Mornings

Every morning, the first thing we do (when we don't have to take Chad to work so we can have the car that day (we need a second car!)) is feed Nathan his morning bottle. Then, it's time for my morning breakfast. I bring my morning oatmeal in the study to check emails, ESPN, blogs, etc while Nathan plays in the living room. Since he wasn't mobile until last week, this was a pretty safe arrangement. Until he started to crawl...

So this morning, I was commenting on Ashley's blog, and I heard the ominous ringing of what is distinctly the bell ornaments on the Christmas tree. I went in to find Nathan had pulled off the bottom Christmas tree lights and was playing with two of the ornaments. At least I put the baby safe ones on the bottom. He had also managed to turn on the DVD player and eject my Pilates video. I hear more rumblings in the living room. Perhaps it's time to go supervise the little rascal...

I love North Carolina!

While I lived in Boston, my mom would occasionally call to smugly tell me that was 70 or 75 degrees back in Raleigh while we were anticipating another snowstorm or arctic blast to come through in New England. The first year we were married, Boston received over 80" of snow. They literally had to truck the snow out of the city - it was piled four or five feet high on the sides of the roads and it just wouldn't get warm enough to melt. For months at a time. My first winter, we had constant snow cover in our north-facing front yard from November until April. In March, it finally melted down far enough to see the layer of pine needles from our Christmas tree in December. People were ice skating on the Charles River. The one upside of our car being stolen three years ago was that I didn't have to dig it out of the 26" snowstorm that came through the next day.

When we were debating as to where we should move, I imposed the Canada rule. This rule stated that we could not move to any state that touched Canada. They were all too cold. We could also not move any farther north than Boston. I had had enough snow and cold to last me a lifetime.

So when we finally decided to move to North Carolina, I was thrilled - no more terrible winters EVER! Several weeks ago, the office manager at Chad's office reminisced about the last major snowstorm to come through Jacksonville - 19 years ago. And so far this winter, the weather is working out better than even I could have hoped. While much of the country has received snow storms and ice storms over the past week, today's high is 76 here in Jacksonville. Tomorrow should hit 80. I'm wearing flip-flops and T-shirts in December! Nathan and I will be taking a walk later, and there will be no need for his new winter coat. I think I've died and gone to heaven. My heaven, mind you. In Chad's, they'll be skiing year-round.

Productivity - Here I come!

Yesterday, I was supposed to write the ward Christmas program (the fun side of being the ward music person), in addition to my normal shopping day. I was distracted, however, by the last Harry Potter. I know, I'm probably the last person alive, other than Chad, to have NOT read the last one, but we were supposed to be reading them together, and it's taken us forever to get through them. We were stalled out at about page 200 of the last book, and I simply couldn't handle it anymore - I had to finish the book. So I did. I didn't get anything other than the shopping done all day. I was even reading the book while feeding Nathan. But, at 4:45 as I needed to head out the door to get Chad, I finished! Hooray! I'm completely in the doghouse with Chad for reading ahead without him, but I can now reclaim my life.

Except that I still had to figure out what jogging stroller I was going to get for Christmas. Do I get a cheaper fixed-wheel or a more expensive swivel-wheel? I know a swivel-wheel would be more convenient, but I already have a nice umbrella stroller for stores and such. For six months in Brookline we used a borrowed fixed-wheel stroller. I could handle just about any store in Coolidge Corner with it, so surely I could handle our quiet neighborhood in Jacksonville with one? Our teeny budget helped solve that battle, but then, which fixed-wheel do I get? Do I go $30 past our budget and get a lighter aluminum stroller or stick to the budget and get the heavier steel one? Way too many options here, so I finally had to leave the decision to Chad. But then, the website had reviews of diaper bags, so there was another twenty minutes blown. I did get to see lots of pictures of the diaper bag I'm supposed to be getting for Christmas - I love it!

So it's now 10am, and have I started the pilates, laundry, cleaning, and Christmas program that are my tasks for today? Heck no. All I've managed to accomplish is feeding and changing Nathan and putting him down for a nap. I think it's time to start getting serious about this whole productivity thing. I believe I hear the 409, Windex, and vacuum cleaner calling...

So, we're at Chad's office this morning. Chad is currently cleaning the teeth of the missionaries in our ward, Nathan is taking a nap, and I am freezing to death. His partner keeps this office somewhere around arctic blast, which means that Chad is perfectly happy but I'm not so happy. I'm eating oatmeal and wearing Chad's jacket to try to stay warm. It's not working.

Nathan continues to make forward progress with his pseudo-crawling. It's kind of a combat crawl (probably fitting given all the Marines around), but he's happy to be more mobile. I'm happy too. If he wants something, he can go get it himself. Sort of.

We drove out to Beulaville yesterday to get our Christmas tree at Mike's Farm, this local farm that grows and sells Christmas trees. They also have a well-known-around-here restaurant with a fixed, all-you-can-eat menu. They serve plain biscuits, biscuits with country ham, fried chicken, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, pork tenderloin, and quite possibly the most amazing macaroni and cheese I've ever had. I might make the drive just for the macaroni and cheese. Sadly, by the time we got there at five, the line was out the door, so we picked out our tree and drove home. We will be back, though. Thinking about it is making me hungry. The tree is a great, big Fraser Fir that is opening up quite nicely. Tonight we get to decorate it and figure out how to keep Nathan from eating it. I'm afraid I'll be finding lots of pine needles in upcoming diapers...

