Dear Maya

Dear Maya,

You are now almost 11 months old. You, for the most part,  are quite the chipper little nugget. You are also, however, quite the firecracker. You don't like to wait for things, you don't like to be left alone in a room (don't get ahead of yourself here, no one goes leaving you in a room for more than a min or so at a time unless it's bed time, in which case, you hate that too), you FLIP out if I am not with you 123% of the time, until only very recently you hated sleeping, you love table food (sausage, hot dogs, meatballs and bananas are your fave), and you're a comedian (you love to make us laugh). You are also VERY brave - nothing scares you and I've had to catch you by your ankles a number of times to prevent you from landing square on your head after attempts at swan diving off my lap, chairs, your changing table, you name it.

You started crawling when you were about 9 months old and you are hitting top speeds now. You can move fast girl, and you've also recently discovered that you can pull yourself up to standing and scale the couch and your toy bin. It'll only be a matter of time before you start walking and then we're really in trouble. Oh, and you have your two bottom chompers - those suckers took a long time to come in, but made their appearance just before 9 months.

A few words you can say - duck, yeah, hi, bye. Duck just happens to be your first word. You have a stuffed yellow duck that you sort of stole from your big sis, and you LOVE it. If someone shows it to you from across the room you'll attempt a superman launch to get to it. It's so funny to hear you say, "Duck, Duck, Duck".

You have proven to be pretty high maintenance too - you have eczema on your cheeks and your poor thing it drives you nuts. :( We have tried everything and I think the only thing that will really help is summer - we're close, but I'm getting sick of waiting, and so are you and your sis. I've discovered that you have reflux, so we've got you on Zantac to help with your eating and sleeping habits. It has made a world of a difference for us and I'm relieved because little baby, you had a ROUGH go at sleeping, let me tell you!!!

You're quite the peanut compared to your big sis at this same age. You're weighing in at just over 19lbs now, and I believe your sis was at least 10lbs heavier at the same age. Figures - so far, you two couldn't possibly be more different than each other (personality wise mostly). You sure do look like Layla did though (less a few lbs)!!

Smalls, as we call you, I love you. When you look at this blog when you're older and ask why there are so many gaps in posts since you've been born, I'll explain it all to you. For now, just know we love you to the moon and back and are so happy to have you and your sis as our daughters!!

Love you,
"Mum mum mum"

Sunday (or Wednesday) Post

No, I'm not claiming to have my own periodical (is that what people used to call newspapers?). I am however, making an attempt at making regular posts to our blog to continue capturing wonderful pictures and videos of our continuously growing and changing girls. My wonderful sis-in-law proposed the idea over Thanksgiving (thank goodness for teachers). I can commit to a weekly post, every Sunday, right?? [I started typing this post on Sunday, and was interrupted as moms always are... it's now Wednesday and I'm just returning to it.] By Sunday, I've had a break from the computer that I can't escape during the work week, and am a tad less put off by the idea of entering my user name and password - even when it's not for work I sometimes shutter at the idea - since computers run my life Mon - Thurs.

Today, I'll share a few of the latest happenings from our little Miss Maya, who is now 7 months (and then some) old... Recently, lil miss had her 6 mo checkup (a tad late, as she was 7 months at the actual appointment). She weighed in at 18lbs. Interesting fact: her big sister was weighing in at 22lbs at 6 months. Oooofda!

Maya is sitting up now... although she's a bit wobbly and would rather roll onto her side and take a spin around the house by continuously rolling. She prefers to roll to her left - we have to force her to roll to her right. Perhaps an indication of another South Paw for the Sherman family?

We just recently started referring to Maya as "Worm" because she's always wiggling, kicking, dancing, shaking, or bouncing. If she's awake, she's kicking and bouncing. It's pretty funny to watch, but a little exhausting at times... It's like holding an 18lb bobber at all times.

Another fun little thing Maya does is growl. No really. She growls. She kind of sounds like a Gremlin after midnight. She thinks it's pretty darn funny too. If we growl at her, she'll growl right back. I guess she prefers it over just cooing, like a "normal" baby would.

She has started to hold her own bottle (actually started a while ago), but only does it on her own terms. If she doesn't feel up to it, she's not doing it. And when she does feel up to it, she has a dead lock on that bottle!!!

