Finding a Rhythm

Before we moved, I was worried that I wouldn't feel at home in our new house. It may have had something to do with the blood red dining room walls or purple sponge paint upstairs. But by the time Cate, Timmy and I got here, all of that was painted over and all of our furniture was finally out of storage, so it felt like home. Until I left the house. Then I would remember that I was an interloper here. I could go to Target or the grocery store, but I really had nowhere else to go.

We are far from truly being settled, but I feel the beginnings of tiny, fragile roots growing here.

We go to the rec center twice a week, we go to the library with the great kids' area, we go to a morning, Moms bible study, a great open gym, we see Cate and Timmy's friends, Norah and Eli, and our 12 year old neighbor comes over once a week to play with the kids in the afternoon. I have finally found a preschool program that I am happy with for next year (for both kids at the same time!) and have met a few moms who have given me ideas for local activities with kids.

Our weeks aren't quite the blank slate that they were at first but some days are still exhausting. So, sometimes Cate and I go outside while Timmy is napping and I paint her little toenails pink and while the sun dries them (in two minutes,) we look through the "beautiful" Pottery Barn catalogue and Cate oohs and aahs over everything from a jewelry box with a twirling ballerina to bunk beds that she thinks would be "perfect" for Timmy.

And if we're lucky, Tim gets home early enough for dinner and wrestle/basketball/dollhouse time. Yesterday he brought Cate some flowers for her room since she has recently decided that flowers are the ultimate fancy girl accessory. She has big plans to put flowers in every room for Easter. Only two weeks until Easter and a visit from Mimi, Pop and Jenn and only three weeks until a visit from Nana and Uncle Rusty. We can't wait!

A Day Off with Daddy

Tim has been working a lot since we've all been here. Working and traveling (to places I've never heard of) a lot. So we have been talking about him taking a day off and doing something fun for awhile now and last week, I knew that it would have to be soon.

That cute little, almost 2.5 year old, boy in the picture above? He is giving me a run for my money. Last week he threw a fit the likes of which I have never seen. I could not muscle him into his car seat. It took thirty minutes of discussion, explanation of consequences, reasoning and brute force to get him half way buckled into his seat. The best part is that I was in a church parking lot, having just come from a morning parenting group for moms of small kids. And mine is totally out of control. Love that.

That episode pretty much undid me for the week. Trying to put a house together and meet people and find your way around is exhausting and that put me over the edge. So, we settled on today for a fun outing at the Zoo.

The Phoenix Zoo is awesome for kids. We didn't even get to see everything, but the goats were a definite highlight. One of their favorite books right now is "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," which we have to reenact at every playground with a bridge. I always get to play the part of the troll. I thought that they might be hesitant to touch the animals, but neither of them was.

Of course we ended the trip with a Carousel ride which they both loved.

It was a really nice break to be able to sneak in a fun family outing during the week. We're so looking forward to checking out a few more Phoenix attractions when Mimi, Pop, Jenn, Nana and Uncle Rusty all visit in April.

p.s. I added this picture after originally posting. Tim thinks that he looks like a celebrity walking down the street with his kids (he may have mentioned Tom Brady as an example) and insisted that it be added.

Back on the Grid

We moved twice when I was a kid. I was young and I don't remember it being that big of a deal. Except when we moved to Boston, I thought that everyone in my class was a nose picker. Oh and when we moved to Chicago, our washer/dryer wasn't installed right away, so on my first day of school, I evidently wore an old pair of underwear, whose waistband had long since given up, which proceeded to fall to my ankles ( I was wearing a dress) as I was being introduced to my new third grade class. Sorry, mom. I don't think that story will ever go away :)

But now, being one of the people in charge of the move, I know that it is harder than it looks.

For one thing, we have Cate and Timmy. We want them to feel at home in their new house which is taking time. Timmy, for a long time, told us every night that he wanted to go back to his white house. Cate keeps asking when new people are going to come and move into this house and where will we go then? I try to explain to her that people moved into our old house because that was what we wanted and that no one can move in here unless we decide not to live here anymore, but those questions give me insight to the insecurity that she feels.
We also have so much to do. All the time. We powered through a lot of unpacking and organizing in the first few weeks.My mom came for a few days and played with the kids and dragged my tired, overwhelmed

self off of the couch everyday at nap time to tackle a few more boxes.

We have been at a functional state for awhile now and because of that, the progress has come to a halt. All of the those tools that you see on the desk in the picture above are still there, we have nothing on our walls and our phone and internet are not set up. But we also had to get back to the business of regular life.

So, we take Cate and Timmy to the playground and try to convince them that sand on their feet and in their shoes is not the end of the world. And then I try to convince myself that it's not the end of the world when I forget to empty their shoes before we come in the house and Timmy dumps a pile of sand on the floor.

We have been going to a Rec Center with a great playground, splash pad, kids area and workout facility which has given these early weeks here some structure.

Then there's our main activity. Throwing parties. Seems odd for people who only have one other family for friends, doesn't it? Well, Cate is a serious party planner, so we party around here every day. Mostly, we throw birthday tea parties for her imaginary friends, Elizabeth, Bufana and Lizdee (she's new). They seem to last the whole day. Every day.

So, when Valentine's Day rolled around, we invited our (only) friends, Norah and Eli over for a party. Luckily, Cate and Timmy's expectations for a party are pretty low. We did a heart craft, ate heart shaped sandwiches, played with homemade pink play doh and opened treat bags filled with items from the Target dollar bin.

