Time

I feel like my whole world right now revolves around this one word: Time.  Not only am I a mommy and a wife but I am a daughter, sister, friend, pet owner, co-worker, neighbor and a-work-in-progress-gym-member too. Dividing up all this time right now without taking away from my number one priority of my own family is tough. I know that they say when you become a mom your whole life changes and I am still struggling with the fact that it really is true. You don’t realize it until you really do become one. I’m not knocking the mommyhood because I absolute love it! I think being a mom was defintitely part of God’s plan for me. I guess I’m just in this whole adjusting period still and I’m sure that this whole Time thing will continue to become a challenge to me.  Right now, Sean is studying for the Lieutenant’s exam that he will be taking in April and we now have this ginormous house project to take care of by next month. Packing. Boxes. Getting rid of stuff. Labeling. Stacking. We have decided to rent instead of jumping into another mortgage payment. Plus the idea of trying to find a house in the next month was terrifying for me all because I wouldn’t have Time. I think Time has actually helped make this decision for us because we would have to haul up to the areas in Fort Lauderdale which is about 45 min away from our house now and try and find that perfect house that Sean and I will grow old together in.  So deciding on renting in the area we live in now gives me so much relief.  I don’t have to find another day care center for Hunter because the one he is at now is working out so well for him! I love all of his teachers and the day care director.  They have helped me in so many ways with Hunter. I can’t imagine taking him out of there when he has only been there for about a month and a half. Plus we would be moving our stuff like a mile or two away from our house instead of 45 miles. I know it’s the same, putting it in a truck and driving but to me, for some reason feels like more of a burden. Haha. We looked at 5 or 6 houses (can’t remember) this past Saturday and we found one house that could work but would like to look at a few more.  We need space for us to store our boat, I do not want a house with steps (for Hunter’s sake), needs to have a tub (for some reason we looked a house that only had stand-up showers), needs a garage to fill all of our crap in, needs to be at least a 3 bedroom, 2 bath and around 1800 square feet, would prefer to not be in a neighborhood that requires association fees (it’s a long story) and obviously a nice clean home. I know that we will not be in our dream home but we will find something that will be close enough for us to rent for another year and in the meantime we will continue to look for that perfect area where we want to live.  So right now, I need for Time to be on my side. I'll let you guys know when I have it mastered. =)

I love sticking my tongue out at my daddy!

I always make Time for my little guy!

My 5 month old

Day care told us this past week that Hunter did not take a nap at all from the time I drop him off around 7 am until his daddy picks him up around 3 pm.  They also told me that he hasn't been eating a whole lot during the day when he is there.  I usually leave either 4 or 5 - 4 oz bottles for him and this past Thursday he only drank 2 bottles and yesterday he didn't drink any until Sean went to pick him up at 1 pm.  So yesterday morning, the last time that I fed him was at 4 am and I did not feed him before I left the house to drop him off because he was sleeping so good and figured when he got to day care I'll just tell them that he should eat pretty soon.  Sure enough, I get a call at work around 10 am from the director telling me that Hunter hasn't eaten at all yet. My first reaction to this was, he's not hungry and he ate very well the night before with me like he usually does. So I asked her to let me know if he hasn't eaten by lunchtime because that would raise a concern for me that at that point he would not have eaten for 8 hours. Of course, she called me at that time and I called Sean to go get him and try and feed him at home and of course he sucked down 2 bottles in a row (he did this the other day and Hunter did the same thing). Then he took him to our Pediatrician to make sure he doesn't have an ear infection or anything. After the Pediatrician analyzed Hunter every which way, he told Sean that he is perfectly healthy and there is nothing wrong with him...haha! He said that Hunter is just a busy little boy and that he seems to be very distracted at day care with all of the new stuff to explore now that he is becoming a lot more aware of his surroundings and recognizes things. While Sean was there he was able to weigh him and he weighed 15 lbs! At his 4 month appointment he weighed almost 14. Hunter is definitely not losing any weight from not eating! So that was some reassurance. He is getting to be so mobile now. He rolls all over the place! He rolls continuously on his play mats. I have to really watch him now so that he doesn't roll onto the tile floor.  He also rolls all over in his crib when its time to sleep. He's so tired when I put him down and then he realizes, oh wait, I can practice rolling around on this surface right before I need to sleep for the night. So every night that is what he does in his crib for about 5 minutes and then passes out in some crazy position that I have to adjust him a little after he passes out. He's so silly. 

