Seven months! I feel like I cannot begin to express how unbelievably quickly this month flew by! Something about moving from Jessup to Silver Spring, spending five days in San Francisco and oh yeah - working full time and raising an incredibly active little girl and two fur babies....busy is an understatement! Good grief.
Many more big leaps this month for miss Hannah! And many changes for us too! It has been a VERY VERY VERY busy month...but so crazy and so full of lots of "seriously?!" moments that I can't help but to share our saga. We've mainly been laughing through it all...but nothing has been easy or simple at all. Lots of twists and turns...and yet we are really trying to keep it in perspective - it is all stuff that makes things harder, but overall we are happy and healthy and doing very well and in the end - that's what matters!
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| Our new home! (Renting a cute place in Silver Spring) |
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| Dining Room |
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| Living Room |
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| Back deck and yard |
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| back yard (the puppies love it!) |
The weekend of the 20th we picked up our keys to the new rental in Silver
Spring - a very cute and cozy single family home that is perfectly placed across the street from the Sligo Park trail system. We spent several hours mopping and wiping and cleaning and measuring to see how we would fit furniture on move in day. Over the weekend we took five carloads of various loose/breakable items down - things like picture frames, dishes, glassware, etc. Stuff that is a total pain to pack well enough that it can go in a moving truck. During the week we spent several nights packing up the different rooms of our house and on Thursday I met the gas guy to turn on the line (yay for having hot water when we move in!), we took two more loads down and spent the evening setting in even more, ordered delivery and worked until about 7ish and headed back up to Jessup to get Hannah to bed. Overall it was going well - we were exhausted, but making progress. And Friday night we dismantled whatever we had left, packed up, etc.
Everything that we anticipated could be a challenge on the following Saturday was. Anything that could go wrong did. And things that we never anticipated...also went wrong. It was a rough rough rough day. On move-day-eve I left work a little early, picked Hannah up for her six month checkup, and took her too the pediatrician. (Yes, I brilliantly let her get vaccinations just in time for big move weekend. Sigh, I knew it would be challenging, but I had scheduled the late Friday afternoon appointment months in advance! I had tried!). That evening at dinner time I noticed that she had tiny little hard white nubbins breaking through (with a lot more teeth to still rip their way through). Yes. My poor child was recently vaccinated, teething, and we were moving the next day. Omg. I had also come home to discover that Holly was so stressed from all the packing that she had nibbled and nibbled on the carpet. Great. More damage to either try to fix ourselves or pay extensively for. Super great.
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| Daniel's first load to bring in the house. Priorities. |
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| Mopping so she can crawl around. |
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| Cute little home! |
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| Kitchen |
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| Hannah's playroom |
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| Bedroom |
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| Hannah's room |
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| Basement storage...that we can only somewhat use :-/ |
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| See? There was a lot of space!!! |
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| Dinner in on Thursday, the pups came to check out our new place too! |
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| One of Hannah's last meals in our town home - soon to realize that surprise! She's teething! |
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| Holly on moving day - NOT happy. She was a nervous wreck! :( |
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| Meredith helping to deconstruct the bed |
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| Stephanie playing with Hannah |
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| Chance climbed in the moving truck while we were loading and refused to move |
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| Ahhhhh. Second truckload - all the misfit items. |
Once we hit midnight and headed into moving day (which I would just like to note is the exact year to the day that was our big move day from Florida the previous year!) all hell broke loose in the Hals' household. Around 1 am Hannah was up and extra distressed...the teeth were working their way in. Holly started having diarrhea (which is what happens when you nibble carpet) and wanted to go out constantly...and as of 1 am Daniel and I barely slept a wink. Daniel took care of Holly and I was on Hannah duty. It was brutal. At 5 am we both admitted defeat and started tackling last minute projects and packing around the house. At 6 Daniel hit up dunkin donuts for our breakfasts and at 7 he headed out to pick up the moving truck.
