home, sweet home

ok you guys. life at the cummings house has been one big ball of nerves these past 2 weeks! let me start at the beginning.
when we first found out we were moving to philly, we had ONE DAY (UNO DIA!) to find a place to live before we moved. we knew nothing about the city, its neighborhoods, its rental seasons (student influxes etc), or its character. we knew nothing!!! so after a long day of looking at ritzy places in terrifying neighborhoods and terrible places in ritzy neighborhoods, we were losing steam and losing hope. and then we met our final appointment and found our adorable little home in the sweet neighborhood of manayunk. aside from being cute to boot, the house's only selling point was that it was the only property we saw that whole day that had a washer and a dryer. it was the best choice we could have made at the time. and we've enjoyed it and made it our own.

however.

we live on a steep, one way street in a very popular part of town. with no parking. with a baby.

this means that when i go grocery shopping, i halt my car in front of my house, turn on my hazards lights, unload everything into the house while my baby fusses in the car, drive around til i find a spot while the baby is still fussing, and carry a grumpy baby several blocks BACK to my house.

it means that if we want to go out and are brave enough to lose our parking space in the evening, we get home at 11, drive around for 20 minutes looking for parking, and walk 6 blocks with a grumpy baby back to the house. (we can't split up because bradley can't parallel park and i can't walk home alone because it's dark and this is philadelphia, people!)

it basically means that unless i want to do either of those things or any variation thereof, i simply can't leave my house after 3:30 pm. i'm already tied down to my house to begin with because my little darling is still taking two naps a day. i was going CRAZY being tied down because of the stress of parking. and the fact that the house has no dishwasher certainly was not helping its case.
we decided to weed out the stress in our lives and start looking for a different place to live. it was a hard decision to make, since we haven't lived here long, and we put so much into this little house, but we've found a great place in a great location with parking AND a dishwasher AND central air (wahoo!) AND the best part...it's less expensive than where we live now!

the only problem was that we had to sell our contract here before we could sign a lease on this new great place. so i worked some craigslist magic and got a pair of tenants (interior designers, no less) interested in the house. but they backed out the night before we were supposed to sign our new lease. so we got our future landlord to reschedule with us while we frantically searched for new tenants. after a fair amount of stress, tears and prayers, we found the perfect couple to come lease this house and can now finally move forward in signing our new lease! it doesn't sound so bad now that i'm reading it but YOU GUYS! it was seriously one of the most stressful weeks of my life! no lie. but it is finally over and i am so so so so grateful. the Big Guy is definitely looking out for our little family.

i figured i'd put up some of the pictures i used for the craigslist ad on here, just so our little family can remember our first house in philly.

i'll definitely miss my colors, but my stress levels are about to plummet, so i'm excited for this move. plus we get to stay in our awesome ward! i'm especially happy about that. 

in other news, some of you might have noticed i have a very adorable 9 month old baby. she can crawl, cruise, point, wave, and say dada all day long. she loves going on long walks and eating remote controls. she loves cheerios, yogurt, and puppies (real or fake) {she doesn't eat puppies she just likes them}. she is terrified of anyone with a beard, except her own daddy of course. {this does not exclude her grandpa, however.} she does that thing dogs do where they crawl around in circles before finding the perfect place and position to plop down and sleep, only, she plops down face first and there's absolutely nothing i can do about it. she loves sleeping on all fours, face planted in the sheets. it cracks us up. she pulls herself to stand on just about anything she can reach. she loves to gasp in air and make that sound that comes out when you're breathing in between really hard laughs. she has 3 teeth. she has brown eyes now. she is growing more hair, slowly but surely. she is happier than any baby i have ever seen in my entire life. she is smiling about 98% of the time. she is terrified of the doctor, as any healthy child should be (men with needles=scary). she has the most sensitive gag reflex in the world; breathe on her wrong, and she'll throw up on you. she hates swimming but loves baths. she loves her daddy. she loves music and dancing. she loves books. she can't hold still for more than 5 seconds. she loves kisses, whether she's getting them or giving her special slobbery ones.

i never would have thought it possible, but i wake up every morning loving her more than i did the day before. i am so lucky to be able to be her mom. 

she never holds still long enough to rest her head on anyone. this moment is a sweet but rare one.

so that's what we're up to these days! i was long overdue for a personal update, my conscience is clear now (: