Dear Gracie – 4 Months
Jan 28Dear Gracie,
Today you turn 4 months old. Wow, it’s hard to believe that much time has passed. Everyone always says time goes by faster than you know it but you can’t really know what it’s like until you experience it. Let’s see what has happened since our last update. We go back to the doctor on the 1st for your 2nd round of shots and 4 month appointment. I expect him to tell me you’ve definitely gained a bit of weight and height too. Everything seems too short on you. We’re still strong with our cloth diapers and mommy is about to go on a splurge and get some more one sized pockets and the next size in prefolds. I don’t think you care though, as long as your little butt is dry you’re content.
You chew everything in sight from blankets to pacifiers to fingers (both yours and ours). You also like to pull hair (owww) and this includes grandpa’s beard which you find hilarious. You’re full of smiles and have been sleeping in your crib every single night going to bed between 8 and 10pm. You wake up 3-4 times a night for a feeding before you decide at about 6:30/7 you’re up for the day. Naps are sporadic and do I miss them. You could sleep for 10 minutes and be ready to go for another few hours.
Sitting up is slowly improving. You don’t fall over nearly as much. You can also roll from belly to back but we don’t see it too much since you HATE tummy time for longer than a minute. Baths have gotten easier and depending on your mood, so has dressing you. You still get finicky though. We notice you aren’t too attached to either mommy or daddy and have no problems being around any one who will give you attention. This was our plan, as we like that you are loved by many MANY people and don’t require being held 24/7 by one person. You definitely know who we are though and your face lights up when you see either of us.
I swear you look more and more like your daddy every day and you get comments about how your ears are like his, big and awkward. That’s OK, your hair will cover them up when it gets long enough. 
Your eyes seem to have settled on being green like mommy’s though. As for solids, nope. We’re not ready for you to start them and expect to wait at least another month before introducing and most likely 2 months. I just don’t think you’re ready yet and I’m glad that daddy doesn’t fight me on the issue although grand parents are another thing. They try their best and offer wisdom but sometimes opinions differ. We’ll all work it out though. You constantly make noises, flail your arms, and give expressions that are beginning to show your little personality already. You also will now pick up toys and move them so your coordination is improving. Here is to another month full of exciting changes.
Love,
mommy and daddy
(The flash on my camera doesn’t work so I haven’t been taking a lot of pictures. Here is a recent one from my phone).
Gamed out
Jan 24I do believe I am gamed out. Last night Randy and I went to bed at 6:30pm (Gracie ddin’t get a good nap in all day so she was out early) and minus feedings, we didn’t all get out of bed until 7. Scratch that, Randy was up at 4. From the time we got up until 8pm we played dungeons and dragons online. For the record, since my mom implied this once, I do not abandon my daughter. She gets fed, changed, cuddled, played with, etc. I can be in game withtout actively playing every minute. Then we played call of duty for an hour or so and right now Randy is at work and Corey went out to eat with his annoying ass wannabe person who stalks him and shows up at my house without asking with a total lack of personality girlfriend but he is coming back over afterward. I don’t know if I really wanna be up though. I’m whipped. My eyes are burning and I wasted a complete day of packing up my house. In my defense, it was Randy’s day off and we needed to spend some time together so it worked.
I do have all week to finish packing. We move on Saturday. I haven’t really advanced beyond packing up my pots/pans/most of my dishes because we use stuff on a regular basis that really can’t be packed. I’m going to go to the store tomorrow to buy some paper/plastic silverware and such so I can pack the rest up but we don’t want to eat out all week because hello MONEY and I also want to cook up anything we have left in our fridge freezer. Wow, I’m such a boring blogger lately. I’m trying to look on the bright side of moving but *sigh* I like my own place. We’re immediately putting away $1200 of our taxes into a savings account for our next apartment so all we have to do is find one and maybe that will keep us from being there for months on end. I’m excited to file my taxes but I’m waiting on my unemployment form to do so. Just like NYS to wait until the very end of the month to mail the form out. Grrrr. I’m more excited about the SUV I’m getting since Randy should have his license back soon. That is a nice chunk of change ($800 for past fines). Ah well, what’s done is done.
And with that I’m going to putz around for a few more minutes and try to curl up in my nice, toasty bed.
Getting our ducks in order
Jan 20We’re going back to mom’s for sure now. A space is cleared out for us to sleep and we’ve got the forces mobilized (LOL) to get us moved on the 30th. Hopefully it will only take 1 trip since we have 3 trucks. It will be nice. We rented a 10×15 storage unit which cost $60 plus a deposit of $60 about 5 miles from their house for our furniture and appliances.
We’ve also decided he is going to keep the car and I’ll get the SUV so we did a tune up of spark plugs, wires, and an air filter. We also have a $170 set of parts to buy on Friday but it’s OK. We’re going to take advantage of living there to get repairs made while we can afford it, get our credit card balances lowered (they’re only 400 each), and then finish getting our ducks in order so when we do move back out things are taken care of. We’ve looked into getting a mortgage but I’ve given up hope due to the fact that Randy has only had his job for 7 mos and they want 2 solid years of work history. *sigh* Ah well, we’ll work something out.
I’m exhausted though so I’m going to keep talking to Randy’s mom on the phone and then head to bed. *yawn*
Pros and Cons of each situation and credit card info stolen
Jan 18I really want to thank everyone for the support these past few weeks as I stress about finding an apartment. It helps to know I’ve got some awesome people to turn to. We still have not made an official decision on what we’re going to do, as sad as that may seem. We haven’t really sat down to fully discuss it because emotions on both ends usually cut it short. There are both pros and cons to both decisions here and I’ve been looking them over and I just… I don’t know. For the most part, Randy will go with what I decide because I try to see the bigger picture but I want to do what is best for both of us. I’m going to list them out here to see if maybe a solid visual will help me decide and I can show it to Randy to see his input when looking at the larger picture.
