First Lessons

Man, will I ever NOT worry about socialization?  If it's not my poor, sheltered, un-socialized homeschooled kids (joking!), it's the puppy.  Just like with children, socialization is crucial for puppies.  Unfortunately, at 8 weeks old, Luna isn't fully vaccinated and isn't technically supposed to leave our house and yard.  But I'm certainly not waiting for two whole months to socialize her, because that critical fear-imprinting window will have closed by then.  Thankfully, there are ways to get around that.

Luna has come with us to Lowes, Petco, and Petsmart, riding in the cart while we shop (usually taking a little longer than we would otherwise, because we get stopped a lot by fellow shoppers).  She gets to see different, unfamiliar things, and meet different, unfamiliar people, all from the safety of her towel-lined cart.

We've gone through the drive-thru, even though it wasn't quite lunchtime, just so she'd have the experience (and yes, we did get a cup of water just for her).  She usually naps on the way home, 'cause shopping is tiring.

Some socializing we do at home.  We've spent time wearing large and/or funny hats so she won't be scared of people in hats.  We usually listen to a recording of rain and thunder as we fall asleep, so there's thunder taken care of (though I did read a suggestion to rub your dog with a dryer sheet if a thunderstorm is approaching, because most of the time, they're freaked out about the static electricity in their coats rather than the noise).  We've spent lots of time out back listening to the birds, and out front, we watch lots of different types of cars drive by.  We even got to see Tru-Green spraying a neighbor's lawn, and a front end loader doing some work across the street.

This evening, we went to a farmer's market and just carried her the whole way (so no pics, sorry).  She got lots of pets from a wide variety of people, saw a 3 month old puppy (no contact, though), and heard plenty of car horns.  Tomorrow we're having friends over.  I have a few repeat and prospective dog-sitting clients who I need to do meet-and-greets with, so we'll hopefully set those up next week or the week after, so she learns to accept other dogs into our house.

Whew.  I forgot how much work puppies are!  I've got to look up puppy classes, too.  Petsmart does them starting at 10 weeks, but honestly, I'm not thrilled with the idea of a Petsmart trainer.  Although, it's the puppies I care about, not so much the training at this point.  We'll see.

First Vet Visit

Luna is a riot.  Like most puppies, she is a complete goofball, clumsy and enthusiastic.  The kids think her little manic-puppy episodes are hysterical, and thankfully, she's only dashed head first into the sliding glass door once.  They don't really care for how often she pees in the house, despite walking her all.the.time (Lachlann texted my dad and told him that he walks Luna 50 times a day).

Just look at how little she is, though!  This is our coffee table she's sitting under, which isn't any higher than other coffee tables.  She's just minuscule.  Fiona is especially entranced with her.  When Luna is napping, Fiona will just lie down next to her and stare at her, occasionally looking up at me and whispering, "When will she wake up?"  Like all animals everywhere, Luna adores Lachlann.  I don't know what it is about Lach, but Luna just loves to climb all over him and lick him like crazy.  

This is how Luna sleeps.  Look at that puppy belly!  She always chooses to snuggle up to a stuffed animal (provided a human is not available).  Speaking of bellies, I called and pushed up her first vet visit because her belly was pretty distended, while she's practically skin-and-bones elsewhere.  She's also fond of rubbing her butt on the grass, so I suspected worms.

The vet was super nice, as always.  We'd just brought each of the cats in for their vaccines, in three separate visits.  We were a little reluctant to go back to the vet where we'd brought Maddy to be put to sleep, worried that it would be too emotional.  But it's the closest vet, and more importantly, everyone there was just incredibly sweet and supportive when we brought Maddy in.  Sure enough, I got choked up a few times during the first visit, and cried on the way home, but I've been okay since.  Our vet really loves cats, it was pretty sweet to see.  He especially likes black cats, and thus spent several extra minutes playing with Indy.  He was complimentary on the health of our kitties, and was positively impressed with their size.  I wasn't aware that our cats are bigger than average, but he said his three cats are all about 8 pounds, and ours are all around 16 pounds.  He didn't say they were fat, he seemed to think it's all muscle (as he put it, "My cats wouldn't stand a chance against yours!").

