Valparaiso and Summer Travel

We left Earlville on May 30th with David driving a U-Haul with our belongings and me driving our car with our little punkin. It took us 11.5 hours to drive from NY to IN and we broke up the trip by staying overnight in Cleveland. We had every intention of visiting Niagara Falls en route, but George was starting to lose his mind and we didn't want to put him through that.

Our newly forward-facing little boy! We decided to turn him forward since I'd be driving so far alone in the car. He slept so well and kept busy by reading books and singing with Mommy.

We pulled into Valparaiso, IN (or "Valpo" as everyone calls it) on May 31st. This was my first visit and I just love it! The town is bigger than I imagined and it seemed very quaint. We were also encouraged by the proximity to fun activities like the dunes on Lake Michigan, Chicago, outlet malls, etc. I'm excited to not have to drive 30 minutes to reach Wal-Mart/Target. Also, there's a Chick-fil-a nearby!!! It's the little things, right?

Here's a peek at our cute little rent house in Valparaiso. We'll move in around Aug. 1 and David will start his new job later that month.

We moved our things into a storage unit for the summer and then took off on June 1 for Chattanooga (another 10 hour drive). We are currently in Chattanooga visiting David's family and will spend July in Little Rock with my family. It has been so nice to spend time with family. My cup is full and spirit renewed. David and I even went on a date! (We saw Prometheus... I wasn't a big fan.) 

Pregnancy update: I'm about 16 weeks along at this point and thrilled to be coasting along in the 2nd trimester. I've been feeling movement pretty regularly from our little one. This week, he/she is about the size of an avocado! We will eventually find out the gender of the baby, but not until we get back to Indiana. 

George update: He is 19 months old and weighs about 25 lbs. He is talking constantly and has just recently started putting words together more. He loves to say "I see you", "big truck", "dada and momma", and "listen and obey". He can count to 10 without any trouble and can recite portions of the ABC's. He can identify just about any upper-case letter of the alphabet. It's so much fun to be able to communicate with each other better. He isn't too much fun to shop with anymore because he's so eager to run around. He loves to play hide and seek. He LOVES the park! Daily he asks "Park please?" and most days we indulge. He's happy anytime he's outside. What a delight this boy is! I can't get enough of him!

Here are a few photos from our time in Chattanooga thus far:

Braves game in ATL

G's first golf outing with Lookout Mtn. in the background.

Pregnant golfing. 

George's favorite activity at the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga. 

Guess who has been sleeping in a big boy bed during our stay in Chatt???

More to come. We'll be heading to the beach at the end of the month and you can bet I'll take tons of pictures of George's first beach trip!

Leaving Earlville

I've been putting off updating the blog because our life has been absolutely crazy lately, but I think I'm ready to recount our latest adventures and process our departure from NY.

Let's back up to April and May. Packing a home while pregnant and caring for a toddler is not for the faint of heart. I'll admit that my heart fell faint a time or two--just ask my husband. It didn't help that I was still in the midst of 1st trimester nausea/fatigue. Truth is, I put off much of the packing until the last few days and somehow pulled it off (not without much help from David).

The final weeks in Earlville were filled with many sad farewells. We were only there for 10 months, but we met so many precious people that we will surely miss. A bit of history: I became a stay-at-home mommy when we moved to NY. Being a SAHM was/is my dream job, but moving to a strange, rural place while sharing a car with David made it very challenging to connect to other mommies. Did I mention that the population of Earlville is a mere 750? The first few months there were extremely hard. I loved having so much time with George at home, but I was really aching for some adult interaction. I also had to learn to live without some modern conveniences such as a dishwasher(!!!), disposal, air conditioner, and hot water in the washing machine! To me, I was really "roughing it" but lots of folks up there don't know anything different. (Needless to say, those items all topped my wishlist of amenities for our new place in Indiana.) I knew I could live anywhere for 10 months, but my attitude was one of "sticking it out". I quickly discovered that I needed people--I couldn't live with George in a vacuum for 10 months. This is where I turned a corner-- God provided the most precious people to befriend us. Since we didn't connect with a church while we were there (we couldn't find one with a nursery for George), I met others through storytime at the libraries in Earlville and Hamilton (town where David worked). Every week we attended storytimes on Tuesdays in Hamilton and Fridays in Earlville. This is where I met mommies and then was invited to playgroups and outings. Before too long, we had a pretty lively social calendar. These friends threw George a surprise 1st birthday party, babysat George countless times (especially while I was packing), helped us move, jumped our car when it wouldn't start, and threw us a sweet going away party, to name a few blessings. We already miss our friends and hope to see them all again someday!