Finally!

Yesterday was laundry day. Nathan ran out of onesies on Sunday, but I just hadn't gotten around to laundry this week. Grocery shopping, marathon-long presidency meetings, and an unwillingness to come back from vacation all got in the way. Finally, it was time. Nathan was out of pajamas.

The difficulty with the pajamas is that Chad loves to sleep cold. In his perfect world, we would sleep with the window open all winter long, even when we lived in Boston. Once Nathan was born, I finally had some leverage in this "discussion" so the house is kept at a semi-reasonable temperature. Semi-reasonable for big kids, and requiring warm, footy pajamas for babies. So running out of pajamas for Nathan means that no matter what, it's laundry day.

Nathan loves laundry day. He loves to play with anything that I'm folding, especially sheets and his clothes. He tries to grab for anything he can reach so that he can "help" me with the laundry. What a nice little kid. We were on the floor folding laundry, and Nathan really wanted to play with his blue towels. He tried just reaching for them, but he couldn't quite make it. So, for the first time in his short life, he marginally crawled forward and got to the blue towels! He certainly isn't going to win any speed races anytime soon, but Nathan *finally* figured out forward motion! Hallelujah! Now, it's time to babyproof the house :)

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we went out to Utah to visit with Chad's family and my sister and Henderson grandparents. We were there for a little over a week, which was a nice length of stay. We stayed with Chad's parents, as did two of his brothers, their wives, and three nieces and nephews. The Reese house was certainly full and busy, but it was great to be able to see everyone.

We went out to eat every other day while we were there, hitting such fabulous spots as the Kyoto for Saturday sushi, Hires Big H for Monday hamburgers, The Pie for Wednesday pizza and cheese pull-apart bread, and La Casita for Friday Mexican food. Thrown in there we had Monday night Pie Night with the Reese's, Thanksgiving, and general holiday overeating. My poor not-so-little tummy is relieved to not be eating so much food anymore. I was tired of eating by the time we left.

Nathan is also finally starting to make some progress towards crawling. No worries, the big kid isn't crawling yet and still has no teeth, but he no longer depends on rolling to manuever around. After watching his seven-month-old cousin cruising around, he's determined to start moving around all by himself. He has also discovered that his legs have uses other than kicking me or kicking to show excitement. He is finally starting to stand a little with support.

Overall, it was a great Thanksgiving, and we had a great time in Utah.

Sad Nathan

We're in Utah right now for our Thanksgiving Break visiting with Chad's family. We arrived here on Friday and leave this Saturday. It's nice to be around family again, but Nathan's had a rough past twenty-four hours. I noticed he was burning up this morning, and he kept tugging at his left ear. We had Grandpa Reese (a pediatrician!) check, and sure enough, Nathan has his first ear infection. He was a sad little baby today - very cuddly and easily upset. The tears were flowing much of the day. He hates taking the antibiotics and Motrin. He has to be held down, and he screams the whole time. He spent most of today cuddling in my arms. When we went to visit Chad's grandparents, he threw up repeatedly in the car. We're not quite sure what brought that on, but we're hoping he gets better soon. He's a sad kid today. And I'm not having much fun either. It's hard to see your little baby sad and in pain and all he wants is for you to hold him and make it all better. I love the little stinker.

Get an education!!!

Boston and Jacksonville are very different places. Boston is the largest college town in the country, with well over 100,000 students between the over twenty colleges and universities around Boston. Jacksonville has Coastal Carolina Community College. Boston has a number of industries, both blue-collar and white-collar. There are a number of people just getting by, but there are also a lot of well-educated, well-paid working folk. Housing prices are also sky-high due to this relative affluence. Jacksonville has Camp Lejuene as its industry, without which it would merely be a few gas stations at the intersection of US17 and NC24. The vast majority of Jacksonville is just getting by, and there are only a few pockets of well-educated, well-paid working folk. Housing prices are also dirt cheap due to this lack of affluence.

We have a number of families in our ward who are struggling, and I mean really struggling, to pay the rent and put food on the table. As Chad tells me of their struggles, I can't help but think that much of them are the result of a lack of education and a trade or skill. I am so grateful that both Chad and I have gotten an education and that we both have a trade or a skill. That knowledge makes our economic future so much less scary, knowing that we can provide for our family. And I love the fact that Chad makes enough that I can stay home with Nathan without it being a huge stressor. So the moral of this story is - Get an education!!!

Nathan went in for his 9-month checkup yesterday, and all went well. He has a fever today from his shots, but other than that he was good. He weighs 22 pounds, 4 ounces (about 60th percentile) and is 30 1/2 inches tall (about 95th percentile!). It's no wonder he's grown out of all his old clothes. He hasn't been putting on much weight, but he has gotten taller. We have no idea how he got to be so tall. It certainly wasn't from Chad or me.

When I went into get Nathan from his morning nap today, he was quite proudly sitting up in his crib! He has never sat up while we've been watching, but he was definitely sitting up then. I've seen some other (unsuccessful) attempts to sit up throughout the day today, so maybe Nathan is starting to develop some more mobility. One day he'll be able to get himself from point A to point B all by himself. One day...

Nathan sitting up after his nap - he doesn't seem too happy about mom taking pictures. It could have been because he had an amazingly stinky and foul diaper.

