Life in the Carriage House
As I type this, the wind outside is howling, blowing leaves across the yard and bending trees to its will. Rain pelts down, making it impossible to let the boys run around out there. Instead, Zach is sitting on the floor and pointing out every "bus" in his book. Alex is working on removing the dirty laundry from the basket, but selectively. He doesn't want just any pair of old socks.
The day started out with the boys getting up at 5am. Like up-for-the-day kind of up. Ugh. Jim heard us banging around in the living room and came out to investigate. I took that as a sign I could go back to bed for 30min. muhahaha
The boys are still adjusting to being in Olean. After the long van trip, they want nothing to do with their care seats, which makes grocery shopping a bit difficult. It rained the last time we were here and it's doing the same now. Goodbye SC sunshine. They love playing outside here, especially since there's an abandoned truck parked out back they can pat.
Even though we're staying in a bed and breakfast, it's very much a farm-type scene. There's a giant red barn right outside our windows, and a huge corn field out back. All of the neighbors up and down Four Mile Road have their own barns and corn fields, too.
The boys also love the couch. It must be shorter than ours since they're able to climb up onto it with ease. This is unfortunate for us since there's no way to gate it off. They've already fallen off it, Alex off the arm onto his head and Zach off the side onto his rear end.
Life in the Cottage
We moved into the three bedroom house across the street and will be here for the remainder of our temporary housing. It feels really great to be in a place that has separate rooms for the kitchen and living room. It's actually quite spacious, especially with the second floor. It's not without its quirks, though. There's about 3 light switches for lights in the entire place. The rest are on pull cords. The bath tub is raised up in a low ceiling room, so the shower head is about an inch taller than me. There's no sneaking around upstairs with all of the creaking. An unheated sunroom has become the boys' favorite space, especially since the rain is never ending. They can watch cars go by, drive their buses, and throw their bouncy balls.
The worst thing is the fleas. It only takes one to find me and rebuild their civilization, and plenty more than that are hard at work. I had 37 bites at last count, but it's higher than that now. I'm so delicious, the fleas were jumping out of the house after me. I killed 6 that had leapt out onto the front porch while I was standing there. The boys each have 3 bites, one of which is on Alex's cheek. I don't think Jim has a single one. In a way I'm glad I'm protecting the boys. On the other hand, I'm very uncomfortable (each bite swells and itches) and "flea paranoia" has set in, where I constantly think I have fleas on me (which I probably do).
So after trying a spray that's not supposed to be harmful to kids that didn't work, we've decided to use the cats as flea bait. My parents got them on Advantage flea drops and we're bringing them back with us as a way to kill all of the fleas without having to coat the place in pesticides. I'm trying to resist the urge to toss them in the house and then check into a motel for a couple of days. I hate fleas that much. I'm also not looking forward to having the cats in such a small space with us, but I know the boys will love having them.
Other Stuff
Thanksgiving was good. We got here Tuesday night so I was around a little to help with Turkey Day prep. We brought all of the boys' toys with us, so it "Looks like a toy store exploded in here" as my dad put it. The boys ate a little turkey and a LOT of bread. Alex had a few bites of broccoli with cheese. Both apple and pumpkin pies got the boys' "MMMMM" seal of approval. Stuffing was spit out and handed back.
My mom wanted the boys to try eating off of little plates. Alex was the first to get his taken away for banging it on the table. Zach thought a plate was like a cup, and would tilt the entire thing until the food slid down into his mouth (or more often, his shirt or into the floor). Watching them at the table, I think I should be giving them utensils so they can practice scooping and stabbing. Maybe we'll start with forks. They already take the fork out of my hand and feed themselves.
Alex got another case of bad diaper rash. He had a dirty diaper in the middle of the night and we didn't realize it until morning. I should have known something out of the ordinary was wrong because he kept waking up and crying. I just thought it was his teeth. His bottom canines are on the verge of popping through. Instead I sent in another nomination for Worst Mother of the Year. Sigh. It's getting better now, though, and he doesn't cry when I change his diaper. On the bright side, he tells us when his diaper is dirty, so I have two boys with this skill now.
Originally when this whole "Let's move to Olean!" thing came about, I was concerned how the boys would take it. Luckily they're still young enough that they accept their current reality without comment (unless you count their loathing of riding in the van). We were in Greenville, then we were in the Carriage House, then the Cottage, and now my parent's house. It's been a busy two weeks and I've tired of living out of suitcases. I haven't had time to unpack us at the Cottage yet.
Also in housing news, we go in on Monday to sign the papers on a house in Allegany. We saw it on Monday and went back Tuesday for a second viewing. It was a weird situation where we met the entire family that lives there and knew they were running out of time to sell. They want to move 3 miles away so the mom and triplet daughters can have a horse farm, but have to sell their house first. It's been on the market for almost a year. Now there's another family that is interested in the horse farm and are scheduled to go back for a second viewing on Sunday.
On thing you'll notice if you click on the link to the house is there's zero pictures of the upstairs or basement. This is because they need work, especially the bathrooms. They still have the original 1970's pink and green sinks and toilets and they are ugly. The basement just needs some carpet and paint. The family that lives there completely renovated the 1st floor but didn't have time to get to the others.
We talked them down quite a bit on the price. They modified our offer by wanting the hot tub and playset to go with them. Jim joked that we should have countered that they had to take the above ground pool with them, too. I'm not sure what we're going to do with that thing. I won't keep it unless it can be 100% kid proofed, and I'm not convinced that can happen. I also don't want to have to take care of it.
One thing that was a bit of a surprise is that the house doesn't have air conditioning. It doesn't even have ducts that you could tie one into. It operates off of hot water baseboard heat. Neither of us have lived in a house like this, so it should be interesting. Near as we can tell, most people buy window air conditioners for their bedrooms and only run them a couple of days a year.
With the layout of the house, it's possible the boys will have a play area on every level (unless Jim decides the basement is his "man cave"). The dining room, kitchen, and den are all in a row which makes it nice to keep an eye on the boys. The house is bigger than the 2,200 sqft listed. For whatever reason, the houses in this area don't count finished basements in the total.
We're planning on coming back to Greenville the week before Christmas and staying in our house. In fact, we still have the boys' 18mo check-up scheduled with the pediatrician there. hehe I'm not sure what going back there will do to Alex and Zach. I guess they need something to tell the therapist later.
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