How To Sell Your House in a Buyer's Market

1. Have pretty much zero interest the first couple of months on the market.
2. All the sudden have a bazillion showings when you are 400 years pregnant and can barely bend over to pick up toys.
3.  Get an offer (YAY!)
4.  Realize that they want to close in 30 days.
5.  Realize that closing in 30 days puts you at February 22nd....Two days before you are scheduled to give birth.
6.  Scramble like crazy to find a new place to live.
7.  Find a new place to live (YAY!)
8.  Get in a bidding war (so much for a Buyer's Market).
9.  Win the bidding war!
10. Get all your affairs in order to purchase house, including scheduling various inspections.
11. Inspection results:   House tests positive for Meth.....REALLY positive.  Like, 10 times what is considered "safe" to live in positive.
12.  Oh yeah, this happens when I am less than two weeks away from giving birth.
13.  Give up and surrender to being homeless for awhile (and by homeless, I mean freeloading off my parents while they cook for me and watch my kids.)

So there's the story for those of you who have been lucky enough to not have heard me complain about it (some of you have heard it several times over, as I tend to complain loudly and often).
The good news is, we are now free of our condo and ready to start the madness all over again.  Wish us luck!

Evicted

This little one was evicted from the womb on Friday, February 24th at 8:28 AM.

Her name is Harper Olivia, named such because we were not expecting her to have hair and the other names we were considering seemed more fitting for a bald baby.

Due to a couple of minor complications, what was supposed to be a quick and dirty procedure took slightly longer than expected (but was probably still plenty dirty), but we all came out the other side no worse for the wear.

She weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long.  She then proceeded to lose more than a pound in the hospital, making a liar out of me for all the times I scoffed at teeny tiny newborn clothes saying that there was no way any baby of mine would be small enough to wear them.  9 days later they are still a little loose.

Here she is being quite annoyed that even her smallest headband is about to turn into a necklace any second.

This one is not quite sure what to think of the new addition.  His emotions range from adoration, to indifference, to giving her the nickname of Frazzle-Toe, so he is still pretty hard to read.

Here is baby Harper getting ready to go on one of her first outings (to the doctor).

She has been on several outings since then.  One of the perks of being the neglected second child is that you get to do lots of things earlier.  For instance, if you'll remember, Holden went to his first movie in December, when he was 3.  Harper went to her first movie when she was a week old.  What can I say, Holden had a desperate need to see The Lorax.  I may have plugged Harper's ears the entire movie.

Over all I would say we are adjusting well and hovering just above survival mode.  This means that we all have clean socks, but my Google Reader has 400 unread items.  Totally worth it, because instead I spend my time taking pictures at the perfect moment to make it look like my newborn can already give cheesy smiles.

Sometimes I am still a little shocked that we got to take her home from the hospital, no questions asked, and that we are now a legitimate family of four, but I feel like we are all learning lots.
 
Holden has learned (is learning?) that yes, he is still required to use the potty even though baby sister is here now.
I have learned that "please be soft" is going to be tied with "do you have to go potty?" for words I say to Holden most often.
Harper has learned (thankfully) that mom does not appreciate staying up all.night.long with an inconsolable baby.
Reo has learned (remembered?) that his wife becomes a crazy person when she stays up all.night.long with an inconsolable baby.