When Daniel pulled up to the truck rental company, which was conveniently five minutes up the road...it was closed. Huh? He pulled up his phone and scrolled down on the confirmation email only to discover that they had bounced him to ANNAPOLIS in the final confirmation. seriously?! The day just continued to be downhill from there. Our stuff took two full trips - and all kinds of things that we thought would fit in the new place wouldn't. (We had paid by the mile too) The opening to the finished basement had a door that was only 2.5 feet wide and the big standard size door that led from the basement to the outside had a porch built over it and only three feet of clearance. AH. We ended up having to store things in the shed and had a pile of furniture on the back porch that we simply had to throw out because we couldn't get them into the massive storage space we had in the basement.
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| Happy Hannah on our first morning in our new home - investigating her new surroundings! |
We didn't throw away any of our "big furniture purchases" - like the master bedroom furniture or our beloved leather couches...but it was all the other small stuff. The guest bedroom box springs (queen size) honestly wouldn't even fit down the stairs to go into the basement. We had to get rid of our washer and dryer (Which have steadily been dying, we've had them for almost 9 years...but still worked) As the list piled up so did my blood pressure and internal fury. We didn't throw out things that were our top loves and I tried not to be materialistic and over focused on "stuff" but...it was incredibly frustrating to have rented a place with extensive storage so we would have options when we find where we really want to live for good - only to not be able to use the storage space for half the things we wanted. It's insane. I contacted our landlord and asked him how they got the washer and dryer downstairs and he said "Good question. I can't remember". *Eye roll*
In the end - our friends were AMAZING. And I feel like we will owe them forever. As Daniel returned the truck, we assembled the crib and I managed to find the essentials necessary to be able to shower and get ready for bed. Because Hannah had been so clingy and miserable I hadn't gotten to direct traffic as things rolled in so everything was scattered across three floors and most things were not in the right room. I ended up taking a personal day mid week to do some major damage control - which helped - but even now we still aren't remotely close to done. The next weekend we went to San Francisco and then for the next ten days Hannah would not let me put her down. Ever. So much for unpacking!
Sunday morning we got up and had to go to the town home to do some last minute things to get as much of our security deposit back as we could. Daniel and I tried to prioritize it in terms of - every thing that we do saves us 100 - 300 dollars. Steam cleaning ourselves? Saved $300 (minus the expense of renting it...which was faaar less). Cleaning the oven? (which I had run earlier in the week but hadn't finished up/wiped out) at least $100. Wiping out the fridge? At least $100. Patching the carpets like a ninja? A ton of money. We were absolutely and utterly exhausted....but we made it. We left the town home for good, ready for Daniel to do a walkthrough the next afternoon to check us out.
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| Ready to roll! Bright and early - have my little bag of toys and tricks ready for Hannah |
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| Enjoying our time on the plane! I was honestly really excited to just have time to snuggle and catch up with her! Thankfully, she was too! :) |
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| Daddy entertaining Hannah during the taxi ride |
The next week was a blur of trying to unpack - I took a sick day mid week to get us up to a far more functional level (and definitely did) and did about seven loads of laundry through the day. We met with my friend who was going to house sit on Thursday and Friday evening I finished packing for San Francisco! We got up super early Saturday morning and headed onto the airport! Hannah did great on the flight - it really wasn't a bad one. Long, but not too bad and before we knew it we were ravenous and taking a taxi from Oakland to downtown San Fran. (The one downside was that even though we had pre-checked and were ready to roll, Southwest required us to get in the super crazy long line with Hannah to register her as an infant in arms...an option that you HAVE to do at the airport...I could not do it on line in advance). What's the most awesome thing to do with a family and a baby - require them to get in the longest line possible. All the extra time we had to get...BREAKFAST considering would be traveling and missing LUNCH as well... yep. Gone. Thanks Southwest. And they don't serve anything more than pretzels and chips on the planes anymore. Fantastic. We boarded the plane for our five and a half hour flight feeling ravenous and rushed even though we had initially had plenty of time. Sigh.