Anyway, back to Luna.  He checked her out and agreed that her belly looked wormy.  However, the test came back negative, so he decided to do a quick scan, free of charge, just to make sure it wasn't fluid in her belly.  When he came back, he said it was 'all stomach' and nothing to worry about, that she'd grow out of it - or into it?  I dunno.  But he gave us de-worming medication to be on the safe side, especially now that she's not one of fourteen puppies, eating each other's poop.  Ick.

Welcome, Luna!

Ever since we had to put Maddy to sleep in December, we've talked about getting a puppy.  At first, it was, "We'll definitely get a puppy, but in a few months, after we've had time to heal."  Then it was, "Ostara would be a good time to get a puppy."  Then the grown-up and kid voices diverged a bit.  The grown-ups started saying things like, "Well, maybe April would be better than March.." and the kids were more like, "But Daddy, I'll just die if I don't get a puppy.."

So there was a little bit of tension for a few weeks, but finally we started looking more seriously at shelters and Petfinder.  We saw that one of the rescue groups that we liked had a litter of fourteen lab/pointer/boxer puppies, so we made plans to head out to see them on Sunday.

The rescue group has a storefront in a run-down mall about a half hour away.  They're only there on the weekends, from noon to maybe 5pm.  We got there a few minutes before noon, but the group was a no-show until almost 1pm.  It was torture sitting there waiting, but boy, did our patience pay off.  They started carrying the puppies in a few at a time, and they were so tiny and adorable.  After they got settled, we spent a while watching the puppies play with each other to get an idea of their temperament.  After narrowing it down to a few choices, we started taking them out one at a time and doing 'puppy tests.'

There were several other families in there checking out the puppies, and a few of them were clearly intrigued by what we were doing, and started trying it on the puppies they had out.  It was kind of funny, because they clearly didn't know what they were looking for.  Monkey see, monkey do.

So we finally narrowed it down to a boy and a girl, then after some more snuggling with the girl, we decided to go with her.  We were a little worried about the application process, mainly because our property management office is closed on the weekends, and we didn't know if the rescue would need to call them.  I was also keeping in close contact with my sister (our reference), to make sure she'd answer the phone if they called.  Well, I filled out the application, the rescue person looked it over briefly, asked if the kids knew how to be gentle with puppies, and then took our payment.  It was the least strenuous adoption process I've ever been through.

Before we knew it, we were in the car with our new puppy!  We headed over to Petsmart to pick up a few things:  dog food, some bones and toys, a collar, etc.  I can't get over how tiny she is (6 lbs!), we had to get an extra-small collar and make it as small as we could.  We hadn't had a chance to order a big crate from Amazon, so I'd been worried about where she'd sleep for the first few nights.. but she easily fits in the cat carrier, so we can put off purchasing a big crate for a little bit.

We started tossing around names on the way home.  Niall liked Iron Man and Trainette.  Fiona liked Elsa and Cutie.  The rest of us liked Mabel, Daisy, Daffodil, Luna, Lilo, Minnie, and a few others I'm probably forgetting.  Finally by bedtime, we had it narrowed down to Mabel, Daisy, and Luna.  We couldn't choose, so we wrote the names on paper, crumpled them up, and tossed them to her, to see which one she'd pick.  She started chewing on Luna, so Luna she is!

Winter Park

When we made the decision to move to Florida, we knew not to fall into the trap of thinking, "Oh, I'm sure our family will follow us."  Chances are, they won't.  We knew we had to be okay with only seeing them once or twice a year, unless we move back north.  And we are okay with that (for now).

But, of course, it would be wonderful if they did move down here.  Unfortunately, both my sister and my father have a less than favorable view of Florida, so when Kristine came down for a visit, I set out to show her that there's more to Florida than subdivisions, strip malls, and sinkholes.  We spent a good bit of time driving around Clermont, checking out the older neighborhoods.  We also went up to Winter Park for the day.

Winter Park is in the northeast area of Orlando.  All I really know about it is that it's upscale and trendy, there's a college and some art museums.  I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but boy, was I surprised.

We went to Rollins College, to the Cornell Fine Arts Museum.  Kristine is a big fan of Kara Walker, and they had a timely exhibit of her work, focusing on her Civil War pieces.  It was a good start to Black History Month for sure.

