Fall in Pittsburgh

This fall has been a busy one, which is why I haven't updated in a couple of months. We took a short trip to Niagara Falls. The original plan was to head up to Toronto, but that just wasn't feasible. Vivian had a fairly short attention span when it came to looking at the falls (which Chris and I wanted to do several times from both the US and the Canadian side) so we ended up finding other things to do. She really enjoyed the Butterfly Conservatory (Canada) and the Buffalo Naval Museum (U.S.) and not much else. The weather was pretty rainy for the most part but we made the best of it.

Our baseball season ended so that meant the end of going to games. (Better luck next year Pirates!!) However, we now have Broadway season tickets and have been enjoying that. Chris and I saw War Horse last night and Chris and his brother, Sam, were able to see Mary Poppins last month. Vivian has also been able to enjoy a bit of theatre here. We bought season tickets for the Pittsburgh Children's Theatre, which performs downtown as well as various areas around the Pittsburgh region. Last month we saw a musical about a collection of various children's books. On Saturday we saw Lightwire Theater present The Ugly Duckling and the Tortoise and the Hare. The theatre was completely dark and the "puppets" were illuminated by electroluminescent (EL) wire. It was really cool to see the characters come to life by basically glowing in the dark with various colors. Vivian really enjoyed it and had funny seeing some friends from school.

We've also been able to attend other events in Pittsburgh. Chris and I went to see Madonna earlier this month. At 54, she still puts on an amazing show!! We're going to see B.B. King on Wednesday. On Friday night, Vivian, Chris, and I and several other families from her school who take gymnastics with her went to the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions. Vivian had an amazing time with her friends. I wasn't able to sit with her because of my vertigo, so Chris and I were able to sit a few rows away from the stage on the lower level. We really enjoyed it too!

We survived Hurricane Sandy, or rather, my family did. I was in Louisville for a conference for the week while Chris and Vivian stayed home. There was a lot of rain and wind, but the house didn't have any issues. Halloween was postponed until November 3rd, so I was able to be home to take Vivian trick or treating!! She was Mary Poppins and looked amazing cute with her authentic Mary Poppins umbrella and carpet bag!

It's hard to believe that Vivian will be 4 in less than a month. We're planning a small at-home party for her with a few of her friends from school/gymnastics. It's going to be a gingerbread theme and the girls will be able to decorate gingerbread men and do a few other activities.

Here's a few pics over the past few months.

Vivian at Presque Isle (Lake Erie), PA

Chris, Lilli and Vivian at Presque Isle

Hiding behind the Concord grapes (NY)

Mary Poppins (sans red bow tie) at her Halloween party

Mary Poppins ready for trick or treating

My baby is growing up!

Chris and I recently noticed that Vivian has gotten taller. She can stand on her tippy toes to see over the kitchen counter and can get on and off the toilet without her step stool. She is also finally out of her 2T pants! I took her to the ped this morning for her first well visit in PA and she HAS grown. Here are her stats:

November 3, 2011

• Height: 34"
• Weight: 27 lbs 12.8 oz

September 19, 2012

• Height: 36.75"
• Weight: 30 lbs 12 oz

She's doing great and loves Pre-K although she's really only gone for 8 days now because of the Hand, Foot, and Mouth. She's also missing the next three days because we'll be on vacation. 

Her general likes: She's really into dressing up (I just bought her a chef's outfit to go with her doctor's outfit), playing with her magna-tiles and Duplo blocks. She really likes her new Light-Brite. She can identify all of her letters (uppercase and lowercase) and is learning the sounds for all of the letters. She is also doing very well with writing her letters. She's also doing extremely well in Spanish. She knows all of her colors and numbers from 0-10. She's curious about everything and wants to learn about new things. She loves looking at the stars and the moon and talks about becoming an astronaut. She likes riding her two wheeler and proudly tells everyone that she has a two wheel bike. She likes going to Pirates games, the dinosaur museum and the science center. 

My baby is definitely growing up. We're starting to look at kindy options for next year. GASP!!!

First week of school

This should be a continuation from my last post because about an hour after I wrote it, I received the dreaded phone call from Vivian's school. Vivian was running a temperature of 101 and needed to come home. So, I called Chris at work so he could come home and I went to go pick her up. All of her friends were eating lunch and there was Vivian, all bundled up in her blanket and hooded sweatshirt (which she wears everyday at nap) laying on the couch. She looked awful.

