I didn't post for Spencer's 9th month? Huh. Other social media is cannibalizing my livejournal these days.

Spencer is still army-crawling. He can do a lot of things on the bed which he just chooses not to do on regular floor, such as knee crawl, climbing/pulling up, sitting up by himself. On the floor, he won't even roll from back to front, though he will in his crib.

He spends a lot of time standing and playing on the coffee table with my legs on either side of him. But no actual pulling up. He can walk with crazy stomps legs when I hold his hands.

Currently spencer has a cold, which is truly disgusting. I had forgotten the face crust of an infant with a cold. It even resists a good face wash.

Jack is pretty awesome these days, outside of morning getting-ready freak outs. He is good to Spencer for the most part, even when Spencer literally crawls in top of him and destroys his building projects. They both played in the living room for over an hour yesterday without incident.

I am counting the days until Jack is 3 and can do various activities without parent participation. Gym class, summer camp, swimming lessons. I am still on the fence about preschool next year. I registered for another year of our parent participation school, but that means that one morning a week I will have to find child care for Spencer while I work the class. And I need to find a second school for the days I have class for Spencer. Logistics do get exponentially complicated with more dependents. I really need to go visit some schools and hope they aren't full yet. Oh yeah, and summer camps.

House is going well. The amount of money it costs is staggering. Every tiny change costs so much. But most of them seems worth it: put a Solatube in the loft, discovered unused attic space above the kitchen so we are vaulting that ceiling. Spencer is getting a Harry Potter cupboard in his room under the stairs. I get excited when I see the progress. I have tentative tile choices. Meeting the cabinet guy today. That is one area that I am kind of dreading the final price tag, since the original cost was the basic options and I am hoping to go walnut instead of maple downstairs.

In some ways, a minimalist contemporary aesthetic is inexpensive: no fancy millwork, hardware, etc. on the other hand, a lot of things just do not come in a simple form. Exterior doors are one example. Also, there is less room for error in a minimalist space. I am considering subway tile for the backsplash, but only if we can do stacked grid layout with perfect grout lines.

The biggest problem we have is that we have an anonymous busybody neighbor who has taken it upon themselves to be the zoning/building police. They call the city whenever workmen how up to check permits, and they tattled on our non-permitted finished garage. Which means we now have to spend thousands of dollars to replace the garage patio door with a carriage door that would theoretically admit a car. It was always a risk that we would have to do that, but we were under the impression that the inspector was the risk, not a neighbor. Sigh. I get the strong impression from the city employees that they kind of roll their eyes about this particular complainer, but they have to follow the rules.

Also, the apartment we are in is being sold by the landlord. Thank goodness we signed a lease, which guarantees us the place through June even with a new landlord. After that though, they might kick us out. And last week was kind of hell with all the landscapers around. Now we have to deal with random showings, which is why I'm sitting here in a parking lot with a sleeping Spencer and Finn in the car. I hope they sell quickly so all the disruptions stop and I can just let Finn and Milo dig up all the sod they want. I am sad to lose our current landlord, because he had a very responsive management team and was a very reasonable guy. After this I hope we shall never rent again.

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Today has been exhausting, and it's not yet 5pm.

First we went to Jack's new gym class. We had observed a few minutes last week, but then it was relatively quiet. This morning I shoved him out into a large group of wriggling toddlers that he didn't know, and...he freaked out. Went into baby-koala cling mode, wanted to go home. "I don't know anybody!" he wails. I let him sit on my lap and watch from the corner. When they split up to do circuits, we go along and in the relatively less frenetic space he warmed up quick and got interested in the equipment. At the end he was happy and glowing.

This is a new thing, he has not been one to freak out before. I think his social sense that recognizes friends from strangers is kicking in. When adults meet him now and try to be overly familiar, he is visibly squirmy and uncomfortable and doesn't like to be touched or to shake hands.

Last friday, we went to a museum with some friends, and then tagged along to a moms group lunch, which were all moms we didn't know. Jack was already an hour late for lunch and when he saw the group, he started to melt down so I punted and took him home. Low blood sugar Jack is not someone to reason with.