The college itself is lovely.  Lots of mature trees with moss dripping from the branches, beautiful flowers, brick streets, and lovely buildings.  We went for a short walk behind the museum, along the water.  Above, Fiona is pointing out what looks like an eye in the tree.

Here the kids are being very silly, posing in front of the museum.  It was just so beautiful.

When we were done in the museum, we hopped over to Hannibal Square and part of Park Avenue.  Kristine totally fell in love (or as much as she can in Florida).  I'm sure she can describe it better than I can, but it was definitely something I didn't expect to see in Florida.  It was definitely a trendy, more indie area.  Other areas of Park Ave have more of the upscale brand boutiques, but the areas we were in weren't quite like that.

There were dog bowls outside of lots of shops, and lots and lots of green - in hanging plants, window baskets, planters, etc.  Some of it had a bit of a Art Deco feel.

I just loved this second floor here, with all the hanging plants and boxes along the railing.  Our best guess is that they're hotel rooms, but I'm really not sure.  This was across the street from Peterbrooke Chocolatier, where we got a little snack.

I'm so glad we got over to Winter Park.  I think we nearly have Kristine convinced.  And on another note, we also saw a paella bar that has all you can eat paella for $13.  Doug can't wait to go.

The Best Thing About Florida..

The best thing so far about living in Florida doesn't have anything to do with the theme parks.  It's our lanai.  I'm proud to say that I knew in advance that would be one of the best things about living here, and made a large lanai and pool a 'must-have' when we were looking for a place to live.  We use it exactly the way I envisioned.

We've got the GeoTrax trains, the sandbox, the climber, the big Barbie house and lots of Barbie gear, our chairs and a fire pit, and the table and chairs that came with the house out there.  Oh, and the grill, and a lounge chair that serves as a Barbie drying rack.  The kids probably spend about half their time outside.  Obviously, that'll change a bit when it gets hot, but for now, it's absolutely amazing.

I can be in the kitchen cooking or on the couch watching TV (like that ever happens!) and have a full view of the lanai, and since the weather has been so nice, we just leave the door open so I can hear them.  When it gets hot, I'll probably keep closer to the door if I'm inside.  But for now, I can even be working at my desk in my bedroom while they're outside, since our bedroom has a door to the lanai (and oh, when it's pouring rain, it's amazing to just open the door and sit on our couch and read).

My absolute favorite part of the day is dinner time because we eat almost every dinner out on the lanai.  It's so relaxing, and we hear the crickets chirping, and the white Christmas lights we have strung up just look so pretty.  If we put on some music, it's just idyllic.

I've noticed over the last few years that winter has gotten to be more and more of a struggle for me, but I didn't realize how much so until we moved down here, and I haven't experienced it at all.  Not that everything's perfect - we still have stress and difficult days, but being able to get outside really helps me stay balanced.  I do miss Massachusetts, but Florida suits us so much better.

Instagram & Catching Up

I'm probably not a typical blogger.  Or maybe I am typical, but I'm not a good blogger.  Either way, I'm terrible at getting updates out on time.  Here's the thing.  I take lots of pictures while we're out and doing fun things (or even when we're just staying at home doing boring things).  Instead of posting them all to Facebook and annoying my friends who don't really care, I finally signed up for an Instagram account.  This is mainly for my family who miss us dearly and want to see loads of pictures, whether they're boring or not.  If you want to check it out, I'm here:  Raums In FL.  I don't make a huge effort to make sure the pictures look great, I just want to show my family what we're doing.  So anyway.. I take lots of pictures, post most of them to Instagram.

Then when I get home, I write up notes (or sometimes actual paragraphs or whole blog posts) on what we did.  Now, if I were disciplined, I would just go through and add the pictures right then, and post it right away.  But I'm busy, and lazy, and distracted.. so I don't do that.  So you may see several blog posts come out in a day, back-dated, when I get around to finishing the drafts.

If you don't want to wait around, check out my Instagram account.  If you want the whole story, be patient and look here.  :)

Christmas in Florida

I'll admit, Christmas in Florida is kind of weird if you're used to a more temperate climate.  It's not entirely bad, but there are several drawbacks to Christmas in Florida.

