Will was released from the hospital two Thursdays ago... upper GI and swallow study revealed little in the way of the cause of his vomiting. So we had an appointment for an outpatient allergy test and a non-vomiting little boy on the way home, for our last night together in our old house!
Friday morning rolled around too quickly. I dropped the boys off at Oma's apartment and headed back to the house. The movers were already there working! They were efficient, but under-equipped when it came to moving boxes. In order to save time, we had them leave some things behind. We got all of the heavy furniture, kitchen contents, and nursery contents moved into the new house just before the sky opened up. I think we got about 2 inches of rain in about 30 minutes.
The house wasn't quite ready for us to move in, however... Craig and Bob were still working on the flooring in the kitchen downstairs, and guest room and bonus room upstairs. Thankfully, the master bedroom, hallway and nursery were all done and painted, so we could move into those rooms. The rest of our stuff stayed in boxes in the living room and attic! Craig and Bob stayed with us for the next week working on the house; Luke, Will and Otis spent that week at Mom's apartment during the day; and Nate and I spent that week going to the old house every day at lunch to pack the random things that were left behind.
By last Friday, Craig and Bob were on their way back to Wisconsin (see the pic of the "crew" above) and our old house was empty with the exception of the furniture that we left behind to stage it. Crissy came over to babysit for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday, so Nate and I started to clean (me) and paint (Nate) the old house.
On Saturday the 4th, we took a break to celebrate a friend's birthday at Monkey Joe's. What a blast! Well Nate and I thought it was a blast... it took the boys a few minutes to get used to all the bouncing! Monkey Joe's is an indoor place where they have all these bouncy houses set up. Its loud and kind of crazy because there are a lot of different ages of kids, but we found a couple of more quiet places where the 4 of us could play together. Here are a couple of pics... Luke loved the slide, but Will didn't really care for it. Will loved to bounce, but Luke wanted to keep his feet securely on the ground. Go figure.
Last week, the new house was "done" enough for Oma to stay there with Luke, Will and Otis. We went to the old house every day at lunch again to continue cleaning and painting. After work, we'd hang out with the boys, Oma would come back over, and we'd head back to the house again to do more painting and cleaning. Are you sensing a trend here?
On Monday the 6th, Will had his allergy test done. He did wonderfully, but in a bit of odd news, Will is allergic to cats! When we started thinking back to all the days that he randomly got congested, gagged, and ultimately vomited, he was being held by people who own cats. So what it appears is that Will is following in a long line of Baldauf family allergic folks (thanks Grandpa Harry!), and when he is around cats or people with cat dander on their clothes, he gets congested, the snot makes him gag, and he ultimately gets sick from the retching. They also took some blood to do some further allergy testing, just in case there is more. Will had no other reactions that Monday, though, and they did test him for ragweed, trees, grasses, dogs (phew! Otis doesn't need a new home!), etc.
By Wednesday of last week, the old house was pristine. We met with our realtor, signed the paperwork, and left the first house that we ever owned, the house where we brought the boys home from the NICU to, and the first home the boys have ever known. It was kind of sad, although I know this move is the right thing for our future. Driving from the old house to the new one was strangely reminiscent of the drive from Binghamton to Durham when we moved to NC in 2005. I was in the lead car surrounded by our plants, Nate was behind me in the truck with the back of the truck full of stuff, and it was dark. Ironically, Sheryl Crow's "This is Home" was playing on my iPod for both trips.
We've been trying to unpack and feel like we live at the new house over the past couple of days. We've got the boys' nursery all ready, with the exception of hanging things on the walls. Our room and the living room are done without things on the walls as well. Next we have to clean the kitchen and unpack that... one room at a time :) Will got back to the pool this past Saturday after a hiatus, and we spent a wonderful Easter with friends.
This week Nate and I are trading time at home while Oma is on vacation to see Opa in Italy for his mid-tour break from Iraq. We're excited to also be getting back to a normal schedule with the boys' service providers. Will's speech/feeding therapist has already been to the house, and the boys will meet their new physical therapist this week. Things feel like they're finally getting back to "normal" -ha- who am I kidding! Our life isn't normal, that's why you're hooked to our blog!
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