We're on the market baby!

Finally. The house goes on the market tomorrow. Jerry and I did the final push on Friday and Saturday and worked our tails off. Every muscle in my body hurt last night, and I think I reactivated my pregnancy-related carpal tunnel (when I was pregnant with Wilder it got really painful). The house is clean -- not clean enough to eat off the floors or anything ... I don't even think that's possible in a nearly 60-year-old house. But clean enough. It should show well, particularly if we can keep the maintenance up. Nowadays, when I have a free moment, instead of stealing a few pages from a book or sitting on my butt dreaming about having a glass of wine (or five or six) come April, I clean. I wipe, sweep, pick up, groan, gather dog poop, grunt, fold clothes, do more laundry, rant, and chase a goop-covered toddler around raving my head off. "No no NO DON'T wipe your mouth on the couch .... ohhhh, crap."

Yep, good times ...

Still, it's nice to have a nice house again. Nice to live more deliberately and think more about our surroundings. I might even keep some of this up when we move. Then again, I'll have a newborn, a 2-year-old (who's becoming more "quintessential" in his twoness everday) and I'll still have a job. So, sometimes, I will still just sit on my butt and drink wine. I will have to -- cleaning does not save a person's sanity. Wine, on the other hand ...

So here are some pictures of the house. Say a little prayer or perform a little blessing that we sell quickly and don't get horribly insulted by low offers. After we've worked so hard, it would be WONDERFUL to sell quickly, find a nice cozy new home and be in the new place by Christmas. Not counting on it, but a girl can hope. Even when she's too tired to cross her fingers ...

And one more quick thing ... I was reading through year-old blog entries the other night. I don't know when it happened, but I've gotten horribly boring in my writing. I might as well tell you all about the weather. "Wilder is happy. We are good. Nothing's changed blah blah yadda yadda ... zzzzzzzzzzz." Sorry. I am nothing without my sarcasm and ascerbic wit, right? So I'm bringing it back. It's already been broughten.

Cheers friends ... k.
 
 
 
 

Report: Halloween 2007 is a success!

Well, we just returned from trick or treating with our friends and neighbors Carmen, Michael and their son, Owen. Wilder and Owen have become great friends and always have a rollicking good time together. Tonight was no exception, and they had the added bonus of ... SUGAR!

We went to a nearby street called Swiss Avenue where many of the homes go all out. The houses, by the way, are gorgeous and also gigantic and people with a lot more money than us live there. This apparently translates into good candy -- no crappy candy corn in sight. Woohoo! We're an anti-candy corn household.

Anyway, it was fun until it wasn't (for Wilder because he was tired and for us because it was uber-crowded) and when that happened we walked back to the car and came home. Jerry and Wilder are admiring Jerry's jack-o-lantern handiwork as I type (no hand stabbings this year, hallelujah, and yes, that did happen one year, meaning every Halloween since I sit quietly and pray while Jerry wields a knife). I'm going to go join them for the remainder of this, the greatest of holidays.

I leave you with photos. Wilder, if I do say so myself, was the cutest little pillager and plunderer I've ever seen.

Happy Halloween everyone!


Wilder and his best bud, Owen, all geared up for candycandycandy!


Arrgggggghhh


Trick or treating, Swiss Avenue style


Getting ready to go home, sticky faced and happy


Wee Wilder and Black Betty, the pregnant pirate (actually, I claimed I had scurvy)


Home with mug crammed with yums. Ahhhh what a good day.

Last night as a 1-year-old

 
 
 
 



It's a lot of pictures, I know, but it was our boy's last night of being 1. And I wanted to remember how much fun we had. Turns out 2 ... just as fun. ; )

A very busy weekend

Wilder at the State Fair of Texas ...

We had a very busy weekend, but finally in a good way. We didn't do anything to the house. We hung out with friends, had a visit from Jerry's sister Leigh and brother-in-law Trent, held a 2nd birthday party for Wilder and went to the State Fair. And all this on the end of our two-day trip to San Antonio. I took a bunch of pictures and some video I've posted below.

Our S.A. trip was great. Wilder and I had one exhausting but wonderful morning at the zoo. We swam in the hotel pool, staked out claim on a nearby playground and the three of us ate dinner at what has to be one of the best family joints in the country: Scenic Loop Cafe (and thanks to our neighbor and friend, Carmen, for the recommendation). The food is good, the live music was great and the enclosed playground was awesome, especially for Wilder, who ran wild, discovered he could climb a small rock wall and went down the slide probably no less than 50 times, all while his parents watched him from a safe distance. If you ever get to San Antonio, or near it, and you have a kid under the age of 10, this place is wonderful. Oh, and the service and atmosphere are great, too.