For one, it's difficult to get a real Christmas tree.  There are almost no cut-your-own tree farms, and if you are lucky enough to find one, they don't have the same type of trees as up north.  The tree farm nearest us, Santa's Christmas Tree Forest in Eustis, is still an hour away.  You can choose and cut sand pines, red cedars, and Arizona cypresses.  They also offer a regular tree stand with firs, spruces, etc.  Since we weren't able to get up there, I can't say how the Florida trees look compared to northern trees.  We're going to try to go this route next year.  If you can't manage getting to a cut-your-own farm or just prefer a different type of three, you're limited to one of the stands where they sell trees shipped in from out of state.  We tried several stands, and all the trees looked pretty crappy.  Most had a significant amount of brown needles, and all were shaped oddly.  We did the best we could, and gave it a fresh cut when we got home (a few inches off the bottom).  We put it directly in the tree stand with hot water, and it never drank any of it.  None!   By the time we took it down a little over two weeks later, it was extremely dry and brittle.  I'm amazed it didn't burst into flames!  The problem is that even if they cut down the trees in North Carolina, or god forbid, Michigan, and immediately put them on a truck, the winds on the highway are very drying.  They just don't have a chance.

While the lovely weather is one of our biggest reasons we moved to Florida, it doesn't really feel like Christmas when it's in the 70s and sunny.  It's really strange to go swimming on Christmas Eve, and to eat Christmas dinner out on the lanai.  Aside from the weather on the actual holiday, it's just kind of hard to get into the spirit in the weeks leading up to Christmas when it's so sunny and warm.  Yes, it feels dumb to complain about this.  But whatever.  Doug and I both found ourselves commenting that it felt strange to be singing Christmas carols while wearing shorts and t-shirts.

The other problem we experienced was not so much a function of being in Florida, as it was just being far from family.  I've never had a Christmas without seeing family.  We're not used to being able to get up and open presents when the kids are ready (normally we have to stall them until it's a decent hour, so my parents and sister are willing to get up), or eat breakfast when we feel like it, to pick our own menu without having to consider other people, to not worry about whether the house is messy after opening presents, etc, etc.  Those sound like positives, sure.. but I'd gladly trade them for some company.

Some of our problems around Christmas have more to do with our exact location in Florida.  We're quite close to Disney World, and Christmas is a crazy-busy time of year there.  Most of December was fine, but the days preceding Christmas, and the week been Christmas and New Year's meant a lot of increased traffic for Doug.  Another annoyance is that our grocery stores were jam packed with tourists.  A busy grocery store is one thing, but a grocery store full of people who have no idea where anything is (and often don't speak English, either), is a nightmare.  Even when it's not packed, it's still frustrating because the stores cater to tourists, so they don't have a big seasonal section, and while they're great at stocking fruit, they don't carry as much in the way of squash and similar veggies (presumably because they take more work to prepare).

Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad.  It was great to be able to take Niall out to ride his new bike on Christmas Day.  And filling stockings with outdoor toys is easier and cheaper.  And Christmas dinner on the lanai is actually really lovely.

Missing Maddy

Our dog has been sick for a while, but the time finally came for us to put her to sleep.  She had what was most likely oral melanoma, and on Friday, she began refusing to use one of her hind legs.  We gave it some time, because she occasionally will sleep on her leg wrong, or injure herself somehow, and limp for a day or two and then be fine.  But she was still refusing to put weight on her leg on Monday, so we made an appointment to put her to sleep Tuesday morning.

Monday night, we had a special cuddle with Maddy.  We heated up her favorite (hot dogs) and fed them to her while sitting around her on the floor, then we read a bunch of our favorite dog-centric picture books.  When it came time to put the littles to bed and sing our goodnight songs, she followed us (hobbling) into Niall's room, so we laid down with her on the floor and sang to her.

The kids didn't want to come, but we don't have a babysitter down here, nor do we really know anyone.  I posted a message describing our situation to our homeschool group on Facebook and immediately got offers of support and sympathy.  I was really touched.  Another homeschooling mom came over to be with the kids while we took Maddy to the vet down the street.

The vet and his staff were all very nice, and Maddy was as comfortable as could be.  I wish we'd been able to do it at our house, but for various reasons, it didn't work out that way.  Poor Doug had to go to work after pulling himself together, and I got to come home and put away Maddy's things.

