Recent Happenings

I would like to give some excuse for not posting in so long (almost a month!) but I have none. Everything is going relatively smoothly-- this has still been my easiest pregnancy. There are days when I feel less able to move around comfortably (today, for one..) but I can never seem to figure out why. Eight more weeks. I am starting to get stressed out a little bit about that. I'm realizing now that I'll never get all that house organizing done. I wanted to go through each closet, each drawer, each tiny space and get rid of everything I own. Maybe I need to watch an episode of Hoarders each day-- that does get me motivated! Instead I'm sidetracked by the everyday organizing and cleaning (that damn mudroom full of snowboots and snowsuits and school bags and lunchboxes and coats and groceries and...) and rarely get that enough under control to move on to organizing what is hidden away in the closets. I did get to organizing the kids' old clothes and ended up with about 12 huge bins that are organized by size. (Note that I have given away all of Alex's clothes under size 18 months and all of Talia's clothes under 4T so this sadly represents only a year or two. Must watch Hoarders more often!) I still have to go through their more current clothes and lots of miscellaneous shoes and winter gear that are just thrown on the floor in our storage room.

I bought a new point and shoot digital camera, which explains why I haven't been taking many photos (the LCD screen on my old one broke) and so I have some new pictures. I'm actually returning the new camera (too slow to respond...) and trying a different one but that's another story. The pix in the above collage represent the past week or so-- Talia and I went to see the Nutcracker. See how I'm hiding my pregnant self behind my kid? Nice. Hanukkah came and went with big gifts of an American Girl doll for Talia and the Playmobil airplane AND airport terminal for Alex (if we have to play with him we may as well make it fun for ourselves...) and many many many many smaller presents for each. Talia had her first ski lesson and was AMAZING! After an hour-long private lesson she was able to ski down the slope, get on the rope tow, come up, ski down, come up etc. She is even able to stop, troubleshoot, fall and get up. She loved it. I've been on and off with cooking lately but this past week I cooked a bunch of meals (butternut squash risotto, middle eastern chickpeas and spinach with yogurt sauce, orchiette with broccolini, chickpea and bread soup, cauliflower with panko). Last week I picked out a month's worth of recipes and that seems to have worked out pretty well. All the clean up is really too much for me though and keeps me from those other organizing projects (see paragraph number one!).

The kids are now off from school for TWO WEEKS. I'm really excited about not having to get them out of the house in the morning (though now they are used to getting up at 7am so I suspect I won't get to sleep in at all...) but not excited about entertaining them for so many days. I need to force myself to take them out for an activity each day. They don't really want to go (they are pajama homebodies like me) but it will give structure to the day. Tomorrow we are getting a HUGE delivery of a bunk bed for Talia's room. I guess that means that we are finally going to get Alex out of the crib. I wonder how that will go, since it seems like he couldn't care less about it. He's been crying at bedtime (and naptime too sometimes) lately so I can't imagine it will go well. He's welcome to sleep in Talia's room on the bottom bunk but who knows how that will be? Talia is such a light sleeper. If he cries she will certainly wake up and if I spend time cuddling him and trying to get him back to sleep she gets jealous. ("You love him more than me" is a popular phrase in our house; a topic for another day). I guess that's what winter break is for-- to try new sleeping arrangements out! We have no idea where to put the new baby-- not that it will matter for a few months, she'll just stay in our room-- but if Talia and Alex did want to room together it would solve some problems... We have an upcoming vacation as well so don't feel *too* sorry for me having the kids home for two weeks.

That's all for now. I get my new new new camera tomorrow or the next day so I guess I will be taking lots more pictures and perhaps will post a little more frequently... Happy holidays to all.

On the Media

A quick post before I go on vacation to Mexico with Talia. I'm leaving Alex at home with my mother-in-law and with Ron, who has to work Christmas. Yes, I feel bad that I'm leaving my baby. Yes, I am excited to go on vacation with my mother, father, daughter, sister, brother, brother-in-law and niece!

I read a book that I absolutely loved; Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. It was fantastic and surely the best book I've read all year.

Also, one of my favorite shows is running it's whole series over Christmas and the New Year. It's Run's House on MTV. I kid you not. I LOVE that show. I can't seem to convince ANYONE I KNOW to watch it. This is my plea-- it's great! Set your Tivo!

Lastly, here is my conversation with Talia yesterday:

Upon finding a new princess in her Polly Pocket collection (I bought a playset to bring on vacation and it came with Aurora and Prince Phillip so I just added them to her pile of Polly's).

T: Mom! Did you get this at Target?

Me: Yep (not true but whatever)

T: Where was it?

Me: What do you mean?

T: Was it in a corner or on an end (of an aisle, I suppose)

Me: Uhhh... the corner.

