The Hunts Begins

This week we began searching for a new place to live. We went and checked out a few places... a townhouse with scary wooden stairs in a bad neighborhood, an apartment that had a cute, wonderful little kitchen but did not have a washer and dryer, and was upstairs from the laundry facilities. Scanned hundreds of ads, filled with places that were too small, too expensive, that did not allow cats... called about places that were already rented out, didn't have what we need... I'm tired of looking already. Of course, it's the beginning of a semester so we're competing with the college students. Maybe in a few weeks there will be more suitable choices on the market, I don't know. I'm just ready to get out of here.

I think our last apartment spoiled me. It was great. It did not have a dishwasher, or a washer and dryer, but I look back on it fondly. It was very affordable, spacious, it had lots of nice little touches... It had a deck off the bedroom, which faced a grassy area and trees, and was on a quiet street that was near the university and the town square, and only had houses on one side - the other was a stream and a bit of woods on the hillside. The apartments we looked at earlier were surrounded on both sides by more buildings; parking lots. If only our old apartments had two bedrooms and those appliances we long for, I'd move back in a flash.

Pearl is really, really close to crawling, and I would kind of like to get out of here before she does. That would mean I wouldn't have to babyproof this place, which is not going to be possible to the extent that I would like... there is a propane heater on the wall, there are cords everywhere as we have way too few electrical outlets, there are wooden dividers between every room on the carpet... I don't know what you call them but they are totally unneccessary and have sharp screw heads poking out of them. I would like to be able to perhaps section the house off with gates and let her crawl and toddle in that area, hazard-free, but that is not an option in this house. And of course there is the lead issue. This little house is quite old and I am worried about lead in the paint, lead in the pipes. We already do not drink the water because it comes from a well that pulls from the groundwater, and as I've mentioned before we are sandwiched between cow pastures and chicken houses. But how do you keep a very young child from getting water in their mouth during a bath?

So, yes, we're looking, looking, looking, and Pearl is getting closer to crawling. Today, if she is sitting on the floor playing and I am not down there with her, she gets in a crawling position and tries to come towards me, landing on her face and bursting into tears at some point in the process every time.

Did I ever mention that her tooth broke through? It did! My baby has a tooth! It's been over a week now and no sign of a second one - she's a one tooth wonder for now. A very grumpy one tooth wonder.