The kids have had a hard time, but they express grief differently, so it's been a little bit of a challenge for me to deal with, especially when I'm already upset myself.  Their grief is manifesting more as increased irritability and tendency to get into fights with each other.  Fiona has been really weepy about minor things, but when I ask her if she wants to talk about Maddy (after dealing with the issue that made her cry at first), she refuses.  If they were crying and saying they were sad about Maddy, I think it'd be easier for me to be sympathetic, but it's hard to be understanding when they're just fighting and snapping at each other.

Maddy was 14 years old when she died.  We got her when she was about 12 weeks old, from the Sterling Animal Shelter.  The SPCA and other rescue organizations have done such a good job with their spay and neuter programs in Massachusetts that it's hard to find puppies in shelters; often shelters will bring puppies up from southern or rural areas, and even from Puerto Rico.  Maddy and her littermates were found in a dumpster in Nutbush, West Virginia.  I'll never forget going to the animal shelter to pick out our dog - they had just gotten a couple dozen puppies in and it was mobbed.  How do you pick a puppy in a setting like that?  We went into a few kennels, playing with the puppies and doing the 'puppy tests' we had read about online.  Maddy was the perfect balance:  friendly and playful without being dominant or aggressive, submissive enough to let us do the tests easily, without being fearful or timid.

Bringing her home was a little unpleasant, though - she rode on my lap while Doug drove, and she threw up many, many times.  And the shelter was about an hour away from home.  She was an interesting puppy.  I remember feeling really guilty for taking her away from her littermates when she got really excited about her reflection in the dishwasher and stove.  She also did not like her kibble, and we almost put her on a homemade diet until we found a food she liked okay (Bil-jac, if I remember correctly).  We set up a big X-Pen in our room so she would have enough room to play a bit while I was at work - but we soon learned that Maddy was a climber - she could escape from that X-Pen in seconds.  We had to fashion a roof for it out of plywood and zip-ties.

When we moved out of Beverly to Haverhill, we started bringing her to doggie daycare.  Joe at Bone-anza became one of her favorite people, and he definitely had a soft spot for her.  He had a partition to separate the little dogs from the big boisterous dogs - it was about chest height on me, so maybe four feet tall.  Maddy would scale the partition whenever Joe moved from one area into the other, always wanting to be with him.  Sometimes she would perch on the 2"x4" that topped the partition.

We got our second dog, Lola, and Maddy was incredibly happy to have a sister.  I loved watching them play, and Lola was truly adorable.  Unfortunately, soon after we started having children, Lola began picking fights with Maddy, so we had to find her a new home.  I always felt bad for Maddy that she lost her friend, but rehoming Lola made it so that we didn't have to play musical gates, keeping the dogs gated away from each other, and Maddy could have more time with her family.

Maddy really was a wonderful dog.  We took her to several sessions of obedience classes, working our way into agility classes.  Our trainer frequently used her to demonstrate things in class because she always caught on quickest and was the most reliable off lead.  He praised her highly, telling us he could tell how hard we worked with her.  Truthfully, it was not us at all, but just Maddy.  She would have been a wonderful dog even without training.

My favorite story about Maddy is the Incident Involving the Strawberry Plants.  It was late spring and after a long day of planting in the yard, we ordered pizza for dinner.  It was a pleasant evening, the kids played, Maddy got pizza crusts (and more), and we went to bed happy and tired.  The next day when we went outside I was highly annoyed to see that one of my brand new strawberry plants had been dug up.  I assumed a squirrel or rabbit had done it, but since I had a few plants left over, it wasn't a big deal.  I crouched down and began re-digging the hole, only to hit a strange, firm, brown, coarse object in the spot where the plant had been.  I carefully removed the dirt from on top of it, completely bewildered and having no idea what it was.  It sort of resembled a big mushroom, but it was underground, not above.  After finding the edges, I carefully slid my trowel underneath it and gently flipped it over - it was a slice of pepperoni pizza!  My first thought was, "Is one of our neighbors playing some weird prank on us?"  But soon realized the more likely scenario - Maddy had not been hungry when given a slice of pizza the night before and buried in the freshly dug earth!

