!!! Answers !!!

!!! Answers !!!

(A response to my earlier post from exactly one month ago called ??? Questions ???

Here are the answers to the questions Dominic and I were pondering ONE MONTH ago today:

? - What time will baby come? Morning? Noon? Night?

I started having contractions around 6am Friday morning. After getting the go-ahead from my OB, Dominic and I got in the van to head to St. Luke's hospital at 1:23pm and were in the ER by 1:45. After passing through triage, I was checked into a room at about 3:30. We got room 336, the pink room, so I knew then that it was definitely going to be a boy. Plus we think it was the exact same room we had William in! They started petocin at 4pm to speed up the labor because I had been leaking fluid for quite a while and was already having regular contractions. It was certain that this baby was going to arrive on Friday the 13th. Landon Dean Krupp was born at 9:03pm after about 3-4 minutes of pushing!

Taken Within 12 Hours of Landon's Birth

Pink Room! Again!

? - Will baby be born on a weekend or weekday? - Pulling for the weekend!!!

Friday night counts as the weekend, doesn't it?

? - Will baby be a June or a July baby? - Aka what birthstone will he or she have?

Rubies all the way! Landon not only made it to his due date of July 7th, he actually flew past it by five days!

? - Will I make it past the 4th of July? - I sure hope so!

Affirmative.

? - Will I make it to my due date? - I'm actually the weirdo who is still pulling for going LATE! Fingers crossed that this baby will be a Sunday baby just like his or her big brother, Mama, and Daddy. :) Or better YET - a Sunday the 15th baby like his or her big brother AND Mama!

Well I definitely made it to my due date, but I didn't get to have a Sunday the 15th baby, despite the fact that my induction was scheduled for 7:30 that morning. (I picked that day bc that was the day I originally wanted, but also to give baby enough time to go on his own.... Which he did! Just like with William, Landon didn't quite make it to his induction date.)

? - Will Dominic be at work 80 miles away when baby comes? - When we had William, he worked in Perrysburg. Even better, he wasn't even working! We went to the hospital over the weekend!

Dominic had decided on Thursday that he was going to take Friday off, so thankfully he was at home all day. I remember there was a moment around 6:30pm when I was experiencing severe contractions that I said to him, "If you would have gone into work today, you would just now be getting home!" Needless to say, I'm so thankful he had the intuition to take that day off.

? - Who will handle William when baby comes? - I know this will just fall together when the time comes.

My Mom was VERY helpful. She came up Friday afternoon around 12:30 and stayed with Will when we left for the hospital. Plus she stayed at our house that night. The second night Dominic came home to stay with Will and she went back home.

? - How long will I be in the hospital? - Fingers crossed that it won't be as long as last time!

It definitely was much shorter! Like I said before, we got there Friday at 1:45 and we were checked out almost exactly 48 hours later. What a whirlwind!

Our New Family of Four

? - Will baby be a boy or a girl? - We have to buy clothes either way, since William's will be the wrong size for the season. Or perhaps baby #2 will just be in a onesie and diaper all summer.

It's a boy! So far, Landon has pretty much been in a side snap shirt and pants. However, thanks to a few new outfits, I think we are pretty good with clothes sizes NB-3 months. Although I'd like to find some 0-3 month shorts! Do they even sell those?


? - What will baby's name be? (especially if it is a boy since we still haven't officially finalized one!)

We named him Landon Dean Krupp and it wasn't even for sure until the night before his birth. Even then we talked about our other options. And even when he was born I still asked Dominic if he was certain on the name! Now I can't imagine it as anything else.

? - How much will baby weigh? - My prediction is that this baby will not be as big as William was.

I was right about him not being as big as Will, but Landon was still a good sized baby at 8lbs 5oz. He left the hospital at 7lbs 12oz and was back to 8lbs 1oz by his first Peds check last Wednesday.

? - How long will he or she be? - See above prediction.

Yep- He was a little shorter than Will at 21 inches exactly.

? - Will this baby be tongue-tied like William was? - Man I sure HOPE not...

One of the nurses from his actual birth originally thought he might be SLIGHTLY tongue tied, and that was probably only because we asked. Since then, no one has thought he is (not even the pediatrician) and I certainly have noticed a difference in his ability to eat. It'll probably take until his Pediatric Dentist appointment to find out for sure, but it doesn't seem to be an issue at all.

William serving as BIG BROTHER!

? - Will this baby be on the bilirubin blanket like William was? - See above statement.

Nope! Praise God! He wasn't even significantly jaundice. He has been a great eater, pee-er, and pooper from the start!

? - Will I be finished with all of my work stuff before baby comes? - Uh, I better!

I feel good about where I left work. I was able to finish cleaning and organizing my room and I was able to meet with my sub and give her all of the necessary materials. I have a few small tasks to accomplish before the kids go back, but I'll probably wait until August to handle that. I'd also like to go to school to go through my orders if possible. That will take until our babysitter is back from vacation so she can watch William, which won't be until early August.

? - Will we have the baby before or after we move? - Preferably AFTER we move, but that's not likely.

