Simon Talking about Games

Simon has many of what I would call Pandora's Boxes. These are places and compartments that we do not normally allow Simon to access. One of Simon's Pandora's Boxes is a cabinet full of games, most of which are for people older than 22 months and all of which are choking hazards with fragile boxes.

On Sunday after church, I unlocked and opened the game cabinet so the older kids could get out a game. Simon made a beeline for the cabinet, grabbed the Animal Crackers matching game, held it up, started parading around, and gleefully said one of his most coherent things yet: "It's my favorite! It's my favorite! I'll match tiger card!"

He's getting big fast, and he's very cute!

(By the way, don't worry about Simon eating Tums. Poison Control said that as a chemical, they're not harmful in the least. They could be a choking hazard though.)

Guessing Game

We had just come home from our vacation and had not unpacked the suitcases. I was making lunch in the kitchen when James ran to me yelling "Simon got the Tums!" So I ran to Simon, grabbed the Tums and cleaned out his mouth. It is to his credit that he did not protest when I stole his "treat." He knows Tums are a no-no.

So here's the guessing game: How many Tums fit in these sweet cheeks?

The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 1)

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an accord. Actually we have two. Tracy told you about one of them, in which we sell and move out of our 3-bedroom condo in late September. That contract appears to be rock solid, except that we goofed the closing date and need to do an addendum (note to self).

The new contract is to buy our next home, a 4-bedroom house a few miles northwest of our current home in a town where we used to live. It will be our first single-family detached home, garage, and private yard since we were kids. The house is fairly spacious, and the yard features some nice trees, a jacuzzi, a gazebo, and a hammock stand, but no hammock. The seller can use the hammock but wanted to leave the large lawn stuff behind. The neighborhood has little crime and good schools. The kids will still ride the bus to school for now.

Now the fun and adventurous part is that the house we're buying is a short sale, meaning the seller is asking the banks to accept less money than is actually owed, in order to avoid foreclosure. Therefore, even though we and the seller have signed a contract, it's really no good until the banks approve. That will probably take about a month, according to our agent. But our agent and the seller's agent think the offer is good and the banks will probably accept it. Plus, our agent says that the other agent is really good at pushing short sales through. We'll see. The real adventure will begin if one of the banks is not happy with the offer. We have options, none of which are good if the banks don't accept our offer. So it will take nerves of steel, as well as lots of Tums in my case.

You must be sick of that post about Amelia's broken arm...

but that's all you're going to see for awhile. Immediately after getting her cast, we left for California. Immediately on return from our trip we found a buyer for the Kiddodiddo Ranch (a 3 bedroom condo.) We are currently (frantically) looking for a house to move into before the start of school. So wish us luck! Maybe I'll be posting again soon- or maybe I'll catch you up on everything once this whole headache, I mean summer vacation is over.