Well, the long day of the move is over. We’ve all survived – but barely. Leina did great. After the 1st run was loaded and while Josh and I unloaded at the new house Leina took a long first nap. So long infact that by the time Josh and I got back to the old house all our friends were there just waiting around for her to wake up! After sleepy head woke to find her living room missing we all packed up the second load while Leina was passed from aunt to aunt to grandpa who took her back for a fun filled day at grandma and grandpa Mac’s place.

Many thanks to all our friends who helped out with the move. Including Natalie who is 8 months pregnant with baby Kyle!

Special thanks to Lance and Tommy who took apart Leina’s crib and re-assembled it in her new room. That crib is not easy to work with!

Super-duper thanks to sherpa-Josh and Kat who worked late into the night getting the last load finished. Without them Leina wouldn’t have had her cheerios this morning and I wouldn’t have gotten my bandsaw moved for many weeks! Thanks a lot you guys!

All in all the move went very well. But we have too darn much stuff. Where did all this stuff come from? I tell you, I don’t know how many boxes marked, “crafts” I moved but it was mountain load.

Now all that remains is getting the odds and ends from the old place and cleaning it up for Suzy, Dan, Daniel and Sammy’s visit next month!

For now we’ll keep on movin’

So today is the big day. At 5pm, Kev is going to check out our new house. I’m insanely jealous that I can’t be there too but the idea of fighting though 5pm traffic with a hungry baby in the back seat is just too much. I’ll just have to wait till the weekend. Grrrr.

Even though I’m excited about our new house, I am horrifically sad to be leaving behind our little home. I love this house. This was our first real home after a blur of apartment living. This is were we put we began setting up after our wedding, where we adopted our fist dog and had our first child. I adore all the quirky rooms, the squeaky floors, and the thick moldings. I’ll miss having a huge park a block away and Safeway just down the street. I’ll miss walking Artie through a neighborhood where every house is different and so sweet with hand tended gardens and no homeowner association regulations on color and lawn care. No more walking to the old, historic one-screen movie theatre or strolling down to grab some fresh baked donuts from Annie’s. or a yummy coffe from Starbucks. Even worse, we are leaving behind some great food joints! So even though I’m jazzed to be moving, I’m definately going to miss my little home in the NE.

I guess your first home is like your first love….you never really forget it!

For those on high bandwidth lines, we proudly (and we do mean proudly) present the 1st video of our baby sitting up. This is not technically the 1st time she pushed herself up from her belly to her bottom but it is one of the first few times. She’s actually improved the process significantly and can now do it in the blink of an eye, rather than the 25 sec. in the video.

The 2 links are:

Leina’s warm up, encouragement from mom, then sit-up (6.6Mb 1 min.)

Leina’s celebration, cool down, and victory dance (6.2Mb 1 min.)

Enjoy

Leina has her first bruise.

She’s been trying to figure out how to crawl. She can get up on all fours but she hasn’t been able to figure out the timing of her arms and legs to get moving. She’s trying though. The other day her ball rolled out of reach so she popped up on all fours and tried to reach for it. Unfortunately, she over-extended herself and plop!…down she went. She landed smack on her face and, of course, she wasn’t on the carpet but on the hard wood floor. This lead to much crying (which was finally stemmed by quite a bit of slobbery dog kisses) and a nice big bruise on her forhead. Yes, I am now a proud member of the Bruised Baby Club.

Most moms of toddlers seem to have a pretty good humor about the whole bruise thing. These little kids sure do get bunged up during their exploration and it was only a matter of time before Leina joined in the fun. Thankfully the new house has mostly carpet so this may alleviate some of the potential for bumps but I’m well aware that my little munchkin is going to make trouble if she can’t find it on her own.

And so, I’ve dug out the bandaids, antiseptic cream, and gauze pads. Have first-aid, will use is my new motto.

Look out toddler-hood, here we come!

Leina loves to sit. She could sit all day long if I let her. Even better, she’s learned how to get from her back to her favorite sitting position. It involves rolling on her side, proping herself up with her hands, a major ab crunch and voila! She’s up!

The first couple of time she did this, she would look at me, eyes shining, as if to say “did you see that mom? didja? am I a big girl or what!!” I caught one early sit on video and will try to convince tech support (Kevin) to load it up. It’s beyond cute.

So today, Leina woke up from her morning nap cooing. I decided on a quick bathroom break before rescuing her so it took me a few moments to head for her room. When I did, I realized she was totally silent. No cooing, giggling, wailing….. nada. Perplexed, I tip-toed to the door and eased it open just in case she had fallen back asleep.

What did I find?

Leina was sitting up in her crib playing with her blanket. Her back was to me but I think the light tipped her off to my presence because she whipped her head around once she realized I was there. Then, she did a belly dive. Yes, she dove, face down onto the crib and sort of rolled over and looked at me like, “what, me sitting in the crib? never! I would never do that! nope, no sitting baby here. just a good belly sleeper.”

I swear it was the first time I’ve ever seen her look guilty. I don’t know what she was up to but it was no good. Of that I am sure.

Have I mentioned that I may be in serious trouble over the next few years?

I’ve been MIA on the blog lately but things have gone crazy. Absolutely crazy. The house has closed and we are moving in two weeks. Yikes. This means our house is filled with half packed boxes. Why is it that when you are trying to pack, everything gets so messy? You would think that putting stuff into boxes would a) decrease the amount of stuff around your house and b) increase the amount of open space on shelves and in closets. This is so not true. Somehow, the chaos has only multiplied. Now, I have stuff strewn everywhere and piles of big bulky boxes sitting in every conceivable corner of the house.

This weekend we fled from the chaos of our house and headed north for Kevin’s Grandma’s 90th birthday. It was the first time most of the Van Dyks had seen Leina and they went crazy. It was like Julia Roberts walked into the room when we arrived. Everyone had a camera and wanted a picture with her. I swear if she could write they’d have asked for her autograph. Leina, in true Leo fashion, loved it. She was passed from Aunt to Uncle to cousin. The flash bulbs where going a mile a minute and Munchie calmly reigned in the center of all this attention. Smiling, doing her Rose Princess wave, and basically charming the pants off of every relative there. I got this great picture of Kevin, his brother Chris, and Leina which I will post. The family resemblence is frightening.

My little lion. She just loves to bask in being the center of attention. I’ve so going to have my hands full for the rest of my life.