5 days?

It seems like longer than 5 days since I updated the blog. It's been a fairly typical week around here - Kate is doing new things and Mommy is coming up with wild ideas like buying a new house.

I blame my mother. The house they've been renting for the past 3 or 4 years was foreclosed on. The "gentleman" they'd been sending their rent checks to was pocketing the money rather than paying the mortgage on the house. Surprise! So they have been in limbo until the house sold at auction, which happened this month. Nick and I went with them to look at a house, and I started looking online at houses trying to find them somewhere new to rent. Coincidentally, they ended up renting a place that's only 1.5 miles from us, so they're super close now as opposed to a half hour away. However, house-hunting for them has given me The Fever. You know The Fever, right? The "I want a new house" fever. I downloaded the coolest app for my iPhone: it will tell me, no matter where I am, all the houses within a 1 mile radius that are for rent or for sale. I have been using it all over. It's so much fun!

Now this isn't an entirely unrealistic goal. Nick and I always said this house we live in now wouldn't be our forever home. Now that we have Kate, it's important that we relocate within the nest few years anyway for better school options. I still want to stay in Watauga because we really like living in this area. We just want a nicer neighborhood. But the recent searching I did for Mom has made the housing itch really break out. People who know me well enough know that when I get an itch, well I typically don't stop until it's gone.

This means I lay awake at night going through all the things I need to do to this house to make it ready to sell. Nothing drastic, mind you, because we just don't have the money for a complete overhaul of a bathroom or anything. There are a couple of rooms that could use some paint and there is definitely a lot of junk that has taken up residence in my home that needs to move on to Goodwill. So Nick should be happy I have the fever, because it means that our current home should get nicer with time. It's just going to be difficult to find time to do these things with an infant.

Speaking of, I'm sure you want to know what's Kate is doing this week. She has discovered that crawling is highly over-rated and she doesn't need to crawl in order to get to where she needs to go - she can roll. She's been rolling across the living room all week. Why not? It's a lot easier than crawling, right? She seems to show great interest in walking. She will take several steps if you hold her hands and assist her. The other day I caught her trying to pull up on the coffee table, but she had gotten herself stuck in a halfway there position so I had to help her back down. She's pulled up in the crib and in a box (unpacking at Grandma's), so it's only a matter of time before she conquers the coffee table. Who knows; she may skip crawling all together.

We bought her a big girl car seat this week. She still had about 12 pounds to go before outgrowing the infant seat (she's 18 pounds now!) but her feet were starting to dangle. It was also a little heartbreaking when you'd strap her in the seat and she'd struggle so hard to sit up instead of recline. Poor kid. Never mind that she's heavy and coupled with the car seat; let's just say Mommy and Daddy were getting tired of hauling that back and forth to the car. She seems to like it so far. She can stay rear-facing in this seat up to 40 pounds, which is awesome, and it will last forward-facing until 50 pounds.

Today is swim day, so I thought I'd share this cuteness from last Friday's swim date. Enjoy your weekend!!