It has been more than six months since we moved to our new home (and more than six months since I have updated the world famous blog)! There is so much to catch up on. Where do I even begin? Well, let's start here. This is our house! Looks so pretty at dusk, I must say.
We were instantly welcomed by a sign on the front door. The moving company even rolled out the red capet for us. Yes! We certainly felt like super famous stars!
Zoe started attending a preschool soon after we moved. She adjusted better than I expected. She was aware of the routine and I am sure that helped. Pretty neat that her instructions included to pack a swim suit since outside play included SWIMMING!!
The first few months we adjusted our bodies to the higher humidity levels. Yes, it certainly gets warm, but that is life when you literally live in the swamp! I had my shorts, tank tops and sandels ready!
J started his awesome job and I continued my job as well. Despite our hopes of life slowing down, it remained rather busy! Work, is well, work! There is always that struggle with the work-life balance for both of us. I think we are finally getting some more balance to this, at least it feels that way these days. There are just not enough hours in the day (okay, maybe there are, but it never feels that way)!
Soon after we moved here, I had Zoe asssessed by the early intervention group for the state. They have been amazing and wonderful since day one. Zoe now has speech twice weekly, OT every week and PT once a month. When we moved, she had a few words but was not using much language at all. Every day was a struggle to keep her happy and meet her basic needs. We really did not understand why she was so upset, but we have continually made it our goal to provide her with the best support we can.
She can understand a decent amount now. Her use of language is still very small, but it has slowly increased. We know what she wants, most of the time. Her use of non-verbal cues is amazing. It definitely shows she is a smart cookie. Still waiting for the famous "verbal explosion"!
Dietary-wise, she is on a milk-free, soy-free and sucrose-free diet. This stopped her spit-up (around 21 months). Her BMs remained soft until 24 months.
The 24th month was a bit rough for her. After a decent amount of time being germ free, she caught something that turned into 103 degree fevers for a week, that brought chest x-rays, blood work, swabs and eventually antibitoics. This nasty bug turned into bronchitis. The blessing was that the antibiotic, along with no eating for 9 days allowed Zoe to somehow improve her BMs to formed!!! Of course, there was also a cast on her left wrist this month...told you it was a rough month!
We have been lucky as our families have visited with someone here almost every month! Also, our neighborhood is very kid friendly and the neighbors are simply the nicest people. We even have impromptu street parties (of course poor Zoe who is told over and over to not run in the street was probably super confused when she was allowed to be in the street....soo confusing!!).
Our house, which we thought was grand when we moved in has seen its fair share of projects in the first six months!
- Removing carpet in two rooms and laying dark hardwoods (so pretty)
- Doggy door in lanai screen removed and replaced with screen (no need to have a door for critters to just stroll in!!)
- Door to the master bedroom (neccessary that I don't hear my love at 4 or 5 am!)
- Shower door (we were freezing even under hot water...not sure how the previous owner ever lived without it)
- Cutting down two gigantic tress and two smaller ones and an entire new landscape
- Powerwashing the driveway (I did that!)
- Powerwashing and sealing the lanai pavers (overgrown moss and weeds were just not a good look)
- Patching holes in the lanai screens (I did that too - did you know there is screen tape? - much cheaper than replacing the actual screens)
- New washer and dryer (after the washer decided to no longer drain...I rocked the negotiating process and ended up with a energy effecient washer, dryer and two drawers for the price of the washer...and they are pretty to look at)
- Flat screen installed above the fireplace with the surround sound working (beautiful to look at, some days I wish I had a cover for the tv though, it is always there to see, and it does make odd clicks sometimes...problems, I know!)
- New energy efficient AC units (boy I hope so anyway!)
- Recently, I discovered the magic of magic eraser....so now the title grout and tile are a million times cleaner. I debate with bringing in professionals, and probably will someday with the amount of tile we have, but it is simply amazing the difference with a few days of scrubbing
Things we want to sooner rather than later:
- Fix the fence doors (they are not made to be french fence doors and they are hard open and shut)
- Gutters (cap some of them) and get a cleaning company at least once a year
- A million other things!
Well, that is a short summary of out last six months. I will try and blog more when I can (you've read that before, right?!).
Wife of the year!
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