Week 35: Moving On Up

So for some reason, I’m having trouble keeping the blog updated with all the packing going on.  Shocking, I know.  It’s getting pretty crazy here, throwing things into boxes, and resisting the urge to clean out and get rid of stuff while I pack.  Probably that’s what has overwhelmed me about packing, thinking Oh, all the CDs must go together in the same box and feeling like I have to go around collecting everything in the same category in order to put it in a box.  But here’s a revelation I had, everything ends up in the same place anyway!  So yeah, I’m still donating a lot of old clothes we don’t wear anymore, but really, just having things in boxes is all that matters.  

Luckily Will is the perfect age for moving, if there is one.  He’s not old enough to be into everything, but he’s able to entertain himself happily on the floor without needing to be held.  I set a box of electronics on the floor, camera parts, ac adapters, and Will thought he was in heaven.  Well, until he actually got a hold of the box and I took it away.  

Meanwhile Emily is dying to help, if by help she means wave around the huge tape dispenser and sharpie, saying, “Let meeeee do iiiit!”.  I’m trying to imagine what this move is like for her.  She’s been having trouble sleeping lately, so as a child that would lie for hours in my bed in the dark, head filled with worries and not being able to turn my brain off, I empathize, I do.  I’ve been letting her stay up and play her leap pad or read, it’s silly to expect her to just lie there and stress about whatever it is that kindergartners worry about.  As excited as she is about moving closer to family, and getting a new house with a yard, all she’s ever known is in Pullman.  Her whole world is her little school, friends, and this house.  

Am I talking too much about moving?  Probably.  Just one more thing, I promise.  Sara, who has been my best friend since we were eight, is moving across the street, well, actually parking lot, I guess, from where we are moving in, get this the same weekend we are moving!  I am so excited.  Ian and I were introduced through them, and their son, Evan, is just eight months older than Will.  It’s going to be so much fun to have friends that close after being so isolated over here for the past year and a half.  Okay, that’s it, I’ll not mention moving again.  Probably until my next post.  

Now I know I’ve probably said it before, but Will is right now at the pinnacle of baby cuteness.  He still has no teeth, and as he smiles that big baby grin, drool pours out of his mouth like someone turned on a faucet in there.  I especially love when he wakes up in the morning, hair sticking up everywhere, cheeks rosy from sleep, still a little sleep and happy to snuggle, and he’s so thrilled to wake up between us, his favorite people.  Will has also become more independent, and in the evening has been crawling down the hall to play with Emily in her room.  I don’t know exactly what they do in there, but every time I check in, William is sitting happily on the floor, playing with something pretty girly, like a dress up hat with purple sparkles and feathers, so I just let them be.  Especially now that almost everything in Emily’s room is packed except for her bed, a few books, and a box of dress up clothes.  

Mostly I like that these kids have a relationship, that they genuinely like each other’s company.  Yesterday at the park they sat together on the merry-go-round, or whatever the spinning metal wheel of a deathtrap from the 1960’s is called, their little bodies holding on to each other comfortably, grinning from ear to ear as I spun them around.  All I could think was that right there was my entire world, all we can ever aspire to, all we can leave behind; caring, secure, happy children.      

Week 34: The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Will has finally learned to actively play his favorite games, pat-a-cake.  He can clap his hands together happily, yet still with very little control, often forgetting that the other hand is lodged in his mouth, and ends up smacking himself in the face.  But he is very proud of himself, as he should be.  

Another milestone, surely to make Behind the Music if he ever becomes a famous musician, Will can play Emily’s little wooden recorder.  I’m sure in twenty years, we’ll be sitting on that couch being interviewed, shrugging smugly, saying, “Well, we could tell from an early age that he had a talent for music”.  But he likes having the power to create such a fun response, as we fall over ourselves applauding and praising him.  

Will also started to attempt dancing.  A little dog he got for Christmas sings when you press its hand, and Will hangs on to the coffee table, squatting down and standing up.  It’s about as rhythmic as Steve Martin in The Jerk, but it’s a start.  