Then to make Cate's Valentine's day complete, she had to go to the dentist. She got a good report, even on Valentine's Day!
We are loving the warm Winter weather. We have been able to go outside every day which has helped so much during this transition. We are getting our pool ready for the Spring and Summer and we are so excited to get to use it.

On the other hand, it was not so exciting the other day when I had to haul myself and both kids to urgent care because I had a sinus infection. We shared a milkshake by the pool afterwards to make it better.
Aside from all of the jobs around the house, we are also doing the hard job of trying to meet people, find friends, settle on a church and figure out school for Cate and Timmy. I feel like a desperate information beggar all the time. Whenever we go to the library or the grocery store or church, I am always scanning the crowd for someone who might have kids the same age as ours, who might know something about preschools, grade schools and maybe more importantly, might know where in the world I can get my eyebrows done.

So, I am trying to work on being patient. Not one of my strengths. I am trying to just spend the week playing with Cate and Timmy, working on a little bit of a routine and getting a job or two done around the house. Hopefully there will be pictures of the inside of the house without piles of tools or cords or a card table for a kitchen table featured in an upcoming post. It could be close to Christmas before that happens, though.

It is Time

It has been almost nine months since Tim first started working in Phoenix. We never thought that he would be working there and we would be here for so long, but this week we will finally finish this move.

Tim is flying home Wednesday night and we are all setting out for Phoenix on Thursday. Two kids and a dog on a three day drive. Sounds like a sane idea, right? It's not, but somehow it made the most logistical sense. Mostly because of the dog...

So we are all ready to find a normal, family routine again and get to see Tim every day, but we are sad to leave Mimi and Pop's house too because they have taken good care of us over these last few months.
Pop and Auntie Jenn took C&T to a Thomas the train show a few weekends ago. They loved riding the train together.

Mimi has read countless books, held many tea parties (the one above was for Cate's imaginary friend, Bufana,) and worked on every alphabet, Winnie-the-Pooh and princess puzzle known to man.

They let us play basketball in the foyer and Pop often volunteers to stand in for the role of the hoop since Timmy's hoop is in Phoenix.

Mimi often brings home surprises for us to borrow from work. Sometimes it's a new puzzle or game. Sometimes a Toy Story tent to play in.

They let us turn the dining room table into "Pizza Planet" so that Buzz Lightyear can eat.

This past weekend we worked in a few more games of Chutes and Ladders and Auntie Jenn came home to hang out and take Cate and Timmy to see, "Beauty and the Beast" with me.

We will really miss seeing them every day but we are already looking forward to their first visit to our new house.

Winter

We have had a really mild winter in Chicago. So much so that I began to wonder if it was some kind of joke being played at my expense. I figured that once the temperatures dropped into the single digits and the roads were icy and slushy and dirty and we had to do the daily wind chill conversion, I would be ready to head to the desert.

So of course this one year that I want it to be cold and nasty to motivate me to move, it hasn't been. We even went to the playground this week and walked the dogs in the sunshine wearing just vests.

I'm not really complaining, of course, because any day that I can take Cate and Timmy to a playground is a good day around here.

Last night, Winter finally arrived in Chicago. It is cold and there is a lot of messy, wet snow and I don't even have boots for C&T because I didn't think that we would need them this year and I'm not going to buy them now.

So we will experience Winter in Chicago for a few more days and then when we move, it will magically be over. The shortest Winter ever.
Then we will have new pictures of Cate and Timmy at the playground that is two doors down from our new house. Right after I convince Cate to set foot on its sandy floor. The girl doesn't care for sand...I guess she hasn't heard that sand is what the desert is made out of.

New Year, New Everything

I was prepared for a long New Year's weekend. Long in the sense of dragging on forever with not much to do, two toddlers and a husband in Phoenix. We had a fun surprise waiting for us, though, when we got back from playing at the Y on Sat. morning. Tim had gotten up at 4am to fly home and surprise us and he stayed for five days! Of course, he was hiding in the basement and scared us all to death when he came out, but it was a great surprise.

So after celebrating miss Maggie's second birthday, we all hung out with one of my oldest friends, Mandi, and her family on New Year's eve. Look at those big kids sitting at the table eating their pizza on their own. Maggie's birthday party was our first Chuck E. Cheese experience. I expected to be sweating while I tried to chase two kids in a noisy, crowded playroom. It wasn't like that at all, though. It wasn't crowded and both kids did great taking turns and exploring. Of course Timmy did get lost in the massive tunnels on the ceiling, but I sent Cate in after him. I was glad that she was able to go in and find her teary, blotchy faced baby brother so that I didn't have to climb up there. Really glad.

For the rest of the weekend we just hung out. Tim and I got to go to the movies. Cate and Timmy played and climbed on Pop.

We did a little bit of cooking.

And Tim gave a lot of double piggy back rides.

Finally, we got down to the business of finishing this move. Figuring out how to get the rest of our junk, our two kids, our dog and ourselves to Phoenix in one piece. It is a total logistical nightmare. We are almost done, though. As I type, tile is being jackhammered out of the family room to make room for carpet to be laid next week. Then the year of all things new can begin. New house, new climate, new schools, new church, new doctors and dentists. New everything.