Farewell house

Seven years ago, freshly married, Mike and I went on a quest to purchase a little slice of the American Dream and own our own house. We were pre-approved for an amount we couldn't possibly afford (and we know how that ended up for the country). So to avoid an eventual foreclosure, we found a house within our price range in inner NE Portland, a few blocks from MLK Blvd. This was a neighborhood I never would've driven through as a teenager growing up in Happy Valley. It was in the "ghetto," full of shootings and gangs in the nineties. Now there were some new shops and restaurants starting to come into the area. People scoffed at our decision, "Don't get shot!"

We knew we didn't want to live in a new development in the trenches of suburbia so we took a gamble on the inner city. The house was big and romantic, full of character, built in the turn of the century and sure it had some work ahead of it, but we saw potential.

Of course moving into an "up and coming" neighborhood had its drawbacks and if we had kids there was no way we would've chose it. There was the time Mike was almost car jacked. Solicited by a prostitute in front of our house. Multiple shootings blocks away. Hand to hand drug buys. Stuff, sheltered me, had not been exposed to growing up. My personal favorite was the knock at our door at 3 am by a woman who wanted to borrow a metal spoon for her kid to have "ice cream."

Gradually things started to change. Neighbors banned together to force the cops to act on the crack house up the street and then crime started to disappear. Families emerged with kids. New expensive boutiques and restaurants with rave reviews started popping up around us. Suddenly we were in one of the hippest 'hoods in the city. Gentrification was a hot button topic and were right in the middle of it.

The house was project after project after project. Instead of hiking and spending the summer outdoors, Mike was often pounding away at the basement. We added a bathroom upstairs, upgraded the kitchen, refinished the fir floors, made the basement livable, added a kick ass deck, and of course other odds and ends that pretty much consumed the whole of seven years.

We also became spoiled with so many delicious food options nearby. If we didn't want to cook, we could walk five blocks to four different restaurants or ride our bike to more. There was Middle Eastern, Cajun, Thai, pizza, comfort food, burgers and fries, you name it. When Collin came along, we met other families in the area, explored kid stuff and went to the many parks in the area.

And then Milo was born and our house seemed so much smaller. We considered an addition but we'd basically be the spendiest house in the neighborhood and it just wasn't worth it. And although major changes had occurred and it was much family friendlier place to live than when we moved in, our neighborhood still had a ways to go. Part of me was tired of the dilapidated houses, garage bands, gangsters that drove by and syringes that still showed up at the park.

We had grown to love NE Portland though and we wanted to stay in the area. Ten to fifteen blocks made a huge difference. We hoped we could find something a little further "up the hill," with at least 3 bedrooms and a better layout. We were also open to other parts of the city that were close-in and near hip restaurants and shops.

Then disillusionment set in. Living in one of the hottest areas has its drawbacks. Houses we looked at that were up to half a million dollars left us with a total taste of "meh." Our choices were paying a crazy amount of money for a house that wasn't that great and would still require more work, or move to another "up and coming area." Sorry, did that, not interested. We were open to the idea of cosmetic changes, little things. But most of the houses we saw would require something major. And I realized to get the ideal house in NE or SE, we'd need about $600K. And unless we won the lottery that wasn't happening.

We used to live in SW Portland and liked it so that was our first inclination. The downside, less pedestrian friendly, definitely more driving, and far less hip. Priorities change, however. With two little boys, I suddenly saw the appeal of the cul-de-sac or a dead end street. I dreamed of a neighborhood like I grew up with little kids running around and a responsible teenager that could babysit my kids (who didn't have babies of her own). This gave us that option without moving too far out. We would still be close to downtown. SW also had diverse restaurants, farmers markets and lots of wooded areas and parks. Of course we couldn't just walk up the street when we didn't want to cook. Upside: save money.  Schools were also highly rated and most of all, you could get much more house for a lot less money. And of course there was nothing stopping us from driving to our old 'hood once in a while.