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| Our hotel the first night (this was the one that was in our budget)...we dubbed it "the postage stamp" |
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| Some steep hills! |
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| So steep in fact that the stroller could not just roll "flat" - for Hannah to stay flat enough Daniel had to tip it like this. I also held the stroller on one of these hills and had a mini panic attack as I realized how fatal it would be to let go of the stroller! |
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| Hannah clinging for dear life...she was actually totally chill about it. |
So we reached San Francisco and finally enjoyed a delicious meal. Hannah put up with us eating most of it and from there we were off to explore the city and work our calf muscles as we made it up and down the freakishly steep and amazing hills. San Fran? Loved it. So fun and quirky and beautiful and unique. A very amazing and awesome city! We spent Saturday exploring. We won't talk about dinner - it was already past Hannah's bedtime (east coast baby) and even though she was thoroughly konked out and sleeping in the stroller the second we went into a restaurant (still pretty ravenous) and placed our order all hell broke loose and we had one of *those* nights in which only one person could eat inside the restaurant at a time. It was one of the worst meals we have ever had with her.
Sunday morning we enjoyed an AMAZING breakfast and Hannah happily watched people along the streets and was a great great baby. After that we checked out of our hotel and rented a car and were off to explore! Once we realized that the curvy part of Lombardy street was on the way to see the Redwoods in Muir Woods we couldn't resist. We detoured and enjoyed the super-touristy street and enjoyed the gorgeous views from the hill as we meandered down. I had wanted to visit Alcatraz, but when I had gone online to book tickets everything was already sold out. What I had not realized about this city was how amazing and mysterious the fog can be! I knew there were references to San Fran and fog...but I had never really understood them until I saw the fog rolling through as if there was a cloud that had gotten lost. One wrapped itself around Alcatraz for a while, another draped itself around the bridge as we approached - what amazing natural beauty! The European Romantics would have loved this place!
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| omg. This is pretty much food porn. |
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| Hannah enjoying her views at breakfast - she very happily people watched and hung out |
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| View from Lombardy Street - we rented a car and pass Lombardy on the way to Muir woods...so really, who could possibly pass up a detour |
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| Lots of tourists! When you drove on the hills there was often a "blind" moment as the car turned downward when you couldn't actually see what was below you - it was all that steep! |
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| Embracing the totally touristy thing to do... |
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| Daniel was having fun |
We drove across the Golden Gate bridge and stopped at the park for pictures while it was half cloaked in fog. Then we headed down to Sausalito for lunch and enjoyed a delicious meal by the water. And finally, we made it to the peaceful, mysterious quiet of Muir Woods and found ourselves amongst the hush of the redwoods. You know who wasn't quiet? Hannah. She had connected blowing raspberries as being her way of requesting attention and as we walked along the trails with her facing outwards in the ergo 360 she blew raspberries at each person we passed. (And then broke into a heart melting grin if the person obliged her with a smile). It was awesome.
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| Golden Gate draped in fog! Really beautiful! |
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| Our family in Sausalito |
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| Hannah loves sitting this way. My hair does not. |
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| I love this picture :) |
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| And this one!! She really liked traveling around like this! |
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| Majestic, mystical, Muir Woods |
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| Hannah sees the redwoods at 6.5 months! |
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| Her throat was parched too! (Dryer atmosphere than we are used to) - taking a quick sip from my water bottle |
When we returned we checked into the hotel (Daniel dropped Hannah and me and all our luggage off at the hotel and returned the car). The conference was in the nicest and by far swankiest place we have ever stayed - The Fairmont San Fran. ...It was gorgeous and amazing! I cannot tell you how amazing it was to be sent out here by my new job - and the fact that my husband and baby flew out with me and Daniel watched Hannah while I was at the conference? I felt like super woman. So awesome! The conference was really awesome too! So well done and thought out (all designed by educators for educators and thus...excellent). It was really affirming to feel like I was on the right track at my school and to feel like I was working in the right direction - and it was really amazing to be surrounded by so many like minded passionate educators who were all so focused on technology integration. One of my edtech heroes also gave the keynote address - which from a total geek perspective was beyond exciting.
