OH.MY.GOSH.

Yesterday, we went to see a couple of houses "for fun." Judging from the info and photos online, they didn't look bad, but neither of them struck us as possibly being THE ONE.

As it turned out, one of them had a nicely updated kitchen and a nicely updated bath, but the rest of the place was a shithole. (Pardon my language, but seriously. There's no other way to describe it.)

But when we stepped foot into the other one, something happened. Dare I say it... it felt like a home. A home that could be ours. Still, we hesitated. We're not the type to take big decisions lightly. We research electronics and baby gear to death, we don't go out and buy things on a whim. So as you can imagine, we're most certainly not going to go all gung-ho on a house right away.

But after we left it, we kept talking about it. Kept talking about all of its positive features, all of the things we loved. All of the things that were on our "wish list" that this place had. And the one thing it didn't. We weighed the options, trying to figure out if we could sacrifice one thing for the benefit of so many others. And questioned whether that one thing was really that much of a sacrifice at all.

Today, we went back to see the place for a second time, with my mom and Michael's dad in tow. And our parents? Well, they pushed us over the edge, really. They loved it and thought we should go for it. Our realtor emphasized all that we would be getting for the money. We walked through the house with a fine-tooth comb, checking out all of the nooks and crannies and details that we had missed yesterday. We imagined how we would arrange furniture in rooms. We talked about the minor cosmetic updates we would make.

We imagined our lives in this house.

And tomorrow, we will sign an offer.

Tonight has been filled with talks of mortgages and down payments, inspections and closing dates, contingent and non-contingent offers. We've debated over a $1,000 difference in offer price.

We are praying that things will work out as they should. I know in my heart that they always do, but it still doesn't keep me from being nervous. If you know me at all, you know that I have trouble dealing with the unknown. But, by this time tomorrow, we should know whether or not we are homeowners (again).

We would appreciate all of the positive vibes we can get right now. For the home we hope will be ours and for selling the one that is currently ours.

*fingers crossed*

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Snow Angel

We've been meaning to take Nora outside into the snow for a while now. After all, we have had A LOT of snow this year. But this winter has been especially frigid, and it was difficult to justify taking a teeny baby out into the cold.

This morning, however, things kind of fell into place and we took advantage. For one, Nora is a bit bigger now, and is almost sitting up. Secondly, we got some fresh, pretty snow last night. And finally, the temperatures were in the upper-30s, so it was relatively comfortable outside.

We bundled up Nora and ventured out into the yard to snap a few pictures before her morning nap.

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Address Change

No, we have not found a new house yet. And we haven't sold our current one, either. (Boo.)

Heather Drive has a new home on the web. Check out the URL up top of this window.

That's right--you can now access my blog at www.heatherdriveblog.com. If you have me bookmarked as heatherdrive.blogspot.com, no worries, as you will be automatically redirected. But if you're ever in situations where you need to type it all in, I hope that this simplifies things a bit.

More changes to the blog will be coming soon!

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Lovely Little Saturday

...with lovely little smiles.

She is my heart.

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The Boy Who Cried Wolf

As I was leaving work yesterday, a few of my coworkers were discussing the weather forecast for today, saying we were supposed to get a good bit of snow (6-10 inches) and that conditions were going to be pretty bad.

I lightheartedly scoffed, "Oh, suuure. That's what they say. I'm sure we'll wake up to a dusting!"

You see, I have reasons for my skepticism. We've had a lot of false alarms this year. Frankly, our meteorologists don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Take the "Groundhog Day Storm," for instance. After a massive storm system essentially leveled Chicago and the midwest by blasting everyone with more than two feet of snow, our area was hustling and bustling, preparing for the "snowpocalypse" that had our weather forecasters practically guaranteeing 14-20 inches of snow.

It was all anybody talked about for days. Any real breaking news got pushed aside in favor of coverage of the impending storm.

