So many decisions and things going on!

Today was a frustrating day. We were going to turn in our application for the apartment we'd looked at. It's a bit bigger than the others I've seen. Well I really didn't like the smell in there, I don't know what it was, not smoke. Plus there's no playground for the kids. We picked up the keys for the community room today and the manager said there's still a 3bdrm available here and asked if we want to see it. She told us about an awesome special they're running right now, so we decided to take a look. I'd seen the floorplan online and I knew it was going to be huge. It was really nice and made the other one seem so small. So now we're debating between having sanity vs being cooped up in a smaller place, having no electricity in the garage vs having it at the smaller place. We thought of foregoing the smaller place all together and going with the other one we'd looked at, but that one was even smaller. So many things to think about. It's hard renting, it feels like we're throwing more money away every year since it's not going towards buying a house or anything.

We're going to go over our list again, maybe something totally different will pop up and be the right one for us. There's many that might be opening up, but we won't know until March. We'd really like to get something set up quickly so we have 1 less thing to think about. But the options that might be there are pretty nice.

I've been working on packing up stuff. I want to be totally prepared and not have a ton of stuff to pack on the day of our move. So far I have about 10 boxes packed. A lot of the other stuff we're either using or it's already in totes and stuff. Feels like I got a decent start on it. It seems to be good stress relief too! I go pack a couple boxes and it feels good to get things done.

Tyler has been a big help in getting things done. He inspects my boxes inside and out, helps me put things in there and even sweeps the floor. He loves playing with the broom, he really seems to have the hang of it, though he does more pushing than sweeping!

 He even gets the carpet swept!

 He looks so much older in this pic!! How can he be 2 tomorrow?! My baby is getting so big.

 Stacking blocks is serious business! He's quite an impressive block-stacker, very precise. His teacher is always impressed with how many he gets before they fall over. He's done up to 8!

Big box! Grandma bought a new chair for the living room and brought us the box for the boys to play in. It's been lots of fun! Who needs toys when you have a big box to play in?!

 Dawson noticed I was taking pictures and wanted one of himself

 They like running in and out of the box, letting the flab bonk them on the head on the way out. I tried moving it up for them, but apparently that was the whole point to begin with!

 Dawson came over to cuddle me and look at the pics I just took

 Since the TV is broken and Dawson was having cartoon withdrawl, I set up the portable DVD player on the computer desk for them to watch. Dawson stood there for the longest time! I finally put it up higher so he'd stop staring so close to the screen. He was very relieved to see his precious Blues Clues again though. He does ok playing more often lately, but sometimes he really needs that downtime to calm down.

I switched Tyler out of his crib and into the bottom bunk the other day. It's going really well! I barely hear anything out of them at all. He loves his bed, he crawls right into it and never protests. He's always been really good about bedtime, so I hoped the change would go well for him but it's always hard to tell how they'll do when the routine is changed. Thankfully he seems very adaptable. :)

I had called the Neurology clinic the other day to see if Dawson's test results were back. I got a call today saying his bloodwork looked good and he tested negative for Fragile X. I didn't think that one fit him to begin with, so I wasn't surprised. His hemoglobin was normal, still on the low side though. He hasn't been eating his vitamin much at all anymore so I was wondering about that. I think I'll start crushing it up and putting it in his juice like I do with his laxitive. I started him back on the laxitives yesterday because I thoguht he was getting backed up again. His appetite was down and I haven't been seeing as many diapers lately. They say GI problems are very common with Autistic kids/people, so that's another interesting thing that seems to fit that diagnosis.

The boys are both very into their books lately. Dawson is always bringing me books to read and Tyler is always happy to run over and sit on my lap (what's left of it!) with Dawson and look at books. Tonight I spent 45 minutes before bed just reading books. They were both bringing me about 2-3 at a time! Their favorites being train, car and ABC books. Tyler is really getting into them now, he babbles along with me like he's reading and he points to random things too. Here's Tyler still sitting and looking at books after I got up. We had quite a few books out by the time we were done!

 He's so cute, the book barely fits on his lap!

Dan is at his parent's house overnight tonight. Some people are coming to get his and his Dad's truck tomorrow! Hopefully they will follow through with the sale, they already put money down on it and sounded very serious about it. It'll be nice not to have one less thing to think about.