Cori - 20 months

Tonight we had a "good" mealtime

Cori does great with her spoon!

Enjoying her Clubhouse ball-pit (enjoying it more when she tips is over!)

going...

going....

gone!

Note the static hair and happy smile!

Cuteness

Lots of updates about the house lately, but not much about our little bird. Cori is in a really cute stage, when she isn't in the midst of a tantrum. Her language has really exploded with lots of new words; I haven't been keeping a list but we think she's doing great! I swear she has the sweetest little voice when you hear her say "apple" or "ball" or "poopy"(don't ask). She isn't stringing 2 words together yet, like to say "more milk" though she can say both words individually. I'm hoping we're rounding the bend in the infamous 18-24 month developmental spurt, though I know it's a big bend.

She loves to play in her inflatable ball pit and tip it back and forth. She screams in joy and laughs quite a bit. Surprisingly she doesn't seem too shy around people. She knows quite a bit of answers to what sounds animals make, and she loves loves loves to sing and dance still. Art is also quite a favorite past time. One of the funniest things she does is mimic what we would say when someone would burp - "burp, piggy!" and then "excuse me".... so when someone burps, she erupts into a fit of giggles and then says "burp, pippy! excuse me".

Some small disappointments are that our little bird has had a cold for over a week now and her nose is still not getting any less snottier. And I realized that I've not taken a picture of Cori in a few weeks, not since the big snow storm we had. I'm vowing to get back on that as it won't be too much longer that we're in this house, and chances are that Cori is never going to remember being here... weird!

checking in

It's been a really crazy week here, but in good ways! On Monday I was offered a job I had applied for prior. It's still with my same company, just in a different group. I'm really excited because this group is going to be going places quickly! They are already getting a lot of press internally and externally of our big company. The group I am joining is our Energy Management group - they go into schools and warehouses and other work places and do energy audits and advise how to become more energy efficient, more green. Green is good! I'll still be doing the same kind of work (project coordination and management) but focused on one group. Thus I'm also hoping that it means I get to deal with less crap than I do now! ha ha But it is a great promotion with a little salary increase which never hurts!

So work has been swamped, and we also had the buyer's inspection this week. We also got word that someone else really, really wanted to tour our house and make a back-up offer. Apparently this couple loved what they saw online and just wanted to confirm it in person. We could only use their offer if something fell through with the first buyer's offer (she couldn't get a mortgage, she had unreasonable demands after the inspection, etc).

We've also spent some time trying to wrap our head around the huge task looming before us - moving. "dread" isn't a strong enough word to say how I feel about packing up our house and moving everything. It isn't like we can just throw things into a box and deal with it at the new house... staying with my mom for the rest of the year means we have to sort out what needs to go to storage, what has to go with us, what needs to just be tossed out... ugh! And we already have a bunch of stuff in storage - that all needs moved to the larger storage unit.

We've been enjoying the great non-winter weather lately, and we can't believe that January is almost over with!

great news

Notice anything in particular on our for sale sign??

Yes, that's right - after only 4 days on the market we got an offer and accepted. The offer was for our full asking price, no seller's assist (where the buyer asks the seller to contribute money towards closing costs - very common in today's real estate market). The buyer has asked for closing to be at the end of February.

We were really surprised to have received such a good offer, and so quickly! But we had an average of 2 people touring the house daily. I swear my phone was ringing every hour with our agent calling asking if we could accommodate this or that time where people wanted to see the house. I asked her if this was normal for the house to get so much activity and she said it wasn't in her experience.

After we accepted, we had to cancel 6 more established tourings from people. And oddly enough, 1 of them still showed up! (They didn't get a message that the house was now under contract). It was kind of scary to have someone in the house (door locked) when I was down in the basement doing laundry. I heard them upstairs and came up and explained the sitation. Later that night I asked our agent to remove the lock box from our door. I just don't want a key to the house around needlessly.

We are excited that our house didn't sit on the market and we'll be able to focus on the new house in a few weeks. We're not exactly sure when we'll build until we close on this house and pay off some things. Sometime between Halloween and Christmas. We're also excited that we do not have to maintain the level of clean we did for the showings. It got old quickly - this, coming from a type-A neat freak! But maintaining that lifestyle wasn't possible with a toddler, cat and 2 full-time working adults in the home, and all during the winter. (I'd still love to know why people can't take their shoes off when entering a home, even when a polite sign asks them to do so?!)

So for now, we're back to living sloppily (if that is a word) and when the calendar rolls around to February we'll start figuring out what weekend we're moving into my mom's (probably Feb 20 & 21) and offering sacrifices to the weather gods for no snow that week. And I really dread packing up let alone hauling it all around. A particular someone in this house won't hire movers, so expect some calls my friends!

More Traffic

Our agent met with the couple that looked at the house yesterday. They had a lot of glowing things to say about the house and how nicely it showed (yay!!) but they didn't like how close the neighbor's houses are. It made me scratch my head... have you SEEN the houses in Allegheny county?? That's the norm. We're not in Des Moines Iowa. But then our agent said they weren't from around here, so that made sense. I also had to laugh as they said the house would sell fast since it is so close to town (making for an easy commute). To which Dave said "Again, that would be perfect for the Petruska's!" Ha Ha

But we have another showing this morning with a couple whose agent is from a different agency. So we're definitely getting a lot of hits on the web and some good traffic. Luckily we didn't have to stay up until 1 AM cleaning since we were still okay from being show ready earlier in the day. We put away toys, wiped down the floors (stupid salt) and this morning opened blinds / curtains. This meant Cori slept 11 hrs (much, much needed) and I even got 7 hours!!