The grocery stores were mobbed with people trying to buy milk, bread, and other staples to get them through should they be trapped in their houses for days. (I've never understood this. We live in New York, not Virginia. Even if we get two feet--I have not been literally "snowed in" in a good 10 years, and even then it lasted for less than 24 hours. Do people really not have enough food in their cupboards to survive for 24 hours?!)

All of the schools cancelled classes. Not only did they cancel them, but they cancelled them THE NIGHT BEFORE. That almost never happens here. Almost never.

Imagine everyone's surprise when we all woke up to find that we had maybe four inches of snow on the ground. In fact, when I made my commute into work, the roads were less treacherous than they had been on February 1. It turned out that the MASSIVE storm, the BIGGEST OF THE DECADE (or whatever they were calling it), that was sure not to miss us--missed us.

Jackasses.

So, all of this to explain why I may be a bit of a skeptic when it comes to weather forecasts. And why I so easily brushed off the idea that this morning would result in anything other than a typical snowfall.

Upon first glance this morning, it appeared that I was right. It had snowed, and was snowing, but it was just a few inches. No big deal, at least not yet.

BUT THEN I GOT ON THE ROADS.

And holy hell. It was easily the worst commute I've had all winter (and my commute is short, people). My anti-lock brakes kicked in pretty much every time I engaged them, and my highest speed was probably 20 miles an hour. I fish-tailed nearly every time I made a turn, and there were a few times that I know I would've slammed into surrounding cars--if there had been any. This week is "February Break" for all of the schools in our area (they get a week off in February; I don't really know why, but it was awesome when I was growing up!), and it appears that our towns and cities believe that if kids aren't in school, roads aren't worth plowing. Lovely.

To top it all off, when I finally arrived at work and was pulling through the parking lot, I completely RAN OVER a curb with the tires on my driver's side. It was totally covered in snow and I didn't see it. In addition to the 6-10 additional inches of snow they are saying will fall today (snow brush FTW), I fear that my tires could be flat when I go to leave work today.

When I walked into the office, I had a few coworkers say, "HEATHER! This is all your fault!" (You know, because out of the millions of people in the world, Mother Nature apparently listens to me when I trash-talk the local meteorologists. Obviously.)

As I trudged to the kitchen in my snow boots, in search of the water cooler, my only response was, "You know what they say about the boy who cried wolf!"

P.S. Is it spring yet?

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New Addiction

Words with Friends.

I'm not lucky enough to have an iPhone yet (I'm not due for my Verizon upgrade until November), but my husband kindly lets me borrow his on nights and weekends so I can keep up with the six or seven Words with Friends games I have going on at any given time.

I've played against friends and coworkers. Internet pals and random strangers.

I've kicked ass. And, well, I've had my ass kicked. (I'm looking at you, Michelle. Twice. Can you say "rematch"?)

It's fun, and I love the challenge of it. It's probably a good thing that I don't have access to the phone during the day, because that way I can't get distracted with playing during work hours!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Words with Friends is a smartphone version of Scrabble. As far as I know, the app is only available to iPhone and Droid users. (I'm a lowly BlackBerry owner, booooo.)

I love how it so gently says, "YOU LOSE!" at the top. Nice.

Until my upgrade, I will live vicariously through Michael, and enjoy my shared custody on nights and weekends. Hopefully, by the time I get an iPhone of my very own, I'll be a Words with Friends MACHINE.

Watch out, world.

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2.22.02

Nine years ago at this exact moment, I was getting to know the man that would become my husband.

We were sophomores in college, and we were both out at one of the local college-town bars as part of a large group of friends. It was a Friday night. I was there with my roommates. He was there with his. A few of my roommates knew a few of his roommates. One thing led to another, we all got to talking and drinking. You know how that goes, especially in college.

I was familiar with most of the guys in his group--we all lived in the same dorm building. The guys lived right downstairs from us girls, Michael included. I had seen him around (we were actually in a public speaking class together that semester), but we had never really talked.