This seems to be paired with an increase in hugs and declarations of love for his family. So I'm chalking it up to healthy/normal social development, for now, though I plan to doors reading. I will start working with him on how to react to new people and what to do in new social situations.

Similarly, at the dim sum restaurant we went to on Sunday, some lion dancers came through. The drums and cymbals are very loud and the costumes quite fierce, so it is not surprising that he got very scared and clingy. But once the kids took off the costumes and put them down, he was interested in them and the drum, and we looked at them and then made him a lion dancer costume from a box at home which he paraded around in for two hours. Michael has a hard time realizing that Jack is in fact open to things he is scared of with some time and gentle pushing, since he says he was more the kind of kid that wouldn't come around.

Anyway, after the class we went to a window showroom and met with our architect and contractor manager to figure out windows, and it ended up taking a long time. Jack started to call out he wanted to go home, and I waved him quiet and showed him more games in my phone, until he got more and more insistent. Then unrealized he had peed in the stroller. Bad, bad Mama. I should have noticed the "kid clock". Luckily I had a change of clothes, but still I apologized to him and felt terribly.

Lunchtime was late and thus a small meltdown was had, and then naps were had in the car on the way to the shop to diagnose a mysterious check engine light. Now I'm in the car while both try to catch some zzz in the driveway.

Ok, is it bedtime yet?

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We moved on Friday, and we are basically 95% unpacked. Not bad. And even though we have spent months slowly winnowing down our possessions into storage and Goodwill, I still feel we brought too much stuff. I am happier with less, so gradually stuff is getting shuffled off to the garage. The biggest compromise was leaving the entire contents of the craft room in place, since we aren't touching that building. I am sure later I will be hauling some sewing stuff and maybe even enough gardening stuff to get lettuces and radishes in the spring.

But anyway, it is surprising how easy it is to fit into such a smaller space. I have tried for extreme efficiency, and it is working well. I mean, we have moved now seven times since 1999 and I have finally started to get the hang of it.

The apartment kitchen has basically two overhead cupboards and one set of drawers ( I left the other low cupboard empty, since we brought a dishwasher with us to install. ) I am very happy that the bar cabinet did not sell on Craigslist, because it is now a very handy pantry right outside the minuscule kitchen. There is also just enough room in the kitchen for our mobile island to make a but of counter space The thing is though, having spent a while with a pared down kitchen in preparation for this move, I now kinda dig this little one. Everything is right at hand so I only have to take one step to do anything.

The key is bins. Of all the things left in Maureen's house, by far the most useful has been the nearly infinite number of shoebox-sized clear plastic bins. (She kept every pair of shoes in its own clear bin, and she had many shoes. ). So just about everything gets placed in a bin, which means no little things lost in the back of a cupboard. You lift or slide out the bin you need if it is high, or use them as a drawer divider. Jack's small toys are all in bins. Spices, utensils, medicines, socks. All in bins. Add a labelmaker, and you're in business.

Jack came back from Christmas (where he was his typical terrible-twoish contrary self) and is suddenly helpful! I ask him to do something, and he says, "Okaaay!" Which is the sweetest sound I have ever heard. He is nice to Spencer, he puts his clothes in the hamper, he does as he is told. Then he goes and smashes some magnatiles into Michael's nose just to see what will happen. Or pours his ice water down himself.

Spencer is suddenly mobile. He has been good at turning for a while, but no forward movement. Last night Michael reported that Spencer had moved forward like six feet over the course of half an hour, but only when no one was looking so we didn't know how he did it. Then this morning I was putting away a huge pile if tiny puzzle pieces Jack had dumped out (big mistake giving him a us states puzzle) and suddenly Spencer had a piece. I scooted him back out of reach and kept going. The he had one again. I swept the pieces far out of reach and then immediately saw Spencer army-crawl right back to them. Oh dear. We have not even begin to baby proof this place yet!

Work starts on the house tomorrow. Gulp.

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