Currently Randy’s net pay is approximately $1800/month with no overtime. It has a possibility of increasing but not decreasing. He currently drives 15 miles to work. We live in an upstairs apartment on a residential street in a decent neighborhood. We pay $450/mo rent plus about $185 for heat/electric combined average since the winter is about $240 and summer like $120 or so. Gas runs us usually $65 a week. Internet is $40/month. So our monthly expenses beyond credit cards/insurance are roughly $750.
Option 1: Go back to parents
Pros
- Huge money saver. No rent payment/gas/electric/internet. My parent’s house comes with my dad’s job. We will be renting a storage unit for most of our stuff though.
- Occasional help with Gracie (this is both a pro and con) since Randy works and has a weird sleeping schedule.
- We’re in the country where we’re both comfortable
- We get to keep Colby, he can run freely, and has Layla to play with. He also has separation anxiety and has issues listening to anyone but Randy or I
- Randy can work on his project truck any time instead of traveling 22 miles one way every time he gets the urge Cons
- Lack of space. Randy and I would probably be sleeping on couches/air mattresses in the living room with our computers in the dining room. This means NO privacy
- Slower internet. As a gamer and working on ChaCha it matters hugely. It makes it almost impossible to do either of them
- TOO MANY PEOPLE. There will be 9 counting Gracie. At least 2 of these people are incredibly negative people to be around and drive me fucking nuts to live with
- Outside influences while raising Gracie. I don’t like my parenting criticized.
- We have our own space still
- My sanity doesn’t suffer from people being around 24/7
- Randy and I have our privacy
- Looking at the listings in the paper we are going to have issues finding something for this much so our monthly expenses are increased
- We will most likely end up 10 miles further from his work in a small city which is quite ghetto, tbh
- We don’t have our puppy who has only been away from us 1 day since he was born. He is so attached he runs errands with us
Option 2: Get an apartment w/o Colby
Pros
Cons
K, writing it down helped. Looking at this list, the best option appears to be #1. What does everyone else think? We are looking into applying for a mortgage and actually applied Thursday night for a pre-app through HSBC and expect a call Tuesday to see how it went. Then we will go from there as well.
On a pissy note I have 3 unauthorized transactions in my bank (1 from zappos, 1 from Itunes, and 1 from VPgames.com) totalling about $550 but the VP was reversed and they total $100. I called BoA and they cancelled my card immeditately, mailed me a new one, and I can get a temp Tuesday from the bank. Randy’s is still open since he doesn’t use his online (where I suspect it got stolen from). They said once the other transactions come out of pending status they’ll dispute for me and I should be able to get the money within 24 hours. Since we currently have the funds it’s not as major of an annoyance as if we were living penny by penny but still annoying nonetheless to deal with. ARGH.
I’m also suffering from insomnia hardcore right now. It blows.
A bit of an update and 2 pics too
Jan 13Time is slowly running out. It is January 13th and we have until the 30th. That is 2 weeks and 3 days to find a house, pay the deposit/rent, and move out. It’s not a very large time frame. We’ve looked at anything within 25 miles of his work and they are either 1) out of our budget which I refuse to compromise on because I’m not going to struggle to keep the roof over our heads. Our housing costs including utilities are not going to exceed 35% of our monthly income WITHOUT overtime and 2) NO ONE wants my freakin’ dog and it’s so irritating because he’s a lovable dog who has done NO damage to this house in the 6 months we have lived here. We can even provide a reference from our current landlord stating this. He’s up to date on his shots, has been given advantage to combat any flea problems, and takes a monthly pill for heart worm prevention. He is also neutered but landlords are so freaking unwilling to compromise on this issue. *sigh*
As for everything else I guess we’re ok? Randy is working a regular 40 hour workweek which is livable and we’ve been saving every penny for the move (Seriously, we have spent gas money and $17 on households for the month and that is IT) and my ChaCha will cover the rest of the bills which is 1 CC of mine, 1 CC of his, and 1CC of Colby’s along with our internet and car insurance. We will be able to come up with the money and might have to fish around some relatives for a bit but I know we can get it to borrow from someone if we’re desperate.
Gracie has been doing awesome. She is learning every day that her hands can do miraculous things. She pinches (OW), pulls hair (OW), and scratches (OW) but it’s OK. She also is usually smiling and making noises. Some days her teeth bother her but a bit of motrin helps her calm down a little. She can also roll from her belly to her back but I’m the only one who has seen it since she will only lay on her tummy for like 2-3 minutes before she flips out. She also has gone to bed between 8-10 every single night since we transitioned to her crib. I liked sleeping with her but this is better for all of us and she sleeps BETTER there than with us. She naps for 45 minutes or so about 3 times a day and wakes up 2x a night to eat. I’m SO grateful that I can actually get sleep now but I’m usually stupidly staying up either doing ChaCha or playing the ever so addicting Call of Duty: MW2 or Dungeons and Dragons Online with a few friends.
I also have cramps from hell tonight which SUCKS HARDCORE. I’m sorry I’ve been so whiny lately. I’m just frustrated and trying not to be TOO negative. I can’t wait for this month to be over and tax returns next month. We are paying off a huge chunk of debt of mine (stupid decisions I made a few years ago) and buying an SUV since we travel to my parents a lot and bring our dog + pcs + baby stuff and a car is too damn small. I also feel a lot safer driving a 4WD in the winter.