After a while at the bar, my roommates were bailing on me. One by one, two by two, they all began packing up to head home for the night, but I was having fun and wasn't ready to go back. It was always our "rule" not to leave a girlfriend out alone, so we were discussing whether I should stay out or go back with them. The guys all reassured my friends that they would watch out for me, so I stayed behind to hang out with them. Soon, however, they were ready to go to a bar that I couldn't get into (so funny to think back on those days, isn't it?), and I was unsure of what I was going to do. But then, this guy that I had just met, Michael, chimed in--"I'll stay with her." We all agreed that Michael and I would stay behind at the bar-that-didn't-I.D.-me while the other guys went ahead, and we would meet up at the bar-that-let-minors-in-all-the-time in an hour or so.

And so I found myself face to face with this Michael guy. Just the two of us. We got to talking and found out we had a lot in common. Although college was a few hours away from home, we soon determined that we were actually from the exact same town (he just happened to go to the neighboring school district instead of the same one as me). I actually didn't believe him. I made him show me his license so I could see his zip code. :) We found out that the houses we were planning to rent for junior year with our roommates were on the same street. We both worked for the same company (different locations) back home.

Soon, it was time to meet up with the rest of the guys again, so we set out to walk to the next bar together. It was on the walk that he told me he had just celebrated his 21st birthday. Again, I didn't believe him. (Man, I was a skeptic!) Again, I made him show me his license. HA!

Despite my carding him twice on our first "date," we obviously hit it off. We unofficially dated each other for a few months before making our relationship official (meaning we were EXCLUSIVE, y'all) on April 28.

We've been together ever since.

It's amazing to look back at where we started, knowing that we had no idea then that we'd end up where we are now, married with the most beautiful baby girl we could ever dream of having.

Nine years! We're not much for celebrating little anniversaries like this, but there will never be a February 22 that goes by that I don't remember 2.22.02.

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Hysterical

I recently posted about how Nora had discovered Tessa.

Now, she is not only aware of Tessa; she thinks Tessa is HYSTERICAL. This is the hardest I have ever heard Nora laugh. It went on for several minutes, as she just could not get enough of her.

I have watched this video probably 50 times today. And I can't help but smile each and every time.

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Solidarity

When Nora was born, my intention was to exclusively breastfeed her until she is six months old, as that is the current recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), etc. I knew that realistically, we might not make it all the way to six months, but I figured it was a good goal to have.

Then, when we were at Nora's four-month pediatrician appointment in January, our doctor told us that she was very happy that Nora was doing so well with the breastfeeding. She asked how long I intended to nurse her, and I told her six months, which she was very pleased with. However, she recommended starting some solid foods before I originally planned. Her reasoning is that apparently, the "very few" babies who do make it all of the way to six months without starting solids tend to have problems accepting solids. So, our doctor encouraged us to start rice or oatmeal cereal once a day between five and six months old, just to get her used to the idea of eating solids prior to six months of age.

Alrighty, simple enough.

Despite her recommendations, we weren't in a huge hurry to start solids. For one, breastfeeding has been really EASY, and to add another activity (like preparing and feeding Nora solids) into our daily routine is OK, but not something I was dying to do. Secondly, THE POOP. I was not looking forward to changes in Nora's poop--especially since we cloth diaper. Breastfed baby poo is no big deal, easy to handle, easy to clean... *sigh* Change is hard, y'all.

Anyway, on Thursday, when Nora was about 5 months and 1 week old, we figured we better bite the bullet and start working on solids with Nora. And frankly, we had reason to suspect she was ready. For weeks, she has been OBSESSED with watching us eat, trying to grab our food, putting anything and everything into her mouth, etc.

When we got home from work and daycare, she seemed to be in a good mood, so I mixed up some baby oatmeal cereal with some breast milk. (We are skipping rice cereal... at least the white rice variety. Interested in knowing why? We are following the philosophy of the "WhiteOut" campaign.) As I approached her with it, she seemed pretty interested, and even opened her mouth as I moved the spoon toward her lips.

