Part 2

Jared's room got painted a nice bright blue, and our living room got painted a butter yellow. It was great - the grandparents handled the painting while Steve and I got to do fun things like curtain shopping. I think I would rather poke myself in the eye with a fork than go curtain shopping again!

The movers came to the apartment to move our big furniture, and they were really impressive! Everyone was good and super fast. I didn't hear any complaints about moving the furniture down 2 flights of steps, and everything arrived at the new house in good shape.

Unfortunately for the sellers, the washing machine died 4 days before closing, so they gave us some money to buy ourselves a new one. That way we could buy the one that we wanted. Luckily, we hit the Labor Day sales, and a got neat high-efficiency top loader at a good price. We also got a patio set, a big screen TV (which Steve and I promised ourselves as soon as we moved out of the apartment), a gas grill, and a charcoal grill.

Steve did a great job cleaning out the apartment, and I did tear up a bit during my final walkthrough. The apartment had served us well for over 9 years, although now that I am in the new house, I don't miss it at all.

Jared had some great quality time with the grandparents when they were here. He was always going for walks and meeting the neighbors. Steve and I were stuck inside unpacking, so we were a little late meeting people. Although a family down the street has a 4 year old girl and a 2 year old boy. We've met up with them a bit, and they are so nice. I came home one day to a trash bag full of little boy clothes on my front porch from the mom down the street. She said her son had grown out of them, so we could use the clothes for Jared - how sweet! :)

Our neighborhood is near the Severn River, and we have 2 community beaches and a pier. The first time that Steve, Jared, and I walked down to the beach, we did fine. One the way home, we got some streets confused, and it took us 30 minutes to find our way home, when it only took us 10 minutes to get there! :) After we moved in, the neighborhood also had a big picnic at one of the beaches, so it was nice to meet some more neighbors.

Chris and Kristy came over to check out the new place, and to watch Penn State get beat by Alabama. At least we had some good company to watch the beating. :P
Karin and Ella also stopped by for a visit. We love showing off our new place, and we'll have to have a housewarming party soon!

Steve has been Super-Dad! He installed magnetic locks on the inside of our kitchen cabinets, which was a pain, but they work well in preventing our pots and pans from getting taken all over the house. (We did leave one cabinet unlocked for Jared to play in.) He also installed baby gates at the top and bottom of the main stairs. This proved problematic due to our banisters, but we came up with a good solution.

After more than 14 straight months of being with Jared every night, Steve had to go on travel for work. He left on Sunday evening, and came back on Wednesday evening. I decided that there was no reason to stay home with Jared myself, so I packed us up and we went to my parents' cabin in the woods. Jared had a great time playing with all of the acorns that Pappy collected for him. He also liked swinging in the hammock swing. Afterwards, he took off and ran across the in-ground pool, which luckily had a tight cover on it. Jared got a little wet, but no damage was done to Jared or the pool. Jared also liked that the cabin had a swinging screen door, so he could go inside or outside as he pleased. Jared also got wheel-barrow rides. The drives to and from the cabin were not exactly what I would call fun, but they were tolerable. Most of our CDs are still packed, and Steve had the iPod, so I had to listen to the same Kiddie CD over and over and over again.

Jared has been developing during all of this time too. A month is a long time in baby-time. He now babbles constantly. He is also pretty good at waving, although it takes him a while to get started, so the person has usually left by the time he starts waving. He makes an "o" with his mouth, which is so cute. He is quite the imitator: when I was done making the bed, I was pushing the mattress back even with the box spring. When I was done, Jared came over a gave the mattress a shove to help me. :)

Jared LOVES to be outside, which is great at the new house, except for the large number of mosquitoes. I guess that what happens when you are so close to water. He loves to sit in the gravel part of our driveway and make piles of rocks and move the piles around. I really think he could do this for hours! He also loves playing on the deck. He cleans off the deck by picking up each leaf and dropping it over the side of the deck. This is actually pretty helpful.
We have so many trees in our yard that we don't really have to mow any grass, but the previous owner said that he usually gets about 100 bags of leaves when they drop. The front yard already needs raking. Steve and I are looking into buying a leaf blower.

That's all that I can think of right now.