First off, there's definitely some sports-related euphoria around here these days. The Red Sox swept the Rockies, winning the World Series Sunday night. Chad and I were bad Mormons, watching the game in our upstairs bedroom on the floor (for some reason, we don't get Fox on our downstairs TV, so we have to go upstairs to the free TV Chad got from work that we use while exercising). We were so excited! Two championships since we got married - we must bring good luck ;) We're also excited to be getting to sleep at normal hours again. The games never ended before midnight, which made the next day rather long. Go Red Sox!

We've posted new pictures on our Picasa page, so enjoy them. Nathan's looking super-cute as always and he's getting to be so big. He's starting to grow out of his 12 month clothing and is starting to wear 18-month sizes. My baby's growing up! No worries, though - he has no teeth yet and still is making no moves towards crawling. He's just getting big.

Our last fun piece of news comes from Chad's work. Chad received his paycheck yesterday, and he surpassed his base salary for the month of October! Woohoo! Since Chad's only getting busier, we should be making major progress towards financial solvency in the near future. We didn't think we'd hit this point for awhile, so we're really excited. Yea!

Nathan on Halloween (he dressed up as a little boy who went to bed early)

Nathan is definitely his mother's son. This morning, I put him on the floor next to his toy bin while I ate my breakfast. I looked over a few minutes later, and he had been happily emptying the bin of his favorite toys. I expected to see his stacking rings, play cubes, trains, balls, or anything else that was brightly colored and made noise scattered around him. There were about two toys and six books.

We've been reading with Nathan since he was only a few months old, and in the past week he has really loved to read books, both with us and by himself. He is a master page-turner and gets quite upset if you turn the page for him. He used to just eat the books, but now he carefully (for a nine-month-old) turns the pages, admiring the pictures on each page. It's funny watching him "read" his books.

Other skills we've recently picked up include waving hello and goodbye and high-fives. He loves to give high-fives to anyone around him. He was the biggest flirt in line at Wal-Mart earlier this week, flirting with the lady in front of us, then turning around the lady behind us, then back to the lady in front of us, then back to the lady behind us. He was quite the ladies' man in the deli line. What a cutie!

GO RED SOX!!!

Game 1, World Series, tonight, 8pm

Yuck!

Each of us has things that we just don't like - the Yankees, turkey, chalkboards, and stinky diapers. And then there are the things we really don't like - Carolina, cold weather, being in debt, and crying babies in the middle of the night. Almost at the top of my list are rodents (mice, rats, etc) and cockroaches. When Chad and I were dating, I told him that he was in charge of rodents and cockroaches for our marriage. I cannot stand them. Thinking about them makes my skin crawl.

Yesterday, I had just gotten out of the shower and was walking over to the vanity when I heard a slight crunch as I was stepped down on my left foot. I immediately lifted my foot and saw, to my horrow, a slightly smooshed cockroach. I had stepped on a cockroach! Yuck! Gross! Ack! I almost threw up I was so disgusted. What were the odds that I would randomly step on a cockroach? Hopefully the odds aren't good because I never want to do that again. I hate cockroaches!!!

Go Boston!

I'm totally supposed to be getting ready for church right now and not on the computer, but I was way too excited after last night not to post anything. Can I just say how much I love being a Red Sox fan??? Last night was awesome. Schilling was amazing for a forty-year-old, and how about JD Drew redeeming himself after a miserable season with a grand slam homerun in the first inning?!? It was fabulous. We stayed up way too late, and it's going to be a long Sunday, but it was worth it. Go Red Sox!!! (Let's just hope Dice-K doesn't blow it tonight...)

Dancin'

A while ago, I bought Nathan a fun sing-along CD from Target. It has great classics like The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Mary Had a Little Lamb, I'm a Little Teapot, etc. Nathan loves it. It helps us eat yucky food like green beans or peas. I'll start singing it to him, and he immediately looks over at our stereo as if to say, mom, please stop singing and just play the real thing. Nathan has also started dancing to music he likes. Dancing consists of bouncing up and down and smiling. Sometimes we get some arm movement, and his legs usually kick along. He has a great time dancing with me. We're dancing right now while typing.

Yesterday, we were walking past the stereo, and Nathan started dancing just looking at the stereo (In addition to playing his favorite music, it also has cool blue lights). So, I turned on his CD, and the dancing really began. He had this great big smile on his face, and the arms and legs were flying. Watch out world once he starts walking - we have the real Mr. Bojangles here.

Boss's Day

Today is, apparently, Boss's Day. Now, for the previous twenty-eight years of my life, that has meant nothing since I've always been one of the masses of employees. And since we didn't always care for our principals, Boss's Day was often politely forgotten at the schools where I worked. Now that Chad has acquired the title Doctor and a job to go with it, though, we (which means Chad) have entered the world of the Bosses. He isn't technically a boss and certainly doesn't have the paycheck yet, but there we were today at the head table at a lunch put on by the ladies in honor of Boss's Day. It was truly a weird moment, one of those moments when you go through a pretty substantial phase shift. It's weird going into the office to pick Chad up, toting along always adorable Nathan. All of the ladies there are older than me (I think) and have spent way more time at the office, but there is a difference in the way they treat me. It's so weird! When in the world did we turn into grown-ups?!?

