My house

It's been exactly a month since I wrote this post about my frustrations about some things around the house and I thought I'd write a bit of an update about our dramas in that area.

With the mold problem, we got the landlord to come and have a look at it and he agreed to replace the wardrobe for us. That was fine and dandy - but it meant that in the mean time we couldn't use a wardrobe at all. And for some weird reason, the delivery date was set for two weeks after the landlord ordered the wardrobe. I don't know whether it was Ikea being slow (maybe things weren't in stock?) or whether the landlord set the later date so he'd have time to remove our old furniture - but it was definitely a long wait until we finally had wardrobes that we could use!! They arrived about a week and a half ago now and are mostly filled (although we could still do a bit of rearranging to get the best use of space). 

Our helper also arrived about two and a half weeks ago now and she's settling in nicely. It's a bit of an adjustment for Bernard and I as we've never had a helper before, but we're happy with the job that she's doing. Lana likes her, she keeps the house much cleaner and tidier than I managed to do, she cooks pretty nice, usually if I ask her to do something it gets done promptly and meets or exceeds my expectations. It definitely makes my life easier, not having to worry about the house in between doctors appointments and playdates (that's pretty much my life at the moment!). It's nice being able to just leave Lana at home and go out somewhere. Already Bernard and I have gone to a concert and to the movies - things that were much harder and less frequent before she arrived. 

And as for the furniture which arrived a month ago sized incorrectly, it was meant to take one and a half to two weeks to be fixed - but somehow it was "forgotten" and then their factory had electrical issues, there was a frustrating lack of communication going on - it ended up taking over a month to be fixed - and then when it was fixed, there are still a couple of minor problems with it. At least now though, our helper's bed is more usable and we could finally put the mattress onto the bed - it had been standing against a wall for the past 6 weeks!! 

Lana's "big bed" is going well now. We bought a little two step ladder for her so that she can climb into bed herself and she really likes it. She still has times where she wants to get out of bed and not go to sleep but overall she's very good. She likes us to sit outside her room while we're waiting for her to fall asleep though - she tells us "Chair! Book!" (ie, sit in the corridor and read to yourself while I go to sleep). There've been a few times when she's been really bad at getting out of bed and I've ended up just closing the door on her (which she does not like at all!) but after crying for 5-10 minutes, it's a sure way of getting her to go to sleep. 

When we first were talking about when we should move in preparation for the little one, we were talking about May-June. We ended up moving in April instead - and I'm so glad that we did because we've been in this new place for 8 weeks now and with all the issues that we've had, it's only really now that we're feeling more "settled in" and at home! No one could have predicted the complications though - but I'm so glad that we managed to get them figured out now rather than when I was 38-39 weeks pregnant. 

So now, when it comes to our house, I feel like we are practically ready for the little one now :) A few more little things to take care of (like sorting through and washing Lana's old baby clothes and making sure we know where all our baby supplies are) but we're pretty much ready to welcome our new daughter in a little over a month's time!!