Bowman West

Closed

We closed on the sale of our house today. No, not the one we're currently living in, our first house. We've been renting it out for the last year and a half and finally decided it was time to unload it. Our closing was at 11:30 today, so before we went to the title company we headed over to the house to say goodbye. I haven't stepped foot in the place in over 18 months but I needed to see it one last time. I loved that house. I know that when Charlie grows up we'll drive by and tell him stories about the little house on fifth street. It's the first place we lived together when we were married, stopping by Denver Mattress on the way home from our honeymoon so we had a bed to sleep on that night. It's the place where we locked ourselves away from the world and watched, in a row, the first three seasons of The West Wing to take our minds off our miscarriage. It's where we found out that we were having our baby Charlie. It's where we made lifelong friends in our neighbors. We painted walls, laid tile, decorated and landscaped until we got it just how we wanted it, then we moved. Seeing it today was bittersweet but it reaffirmed that moving was the right decision. The street, once a perfectly landscaped neighborhood of family homes, is now a little rundown and occupied mainly by student renters. It's not really a place for a little family like ours. Anyway, I needed closure but after all this rambling I can tell you that I didn't get it. When we got to the house the buyers had already dropped some stuff off, including their dog. They had driven seven hours this morning to get to town in time for the closing so our realtor told them it was ok to drop off their stuff. What a letdown! Although the house was still ours for the next hour I didn't feel right walking through their things. So I guess it's goodbye little fifth street house. I'll always love you.
P.S. Those awesome adirondack chairs were stollen off our porch just weeks after we placed them there. I loved them too.

Ok, on to more important matters.
My baby Chalrie turned 18 months old yesterday! I can't even believe it. There's no pretending he's a baby anymore (even though I know I will, in reality, continue to do so). He's changing so fast. At 15 months he was saying two words: Uh oh & Hi.
Now, at 18 months, Charlie:
Says:
Uh oh, hi, hot, Bible, baby, bubbles, outside, car, shoes, shirt (which sounds like something else), bath, ball, hat, fishy. He tries to say other things but I have no idea what they are. He swirls his tongue around in his mouth when he sees Elmo, trying to sing "La la la la, Elmos' World." He also says the sounds for cat ("mau, mau"--like Maui without the i), duck ("cack, cack"), horse ("ayyyy"), cow ("mmmmm"), lion ("rahhh" but barely audible), train ("ooo ooo"), owl (similar to train), and others on a need-to-say basis.

Signs: eat, please, more, thank you, hi, bye bye

Charlie can climb up the slide and go down all by himself and ends up with a leg full of splinters as a consequence. He laughs really hard until he gets the hiccups and then hiccups until he throws up a little in his mouth. He's got eight front teeth and two molars.
He's recently discovered that there's something inside his diaper on the front of his body that he has to mess with, nearly ripping his diaper off as soon as I remove his shorts. It's a negotiation after that as to how long he gets before the new diaper goes on.
He loves yogurt covered raisins and "fishies" (Goldfish). His favorite show is The Wonder Pets.

After 18 months of being Charlie's mom I still think he's the best thing in the world. I still look at him while he's sleeping because I can't help myself. I say "he's so cute" and "he's so wonderful" 100 times a day. I sometimes lose my temper and I keep the tv on too much. I don't watch his diet (or mine) as closely as I should. I forget to take advantage of educational opportunities. But, every day I thank God for this precious healthy boy, and I try to do the best I can with each new day I have with him. I'm not a perfect mom and he's not a perfect kid but I sure do love the life we have with each other, and I'm excited to see how much we'll both change in the next 18 months!