The Heat is On

The weather in Phoenix has been beautiful just about every day since we've been here.  I think that I will really like the Winter and early Spring here.  We had a taste of Summer this past week and weekend, and I'm not sure that we will be friends.  105 degrees in April is new for us.

So, we are getting ready.  I stocked up on all kinds of sunscreen, bought the kids an extra swimsuit or two and some extra sunglasses because those always seem to be missing.  Especially Timmy's.

Nana and Uncle Rusty were here last week and we went to check out the Splash pad at our Rec Center.  We went last June when we were here for a visit.  It was a nightmare.  It was so so hot and Cate and Timmy wouldn't get near the water.  They both just hung all over me.

This year, they did much better.  It wasn't crowded, which helped and Uncle Rusty got in on the water spraying action.

Cate was pretty dramatic, but she did get wet and didn't want to leave.

In the shot above, she was surprised by a jet of water that suddenly turned on.  She kept yelling, "Mommy, please!  Please, Mommy!" But she kept going back for more.

 This afternoon, we went in our pool for awhile before dinner.  I got  both kids a tube to practice floating in.  They were unsure at first, but both were jumping off of the step and gliding into the water in their tubes after a little while.  This is big progress for kids who have not had much exposure to water.  We ate a really late dinner because they were having so much fun and didn't want to get out.

Tomorrow is a big day.  Our first swimming lessons.  They are in the same class and it should be a pretty mild introduction to the water.  I will still be surprised if there is no drama from Cate, but we'll see.  At the very least, a 4:30 swim class that meets every day for two weeks should ensure an early bedtime for everyone!

Full Circle

I love Easter. Springtime, new life, hope and new beginnings. I love Easter dinner and Easter candy and coloring eggs and egg hunts and, of course, eating a few pieces of chocolate before breakfast too.

Last Easter marked the beginning of our very long journey to Phoenix. The Monday after Easter, Tim left for his first two week stint in Phoenix while we stayed in Chicago. If I had known then that it would take the better part of a year to get all of us here, I would not have been happy.

This year, we enjoyed our long awaited visit from Mimi, Pop and Auntie Jenn. It was a different kind of Easter for us. One that included swimming in our pool and lying around in the sun while the kids took naps.

It was so nice to have them here. To have people who really know us and who really love our kids.

It was a refreshing break from our anonymity and identity here. We are the people from Chicago who don't know how to deal with their pool (I'm pretty sure we were the only ones swimming this weekend) or their desert landscaped yard. We are the people who are always asking questions (to neighbors, the woman in the checkout lane, the guy at Starbucks, the mail lady...), and who have very few answers.

But this weekend, with Mimi, Pop and Jenn, we got to take a deep breath and do what we know. We played cars and trucks.
We read new Pinkalicious books.
We shopped and ate Mexican food and just hung out and let Cate and Timmy entertain us.

My mom helped me to FINALLY get my china put away. And I don't mean finally in the sense of after the move. I mean finally in the sense that my beloved wedding china has never been out of the box. We had nowhere to put it in our old house, so it all stayed in the original packaging. For nine years. So we got it out, washed it, admired it, and put it all away.

Everyone got cleaned up for Church on Saturday afternoon. It seemed like a good time to go with the kids and it worked well with our lying around and relaxing schedule.
When I picked Timmy up from his class, the teacher told me that he had been a "gentleman" the whole time and was sharing so nicely. So nice to hear since he hasn't always been displaying his most gentlemanly side since we've been here.

I don't seem to have any pictures with their Easter baskets, but it was fun to watch them hunt around together for their Easter morning surprises. When Cate spotted her basket, she exclaimed, "The Easter Bunny brought just what I wanted!" A Sleeping Beauty Barbie. So, of course, Timmy followed suit when he found his new Mater and Mc Queen cars to replace the ones he lost.

We had a great weekend and it was hard to see them leave this morning. All of the anticipation of the visit and it went by so quickly. I hope that we are able to learn to adjust to short visits and having to say good-bye at the end. For now we will look forward to Nana and Rusty's visit next week and start planning our first trip back to Chicago.

Little by Little

We have been plugging along, continuing to establish a new routine.

For the most part, we don't get much done in the house and instead we go to the playground,

or to the Rec center to workout (me), paint (mostly Cate), to play basketball (mostly Timmy), and to lay on a mat after working out under the guise of stretching but really checking Facebook and reading blogs (all me).

In the category of small victories, our pool should be open this Easter weekend for our visit from Mimi, Pop and Jenn,
and our new kitchen table arrived this weekend. Out with the tiny card table, in with the huge farmhouse table and bench. (Please ignore the ridiculously empty mantle and shelves in the family room.)

We still need chairs for the other side of the table, but at least the card table is out.

Now it's on to preparing for Easter and (hopefully) hanging out by the pool! That will be an Easter first for us!

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.