With the help of my wonderful husband, we've started to let Maya cry it out at night... And, it seems to be working. The little miss is quite the sassy one and tends to wake up just to chat, yell, or demand food she doesn't need. We've gone from being up 3-4 times a night to 1-2. That's progress, right?!

Little Miss Maya (aka, Worm), we love you so much. Thanks for always making us laugh, even when we're exhausted and praying for peace and quiet. You're already a spunky, independent, and determined, and we love that about you.

xoxo,
Mumsie

Maya Diane

Over this past weekend, I spent some time looking back at our blog, and was so happy to have all of the pictures, stories, and videos of our little Layla girl from the time she was sent to us from Heaven. The videos were my favorite, so get ready Maya, I'll be shouting, "Action!" at you quite often in the coming weeks, months, and years. I've got a good number of pictures and videos stacked up already, and I'll be adding those slowly but surely to the blog.

I thought today I'd start with pictures of you from before you even joined made your big debut... and added some of my favorites from your newborn shot. Those were taken when you were just ten days old. The day was cold and rainy, and you were not a very happy camper, since you were having some trouble making a good old fashioned poop. But eventually, you fell asleep, and you were a peach for the remainder of the shoot. I'm so happy we did this, and one of these days soon, I'll be ordering some of these wonderful photos of you to add to frames for your bedroom!! 

Let's not forget to add your stats to this post either... I'm having a blast going back and comparing you to your sister. So far, your big sis seems to be the ribbon winner as far as weight goes (even though you weighed more than she did when she was born)!

Maya Diane Sherman

Born April 16, 2012

8 lbs, 4oz (your sis was 8lbs, 2oz)

20 inches (your sis was 22 inches)

 My first picture with lil' Miss Maya.

Our first family picture with the four of us. :)

 Baby girl sleeping soundly.

 Even while sleeping, you smile.

 All snuggled up.

 Zzzzzzz...

 Your first picture with your big sister! She is so proud of you, Maya!

Our little peanut. :)

Technology curse

See! See what happens when I try to commit to using technology!? It back fires on me - every time. Every God Damn time! I think it might be blogger that's cursing me. Every time I revisit it, shit hits the fan.

It's 11:18 a.m. and I've been trying to connect to my work network for work since 8:30. Here I sit, watching the clock tick, tick, tick, with no access and I'm unable to work because although I work for a GIANT finnancial corporation, we cannot get our SHIT together to form a solid technology support system. Can you believe that I was rerouted SIX times this a.m., only to land with someone who's solution was submitting a "help ticket" for me? That ticket was submitted almost two hours ago and I haven't heard a peep from anyone. I called to check the status of it and all they could tell me was that no one had picked the ticket up yet.

You know what I'd like to know? I'd like to know why the hell I can't do my job the way our I.T. group does (or should I say doesn't) do theirs. You know, something like this: "Hi, I work in I.T. I don't really know how to solve your problem, so I'm just going to Google it for you, even though I know you could do that yourself. After that doesn't work, I'll tell you to call some number that I've never tried myself, and the rep on that line will tell you to call another, and the process will repeat itself six to twelve times. After that, we'll tell you that we really care, pretend to sub what we refer to as a 'ticket' just to get you off our ass for a few hours, and when you finally call back a few times to see what's going on, we'll tell you we can't fix it unless you go to your nearest branch to use their network and maybe then we'll fix it for you, but probably not. At that point, you'll have to make the hour and ten minute commute to your office to resolve the issue, where you'll talk to a rep who tells you your computer has been obliterated by a corrupt file and we'll need you to send it to Minnesota. Minnesota will keep your laptop for a week, send it back, it still won't be fixed, and then you'll have to send it back again. Hopefully once the issue is actually 'resolved' you haven't lost your job for being unavailable and / or for this very blog post."

Cripes. What a JOKE.

Just sayin'. Maybe later I'll post with an update on the kids and some pictures for you visual learners. For now, I needed to vent.

Yep, we're still kickin'!

Yeah, yeah. I know. I haven't posted since February. That was seven months ago. My second daughter wasn't even born yet at that time. We were in the midst of a negotiations battle on what is now our new home and I was one very preggo, very crabby mommy.

