It was almost noon when we arrived, and I thought Katrina was OK with a yogurt she'd had an hour earlier, but she started to act really grumpy. I made a half-sandwich, proud of myself for having everything except cleanup stuff, except...whoops! Where's she going to sit?
Picnic time! I sat her down in the only uncarpeted area in the house, and to my amazement, she actually sat there and ate the entire sandwich sitting on the floor.
She was very ready for a nap when we got home, and even sang out, "nahh-ime!" (naptime!) as I carried her upstairs. Lay her down, give her Mimi, and that's it.
I marvelled again at how in so many ways, she is a remarkably easy toddler. She's really adaptable -- eager, even -- to new situations, and it doesn't get any easier when it comes to going to sleep. It's not hard for me to get a lot done at the new house with her bopping around, she doesn't demand my attention at all, and is very happy to explore and play in her new domain. Brothers are an added bonus, but even without them, she'd play on her own quite happily. And it's much more fun for me to be there with the kids.
Yet I'd never say she has an easy personality; she's very very opinionated and vocal and inflexible about things she wants. But a toddler who is so cooperative about an unusual lunch situation, who naps so readily, plays happily while I zoom around sounds very easygoing!
I made some progress packing today, trying to focus on things that I don't want the movers to pack themselves. Top priority: my scrapbooking stuff! I took a picture of my craft area so I'd remember where I put things.
Most of that is in boxes now.
I tackled a job I really dreaded, which was going through our utility closet and packing or getting rid of things that have been stashed there for years. I hate it, but at some point in life, one must finally be forced to deal with things shoved deep into corners because you just didn't know what else to do with them. It's time to face the light fixtures the previous owners left behind, a box of doorstops, and old rolls of contact paper.
Dave and I looked more carefully at the comments from the city about our plans. There's a whole page from Public Works about "off-site improvements," including a crossed-out reference to an accessory building, but they didn't cross out the fee for over $1100. Then there's an encroachment permit fee of $250, and yet another "developmental impact fee," yet to be calculated. And we have absolutely no idea what this is about -- we aren't making any "off-site" improvements.
Most of the city's comments I can sort-of forgive; this is what the building department is for. But 6 weeks of previous delay for a "planning review" and neighbor-comments period, during which time nothing progressed, makes me a whole lot less forgiving about stuff they come up with now. These comments should have started coming in April, not now. They had so much time, there's no excuse for this hasty sloppy work, such as a huge new fee whose only explanation is hand-crossed-out.
In theory, I shouldn't worry about that now, and should focus on moving. But I'd feel a whole lot better about moving if we had that building permit in hand. The ball is rolling!
5/31/08
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