We have an open house on Sunday Jan 24th and then an agent tour on Tuesday the 26th. An agent tour is when our agent brings in a bunch of other agents from her agency to see the house. Then they can go back and tell their prospective buyers how nice the house is.

In this case, traffic is good!

House exhaustion

Yesterday the house officially went on the market. Link here (but ignore the repeating pictures - not sure what is up with that!) We had the house pre-inspected and they didn't find anything major. Later that night our Realtor came down with signs for us and told us there was a younger couple wanting to see the house today. Panic pretty much set in as the basement bath still wasn't painted, caulked, no baseboards, etc. And there was salt-footprints on every square inch of the first floor.

Thank goodness Cori was asleep already as Dave and I proceeded to clean for 4 hours. As exhaustion set in though, Cori decided to start to fuss and was up from 1-3 AM. I am going on 3 hrs sleep which translates into pure adrenaline and caffeine! But right now, someone is in our house (weird to think about) and hopefully we'll get some good feedback.

I'm glad we're generating interest but seriously, having to do this nightly (or live in a spotless house) is going to get old real fast! It would be different if we didn't have Cori or it wasn't winter but it is what it is, right?

Otherwise things are fine - we are looking forward to seeing the sun shine later this week and breaking the 32 degree mark. Hope you are all well and warm out there!

House for Sale

Here we go! We've signed the paperwork and are ready. The house is going on the market on Monday morning. Yikes! It doesn't feel real, and I dread packing everything down the line.

The bathroom shower replacement this week was stressful; it looked like the bathroom was basically gutted (well, it was down to the studs where the shower was!). And it looked like Home Depot's toolbox exploded in the basement. But the new shower is in and the drywall is up around it. We're just waiting for the last mud to dry so I can paint.

The home stager came on Friday which was a really fun, eye opening experience. I learned a ton about scale and weight and texture and balance. The ideas she suggested had an immediate impact. She said I had done a lot of prep work by decluttering and depersonalizing the spaces.

Both the realtor and the stager feel that the house won't be on the market that long. I don't know if they are blowing smoke or serious, but I guess time will tell. I'll post a link to the MLS on Monday, but in the meantime, here are the photos that will show.

Sled Ride

It was soooo beautiful outside this morning!

Dave has today off too and we took Cori out for her first ever sled ride!

She must be exhausted- she has been napping for 2 hours now. Very rare indeed for us!

Happy New Year to all!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration - 4 days worth of family gatherings which was just wonderful!

Here is our little tree this year - smaller than usual but a good thing with Cori this year.

Cori on Christmas morning

She loved the Mickey Mouse Club-house from Santa!

Notice she wanted to stay in it to open her other gifts.

Ready to fit right into the family by drinking Bailey's Liquor!

Lots of smiles this year!

Mickey's biggest fan

We're all done and ready for Christmas over in the Sprague household. I got out the video camera to charge the battery and forgot about the disk I had in it. Here's one of the finer out-takes.

Cori LOVES Mickey Mouse. Every day when I bring her home from daycare, she grabs the remote and gives it to me so that I can put on Mickey Mouse. I've given up trying to not go through this routine; the dramatic tantrum that happens if I don't isn't worth suffering through 22 minutes of Mickey daily. So thank heavens for "On Demand" (I just wish they'd release some new episodes!)

Anyways- here is Cori dancing to the intro song like she always does. Cracks me up!

Christmas Tree

I found my mojo - all it took was to see Cori's expression when she looks at the tree all lit up and says "WOW!" over and over again... proof that it is the simple things indeed.

missing mojo (christmas edition)

It's December, and since I've not updated since November, you can say this post is over due. I've been procrastinating updating because I've just not been in the holiday spirit. Sure, it's post-Thanksgiving (I can't begin to think about Christmas any earlier - one holiday at a time for me). But I feel like I have so much going on mentally that I just can't stop and relax and enjoy (story of my life).

Primarily, I'm focused on listing the house for sale in January. So a big part of my missing mojo is just that I don't feel like decorating only to tear everything down shortly there after. And I worry that Cori is really going to get into things (I'm thinking tree toppled on its side, stocking holders falling onto her head when she grabs the stockings, broken figurines, gifts torn open, etc). Since Cori is still to little to really get into Santa or understand the meaning of Christmas, in addition to us being on a really tight budget, I kind of feel like it's all for not. So why bother.

Yeah, I know - bah humbug. Maybe it will wear off closer to the 25th. Maybe I need some snow to feel in the holiday spirit. Maybe getting the tree this weekend will start to swing my spirits. But my "holiday joy" meter is on low.
One thing we did do Christmas related was to visit Phipps for their winter flower show. It provides a nice background for Christmas pictures of Corinne (when she stopped long enough to be photographed!)