We WERE able to move before baby! Thank GOD we were! I can't imagine life if we were just now moving. Originally we thought we'd move last weekend (the weekend of July 20-22) but thankfully Dominic is a doer and decided to get this done over the 4th-6th. We still had about four van loads of stuff to move after we got home from the hospital, but the major items had been moved in a Penske truck during the 100+ heat index over the 4th-6th. We slept here Friday, July the 6th after our BIG furniture move.

Our Moving Truck - GO PENSKE!

I loaded this carload up on my own a couple days over due and a couple of days before I went into labor... in upper 90s heat!

Exploring the New House!

? - When will we paint the bedrooms in our new house? Currently the plan is for Dom to paint sometime around July 4-6. But will we be having a baby then?

Dom's parents painted all day on the 4th of July while his brothers and Kasey helped us move and unpack. My in-laws did an awesome job taping, priming, trimming, and painting the three small rooms in one day. Cathy came back up the morning of the 5th and she and Dom finished touching up, a few final coats, and even did a fresh coat in the Master that we were originally not going to touch at all. I'm glad they did a fresh coat in our room though, because it looks a LOT better!

Painting the Nursery

? - When should I schedule to get the carpets cleaned? - As long as the paint is done this will probably be the weekend of the 7th, but that is my due date... So.... who knows!

The carpets were cleaned the afternoon of the 5th after the rooms had been painted, but before our furniture was moved in.

? - What washer and dryer will we buy? - Leaning towards the top-loaders now that the front-loaders have had so many negative "Mom Reviews".  We're also sort of waiting until we get a nice Lowes coupon in the "change of address" package because we were told by the Lowes worker that you can get that discount ON TOP OF the sale they are currently having (10% off appliances). Not bad, especially once we use our Discover reward gift cards!

After a couple conversations with Lowes employees and reading reviews online, we ended up getting the Whirlpool Cabrio Platinum top loading washer with a glass lid and the same dryer without the glass front JUST in case a kid was to smash and break the glass accidentally. We used Discover reward gift cards, a 10% off Lowes coupon plus a sale price, and then bought the rest of our gift cards at Kroger and Giant Eagle for fuel perks (we got $1.30 off a gallon at Kroger and $2.30 off at Giant Eagle because of this!) I am still figuring out all of its many features, but I've had plenty of time for this bc I have to do laundry about every day!

Day of Installation

? - Will we have our master furniture ordered and delivered early on or put it off until later? - I sure hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't feel like dealing with this once we have a baby.

Yay! We decided on a set and ordered it through a direct company in Michigan that Dominic leases trucks to. Originally we were told it would be delivered Sunday the 29th, but we found out yesterday that it'll be here THURSDAY! I'm so excited bc our master bedroom looks like junk with random piles on the floor and boxes still in the closet and master bathroom.

? - Will William be ok in his big boy bed? - We may find out tonight!  Dom and William are currently on their way to get the new mattress and we are transitioning him tonight in order to to slowly start all of his many changes.

William has done an amazing job with all of his transitions, especially this one. He sleeps very well in his bed; I think he realizes that it is much more comfortable than the toddler mattress. He curls up in the corner of his bed between two walls, which we call his "nook", so I haven't even been worried that he will fall out. I was a little nervous that he'd get upset about the fact that the nursery looks the same (just set up differently due to the room shape) yet it's not HIS room anymore, but he has been FINE with every bit of the bed and room transitions. Thank God!

First night in his big boy room in our new house.

? - How long will it take us to move? We have until early August to move out of our home on Mapleway, so we know we will be fine but we are hoping we can move all of our big stuff in a day or two.  The tentative plan is to move our big stuff the weekend of July 15-17.  Of course that depends on when the baby comes!

Well, like I already mentioned we moved in about three main days and then picked away at small loads for another week and a half. Although we had the keys until early August, we gave ourselves a deadline and the new owner an advantage by getting him the keys last Saturday (the 21st) so he could move in before his family vacation this week.

Cheers-ing at Bob Evans to Our Last Night at Mapleway

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Our Old House, Pretty Much Emptied Out

****************************************************************************************

Ultimately, the days since our closing date (June 30th) have flown by and have been packed full of craziness. We got the keys to our new home July 2nd, painted all of the bedrooms and cleaned the carpets by the 5th, moved in and slept here by the 6th, had a baby the 13th, came back from the hospital the 15th, and handed our keys over to Mapleway on the 21st. This may sound virtually impossible, but I have learned that anything is possible when you're married to Dominic and with our friends and family. A special thank you goes out to Matt McClure for being a furniture-moving beast on one of the hottest days in our area's history. Productivity and hard work is synonymous with the last name Krupp. William would even agree to this and say he can't talk long bc he has "work to do!" Now I am trying to train him that he has PLAY to do. After all, it IS summertime!

Weeding - Both WORK and FUN!

38 Weeks Pregnant: Update on the Li'l One!

Dear Baby,

THANK YOU for being so cooperative!  I just know that we understand each other.  :)  That means a lot to Mommy!