As you can see, she had a perplexed look on her face, but she didn't react negatively. She swallowed most of it, so I repeated with another spoonful. Then another.

And then she even smiled! I thought... SUCCESS.

As we got further into the feeding, she was spitting out more and more of it, until ultimately she was refusing it altogether. But she had consumed several spoonfuls (tiny spoonfuls, but still), so we were happy. We figured that for her first time, she had done fantastically! We were feeling pretty good about the situation.

Then came Friday night. I mixed up the oatmeal exactly as I had on Thursday, except she WOULD.NOT.EAT.IT. I placed the first spoonful in her mouth, she spit it out, made a face, and cried. Then refused to take anymore. We figured maybe she was not feeling it that night, but I was surprised because it just seemed like she suddenly HATED it.

After asking for some advice on Facebook, several friends told us that maybe she just doesn't care for the taste of the oatmeal. "Have you tried it? It tastes like cardboard," one of my friends said. A few people suggested mixing some fruit (banana or applesauce) in with the oatmeal to see if she would take it that way. So, tonight, we tried a little banana in with the oatmeal.

FAIL. Complete fail.

Nora started crying as soon as the spoon came toward her lips, and refused to even really taste it. She pursed her little lips together and would not even let me get the spoon in there! I'm not really sure where to go from here...

We're toying around with trying some other "beginner" foods, like sweet potato or pears.
I picked up some whole grain rice cereal; maybe she'll prefer that over oatmeal.
Maybe she's just not ready.

Whatever the case, this is certainly not as easy as I thought it would be!

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Baby's First Trip = Success

We had to get up around 6:00 this morning to get ourselves ready and to the airport for our flight, which was around 10:00. We actually made really good time, and we were off to the airport earlier than we originally expected. We snapped one last photo of Nora in South Carolina (in the parking garage, how exciting!) and hit the road.

I am happy to say that once again, Nora.was.PERFECT. She slept for the majority of the first flight (Charleston to D.C.), then literally slept from take-off to touch-down on the second flight (from D.C. to Buffalo). SUCH A GOOD GIRL!!

Michael snapped this cute pic of Nora and me on the plane:

It's in pics like these that I realize how small she still is. Gah, I love her.

On three of our four flights on this trip, no one had any problems with me flying with Nora in the Ergo carrier. It was only on one flight (where the flight attendant was seriously "by the book") when I was told that I had to be holding her. It wasn't a problem, really, but having my hands free (especially since she was sleeping) was certainly nice. As you can see above, I was actually able to READ! Amazing.

Things we learned about traveling with a baby:

• Having both a stroller AND a carrier was really convenient, both at the airport and while out and about in Charleston. We just made sure to stash the carrier in the basket under the stroller so we had it at all times.
• No need for a diaper bag. For the air travel, we just stuffed diapers, extra outfits, and other things of Nora's in our carry-ons or my pump bag. When we were out during the days during our trip, we simply put a few diapers and our travel wipes case in the basket under the stroller.
• It's worth bringing your own car seat. We bought this car seat bag by J.L. Childress, and brought Nora's car seat with us (sans base). All of the airlines let you check a car seat for free. And guess what? The bag is so big, we were able to fit a ton of other stuff in there, too. We packed most of Nora's stuff--sleep stuff, clothing, diapers, wipes--plus a few things of ours (extra clothing, toiletries, etc.) in there as well, and it was all FREE to check because it was in the car seat bag. SWEET.
• A pacifier clippy thing is a necessity. This is a must-have for us in all public places, but when traveling, it was especially helpful. We didn't have to worry about Nora spitting out or dropping her pacifier on dirty, nasty floors or airplane seats.
• This probably goes without saying, but make sure you have extra clothing for the baby in your carry-on. Nora had a blow-out diaper (thank you, disposables!) just as we were supposed to be boarding our connecting flight in D.C. If I hadn't had an extra outfit in our bag, we would've been screwed.
• Speaking of disposables... if you're cloth diapering, consider using disposables for travel. We couldn't imagine trying to deal with our cloth dipes on a trip like this (maybe if we were staying in a house or condo with access to a washer, but in a hotel? No.), so we made it easy on ourselves and picked up a pack of disposables instead. Aside from the blow-out in the airport, they worked out just fine.

