Week 25 - 27: It's Time to Move!

Week 25

We have a house in Georgia!! This is such a relief! We were able to snag a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house just a few miles outside of post! I have always loved a home with stairs, in fact, all of our rentals have had them! This house is a 1-story, and I'm really looking forward to not having to navigate stairs after Liam is born! It will be so nice just to walk down the hallway and not have to carry things up and down. Although, stairs gives me exercise, which I think really contributed to my rapid baby weight loss after Ava was born! The house does have a split floor plan so our bedroom is on the other side of the house from the other 3, so I guess I'll get my exercise during those middle-of-the-night feedings with Liam!

I am really curious to see how the cats will handle having to "coexist" with Duke on one level. They currently hang out upstairs for the majority of the day, and only wander down when Ava is asleep because the baby gate is open on the stairs.

I can't even explain how excited we are for this move! My husband is excited because obviously this is the next step in his career, and he's ready for a change after being stationed here for over 3 years now. I am excited because I want to hurry up and get settled again! And decorate a new house! And Christmas!! And have our Liam!! I just can't wait for all these good things! We've had that "military itch" to move for awhile now!

On the other hand, it will be hard to leave. I put roots down and made friends and familiarized myself with this town, and we love Nashville! But that's the way this lifestyle goes! Augusta has a SuperTarget! And more variety of stores! And it's only about 4 hours from the east coast! It will be fun to discover a new area with our little family.

It's such a jumbled mess of emotions, really! Leaving everything you know (again) and exploring a new state, a new city, a new neighborhood, a new house. Not knowing anyone and having to make new friends. It will be a challenge to not have anyone to babysit Ava or to playdate with or just to hang out with. I think that is the hardest part of moving is having to start over with making friends. It's lonely!

We sure do love to Google, though! We've already scoped out nearby grocery stores (yay Kroger!), churches, activities for Ava, YMCA locations (I WILL get back into shape someday, dang it!), parks and playgrounds (we haven't found very many), and some of our favorite restaurants we hope to find nearby (down the street from a Zaxby's; wahoo!!)

So back to baby business...Liam has hiccups like crazy! I feel lots of simultaneous movement on opposite sides of my belly, which makes me envision him kicking and punching me at the same time! It's definitely getting harder for me to get on and off the floor while playing with Ava. It's definitely been helping my back to not carry her everywhere!

I have a lot of things for Liam's room! I can't wait to see it set up in the next house! Right now its all neatly stacked among the boxes in the extra bedroom! Now that we have a house, I spend a lot of my daydreaming time looking at the photos and envisioning where everything will go!

And Ava officially eats like a big girl...scooted right up to the table!! She has her plate and cup on a placemat and she prefers to eat with a utensil...if we load it up for her first! Still working on the "scooping" part of self-feeding! She is going through her last mental leap (check out The Wonder Weeks) and is going to pop her lower molars any time now! I feel like I say that every week...but I can see them so I know it will be soon! We got her a step stool so she can brush her teeth at the sink like a big girl! She is truly growing up. My little girl. It is so exciting to see her doing all of these things! She likes to help wipe up her mess after she eats. She likes to throw away her diaper. She loves the remote to her fan and gets a lot of enjoyment from turning it on and off. And on and off and on and off! She's starting to be able to undress herself at bedtime and she's doing a pretty good job at leaving Duke's food bowls alone - those will be out in the open in the next house! She enjoys digging through the pantry (the next house will have an actual door that latches) and she likes to help push clean laundry into the dryer, and put the dry clothes in the basket!

I had my glucose test the other day. While waiting, I chatted with a woman who was there doing the 3 hour test. She was pregnant with with IVF twins, a boy and a girl, and she was from New Zealand and had the most amazing accent! It's always interesting to meet different people in this military life!

Week 26

Things are rolling along with this move! It is still incredibly stressful for Chris because every step of the way so far there seems to have been a problem or something delaying the clearing process. So I'm trying to man all the "domestic" logistics of moving (making final maintenance requests, animal paperwork, cleaning, organizing, planning what needs to stay with us in the car, clearing a DO NOT PACK room, and basically anything else random that pops up). So we both have our stressful to do lists; a lot of which simply cannot be done until the week of the move. But it helps tremendously that we have the packers and movers scheduled and we have had our pre-move inspection with the packers. I got my questions answered on what items they do not take (perishables, liquids, and flammables), how they pack my already-packed plastic storage tubs (they will wrap in plastic and pack as-is), and he said since I have a small child running around that I can even leave everything on the walls and they will take them down for us! Packers come November 30th and December 1st, they move the HHG (household goods) December 2nd, and we have our appointment to clear housing the morning of December 3!

As of right now the plan is to hit the road as soon as we clear housing and Chris has his final clearing appointment, and drive to Augusta and hopefully meet up with the property manager to get the keys that night! Fingers crossed that's the way it turns out!

Ava has been learning and trying to say new words! She's learned "hungry", which she pronounces "hah-gah" and she says it whenever she sees food! She's learned "sticker" ("iggur" is what it sounds like) from getting stickers at the check out lane at Target and from a few crafting activities we've done. "Ssss" means "cheese" and "cee!" means she wants you to sing the ABC Song. She's quite demanding about it, too! She would have me sing songs to her all day long! She's trying harder to say things we ask. "Chill" is a new one, as well as "here you go" and "bunny". Some of them sound nothing like the phrase, but she thinks she's saying it, so that's what matters!

I got Zorro some kitty Xanax. I bought Duke a new, clean, non-stinky bed. I'm beginning to pack the suitcases. I have a million to-do lists organized on my phone. We are ironing out logistics for the days the packers and movers are here, with back-up napping locations for Ava and places to take her if it's not working to have her in the house. We are continually purging - it's crazy how much we've accumulated in the 3 years we have been here! The kitchen pantry and fridge are pretty empty; I've got our last meals in a full-functioning kitchen all planned out. Final laundry on Saturday, shut down the kitchen and final dishes on Sunday. We will have to go about a week or so without our furniture and belongings, beside what we put in our cars. It's about to get CrAzY!!!

Liam had a great check up on Tuesday! He's growing right on track and is still breech with his head on the left. He weighs just under 2 pounds! I feel his feet all the time up high on my right side near my ribs. I feel his hiccups down low near my waistband several times a day! His movements and position are pretty identical to my pregnancy with Ava!

I've been working hard on my to-do lists for this move. I just take things a day at a time and do what I can. What doesn't get done gets bumped to the next day. This is seriously stressful but I'm doing pretty good at taking things a little at a time! It's really hard to plan things when we have no idea what to expect, being our first big PCS with packers and movers!

Week 27

This will be a short update as I will have to take a break to get this move underway!! And this will be my last belly shot in the living room, here at Ft. Campbell!! It's making me kind of sad!

We've been super busy tackling our to-do list. The house has never been cleaner! Well, almost...kitchen and floors are tomorrow! The house is so clutter-free! It has worked out great that Chris had a long holiday weekend because we haven't felt rushed at all to get things done. I have to pace myself a little for obvious reasons, but I'm not slowing down yet!

Liam has found a silly position that makes me feel like I have a side cramp that won't go away! I had to go lay down this morning to get him to move after a few hours of being uncomfortable. He finally did, little stinker!

I am ready to dive into this move. We've prepped, planned, and packed our bags! I hope to keep updating but who knows how things will go! I'll see you in a week!!!

It's finally, FINALLY time to move to Georgia!!!