It just made sense/cents for us and so we decided to trade in our urban life for something a little quieter.

So here we are. Ready to begin a new chapter.

July photo challenge: Week three - four (or as much as I got complete)

Portrait


Sunglasses


Close-up/Macro


Blue


Action


Flowers


Going Places


Sunset


Shapes


Eyes


Cooking


Green

6 months, oh my!

It was a struggle to take a photo of Milo without him attempting to eat the paper.





I didn't think we'd have to worry about babyproofing at this point but he's pretty much a full fledged crawler. Sometimes he looks like he's trying to take off into flight while he flaps his arms and kicks his legs 

and then he's off. 

I was in denial at first. No way my 5 month old baby was crawling. But sure enough he could get around the room fast and has perfected his skills. His favorite thing to go after is Hurley the cat, shoes, or anything dangerous/chokable (e.g. small toys or cords).



Collin does a pretty good job of picking up the tiny toys but today I pulled out nearly disintegrated paper out of Milo's cheek from a paper sword. He loves watching his big brother and squeals in delight when Collin plays peek-a-boo by running out of the room and back again or when Collin plays with his toys. Now that Milo is not just a blob that lays there and sleeps, Collin's annoyance level with his brother has increased. There are times Collin is really sweet (e.g peek-a-boo and kisses) and other times he has no use for a baby and demands attention if the spotlight is off of him.

Milo loves eating solids and so far has tried bananas, avocados, apple sauce and sweet potatoes. He makes lots of sounds and his newest favorite is blowing rasberries. Although he's quite the mover he has no use for sitting apparently and has not yet mastered doing that by himself without falling over.

I have a feeling I'll have two very busy boys.

It's hard to believe my little baby will be celebrating his first birthday in another six months. We'll soon be in a new house with carpets for him to explore and gates blocking the stairs.

First (real) food

For nearly six months, Milo has been one happy booby baby. Since he's a couple days shy of the six month mark, we decided to introduce him to his first solid food.

With Collin I was a little more gung ho and introduced solids a month or so earlier. This time,  I wasn't in a rush and the fact that we're cloth diapering also doesn't lend me to be anxious about dealing with the whole poop issue (breast food poop is no big deal, into the washer it can go).

But Milo seemed ready to go beyond his liquid diet. I was also informed that there was no reason to start with cereal so I went straight for bananas this time. Mashed and mixed with a little milk and presented it to Milo via spoon.

Oh yeah, this was one excited baby. He opened his mouth like a pro and again and then decided there was no need for us to hold the spoon, he could do it himself. He ate it all up and once more again for "dinner." I'll do bananas for a few more days and then introduce sweet potato and avocado. Just like with Collin, I'm looking forward to making my own baby food and watching Milo learn about different foods and textures and maybe, hopefully, not being a super picky kid!

July photo challenge: Week two

Something beautiful


Fun


Something I can't live without


Work


Texture


Starting the day


A Treasure

5 Months

Where has my little baby gone? Newborn Milo has been replaced with delicious chunks of baby fat, roly poly thighs and huge smiles.

Milo's favorite thing to do is hang out on the floor and grab things. The kid can get all over the room. It seems like he might be an early crawler with the way he rocks back and forth prepared to propel. He makes lots of squeals and babbles and it's pretty easy to get him to giggle. Collin loves to lay next to him (sometimes with a little too vigor for Milo) and usually gets lots of smiles in response.

Milo is in the first stage of learning by mouth. He gets very excited and reaches for anything he can and immediately tries to eat it. One more month and we'll get to try solid food. By the way he reaches for food while we eat, I imagine he's going to like it.

July photo challenge: Week one

I'm doing a photo-a-day challenge (different theme every day) with a Facebook group of "momtographer" friends. It's inspiring and fun to see what others come up with and to think of different ways to meet the challenges. Here's the first week:

Self Portrait


Heat/hot/fire


A work in progress


Independence


Colors


Vintage


Water