Thursday, May 21, 2009

Tell me....

That is the main word coming out of our mouth lately. Last week we had Stella's 4 month well baby check up. She is growing normally for her pace.

She weighs 10lbs 5ounces and is 23.5” long. She is in the 3% for her weight and the 25% in her height. Apparently she is on her way to be 5’2”…. That is so weird how they can calculate that stuff.
Side note: I was in a/b three weeks before then b/c she was sick, I noticed that she had only gained 2 ounces in 2 weeks! The doc told me to start supplementing her with every breast feed. So we have stopped breastfeeding and are now on formula. I gave it my best shot and was able to make it to four months. Needless to say she gained over a pound in 2-3 weeks.

- She is becoming more conscious of her movements. She knows she can pull out her pacifier, and she is getting to where she can consistently put it back in her mouth.
- She can deliberately grab her feet.
- She is going to be right handed b/c that seems to be the dominating side.
- She has created her own bedtime – usually asleep by 8pm
- Is now taking 6 oz bottles like a champ!!
- Will sleep about 8 hours straight! A few nights ago she ate at 7:30pm, asleep by 8 and didn’t wake up until 5am. Stephen & I didn’t know what to do with ourselves.
- Talk, talk, talk. She has really started to become more vocal over the past few days. On Tuesday I was in the kitchen, Stella was in her Bumbo. As I was stepping out of the kitchen she made a noise, I mimicked her back, we did this a/b 6 times as I was out of her sight. It was so funny. She was having a little conversation with me. I loved it.
- She will follow you across the room.
- She definitely knows mommy and daddy.
- She gets excited by flailing her arms and legs and sometimes cooing.
- She has just started to laugh out loud a make little squeals, but those have not caught on like the talking.
- You can get her tickle box...she will laugh and put on a huge grin – then with a hopefully-curious expression, she will look at you like “you going to do that again?”


We get this expression a lot!



Stella, you are the center of our lives and we love you beyond measure!

So... the house situation....

So what’s going on with the house situation?... Several people have been asking. Here is the scoop. I can not say much b/c of legal reasons and the fact that this blog is subject to public view – so everything I do say is essentially public knowledge.
However, I can share pictures with you.

It is evident that the crack, excuse me, fissure near the house (aka upper crack) is spreading open even more - it is now a/b 9ft. deep and a/b 1 ft. from our foundation. There is now a “sink hole,” if you will, in the front flower bed – which leads the geo-techinical engineer to believe that the whole house may be moving with the hill… instead of the hill moving away from the house. Also, the paved brick walkway in front of the flower bed has cracks and is beginning to become unlevel. The other day I ran by there and noticed that the telephone line had finally snapped from the power pole at the bottom of the yard. (which means that the cracks have spread open enough to cause the power pole to move to then finally cause the line to fail. The next line to fail will be the cable line. Both the cable and telephone lines have been tight from the beginning. The electrical lines still have a good bit of slack in them. You see rocks continuing to pile at the bottom of the hill but you can not really grasp the severity until you see the cracks in the yards at the top of the hill.

The upper crack - looking from the patio.

At the beginning of all of this, they cut everyone's sewage lines to create a temp. line (which is what the plastic and sandbags is covering up where they cut). The upper crack has opened so much that the sewage line coming from house is exposed.

View from alley/bottom of hill.
Crack in CMU (concrete masonry unit/cinder block) wall in basement.
About 5/8" wide. You can shine a flashlight through the crack and see orange brick on the other side.


We are still living with my parents. It is nice to have the extra set of hands, as far as Stella is concerned- but man, we would really enjoy our own space right now. Much less a vacation!
Please keep this whole situation in your prayers! We truly need them. I never ever imagined we would have to be displaced from our home- not to mention still have to pay mortgage in house we can not live in.