Baby progress, house progress, and my new mantra

Filbertine is becoming more active. Being held used to be all she wanted in life, but today she practically squirmed right out of my arms and was much happier when I put her down on the playmat with her kick chimes.

The baby is also becoming more interesting to Nutmeg, which is a joy to watch. Today I walked into the bedroom after my shower to find that Nutmeg sitting on the bed, with Fil on her lap just the way I had taught her to hold her. Now, I don't really want Nutmeg picking up the baby on her own, but on the other hand I was so glad she wanted to.

Now that Fil can be entertained by something other than my boobs, Nutmeg can help keep her happy while I'm cooking or, you know, updating my Match.com profile.

Our home purchase and mortgage seem to be moving right along after a long delay caused by the sellers' attorney. Still expecting to close on the 21st. Today my parents took Nutmeg to the Cubs game and I was able to, finally, find some companies that use lead-safe practices to replace windows. Most of the window companies I called had no idea what I was talking about. The lead specialist companies I finally found assumed I had some kind of government order to get rid of the lead. Apparently the vast majority of consumers don't care at all how much lead dust sprays around the room when they get new windows.

Why are we weirdos? It seems like nobody would want lead all over her house. But I guess you can't see it. Reminds me of the co-owners of our San Francisco building wanting to spend all the money in our maintenance account on new front doors, never mind the fact that the back stairs were falling down. The irony is that even though we were the ones who argued against the cosmetic move, we were among the first to benefit from it since we sold our unit soon after.

I also lined up an insurance policy for the new house with a company called Erie. They are only sold through brokers, aka "independent agents," and they had one of the lowest quotes I received. But more important than that, they guarantee full replacement of your home, even an old home like ours, NO MATTER WHAT THE COST. Since older homes sell for much less than it would cost to rebuild them, this is a great thing for us to get, and this was the only company I found that would offer it to us.

Apparently, one of the reasons Erie is able to charge low rates is that it is only available in a few states. Here are some states where it is not available: California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida.

Now when I'm trying to unfreeze my toes after fetching my morning paper in March, or when I'm lying on the floor trying to absorb a little coolness from the kitchen tiles in July, I'll have another rationalization about living in the Midwest to chant: Cheaper insurance. Cheaper insurance. Cheaper insurance.