Wilder and I had exactly what I anticipated: a weekend to reconnect. Between the pregnancy and the stress of selling our house, I've not been what you'd exactly call a model mom lately. I've been tired and cranky and he was clearly enjoying and preferring the company of his Papa more. Not that I can blame him. But we needed a couple days away from it all to spend some time together rediscovering how much fun we could have -- just the two of us. And we did, I think. For that, especially before baby No. 2, I'm incredibly grateful.

Anyway, w/o further ado, some pics (I'm posting a lot because I've been so remiss in putting photos up recently). And look for videos here soon, too.



Wilder goes through his birthday loot (this truck puzzle is from his Grandma Teri and Teri, he LOVES it. Pulls it out countless times a day to yell. "Truck! Truck, mama, TRUCK!!"


Riding the tractor at the fair with a little help from Papa


Let me at it! Let me at it!


He ate WAY more frosting than cake


On the swing in San Antonio


Wilder and Mama playing in S.A.


Checking out the elephants at the S.A. Zoo (GREAT zoo, btw)


At the Scenic Loop Cafe with Pop


Chillin' in his hotel room

Home selling, separation sadness and San Antonio: an update

We're now 16 weeks pregnant with baby No. 2. Middle of next month, we'll be having a sonogram and have decided to find out the kiddo's gender this time around. With the onset of second trimesterness, exhaustion and nausea have waned. Heartburn and extraordinary tailbone pain, however, have set in. Not fun, but still preferable to any first-trimester maladies. Of course, not sure I'll say that in three months when my butt's still hurting every time I shift an ounce of weight. Ahh pregnancy, what a blessing!

Jerry and I have been continuing to get our house ready to put on the market ... and we're finally thisclose — in fact, our Realtor thinks we'll have it on the market Monday. It seems, however, that the changes in how our house looks along with his burgeoning brain development have been rocking Wilder's world. He's a kid who's barely had a smidgen of separation anxiety since birth, but now every morning that we take him to daycare results in full-blown freakouts. Huge, wet tears. Full mama- and papa-body wraps (arms AND legs), and then collapsing on the floor in a puddle of flailing and wailing sadness when we leave.

It. Sucks.

We try to remember he's fine no more than five minutes after we leave, but it still sticks with us for hours throughout the day. Jerry mostly takes Wilder to daycare, so I don't see much of it. This morning I took him and have been dying to hug him all day.

Luckily, tomorrow we leave for San Antonio, returning on Friday night. Jerry has a conference and invited Wilder along. We'll be staying on the Riverwalk and have had many excellent restaurants suggested to us. I'm really looking forward to some quiet alone time with Wilder (and Jerry when he's not in meetings) just relaxing, swimming, walking and exploring. This will probably be one of the few times remaining to do this before the second baby comes along.

Anyway, I best get back to work. Just thought I'd leave a quick update and hopefully later have some time to post a couple recent photos.

Love to all, k.

Wilder in Taos

 

This photo of Wilder was taken right after our friends Chris and Bree's wedding. We were on the rooftop of the La Dona Luz B&B, and the boy was enjoying trying new foods (caviar??), but mostly he ate about 30 olives that came back to haunt him later.

Anyway, Taos was beautiful, and Wilder really enjoyed the Kit Carson playground, where he went down all the big kid slides by himself. Brave, eh? And thanks to his Phoenix grandma and grandpa (Pop and Sharon) for the stylin' duds. Nothing like a little pearl-snap action!

Let me explain ...

We have not suddenly decided to dress Wilder in pink. There is an explanation, of course. Jerry and I spent part of the afternoon looking at houses and so our dear friend Judy watched our boy for a few hours. They watered her garden, and Wilder got soaking wet right before she was going to bring him back to us. So she put him in the only dry clothes she had close to his size: those of her grand-daughter Dylan, who's a couple years older than Wilder. She called to warn me ahead of time, so I -- being the kind of mom who relishes taking photos of her kids that can later be used against them -- waited outside with the camera. I couldn't pick just one of these; he looks too darn cute in all of them.

In this first one, he literally ran from Judy's car to where I was sitting on the sidewalk yelling "MOMMY!!!!" Geez kid ... melt my heart already!
 

What a face!
 

This one I included just because I had to show the shoes he was sporting.
 

Sorry Wilder. Mommy couldn't help herself. xoxo.

