Eli's baptism

A big day in our religion is the day a baby is baptized, which for us is scheduled soon after birth.  Our Church performs two baptisms at the weekend services once a month which as you can imagine, leads to some scheduling difficulties and a waiting list.  We were able to get Eli baptized when he was 4 months old, which is pretty lucky.  I've heard that some babies have to wait until 8 or 9 months depending on the waiting list at the time. 

Our Church is a little different than most these days in that it has the baptism celebration during the actual Mass, where as Caleb's was done in a small ceremony for families after Mass.  I felt as though we were on display for everyone which made me a little nervous but it was also nice to see so many people welcoming Eli into the Church and offering their blessings.

 Eli was introduced to the Church with us and his godparents. We chose my sister as his godmother and my cousin Ben as his godfather.  This was after the priest told Caleb that he was going to help with the ceremony.  Everybody got a good laugh.

My Aunt got some beautiful pictures of the actual baptism.  Eli was such a good boy and actual seemed to like the water on his head.  Unlike his brother, who screamed his head off when he was baptized.  

That play phone you see Caleb holding?  He would NOT let it go.  I figured it would be best to let him keep it and avoid the meltdown during Church while we sat in the front row, but little did I know that he was going to drop it while we were receiving a blessing which made a really loud noise!  Even the priest stopped and laughed. 

Love this picture of me and my sweet boy!  Caleb was able to wear Josh's baptism outfit when he was baptized which was pretty special to us and really cool to look back on pictures.  Caleb looks so much like him which made it all the better.  We had planned to have Eli wear the same outfit but my adorable, chubby baby was too big for it.  I ordered one off of Amazon that looked pretty similar and I think he looks very handsome in it. 

                                                              Eli and his godfather, Ben.

Eli and his godmother, Aunt Brittany.  She likes to call herself his 'fairy' godmother. 

And last but not least, my big boy smiling at the dinner afterwards.  He was so good during the ceremony and had a blast playing with everyone at the party.  Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating his baptism!  

We were so happy that our families were able to join us to celebrate and it meant a lot to us that some people traveled hours to be there.  Eli received some really adorable gifts.  He is a very loved little boy!

On the market

So, as I talked about in my last post, we decided to put our house on the market.  Josh and I bought our home 3.5 years ago in November of 2009 when it was just the two of us.  We had only been married 4 months and hadn't necessarily intended to purchase at that time, but then that whole 'First Time Home Buyers' $8,000 credit came along and we felt like taking advantage of that was right for us.  We bought a zero lot (share a wall with another person but have our own yard/driveway/etc) which are extremely popular in our area.  At the time, our 1700 square feet seemed like a huge mansion from our previous small apartment and we couldn't imagine needing more space.

Well, 3.5 years and two babies later, we are dying for more space.  The bedrooms of our current home are really good sized which is nice but we only have one living room.  We have said many times that if we just had a basement to play in, we would be able to stay here for at least a couple more years.  The toys, the dogs, everything feels like it is everywhere and we just need more space.

After slowing losing my mind for the past few months, we recently decided to put our house on the market.  When we bought our house, it was only a year old and we actually got into a bidding war over it and probably paid a bit more than we should have.  But such is life I suppose and at the time, we really wanted the house.  Our hope and prayer, is that we will be able to find a home with more space that is perhaps a little older so we can stay in a similar price range to what we are at now.  We shall see. 

Let me say though, putting a house on the market while having a toddler and a 4 month old at home is not an ideal situation.  I do NOT recommend it. We don't have any family within a 30 mile radius, so we've been mainly preparing the house for selling with the little ones home with us.  Not an easy task.  Every morning we pack up all the scattered toys, throw them in the back of the car, and head to work.  It's really all we can do.  We've moved a lot of the clutter and a lot of the kitchen stuff that we don't use on a regular basis to a storage unit, and have more we should actually move over tonight.  Our realtor is bringing the rest of the realtors from her company through tomorrow and then she is having an open house this weekend.  We pray for some interest and some good feedback. 

I've never sold a house before so maybe I'm not as informed as I should be, but I was pretty shocked with the rule that everything that is 'screwed into the walls' stays with the house unless we reserve it on the listing.  So for example, we had to reserve my decorative curtain rods in all the rooms of the house and also, my PHOTO GALLERY WALL.  Seriously??  Who thinks that family pictures and pretty curtain rods come with the house?  I realize I may be one of the few, but I would never think that.  I also realize that I sound like a 3 year old when I say, those are MINE.  I picked them out, waited for them to go on sale, and hung them with my two hands (that is a straight-up lie, my husband hung them with his two hands) and they are MINE.  And you can not have them.  So there. 

All. The. Things.

Can't believe I haven't blogged in over 2 weeks.  Life has been busy, busy and we've had just a few things going on (sarcasm anyone?).  As any full-time working mom of two little ones can likely tell you, there is never enough time in the world to do everything/anything as it seems lately!  Unfortunately, the realities of working full-time, maintaining a house, and keeping two littles alive and healthy doesn't leave much quality time to actually spend just hanging out with those little people. I would be lying if I said that fact has been really getting me down lately.  After stressing and worrying about it for months, we decided to do something about it. 