And here we are today. Mid-September. With two daughters - one five year old and one five month old. Miss Maya joined us ten days early on April 16, 2012, weighing in at a healthy 8.2lbs and measuring 21 inches long. Oh dear Maya, I owe you a lot of the spotlight space on this blog. I will catch up, I promise.

I'm terrible at this blog thing. And with actually doing something w/the hundreds of pictures that I take. I'm also what I like to refer to as a "technology destroyer" - any time I even attempt to put my photos to use on the blog, good old "Bragbook" as Jake refers to it, or even Shutterfly, I'm come dangerously close to causing an all out nuclear melt down. I'm sure most of that can be attributed to my lack of tech skills, but also to my short temper. If something doesn't work within 3-5 seconds on my computer, I am DONE.

I'm going to try to turn over a new leaf. No promises (except the one above I just made to my baby girl). Just my best effort. :)

What are your thoughts on putting this blog out there for all to see vs. password protecting or only adding users that I want to be able to view? Do you think that putting your kids pictures out there for potentially anyone and everyone to see is dangerous? Could I be putting myself at risk of losing my job if I bitch about it in this space (the way Dooce lost hers)? I want to be able to say whatever the hell it is I'm thinking in this space. That's one of my passions about writing. And I think I shied away from blogging for a while after I had brain surgery because I knew that my audience had doubled, maybe even tripled, because people wanted to be kept up to speed on my recovery. Knowing that so many have our blog site saved, I wonder if I need to put this sucker on lock down so only friends and family can see. I know that sometimes that makes it a bit more difficult for you all to access, but I'll do my best (by calling my bestie Theresa for tech time) to be sure it's as streamlined and simple as possible for all to access, while still keeping my job in place and preventing any potential danger for my girls.

Do discuss.

Layla

I'm just titling this post "Layla" because I want it to be all about her. I'm so proud of her and how she has handled all the recent chaos in our lives with showing the house and with so many trips to Plymouth to see the new house, meet with the bank, etc. We've been doing our best to keep things as normal as possible around here, with "fun time" at night after school and all that jazz, but weekends have been slightly busy with constant cleaning and staging. And it has to be odd to a 4 year old to constantly be marching strange, unfamiliar families through your house, from top to bottom. Although, I think Layla kind of likes doing that and is very proud when we get to her room and her play room. She even made a friend during one of the showings recently, with the daughter of the family we chose to be our tenants.

Yes, our tenants. We've found a wonderful, kind, honest family to rent from us and have finalized everything as of Sunday. If all goes as planned with closing on the new house, we'll likely move mid-late May and the neighbors we've known for 7 years in Hartford will have a new family to get to know and love (and smother with questions, cookies, and inquisitions). ;)

Below are just a few random pictures from the last month or so of "fun time" with Layla. Since we're pinching pennies these days in anticipation of closing costs for the refinance, moving expenses, items we'll need for the new house, new baby, you name it, most of our "fun time" is spent doing things that are free. But, still fun. Over Jake's spring break, we plan to hit up Blue Harbor resort for some water park fun - Layla is very excited. Mom is too, although I'll be dodging the camera at all costs. No one needs to see this in a maternity suit, that's for sure.

Oh, and before you start looking at the pictures, I thought I'd also share a few of Layla's recent "funnies":

L: "Mom, I feel crushed like a paper ball."
M: "I'm sorry to hear that honey." (Because she says it all the time lately.)
L: "Mom! When I say that you're supposed to tell me to come get some snuggles!"

Last night, when dad called to give his ETA, Layla asked if she could talk to him. Here's how it went:

L:What's up dad? I heard you want to wrestle me when you get home."
D: "Oh yeah? I'd be up for that."
L: "Yep. Right away. Don't even stop to go potty before you come to the living room to wrestle."

When putting Layla to bed last night, I told her to do her best with sleeping all night and that mommy was pooped so if she needed anything, she should ask daddy.

L: "But mommy, do you know why I always wake you up and not daddy?"
M: "Why?"
L: "Because you work from home three days a week and you always rub my back."

 My future accountant ... Working hard and creating receipts for me.

 Last week at dance class. She had just woken up from a nap and was NOT happy about being in class. She didn't really participate until the last 15 min of class.

 Adorable morning picture... She had just woken up and wanted to send daddy a "Happy Birthday" text message and picture.

 Dress rehearsal for dance. Fancy!!