So here is the news.  Today I went to see how you were doing at my regularly scheduled 38 week check.  For the record, I was down a pound since last week and I have only gained 19 lbs since my first recorded check during this pregnancy!  Anyway, the doctor checked me to see how you were doing and it turns out that you were SO HIGH that he couldn't even tell if you were head-down or not.  Now this was a little scary for a minute, but I said a quick prayer and knew God was going to handle this for me.  He did take a minute to inform me that the heartbeat was higher than last week and that he predicts you are a boy.  So last week your heart rate was lower and he said girl, this week it's the opposite.  I really don't take his predictions seriously.

Next, I was shuffled down to the ultrasound room where the amazing technician was able to inform me in less than a minute that you were in great position!  Head-down!  Instant relief!!! I just love the tech at my OB office.  She always has KLove playing in the background, and it's so comforting to hear Christian music while I'm seeing your picture on the machine.

After the concern about your position was over and we were simply looking at your pictures, I told the tech (who is always very supportive of the fact that we have not found out your gender) that it was tempting for me to just ask her to tell me TODAY, since I am GOING NUTS wondering if you are a boy or a girl.  Bless her heart, because her response was that we are so close to finding out in real life that she would probably just lie and tell me that she couldn't tell even if I DID ask her... just so we could wait to find out at your birth.  I laughed and thanked her for supporting me, because had she been interested in finding out there is a possibility that she might have convinced me to take a quick peek!  Yet she kept your gender a mystery, and honestly I am grateful for that despite my CONSTANT questioning!  I'm still saying girl like I have been since day #1, but lately I have been planning on you being a boy so I am not super surprised.

You measured somewhere around 7 1/2 pounds (sorry, but I forget the exact amount) and showing that you are about 38 weeks.  I am supposed to be 38 weeks 5 days, so this puts the newest due date prediction at July 12th.  Lucky me!  I might get to have you later than planned after all.  I'm still keeping my fingers (and legs) crossed that you don't come until at least July.  We have a house to sell and one to buy tomorrow, and it would be GREAT if we could have most of our stuff moved and your nursery set up for you before you come.  Yes these may seem like high expectations, but welcome to the Krupp family.  If your Daddy gets it into his head that we are moving next weekend, then we will be moving next weekend.  I guarantee it!

Of course, as you know, I am still hoping you come Sunday July 15th.  However, I have made MANY requests to God and I can't be too greedy.  I will settle for your arrival anytime after this weekend, but preferably after we move.  I know you are frustrated because of the cramped conditions you are living in (I can tell by the ultrasound pic that the tech gave me today) so I apologize to you for this news.  However, I must say that I am happy to see that you will probably be staying put for a little while longer.  We will have plenty of fun when you come out; just let us get through a few more to-dos before you join us.  You don't want to be involved with this crazy move anyway!  Avoid it if at all possible!

Regardless of when you arrive, you are loved very much and we are so happy that you are making our family a family of four.

Love always,
Your very excited Momma

This is either a smoosh face or a ticked-off grumpy one. Either way, it is adorable and I can't wait to kiss your cheeks! 

 

 

 

Mama Monday #2 - Finally Getting Ready for Baby!

I realized that most of my first Mama Monday post today was about my son.  See, even the posts about ME are about my kids.  That's what the life of a Mom is all about. Therefore I decided to do a second one... Which ends up being about my other child anyway!

Actually, lately I have been thinking that the life of a Mom is like one HUGE load of laundry with ups and downs in between.  That may sound depressing, but I don't mean it to be.  I have done laundry every night for a week.  I don't mind it... it's just crazy how much laundry there is to be done!

Speaking of laundry, I took the first steps toward preparing myself for the fact that this baby will be here soon... And only part of it involved laundry!

1. I washed the neutral baby clothes (although I have yet to put them away!) Man are they small!

2. I pulled out some baby rattles. Of course William was instantly drawn to these "new" toys, so I had to explain what they were for.  It was so cute hearing him say he wanted to teach the baby how to use a rattle or talk on the phone or help me change the baby's diaper.  I think the more we talk about baby and show him evidence of baby's imminent arrival, the better it is on William's transition.

3. Dom and I picked up the bassinet from Andy and Sarah's house yesterday and we set it up in our room.

4. I washed all of the bassinet bedding.

5. I pulled out some newborn diapers. I'm not sure where I should put them though, so odds are they'll end up in the drawer with the clothes. Eventually this baby will have the nursery which comes with the diaper stacker, but for now he or she is getting the "bare bone" treatment!

6. I washed my nursing clothes and started creating a pile of items I want to put in my hospital bag.

All of this was a pretty big deal for me after doing absolutely nothing to prepare for baby throughout the first 38 weeks of pregnancy. With William, all of this was done much earlier ... But then again we weren't in the process of moving. And we were like all other first time parents who worried about having everything perfectly in place in the nursery so it would look adorable and give the proper welcome to baby. Then we learned that babies don't even sleep in their cribs for a while (Will slept in the bassinet in our room) and rarely use the nursery at all for the first couple of months!