The Great Home Selling/Buying Debacle of 2007

And so it's begun. We're moving. We put it off as long as possible. But we got back from vacation and I finally called our Realtor and it's been "go! go! go!" ever since. Meetings, MLS listings to pour through, PODS to order, boxes to pick up, mountains of our stuff to go through, home drive-bys, home viewings ... and we haven't even started showing our own house yet. Today we started cleaning and packing with the intent of getting about 40-60 percent of our crap out of here so the home shows better. Hopefully we'll have that done (and moved into the curbside PODS) by next weekend. Then get a housecleaning service in here, get the place staged (courtesy of our wonderful Realtor Linda Biggerstaff and her home stager Anne Lasko ... yes, that is a plug) and get that sign put up out front.

Today we actually looked at our first house, and it was one we would buy. If we were going to live in it for 20 years, we wouldn't buy it. But considering we want to find a place we might be able to sell in the next five years (when that can't-pass-up job offer comes from our dream destination), it'd be a nice place to spend that time and has good resale value. Built in 2007, it's an open floor plan, four upstairs bedrooms and an absolutely gorgeous heated pool and spa out back. Good storage. Gated community (again, not really our thing, but folks around Dallas love it so we'd be able to sell it easily, we think). And the community has a couple walking/biking paths and a park for Wilder to play in.

We won't make an offer, because technically it's the first house we've looked at and that would be just, well, stupid. If it's meant to be, it'll still be on the market when we're ready to start making offers (good to get our house on the market first, you think??). ; )

Anyway, a couple pics of our state of living right now.
On one hand, these are scattered all over the house right now ...

on the other, my cabinets never looked like this while I actually really lived in this house.

Final Kauai dispatch (typed with sad face)

Well, we leave tomorrow. :( Bummer, we could stay another week, at least. When we come back, whenever that is, it will definitely be for longer. We're cooking our last dinner at the rental house, the sun has set, and we've got one more cool-breeze-filled, palm-trees-rustling night to lull us to sleep. On the plus side, that's only one more night to be woken up by roosters at 4 a.m. : ) See, everything has a silver lining!

Without further ado, here are a few more photos.

Dispatch from Kauai No. 2

Another few shots from the last couple days. Today is our last full day here ... kind of a bummer, but at the same time it's been awesome and packed with fun. Wilder has gone from being petrified by the ocean to running at the waves at full speed. He also has learned to get his naps in when he can -- driving from beach to beach, napping in the outdoor shower while Papa rinses the sand off him, etc. (I have a great shot of the latter but haven't downloaded it yet).

Today has been wonderful. We went snorkeling at Tunnels Beach, which it about 3/4 of a mile from our rental house. Saw soooo many wonderful colorful funky fish. Right now the boy is napping but later we're driving into the nearest town, Hanalei, for a little shopping, probably some shave ice (basically a giant sno cone in one of about a gojillion flavors). Then who knows ... we'll either come back to the house to relax and watch the sun go down at the nearby beach or meet up with friends to snorkel some more near their place.

Anyway, signing off. Much love, k.

Dispatch From Kauai

Aloha! Here are a few pics from our first three days on the Garden Isle. What an amazing beautiful relaxing place! If you click on the slideshow it'll take you direct to the slideshow and you can view the images a bit larger. We've been busy with wedding, settling in and going on our Na Pali Coast sailing tour since arriving, but as of today we have three days with a clear schedule. Beaches, here we come!!

Proud Mama

 

Dallas schools started back up today, and even though we're not technically in "school" yet, I'm still going to call this Wilder's First Day of School picture. It was taken afterward, however. I wanted to get a picture of him today because of what his teacher, Myrtle, told me. About six new toddlers started today, and she declared "how proud" she was of Wilder, because he apparently spent the day helping the other new kids adjust. "When that baby comes," she said, "he's going to be a great big brother." From your lips to God's ears, Myrtle! Anyway, it made me very proud of him, too.

One more little story. We play this game where we point at ourselves and say "I", put our hands over our heart and say "love," then point at Papa or Betty or each other and yell "Papa!" or "You!" You get the point. He did that today while I was changing his diaper, just entertaining himself. "I ... ruv ..." he started. Lately, he loves to finish up with a rousing "PAPAAAAA!!!!" Today he started with "PA..." ... pause ... cocked his head at me, got a turd-eating grin on his face and yelled "MAMAAAAAA!!!!!"

*heart melts* Gee, thanks kid.

