed has a wooden headboard.

It's so nice to finally feel like a grown-up, and really be proud of my home!  Now if we could just get our decorations hung on the walls...

Two years ago...

Two years ago today, our lives changed forever, with one tiny digital word...

It was a Monday morning, and though I wanted to hold out until Tuesday to take that test, I'm glad I didn't.  It sure did start our week off with a bang!

And in a crazy parallel with this week...two years ago this weekend, we told my parents we were having a baby.  When did we tell them?  Right after we went and saw "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".  This Saturday, we're going to see the final installment of the series (Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, for you non-Potternerds).

A lot has changed in the last two years.  We're going, regrettably, without Wayne, as we did for the last film as well.  And we'll be leaving our little toddler with a babysitter.

Crazy to think that in two years, he's gone from this:

Barely even an embryo yet

To this!



A walking, talking, pointing at everything toddler!

I'm glad we have Ben now, but boy do I miss Wayne at times like these.

We're moving!

I'm so sorry for the lack of posts recently.  It's been a crazy busy month for us.  We started off with a visit from our niece Macy...then Ben got sick right after that...and then we decided to move at the end of the month!

Around the middle of the month, I was randomly searching our building's "available floorplans" page, as I do every so often, and found that they had a very intriguing two-bedroom flat coming available in July.

We've been in our current loft for 2 1/2 years now - and I've had issues with it almost from the beginning.  The floors (original 1929 hardwoods) creak, badly.  The upstairs (an open loft with only a half-wall) is hard to keep cool (unless you run the 2nd a/c unit, which then freezes you out).  It's also insanely noisy - and therein lies the biggest issue.

Branden's been working Friday and Saturday nights until 2 AM since May.  He usually doesn't make it to bed until almost 3 AM on those nights.  And once Ben wakes up and starts making noise - well, it's impossible to sleep through that when the bedroom is open to downstairs! 

So when I found this floorplan, I got excited and showed it to Branden - and then he got excited.  Fast forward about a week, and we had a deal (to keep us at our current lease rate) and a move-in date (July 2-4).  But - ack - that's THIS weekend! 

Fortunately, we're just about ready, and this is a fairly easy move anyway.  We'll just be going down four floors, so many of our things will just be loaded into the wagon and pulled down the hall, onto the elevator, and down the next hall into our new place.  We have help on Sunday, and of course the biggest help of all is my mom - who is keeping Ben for us Saturday and Sunday!

It will be my first overnight away from Ben, but I'll be so busy I won't have (too much) time to miss him.  We've got a lot of moving (and painting - Ben's room) to do in two days!

And just because I'm not much for a post without pictures - here's our old unit:

And our new one can be found here.  (I only have it in PDF format, so I couldn't upload it).

Cosmic Cousin Connection

Tonight was progressing like any other Friday night.  Ben went down for a quick post-daycare nap...I fixed dinner...we all sat down and ate together as a family before Branden headed off to his second job.

Ben was still in his highchair, finishing up dinner, when Branden was leaving.  He gathered his things down at the other end of the house (well out of eyesight of either of us) and then told us goodbye from there.  Only this time, Ben said "BYE!" right back to him!!  A brand new word!

So of course, Branden had to peak around the corner to wave at him, and Ben said it again!

But it only gets cooler from there.  I sent a bragging text to my mom, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law.  And my sister-in-law sends one back...saying that her daughter, Ben's cousin Macy, just said bye for the first time right after Ben did!!

Now if that isn't a cosmic cousin connection, I don't know what is.

And since a post doesn't feel complete without a picture, here's one of Ben from his friend Emma's birthday party last weekend.

14 months, 1 week, and 4 days

That's how long I breastfed my son.

I can say that now, because it's over.  We're finished.  We had our last nursing session last night before bed.

We were down to just that one time a day anyway - had been since his 1st birthday.  I noticed over the past week or so that he wasn't falling asleep at the breast like he used to.  And our sessions were increasingly consisting of kicking, slapping, poking, and pinching - nothing vicious or mean-spirited, just the result of trying to be in close contact with an energetic toddler.

I feel so very fortunate that I was able to provide my son with breastmilk for so long.  What I didn't know before I started was how attached I would become to breastfeeding!  As silly as it sounds, I feel like I'm losing a part of my identity. 

Until our next baby, of course...

More Ben videos!!

Since that last post was so down-in-the-dumps, I figured I'd better hurry up and post some cute videos of my son to make up for it!

Rough times

We've been going through some rough times lately...especially for my husband.  I don't want this to be too much of a downer post, but I do want to be honest about how things are going.

Branden finished his master's degree nine months ago.  He's been applying for planning jobs ever since - and has yet to get one single interview.  It's such a demeaning process, even in the best of times.  But the job market out there just plain sucks right now.  He's competing against so many people for so few jobs.  One of the jobs he applied for was even taken off the market due to a lack of funding (a local city government).  I try to keep his spirits up, but I completely understand why he's so frustrated.

As if that wasn't enough to deal with, last Saturday, Branden had to make the agonizing decision to put his dog Pepper to sleep.

We miss you, buddy.



Pepper had a large cyst on his side, that we originally believed was just a benign subaceous cyst.  Unfortunately, after it ruptured, Pepper's condition quickly went downhill - and when the vet examined him, he determined it was probably cancerous.

So you'd think it'd be about time for Branden to catch a break, right?  How about being offered a promotion at his job?  Sounds pretty sweet, and definitely something he deserves.  How about being offered a promotion, and then having it taken away?  "Oh, we decided to keep the person we have in that position - just forget we ever mentioned it!"  Yeah...I'm still fuming from that, and I can't believe his employer treated him that way.

Branden could definitely use some good thoughts right now.  He works so very hard - especially now that he has the 2nd job on the weekends (Fri & Sat nights, 7pm - 2am).  I've tried to pick up the slack at home and do as much as I can to make things easier on him.  But it's still rough, and things would be so much easier if he could find a planning job!  If you know of anyone who needs a city planner/transportation planner/neighborhood planner, etc. - let me know!!