We realized the two things bothering me the most have been the lack of space in our current home and the fact that I feel like I spend very little time with the boys every day.  SO... we put our house on the market and I asked my boss to go part-time.  60% time to be exact.  Surprisingly, he was actually cool with it which I am so grateful for.  The details haven't been worked out yet, i.e. when I will start part-time, exact hours I will work every day, etc. but I'm hopeful that this will help me out with the time factor. 

Supposedly, in our area, homes are flying off the market and right now there is nothing listed in the same price range which is hopefully good.  We pray that ours goes quickly and also that we are able to find something a little older and a little bigger which would hopefully take some of the stress off.  It's so much work preparing the house for showings with two very little ones that we don't plan to leave it on the market forever.  If it doesn't sell within a certain amount of time that we have set for ourselves, then we will take it off and try again next year. Maybe it's just not the right time.

Along with the house and the part-time decision, we also have had a few other things on our plates:

* Our sweet baby Eli was baptized last Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and we were lucky enough to have our friends and family able to join us.  Our Church does it during the weekend masses and we shared the day with one other little one.  We rented a banquet room at a nearby hotel, and planned a dinner afterwards with our relatives, so I was busy preparing the food and cake for the celebration.  Eli received a lot of beautiful gifts and we are so grateful.  I'm hoping to get around to posting some pictures soon.

*  We took one of our dogs to the vet for a routine appointment where they told us that he not only needed to get his teeth cleaned, but one was actually infected and needed to be extracted immediately for a whopping $800! It's odd because he was just at the vet a year ago where they said his teeth looked fine.  I was under the impression that tooth decay is a rather slow process and it couldn't happen that fast, but apparently not.  He's actually there now and I hope that everything is going well.

* Tomorrow we have Eli's follow-up appointment with the orthopedic specialist.  I am SO nervous about it, mainly because I think I know what he is going to say.  We definitely have noticed a change in Eli's feet from the last appointment and we feel as though it's improving but I don't think it has improved as much as he wanted it to.  When I stand him up, he definitely puts weight on his feet but he also turns them in sometimes and ends up standing on the outside of his foot.  I can't imagine that is what they want.  I hope he doesn't recommend casts but I suppose if it is necessary for Eli to grow and walk, then of course that is what we will do.

* We also leave this week for a trip to visit Josh's parents and his twin brother, our sister-in-law, and our new baby nephew.  Josh's brother is in the Navy and has been stationed in Guam for the past 3 years.  We haven't seen him in 2 years since their wedding and we also haven't met our new baby nephew who was born 12 days before Eli.  He is being relocated to Virginia and is able to stop home for a visit before they have to report.  We are SO excited to be able to see them.  A lot of Josh's family are also coming for a visit also and his parents will sure have a full house.  We expect to have 3 babies two and under, 4 dogs, a set of grandparents, his parents, and the four of us plus other random guests.  It will be crazy and the 4 or so hour car ride to get there with two babies and two dogs will be great fun, but we are just so excited to spend time with them.

So just a few things going on at the moment, right? 

I need to chill.....

Things stressing me out right now:

1. The hubby and I are considered a pretty large life change right now as I am pretty unhappy in my current work situation.  I am so much a planner that I always like to have all my ducks in a row before making a change and it's not looking like that is going to happen.  I'm kind of stuck between what my head says 'I should do as a responsible person' and what my heart wants to do as a mother of two young children.  I pretty much go back and forth on a minute by minute basis- no joke.  I'm trying to gather and explore all my options and pray that a clear path will be revealed. 

2. My house that never seems to stay clean no matter how much I try.  I know this is a common theme among mommies of little ones.  I know I am not alone but man, oh man am I over the constant mess.  I am currently breastfeeding/pumping while at work which while a wonderful, wonderful gift to share with my baby and worth every minute in my opinion (another post in itself), but is certainly a lot of time and work.  I pump before work, at work of course, and before bed when Eli doesn't eat everything I 'have', if you will.  That is necessary for me to keep up my supply but a giant time suck.  My husband has really picked up the slack for me in housekeeping duties while I spend a lot of my time doing that but still.... I just wish it could stay clean for .55 seconds.  As I sit here away from my house, I long to have 5 minutes to vacuum.  Or scrub the bathroom.  Ridiculous, right?

3.  The impending doom of potty training.  I feel like Caleb isn't ready so I haven't really pushed it but we're getting close to that point.  He was very excited about it a few months ago so we went out and bought him an Elmo potty seat which he was PUMPED about.  However, when he realized it was not a toy and Mommy wouldn't let him take it out of the bathroom and play with it, he decided it actually wasn't all that cool after all.  In fact, now he refuses to sit on the potty at all.  Which is awesome.

I realize that by no means are these 'big problems'.  I am very lucky that these are the things that are what is stressing me out!