New House Woes...

Okay, there's good news and bad news....

The good news is that Mom and Dad have let us temporarily move back in with them. The bad news is that we've had to temporarily move back in with Mom and Dad.

Oh, where to begin. Okay. First of all, we LOVE our new house. It is awesome and beautiful and so peaceful. The problem is that we had NO idea that the previous occupant was a smoker. And we're still racking our heads over how we missed that oh-so-important detail. I'm really sensitive to cigarette smoke and can usually detect it, but I didn't smell a thing when we viewed the house. There were no ashtrays, no cigarette butts, no smell. The lady who owned the house was always present at the viewing and sprayed it heavily with a citrus spray when we came. We thought she was just being conscientious or something. Well, when we opened the doors to move our furniture in (after the house had been empty and shut up for several days) the smell of cigarette smoke pretty much choked us. I mean, we were stunned. So, we spent days airing the place out. We placed air purifiers in all the rooms. We vacuumed over and over again with our Dyson Animal (which I'm going on record as saying is the best vacuum in the world!) We used natural odor thingamajigs. And we thought we'd gotten it all out. Noah was doing great. We didn't smell it anymore. But then, some friends came over and as soon as they walked into our house, they wrinkled up their nose and asked, "Who's been smoking?" And then.. we spent the night with Mom & Dad and when we took our clothes out of our backpack, we were hit with the smoke smell. All of our clothes smelled of smoke. It turns out we thought we'd gotten rid of the smell - but actually we had gotten used to it. Oh! And I forgot to mention that Noah started scratching his skin until it bled. (Sigh).

Soooo.... Sim is over at the house right now ripping up carpet. We're moving everything out of the house, ripping up the carpets and having to put wood floor down. We knew we'd eventually have to rip up the carpet anyway because of Noah's allergies, but we were hoping to wait a year or so. Now, we're staying with Mom and Dad until it all gets taken care of. Hopefully, we'll only have to stay here a few weeks. In the meantime, we're having to wash every item of clothing, all of the linens, ALL of my Ebay items, and we're praying we don't have to buy the kids new mattresses. The smell is in everything.

However, it's not as bad as it sounds. Noah is doing so good at M & D's house. He is becoming more and more aware. I mean, on a scale of 1 to 100, he's at a 15 - but still... he was at a 2 just a few months ago. He is becoming aware of Dad and will go up to him and reach his arms out to him. He will sometimes turn his head if we ask where Eli, Papa, Nonna, etc, are. He is responding more to us. The other day he was playing in the other room and I reached my arms out and said, "Hey, baby. Come here" and he put down his toy and walked out of the room and into my arms. He has NEVER done that. Never ever ever in this whole life. And Dad called him over and he put down his drink and came to Dad. That was a first, too. Just a few minutes ago, Eli gave Noah a toy and I said, "Oh, Noah. Eli loves you. He's such a good brother to Noah". And Noah turned his head and looked at Eli. Now, he's given him hi-5's before if Eli comes over and sticks his hand up and asks for one.. but he has NEVER looked in Eli in the eye before. He's never responded to Eli's name. But today he did. And that's a first!

So things are looking up. We do, however, still have many many many years of hard work. It's like chipping away at a huge iceberg. And everyday, we chip away teeny tiny bits. And it can get so overwhelming and depressing because it sometimes seems that we chip away all day and the iceberg doesn't get any smaller. And sometimes, our equipment breaks and we have to spend all our money on new equipment. And, sometimes, we take long breaks because we're just so tried of chipping all the time. And, then, sometimes we look at the iceberg and see that we've actually come a long way. And even though that blasted iceberg is still huge and will take years and years of hard work, if we don't quit - if we don't give up - if we keep chipping away and away - it WILL get smaller and smaller. And so we pick up our equipment and we start again. Because we have to remember that in the end, all that matters is that the iceberg is getting smaller. And the smaller it gets, the better it gets.

Hope everyone has a good weekend,

Noah's Mom

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