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| The hotel for the conference - Daniel's "throne" desk |
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| Much better than the "postage stamp!"!! |
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| View from one of our windows! :) |
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| View from the top of the hotel - we had this view for breakfast and lunch both days of the conference!!! Amazing! |
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| View from the top of the hotel - we had this view for breakfast and lunch both days of the conference!!! Amazing! |
And Daniel spent the time watching Hannah! They went for a lot of walks! The downside? Our child who had happily started consuming solids and had benefited so much from the extra food and calories decided that she just didn't feel like eating solids that week. So she was extra dependent on me for milk and we didn't have a deep milk stash with us like we would if we were at home. (Actually our milk stash isn't deep at all anyway...but Daniel would have had more options). ...He even had to cave and give her five ounces of formula emergently. (Yep. It unavoidably happened). So poor Daniel had an especially prone to fussiness Hannah on his hands as she was just on the edge of having enough food all the time. I had spent hours before we left town making all of her fresh baby food too - so it was super frustrating that she suddenly decided she didn't feel like having any). Other than that and the fact that at times she was still having some teething pain, it went pretty well. But evenings were a disaster because she was still partly on east coast time, we could never eat out, and we had all kinds of snafus with delivery. ...One night we didn't eat until 9:30 at night Pacific time. It was bad. I will also mention that the rest of the conference attendees were attending all inclusive dinners with unending wine glasses at the one of the best steak houses in San Fran. :-/ It was a bummer to miss.
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| When daddy puts Hannah down for a nap... |
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| When daddy watches Hannah for two days! (There was a crazy square light around our mirror that made you look crazy when you looked in the mirror) |
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| Exploring San Fran as a "trophy dad" - this was Daniel's view... |
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| This was Hannah's take on it...haha |
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| More of Daniel's views |
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| Daddy and Hannah enjoying the city! |
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| Adorable daddy-daughter lunch date! |
But on the positive side - Daniel really enjoyed walking around San Francisco and did a lot of extra site seeing with the Hannahs. Overall she was happiest when they were out and moving, so they did lots of that. When we flew home we had a layover in the Midway airport that went horribly awry. We landed and found out we had a four hour delay (due to the flight control fire that was initiated by a disgruntled employee from...Daniel's old company! When we heard that we knew exactly why he was disgruntled!) We had gate checked the stroller through to Baltimore and had to beg and plead to get it back for the layover (thankfully they were able to get it for us. SO SO thankful!). Normally a layover wouldn't be that bad...but at this point Hannah is crawling. ...You just can't really crawl around in an airport. ...particularly a potentially Ebola laden airport (haha...but seriously...that was just prominently in the news in the days prior...low risk yes...but in the back of you mind...also yes...how could it not be?) Sadly all she wanted to do was crawl around. We couldn't let her on the airplane, now we couldn't let her in the airport...she was antsy and fussy and not happy. For four extra hours. And Daniel had just watched her for two straight days so understandably...it was much more "my turn". We survived. But it was a rough afternoon. Additionally just to rub salt in our wounded experience - two weeks later we got a phone call. During the extra hours of our layover we understandably had spent money at several different restaurants or shops and...someone had stolen our credit card info and run up at least a thousand dollars in charges in Chicago. Yep. This layover limbo lingered on and came back to haunt us once more!
Instead of getting in at 5ish we got home by about 10 with very antsy dogs awaiting our arrival. Things had gone well with the dog sitter, but they were very ready for us to come home! It was a grueling week as we battled the time change, had no food in our kitchen, and had an adjusting Hannah...and a not fully unpacked/settled house.
It's been a tough month.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of Month Seven and more about how Miss Hannah is doing!
1 comment:
Sounds rough, but your new house is super cute. :) And of course, so is Hannah. As always.
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