T: (Excitedly) That's what I figured!

Who is this kid? She's been asking some interesting (and tough to answer) questions lately, such as "Where does the pee and poo go after I flush it?" and "How did the fog get here?" Interestingly enough, Ron and I answered the first question identically. I was pretty much making up the answer so I'm glad I got it somewhat right.

An update on Alex too while I'm at it... he's been sleeping better, so that's good. He is the cutest kid ever. So happy and good-- completely different from when he was a tiny baby. He loves to play with anything that's not a toy (naturally) and paper especially. He can grab and reach anything so super quick. He's very tactile and just loves to touch and grab (and puts everything in his mouth, of course). Sometimes I'm going about my day and I just put him in front of a basket of toys (princess ponies, princess dolls etc.) and he just plays and eats things and I forget to pay him attention because he's occupying himself and then all of a sudden I realize he's just STARING at me. So I flash him a smile and maybe go over to him for a minute and he's just so happy about it. Poor kid. It really DOES suck to be the second kid. He doesn't have a life ANYTHING like what Talia had. On the plus side, Talia is IN LOVE with him and he her. She only had Ron and me. He has a sister too and she's really good to him. I know I should cherish these good times.

Never enough time...

Well, I never seem to have time to update this. I feel like I can't write about the mundane everyday stuff without writing about the big events of moving and the new baby but I'd rather write about the small stuff so here's a brief update:



The baby:

Alex is almost 12 weeks old and seems to finally be getting better. He was extremely colicky and driving us crazy. We started giving him lactobacillus and also changed his formula to a reduced soy, broken down proteins one and something is helping. (or he's just growing out of that fussy stage). Now he still cries a ton but is consolable. We're not walking him around for hours while he screams. He still rarely sleeps during the day and only if I'm holding him but yesterday he slept in his swing for 45 minutes! He still HATES the car and screams every time we get in the car for the entire car ride. I've learned how to drive while holding his binky in. Basically I have to be double-jointed in my right shoulder. At home I can sort of rotate him around a few different seating areas, like the swing for a minute, his bouncy chair for 5 minutes,his playmat for 5 minutes, and his bumbo seat for 5 minutes. It's a lot better than before so I guess I'll take it!

The house:
Love it. Love everything about it-- except that it's hard to keep the kitchen clean. Why would granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and a glass top electric range be so desirable if they just show spots and handprints everywhere? There are many things about the house that I didn't discover until we got here (hidden storage, fantastic lighting etc.) and I'll take pictures and post something later.

The town:
Well, Middleton is Money Magazine's number one small town to live in for a reason. It is great here. People are friendly and helpful, the air is clean and fresh (although you can certainly smell "farm" if the wind is blowing a certain way), and life is certainly convenient. I love love love the nature trail two blocks from my house. I was there a few days ago and was so jealous of the families biking and walking. I figure Talia will be able to walk for a longer period of time... when? Probably never. And perhaps we'll be able to bike it as a family in about... 5 years? Lots of people have tandem attachments for the kids. Maybe we'll get one of those sometime. I want to borrow a neighbor's jogging stroller to see if T will tolerate that. She hates strollers and doesn't like the "bumps" in particular so I doubt she'll enjoy it. It's too hot these days anyway. Looks like Ron and I will have to give each other time to go there separately.

Money:
I'm acting like I have more money but I don't yet. I'm buying more organic produce and more prepared items at Whole Foods. I'm sending gifts to friends. I'm practically hemorrhaging money to Target. I bought the kids some new clothes and FOUR shirts for myself (at H&M, so it wasn't too much). We haven't received a paycheck yet. Housecleaners are more expensive here-- I guess they're not illegal immigrants like in Philly and have to actually pay the government and give themselves health insurance here. We're going to start with once every other week but I really want it once a week.

Family and Friends:
I miss everyone but they don't feel that far away. Since I never really talked to my Philly friends on the phone it seems weird to do so now, so I miss having close relationships with people I see every day. I am becoming closer to some neighbors and will meet people outside of the neighborhood someday.

Talia:
She seems to have adjusted perfectly fine. She loves having neighbor friends, likes school, loves swimming and gymnastic classes. She definitely wants me to play with her more and does not want to go to bed. We gave up the nap in this whole moving situation and that's fine with me-- I like the freedom of not having to be home everyday after lunch-- but she doesn't go to bed any earlier. And when she does nap at school it's even harder to get her to bed and she STILL wakes up in the middle of the night once or twice to get her covers put back on. I mean, really, how hard is it to put the blankets on yourself?!?! Alex sleeps at night better than she does.

Time for me:
Haven't had much. Went on the nature trail once. Sewed a little the other day while T played with fabric and Alex napped. Had a babysitter and had a "date" with Ron, if you call furniture shopping a date.