So what else needs done for baby? Not too much. I need to get a double stroller soon. I'm still holding out until Babies R Us sends me a 20% off coupon. I'm also going to borrow my friend's Moby wrap to practice wearing around a bit before I commit to buying one.

I had to get groceries today, and I noticed that the milk expires on my due date.  That was enough to get me thinking that I better start preparing.  Nothing screams, "Your baby is going to be here soon" like seeing the date slapped on a milk jug.

Good thing I was super productive at work today. :)

??? Questions ???

I want to document some of the questions that are running through our minds about the logistics of the next 2-3 weeks. And please don't panic, because we aren't!

Here are the questions Dominic and I are currently pondering:

? - What time will baby come? Morning? Noon? Night?

? - Will baby be born on a weekend or weekday? - Pulling for the weekend!!!

? - Will baby be a June or a July baby? - Aka what birthstone will he or she have?

? - Will I make it past the 4th of July? - I sure hope so!

? - Will I make it to my due date? - I'm actually the weirdo who is still pulling for going LATE!  Fingers crossed that this baby will be a Sunday baby just like his or her big brother, Mama, and Daddy. :) Or better YET - a Sunday the 15th baby like his or her big brother AND Mama!

? - Will Dominic be at work 80 miles away when baby comes? - When we had William, he worked in Perrysburg.  Even better, he wasn't even working! We went to the hospital over the weekend!

? - Who will handle William when baby comes? - I know this will just fall together when the time comes.

? - How long will I be in the hospital? - Fingers crossed that it won't be as long as last time!

? - Will baby be a boy or a girl? - We have to buy clothes either way, since William's will be the wrong size for the season.  Or perhaps baby #2 will just be in a onesie and diaper all summer.

? - What will baby's name be? (especially if it is a boy since we still haven't officially finalized one!)

? - How much will baby weigh? - My prediction is that this baby will not be as big as William was.

? - How long will he or she be? - See above prediction.

? - Will this baby be tongue-tied like William was? - Man I sure HOPE not...

? - Will this baby be on the bilirubin blanket like William was? - See above statement.

? - Will I be finished with all of my work stuff before baby comes? - Uh, I better!

? - Will we have the baby before or after we move? - Preferably AFTER we move, but that's not likely.

? - When will we paint the bedrooms in our new house? Currently the plan is for Dom to paint sometime around July 4-6.  But will we be having a baby then?

? - When should I schedule to get the carpets cleaned? - As long as the paint is done this will probably be the weekend of the 7th, but that is my due date... So.... who knows!

? - What washer and dryer will we buy? - Leaning towards the top-loaders now that the front-loaders have had so many negative "Mom Reviews".  We're also sort of waiting until we get a nice Lowes coupon in the "change of address" package because we were told by the Lowes worker that you can get that discount ON TOP OF the sale they are currently having (10% off appliances). Not bad, especially once we use our Discover reward gift cards!

? - Will we have our master furniture ordered and delivered early on or put it off until later? - I sure hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't feel like dealing with this once we have a baby.

? - Will William be ok in his big boy bed? - We may find out tonight!  Dom and William are currently on their way to get the new mattress and we are transitioning him tonight in order to to slowly start all of his many changes.

? - How long will it take us to move? We have until early August to move out of our home on Mapleway, so we know we will be fine but we are hoping we can move all of our big stuff in a day or two.  The tentative plan is to move our big stuff the weekend of July 15-17.  Of course that depends on when the baby comes!


And this was just the short list.  Hence the reason why I am focused on Philippians 4:6 right now.  Worry about nothing and PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING!  Or the verse below from Isaiah - one of my favorite books of the Bible. I know that God is in control, and He is the only one with these answers.  Therefore I am calm and leaving it up to Him!!!

Thank you, Lord, for handling all of these many stress-ers.  I appreciate not having them all on my shoulders.  I am already carrying enough baby weight!

What I Wonder: Our Upcoming Transitions

On Monday I had lunch with a couple of girlfriends who quickly commented on how extremely relaxed I seemed, despite all that I have going on right now.  I was flattered, as I know that oftentimes I am annoyingly stressed out, and I was very happy that the girls were able to note my calm demeanor without me having to say that I really DO feel calm.  In fact, it's bizarre how calm I feel about everything.  I know that I will be closing the sale of our current home and the purchase of our next home only nine days before my due date.   I know that I have absolutely nothing packed (well nothing more than what we binned in order to put our home up for sale.)  I know that I can't do a ton of work moving houses.  I know that my body is about to go through a lot during the birth of my second baby.  I know that soon enough I will be spending hours each day nursing, changing diapers, and NOT SLEEPING.  I know that I have virtually nothing prepared for my maternity leave and I haven't even talked to the person who is going to sub for me (in my defense, I was just given a sub a few days ago)... yet I feel completely calm.  At least for now.

