Where has the time gone?!

Well, we've moved, settled in, and have began to calm things down. Our downstairs neighbors are actually fantastic and take very good care of us. For a shady neighborhood, there are some very good people here.

Sophia will be 1 on Saturday!! I can't believe it!! My little baby is becoming a toddler so SO fast!! Her personality sure does shine through and she has figured out totally what she likes and what she doesn't like. I am so proud to call her my daughter and I am SO happy she completes our family. I couldn't imagine life right now without her. We don't have huge plans for her birthday. We are having a party at my folks house all family invited. Between Travis and I she has 4 sets of grandparents, who have all been invited- not only to celebrate her 1st birthday but to meet as Trav and I are planning to wed next year. It should be interesting.

Out of time for now, but I'll try to be back more often!

New town, new name.

As of tomorrow, Friday officially, we will be in our new place. Our downstairs neighbor is covered in gang tattoos and they have 3 pits-- one that he told us is vicious. Apparently only to other dogs but still.. I don't want anyone touching my kid OR my dog. Rad.

Swim lessons: went okay. The first lesson, they made me dunk her. She handled it better than I thought she would- and by that I mean she didn't inhale, gag, and puke up pool water. The trick is to dunk them all the way because if they can see air that's when they inhale... Who knew? Second class Saturday... hopefully it will be a little better.

Sophia got her first tooth!! Of course, one of the bottom ones. She handled that well too. Little bit of a fever and VERY clingy. I was prepared for the poops, drool, finicky eating.. none of that. Lucky me!

No other big news as of yet. Things are getting busy though!
She is 10 months now!!

Swim Class

was alright. The pool was like 82 degrees. Nice.

Sophia did well, she doesn't like to kick when lying on her back in the water. She likes to do what they call Kangaroo hop through the water-- they made me put her underwater. She did pretty well, I think it was more traumatic for me than her but we made it through.

More next week.

Life Changes

This are falling into place yet stressing me out all the same.

First off, we got our new apartment!! We have just over 2 weeks to get everything moved and utilities transferred and what not. 2 weeks is not a lot of time- in fact I'm really stressed about only having 2 weeks to get everything moved when Trav works and I have Sophia. I know we'll have help but in that little time-- I just hope we have enough. Once we are out of here and things start to empty here and fill there I will feel so so so much better.
I'm also looking at going to school for Phlebotomy. I would have to go for Medical Assistance but that could open doors for me to become a full time (or even part time) phlebotomist. It would keep in interested and it would be a HUGE financial benefit for our family. We could actually save for our wedding, a house, and all those other things in between.

I'm excited to move.
I'm excited for summer.
I'll be excited for school, should it work out.
I'm excited for Sophia to have a cleaner, healthier place to live and play.
I'm excited to have a landlord... not a slum lord.
There are many things to celebrate!!

We recently called our landlords about our closet because when you open the door you get punched in the face by a mold/mildew smell. He came over to look at it, said there was nothing wet (ok... obviously there is, mold needs wet to grow) and we are supposed to leave the door open for it to ventilate the closet. Yeah right!! I'm not opening that door so the entire house can fill with mold spores when I have a 9 month old in the house. Needless to say- they aren't going to do anything about it. It's our problem now.
However..
We went to look at a new apartment today downtown Grand Rapids. It's on Crescent St. the two closest cross streets are College and Michigan. It's kind of a fixer upper but it's much better then what we have now! They said we could paint whatever we want, whatever colors (BONUS!) and we fully intend to. It will not only make it nice, but more home-ish. We've already paid for May here so if all goes to plan we can start painting early May and slowly move our stuff so that by June we'll be moved and settled all at the same time. Oh, how wonderful that would be! We are also setting Sophia's swim class in stone this weekend. I think it will be so, so good for her.

I will feel like a huge weight will be off my shoulders if we get this new place. I will be more able to job search as I won't have to plan a time to drive to Grand Rapids, I can just get up and.... go. We won't have to worry anymore about our daughters immediate health as there won't be any mold to deal with. I don't know. It feels like everything is finally falling into place. :)

Swim away, swim away

I've decided to enroll Sophia and I in a parent child swim class. It will be good for me to get in the water and work off some of the extra baby weight I haven't been able to loose, and she loves the water. With my mom owning a pool, my dad having a huge fairly deep pond, and Travis' mom living on a lake..... more fitting reasons to do this. If, for whatever reason, she decides to plow into the water at any given time (which I plan to teach her not to), I want her to have a basic knowledge of what to do to keep herself afloat. Not to mention I don't know how to swim so it will be good for me too!

I think this is the first step to pulling myself out of this rut mentally and physically and it's a first step to teach Sophia a beneficial yet fun lesson.

I just need to find a bathing suit I feel comfortable in. HA! Maybe they'll let me use a wet suit.

9 months!!! And counting...

Officially, today, Sophia is 9 months already. How time flies. She is now pulling herself up to her feet, in fact I went in her room to get her out of her crib after her nap this afternoon to find her standing and freaking out in her crib. She can pull herself up and then panics because she doesn't know how to get back down. Great. So that means what.... in about a month she'll be walking? I'm so not ready.

We took her to Frederick Meijer Gardens the other day. She loved the butterflies, and it was our first noted family outing. It was really nice I wish we could afford to have more family outings like that. It made me re- realize how lucky I am to have a beautiful, happy, healthy daughter and a fiance that loves me. The picture up there is Sophia and Travis in the garden.

Happy Easter, everybody!! Enjoy the day and memories.