Ok, now that that stuff if out of the way I can start talking about the little stuff again. Like how I love my new laundry detergent. It smells soooooo good! Downy Simple Pleasures in Water Lily and Jasmine. You will NOT be disappointed!

I also went to a few garage sales and bought a big rubbermaid tote filled with fabric for $25 and got a lot of good stuff. A bunch of 30's reproduction type prints and a pile of batiks as well. I'm trying to make this flag garland from Land of Nod. It's going to look great!

Lastly, I love GPS. It's the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

Arrival in the Midwest

ahhhh.... It's so quiet. All I can hear are birds chirping. I have the most spectacular view-- an unobstructed expanse of rolling farmland with actual barns and silos-- no joke! I think I love it here.

Perhaps I wasn't meant to live in the city?

We arrived almost a week ago and have the essential parts of the house out of boxes, if not in order. I love the house, I love the neighborhood, I love the town, I love the QUIET! We haven't heard a siren since we got here.

So the house is great. It's very sunny, very spacious, has tons of storage. I honestly think I'll be able to keep the house neat, if you can believe that. I love that the playroom has all the toys which can disappear at night. I love my fireplace and covered tv cabinet. I like the kitchen, I'm getting used to the open design. Ron put away all the kitchen wares out of the boxes so soon I will have to re-organize everything to my liking. I'm not going to continue on and on about the house; you'll just have to come visit to see it. My in-laws were here for a couple of days and I never even went into the basement guest room and they seemed very much out of the way so guests are welcome welcome welcome!

My neighboorhood is great so far. It's been super hot so no one has been out the last day or two but there was the cutest parade on July 4th-- a firetruck followed with all the kids in the neighborhood on bikes or being pulled in wagons with balloons and flags etc. Then in the evening there was a pot-luck at the park (1 block away) for the families on our street and there are tons of kids here. Supposedly there are two princess-y sisters right near us ages 3 and 5 but we haven't met them yet. My next door neighbor ACTUALLY BAKED ME A PIE. I'm not kidding. Other neighbors dropped off rice krispie treats and chocolate covered oreos. One neighbor lent us their brand new lawn mower so Ron could do the yard (which took all of 20 minutes). People wave. A girl had a lemonade stand out yesterday and cups of lemonade were 10 cents.

We joined the pool, which is really big, VERY cool (a huge sand area with shade and water structures, two huge water slides, snack bar etc.) and only cost $130 for a family of 5. It doesn't open until 1:30 though because of swim team. Talia is going to take lessons starting in two weeks. I got my library card and the library is very nice with a kids play area. Luckily it has the whole online reservation thing so I can get whatever books I want from 7 counties.

Yesterday we went into downtown Madison (15 minutes) and went to the farmer's market. I am unable to describe the magnitude of the market so I won't even try. Those of you who've been here know what I'm talking about. It just confirms the whole atmosphere of Madison in general-- people are really into local agriculture and outdoor activities. I bought lots of fresh local produce, cheese, bread and rainbow tie-dye socks for Talia. I even got shelled peas. I bought the MOST BEAUTIFUL flower bouquet (I don't even have a vase big enough) for $5.

Talia's school is the coolest place ever. There was a little table at the entrance last week that had a foam board and next to it a basket filled with found and donated objects in red, white and blue-- detergent caps, lego pieces, a few small knitted squares etc. and a bunch of rolls of tape. A sign said- please add to our sculpture as the week goes by. So simple and yet so creative. There are live birds in the school. They get produce from a CSA for snack. The director decided not to charge me for the full month because Talia was really only going three weeks. THIS is what the Midwest is like! Someone came by today with cookies and gave us a Kettler tricycle for Talia to ride for the summer since her boys had moved on to bikes.

Alex seems to like Wisconsin also. He has hopefully grown out of his colicky stage and does not cry for hours on end for no reason. He still really doesn't sleep during the day at all. It's quite strange. All you want to do is put him down and every time you try he wakes up within 10 minutes. He does generally sleep ok at night, waking mostly to eat but sometimes will wiggle around and grunt for hours between feedings but not really awake-- he doesn't open his eyes and doesn't exactly cry. He does need care during that time-- binky, patting etc. and thus we are exhausted. We bought him a fancy swing and a bouncy chair so he's not as neglected as he was in Philly.

Well I'm really tired. I wrote this email in two sessions so sorry if I've repeated myself. Ron has another week off and then he's working full time. He *might* take Talia to Chicago this weekend for his dad's 60th and I might stay here with Alex. Even if the kid doesn't sleep during the day I can just sit with him in front of the tv, maybe run some errands (I think I've given Target about $1000 this week) and try to RELAX. I'm going to bed.