I thought a lot about the positive comments from the girls after I left that lunch. Why am I so calm?  I should be flipping out in typical Lavender-style.  Perhaps it's because I already went through a month-long period of mourning leaving our home and debating whether or not we were making the right decision by moving.  Perhaps it's because I feel like I still have enough time to get all of my work done for school before baby comes.  Perhaps it's because a lot of this is out of my control.  MOST LIKELY it's because I am constantly reassured by my favorite Bible Verse:

Here it is again in a paraphrased version:

So yeah, I am personally at peace right now.  Mental peace.  It feels great.  So what do I wonder this Wednesday, you ask?  Well this is going to sound SO Mom-ish, so be prepared...

                                            I wonder how William will handle it all.

Toddlers are interesting.  I believe that they are truly creatures of habit.  For example, every night when we give William a bath we have to do the EXACT SAME THING.  Whenever someone watches William when we are gone, we assure them that he will tell them what is next if they don't know so they don't need to worry about it.

Here is the bath/Band-Aid/book/bedtime routine we have fallen into for the past... hmmmmmm... I'd say five months at least.

We let him choose what color tablet he will use to dye the water and then he throws it in.  We bathe him, then we rinse his back, then we rinse his head.  We lift him out of the tub and then we dry him off.  He says, "Brush your teeth is next" ... which it is ... and then when that's done he will say, "Band-Aid is next!" ... which it is ... We have to give him a Charlie Brown Band-Aid every single night that he plasters on his bare chest and marches around saying, "I got a Band-Aid!"  Then we put his diaper on him, dress him in his PJs, and then he picks out a "chair book" (which is a book we read in the glider).  He hands me the book and then walks to the ottoman where my feet are propped, grabs both of my ankles and hoists himself up to the ottoman, says "I climb Mommy Mountain!" and then, kneeling on the ottoman, he holds his arms out to me and says, "You got me?"  And I always say, "I will always catch you" and he does a little bit of a lunge/leap forward to the chair (over the small separation between the ottoman and the glider) and then we cuddle up with his blankie and mimi and read the "chair book" of the night.  After the book is over, he slides off of the glider and goes under my right leg, back to the bookshelf saying, "I go in the hole!"  He picks up one more book, walks it to his bed, and lies down.  I read him this "bedtime book" and then we say our prayers.  I always take prayer requests first and they have been the same from William for at least three months now.  He always asks that we pray for, "Chuck E. Cheese, The Giraffe Store, The Letter Store, and the Big Box Store" (translated that means Chuck E. Cheese, Toys R Us, Babies R Us, and Costco - and the ironic thing is that we've only take him to the first three of these places about two times each since he could actually remember... we are evil parents who always tell him that these places are sleeping when he wants to go there... I promise I will take him back to Chuck E. Cheese before baby comes though.  I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do that for him after months of praying for CEC).  So we pray and then do "tucky tucky" which sometimes is "mumify" which once turned into "Dadify" and then later "Lavender-fy"... so funny.  Then I kiss him on his cheek, tell him that I love him so much and then Dom does the same and we turn off his light and leave the room.  EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.

So there, that's why I think toddlers are creatures of habit.  Not to mention how William has to give a hug, a kiss, and a high-five to everyone he says goodbye to... in that order.  He will literally grab your hand to slap it if you forget the high-five at the end.

Therefore, despite my personal calmness... I have come to realize that I am extremely nervous about how William will handle his upcoming changes.  I usually feel as though we are doing the right thing by changing a lot at once, so that we can just get it all over with, but perhaps that will make William go nuts.

What exactly are the changes that William will soon endure?

Well, for starters he will become a big brother.  When we ask if he is having a brother or a sister, he usually answers.  If he says brother, the name he says is Keegan.  If he says sister, the name he says is Hannah.  Neither of these are names we are using; they are the names of the youngest boy and girl at the babysitter's house.  Sometimes though, William will say NO when you ask him if he's having a brother or a sister.  I am sure this is perfectly normal, but it worries me a bit.  Life is going to be a LOT different for the little guy.  He won't be the only kid anymore.  I know that eventually he won't remember life as an only child, but I am sure the transitional phase is a challenge.

Another change is our big move to the 'burg.  William has only ever known this house to be his home, so I am worried about how he will handle the move.  He once looked at a picture of the house and said that it was Margaret's house (his babysitter's).  I realized that they do kind of resemble one another.  We ask him if he's ready to move to the big house, and again he usually answers "NO".

We are also moving William from the nursery (he has been in the crib converted into a toddler bed for a while now) to his "big boy room" when we move.  We figured it would just be easier for him to do the switch all at once.  However, we are keeping the same nursery furniture and bedding... which is b/c we have all gender-neutral stuff and because we are cheap.  I always said I was glad we didn't find out with the first baby so we could just cheap-out and use the same stuff over for the next kid, but now I worry about the fact that the nursery will be almost the SAME and William might think it's his room.  I am working hard to make his toddler room look more enticing than the nursery, but this is another unpredictable situation we'll soon be facing.

