A Guy, Two Girls and a Pup

This little girl continues to amaze me. Over the last couple of days, she has completely gotten it into her head that she’s not only going to walk, she’s going to walk RIGHT NOW. I’m firmly convinced she wants to be like Cate, the 13-month-old daughter of Michelle, the woman who’s been taking care of Meredith while Kevin’s in Wisconsin. “Cate’s walking,” she says, “why can’t I?!?”

To that end, she wants me to walk her around the house all evening. Last night, while we were waiting for our new mattress to be delivered, we walked around the front yard for an hour! Her new nickname is Crazy Legs, because she takes these goofy twisty steps that would totally have her spilling on the floor if I weren’t supporting her. Sometimes she gets the hang of it and goes really fast — you can tell how she’s going to look when she’s running! And she tries to shake off my hands — she lets go of my fingers and tries to twist her hand out of mine. She not only wants to do it RIGHT NOW, she also wants to do it ON HER OWN.

She’s going to be a handful when she figures this whole walking though out, I think. But right now, though, the mantra is “Put one foot in front of the other…“.

Last night we had what I consider our first quintessentially Seattle experience. It was, of course, Kevin’s birthday. I came home early from work and we all walked up to the Phinney farmer’s market at the community center. Lots of neat stuff, including some yummy looking honey. We didn’t buy anything, but we’ll figure out what we need and go again next week! Then we walked up to Red Mill Burgers, which is a Seattle landmark…right at the top of our street! Mary, our awesome realtor, had given us a bunch of gift certificates to local places, including Red Mill, so off we went for Kevin’s birthday dinner. They were good! As were the shakes and the onion rings. Definitely a keeper. So there we sat on top of Phinney Ridge on a summer evening after a gorgeous sunny day, the breeze cool, looking out at the Cascade Mountains and Green Lake and eating at Red Mill. I don’t think it gets any more Seattle than that. (Well, I guess we could have been drinking a coffee from Starbucks, which is right next door to Red Mill!)

Speaking of Mary, she has our official home website up: something she does for all her clients. Check it out! There are professional pictures of the house (better than mine :>) and a few pictures of the neighborhood.

It feels like we’ve been moving FOREVER. Tuesday was the big day for Kevin, renting a U-Haul and getting boxes moved into the house. It took slightly longer than expected, so he called me at work to come help for the afternoon. So the two of us cleaned out the truck in record time! (I’m sure of it.) Bunches of boxes everywhere. Wednesday, I had taken the day off to help at the house — I moved most of the boxes to their intended destination area (90% of which, it seemed, were for the office or for the library shelves!) We both took turns helping the movers by directing furniture, too. By 5pm or so, it was all done — furniture in, boxes dispersed. It went mostly smoothly, with a couple of snafus — our boxspring doesn’t fit up the stairs into our bedroom, so we’ll have to replace that with one that splits in half. Our headboard, which always had a big crack/flaw in it, is now fully cracked through and doesn’t hold together without being supported by the frame. Hopefully it will support our weight! :{

Of course, we DID find some random stuff that we left at the apartment: cleaning stuff, towels, dish soap! But we should have everything out and the apartment clean on Saturday and be completely into the house by the end of the weekend, just in time for Kevin to go to Wisconsin! That will leave me to put the house together while he’s gone — I’m challenging myself to have everything but the office set. Think I can do it?
Meredith loves exploring her new house. She’s getting really good at crawling all the way from the back door out to the front room! I think she wants to look out the window. Last night, she decided she REALLY likes salmon — she ate a relatively large amount of what I gave her off my plate. Go, go, gadget carnivore!

We got one of them there talky recorders, so I made a bunch of movies walking through the house today — they’re at YouTube — go see, go see!

I am so in love with our house right now. We took a the first bunch of boxes over from the apartment this morning and evening. It was gorgeous today, and in the light, it is just flooded with sunlight that reflects off all the wood and just gives everything a wonderful glow. The neighborhood is quiet, there’s a lovely breeze that blows through the rhododendron bushes, our neighbors are nice…I can’t wait to move in for real.

One reason I’ll be glad to be in the house — Meredith has decided that tossing all of the water out of the bathtub and onto me and the floor is FUN! The two bathrooms in the apartment here are too small to maneuver in — but in the house, Meredith has a bathroom that will be pretty much all hers to splash around in!

Mary, our terrific realtor, just left a little while ago after dropping off the keys to our brand-spanking new (to us) house! (Which is going to need a name, now, apparently.) She left goodies, too — gift certificates for lots of restaurants in our new hood and some cute keyholder things — a belt strap for Kevin and a little wrist purse thing for me. Yay gifts! We love her. AND she’s paying to have the floors and carpets cleaned. Yay!

Now for the fun part — moving in, positioning all our stuff and springing the rest of our stuff from storage. Can’t wait!