Those are the tips that immediately come to mind!

All in all, an amazingly successful first trip with Nora. Now, we have our sights set on our trip out west this spring. It will involve longer flights AND a longer period away from home, so we're still a little nervous. But at the very least, this trip gave us a little bit of experience to have under our belts!

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Fort Sumter

To get to Fort Sumter, you have to take a ferry, which departs from a pier right next door to the South Carolina Aquarium. The boat was scheduled to leave at 2:30, so we arrived around 2:15 to make sure we could get tickets and board in time.

Once on the ferry, we settled in on one of the decks to hang out while we waited to depart for the fort. Today, instead of horses, Gavin was obsessed with WATER. :) No matter where we were on the boat or the fort, G just wanted to see the WATER.

Before the boat even started moving, we saw a dolphin or two:

We also took pics of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

Another first for Nora on this trip... first time on a boat!

Once we started moving, it got really cold really fast, so we went inside and took seats at a table and enjoyed the ride. If you're interested, they have a recording playing over the loud speaker that talks a lot about the Civil War and the history of Fort Sumter. While I do find American history really fascinating, I was distracted by Nora and found it difficult to focus on listening. Plus, recorded tracks are kind of boring, you know? I think it would've benefited from a real, live person speaking to us about it... it would've been more engaging.

The ferry ride was about 30 minutes out to the fort, at which time we all disembarked and entered Fort Sumter.

(A pic of the ferry.)

Once inside the fort, Gavin's new obsession became pushing his own stroller. There was something really funny about watching an innocent little guy playing amongst cannons.

Nora, on the other hand, fell asleep in her stroller as I was wheeling her off the ferry, so she napped in the company of cannons.

Some of the original brick walls.

After exploring the ground level, we went up the stairs and entered the museum. After reading about the history of Fort Sumter and viewing the exhibits, we exited to the upper level of the fort to take in all of the views.

It was such a beautiful afternoon!

During our tour of the Boone Hall Plantation house yesterday, our guide told us about how slaves used to make bricks. He told us that if we went out to Fort Sumter, we should pay special attention to the bricks laid there. If you look closely, you can see the fingerprints of the slaves who made them. Sure enough...

...you can most certainly see the finger impressions. I was completely fascinated by this. What an amazing piece of history.

Look at this one. You can see the impression of almost an entire hand. It's haunting, really. I ran my fingers over the prints and took a minute to think about the slaves whose hands had made them.

We took a few more pictures...

...and then it was time to get back on the ferry so it could depart to go back to shore. All in all, we had about an hour to explore the fort.

Back on the boat, we killed time by playing with the kids. Having had a fairly decent nap in her stroller at the fort, she was in a pretty good mood:

Back at the hotel, we were anxious to find a place to eat and get there so that we could actually get the babies to bed on time tonight. After hemming and hawing over where to go, and ultimately asking the front desk for some recommendations, we ended up at King Street Grille.

GOOD CHOICE. It was exactly what we were in the mood for, and we were welcomed with open arms--babies, strollers, and all. We were seated in a loft section of the restaurant, so we felt out of the way and comfortable there. The food was really good. I had a turkey club on a pretzel roll (holy deliciousness!), Michael had herb-encrusted salmon, Dave had a spicy paella, and Lynsay had a reuben sandwich. The menu offered a nice variety of food, so there was something for everyone, and thankfully, we all enjoyed our selections.