A couple of other changes that William must go through in the near future are getting rid of the mimi (binky) and potty training.  For now, I am not going to fret about either situation.  OK, so my 2 1/2 year old still uses a pacifier and wears diapers.  Well, I have bigger battles to fight right now.  I can't make him go through ALL of these changes at once, so I am not going to even bother.  In fact, my pediatrician told me to wait on the potty training until the end of the summer... so I might go with that advice.  I know my babysitter prefers it done over summer, but he won't even be three until November so I don't want to rush anything. At this rate maybe it will be NEXT summer. Not that I want to buy diapers for two...  He's not super interested in it right now, although he is starting to get the idea that he should be peeing and pooping in the Elmo potty and not in a diaper.  Even the change in the fact that now he tells us when he poops in his diaper is a positive one.  We are working with that and trying to remind him to tell us BEFORE he goes "next time".  Finally, I am going to switch his car seat position from behind me to behind the passenger seat.  This will allow me to hand him items easily.

I just don't want him to think he's "being replaced" by baby.  Or hate our new house b/c it comes with a baby.  Or get angry with Dom and me because we took him from the home where he took his first steps.

I will keep you posted on how William handles everything.  Of course many people smile and say that this is NOTHING and that their kids were perfectly adjusted within NO TIME and many others say it is a challenge, but like everything else we will get through it. I know all the lines.  I have heard them a million times and I am prepared to hear them a million more.  I am just not prepared to live it all out... quite yet.

Wish us luck! Chuck E. Cheese did!

 

Selling and Moving: The Timeline

People have been asking a lot about the progress of our home sale and purchase, so I figured it would make sense to put together a timeline of events here because I never remember who I told what to and when... and for a while things were being updated by the minute! Now that it is pretty settled and most of what is happening is figured out, I will fill everyone in on the entire process.

January 2012

• After months of talking about it, we decided to put our home on the market. The primary reasons for our move are to have a little more room, a fourth bedroom, and to be closer to things such as our jobs, babysitter, doctors, etc.  Plus we know that we will ultimately move anyway because our home is not big enough for us and we knew we were not going to send our kids to TPS.  Since interest rates are so low, we knew we could get far more bang-for-our-buck this year and since we "gambled" and lost in the housing market when we bought this place (because we bought in 07 during the peak of the market, the year before the crash when we could have got far more for the buck) we figured we should try to WIN with our next place.

• We made a few calls to our babysitter's former realtor.  We decided we wanted to go with him for our home sale.

February 2012

• During the first week of February, we met with our new realtor and determined what would need to be done in order to prep our home for sale.  He recommended a complete roof tear-off (the final project we needed to get to in order to basically have our home completely remodeled), buying bins and binning a lot of our excess "stuff" (as it was apparent that we were outgrowing our home), sanding and painting the rod iron handrails outdoors, putting a hook where the curtain rod to the downstairs storage shelves are just for added support, tear off the Styrofoam that Fred had used to "insulate" the vents in the basement, finish the trim on the front door that was never done, and thoroughly clean the entire house.

• I should note that during this meeting, William was extremely sick. He had two blow-outs while our realtor was here meeting with us and spent the rest of the time with his eyes half-open, watching a movie.  I felt so bad for the little guy.  February was a really rough month for us over-all and we spent a large part of it sick.  I never got it as bad as Dom later did, but I attribute that to the the fact that I got the flu shot and Dom did not.

• By the middle of the month, only weeks after meeting with the realtor, we had a roofer out here and our complete tear-off and replacement was complete. Seriously, when Dom gets told what to do ... it gets done in no time flat. Luckily for us we had a very warm winter, so that conditions for roofing (and the price during the off-season) were unbeatable!

March 2012

•  We began to have second thoughts about selling our home. These second thoughts mixed in from this point in time until the minute we ended up agreeing to a price with our buyer. We are big fans of Dave Ramsey's, and the fact that we had refinanced our home just last year for a 15 year mortgage that theoretically we could pay off within two years was very much a deterrent to buying a new home that costs twice as much (or more) as this one originally did. 

• Due to our second thoughts, we dragged our feet with the selling process.  I had purchased some extra large bins from Big Lots at this time, but I only filled one up with some clothes that William had out-grown. Work was busy for both of us at this time, so we weren't focused on the selling process.Dom kept talking about sanding and painting the rod iron handrails outside, but the weather conditions were not prime for painting, so we didn't do much at all.

•  At the end of the month, our realtor just "happened to be in the neighborhood" and dropped by to see how our progress was going.  It was the WORST possible time for him to randomly drop by (a few days before my spring break, when we had planned on working on our to-do list) and the house was in complete disaster.  We had just finished eating dinner and this time we hadn't even cleaned up the dishes like we usually do.  Dom had said to let them sit so we could play with Will before putting him to bed, because it had become more apparent that William needed some one-on-one time with us.  It was around 7PM when our realtor stopped by, William's typical "winding down" time. With an exciting guest in the house, rather than winding down, William WOUND UP and went nuts.  He was chucking toys everywhere and screaming, "Can you hear me?!?!?!" into his mega phone as the adults tried to meet.  I can't even describe the pure chaos that was going on, but it ended with William yelling, "cash" (meaning "catch") and whipping a toy right into our realtor's chest.  It wasn't something that hurt or anything, but just embarrassing. The time was now like 8:45 and he was WAY passed his bedtime.  I knew the following morning was going to be a nightmare...