Today's high is a scorching 93 here in sunny Jacksonville. It's October 9th, and it's 93. How ridiculous is that?!? On the one hand, I'm still loving my flipflops and shorts, and Nathan only has two pairs of pants to his name in the next size up, so the heat is fabulous. On the other hand, I'm not loving my electric bill so much with the A/C running constantly. And eventually, even here, it does have to get cold, right?

I dropped by the local library on my way home from Wal-Mart so that I could find something better to do with my free time. This growing Solitaire obsession is fine and all, but I need to do something more productive with Nathan's nap times. I miss our great big Brookline libraries, with one in walking distance and another in easy driving distance. That being said, I think I've found enough to keep me busy for the next long while. If anyone has any recent-favorite reading suggestions, I'm looking for some new things to read. There are only so many times you can read Jane Austen or Pride and Prejudice.

Visiting the cemetery

For activity night on Thursday (I'm the Laurel advisor in our ward), we went to the city cemetery and did grave rubbings. Kind of random, but the girls mostly enjoyed it. While walking around the cemetery, two of the advisors and I came upon the section of the cemetery for babies. It was soooo sad. There were so many tiny headstones and footstones of babies who had lived for only a day or a few months. Some of them couldn't afford headstones and just had little markers. Some you could tell the moms still came to visit twenty-five years later. One set of parents had three little girls who were born and died on the same day - one in 1963, the next in 1966, and the last in 1970.

I am so grateful for little Nathan and his sweet, funny personality. I am glad I get to be his mom for eternity because Chad and I were sealed together in the temple. I am excited to watch him grow and develop in the gospel. I love my baby.

It's here!

Nathan's crib arrived at Wal-Mart yesterday (two days early!), so Chad and I had a super-fun evening of crib assembly. The directions, as the reviews of the crib online had said, left something to be desired, but we were able to combine our five bajillion years of schooling and assemble the crib without any major errors. Nathan slept in it for the first time last night and seemed to do well. I think he likes all the space he has there as compared to the Pack-n-play. Now, we just have to throw away the boxes and vacuum his room, and the crib saga has ended. Hooray!

The Onlsow County Fair

A couple of weeks ago, we received a 30-page booklet about the opcoming County Fair. I didn't immediately throw it away because I was curious as to what could possible take thirty pages of description regarding a county fair. I had images of amusement rides, lots of fried foods, maybe a bearded lady, washed-up country singers, etc. So, I sat down to read during my lunch and discover thirty pages of rules and lists about entering livestock, live plants, clothing, field crops, eggs, cured hams, honey, and everything else you could possible think of entering in a county fair. Did you know there were five varieties of watermelons, three varieties of turnips, ten varieties of grapes, rules regarding canned goods, and more kinds of preserves, jams, conserves, marmalades, butters, and jellies that you could shake a stick at? This certainly isn't Norfolk County in Massachusetts. One day, maybe I'll enter salsa or an angel food cake or brownies or potted impatiens or crocheting or a stuffed dressed doll. Onslow County is awesome!

Crib update

I finally made a decision and got the more expensive crib. I like it better. This decision was helped by Chad actually starting work this week and soon to be receiving real paychecks. And I feel pretty good that I didn't get the Pottery Barn Kids crib I really wanted. I'll just have to wait for Nathan's room in about ten years to go shopping there.

Nathan, ever the curious kid, just figured out how to open the drawer of the desk. He's trying to get the envelopes out of the drawer now. What a smart little kid. If only he would attempt to crawl...

Cribs

You may have seen in the news the largest crib recall ever on cribs made by Simplicity. As it turns out, they made Nathan's crib and it is one of the recalled cribs. Now, the issue is with the drop side and if it has been installed properly (the directions were unclear) and also if it has older or newer hardware (new is good, old is bad). Our crib is installed properly and has the good newer hardware, but even with newer hardware and correct installation, there were deaths and entrapments. The CPSC is still investigating these occurences. Chad, always the cautious one when it comes to safety, feels, and I do agree, that Nathan's safety is not worth the risk, so he has been moved temporarily to his Pack-n-Play. But that's only a short-term solution. The time has come for us to buy a new crib.

I have been looking online for two days now trying to find a crib I like that I can afford. Why are so many of them ugly? Or expensive? Or ugly and expensive? I've seen some over-the-top cribs in my search. I'm down to two finalists, but I just can't make up my mind. One is $100 more than the other, but I like it better. I also like the changing table and dresser that go with it, which would be purchased upon birth of Reese #2 (not an announcement - just a future discussion). They're both fine cribs, but is the prettier one worth the extra $100? I have seriously been obsessing about this for two days now, and I need to make a decision. If you'd like to contribute an opinion, here are the two cribs -

Roxanne (my favorite, but of course, the more expensive of the two)
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5734310

Ariel (nice, sturdy, $100 cheaper, but I don't like it as much)
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4433096

Any input would be helpful - I'm tired of not making a decision and Nathan sleeps better in a big crib.

High School Reunion

This weekend Chad and I went to my 10-year high school reunion. Somehow it didn't make me feel old that it's been ten years since I graduated from high school. Frankly, I feel like it's been way longer than ten years since I walked the halls of Jesse O. Sanderson. So much has happened in the intervening ten years that I feel like much more than ten years have passed. Duke, Carolina, Boston, meeting Chad, getting married, my brief teaching career, Nathan, and coming back to North Carolina - I've been busy these ten years.

