Friendliest neighborhood EVER!

I think we have already met more neighbors here in 2 days than we have in our last neighborhood in 3 years. They have a neighborhood email listserve, they have a big block party coming up in Sept., they have neighborhood movie nights outdoors in the summer, and they have pancake brunches and spaghetti dinners. Crazy!

We are here

It was a real rough night. The movers did not leave until really late. They over-packed everything (like the chair!) and then took forever so it cost us way more than we had budgeted for the move.

The cats meowed all night and kept trying to get into Zoe's room. This was not good for having her sleep well and she woke up quite a bit. I also figured out today that she is teething again after she kept trying to bite everything, including getting a good one in on my face! She also bit up a foam football and swallowed some of the pieces and then barfed.

Jackson has been a trouper all throughout. If you ask him if he likes the new house he just smiles...what a sweetie!!

The living room looks semi-livable at this point. The kitchen is a total wreck, that is for tomorrow though.

We are packed...very very packed

We had put everything on the beds for each kid that we needed for tonight so the movers wouldn't pack it. I didn't even think to tell them not to pack the chair next to Zoe's crib that I nurse her and rock her in. I mean how in the world do you pack a chair, you just carry it out and put it on the truck, right? It just did not even occur to me. But yeah, it's packed.

We have a very poor substitute for tonight. Hopefully she will still sleep good tonight, she only got one nap in so maybe.

It's a challenge

to get all packed up for moving (which is happening Wednesday BTW!) when you have a little person who is deathly afraid of the sound of the packing tape!! We have movers coming tomorrow to help us pack so it will probably be a rough day for all of us.

Awesome big brother!

What I saw just now was too cool!

Zoe is seriously cranking out this evening. She was sitting near Jackson playing with some blocks while Jackson was playing with his Elmo toy. Then she started to cry (again!). Jackson reached over and hit the switch for his Tigger toy, which he knows she likes a lot. He totally distracted her from crying and she then proceeded to take the Tigger away from him and disconnected it from the switch so he couldn't play with it anymore. I really think he knew she would play with it and made it go on purpose to stop her from crying.

Of course now she is crying again, but that is another story.

A sweet moment

Losing our respite : (

We have had 5 hours of respite each week for probably close to a year now. Our respite worker is wonderful with Jackson and I think it is an even bigger treat for him to be able to spend time with her as it is for Lee and I to get a chance (albeit with Zoe) to spend some time together.

Illinois has been in this crazy battle over the state budget. Our new governor wanted to raise taxes because there is no way they can afford everything with the money they have but the republicans in the senate would not approve an increase so there was no budget at all for a long time. They finally did pass a budget this week without the tax increase but since it took so long, we now have no funding and will be losing all of our respite hours as of Aug 1.

It is possible that some or all of our hours will be restored, but as of right now we get nothing. Thanks a lot, republicans! : (

Jackson is a PUNK ROCKER!!

He is listening to a Ramones song (Blitzkreig Bop) and cracking up because he loves it so much!! Too cute!

What is Zoe up to?

Well, quite a bit lately!

She is now pulling to a stand by herself. She also is starting to notice music more (Jackson loved music since birth, Zoe not so much) and will dance a little bit...quite hilarious to see her shake her stuff! She will hold "conversations" with you by popping her lips together or making throat-clearing noises, she expects you will answer her in whichever language she has chosen. New just today, she started to stick out her tongue.

I left the kids in the "baby zone" for a few minutes and when I came back this is what I found.

She did not like the fireworks on the 4th much. We did not go to see fireworks this year since she is so sensitive, but even though fireworks are illegal here there are still people lighting them off everywhere and it can be quite loud. It was rough, poor baby. The dog did not like it much either.

In other news, we are moving to the new place at the end of the month! Anyone want to help pack? We are not going to be able to sell this place for anything near what we owe on it so we may be landlords in the near future. Not my preferred choice but you gotta do what you gotta do.

And this coming Friday Jackson is having an MRI and some labs done. We had to either collect an entire day's worth of urine (way too hard for someone who wears diapers!) or bring a stool sample. Poo it is!

Yesterday

we went on a tour of a facility that provides overnight respite for kids like Jackson. Unfortunately, due to the budget problems in Illinois they have lost their state funding so now it is out of pocket for parents. (We also sadly will be losing our once a week respite unless something happens in the state legislature soon). It was a nice place and I will fill out the paperwork so that we have a place to take care of Jackson in case we ever need it.