On the walk back to our hotel, we swung by Cupcake, a cupcake bakery. Michael and I picked up a s'mores cupcake and an almond cupcake, while Dave and Lynsay got a s'mores cupcake, a carrot cupcake, and a chocolate cake pop for Gavin. We got them to go so we could let our dinners digest a little bit and get the kids in bed before we enjoyed them.

We stretched Nora's bedtime until we could get the majority of our stuff packed up, as we have to leave for the airport fairly early in the morning. Once we got her in her pajamas and fed her, she went down really easily again. Thank goodness for a baby who has traveled pretty well so far, despite being sick.

We just ate our cupcakes a while ago, and while they were good, I wouldn't call them fantastic. There was SO.MUCH.FROSTING on them (and I am a frosting lover!), we had to scrape off the majority of it. The almond one had really great and distinct almond flavor, but the s'mores one didn't really taste much like s'mores. I couldn't even really pick out a graham cracker-like flavor, either. I actually feel sick to my stomach now, though I can't really blame the cupcakes. I have eaten A LOT of crap today, so it's probably cumulative. Don't get me wrong, it was all delicious, but definitely not healthy! (That's what vacations are for, right?)

We're calling it a night. Hopefully we can get some sleep for our day of traveling tomorrow. Fingers crossed that Nora handles the trip home as well as she did the trip down here!

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Angel Oak & Folly Beach

First things first: NORA SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! Wheeee! In fact, she slept until after 8:00 a.m. this morning, and probably would've slept longer had we remained quiet. Once we were close to being ready and it started getting close to 8:00, we began to move around the room as normal, actually hoping she would stir because we wanted to get the day started! We were so happy for her to get some sleep, given the circumstances--sick and away from home. She seemed to REALLY not be feeling well this morning, my poor baby.

Once she was up, though, we got her dressed and headed downstairs to meet Dave, Lynsay, and Gavin at breakfast. Shortly after that, we were on the road to the Angel Oak. Again, the drive was around 20-25 minutes, but it was nice because it was a BEAUTIFUL morning.

The Angel Oak is a live oak tree that is more than 1,500 years old. Isn't that crazy?

It was pretty cool to see its huge, sprawling branches.

We stayed for a while, just walking around and snapping lots of photos.

Look how sick she looks. :(

I was squatting down near the ground, taking photos like this:

When suddenly my little girl came into the frame, thanks to Michael lifting her up on that branch. She apparently thought it was a very fun game of peek-a-boo, because look at her smile!

What a goof.

There's not much else to see there, aside from the Angel Oak, so we probably spent maybe 30 minutes there before we got back in the car to head back the way we came. On the way back, though, we took a detour down to Folly Beach.

While it definitely wasn't ideal beach weather, we were perfectly comfortable in our jeans and jackets, so we walked around for quite a while, enjoying the breeze, the water, the sand, and the sunshine. Plus, Nora got to sit in the sand for the very first time.

There were a lot of starfish washed up on the shore!

Before too long, Dave and Lynsay had to head back to the hotel to get G down for his nap, so they left while we stayed behind to enjoy a little more time on the shore.

Once Nora seemed like she had had enough, we packed up and got back into the car.

Our next destination? A Verizon Wireless, so we could pick up a brand new iPhone for Michael. (I am so freaking jealous. I'm not eligible for an upgrade until November! WAHHH!) With the new phone in hand, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with our friends again.

While we were finishing up at Verizon, Dave ordered and picked up a pizza from Sabatino's for all of us to share for lunch. It was the most gigantic pizza I have ever seen. Dave ordered an extra large and it was just that... EXTRA LARGE. It was thin crust, New York style pizza, though, so between the four of us, we were able to handle it. It was really good, but pretty greasy. Nothing a few dozen napkins can't take care of, though! I should've taken a picture of how huge the pizza was (it was hilarious to walk in and see it on Dave and Lynsay's bed), but we were too busy devouring it.

Gavin should be up from his nap any minute, and then we have to rush out of here to go catch a ferry to take a tour of Fort Sumter. More later!

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