When we got home, I gave her some Advil and water and she just laid on the couch. Chris came home about an hour later, which means I wasn't able to go into work (would have missed my meeting) for my  meeting. Vivian slept a good part of the afternoon and her fever kept spiking up at about the 6 hour mark. A few times in the middle of the night, she needed to be dunked in the lukewarm bath to get her temperature down. She kept screaming "No Thank You." It wasn't fun for any of us.

Yesterday, Vivian was supposed to go to the dentist. Instead, we swapped out the appointment for a ped visit. Vivian woke up complaining of a sore throat, so of course they did a throat culture. Good news: No strep. Bad, bad news: Hand Foot and Mouth!

Hand Foot and Mouth is highly contagious! Vivian doesn't have the blisters on her hands or feet, but she has the awful ulcers in her mouth. The only treatment is to make her comfortable through pain management. So, we spent the day on the couch. She took a couple of long naps and thankfully slept through most of the night. She woke up this morning with a lot of throat pain again.

So, in the first week of Pre-K, Vivian has only been able to attend one day. I feel so bad for her. She was really upset about missing her first gymnastics class last night. I hope that spending a weekend at home in confinement will help. Sadly, she'll be contagious for quite awhile but it seems like the fever finally broke last night when I had to change her soaked-through PJs. So hopefully she's on the mend and hopefully, Chris and I don't get it. Apparently it's absolutely miserable for adults. UGH.

Pre-K

A lot has happened this past month -- mostly related to sports! Chris and I skipped out of work early one day to take Vivian to a Pirates game, which she loved (of course). Her favorites players are Andrew McCutcheon and Joel Hanrahan. Chris and I also attended two Pirates games. We took a tour of PNC Park a few weeks ago. It's a beautiful ballpark, but it's so peaceful to be there when no one else is there. The views from the press box are quite impressive. Chris and I are heading to another game tonight. We're sitting in the club seats, which is different from our usual behind home plate lower-level seats. It should be a blast!

Chris attended a Steelers pre-season game with his brother, Sam. They sat way, way up in the 500 level seats but had a good time.

We took Vivian putt-putt golfing for the first time. It didn't go so well. It was super hot outside (felt like NC) with no shade and Vivian's putter was much too long for her! :( We're definitely going to try it again next year though!

Last week was Vivian's last week in preschool. Yesterday, was her first day in Pre-K!! She did really well with the transition. I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by. We are still trying to figure out what to do next year because she misses the birthday cut-off for kindy by 3 1/2 months.

Our Labor Day weekend was fairly uneventful, although on Saturday we attended two separate 4-year-old birthday parties which was a bit crazy. The kids are all in the same class together and they seemed to have a great time. On Labor Day, we had one of Vivian's friends over from her class. The family recently transplanted to Pittsburgh from NC - so we have a lot in common being total outsiders here!

The rest of September is going to be a bit crazy. Vivian is starting gymnastics tomorrow. Several of the girls from her class are going to be there, so it should be a lot of fun for her. Chris and I have two additional Pirates games planned. Our Broadway season is starting up here, so we're off to see Jersey Boys next week. We're also planning a trip to Niagara Falls and (maybe) Toronto in a couple of weeks. Niagara Falls is just a few hours away, so we're going up for a few days. It should be a lot of fun. I'm excited to see the falls and head over into Canada! I don't think Chris has ever been to Canada and I've never been to the Eastern part...so it should be a great experience for all of us.

The rest of the fall should be busy with Broadway shows, children's theatre, gymnastics, and maybe post-season baseball (Let's Go Bucs!!!). It feels like you have to cram everything in while the weather is still good -- otherwise when it's 10 degrees outside you never want to leave your house!

Here are some pics:

In the Pirates dugout

Uncle Sam and Vivian in the PNC Park Press Box

View of PNC Park and downtown Pittsburgh skyline

First Day of Pre-K

A two-wheeler and a bigger bed

Eight months later and I'm finally posting an update! Sorry for the delay -- it's been a crazy year in Pittsburgh.

Vivian turned 3 on December 11. We spent the day at the National Aviary where she was able to feed the birds. She didn't even freak out when a bird landed on her head.

We finally closed on our house two days before Christmas. We were able to spend Christmas here with Chris's brother and sister and family friend. Vivian's most exciting gift was a Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguin) doll. She kept asking Santa for "hockey stuff" and since Santa wasn't able to bring it, Sidney Crosby came with Santa to deliver the doll on Christmas Eve. She was so excited! (I wish the real Sidney Crosby would come to our house. He's an amazing player.)

