With everything going on the past few days, I haven't had a chance to really think about the new house. We closed on Friday and move on the March 24th. That is so SOON. I'm still feeling mixed about it, mainly because I love our house so much.
But, the new place definitely has it's advantages. The beautiful weather on Saturday was a perfect day to break in the swingset. So, I pulled out Sweet Pea's tricycle and strapped her in. I put the leash on Charlie - who didn't know what to do with herself she was so excited. (I don't usually walk her since we have a yard with a little pea gravel area for pottying.) The three of us headed out bound for the new Casa de Mama Spot with Daddy-O planning to come by a little later.
Our new house is almost a mile away - only about eight city blocks. After Charlie got over the excitement of being outside of our yard and stopped pulling my arm off, the walk was really fun. I'm not one of those moms who takes a lot of winter walks. So, it's been a while since the three of us have been out
Sweet Pea loved riding the trike. She still can't quite reach the
pedals, so I had to push her. Nothing has ever been as much fun as being eye level with Charlie as she tooled along. She spent the first ten minutes laughing her head off because they were so close to each other.
It felt so good to be outside and not be cold. I felt like quite the urban mama walking around the city with my two girls.
We pulled up to our house just as a couple walked by with their dog. I was struggling trying to unlock the gate with Sweet Pea rolling away and Charlie trying to sniff the other dog. So, get this, they are sooooo neighborly, so friendly. This doesn't really happen in our neighborhood unless you're wearing colors.
They asked lots of nice questions, tell me they live three houses down, and then, invited us to cookout with them and our next door neighbors this summer. Ok, it's not a solid date and not until summer. But, how nice is that? On Friday, Daddy-O met our next door neighbor and her 2 1/2 year old daughter. We haven't met her husband yet, but she seemed really nice. We haven't even moved in yet and we have potential couple friends for us and a friend for Sweet Pea. Things are looking up.
Now for the other news . . . my dog . . . she is an oddball.
She's afraid of random things. She's claustrophobic. Are other dogs claustrophobic? A few years ago she slipped going up the stairs from our yard to the kitchen door and then refused to go up them again. I was working at the dog training place at the time and the owner told me to not feed her inside - to just put her food at the top of the stairs and eventually (and she was thinking maybe she'd miss a meal), she'd choose food over her fear. It didn't work. She stood at the bottom of the stairs crying and every time she'd try to go up the stairs, her little legs would just shake like crazy. After a day and a half, I gave up. I couldn't take it - she could just go through the basement door. She wouldn't go up those stairs for 9 months. One day, she just went up them like she'd never had a problem. We've had no stair problems since.
Well, our new house has stairs, lots of them. To go from the front of the house to the back, you go down along the side of the house and then, up a set of wooden stairs that you can see through. No go. Charlie wouldn't go beyond the first step. Okay, no problem. We could just go through house. No, same thing and the stairs going up to the front door aren't even scary.
So, we had to walk all the way around through the alley to the garage and into the backyard. Once we got in, she had a great time in the yard running around chasing tennis balls. But, I'm telling you, if she can't figure out those stairs, I don't know what I'll do. Why does my dog need to be crazy?
I swear she overthinks things, just like me. Don't think about the stairs, Charlie. Just go.
we are looking for a house too. tis the season... talk about not being able to agree yikes we have been looking for so long. He wants to leave city I want to stay -meanwhile I didn't get app deadlines right - ahh yes love add. So no school in city. suburb headed. As a freind of mine in DC says those darn schools what do you have to do to get in apply! Convinced city friends have checked out since I am leaving. Burb friends don't believe we will ever beable to agree on a house. I love my house I don't want to leave! How is that for a random vent on a blog I just found. Either can't talk to my friends about it or they are just plain tired about hearing about it. Thanks for the site....
Posted by: mjm | Monday, March 13, 2006 at 07:20 PM
Ohhh, how exciting. We are hunting for a new house, and getting so anxious to find one and move. Nice neighbors are my dream....
I'll just live vicariously through you for the next few weeks :-).
Posted by: chichimama | Monday, March 13, 2006 at 05:44 AM