Nap time miracle?

Prepare to be shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU!

Declan is asleep.  By himself.

I know, I can hardly believe it myself.


If you're currently scratching your head and wondering, "duh, babies sleep all the time, and there isn't enough room in a crib for anyone else," I have to catch you up to our reality.

A sleeping Declan, a wonderful sight

For a start, Declan does not have a crib.  He sleeps in a bed.  My bed to be precise.  (Well, our bed when you include my fella.)  We co-sleep.  While it may not be the best plan for everyone, it is certainly the best solution for us.  It has allowed us to get much more sleep as a whole.  And, I confess, it's a heck of a lot easier for me to just roll over to nurse him back to sleep than it would be to get out of bed, go to another room,  pull him out of bed, nurse him, and hope I can put him back in his crib without him waking again.  So, yes, laziness is definitely a factor.

Back to Declan napping, though...

Declan is not an easy guy to coax into sleeping.  He fights it, be it bedtime or nap.  Trying to get this boy to nap is a chore.  (Well, unless you're my daughter who must have some magic juju or something. Declan is asleep within fifteen minutes.  It's amazing.)  I'll save from the laborious details of what it sometimes takes to get this kid to nap.  But trust me, it's work.

Yet today, not so much.  Sure, my back is still aching from bouncing on a yoga ball for a good half-hour, but believe or not that's nothing!

Maybe he is finally getting used to the idea that he needs to nap?  Maybe letting him play quietly in his playpen before nap time is helping?  Maybe this is the only day we'll have such luck?

Whatever the answer, I'm just glad that it's happening now.

Potentially grand news for the HAUSfrau

I'm a touch gobsmacked. We are officially in escrow! How the heck did that happen?!

Well, it all began about four months ago. Like a few apartment dwellers that I know, I like to browse real estate sites and daydream. During one such visit, I learned that a historic home that I'd been oogling over was on the market. Better still, it was cheap!

On a whim, I asked my fella to fill out an online pre-qualification form and lo! he pre-qual'd! A phone call later, I'd scheduled an appointment with a realtor to view the house. I couldn't believe it--we were actively shopping for a home!!

Alas, that property didn't meet our standards. Too many hasty modernizations. No garage. No parking. But we continued to look. Soon, I found the *perfect* house. Gorgeously restored craftsman bungalow. Well, almost perfect. It was pricier than we hoped, was immediately next to an apartment building, and in an "eh" neighborhood. Still--I wanted it. So, we started to out in an offer.

But then I had to go and screw everything up with a stupid credit mistake. We were out of pre-qual as quickly as we'd started.

Hope was not lost, though. The loan folks told us what to do to get back into qualification. It would take three months of rehab. During which, I just knew "my" craftsman would sell.

But it didn't. In fact, it even got cheaper. Giddy after two and a half months of rehab, I called my realtor. She phoned the seller's agent to let them know we were still interested and almost ready. Their agent was excited. Told us she couldn't wait for our offer. They'd received no offers

Two weeks passed, we eager submit our offer. And hear nothing. Day three post-offer arrives and we hear that--coincidentally, they've received other offers. One of which they decide to take over ours. They wouldn't even counter-offer us. I was crestfallen. I lost my house.

That was about a week and a half ago. Since then, we've looked at other properties and put in at least four different offers. Well, one stuck. It's on a darling post-war home in the Wrigley neighborhood of Long Beach. A picturesque neighborhood with ample parking, gorgeous trees, and many nearby conveniences. The home itself has original countertop tile in the kitchen, original tile around the bathtub--which is also original. Hardwood floors, coved ceilings, a gorgeous back patio and a fruiting avocado tree! Just to mention a few of the lovely details.

We submitted an offer yesterday, and by last night we learned that they chose ours over three others. I'm nearly in shock!

Granted, escrow can fail. There are still many factors that must line up just so, but I'm still giddy. Who knows? This ol' hausfrau could have her own historic haus by 2013!

Yes, we are still looking--just in case. I have my eye another home, but it's a long-shot. Needs work (so we'd have to qualify for a specific FHA loan), is a short sale, and a touch pricey. But it's worth a try!

Photo is of the house we're in escrow for. Isn't it darling?