Maddy loved catching balls (she wasn't great at returning them, but she loved jumping in the air and doing backflips), she loved picking up food the kids dropped for her, she even loved the cats when they came along.  Above all, though, she loved her family.  Even when she was older and arthritic, she would follow us around the house, wanting nothing more than to be near her family.  She was so tolerant with the kids, so gentle, and always happy to see them.  

One of the gifts of her old age, of the 'forgetfulness' (which is so much kinder sounding than dementia, isn't it?) was an increased interest in playing.  For some reason, she especially liked to prance - in her old-lady way - around Lachlann, and when he sat down, try to climb into his lap.  It was absolutely adorable.

We were so lucky to have Maddy in our lives.  I know many people say that their dogs are the best (forgetting the jumping, the digging, the begging, etc), but Maddy truly was exceptional.  She was so well-mannered, so playful, and so affectionate.  She was smart and gentle and loving, and we miss her so, so much.

Parades are Bigger in Florida

We got up bright and early Sunday morning to make the three hour drive to Jupiter to see my family.  The drive wasn't too bad - the kids watched a movie and we only had to make one bathroom stop.  It was definitely worth it to get to see family!  We saw my uncle Rik briefly - he had worked the night shift and needed to sleep.  But we got to spend the day with my grandmother, aunt Maria, my cousins Emily and Rikki (who is Niall's age), Maria's sister Sandra and her two kids.

We hung out at the house for a while, catching up and petting the dogs (Maria and Sandra each have two dogs), then we went out to the Jupiter Tequesta Holiday Parade.  We had a tradition of always watching the Beverly Santa Parade the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and it was probably my favorite holiday tradition of the year.  We were missing that so decided to time our visit with this parade so we could all see it together!

Well, let me just say.. they do things differently in Florida.  The Beverly parade has a lot of floats, tons of fire trucks, police cars, bands, etc, etc.  But it doesn't last for more than 30 minutes (iirc).  The Jupiter parade took about two hours and had 75 entrants.  A good part of the problem was that they were judging the entrants along the parade route, instead of before the parade in the staging area.  It took FOR-FRICKING-EVER.

The kids were good sports, for the most part.  Colwyn and Lachlann complained a fair bit, but only quietly to me and Doug.  Niall and little Rikki were absolutely adorable together.

I was most surprised when I noticed Sandra's 10 year old son, Nico, and Fiona crouched behind the camp chairs together.  They were sifting through the mulch in the planting beds looking for seashells.  Fiona is incredibly shy, so this totally blew me away (apart from just the idea that there would be seashells in mulch, what's that all about?).  Eventually the other kids got involved, too, but it was just totally adorable and I was so grateful to Nico for getting Fiona to come out of her shell (ha ha!) a little.

We finally got back to my aunt and uncle's house and had pizza for a late lunch.  The kids played outside for a while, and again, Nico was super sweet and kept Fiona entertained.  What a lovely kid he is.

O Christmas Tree

Finally got our Christmas tree, a little later than usual this year.  For various reasons we couldn't make it to the one tree farm in the area where you can cut your own tree, so we just went to a roadside stand.  It was one of the few times that I've missed living up north.  Even when we had to go to a tree stand up there (like we did last year in Maine, since we were too sore after moving the day before), there was a really good selection and the trees looked fresh.  These trees down here were just.. meh.  But we got it home and once it was decorated, it looked pretty good.

Unfortunately, even with a fresh cut, the tree is not drinking.  At all.  Doug suggested we get a fake tree next year, but that will never happen.  We'll just plan better and go cut our own.  It'll be interesting having a Florida tree (probably a sand pine) instead of one of the northern species.

We also decorated the front of the house a bit.  Our inflatables did not survive, so that was disappointing, but we had plenty of lights.  Unfortunately, we were all out of 3M Command Hooks to make the lights go nicely across the arch, and we were too lazy to go out to the store to get more, so we just strung them across.  Not our best work, but oh well.

Littles' Bedrooms Are Unpacked!

We read a lot of advice before moving, and one of the things everyone suggests is to get the kids' bedrooms set up first before you devote a lot of time to the rest of the house.  We took that to heart and while the rest of the house is in disarray, the littles's bedrooms are mostly done.