On other normal baby milestones… he seems to have forgotten to do.  Say, things like, teething.  Will is eight months old, and no tooth in sight.  But I have to admit, hanging on to that sweet little toothless baby grin a little longer is just fine with me.  Besides, he does just fine eating all kinds of real people food.  His favorites seem to be bread, toast, rice, cheese, squash, and scrambled egg yoke.  He’s also quite proud of himself for eating, and as Will was eating breakfast, he waved his toast around at Ian, as if to say, “Hey look at this!  No more nasty gruel for me, thank you very much”.  

Hands down, my favorite thing about this age is how amazed Will is with everything.  He sits in the bath tub, splashes the water up in his face, experiencing the wetness, yelling to hear his own voice echo, and gazing up at the shower head, which must seem so, so high up there to him.  When I take him to the store, he sits quietly in the cart and stares up at the lights, amazed at the brightness and color.  I see a lot of babies crying in the store, but I love how interested and alert Will always is.  Sure, he’s not the friendliest baby to strangers, usually when people smile and fuss over him, he just stares blankly back.  Secretly, I like this, he saves all his best smiles for his favorite people.  

But now that he’s singled out his favorite people, he’s had the onset of Seperation Anxiety.  If I merely step over the baby gate blocking our bedroom doorway, to, god forbid, use the bathroom, he crawls over, pulls himself up on the gate and wails morosely.  Mostly, if he’s not exploring, he wants to be held, which is nothing new.  I just need to invest in a larger sling for the poor guy, and poor me.  The one we had was great, but it now doesn’t support his weight well, and digs into my shoulder and his legs.  

But, I do have to admit that while all these milestones are exciting, there is one thing Will does that I could definitely do without.  Have you ever seen that episode of The Simpsons with the screaming caterpillar?  If you haven’t, well this is probably totally lost on you, but it’s all I can think of when Will starts this high pitched scream, which can mean any number of things from “put me to sleep this second” to “I want what you’re eating”.  

As for the rest of us, we’re pretty overwhelmed about the move.  Excited, but overwhelmed.  Emily keeps forgetting that she’ll have a new school with new friends in just a few short weeks, and the poor kid starts to miss the friends she has, of course.  I’m completely not looking forward to packing, and running out of time for procrastinating.  Ian finally got to quit his job, so he’s very happy.  And luckily he’ll be home the week before we move to help with packing.  I just can’t believe the amount of stuff we’ve accumulated over the last four and a half years.  Just cross your fingers for the rain to stop so we can get some non-soggy boxes for packing.        

So as a P.S. to this blog entry, I’m doing my best to keep up the blog, I’ve had these last two posts half written in Word documents the last two weeks.  So, I’ll try to keep them coming, and check back soon I should have more written for week 35 shortly.  Thanks for reading!

Week 33: Out with the Old, In with the New

I know that it’s pretty much assumed that when you become parents that you also become totally lame. We spent New Year’s Eve, sitting on the floor, eating chocolate moose, drinking champagne, and watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It’s a pretty stark difference from that first New Years, the fateful night when Ian was shyly sitting next to me as we played “moose” (the drinking game, not the chocolate dessert, but now that I think about it, I’m noticing a theme here).

But like I said, who knew you really become that lame after kids. Luckily, and this is a secret, so hopefully not too many people know about this whole blog thing, a night at home with half a beer, kids at least sort of asleep, and a video game (pauses to push glasses up the bridge of my nose) is my idea of a fun night. It’s also definitely Ian’s idea of a fun night, so I guess we’re a good match. Who knew all those years ago, that we’d be here, together, hunched over our computers, laughing at the Chasing Amy commentary, giggling over midnight snacks, and marveling at these amazing kids of ours.