 I just love this pose. She was feeling very fancy and was very excited to have daddy at rehearsal!

 When are we going to start??? (She has a tattoo on her face from a recent Valentine's Day party, btw.)

 Pooped after helping daddy shovel the deck.

 Suuuper pooped.

 Happy Valentine's Day!!

 Picture of my three babies, left to right - Layla, baby Sherman #2, and Hudson. :)

Making Valentine's Day cupcakes!!

Next up for the Sherman's: Finish home refinance, close on new house, start packing, baby arrival prep, belly pics, spring break. Whew.

House of Cards

Jake referred to our current situation with us buying the new house, renting our existing house, refinancing the existing house, having a baby and moving, as a "house of cards" last night. I thought it was the perfect analogy.

As usual, whenever something "big" happens for us, about two to three other big things just to happen to be taking place at the same time. And for us, it hasn't been easy things like winning the lottery and watching our bank account overflow, while winning a new car and having all of our debt cleared by winning some random sweepstakes. It's more so a barrage of big events happening all at once because we've worked our faces off to make the events happen, and they just so happen to be occurring, finally, all at once.

Needless to say, we're busy as shit and our heads are spinning. I honestly haven't really had a clue as to what day it is in weeks. At work, I had a pretty big campaign launch yesterday and someone mentioned it to me and it caught me totally off guard. "Shit! That did launch today didn't it!?" Glad I had all my ducks in a row for that launch in advance, and that the only thing I dropped the ball on was actually remembering that it was live.

So, the latest in our house of cards has been making our refinance on the Hartford house happen, and finding renters. Let's start with the refinance. Thankfully, we're working with Wells Fargo, and our mortgage guy is the same guy we worked with to buy the Hartford house 7 years ago, and, is someone I worked with about 8 years ago. So, he's "cool" and is someone I can be very frank with. Let's just say a few of our conversations have included some "hurry up" messages from me (poor guy). What needs to happen is this:  we need to complete the refi on the Hartford house before we complete the financing on the new house. That way, we won't have to bring anything to closing on the new house, since our current mortgage payment on what will eventually be referred to as our "income property" will go down. We haven't been given a firm date on when that refinance needs to be complete, thankfully. It's only been said that it needs to happen "asap". Uh, okay. So, once that happens, we'll finalize the financing on the new home, and from there, the seller has asked that she be given 60 days until we formally close. She has renters in the house and wants to give them ample time to vacate. So, as far as the refinance goes, we're in "hurry up and wait" mode now, and are at the mercy of the lovely processing folks at Wells.

Next, let's talk about finding renters. As many of you know, we've posted our rental ad on Craigslist. We have raised the rent by about $300 since the last time we went through this process and at first I thought that may have weeded out the "riff raff" in terms of the responders we were getting. I suppose, in a way, it has, but what we're seeing now is a good number of people who can afford to pay what we're asking (which, by the way, is likely more than it would be if someone just bought the home and paid the monthly mortgage, but apparently that's impossible for most these days) but these people have also botched their credit in some way, shape, or form. Foreclosures due to the market, loss of biz due to the market, etc. Really, not something we're judging people for at this time. I can honestly see  how things like that can happen to people and believe that everyone deserves a 2nd chance. However, that doesn't mean the people who are coming forward as interested potential renters aren't CRAZY. We've had some doozies come through this door - let's just say that. I'll save the stories for in person conversations for fear that some of these said crazy people track down my blog and read it. I wouldn't be surprised if one morning I walk out of my house and find one of them standing there, staring at me and asking why I said the things I did about them on  my blog. Then, they'd proceed to get down on their knees and beg for this house (no joke, everyone is pretty much begging for us to "pick them"). Very bizarre, to say the least. The good news is I think we'll be able to lock in renters before the 11th hour. The bad news is, that we are continuing to show and show and show the house, in an effort to find what seems like the most trustworthy, non-crazy, person.

The last time I asked for prayers, good juju, and positive energy on facebook, it worked. That same afternoon we received word that the seller of the home we had an offer in on, accepted our counter offer. So, I'm asking for more of the same - this time that our refinance goes through quickly, and that we find some truly honest, trustworthy, renters.

The next time I ask for your help will be when it's time to have the baby, then close on the house, then move.

Oh house of cards - please stay standing.