Jessie House

 Here is a fun one about buying our California house. We happily lived here until we moved to Hawaii. Jess was two going on three when this was happening. 

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Rob and I are in the process of looking for a new "Jessie House" which has meant many many weekends of sitting in the car seat for Jessie as we go house hunting. We try to keep things interesting for her by checking out neighborhood parks and getting "baby kits" (Starbucks fruit and cheese plates which Jessie can devour no matter how much other food she has already eaten) but the days can be pretty long for our girl.

Jessie's first priority in a potential new house, or at least the approach to a new house is "where sidewalks?" She gets very concerned if "only cars can go there" so I guess country living is out of the question. Frankly, Jessie always thinks highways are a problem "Where sidewalks? Jessie no walk here... where sidewalks?" and is generally much relieved when we once again find ourselves on city streets.

Next concern, "Where houses?" comes up when we are in any commercial area or on the wrong side of a community retaining wall. The houses should be immediately viewable and if we are house hunting then we shouldn't be wasting our time where the houses are not!

Once we turn into a nice sidewalk-ed little neighborhood Jessie looks for the real estate signs and delightedly shouts, "There Jessie house!" "Jessie get out NOW!" "See Jessie house!" and this is where the real fun begins. Jessie LOVES exploring the new houses. She runs through them touching everything she can get her hands on and making a bee-line for the back yard. If a house is empty, it can be pretty fun watching her tear about the place. If, however, the house is artfully staged with delicate glassware or worse still has original owners stuff in it, it can be a very stressful and harrowing experience.

Rob and I generally try to tag team it. One of us on Jessie patrol while the other looks around but in-variably she senses a moment of weakness when we mistakenly pause to confer about something and who ever is on Jessie watch lessens their tholian web like grip on the girl. In the heartbeat of inattention Jessie can upend chairs, grab delicate vases, "feed" doggies (put random rocks in their dishes), climb out/in a doggie door, sample water from dog dish or puddle, pick fruit from a tree or remove the head of a barbie doll. It really is quite impressive!

Since we have started working with a real estate agent it has gotten a little easier. Hailey knows in advance if a house is empty or not so we can plan our visit accordingly. Since Jessie loves Hailey so much, "Uppa uppa uppa" (Please pick me up in her old baby speak still reserved for people she likes very much) and "I stay my friend Hailey" has helped mom and dad have a few moments to look at houses together. Later in the afternoon if Jessie has fallen asleep in the car, Hailey will stand guard while we actually view a house together. It has sped up the process immensly. When Jessie talks about the potential new houses she now thinks that Hailey will be moving there with her and I think she will be a little disappointed to find out that this is not the case. At one point she declared a house "Jessie's house. Jessie and Hailey's house NOT mommy and daddy." Later we were invited to live there too but this was only after she thought about it for a while.

A couple of days ago, I asked her if she was looking forward to having a new Jessie house and she said yes but with a kind of sad face and followed up with "Baby leopard not going." It was if she was saying, I will miss my toys but I am willing to go anyway. I suspect she thought she was going to get the other toys she saw at some of the houses and even if were hard the trade might be worth it. Since I told her that baby leopard, minnie and big red ball ARE going to come she has been walking around the house and yard identifying what will and what will not be coming. "Hippo coming to new house! Jessie's books coming! Apricot tree not coming. Door not coming. Wagon coming!"

We think we are close and have made an offer. If all goes well Jessie and all her things will be living here.