I enjoyed seeing friends from high school, but I was also reminded as to why I was so ready to graduate. I didn't have many good friends in high school, just a lot of sorta friends and acquaintances. I've kept up with the Mormons mostly and Puja and Saurabh a little since they went to Duke too. Other than them, seeing everyone else was just mild curiosity as to what they had been doing over the past few years. Most people hadn't changed much at all. There wasn't anyone with whom I suddenly plan on keeping in touch. It was just nice to see them all, and I'll see them again in ten years for our twenty-year reunion. Now, a Duke or Boston reunion would be something to look forward to...

Hallelujah!

Chad received his license in the mail today! He is *finally* a licensed dentist! All of this means that he can start working and we can now earn real paychecks. Woohoo!!! Let's hear it for financial solvency!

Happy eight-month-iversary to Nathan!

Nathan turns eight months old today! Yea! It's hard to believe it has already been eight months. Time flies when you're having fun (and/or sleep deprived).

Nathan isn't crawling yet, but he can roll over fabulously and can easily get from point A to point B, as long as point B is to his left or right. He shows no interest in standing whatsoever. When you try to hold him up, his chubby little legs crumble underneath him. He has no idea what you're trying to do. He loves his puppy blanket and is getting interested in rolling and bouncing balls. When we read books together, he turns the pages mostly by himself. He likes to "talk" to his dad on the phone and sits mesmerized by the sound of Chad's voice.

Playing with a sheet while "helping" mom with laundry

He is still a fabulous sleeper, with three naps a day and over twelve hours of continuous sleep at night. He's down by 6:30 and doesn't get up until 7 the next morning. He eats like a champ, taking down a small fortune in baby food at every sitting. We're up to three sittings of solid food a day, adding a mid-day feeding of yogurt and finger food earlier this week. He still has no teeth yet, so his finger food consists of things he can mash up, like cheerios and soft cheese.

Nathan grabbed a container of carrots that I had thought was more securely closed and farther away than it was. He had a great time playing with the carrots!

That, in a nutshell, is our adorable little boy. Every day, we're grateful that he came to our family. I'm excited for the upcoming years!

Every summer since I was three, my family has been going to the beach. We started up at Nags Head and then headed down south for warmer (and cheaper) waters the next summer. We've been going to Topsail every summer since then. Some of my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins have slowly stopped coming over the year, but we still get a crowd each year. I think I'm the only cousin who has been there every single year from the beginning. It's a great family tradition, and since we now live forty-five minutes away, it's one we'll contine with our family.

Since we live so close to the beach, every now and then you run into it in normal life, which is really weird. We had stake conference this Sunday down in Wilmington. To go to the stake center, you drive down US 17 for most of the way. That's the highway we always took to get to Topsail from Raleigh. When we were coming home from stake conference on Sunday, we started hitting the familiar Hampstead (the town along 17 near Topsail) spots, and I completely thought we were going to the beach. I almost got on Chad's case for missing the turn onto 210 to go to the beach. Then, I realized that, no, we live farther north. We're not on vacation. It was an odd juxtaposition, to have something you associate with vacation and childhood turn up on your way home from stake conference. That being said, we need to go to the beach...

Our beach trip in August

Signs I'm no longer in Brookline

1 - "Fine cuisine" = the new Olive Garden opening up later this fall
2 - Good Italian food = the new Olive Garden
3 - My favorite place to grocery shop is now Wal-Mart. It has a better selection at better prices than my local Food Lion.
4 - It's been around or above 90 since we got here at the beginning of August.
5 - Books-a-Million is the local bookstore.
6 - There is only one Dunkin Donuts in all of Jacksonville.
7 - There aren't ATM machines on every corner. It's so much more annoying to get cash.
8 - I no longer use my car horn when I drive.
9 - There are alligators literally living in my neighborhood. We have Spanish moss too.
10 - No one goes apple picking at quaint little orchards. We go to the beach.
11 - Our rent is $600 a month less than Brookline.
12 - I haven't seen a synagogue since we got here.
13 - We have central A/C, a full-size fridge, a full-size dishwasher, AND a garage!
14 - People here pronounce their r's and don't add r's to the end of every other word.
15 - Car insurance is actually affordable.
16 - All of our neighbors have at least one truck. And a boat.
17 - I haven't heard about the Sox or Yankees in months. Sigh.
18 - No major pieces of concrete fall on cars here.
19 - I can't walk to the grocery store, post office, bank, parks, book store, dry cleaners, Magic Beans, Zaftigs, Boca Grande, good sushi, our pediatrician, Rod Dee's, Pizza Republic, pharmacy, Trader Joe's, Staples, or anything else Coolidge Corner had to offer. Here, I can walk to our neighborhood dock.
20 - All of our great friends aren't here :(

Down with outsourcing!

I just got off the phone with Delta Airlines, and they seem to have followed the growing trend of outsourcing their phone folks to India. As it turns out, their English isn't the greatest, and those looong distance calls are difficult to understand. The entire conversation I was called Bryan, and I had to repeat myself over and over again. Argh... I think Nathan will be traveling with us to Utah, and hopefully there are enough air masks for him. I'm almost tempted to call back and try to get someone whose English is better and make sure everything is set. At least we'll get to see everyone in Utah for Thanksgiving :)

The dread vacuum cleaner

Nathan and I have previously enjoyed many cleaning days together, and he has never had a problem with any aspect of cleaning. He likes to help from the command center of a laundry basket or by eating anything left behind on the floor, particularly envelopes with cellophane windows. Yummy. He has been intrigued by the vacuum cleaner, but it was always on our side. Until today. Today it became terrifying.