Here's Fiona's room before:

The whole back wall is basically her play house area, with the toy kitchen, doll beds and clothes armoire, and strollers.  A giant basket of stuffed animals and her rolling Barbie storage drawers are at the foot of her bed.  We draped her Rapunzel braids over the valance, but we'll switch out the valance as soon as the rest of the house is unpacked.  She's also got Colwyn's comforter on her bed right now because hers is packed away somewhere and I'm not sure.

Some of her dress-ups are hung up on Command hooks on the closet doors (the rest are in her closet), and her dollhouse is up on the nightstand.  I'm hoping that it will get played with more this way since it's a little easier for her to access, compared to when it was just on the floor.  More dolls under the nightstand.

Random bins of toys (all nicely sorted.. for now).  Her bookshelf has her Rapunzel decor, and next to her bed on the IKEA bins are some trinkets from her Amma and Disney Princess peg people that Auntie Kristine painted for her.

I'm pleased that I managed to get Niall's room done today, too, 'cause it was almost as overwhelming as Fiona's!  We had to take an extra twin bed out of here (the headboard moved into Fiona's room and Fiona's came out - hers was wicker and just kind of hideous).  He picked out the Thomas comforter himself and is quite proud of it.  All of his toys fit in here neatly (unless there are some toy boxes still in the garage.. god, I hope not).  Amazingly, his room was still clean at bedtime.. woohoo!

More toys, neatly organized in bins, and his teeny dresser.  So cute.

Obviously, the artwork has to come down out of his room, but that won't happen until the garage is cleared out a bit more.  I'm thinking about painting some canvases for each of the kids' rooms as Christmas presents.. we'll see.

Colwyn's room is mostly unpacked, too, but we haven't decorated.  He wants to decorate with all the Harry Potter birthday party props we have, so that shouldn't be too hard.  Mostly we just need to get rid of the froufy decor up there.  And Lachlann's room is liveable, but he's still got a box or two (Legos) that aren't unpacked yet.

Home At Last!

I'd like to say that the last part of our long drive, from Atlanta to Orlando, was uneventful - but it wasn't.  Just after crossing into Florida and picking up Popeye's for lunch, Fiona lost a tooth!  I thought I was going to have to pull over because she tends toward the dramatic and it was bleeding a bit, but I passed her some napkins and she took care of it all by herself!  I was so proud of her.  The one hiccup was that she dropped the tooth when she was passing it to me and we thought it was lost under the car seat, but Colwyn saved the day and found it once we arrived at our hotel that night.  And yes, tooth fairies visit hotels!

The next day we got to the realtor's nice and early, but it took for-frickin'-ever to get everything done there.  I've been kind of glossing over the things that went wrong on this trip (almost everything), but I'll mention this part.  The realty office kept losing our paperwork and needing us to fax it or email it over and over again.  Even after Doug went into the office (I had to wait outside because we had the pets in the car), he kept coming out with paperwork for me to sign that I'd already signed several times.  It was crazy.  But we finally got the keys, said good-bye to Doug, and headed over to Davenport (stopping at Taco Bell and Panda Express for lunch, of course).

The house is pretty amazing.  It's incredibly big compared to what we're used to, and the cats really love the high places.  Milky Way wasted no time getting up on top of the kitchen cabinets.

Moxie preferred the bi-fold closet doors.  I don't know why she was so desperate to get up there, but she did it.

The house is furnished, which at first I thought would be a big problem, but it actually is really great.  For one, the trailer isn't going to be here for a few more days, and it's nice having a place to sit, eat, and sleep.  The furniture isn't quite my style, but whatever.  Fiona and Niall love the nightstands in the master bedroom, as you can see:

I just can't get over the kitchen counters!  Look at this!  It's ridiculous.  We definitely won't be complaining about not having any space to prep food.  And the laptop finally has a permanent home now, which should prevent some of the trouble we've been having with the kids being too rough with it.  When they move it from place to place, they damage the power connector so it won't charge - we had to get a docking station for it, which charges it a different way (it was that or buy a new laptop, which we had to do last time).  Anyway.. not a problem any more!

The kids' absolute favorite thing is the pool, though!  Even though it was cold when we got here (like I said, 50's and cloudy followed us from Maine), the kids wanted to jump right in.  It's really kind of surreal - being in Orlando and being cold, and letting the kids swim when it's 52 degrees out.  Not that they swam for long, but still..

Oh well, it made them happy and didn't hurt.