Various & Sundry Items

This post will be a random re-cap of our week.

To sum up: having a house on the market is SUPER stressful, and it seems the entire universe revolves around cleaning and showing the home. Notice that the universe does not revolve around living in the home; actual living gets in the way of the greater objective. The good news is that we've had several showings this week (two with absolutely zero notice, and one where the Realtor came early and found us at home). The bad news is that while everyone who sees the house loves the house, everyone who sees the house thinks the yard is too small and the neighborhood is too ghetto.

Which brings me to various and sundry item #1: graffiti clean-up. Yes, we ghetto dwellers have graffiti on the brick wall at the end of the culdesac, so after the HOA president basically said he'll get to it when he gets to it, I went to Home Depot to get some supplies. Graffiti spray cleaner wasn't super effective, but the combination of a spray cleaner and a pressure washer seems to be the best treatment. Garry also discovered that pressure washing the back fence turns it from a sad shade of gray to the original and beautiful amber color. We extended our four-hour rental to a full day so he can do both sides of the fence. We can't make the yard bigger, but we can make the fence prettier.

Item #2: Tyler turned four and went to the doctor for a check-up. His physical stats checked out fine. He's 42.5 inches tall and weighs 41.5 pounds. Gross and fine motor skills, speech, and other developmental cues are right on target. Tyler was even super brave about the four immunizations he had to get. (A Jamba Juice bribe helped with that.) Dr. Nash was concerned about Tyler's recent history of behavioral problems but didn't have much advice to offer.

Item #3: Valentine's Day happened. I say that it just happened because that's exactly how it was. Zachary enjoyed the day the most, since his class had a big party and Valentine exchange. He has been working on addressing his Valentines at home for weeks but we didn't attach and candy to the cards, so until he went to school he had no idea that Valentine's Day was a big sugar holiday. That was quite a bonus in his book. He also covered a cereal box with paper and interesting drawings; this became his Valentine mailbox. He was very proud of it. I stashed it somewhere when cleaning up for a showing, so when I find it I'll post a picture.

Item #4: The boys had fun at Smart Cookies on Wednesday while Gavin and I took a nap. Afterward we had a fun lunch together (moms included). Lisa's oven was unexpectedly being repaired, so we relocated to Natalie's for pizza and treats and lovely grown-up conversation.

Item #5: We noted with our friends, the Carrolls, the one-year anniversary of their sweet baby's death this week. We helped them set up a blog in order to post the videos and some other things that celebrate little Candace's life.

Item #6: Garry worked late almost every night this week. We really missed him in the evenings, particularly because dinner and bedtime aren't nearly as fun when only Grumpy Mommy is in charge. But we survived, and were overjoyed when Dad came home at 2:30 today.

Item #7: Gavin has discovered his voice and loves to squeal. It's so much fun to hear his high-pitched (and loud) screeches of happiness. He is also regularly sleeping around six hours straight at night. He likes to go down for good around eight and typically wakes up between two and three, nurses briefly, and goes right back to sleep. It's a heavenly routine!


Item #8: The sun poked out enough this week that the big boys enjoyed some nice outdoor play time. Zach has been itching to ride his bike, and Tyler had a blast with the rocket launchers and bubble maker he got for his birthday.


Item #9: We have sufficiently inundated the blogosphere with Bartle family drivel...at least for now.