It’s a cliché, I know, but I can’t believe its 2006 already. I guess New Year’s always brings out one’s reflective side, but I can’t believe how fast the last five years have gone by. Looking back over the pictures of Emily, just a pink cheeked toddler when we moved here, standing in our old apartment in disbelief that we could have moved somewhere that hot. Emily and her little friend Maddie sitting in the stands at their first, and only, Cougar football game, sipping juiceboxes alongside the freshmen sneaking vodka into their cranberry juice. Living in this town has been an experience, and in a lot of ways I’ll not be sad to leave, but as happy as I am to be moving closer to our families, the last four years here have been filled with the happy memories of Ian, Emily, and now, Will. I’m not going to miss going to the grocery store on Friday evening and seeing college guys loading up carts full with Busch Ice. I am going to miss the green, green hills against the blue sky in the springtime, and sitting in a park on the first warm day of the year, eating Hero’s subs, and watching Emily run around on the toys. I’ll miss driving by the hospital where Will was born, and remembering all the times I drove by before he was born, thinking, wondering what this unborn baby will be like. I’ll miss the calm silence of real snow, but I won’t miss the constant wind that made me so furious when I was huge and pregnant walking home from class. I won’t miss the dust, or the constant noise of the highway just down the hill. I really, really will not miss the six hour drive to visit our family.

But I’m so excited to start a new life, going back to what is really home for us. I’m looking forward to making all kinds of new memories. Going hiking in the Olympics, searching for crabs on the rocky beaches of the Puget Sound, riding the ferry, all the things Ian and I grew up with.

Because I guess, that’s what life is, a series of memories, different eras coming together. We’re about to embark on a journey, but whatever this new year brings, I’m glad my life is so rich with love and family.

Happy New Year.

Week 32: Baby's First Christmas

Baby’s first Christmas and older sibling’s sixth Christmas, wow, time flies.  It seems like not too long ago it was Emily’s first Christmas and she got the infamous exersaucer that has been very well loved by her brother.  A year ago I was trying to imagine what it would be like with our gender-still-unknown little guy crawling around under the Christmas Tree.  Now, I’m trying to imagine how I’ll cope with Will walking and grabbing everything in sight next year.  

Christmas was great, the kids had a wonderful time, and Emily couldn’t believe her luck that Santa would visit both her grandparent’s houses.  Santa brought her the little barking dog that she asked for, and since Will has been such a good boy this year, he also got some Legos from Santa.  

For Ian and me, Christmas was a bit difficult since we’re moving back to the west side of the state in a few short weeks, we really weren’t looking forward to the last drive back to Pullman.  Knowing next year we’ll be spending Christmas in our own house, without having to drive six ours to be with our family, with our own tree and fireplace for Santa to come down, it just made it hard to get into the spirit.  But it was great to see everyone, we even got to have dinner with some friends (Yes, we have friends!).  And the kids got some great toys – Will was at times, a bit overwhelmed by everything, but Emily was an old pro, unwrapping, saying thank you, and showing the correct amount of appreciation.  I’m kidding of course.  But both kids were great, filled with the wonder and joy of Christmas, which is really all I could want.  

Ian and I finally found the little “barking, not a real dog” at the Tacoma Mall, the night before Christmas Eve, as we were leaving, at one of those cheesy little booths in the middle of the mall.  We were racing to grab some pretzels before fighting our way out of the Mall parking lot, when Ian spotted the little dog, “There!  There is one!” And seriously, after searching Toys ‘R Us, Target, Radio Shack, Fry’s Electronics, and the entire Tacoma Mall, which by the way, does not have a proper toy store in it, we has resigned ourselves to having to spend the next day, Christmas Eve, Shopping for the dog.  So, perhaps it was a Christmas Miracle?  I don’t know, but next year I’ll not take for granted that I’ll be able to find what Emily asks Santa to bring her.    


In the end, we left about half of our gifts at my mom’s house, not wanting to pack them all to take to Pullman, only to have to pack them again and bring them back.  So it will be like Christmas again in a few weeks.  However, even after leaving half of the gifts, our car was still bursting with presents on the ride home.  So, in a just a few weeks we’ll be over on the good side of the state, and we couldn’t be more excited.  To be closer to our families is really the best present we could get.