So we're surviving thus far.  It's certainly not ideal and it's definitely challenging, but we're making it work.  The biggest issue is poor Andrew not having a lot of room to explore. At our house he had free reign, minus bathroom and master bedroom (which were just closed doors so he didn't really care).  But I had all the "big kid toys" with little pieces up high where even the older kids had to ask me to get them down and he could just play with anything he wanted to.  I didn't have to worry every split second where he was because I knew the house was safe for him to explore.  Here it's different.  We have a gate blocking off the stairs when he's up which drives him insane.  He LOVES climbing on the stairs and it makes him furious that he can see them but not climb them.  The way the top of the stairs is, the gate doesn't safely stay in place there, so we can't gate off the stairs from the top and let him roam between the two rooms with toys in them.  That is driving him crazy, I think - not being able to really play with anything.  We've got a basket of toys downstairs, but he's used to much more variety.

On top of that, our living room is 1/3 full of stuff we didn't need to unpack for our stay here.  It is just all piled up high off to the side.  This not only makes for a claustrophobic living room, but also means I have to keep a much closer eye on Andrew.  He can also open the dishwasher which is something he couldn't do with our old one.  If I so much as run to the bathroom he's into the dishwasher, pulling out the dirty dishes (which is a problem if there are like raw chicken dishes or steak knives or something in there).  It's just been very high stress for both of us.  He has taken to screaming.  And I mean screaming.  Not crying-screaming, but just screaming like a bunch of kids outside screaming.  But he does it ALL the time.  And he can hold a scream for a REALLY long time.  Since he doesn't use words, he screams any time he's trying to ask me something to get me to turn toward him so he can point at it or sign or whatever.  He screams when the others chase him, even if he's enjoying it.  He screams when you tickle him.  He screams when he's angry, of course.  Where other babies would be babbling, he just screams.  It's really hard to take him out in public because he seriously just screams!  (Do you get the point that he screams?)  Even just eating lunch with our small group at church last Sunday was majorly embarrassing because of how much he screamed.  I feel so bad for him because he's obviously so frustrated - frustrated that he can't explore, frustrated that he can't play, frustrated that he can't speak.  But it's SOOOOO draining to listen to him scream all the time, I can't even tell you.  Not to mention that we're in an apartment, so I'm constantly wondering what the neighbors must think is going on that this kid screams all the time!  There was a sheriff's car parked across the street yesterday and part of me wondered if the neighbors had complained and they were sitting there listening for evidence.  Then when Stephen picked up the mail yesterday there was something from our apartment complex in there and his heart seriously started pounding because he thought it was going to be a letter asking us to leave on noise violations!  I'm sure we're overly paranoid...

Anyway, I wish I could figure out a way for him to more safely explore here, but for now, I'll just keep telling myself it's temporary.  I know it would be just as stressful to still be living in a house that was constantly having to be in show condition with 4 young kids.  Actually, that would probably be worse.  Besides, anything is better than this past week when a stomach bug has hit and I've been cleaning up vomit on top of it all!  Come to think of it, I guess I'll take the screaming