It's been a while...

What an exhausting last couple weeks this has been! Kyle and I have actually moved quite a lot together in the past few years, but it's a whole new ball game when you have a child. I can do without if I forget something like my cell phone charger, but P-Marie comes with a lot of luggage, and all of it seems important to me and I don't want to forget anything. We had been moving little bits at a time, mostly going over there and working for a few hours after Payton goes to bed, but I didn't want to move all of Payton's stuff until we were ready. We officially stayed for the first time last week, and I was really worried about how she would react to a new room and a new routine. We put her to bed at her normal time though, and she has slept until 7:00 every morning without a peep! I was so relieved, and hope that the transition continues to be this easy for her. It has been very strange for me to wake up and have it be just Payton and I; I'm so used to lots of people around that it seems very weird. There's a big part of me that was really sad to leave Rick and Sue's house; I was so comfortable there, and I have such a great relationship with them that it was like living with some of my closest friends. I know we only moved 5 minutes away, but it will never be the same again and a part of me was really sad about that. We're also really excited though to finally feel settled here, and to make our own home. Payton and I had a fun morning together the first day we were here; after she ate breakfast (her favorite is "goki" which in Payton talk means yogurt), she wandered around the house opening all the different cupboards, drawers, just checking everything out. We even went for a little walk in our new neighborhood, except she didn't want to go in the stroller. She wanted to push her own baby down the sidewalk, thank you very much! :)

Walking her baby down the street

Big girl with her "goki" :)

She is such a big girl it's amazing. She is a copycat these days, and will imitate anything you do or say. This evening I was mopping the kitchen floor, and all of a sudden Payton is behind me. She had grabbed a diaper wipe and started wiping down the floor with me! Her favorite activies are helping load the dishwasher, washing her hands, helping with laundry, throwing her own diapers away, brushing her own hair, putting dirty clothes in the hamper... she is hilarious! Very independent, but if you put her in a room of people she's not familiar with, she will cling to me or Kyle like glue. Her talking is getting so much better, and it is so fun to really be able to communicate with her. She can say some of her favorite foods (and ask for them!) like "goki", "nanana", and "nack" (for snack). I was shocked the other day when I burped in front of her and she turned to me and said "scuse you!" :) She is still very into her babies, and will kiss them and pat their backs when she picks them up. She loves wrapping them up in kitchen dish towels, so I find those all over the house! We call them Payton trails. She's 20 months old today, and just doesn't look like a baby anymore. Sue was saying how she was looking at Bryan and Lindsey's wedding video, and Payton had just turned a year old. She looked so much more little and chubby! She has really thinned out and looks like a lean, active toddler. Her hair just keeps getting longer and longer (and curlier and curlier). It's actually pretty long when we're washing it, but once we're out of the tub it curls right up. She definitely gets that from her daddy!

My mom came down last weekend, which was wonderful. Her and Chelsea came down the weekend before as well to help us move, but I enjoy spending time with them so much that I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted to :) It was a dry day so we took the opportunity to head out to the pumpkin patch!

Haha doesn't she look thrilled?! :)



This one looks good mom!

Picking a pumpkin with Grandma Jo







It was fun, although Payton fell pretty hard right in the dirt near the end (poor thing). She was fine a minute later though! We got her three little pumpkins, and she always touches them as we leave the house. She points to them and says "apple", I have to remind her everytime that they're called pumpkins! :)

Saturday night my mom babysat so that Kyle and I could chaperone homecoming at the high school (chaperoning dances are quickly becoming known as our "date night") The theme was "firehouse", so of course we knew we could count on my dad to hook us up with gear to wear!

Mom, Dad and I before the dance

Representing the Tacoma Fire Department! Woot woot!

The house has been a lot of work, but it's really starting to come together. We have deep cleaned it, shampooed the carpets, installed new blinds, painted several rooms, mopped the garage (it smelled really bad in there because of the previous owners cats but it's a LOT better now), organized box after box after box, and Kyle has even mowed the lawn for the first time! Payton of course had to help. Can't do anything without that girl being all up in our business!

I watched daddy mow the front yard...

... and he let me help in the backyard!

I will post some pictures of the house once I feel like it's a little more presntable, right now it's still a little crazy. Hope everyone is doing well, and you will be hearing from me again soon (I promise I won't let two whole weeks fly by again). Have a great weekend!

Eye report

Hey all! I thought I would try and blog real quick about Payton's eye report in between the madness of moving :)

She wasn't scheduled to go to the eye doctor until next month, but I called and tried to get her in sooner because of concerns that it seemed her eye was turning in when she looked to the side. They were able to get us in last Thursday, so off to OHSU we went. Sue went with me, I don't think I could have done it without her! Payton is a handful now that she is running around, getting into everything. Not to mention she does not enjoy the doctor's office now!

Anyway, they took us back to the exam room and after we shared our concerns, the optomotrist did a test that we hadn't done before. He had these cards that had a textured part, and he watches for how your eyes track to it (they're naturally drawn to the textured area; she was sitting in my lap so I did it too, it was weird!) Unfortunately they patch one eye to see how the other is tracking, which she was NOT a fan of. We got through it though, and then he said the doctor would be in in a few minutes. How about an hour and a half later almost!!! I was about at my wits end. It's extremely difficult to entertain a toddler in those tiny exam rooms for that long, especially when you had driven an hour and a half to get there. I had run out of snacks, toys, songs, etc. when the doctor finally came in. He said that the test showed that for whatever reason, her left eye is not tracking as strongly as the right. He said they had noticed this at her last visit in May as well. But her prescription is the same in both eyes, so he wasn't sure why the left one would be "lazier" than the right. He said he would like to do a short term follow up, and have her come back in two months to do the card test again. If her left eye is the same or worse, then they will dilate her eyes to check her prescription and see if that needs to be adjusted. If not, then we will dilate at her second birthday. He said he wasn't concerned if her eye seems to turn when she's side gazing, they're mostly concerned about when it turns and she's looking straight on at something, which I think I've only ever noticed once. He said we could patch her right eye to make the left work harder, but he's not sure how well she would tolerate it and he's not sure it's necessary quite yet. He said he could go either way on that.

So that's the story! Her next appointment is in December, and we will see what the test shows and go from there. I will of course keep you updated!

Things are going well with the house, I will post pics soon. We have Payton's room painted, although it may need to be redone a little bit... the pretty light pink I had picked out dried to what my mother in law so eloquently put as pepto bismol pink. It is BRIGHT! We may need to tone it down with a light accent wall or something. The master bedroom is getting painted tonight, and while the boys tackle that I'm going to start cleaning the bathrooms and the kitchen. Tomorrow I'm headed up to Portland to meet the movers, who are going to drop off all of our stuff on Friday! I can't wait, there's just something about your own things that I miss so much. My plates, my towels, my pictures, everything. It will make our house look much more like a home! :)

New address!

We have officially closed on our home in Albany! I know you are all going to want to see pictures and hear all the specifics about our new house, plus I have another eye appt. of Payton's to report. I will try to get all this stuff out in a blog as soon as I can, but just an FYI that it may be a few days because we're going to be BUSY! This whole week after Payton goes to bed I'm heading over to the house to clean, scrub, paint, move, etc... It's going to be a pretty exhausting week, but I'm so excited to finally get to work on our house. Much more to come soon!

Our new address is:

1108 33rd Ave SW
Albany, OR 97321

My love to everyone, talk soon! :)