Speaking of the house, we bought a money pit! Not a little money pit -- a big one. The combination of poor construction and non-professionals doing all the updating in the house made for a very expensive house for us. So far, we're about 25K into the house. That includes the termite remediation (yes, I saw a termite swarm right on our front porch), rewiring the electrical, fixing two natural gas leaks, painting almost the entire interior of the house, fixing the roof leak (imagine pouring water coming out of the ceiling and down the wall), fixing the sink leak, fixing the toilet leak. I'm sure there is more..but you get the picture. Servicemaster was on speed dial and knew me by name every time I called! Unfortunately, we can't sue the inspector. We tried suing the previous homeowners but the attorney told us we would spend more in legal fees. So, we're pretty much stuck.

Vivian started a new school in January and is doing really well in the 4 year old classroom. The kids are anywhere from 6 months to 10 months older than she is, but she's keeping up with them and in many cases, is doing better academically and socially. She is friendly to all of the kids and they're so excited to see her each day. She's been learning Spanish this past month and has a really good vocabulary doing. She can say hola, adios, buenos dias, buenas tardes, buenas noches, por favor, gracias, de nada, como te llamas, me llamo vivian, all of the colors, and numbers 1-10. We're so proud of her and she loves practicing at home. She's also started to read basic words by sounding them out. English is such a difficult language to learn -- perhaps why I did so much better in Spanish and Japanese!

We bought a new Honda Pilot. After not being able to leave my garage during a snow storm, it was apparent that we needed a 4WD car (not a RWD one). So, we're back to being a 2-car family, which is amusing because we only drive on the weekends!

We've been able to explore a lot of the Pittsburgh area. The museums are amazing here -- Carnegie Science Center, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, National Aviary, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, and the Heinz History Center. Vivian has also enjoyed attending a couple of baseball games. Chris and I have season tickets to see the Pirates (the only affordable sports ticket in town). I love baseball and I'm so glad that Vivian enjoys herself at the games. There are so many events and concerts here. So far, we've been able to see James Taylor but are looking forward to seeing many more concerts in the near future. We just bought season tickets for the Pittsburgh Children's Theatre. It's a great theatre company that puts on kid-friendly shows all around the area at the local high schools. 

This year we've been able to take a vacation to Cleveland, where we saw Chris's cousin and his wife and 3 kids. They loved spending time with Vivian. I hadn't been to Cleveland before, but I really enjoyed going to Lake Erie, the children's museum and the Great Lakes Science Center. We're definitely planning on another trip soon because it's only 2 hours away.

I'm still working on my dissertation and made a quick (32 hours in the car for a 90 minute meeting) trip to FL last month to defend my prospectus. I successfully passed...so now I'm collecting data and am on-track to graduate next spring. I need 159 participants and that will take some time. In addition, I started a contract job 3 months ago. The work isn't too exciting, but I'm so grateful for the 2nd income!

My mom came to visit last month and Vivian enjoyed spending time with her. I took a few days off of work and pulled Vivian out of school so we could do some touristy things. Chris and I even got to have a date night -- a baseball game, of course!

The big news: Vivian recently got a 2-wheeler and a bigger bed! She is doing so well on her bike. She's already asking to take off the training wheels. Vivian asked for a bigger bed. She didn't want her crib anymore, so she got a bigger bed last Thursday night. She loves it and all of her "friends" have plenty of room now too. She's such a funny little girl. I can't believe she'll be 4 in four months.

Overall, we're keeping really busy and are hoping to take another vacation to Columbus or Niagara Falls sometime in the near future before winter comes -- you know, in about a month. HAHA! It's been a really hot summer here (90s) but not really humid. I can't believe that summer is almost over! :(

Here are some pics of Miss Vivian!

3rd Birthday

Seeing the Christmas presents for the first time

Sidney Crosby!

Vivian wrote her name

Dyeing easter eggs

Seeing Bruce Hornsby

Big girl bed

Pittsburgh!

The last two months have been absolutely crazy -- with lots of travel involved!

At the end of September, I drove (10 hours each way) to Tallahassee for a couple of days to defend my prospectus. A few days later, Chris received word that he would need to be in Pittsburgh for a final all-day interview. So, less than a week later, we went to Pittsburgh for a few days. Chris and Vivian flew and I drove with Lilli (8 hours each way). Driving through West Virginia was absolutely gorgeous! The mountains were covered with so many colorful trees -- oranges, yellows, reds. WV is a beautiful state, although it gets a lot of bad press. Pittsburgh felt and looked much different than it did when we came in July. Welcome to Steeler Nation!!! It's all about football this time of year. We met with our real estate agent again to look at some additional houses. We found one we really liked, although we were hesitant to make an offer until we received an official word about a job.

A couple of days after we returned from PA, I had surgery. I did well through the anesthesia and my results came back fine.