• Perhaps it was because of our realtor's random drop-by, but after this visit I was feeling very anxious about the entire for sale process.  I felt totally unprepared, and since I was about 26 weeks pregnant, I began to worry about the amount of time and pressure this would take on our family and my body.  Had we made a rash decision? Either way, we had just promised our realtor to have things ready for pictures by Easter.  Actually, Dominic promised that. I promised the exact opposite:  That there was no way we were going to be ready to have the pics taken in a week's time with work being so busy.  I love my husband, but he thinks in terms of getting stuff done and not in terms of the time we have to do them.

 April 2012

• Things started happening quickly in April.  From here on out, I will try to use dates to show you how close the events happened.

• April 14th - We completed our "Spring Cleaning" and made the house as organized as possible. We finished up the projects our realtor had suggested, except for the one about painting the rod iron railings outside. We still haven't even done that, and now we probably never will...

• Sat. April 21st - Our realtor came over to take the pictures of our home in the morning. (See I told you we would never get this done by Easter!) We also finished signing all of the paperwork for our home sale.

• Sun. April 22nd - After MONTHS of dragging his feet, Dominic finally broke the news to our neighbor that he is close with.  I know he was putting it off because the neighbor was going to be sad.  They have built a great relationship and friendship, and the entire home sale is very hard for us because we don't want to leave our neighbors and neighborhood.

• Mon. April 23rd - We put the sign in our front yard.  Our home was officially on the market.

• Sun. April 29th - We had our first and only "Open House".  We had three couples and one neighbor go through our home.  One of the couples seemed very promising.

May 2012

• Thurs. May 3rd - The promising couple took a second look at our home.

• Sun. May 6th - We went out looking at homes for a second time. This was the day we found the home we ended up falling in love with.  William was even with us this time (this was the only time, the other times he was being watched by either his regular babysitter or our good friend Danielle - thanks to both for all of the support during all of this!)  I'm glad that William was there this time, since we are now buying a home we saw that day.  The house was not one I was even sure I wanted to see at first, but I threw it on the list and when we were there I FELT something.  I specifically even told that to Dominic as we were leaving.  I really do believe that God gives you a little nudge when you find the right one.  The way the home is designed is completely perfect for what we are looking for.  It is not grand or showy, like many of the places we looked at in Perrysburg.  There is nothing wrong with "grand or showy", it's just not who we are at this point in our lives.  It's a large home (over 2400 square feet with a complete basement) but it feels so HOMEY.  The biggest selling points were the fact that the upstairs floor plan feels like it's HUGGING you in a circular motion, there has only been one owner and it was custom built so almost everything is very nice and extremely well-cared for, it's in the township so we don't have to pay income taxes, it's super close to almost EVERYTHING yet it feels a little "removed" from the hustle and bustle of city/town life, and perhaps most importantly it has an awesome, private, good-sized backyard.  As with all properties within our price range in Perrysburg, there is a downfall...you can hear the turnpike because it runs right behind the house. :-( Yet that's most likely the reason for the very good price!  So it's half a dozen in one hand, six in the other... and this home has EVERYTHING ELSE we are looking for.

• May 12 - We looked at homes for a 3rd time, including a 2nd visit to the home we felt pulled toward.  We looked at it longer and more closely at this time, checking for details that we might have glossed over during our first visit.  I took a plethora of pictures.  This home was the first we saw that day, and nothing before or after it ever measured up to the way we felt about this place. Dominic agreed that this was the home for us.

• May 25 - I got a text from Dom shortly after school.  I will probably always remember this, because it was the Friday before exams and I was sitting at my desk finishing up the last bits of my exam.  I saw the message at 3:15.  It simply stated, "Got an offer.  Realtor wants us to call him when we get together today." Instantly I broke into tears. It was all happening, and happening so fast. We would soon be moving away from the first house we ever called home, the place where William grew up, took his first steps, and the only place he knows as "home", the place where we poured our blood/sweat/and tears and remodeled almost EVERYTHING, creating our perfectly designed house.  It was a lot to take in at once.  I cried by myself in my classroom for a good 20 minutes before going down the hall just to cry for another 20 minutes while I was making 90 copies of my 16 page exam.  I know that some people will want to attribute this to the fact that I am pregnant, but it's so much more than that. Many of you know that Dom and I hand-designed and remodeled our entire home with the help of his father and some friends. We feel very tied to the home, and it is challenging and emotional to leave it.  
• Later that evening, on our way to home group, we heard the offer from our realtor.  I felt as though it was a slap in the face, but looking back I shouldn't have taken it so personally.  It's a buyer's market and what this guy did was start a conversation that eventually got us to a point of agreement.  We spent the next few days countering with the guy.