Meredith officially had her first taste of meat AND dairy today. Kevin left his yogurt cup on the floor for Devi to clean out like he usually does, only to find Meredith putting her famous tongue to use. For dinner, she got a little bit of shredded chicken mixed up with garden vegetables baby food. (Which are not her favorite, which explains why she didn’t eat very much…)

Her 9 month checkup on Thursday went GREAT! 15lbs., 7(ish)oz., and 26 1/2 inches long. Not a big growth from her last checkup, but she’s been doing a lot of learning — probably everything is going to noggin growth. (Don’t remember what her head circumference was, but it was 50th percentile — unadjusted! Big headed baby. :>) Once again we were reminded how gorgeous Meredith is upon seeing the twin babies a guy had in the waiting room when we came out. GAAAAH! Ugly with a capital UGH. Plus, everyone in the market we stopped at on the way home also had to comment on how beautiful she is. It’s a little embarrassing, really.

Our meeting with the prospective nanny didn’t go quite as well…in that it didn’t happen! She stood us up! Completely unintentionally — emailing her afterward, she apologized profusely and said she had it on the calendar for next Thursday. So we’re rescheduled for Sunday, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel. (More cupcakes, yum!)

Is it possible it’s June? Today it didn’t even get to 60°. Talking with people, though, I get the feeling this is pretty unusual. People don’t usually complain about the cold if it’s a normal thing…USUALLY. Hopefully the weekend will be nice for getting out and doing something. Maybe we’ll go to the rhododendron garden this time?

It is when you have a house, anyway! This afternoon Kevin and I (and Meredith along for the ride, of course) signed all the paperwork for the house closing! Apparently closing is more of a guide date than a “things must be done” date. So, except for the small matter of, oh, some money and the transfer of some keys, we have a house again! Let the moving (again) begin!

So, I’ve spent a good portion of the day trying to figure out how to get my money.

No, seriously.

We’ve got a good lump of cash in the Credit Union back in Wisconsin, intended to be used towards down payment and closing costs on the house, but apparently The Man is Holding Us Down. They won’t allow a wire transfer unless we are there in person, or call from the number they have on file - which is the long-since disconnected number in Wisconsin. We can have the number on file changed, but they won’t allow a wire transfer for 30 days afterwards. Washington law won’t let us cut a personal check to the escrow company. That basically leaves Cashier’s Check, which the CU in WI won’t make out to anyone but us unless we’re there in person. We don’t have enough cash in the Washington Credit Union yet, and they’ll put a temporary hold on any checks we deposit there until the funds clear… I’m struck by the number of absurdly arbitrary limitations in this mess; I do recognize the motives behind most of them, but I also recognize where the weaknesses in all of them are if I was truly trying to be subversive…

Fear Not! Justice (or some inane parody thereof) will prevail! So, here’s what we have to do: Fax a request, with a change of address (to the temporary apartment) and phone number, to the WA CU, along with a copy of the WI Driver’s license they have on file to help verify identity. They’ll cut a Cashier’s check made out jointly to the WA CU and myself and overnight it (at my cost) to the new (temporary apartment) address. I take the check to a WA CU branch office, who looks at it and visually confirms it’s a cashier’s check made to them, etc. I use the ATM to deposit (they have only two branch which do actual transactions, all the rest are ATM). I go back to the Branch Person, who releases the temporary hold. The WA CU then cuts a new Cashier’s Check out to the Escrow Company, which I then deliver.

Forgive me if I’m not all that happy trying to feed my money through a Machiavellian Rube Goldberg monstrosity. Perhaps it would be better if we could work a carrier pigeon in there?

-K, expecting a call from Lora about financial industry controls, post-vent.

Hey, it’s a legitimate label…

So today, Meredith was playing with a balled up Flip & Tumble grocery bag, in its neat, little ball form. She’d hit it and it would roll in a wobbly fashion across the floor and she’d chase after it, only to hit it again and repeat, giggling most of the time. Devi came in the room and watched that for about half a nanosecond before deciding, “Hey! That’s a ball! You’re chasing it! I know how to do that!” and joined in for a bit. There was a little growling, but she does that with me, just playing fetch, and she did drop it in front of Meredith once, to let her hit it, so we’ll let it slide for now (but with a watchful eye.)

Anyway, later, playing fetch with her own jingle ball, Meredith sat in the middle of the room, watching and laughing as Devi scampers back and forth. Devi kept glancing at her, though, possibly trying to comprehend what was so funny. I don’t know. But, at one point, I had the ball, and Devi moved out from me a bit, ready to chase, as she is wont to do… and she stands right next to Meredith. So, I throw the ball. Devi bowls over Meredith like she wasn’t even there - like she didn’t just walk up to her and turn towards me - and chases after it. Fortunately, Meredith thought this was hilarious (this time) and laughed her fool head off. I had to go over and pick it up before Devi started chasing that, too. Devi brings back the ball and the scene repeats… The third time, she trots over by the self-righting Meredith and looks at me… who’s giving her the evil eye. She looks away at the ceiling for a moment, ears laying back, before glancing at me again… still giving her the eye. “Oh, should I maybe move over here, a foot to the left, or something? *trot*shuffle* I have no idea why you would want this… It’s not like I’m trying to assert my dominance over the other one that apparently also plays with balls, or anything…”

Yeah, that’s better… these girls are too damn clever for me… especially that one…

Passive Aggressive Bitch.

-K