Elisa and I found an apartment within 10 minutes of my office. I have to work kind of long hours, so we didn’t want for me to spend much time on my commute. It’s a nice place in a good neighborhood. The one bedroom is plenty of room for us while we scope out the area. Eden has taken up lodgings in the generous walk-in closet. Our biggest complaint is that tons of residents own dogs and they don’t clean up after them. YUCK! We’ve been in the apartment for almost a month now. It doesn’t really feel like home. The problem is that we don’t have lamps or tables or a dresser yet. We’re still living out of our suitcases. It took us awhile to get Internet too, and that was painful! We are still waiting for the shipment of furniture and silverware and stuff like that from our last apartment. It was supposed to arrive weeks ago, but it is super late. Instead of getting driven here from New York City like we were told, the shipment got put on a slow boat to L.A. That’s our punishment for going with a discount vendor. We have been going crazy because we have to eat out so often. Finally we bought a knife and a bowl and a can opener, we borrowed saucepans, and we’ll use plastic utensils for the next month. We have our desk that was in storage in Seattle, and our piano that was at a friend’s house. I drove those down from Seattle in a big U-Haul the day before I started work in Salt Lake City. And we bought comfortable couches for the family room that we already love. I think it will be more difficult for me to adjust here than I thought. I miss the green of  Switzerland and Seattle so much.  I am not very tolerant of direct sunlight. 🙂

Elisa and I tried since early on to get Eden to communicate with hand signals. Lots of babies are able to say simple things with signs long before they know how to speak. Eden just never got it though. For example, we would hold our hands in front of us and spin them while we said, “ALL DONE???” From the 6 month mark until now she never would do the sign back to us when she was done eating. She would just whine until we got her down. Then finally a couple weeks ago she did the sign to us. She shook her hands around really frenetically. We asked “All done?” and she did it even harder. I think she was pleased that we understood her. Ever since then she has been using the sign more often. Within about two days, communication broke down again. She was having so much success with the sign that she started using it for “more” and “I’m hungry” and “I want to move.” We pretty much don’t understand her anymore when she makes the sign. It was almost the beginning of better communication with her, but it ended up being just a near miss. We aren’t giving up quite yet. We are still trying to help her communicate. Babbling to us seems to be her method of choice still.

In the last week she has started to give us a one-handed wave for “hello” and “goodbye” and “good night.” It’s really cute. It’s easier on her if Elisa and she wave goodbye before Elisa leaves for night classes.

Eden wants to sit with me at the laptop. Here’s another one of her attempts to communicate.

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Elisa and I have been car shopping. For 2 1/2 years we’ve been vehicle-less. Paying for a car and gas and the insurance does NOT sound fun. I tend to get motion sick and quite liked not feeling awful after every train ride while in Europe.

Our favorite car to test drive was a 1999 Lexus. It had a lot of miles on it, but it was a good value for the money and it also handled like a Lexus. After a few days we decided that a used Camry was a better deal, but the Lexus was a close second. Our plan was to give the dealer a low offer for the Lexus, and if we couldn’t talk him down enough, we’d go buy the Camry. On the way to the dealership, Elisa said that she wanted to just stay out of the negotiations while I handled it. That’s fine with me because I like to bargain. I think that anyone can get a good deal if they just decide beforehand what they think is a good price and what they think is a bad price.

Really quickly the dealer came within $300 of our offer. I was surprised that he was that desperate. 🙂 I was ready to accept his counter offer. Then Elisa brought up the fact that the key fob was having problems. It was perfect timing. She was even pantomiming someone trying to carry a baby in one arm and groceries in the other arm and still unlock a car door. So the dealer came down another $100. I was ready to accept that price too. Elisa said that it was an OK price, but she wanted 24 hours to think about it. The dealer kept trying to push us to take the car immediately, so I told him that a 24-hour wait was an investment that can pay back for a lifetime. Elisa said that she wouldn’t take the car sooner for anything more than our original offer. The dealer sighed and took $200 more off the price!

Elisa negotiates like a steel-toothed bulldog. I really didn’t feel like I was “negotiating” or “bargaining.” I just really didn’t feel comfortable jumping into a purchase that we hadn’t discussed beforehand. No matter how close to our offer it was– it wasn’t our offer. Her technique was perfect. We signed the papers that day and we got exactly the deal we wanted. We drove home really happy. I am thrilled with the car. I totally would have taken it the next day for their counter offer. Lucky us that I am so convincing. 😉