About a week later, Chris received a job offer so we immediately put our house on the market that night. Then the real craziness began! We had to prepare for a move within a month. I had to find temporary housing for us in PA, schedule doctors appointments, schedule movers, try to find a new school for Vivian (from a distance), etc.

Vivian was a hockey player for Halloween -- complete with a Hurricanes jersey and authentic (our neighbor plays hockey) gloves and helmet. She loved it! I think she had more fun handing out candy though!

We sold our Honda Pilot so now we're a 1-car family. I wasn't sad to see the monthly payment, insurance or high gas expense go so it was a good choice. If we need a 2nd car at some point, we'll probably get a small commuter car. However, Chris will take the "T" (light rail) to work everyday so I don't see the point in having one.

A couple of days later, I left for a conference in Jacksonville (8 hr drive -- Chris had to get a rental car in NC while I was gone). I was able to present but then became very ill and wasn't able to leave my hotel room for a day and a half. I came down with a nasty cold. I drove home a day early. I would rather be sick at home than stuck in a hotel 8 hours away from home.

We had a going-away party for Vivian and her preschool friends. Vivian's last day of preschool was just a few days later. I think I cried more than Vivian did (who didn't at al). I'm certainly going to miss her school. What an amazing place!!

The following day, we moved to Pittsburgh! We spent a day in DC and went to the National Air and Space Museum Annex at Dulles. The Space Shuttle Enterprise is there, as well as the Concorde and SR-71 Blackbird (and a few hundred other planes). It's quite impressive. We also went to the National Zoo. I'm excited to be 4 hours away from DC. We're looking forward to making additional trips there in the spring!

We've been here 4 days now in corporate housing (which is a small fortune -- 2x the price of most mortgages). We had planned on renting the house we're buying from the sellers, but they kept jacking us around so we said "no thanks." (Now they're begging us to move in.) They wanted us to pay 8K up front -- 2 months rent, 2K security deposit (in additional the 3K in earnest money) and 2K for a DOG fee. Oh...and they're still marketing the house because our house in NC was on the market.

The great news: Our house went under contract the day AFTER we left NC. We were on the market for 3 1/2 weeks and had 9 showings. We got a great offer. The buyers don't have a house to sell, so everything should close in about a month. They want to be in before Christmas, which means we need to plan another trip to NC to pack the remainder of our stuff and schedule the movers. I'd like to be in before Christmas too!!

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with our family and friends in our 900 sq ft (very packed) apartment, but it was great to have the entire family together. We are planning on having many more events like this now that we're all located in close proximity.

I shopped with my friend Matt on Black Friday and then we all went out yesterday afternoon for more shopping. I had to stock up on winter gear (thank you LL Bean)! We're expecting snow later this week.

December is going to be another busy month -- Vivian's birthday, Chris's birthday, heading back to NC to pack the rest of our stuff, closing on 2 houses (hopefully) and Christmas! Hopefully January will calm down a bit.

September -- already?!

I can't believe it's already September. The summer flew by. We broke records with the amount of 100+ days we had here. The heat wave was pretty unbearable. Have I told you lately that I HATE living in the south?

July and August zoomed by very quickly. In July, I spent 2 weeks in Pittsburgh. Vivian and Chris joined me during the 1st week so we could have a vacation this year. The second week I was busy at CMU attending a week-long summer school for my dissertation research. Vivian did really well on the airplane with Chris. She still talks about it and wants to go back to Pittsburgh. During our vacation week, we hit up all the tourist sites -- the zoo and aquarium, Cathedral of Learning, Children's Museum, Carnegie Science Center, PNC Park for a Pirates game. Oh..I should mention -- Pittsburgh was also having a heat wave while we were there. It was really hot and I felt sorry for many of the people who didn't have AC! We also met with our real estate agent several times to look at houses and actually found one we really liked. Can't wait to see what the future will bring! :)

August was pretty non-eventful, although I spent several weeks dealing with Vivian's school. We're considering moving her to another school but it really depends on what happens with her current school. We're on a wait list for another school, but she technically can't start until she turns 3 even though she's starting in the 3s classroom at her current school on Tuesday.

This fall is going to go by fairly quickly too. I'll be in FL twice this semester -- once to defend my prospectus and once to present at a conference. I'm trying to schedule surgery that I've been putting off for a few months while my schedule settles down. Hoping that goes okay too.

All in all, we're just hanging in there. I'm looking forward to being done with school and getting a real job so we can have 2 incomes again, which we haven't had since before Vivian was born. I'm also excited to get out of NC and head north! :)