Monkey Joe's!

The kids had a day off last week and we spent the morning at Monkey Joe's. It was so much fun!

Happy Halloween!

My little princess and my Dirty Jobs host, Mike Rowe, made a fabulous day and evening of Halloween. Jake ran around with his friend Sam and Abby trailed behind, with us, happily. Our neighborhood was full of gleeful, creatively-dressed, polite children. We got about 75 or so to our door as well. A nice night!

Smiling family

Is this not one of the happiest looking families you've ever seen?

And they are mine, all mine. I had one of those moments last night when every piece of spaghetti on the floor and every whine about what was not had just made me smile. Being out of town for a while does that to a mom. It's like a reboot on your tolerance level. I'm so incredibly lucky!

Random Recents

Here are some recent pix of us:

On the museum train:


At the playground:
At Orange Leaf:
At the playground again:

On the way to ANOTHER playground!


Running through the rose garden this afternoon - my, she looks tall and thin doesn't she??

A Lake beach!

Today for my birthday (actually it was yesterday, but I worked), I decided we should go check out a local lake's beach area. It was delightful! The kids were so happy in the sand and water and Mike was happy with the huge shaded area in front of the beach. Next time we go we might grill up some lunch. They had a playground and showers and changing rooms and life jackets and the roped off swim area is huge and shallow enough for Jake to touch all the way to the back of it. It was 95 degrees today, so I'm glad we got a real swim day in before it cools off.

We're going to get a lot of use out of this next summer!

That little blob in the middle is the kids and me on the beach, from Mike's view in the shade.

Hanging Out

It was pretty exciting around here last week as we had some landscapers in, who climbed up some of our highest trees, felled some, pruned some others, and ground down all the logs, branches and stumps. Abby was fascinated. Jake was beside himself because he came home from school and found "his" tree, the one he'd randomly chosen a few weeks ago to put a pulley in, was gone. We had told him this was going to happen and why (it was in danger of falling on the house), but his 6 year old brain felt betrayed. We let him cry about it for a while and then we didn't. Finally, he bucked up in front of a Dirty Jobs DVD. Thank you, Mike Rowe - you have no idea how much you help us around here!

Next we have Miss Abby, looking serene beyond her years:

On Saturday, we spent the morning in downtown Carrboro, discovering a lovely green mosaic lady (hey, watch the hand, Jake!) and having a fantastic snack at Weaver Market. The day was just perfect - not too hot, nice breeze. We did an errand we needed to do while there too and thought again how easy living here is - in C'ville the errand part would have taken all morning. Here, that took 15 minutes and we played the rest of the am.



In the afternoon, Jake went to his first local birthday party, and I took Abby to the indoor pool and to the playground. Boy was she happy! She swam and grunted with happiness for over 45 minutes and then showed off her new climbing skills at the playground. We had 2 very happy and tired kids last night - yay!

Two Weekends

Now that both kids are in school, we try to make sure our weekends include a lot of family fun time. I'm 2 weekends behind on posting, and happy that I've just discovered an easy way to access Mike's pix again. So anyway, here's weekend #1, which included playtime at the mall, buying shoes for both kids, and wonderful haircuts by our new friend, Tasha. Abby watched a Dora DVD the entire time and was a little zombie. Jake was more nervous and no pix were taken, but he agreed the place was fun and he'd go back. Score!

Abby and I also did a lovely hike and craft project with the things we collected on the way.









Weekend #2 included a toystore that had a live iguana sitting on a shelf who flirted with me, a lovely stroll downtown culminating in a fantastic visit to a Mediterranean restaurant where Jake had his first taste of baklava (he's a fan), and a wonderful day of family gardening. A new babysitter stood us up (what is up with these people??) and another came the next day and gave me three precious hours of unpacking time. Ahhhh. Did I mention our house is still full of boxes??


This is where the photographer husband comes in handy... I love these photos!! Click on any to enlarge. The haircuts worked out well, didn't they?

Quote of the Day

"Mommy - school was great!"
-- Jake, on my arrival home from work at 5pm.

Ahhhhhhh.

Jake's First Day of Kindergarten

Jake had his first day of school last week too. Actually two, as he had a Kindergarten orientation day two days earlier. No pix; he was not in the mood. Departing from Mom each morning was a bit rough, but both days seemed to have pleased him by the end. After his first full day, he told Mike he went to art class and loved the room and the teacher, took pix of himself on a webcam during computer class, and announced "my new school is HUGE!" Compared to his pre-school, it really is, with lots of buildings and confusing paths between them so it makes sense that it takes some getting used to. We're very excited by his new teachers, who seem excellent, and all that it seems he will learn there and hope that by next week at this time, he will be much more comfortable.

I don't have any pix from that day, but did find a page on the school's website that shows off his very cool classroom. It used to be a pre-K class so it has some great play structures. This is a two-story play center, with dress-up bins on top and kitchen down below. On meet the teacher night Abby and Jake spent a lot of time running up the stairs to dress up and wave to us through the plexiglass!

And this is the reading nook, with books and two private areas to climb into to curl up with a book.
I wanted to spend time in this classroom too!