I was vacuuming his room, and we started out alright. A little nervousness from Nathan, but we were managing. Then I'm not quite sure what scary manuever the vacuum performed (perhaps cleaning under his bed), but the vacuum quickly turned from friend to foe. Nathan burst out into sad tears. When the vacuum approached him, the sadness escalated until he had great streams of tears running down his face. Oh, well. There go my plans of getting the vacuuming done until his next nap. Now we're going to see how he feels about scrubbing toilets...

This weekend

The new back-up puppy blanket arrived on Friday, and Nathan took to it immediately. He's sucking on it and his thumb and carrying it around with him everywhere we let him. Sadly for the puppy, Nathan has already spit up carrots all over it and the original puppy, but I guess that's why we bought a back-up. And to think both of the poor puppies could have gone to little boys who might not have made them so crusty and orange. I don't think they could have found a little boy who loved them so much, though.

Tropical Storm Gabrielle dropped by to visit yesterday, and her visit was more like nine defused nuclear warheads (In an old Far Side cartoon, there are a bunch of people in an audience watching a guy on stage. His poster says that he's supposed to be juggling nine nuclear warheads, and the warheads are lying on the ground as if he has just dropped them. Someon in the audience yells, "More like nine defused nuclear warheads!" It's been a classic family quote for years). While some parts of eastern North Carolina received over six inches of rain, most of us just received some normal showers and some wind. We both breathed a big sigh of relief that our first tropical storm was such a disappointment.

Fun tidbits

This morning, Nathan was sitting on my lap as I booted up the old computer. Our background picture is a picture of Nathan's sweet mohawk, and as soon as Nathan recognized himself, he got a great big smile and started to laugh. So, I went to our Picasa pictures, and we looked through some other pictures of Nathan that we have on our computer. He thought it was great and was highly entertained. What a silly little kid. I can hear him in his crib going down for his nap, slubbering to himself.

In other news, Chad's partner told him yesterday that he'll be getting a paycheck soon. It probably won't be a full paycheck, but it's still a paycheck. WOOHOO!!! Chad told him that that wasn't necessary as he hadn't been doing any real work yet, but Steve insisted. Hallelujah! We had enough in savings to make it for a while longer, but it will be nice not to have to completely deplete the old ING account. YEA!!!

Labor Day Weekend

Our ward had a temple trip on Saturday, so on Friday we drove up to Raleigh to see my parents and enjoy the wonders of free babysitting. Since we hadn't really been able to do anything for our anniversary the previous week, we went to Lilly's Pizza for dinner and went to see the new Harry Potter movie on Friday night. Chad and I have been reading the Harry Potter books this summer with all our free time, and as we finished each book, we would watch the movie. We finished book #5 Wednesday night at 1am, so we were able to see the movie. The movie was great, and the pizza and pigs in a blanket were delicious. It was nice to be around civilization again.

It was great to go to the temple again and remember what is important. We were the only couple from our ward there, which got me thinking what could be done to increase attendance (a calling from a previous ward of temple night coordinator makes this important to me). Since I'm not in charge of the temple nights, only the Laurels, I can't do a ton, but I realized one prohibitive factor for many couples is babysitting. Going to the temple is a good eight-hour affair from Jacksonville, and that is a lot of babysitting. I've already talked to the Young Women's president about organizing the Young Women for a babysitting service project for the next ward temple trip. We'll see where things go from here...

We had a great visit with my parents and Mike, and it was nice to be home. Mom and Dad are gearing up for their European bike trip in another few days, and Mike was recovering from the first week of school. Mom and Dad took Chad out on a bike ride Saturday morning, and he appreciated the flat terrain around Jacksonville even more after riding the hills of Raleigh. I loved that I didn't have to pack tons of things, or even a Pack-n-Play, to visit, and there were certainly no plane tickets to buy or air travel. I don't think we even went through a whole tank of gas. It really is nice to be closer to family.

Argh...

So after going through all that effort to wash his puppy blanket, on Saturday Nathan spit up something distinctively orange all over it. It was probably squash or peaches. But since the backup blanket doesn't arrive until next week, the child will just live with an orange, yucky puppy blanket until then. It's not like he notices or cares. It's just me that gets totally grossed out by it. At least he's not screaming for hours in the middle of the night again. He's really lucky that he's cute...

The beloved puppy blanket

Nathan has this puppy blanket that he absolutely adores. It is a soft little stuffed puppy attached to a really soft little blanket with a wide satin trim. Whoever designed this knew children. If it were up to Nathan, the puppy blanket would go everywhere with him. If he's ever sad, give him his puppy and life is much, much better.

The problem with this situation is that he sucks on it frequently and has been seen to throw up peas and other tasty items on it. It gets pretty stinky and crusty between washings. So, last night I decided it was time to wash it. I had the washer all set up, and all I needed was the puppy. The problem was that he always hangs on to it in his sleep. When I went in to extract the item, it woke him up, and it turns out that he can't sleep without his puppy. He cried and screamed for the better part of two hours unless we were in his room, holding him or leaning over his crib. He was soooo tired, rubbing both his eyes with his fists at the same time, yawning up a storm, but he absolutely refused to sleep without his puppy.

