Those Chapmans – Page 130 – Out Of Their Minds Design

August, Part II

August 5th, I took this one of Ian in the sunroom, quietly (well, sometimes quietly) making up adventures. See this image larger.

August 6th, I believe this was the day Grandma Sue went home, but not without sharing a tender moment with her grandkids! See this image larger.

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VIDEO BREAK – Here’s a nice little video of Nina being Nina. 🙂 Click here to watch it.
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August 8th, our first day alone in our new house… this was when I really started to wonder about the move, I think. I missed the old place a bit. See this image larger.

Our little ones acclimated very quickly, it seemed. This little angel here likes the sunroom. See this image larger.

The other angel loves the playroom. See this image larger.

Hopefully there’s no extra significance here, might have been her first time in the high chair at the new house. See this image larger.

August 9th, while her gross motor skills were lagging, Nina’s fine motor skills were doing great. I’m not sure which of those interacting with this box of wipes falls into, but if you could have seen how she hefted this thing up onto her belly and flipped it around, you’d have been impressed. See this image larger.

August 11th, just the view out the back of the office, through the screen. By now I’ve begun to get a little more comfortable, but it would take the changing of a few things before I’d really learn to relax at the new house. Keep in mind I work from home. Being uneasy is really not good. See this image larger.

On August 12th we definitively decided that Nina did not need a helmet, when her latest check-up resulted in even more “normal” numbers.

August, Part I

Why hello there, August! Continuing our “Catch Up” series, here’s how August played out!

August 1st, I can’t remember (at this moment) precisely when 224 Arbor started to feel like home. It still doesn’t completely feel that way, it is a feeling that has to grow on you. At this point I was worried we had made the wrong decision… but it was interesting to see us all making use of the sunroom. See this image larger.

August 2nd, Ian hangs out on the porch with Greg and Mommy and I… Greg came over from Owosso to help unload those 8 Pods… a couple days later they were emptied at last. Was very happy to get them out of the driveway. See this image larger.

August 3rd, all too soon the sunroom became the playroom — we got it back under control eventually… well… I guess. At least half of it turned into a play-pen, but man did we ratchet down Ian’s toy use. I mean he’s maybe down to half of the 50% that’s left. See this image larger.

Camera flash surprise Nina! See this image larger.

I don’t really have time to photoshop the stuff in her nose out of there, but let’s pretend I left it there to remind us that at this point Melissa and I were thinking heavily about a surgical procedure on the horizon. See this image larger.

My little sweet pea! See this image larger.

August 4th, Ian and I driving around… those are “safety belts” and a “steering wheel.” See this image larger.

Grandma Sue stayed awhile after the move and took some shots of the new house. This is the front, obviously. See this image larger.

The back. See this image larger.

My office. See this image larger.

July, Part V

July 29th, and it was almost time to leave 139 Highlander. Grandma Sue, Grandma Marcia and Grampa Dave worked together to help us make a truly impossible move possible. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart. A move can be a very stressful time, and Melissa and I were still reeling from the Cystic Fibrosis scare and the Choanal Atresia news… hopefully we didn’t freak out too bad. Pictured here you can see we still had a long, long way to go. See this image larger.

This is the 2nd set of Pods, we ended up with 8 total — and it would turn out we wouldn’t see those at the new house until that Monday, a few days later than we had hoped. See this image larger.

Mommy packing kitchen stuff. Somewhere off camera the cat has been taken for an overnight stay at a vet clinic. See this image larger.

July 30th, and this is the day we moved out of 139 Highlander Drive. Grandma Marcia gets cat hair off of curtains here. He has a talent for spreading his message. I’m proud of my family for taking the time to really clean the house for the new people. I would think everybody would want to move into a completely clean house. See this image larger.

Grandma Sue cutting the rug… again, this is for the new people, a touch we didn’t have to do, but did. (Grampa Dave, I don’t think we got a picture of you helping, because you and I were out so much in the truck and whatnot those days… and more importantly, the camera was already packed! Sorry!) Suffice to say, I can’t thank you all enough. Thank you. 🙂 See this image larger.

Grandma Sue took some pictures while we were on our way out… Ian here looks sad, and I really think he was… however keep in mind it did not last much longer than the pictures you see here. Thank you Grandma Marcia for the balloon, it helped Ian through this. See this image larger.

“My closet is empty!” See this image larger.

“See?!” See this image larger.

And there goes the stuff! This guy was great other than the time he speared one of the pods with his forklift… turns out it didn’t hurt anything, miraculously. See this image larger.

We spent the rest of the 30th signing our lives away and moving some minor things into the house after the carpets were cleaned.

July 31st, everybody but me spent the night at a hotel because the carpets were drying. I stayed mostly because the plan said to do so. I wrote the plan. Truth is it turned out I didn’t need to, but it was an interesting experience anyway. While I was there, Nina enjoyed hotel goodness as pictured here. See this image larger.

Family bonding! See this image larger.

And then at the new house, enjoying the swingset! See this image larger.

If you can’t tell, it was around this time that Ian’s sadness went away, replaced with pure happy. See this image larger.

And how could it not? The new house has playground equipment! And a tree that’s more than 3″ in diameter! See this image larger.

And so, despite the chaos and stress which was far from over… July still went out with a happy sigh.