Summer's Ending

So, reality has set in. We got our moving POD unloaded so all of our possessions are now in the house (somewhere), have had several visits to various doctors for ailments, I've started back at work with more gusto than I have babysitting coverage for, and the kids start their respective schools next week. We are settling in AND summer is coming to a close. So it's a bittersweet time. We still make it out to discover new things every day or two (like this sports store today where apparently Abby bounced happily while I was at work) and the kids have made some nice neighborhood friends. We're bracing ourselves for the first week of school next week and all the emotional energy it will take from all of us to make that go smoothly, but are optimistic that a new structure to our life here will do everyone some good. We're just so tired of the dissettledness of moving!

In the meantime, at the ripe age of 2 years and 7 months, Abby is intent on showing her readiness for school. She out of the blue stood up and drew the big blue A on the right on her erasable board and told us it was an A for Abby. Her very first letter! Even Jake came in and clapped for her. She's so proud of it, she hasn't erased it yet, now 3 days old, though she's spent a lot of time trying to match it on the left of the board, and carefully erasing so as not to touch her masterpiece. This one, she called her "long" A. I'm so proud of her. Her directed diligence is very impressive. She talks to herself gently in cookie monster speak as she erases: "no, that not good one, me try again!"

As for Jake, he is still prone, when in the right mood, to making masterpieces in his room when he's in there alone for afternoon quiet time. I don't have a picture, but Mike took a video of the last one - a dominoes-based Rube Goldberg contraption that ended up knocking a domino in a glass of water. It had multiple paths, had several different materials in addition to dominos, and, best of all, it worked! He seemed quite proud of that one as well! I'll post if I can get hold of it.

ok, here's a photo:


Despite all the turmoil of the past few months, I'm going to be optimistic and declare these accomplishments the signs of a really successful summer break - the kids are so bored, now they are creating satisfying challenges for themselves! I hope school directs that energy even more effectively!

Week 3 in NC!

It's been another busy week! This week we tried and liked a new babysitter. We also watched Jake completely fall in love with Hannah, our 9 year old cat and become the most confident and independent he's been since we moved while doting in her care (he even gave her new ice cubes in her water hourly on the first day of the new discovery. Then he decided she didn't really like cold water, but still gave her food and treats and insisted we go buy her catnip. She, in turn, sits in back of him on the couch and curls her tail around his neck. It is quite the romance). Honestly, I think she is just happy to be allowed back in the house! For the first 2 weeks we kept her out for our allergic guests. But he is clearly her protector. Abby pulled her tail the other day, making Hannah scream out and Jake cried!



















Jake had a new, very sweet little boy exactly his age over for a 2nd playdate and after checking with his mother, a nice new friend for me, I followed up with the school to get them assigned to the same classroom - success! We have not told him yet but know now that Jake will have a new best friend in his class! They are really a good match. I also spent 2 days working and had a lovely dinner in Downtown Durham with colleagues that culminated in a visit to a collegue's downtown loft-like apartment with wonderful city views.

We discovered our backyard forest wonderland contains a special treasure - a wonderful little creek that has rocks and roots and running water and is about 4 mins from our house. The kids LOVE to walk down there after dinner and play in the water.



















I had my annual bout with back pain ritual this week as well - culminating in an epidural steroid shot. Not fun, but seems to be helping already. The first day I was manic and realized I had flushed cheeks all day and that I had run, vacuumed, mopped, steam mopped, shopped, and done tons of other things I usually cannot even consider doing on the same day!

We had friends over for dinner, enjoyed some Peter Lugar steaks one of Mike's clients sent us as a housewarming gift, went to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt and Locopops for popsicles at least 3 times, discovered a new healthy fast food place, ate wonderful food from Trader Joe's, got a new collection of DVDs and books from the library, filled up our baby pool and had some sprinkler fun with a neighbor, and today, Jake, Abby and I found a new playground we liked downtown and then spent a very happy hour or so looking at the Critter Corner at Jake's new school, where we hit the jackpot - two new baby bunnies! Such happy children have rarely been seen.







































The verdict? My goodness, we like it here!!

Family Visit

We had a really lovely weekend with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Steve, who passed by on their way back to NY state from a vacation in Hilton Head. Not only do they bring great conversation and fantastic kid engagement, but they helped us unpack and clean and shop and Steve actually helped Mike cut down some small trees! It could not have been a more pleasant and productive weekend.

Linda spent a lot of time with the kids in the bath, figuring out how to turn the walls into masterpieces. Steve spent HOURS with Jake building things. The gear set below took them over an hour to build, and Jake was so proud! And they took the nicest pix we have so far of us and the front of our new house.

What do you Do During a Snowstorm?

Build a snowman...
Have mammoth playdough sessions...


Draw in the frost on the glass (I love jake's luke skywalker stance here)...
Build things with dominoes...
Build things with blocks....
Catch snowflakes on your tongue...
Today, we danced, painted, did yoga, sorted coins, played computer games, read books and threaded beads. What will tomorrow bring? (no school, that's for sure!)