Finally, at 11:45 last night, the puppy was mostly dry enough to give him. It was really cute - I gave him his puppy, and he immediately curled up on his side, started sucking his thumb, and I didn't hear a peep out of him until 7 this morning. So one of my first tasks the morning is to purchase a backup puppy to avoid this crisis in the future. Heaven help us if he lost the puppy. Who knew seven-month-olds could be so attached to their toys. So the morals of this story are don't wake during extraction and always have a backup.

Silly baby

So when most babies are introduced to solid foods, they love the fruits, right? Applesauce, peaches, bananas = yum, right? Not Nathan. He'll only eat applesauce and peaches if he's tricked into it. Now, carrots, peas, and squash are like candy to him. He can go through a whole tub of them in one sitting. The first time he had carrots he ate a whole tub. He thinks vegetables are delicious and hasn't met one yet he didn't like. The only fruit he genuinely likes, though, is bananas. He thinks they're scrumptious, but he'll pass on the rest. Though he's odd, I guess it's a good thing he likes his vegetables.


And still no crawling from Monkeybaby. He rolls around like a champ and can do some wiggling, but no true crawling. I suppose I get to postpone babyproofing for a little longer, although he's currently munching on the internet cable. Hmmm... Maybe I should do something about that...

Doggies

So Nathan and I were just looking at the pictures of his cousin Kathleen from her recent exploits when we came across the pictures of her and Sirius Black, a big black dog at her grandparents' house. When we got to the dog pictures, I barked for Nathan, since that's what dogs do, and Nathan thought it was hysterical. He was laughing and laughing. And not his polite, nice giggle. No, this was a full-belly laugh. We went and read his Doggie book, and again, riotous laughter. We sang Old MacDonald had a farm, and when we got to the dog verse, again, great peals of laughter. The cow, duck, pig, and sheep did not get the same reception. The dog parts were the only ones to be thought so funny. I had always hoped that we would get a cat and not a dog, but I might lose that vote now...

Pictures :)

I've uploaded new pictures - enjoy!

Back again!

Chad, Nathan, and I have taken the somewhat ginormous and very overwhelming step of moving to North Carolina! There was a moving truck, some great friends in Boston who helped us load it and some great family and friends in North Carolina who helped us unload it. There was a not-so-fun thirteenish hour drive down in our car, spread out over two days after Monkeybaby decided that he was officially done driving on 495 around Washington, DC (try calling to make a reservation at a hotel with a screaming child strapped in next to you - that was a blast). We stayed with my parents for a few days until our lease here started.

Three days after moving in, we went to the beach for a week with my family. Now, going to the beach has always involved plane tickets and lots of planning and coordinating. Not so much anymore. We now live forty minutes from the beach. It was a nice, easy drive, and doesn't involve missed naps for babies who make their displeasure known. Overall, it was a good week at the beach - really hot and humid, but at least we were at the beach and not in Jacksonville. Nathan thought sand was a totally tasty treat. He was a happy, mellow kid the entire time we were there, and he was well-liked by all there. He is happy to be back home in his crib and not have so much disruption going on.

We're almost settled into our house. I feel like we live like kings on nothing a month here, as compared to Boston. I've graduated to a full-size dishwasher, a full-size fridge, our very own washer and dryer, which have temperature settings, four whole bedrooms, and a GARAGE!!! It turns out becoming an adult has some benefits. We're adjusting to not being the city. I really did love Brookline where we lived, and Jacksonville is a Marine city in the middle of nowhere. Once you get past the Target and Sam's Club, there's just not much here. I also really, really, really miss our friends in Boston. It always takes awhile to make new friends, and the downtime until that happens can be rather lonely. But, we'll eventually get there, and until then, at least I moved with my best friend. And the cutest, happiest baby ever. I'll post some pictures of our latest adventures later. Nathan AKA monkeybaby is ready for more bananas and carrots. Yum.

One big fun event that I forgot from last week - it was my birthday! I turned 28 on Friday the 13th. To observe my birthday, we went down to Castle Island, a Revolutionary War-era fort down on the water in South Boston. There's a place there called Sullivan's which has $1.75 hamburgers and some of the best onion rings I've ever had. And I have had my fair share of onion rings. The onions were big and thick with just about the right amount of breading, and their Fryolater cooked them to just the right shade of golden brown. Yummy, yummy in my tummy. After devouring our tasty and cheap lunch, we found a spot of grass tucked up by the fort and read Harry Potter. We were on the shady side of the fort and had a great view of the North Shore, including Logan Airport and Winthrop. There was lots of boat and plane traffic and awesome people watching. The weather was gorgeous, and I had two of the most handsome boys there with me. It was a great birthday :)

Chad thinks Nathan looks like Gilligan in this hat. I think he looks cute :) This was at Castle Island.

That's the fort behind me. Sadly, you can't tour it - all the windows and doors have been bricked up.

Rice cereal - yum! You can tell this picture was taken early on in the feed. By the end, the bib was covered with cereal. Nathan was trying to help me feed him.

