Ah, sweet serendipity...

Today has been an interesting day. Below is a picture of Ethan doing his now infamous "strongman" trick. He flexes his little arms, holds really stiff, shakes, and goes "GRRRR." Then, he laughs at himself.

Here is AJ, mocking our son.

Now, for the real post...

Here we are, October 30 - the day we were set to close on our dream house. I have been dreading this day since we found out our deal went sour. But a few days ago, hope came back in the form of a newly-single father of two.

We got a call from our realtor on Wednesday that someone wanted to see the house at 3:30. Great news, right? It was, except for the fact that we don't get home until about 3:25 every day. Somehow, we got the house presentable for our guest. He and his realtor only stayed for about 5 minutes, so we thought they must not have been impressed. A half an hour after they left, our realtor called and said that he loved it, was deciding between ours and two others, and wanted to close by the end of November. That could be problematic since we have no deal on any other house now. Luckily for us, our great friend and neighbor, Mike, said he'd be willing to rent us his place (right across the parking lot) for a month if things went well. Thursday, our potential buyer came back for a second look before he made his final decision. This morning, we got a wonderful text message from our wonderful new realtor - we got an offer! A good offer! So, our house is SOLD!!!! From what we've heard, this buyer has zero problems with finances so all should be golden. Of course, we won't be 100% satisfied until it is Nov. 27 and we have officially sold the house, but all looks promising and we are elated!

Guess how we will be spending our Halloween??? House hunting. At least we know we don't have to rush into anything - how lucky are we to have Mike as a back up? I'll keep you posted on our home-buying process. We are so hoping to get into a bigger place and celebrate the holidays, but regardless of if it happens in November or December, we are feeling like there is plenty to celebrate now.

Peek a boo!

Speaking of things to celebrate - we want to wish a very happy birthday to Nanny. She is a wonderfully hip and sweet woman, and we hope her day is filled with all things orange and fishies :-)

Ethan has had a fabulous week. We have gotten to play outside a bit. All of the leaves are off of the trees in our plan, so he has just had a blast kicking around in them.

He also had his first pumpkin carving experience this week, as did I - big belated thanks to my mom who never made me clean out my pumpkins growing up! I was so excited to have him dig in and feel the goop. I had NO idea what a gigantic pain carving a pumpkin was! What a mess! Ethan did stick his hands in, but he was much more amused by banging the spoons off of the pumpkin than anything else. The pumpkin turned out great. Not great enough to make me want to do that again next year, though...And, yes, my child was pantsless again. Judge if you must, but pumpkin carving is MESSY and being sans pants helped out.

Ethan has learned a few new things this week - seriously, the kid is like a sponge. I just can't get over how quickly he learns new skills. Anyway, he can say "pretty baby" and find his belly. That's a great trick - he looks down and squeezes his belly roll - awesome! He has also learned how to get down from the couch without doing a face plant. Thank goodness.

Happy Halloween, everyone! I'll post pics later in the weekend of E in his bee costume.