• May 29 - We went out looking at homes for the 4th time (we saw about 20 homes total) and saw the house we liked for a 3rd time. We also saw another house that was new to the market on this day. My realtor and I liked it, but Dom wasn't thrilled. It was a lot smaller on the inside, but the backyard was amazing.  They had a long, fenced-in lot with nothing behind it but a field (which knowing Perrysburg will one day become a shopping center or highway).  They also had a sweet glassed-patio, hot tub, amazing landscaping, and an in-ground pool. Yet there were some features in the house that we didn't like as much and like I already mentioned, it was smaller on the inside than the first home we liked. They were asking the same price as the home we liked, so it seemed as though they were trying to recoup some of their "utopian yard" costs.  Ultimately, we ended our day at the home we were still feeling pulled toward and it felt as though we were kicking off our shoes at the end of the day.  We even said, "Honey! I'm home!" as we entered the front door.  This was the home for us. Earlier that evening, our realtor had given us some really great news... the owners of this home had JUST CLOSED on their new home on this exact day.  As my coworker and friend later said to me when I told her I was looking for a sign, "That's not just a sign!  That's a kick AND a push!"  I couldn't agree more.  God had been directing us to this home since the first day we saw it, and this was to be the home for us. To top it off, we signed the sale papers for our current home at the new home's kitchen table that very night.  Things were set in motion.

• May 30 - The following day, we had agreed to the price we wanted to offer on the home we wanted to buy and we put our offer in.  Up until this point, there hadn't been much activity on this home since it was placed up for sale in January.  However, we were getting word from their realtor that there were two more scheduled showings that week on the house and one was a doctor who was currently in Italy.  We wanted to act and act fast, since there was nothing else on the market that compared to this place in our minds and our budgets.  We spent the next couple of days countering with the family.  We had asked for their kitchen table and television console because it perfectly matches their woodwork, but they initially came back and told us that the furniture was NOT for sale. 

June 2012

• June 2nd - We settled on an acceptable price for the new home.  Fortunately for us, it included the kitchen table AND the television console (which we really needed after agreeing to sell our bookshelves that we built as our current entertainment center with our home.)  Furthermore, our final agreement included their LCD television that was sitting on the console, an amp that is in the console which amplifies the speaker system that runs throughout the entire home (owner's brother is an electrical engineer who custom-wired the speakers throughout the home when it was built), and a large armoire and an older-style tv in their basement!  So I would say we made out ok... less furniture to buy which is great since the baby will be coming at the same time as we are closing on this house.

• June 5th - The buyer of our home had our home inspected.  We are now working on three small issues: replacing a missing spring in one of the master bedroom windows, adhering the electric panel to the siding, and spraying for carpenter ants.  Man, I wish I would have sprayed for the ants a month ago.  They have been driving me nuts since it got warm out!  Now I won't get to reap the benefits of the exterminator. 

• June 8th - We did our inspection on our future home.  Their house is 15 years old, so things are starting to come to the end of their life.  There were some minor problems and a couple bigger ones.  The main concern is a piece of flashing that is missing on one of the spots on their roof which has caused water to get into the garage ceiling.  Additional items to be repaired include the sump pump, the electric box outside, and leveling the A/C unit.  

Where We Are Now

• Now we call for repairs, have things repaired, and wait... Please keep your fingers crossed that everything turns out hunky-dory and that we are able to make a smooth transition on June 29th when we are tentatively scheduled to close on both of our homes.  Side note:  We worked it out so that we will have possession of our current home for 30 days after closing, yet we will have possession at either closing or 5 days after for our new home.

Thank you for your support through all of this. It has been an emotional journey, but we are grateful for God's blessings and we look forward to moving on with our lives and raising our children in the home they will always think of as their "childhood home". 

A Top-Secret Sneak Peak of the FUTURE Krupp Family Residence!

Top 5: Top Five Things We'll Miss About the South End

Since we have MOVING on the mind (with our imminent closing date for both the sale of our current home and the purchase of our new home), I thought it would be best to share the top 5 things that each of us will miss about living in the South End. Here they are!

Dom's Top 5 

5. The big trees in our neighborhood (after all we are in a neighborhood named after trees!)

4. The uniquely designed homes.

3. Walbridge Park

2. The Sanchez Family and the closeness of Amber, Jeremy, Mandy, and Tim.

1. The awesome neighborhood to run through and around from our front door.

Lavender's Top 5

5. Our proximity to Monnette's Market, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library System, Walbridge Park, and three amazing ice cream places - Lickity Split, Toozers, and Penguin Palace!

4. The sound of the motorcycles on the Anthony Wayne Trail in the summertime and the sounds of relative city-silence every other night.

3. The unique designs of the homes, gardens, and flowers in our neighborhood.

2. Living in the "14". I've been in the South End since the late summer of 2003... almost 9 years!

1. Our proximity to Amber & Jeremy and Mandy & Tim... :-/

William's Top 5

5. The firetruck at Kroger (however, I think there may be one in Perrysburg too!)

4. Our proximity to both Chuck E. Cheese and the "Giraffe Store" aka Toys R Us (even though we have only ever taken him to these places TWICE each!)

3. "Joel's House"

2. Walking around the neighborhood, picking up sticks.

1. Beverly Park within walkable distance!

Baby's Top 5

1. He or she

2. won't

3. miss

4. anything.

5. Yet at the same time, he or she will miss everything.