Another week, more packing accomplished. We're now well over halfway through the packing, having tackled the scary dark corners of Nathan's bedroom, our shelves and desk, and portions of our room and kitchen. Our basement is full of packed boxes, our living room is being taken over, and Nathan's closet is currently occupied. I've been throwing things out and purging the unnecessary items.

It's almost sad, though, looking around at our emptying apartment and thinking of all the memories we have had here over the year. It really has been an incredibly full year. I was five months pregnant when we moved in, and Nathan will be six months old tomorrow. Chad has gone through externship in Salem, he has passed two rounds of licensing exams, and he finally graduated!!! I started the year with a good bunch of eighth-graders, one of the best we had ever had at the Browne School, and by the time I left, they were one of the most rotten bunches we had ever had with the promise of getting even worse by the end of the year. Lots and lots of raw sewage has come out of our shower, we've recently spotted a mouse, and we have more spiders inside our apartment than I have seen outside our apartment.

By this time next week, we will be on the road heading to our new home in North Carolina, leaving behind our home in Boston. While I am sooo excited for what lies ahead in Jacksonville, I'm also sad to be moving on from what I've known and mostly loved for five years. Someone asked me today when I was downtown if I was from there and asked for directions. For one of the last times, I could say that I was a local.

On a happier note, Nathan experienced the world of solid food for the first time today. We finally made it to the pediatrician's today, and Nathan is up to 18 pounds, 8 ounces and 28 1/2 inches. So, we made the big plunge. We got him a new seat and tray and all the other accoutrements for feeding. He loved it! Everyone said he would have a hard time with it, and to only give him a few teaspoons so he wouldn't get too frustrated. He went through over 1/4 cup of cereal and thought it was one of the best things ever. He tried to grab for the spoon and the bowl and tried to help me feed him. He couldn't get enough of it. I'm excited for that first diaper tomorrow. I'll post some pictures tomorrow (Chad wants to go to bed now). I hope everyone is doing well and keep us posted on your fun news and developments!

This past week has been a great one. We spent some of the 4th of July down on the Esplanade people-watching and remembering all the amazingly fun 4ths we've enjoyed there in past years. Had it not been for Nathan, we probably would have been down there again. Instead, we went to a dessert buffet at our friends' home at the top floor of the Four Seasons. They have such an amazing view of Boston from their home. We enjoyed lots and lots of tasty treats and some fabulous fireworks. I'm still about six years old when it comes to fireworks - they are one of my favorite things ever. I love watching them explode, waiting to feel the thud from the big ones, admiring the sparkly ones, and ooh-ing and ah-ing with the best of the little kids. Nathan fell asleep during the tail end of the fireworks and was a champ the entire way home despite being up WAY past his bedtime. We tried to put him down at the Stigum's but there was too much going on and too many people for that. So far he seems to be a social creature like his mom.

This is Nathan and I on the Make Way for Ducklings statues in the Public Gardens. We walked through on our way to the Esplanade on the 4th.

Friday was a momentous day for us - Chad signed his contract and we signed our lease. The moving truck will be here in less than two weeks, Chad officially has a job, and we have a home to which we will be moving. I guess that makes all of this official. The funny thing is that we had seen this job posted months ago, but had said there was no way we were moving to Jacksonville. If we had shot down Asheville for being too small, despite the beautiful weather and mountains, why on earth would we go to Jacksonville which was smaller with not so fabulous weather and no mountains at all for Chad? It's funny where you end up when you listen to personal revelation.

We are pressing forward with the packing and getting rid of extra stuff. We dropped off five garbage bags and two large paper bags full of old clothes, vases, etc at Goodwill yesterday. It felt good to get rid of it and not have to move it.

Chad also continues to get all of the necessary things to start riding his new bike. Yesterday, we picked up pedals, socks, and a helmet. Now we just need more socks and some shoes, and we should have everything. He's getting excited about getting back into biking.

Nathan continues to grow and just have fun. He's starting to get better at rolling over, sometimes even doing it on purpose. He has even started waking up at about 7:30 in the morning while still going to bed at 7 in the evening. Hooray! He really is a happy kid. He's currently making happy noises in his crib, letting us know he's done with his nap. I hope this finds all of you well!

This is Nathan from last night. We went in to check on him, and he was sleeping on his side, crazy baby. Isn't he adorable!?!

Hey there!

So, we've decided to join the online fun. Mostly, I didn't want to be left behind by my sisters. And I thought this might be a fun way to keep a running log/journal of all our fun adventures.

Today, we're sending in the rental application for a nice four-bedroom, three-bath, two-car garage house in Jacksonville, and we are soooo excited! Our car will have a home, Nathan gets his own room, and the kitchen has probably three times as many cabinets as our current place. Let's hear it for cheap real estate! Here's a link to pictures of our new house that my parents kindly took - http://picasaweb.google.com/dochendo/JacksonvilleHouseHunting Our house is the Stillwater Cove house, the first one. Yea!

Chad got a call from his future partner today, and we're really excited to work with him. He seems like a really nice guy and said he can try and pull a few strings to expedite Chad's licensure. Otherwise, it could be well into October before we can start working.

Overall, we're getting excited for our upcoming move, especially since we're hiring movers. In less than a month, we'll be in our new place! Woohoo!

I'll try to keep this updated with the major events of our not-so-exciting life on a semi-regular basis. Enjoy!