Single Mom Diva: March 2007

We're all moved in and my beautiful boy

We moved into our new apartment two days ago. The move went very smoothly and the movers had me packed and moved by 2:00. They were so fast and very careful and did a great job. I've been working like crazy unpacking and the house is still all boxes everywhere. Brendan's done pretty well in his new room. The first night he woke me twice, but I was expecting he would probably do that. But last night he slept right through. He's very excited to be here, especially since I worked setting up the playroom for him. I'm just so happy to be in the new place. The only kink so far is that my phone line was supposed to be switched on yesterday but I can't get a dial tone (and don't get me started on the DSL that's going to take almost 2 weeks to get onnected). I have a technician here right now working on it. It looks like the wires were clipped, but hopefully it will be fixed soon.

I have managed to get online with someone else's wireless network. I tried it our first night and had no luck, but that was in the living room. I found out that I could log on to the wireless when I'm in the playroom though. Go figure. At least it's a connection until my DSL is back.

I'll have some pics of the new apartment up soon, but I did want share Brendan's spring school picture. This was taken a few weeks ago and we just got the pics back yesterday. The fall picture was just awful, with Brendan giving this really pained smile, but I just love this picture.

For the love of a vacuum

On Saturday morning we went over to the new apartment to fix things up a little. I put together a TV table, hung a mirror, etc. My mom came over with the vacuum to do her apartment. I had been going to take mine and was glad when she said she was bringing hers because mine is awful, it's old and the suction is horrible. She brings up the vacuum after she's done and I started using it and if thought my vacuum was bad, this may have been the first suction-less vacuum I've ever used. I bring it back down and ask my mom how she can use it, it's so bad, and she said she knows, that this is her cheap second vacuum she got from home shopping network, that she left her good vacuum at home. Uh, why would you bring over the crappy vac that doesn't work?

In any case, after we left the apartment Brendan and I headed straight over to the Oreck store where I spent the gross domestic product of a small country on an upright that came with a free hand-held canister vac. But, as ridiculous as this may sound, I think I'm in love with this vacuum, well both of them, the upright and the canister. I hate cleaning. I mean I really, really hate cleaning, I can think of several semi-painful medical procedures I'd rather have then to have to clean, but I love this vacuum. I couldn't wait to get home and vacuum our old apartment. There's black carpeting in my bedroom and Brendan's (there when I moved in and I never replaced it but a real $%&*@ to deal with). I went over it once and I swear it hasn't looked that clean since we moved in. I hand vacced the stairs and Brendan helped me. This a child who still is petrified of the vacuum and will hide in another room when I do it, but the vacs are very quiet and he actually thought it was fun. We're taking the vacs back to the new apartment tomorrow and giving it a good going over. It's alot of carpeting, every room except the kitchen and bathrooms need it. As scary as it sounds, I'm really excited about it. I think I may need some professional help. But just don't get between me and my Orecks.

Next best thing to being at the assembly

I got him to read the Jackson Pollack paper from the assembly. I love it in his congested voice and his saying at end that he doesn't want to read it again.

And after a week that included 4 days of croup and a separate nighttime cough, a doctor's visit today got us a prescription for Augmentin for what's now bronchitis. At least he got this now and not next week during our move.

Proud and annoyed

Yesterday was Literacy Day at Brendan's school and they had an assembly that parents were invited to attend. They periodically have things like this, where they invite parents. I didn't go and neither did my mom, there was no reason to as far as we knew. Then I found out that Brendan stood up in front of the whole assembly (all the classes in the school and any parents who came) and read a presentation about Jackson Pollack and the paintings the junior pre-K and the pre-K did last week. He was the only one in the pre-K who presented anything and you have to see what they had him read. Now do you think his teacher let me know that he was going to do this? I don't know when they decided to have them read this, but I was there for parent-teacher conferences last Thursday and his teacher didn't say anything. She didn't send anything home to let me know. Even if I hadn't been able to take the day off, and you know I would have, my mom would have gone and videoed it . And apparently he did a great job and wasn't nervous at all about reading in front of the whole school. He said that he practiced first reading in front of the other pre-K teacher and then at the assembly the principal called him up on stage he read the paper about Jackson Pollack. I'm so proud of him for standing up in front of the school like that and reading, and he's so nonchalant about it.