"Look at me sitting up!"

Me and Daddy singing along with the "Giggle Bellies" before bedtime.

Nuestra Casa

Translation: "Our House".  So, Our House has been officially sold. We agreed to enter into a short sale and recently received approval from our lender. If you aren't too familiar with what a short sale is its basically in a nutsell, selling your house for only the value of what its worth to avoid going into a foreclosure which this wasn't quite what Sean and I were going through.  We were unable to re-finance or modify our loan because our income exceeded the percentage of the value of our property.  Our mortgage rate was a 7.5% (which is super high) and we tried so hard to work with our lender to try and modify this rate and the only way that they would lower our mortgage payment or adjust our rate was if we were to show that we were going through a hardship. In a way we were, I was going to be out on maternity leave for 4 months and after 2 months of being paid by my firm, that meant that Sean was to cover everything. Which not sure if any of you are aware, its super expensive to live here in Miami compared to living in Charlotte for so long. We live south toward the Florida Keys but its still expensive. I'm not afraid to say this but yes, we were paying an $1800 mortgage payment on a less than 1700 square foot house.  I could see if were were living in a 3,400 square foot house to pay this but as you can see we started to realize especially since we were about to have a family that we wanted a little more for our money. So this is how we got to where we are today. We are so relieved too! We are told that we have to close on our house by March 19 so right now we are starting to get a little antsy to figure out where we are going to go.  We had already planned on moving to Fort Lauderdale (Broward Co) and pretty much know the areas where we would like to live.  I talked to our real estate agent and asked her to go ahead and line us up a lot of houses for next weekend when we plan on looking.  Just typing this email is making me worn out from all the things that we need to do to prepare to move but we will get through it. We have lots of friends and some help from Sean's family that we will help make this move as smooth as possible.  I'm sure Hunter is going to have lots of fun hearing all the tape and boxes being packed so he will be entertained through this too.  The next month or so we are going to be so busy! We have lived here for 5 years now and it will be sad to see it go but it will make our lives with Hunter more manageable.

Bye house...

Little Man, Hunter

This week, Hunter and I have not been feeling so great. It all started when Hunter got a reaction from his 4 month shots at his appointment and got a fever.  Then it lead to him sneezing and coughing and then of course, Mommy got it. Plus, not to mention that everyone in my office was sick. So this week has been pretty miserable.  This is Hunter's second cold so at least I knew what to expect. His first one he got when he was 4 weeks old and when they are that little you can't even give them baby Tylenol so this time I was able to give it to him along with some saline drops and that thing that sucks the snot out (forgot what thats called).  As of now, we're both feeling better but still congested and should feel 100% in the next few days.

Also, this week we both hit a milestone of our own!  Hunter now is sleeping in his own room in his crib! I was finally ready and I knew he was pretty much ready for this so we did it!  I wasn't getting much sleep with him in our room with his sneezing and coughing and I definitely wasn't getting any better without any sleep so I knew it was time. So far he has done pretty good. I think that he is used to me being "right" there like I was in the bedroom and I am guilty of consoling him right away when he cries but now that he is a little farther I know the difference between his real cry and his fake cry. Yes, he has this fake cry that he has been doing for awhile now.  I guess he knows how to "work" his mommy.  Haha. I just can't resist his cute little face when he cries (fake or not).  Anyway, he is starting to realize that the fake cry doesn't work so much anymore.

Tired little man.