Dysnomia

Ahh, nothing like bloggin’ while sitting outside on a nice summer morning.  Oskar is playing in the dirt in his pajamas and a hat (he asked to wear one).  He is talking so much more now and we can understand most of what he is saying.  It’s mostly about “b-ball”, “wawa”, “moma”, “dad”, and “sha-sha” (his way of saying “Lola”) but it’s fun to hear what he has to say and what he’s thinking about.  Speech is good for the obvious reasons of communication but I’ve always wanted to know what is going on in his head; what he’s thinking about, how he feels about something.  It’s exciting to finally begin to find these things out.

We went out on Rose’s parents sailboat this last Sunday with Oskar.  He had been on a boat before but this was the first time he could really experience it, climb around and walk around the deck.  We have some great pictures that we’ll put up on Flickr later.  We sailed this time from the Tacoma Yacht Club over to Gig Harbor, stayed there for a few hours while we had some snacks, Rose and I got to kayak around the harbor, had dinner then sailed back.  The wind going over was strong and we were leaned way over for a little part of it.  I would have been scared if Gerry wasn’t sailing but it was pretty far over.  Once we were anchored in the harbor Oskar got to run around the deck, pose for pictures and climb all over.  The next day when Jody was watching him she taught him some parts of the boat.  He really likes to say “boom”, “bow”, and “mast”.

We leave for San Diego early Monday morning.  We’ll be there through Saturday and be back late that night.  The hope was to get an early flight so Oskar might go back to sleep and then get a late flight coming home so he can fall asleep on the way back.  We’re a little apprehensive about flying with him, especially since he’ll be sitting in one of our laps.  My “Be Prepared” dad book said to get the other passengers to help entertain the little guy so we’ll see how that works.  I’m going to be busy for some of the time but we should have an opportunity to go to SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo (maybe Legoland!) or just hang out at the pool.  Like when I was in Orlando, HP will be footing the bill so we won’t want for food or drinks.  We’ll take pictures and post them to Flickr too either while we’re there or when we get back.  Now that I’m on break I have more free time but I just can’t bring myself to do more online stuff like bloggin’, postin’ or that sort of thing.  I’d rather spend time with my family but I’ll try to maintain a somewhat updated view into our real lives.

03-18-06_1439.jpg, originally uploaded by davstock.

Thatch this! These are three large piles of moss that I have raked out of my lawn today.  There was another pile off camera too.  This represents the second day of clearing out my lawn after declaring war on the moss.  I don’t think the lawn has had any noticable care ever since this house was built and it shows.  If I didn’t act the moss was going to squeeze out what was left of the grass.

Next on the agenda is to continue thatching, hopefully one more round will do, then aerate, then reseed.  This is the first time I’ve ever done all this lawn maintenance so we’ll see how it goes.

03-10-06_0659.jpg, originally uploaded by davstock.

More snow! This was the second day in a row and although it was gone by noon, or probably earlier, it was fun while it lasted.

Rose and I are hosting an open house this coming Saturday, March 5 (which, oddly enough, is also my birthday). We are having a welcoming ceremony for Oskar at 1:00 pm, the open house is 2-5 pm, and the informal birthday parties for Noah and I will commence that evening. It is somewhat of a potluck so bring some food and/or cold beverages if you please.
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This last Friday, Rose and I signed a mountain of papers so that we can buy our house! We are closing this coming Wednesday which means at 9 pm that night the house is legally ours. We are going to clean up the carpets and move a few things in over the next couple days but Saturday is our big moving day since that is when we are getting the moving truck. We are thinking about having an open house to coincide with my birthday (maybe Noah’s too if he wants) in the beginning of March.

In other news Oskar is doing great. He is talking a lot more and is getting better motor control so he can grab things and hold some of his toys for a little bit. He also likes to grab onto your hands when he is lying down and pull himself up to sitting or even to standing. He really strains at it and his face looks really funny as he works really hard.

We’ll post pictures of the house later. In the meantime we have to go shopping for a washer, drier, and refridgerator since we like to keep food and have clean clothes.

Rose and I are buying a house! This is actually the third house that we have put an offer on but the others didn’t pan out for various reasons. Her dad (Gerry) and I did the inspection on Sunday and found some minor things that any 20 year old house would have but we also found leaks in the roof and vents from the bathrooms that were just venting into the attic instead of to the outside. Apparently the vent thing is pretty common and it wouldn’t be too bad except the vent is trapping water and is right underneath a 2×4 so that piece of wood is moldy and basically shot. The roof leaks would be fixed with a new roof and aren’t too bad right now.

Normally we would ask the seller to fix these problems before closing or ask them to deduct the cost from the price of the house except there are two other buyers in back-up position so if we try to renegotiate anything they have a chance of slipping in. To top that off, one of them is offering $2,000 more than we are (we’re offering full price). What we ended up doing is saying that we will take the house as-is even though there are problems that we found. We can still keep the house because they entered into a contract with us first so unless we were to try and do something different, e.g., ask them to fix the roof, we are first in line and good to go.

The house is on almost 1/3 acre (.28), has a nice, big, flat backyard, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, formal living room, formal dining room and a big garage. It’s located just down the road from us on South Hill. Just go down Meridian (the street we’re on) for about 5 minutes and take a left and it’s a couple blocks down.
Here is a link to the listing.

Rose and I have been trying to find a house for the last few months or so with varying degrees of luck. We had an offer on a house in Orting but the inspection turned up problems under the house and all said and told it would have amounted to around $10k in repairs that wouldn’t raise the value of the house any.

Recently we have gotten back to looking at houses after having that deal fall through. Today I looked at a house in downtown Puyallup across from Sparks stadium and pretty near the Puyallup Fairgrounds. Here’s a link to the listing. It sits right on the street but has alley access and a HUGE backyard all fenced. It also has a big attic that could probably be turned into livable space adding almost 300 sq. feet to the place. There are things that need to be updated but at the price it is it makes it more viable.

In other news, school is going well … 2 weeks to Christmas break. I just started a new writing curriculum and we are reading and comparing origin myths from Greece and the Navajo.

Rose started back at work so some nights like tonight are guys only at home. I try and keep busy so Oskar doesn’t have time to cry or be bored too much. Who knew I would be trying to type a post to the blog while dancing around with a baby strapped to my front? Maybe I should set up that webcam.

Rose is going to go check out that house tomorrow and then maybe we’ll make an offer on it. It’s in better shape than most of the houses we’ve looked at and it’s at the right price for upgrading later.

…buy a minivan and move to Orting.
What do you think?