Such a trooper

Poor Wilder. He has pneumonia and has been sleeping all afternoon. Jerry and I first got an inkling that something was wrong Friday after dinner with friends. He was fine at dinner, laughing and cheering with his sippy cup and eating like a horse. A few hours later, he was coughing so hard in his crib he threw up everywhere. Over the weekend he didn't seem to get any worse, but no better, especially at night and in the mornings, when he'd cough himself silly. During the day he'd get much better and be his usual Wilder-self, our running, laughing boy. Still, I had an inkling something more serious might be afoot. This morning the cough was worse and so Jerry and I kept him home from daycare and split the day, making a mid-day doc appointment. Our pediatrician listened to his lungs and pronounced it pneumonia. A mild case, thank goodness. We dropped his prescription off, picked up a burger, grilled cheese and fries at a nearby burger joint and dined in the drugstore parking lot with AC on full blast with Jim Morrison singing Peace Frog (and his mama explaining the impact of bands like The Doors in popular music culture) while we waited on his antibiotics. He grinned the whole time. In fact, I wish I showed as much grace and fortitude when I don't feel well. His nap earlier got interrupted for his doctor appt., so I put him back down at 3. It's almost 6 p.m. and he's still fast asleep. Poor kid. Glad he's getting his rest.

Ahh, I hear him stirring now ...

xoxo, k.

Our Sunday...

Just a few photos from today. The first two at Whistle Fair 2007, at Dallas' American Railways Museum, where Wilder got to see how big choo-choos really get. Jerry and I also got to see that fearless Wilder does get scaredy after all. They had vintage steam whistle demos, and when that thing went off, Wilder was about 15 feet closer to it than we were. He hightailed it back to us with this poor terrified look on his face. Still, once in Pop's arms, he thought it was great fun (as evidenced by the laughing-boy pic below), and we've been having great fun making steam whistle sounds all day, trying to outdo each other. We also got to see a guy play an old-fashioned, steam-run calliope (you can see W. mesmerized by it in the second photo). To top off his stellar day, he also got a Thomas train toy, which he's playing with in the third pic, fighting sleep as hard as he can. Overall a pretty good day!

The other pic is just of Wilder playing in the back yard.

 

 

 

 

One more from the tub ...

 

Wilder lookin' dreamy

Just thought I'd post a few quick B&W photos I took of Wilder tonight. We're all doing well, just trying to get through this miserable late-summer Texas heat. Thought we might get rain tonight but it's not looking good. Anyway, love and xoxo to all. k.
     

Long time no blog

Well, it's been an interesting few weeks in the Scott household, which would explain the dearth of blogging lately. My apologies ... I'll get back on the stick and have some more pictures up here soon. Maybe even a video or two.

First things first ...

Most of you already know this, but we are once again in a family way. Yep, Wilder's gonna have a little brother or sister to do his bidding and be his personal court jester here soon. Not too soon ... we're not due until late March but, after some initial concerns early in the pregnancy, it now looks like we're gonna bring another 'lil Scott into the world.

As for Wilder, he's doing great. He's finally stringing some two and three word sentences together (as in, "Where's the hippo?") and his vocabulary grows noticeably every week. So cool to see. He's climbing like crazy (I've even caught him table dancing ... seems he can scramble up on top of the dining table for a jig in the time it takes me to look in the fridge). He's jumping and dancing and generally delighting in the knowledge that he can do many things now that he couldn't a month ago. He's also listening, a big boon for his parents, and generally following simple directions. He's growing like a weed and has his Papa's skin -- they're both loads tanner than I am right now. We slather on the sunscreen, but he soaks up the sun anyway. No sunburns ... he's just a little brown boy.

In three weeks, we leave for Hawaii. Kauai, to be more exact. We're going for six nights, partly to see our friends Julie and Jim get married and partly to get the hell out of dodge for once. We've got two and three day layovers in Phoenix going and coming. That's where Wilder's other set of grandparents, my pop and his wife Sharon, live, so we're really looking forward to seeing them and letting them get to know Wilder better. At any rate, we're very very very much looking forward to this vacation. We've got a wonderful place to stay, and even some built in babysitters in the form of our good friends Jeff and Ginger who'll be staying with us. The trip cannot come soon enough ... my only regret is that Wilder will likely not remember a single detail of it, but that's just a good excuse to go back soon, right?

OK, enough babble. Forgive me if I don't blog often in the next few weeks and don't blog clever and with some mildly successful attempts at humor. I'm in full-fledged pregnant-brain mode right now. And, without further ado, some recent pics:

In the backyard, floating around with mama.

Taken during the Pop-and-Wilder Weekend Extravaganze (mom was in Colorado)

Handsome in his new camo shirt courtesy of Grandma Teri.