I'm lame, I know

Okay it's been ridiculously long since I last posted...but boy have we been busy! I swear I have a few pics of the Dyl but have yet to be organized enough to get them posted...my apologies. I will TRY to put them up after this post. I promise. Everyone wants an update on where the heck I disappeared to for the past almost two months so...here goes:
We FINALLY closed on the house, WAY later then expected (I think about a month or so). To make a long story short it was a very stressful closing and we had to get carpet laid before they would let it be officially livable (but who wants to lay brand new carpet BEFORE they paint, right?) So we snuck in to paint first and luckily the woman before us had decided wallpaper was definitely the way to go so first we got to strip a million pounds of wallpaper (still not done yet!) and paint as quickly as we could before the carpet layers came the next day. Then we had to get it appraised in time or else the deadline would not be met and they could back out of the deal...with our upgraded carpet and paint job. Needless to say we spent many late backbreaking hours getting it done and the loan went through. Now we just need to get the downstairs flooring taken care of so we can get our furniture sent down from our storage in Utah (which takes two weeks) which we want done before we leave for the Bahamas (which is in just a little over two weeks) so...the crunch time never ends.
Meanwhile Rick has been overwhelmed learning the ropes with his new job and trying to not get too far behind while trying to deal with the house mess and a pregnant raging wife who doesn't want to strip wallpaper anymore but has to because it's really the only thing she can do to contribute because she is pregnant. Somebody buy that boy some ice cream.
Dylan is loving not having our full and complete attention 24/7 as it enables him to get into anything and EVERYTHING he shouldn't. I never proudly announced that he is completely over his biting phase, has been for months and now doesn't even hit or push except for on rare occasion and usually only if instigated by the victim. I am a true believer in time out. I know that he's really technically too young for time-out but that's only if you want him to sit on a specific chair or something and really understand he's on timeout and that he did a no-no. If you're like me and are fine with just traumatizing your child for 30sec to a min (I swear that's all it takes) then just pick any room in the house (the safest most child proof would be my choice, after all, we're just traumatizing him...we don't want any serious injuries that require ER visits where we have to account for our bad parenting) and shut them in. I promise you it could be their most favorite room of the house with the most toys and as long as it's not their idea to be in there...it will do the trick. If you are as desperate as I was to end the bully baby syndrome, this took less then a week to enforce. Now all I have to do is ask if he wants timeout and he wises up immediately. I think it's the thought that everyone else is out playing and he's by himself that drives him crazy, but honestly, this punishment makes sense to me...you can't play nice with others so you have to be by yourself. The punishment fits the crime. Afterward we always open the door to his little tearful face and tell him why he was in there and ask him to say sorry and he always wants to hug you to show he truly is...it makes me sad to hear him cry but I can't argue the dramatic change it has brought. We no longer have to follow two steps behind him at the park or be on his back 24/7 when he's playing with his younger cousins. It's a miracle! Even if someone hits him or takes his toy away (nursery) he doesn't fight back anymore. Well, most of the time anyway. He did manage to back my grandmother's car down the long driveway into ours though...that was a lot of fun. Long story short you really can put a car in neutral even if it is turned off and in park...and if you are parked on a slight declined driveway your car will roll on it's own with your grinning toddler inside and no matter how hard your 80 yr old grandmother pushes it from behind as it almost rolls over the top of her while she's screaming to you who are inside (I swear doing something important), it will still continue to roll down the longer then necessary driveway and right into your car, which is thankfully parked at the end of the driveway, keeping your grandmothers vehicle from crossing the street and crashing through the neighbors living room.
Dyl's paragraph is so ridiculously long I'll just attempt to wrap this up here. Baby girl is growing right on schedule, she is just as busy as her brother was in the womb so you can imagine that combining that with insane heartburn makes for a really good night sleep. Big shout out and thank you to my ADORABLE beehives back in Michigan who sent me a beautiful blanket they made for our little one on the way. I loved the pictures you sent along with it and keep them in my wallet. As soon as Rick gets our scanner up and running I promise to scan the pic of you all holding it up and post it on here for everyone to be jealous. Today I get to go out to Upland to visit my dad in the hospital and hopefully take him home. He's been very sick for over a month now and has been in the hospital for over a week but even with all the antibiotics his fever keeps spiking and his head hurts and coughing and vomiting, etc continues. After a bunch of CT's and X-rays and blood work the docs are officially stumped and have agreed to let him go home with IV's and meds to let my mom take care of him till they figure it out. My dad wasn't made to stay in a hospital - he's done. So that took a lot of the time we didn't have this week. I was glad to get to go visit and sit with him to help pass time and take care of him when my mom wasn't available.
So yes, to answer the simple questions that didn't require all this other babbling, we are still living in Pasadena with my grandparents, still working on the Fon-tucky house and still trying to get this parenting thing figured out before our trouble doubles in August. I'm sure there's a million more things that have happened that I failed to mention but frankly this post is way too long, even I don't want to read it. SO...with that...take care all and let me know how YOU are.