I didn't know whether to send in a note to the teacher or not about the assembly and decided not to because I was too annoyed to write it nicely. My mom said when she brought Brendan in this morning that the principal told her how great he did and my mom said she was just sorry that neither she nor I knew about the assembly or we would have liked to have come and she said that she thought his teacher would have told us. I'm hoping she'll talk to his teacher and say something to her about it. And my mom said she was also talking to one of the other kids moms who was at the assembly and she said Brendan was fabulous. She said they called his name to go up on stage and the principal handed him the microphone and he read that paper. She said the other parents were all asking "is he reading that? Did he memorize that?". Apparently, the principal was nearby and was telling people, that no he didn't memorize it, that he was reading it. And she said parents were going up after the assembly and asking "who was that little boy who read that" and asking how old he was. So apparently I had the star of the assembly and had no idea.

His teacher did send home this picture and the paper he read.

Brendan's book

He's writing a book now. It has various things in, a poem, drawings, a list of all the streets in our neighborhood. It's so cute. He started it at my parents the other day and he's been adding to it each day. My favorite so far is the poem -

When I was 1 the first word I could say was banana.
When I was 2 I learned in school.
When I was 3 I fell down on the sidewalk and scraped my knee.
I am 4 I love you.

:)

I love this face

Even when the owner of the face is cranky and needs some sleep.

How could a mother not be proud?

My very own future podiatrist. You heard it here first.

We have a new home!!!

Oh hallelujah!! I've been looking since November since my landlord in our current apartment told us he was selling the house. I'd been getting kind of desperate lately since I'd been looking for months and there just wasn't anything out there that met our needs, and thankfully my landlord was having trouble selling the house. But then I got a call from one of the real estate agencies I've been dealing with and found the perfect apartment. I viewed it on Wednesday and signed the lease yesterday. What's so great about it?

- It's one block away from Brendan's school
- It's 3 bedrooms
- One of the 3 bedrooms, the really small one, will be Brendan's playroom
- Which means I get to reclaim my living room from all his toys that are currently living there
- There's 2 full bathrooms
- There's a washer/dryer in the apartment, which I haven't had (can you believe I got through Brendan's infancy without having a washer/dryer?)
- Central air
- Walk-in closets in all the bedrooms
- A view of the water from the master bedroom
- I'll have a parking spot so no more jockeying for a place to park or worrying about what to do in bad weather
- There's a bus that stops on the corner and one on the next block to take me to the subway
- There's a shopping center 3 blocks away with a supermarket, pharmacy, bank, etc.
- The playground is 3 blocks away.
- And best of all, the apartment below it (I'll be in a 3rd floor walk-up again, you can't have everything) was empty and my parents came to look at that apartment and took it on the spot. I'll have them right there. No more schlepping Brendan out of bed before the crack of dawn to take him to my parents. I can come straight home from work without having to stop there first. Built in babysitters right below me. And the best of the best, no more worrying about Brendan running around over someone else's head and making noise.

I have the apartment as of March 15th, but can have the keys a week before. I need to get a bunch of stuff done. The whole place needs to be measured for blinds, I need a new couch, bookcase, endtable, lamps, a new bedroom set for Brendan. I'd like to get one of the walls repainted in the master bedroom, which is zen-like red. Plus all the other assorted stuff you have to do when you move. This weekend we're going to start tossing alot of stuff and then I'll have the keys next Thursday and I'm hoping to get everything done and moved in in a month. I'm paid up in my current apartment through April 6th, so it shouldn't be a problem.

I'm not good with big changes like this, but this couldn't have worked out better, and it's such a weight off my shoulders.

The living room -

The kitchen -

The hallway from the living room down to the master bedroom. The laundry area and bathrooms are on the left. The linen closet and the playroom and bedroom are on the right.