June Update

"Because?"

Baby A has entered her "why?" phase, but her word of choice at first was "because?" We heard this word a hundred times this month, but it did not get old. It's a little window into how her mind works, and all that she wants to know. An answer to one "because?" invariably leads to her asking it again, and me sometimes running out of explanations. What did our parents do when they couldn't Google 'why is the sky is blue?'

The month started with us listing our house for sale, somewhat suddenly, although we had been toying with the idea for awhile. As a result, we finally accomplished some much-needed de-cluttering and visited a ton of homes during their open houses. This was a lot of fun for baby A, who would flit about from room to room, deciding which one belonged to her, and which one was for Chaw-wals. Our original plan all along was to keep our home and rent it out in a few years and purchase one slightly above the cost of ours. But we were lured into possibly selling when we found our dream home and wanted to take a shot at it. It was off the marked about as quick as we could list, but we accepted an offer on ours and entered into escrow toward the end of the month. The problem is, we can't find another home that we love. There's limited inventory right now, and we want a home with a large yard and a pool. This is proving nearly impossible to find here in Orange County, even though we're willing to pay over a million. Almost every property we look at has one or the other. Two homes we put offers on had multiple offers, all over the listing price.
Amid the house-hunt, life continued on and we attended a local church carnival, where she will start school next fall.  I love planning things like this with her, but the spontaneous days are often the best. We came home one day to a "waderpillar" invasion, with 6 big guys crossing our lawn and headed to our door. I went into her closet and retrieved the bug holder from last season. She was so excited to see that by the very next day, they had formed cocoons. They transformed and hatched almost two weeks later, and she set them free in the backyard, waving bye to them.

The following week, I got together with the girls and she came along. She was able to sit the whole time without relying on any technology. She played with her cars that she brought instead. I used to run with these girls on a regular basis, and look forward to getting back to that that once our baby boy is. Because my time with them is limited now, I cherish it that much more.

This month, we tried out a new "classical" dance studio, which she loved. She had a huge smile on her face the whole time, and it is so exciting for me to watch her learn to do even simple things, like point her toes:
After one of her classes, she was given a blue cookie, and it was the greatest thing in the world to her! Just like when she finds "muddy puddles," a stick, or gives her cats a kiss. When she's not in one of her toddler moods (they all have them), she is just such a joy to be around, and it is contagious.

A muddy puddle on the first day of summer!

My last day of work was a few days after both she and her Daddy were done for the year, so he started her in her month-long daily swim lessons. It was hard for me not to be there with her, but I looked forward to the updates. It was such a good time for them to bond, and I noticed how much closer they were by the end of the week.

Last year, we did one session of mommy-and-me swim, and she mostly just held on to me. It has been exciting to see her progress and go off alone with her teacher.

At the very end of the month, my sister-in-law threw me a sprinkle for our baby boy. Celebrating with my friends and family helped it all seem more real and, exciting! We still don't know what's happening with our home, but his clothes are washed and my hospital bag is packed! If we do move, it will be right around the time he is born. Which is pretty convenient for me, since I won't really be able to do much except point and direct where I want things to go.

I'm off work now until January, and she will be with me the entire time. It is so nice to have this amount of time together stretching before us.