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Jordan and I have been pretty busy. Last month we started getting serious about adding on to our house. This month we realized we'd get a lot more for our money if we bought a new house. We started slowly looking around. One of the other moms in the neighborhood is a real estate agent, so I started taking my lunch breaks to visit houses. We found one we really like at a really good price. Yesterday we signed an intent to purchase agreement. We close on July 16. (That's two days after the Ikea store opens next to the Mall of America.)
Today Jordan's mom comes into town from Alaska. She'll be visiting with us as well as her newest nephew (David Zachary Wood, born in May) down in Des Moines. On Sunday, Jordan's dad, a home inspector in Des Moines, comes up to inspect our new house.
Next weekend we will go visit Alaska, so Jordan's mom can spend more time with Sylvia and Jordan's sister can meet Sylvia for the first time. While we're away, our real estate agent wants to give our house the Pottery Barn makeover. I'm not sure what we'll do with the cats in the meantime.
The new house is at 2617 Joppa Ave S, St. Louis Park, MN. It's only a few miles from our current home, and it's in a really cool neighborhood. It's within a mile of two major lakes inside Minneapolis, a junction of several bike trails, a whole foods store, a Barnes & Noble, and a Ben & Jerry's. The closest store (which will take the place of our local convenience store) is a kosher market & deli. Did I mention we're in the most Jewish part of the Twin Cities? We're within half a mile of the biggest Hebrew school in the Twin Cities. I've seen more Orthodox Jews in the last week than I've seen all last year. But the deli and market has the most amazing stuff: single-serving packets of souerkraut ($0.33 ea.), frozen blintzes and Tiramisu, army-sized cans of pickles and olives, and more kinds of pickles than I've seen anywhere else.
We don't have pictures yet (real estate regulations) but here's a map and an arial photograph.
News flash: Sylvia just started babbling today. Babababababa. We've videotaped it, but I'm not soon (if ever) we'll get around to putting it online. She's also rolling around a lot. About a month ago I set her down on one end of the living room and after warming up for several minutes she rolled over to the other end of the living room. That's when we knew we had to start baby proofing in earnest. In the last few weeks she's gotten a lot chubbier in the cheeks. That's good, because while her mental development is right on track, she's lagging somewhat in height and weight.
Sylvia continues to grow. Right now she's long and skinny for her age, but within the range of normalcy. She's also strong enough to hold her head high. Mentally, she's getting more and more engaged with the world-- she's playing with toys now, which is a big step up from just smiling at people's faces. (Not as rewarding as a smile, but far more convenient at dinner time.)
A few quick links:
Tonight was the reunion of our birth and parenting class. Four of the couples we'd seen expecting were there, all with their babies (three girls, one boy.) That was a lot of fun.
Last Thursday we bought an ergonomic chair. It's supposed to reduce discomfort and injury. As I was wheeling it into the house, a branch whacked me, reached under my glasses, and scraped my cornea. At first it just stung a bit, like there was still something in my eye. After dinner it got worse to the point where I couldn't open my eyes without unbearable pain. A few doctor's visits later (one to the urgent care clinic; the next day to an eye doctor) and I had an eye patch taped to my face, just like Ken in A Fish Called Wanda. It's nearly normal now, though I'll be taking lubricating eye drops for the next month to keep it from getting worse.
For the record, there's not much worse than a poke in the eye. Actually the eye doctor insists I got a scratch, and a poke is a lot worse.