While I never really loved our house (remember the pipes bursting while we were away?), some of my favorite memories happened here such as: George learning to walk, talk, give kisses, hugs, etc. His 1st birthday was celebrated in this house too. David and I loved sitting out on the front porch together after putting George to bed for the night.

Here are some photos of our final days in NY with our sweet friends:

George with some of his best buds at the library while I was home packing.

Some friends at George's farewell party

Cupcake time! 

The whole gang.

Last Colgate visit... what a gorgeous campus!

Last trip to G's favorite park. 

Last playdate with favorite friends.

Memorial Day parade with friends in Earlville the day before our move.

Farewell, Earlville! Thanks for the memories.

...

Next post: Valparaiso and summer travels!

Our Chicago Vacation/George's NY Staycation

As I previously mentioned, David and I had the opportunity to represent 32 Poems at AWP in Chicago this year. David's parents came to stay at our house and watch George while we were away. This was our first time away from him and it could not have gone more smoothly! George didn't seem to miss us at all. He had a grand time with his grandparents. They built forts, went for walks, built a snowman, etc. Here are a few photos from his "staycation":

Meanwhile in Chicago...

View of Lake Michigan from our hotel room

 Our exhibit table

32 Poems/Smartish Pace Reading

Some of the amazing food we ate and my handsome date!

Chicago was so fun! We ate at some amazing restaurants including Blackbird, The Bristol, and Big Star Tacos. We enjoyed trying foie gras, bone marrow (photo top right), rabbit saddle/confit leg (photo top left), sturgeon belly, and lamb belly (lower right) among other incredible dishes. How fun it was to go out and get dressed up every night!

We also enjoyed catching up with some of our oldest, dearest friends including Lauri and Aaron (friends from Lubbock), Heather (Lubansky) Garrett (friend from high school in Little Rock), and Toria Edwards (friend from Union) and her precious son Duncan.

George at 15-16 Months

15-16 Months

• The big event last month was weaning. His last feeding was on 2/17 and he hasn't seemed to miss it. I can't believe it was so easy. He still doesn't like whole milk, but we make up for calcium in yogurt and cheese.
• He has become increasingly more verbal. He tries to mimic us when we talk and it's so sweet to see him discover language. Favorite words are still hi, bye, mama, dada, papa, dog, ball, book, banana, sock, shoe, duck, cat, hat, heart, oval, sit, yuck, yum, and owl. 
• He's climbing on EVERYTHING! It's a little maddening trying to get him to sit once he climbs on furniture! We constantly tell him to sit on his bottom and that he may hit his head if he stands up. So he walks around the house chanting "sit-sit-sit" while patting his head. 
• He still loves books, which definitely pleases his daddy. He will sit in his room surrounded by books and just thumb through them for the longest time. He brings me books to read all day long, often the same ones. Favorites include Dr. Seuss's ABC, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!, Runaway Bunny, and, of course, Goodnight Moon.
• He uses some sign language still including more, please, I don't know, and finished/alldone.
• He loves to squint his eyes and stick out his tongue.
• We moved to one nap a day on Feb. 25. He started fighting bedtime a little and we didn't want David's parents to have difficulty with his sleep when they watched him. The first couple of days he was pretty sleepy, but he quickly adjusted! He goes to sleep at 1 and usually wakes up at 4 or 4:30! He goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up at 8am. 
• What an affectionate boy he is! I love how he he hugs my leg while I cook! He initiates lots of hugs and kisses throughout the day. Melts my heart. 
• Molars... he now has 3 out of 4! He's been a champ through each one. 
• George recognizes shapes now. He will even point them out when we're away from home!
• He loves somersaulting (with help). He will put his head and hands on the floor and stick his booty in the air. 
• I haven't been too great about encouraging him to feed himself. I need to get better about that. He does pretty well, but always makes a big mess!
• We've experimented with coloring. He isn't too interested, but he does try. He just loses interest and want to play with his ball!

Enjoying the mild weather on the village green.

George practicing some of his words.

George kicking the ball in the park.

Georgie giggling

2011 Catch Up

My last blog post was in OCTOBER(!), so I'll attempt to wrap up 2011 in this post. 

October:

• George was a dinosaur for Halloween. We enjoyed parties at the library and Earlville fire station.

November:

• George turned 1! We had an intimate celebration with just the three of us. George opened his gifts, ate cake, looked through his baby book, watched videos of him, and we went on an outing to the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, the pumpkin patch was closed and there was not a pumpkin in sight.\! Oh well. He loved the cake and enjoyed ripping the paper off of his gifts. The Earlville girls (and their kids) threw George a surprise party at the library so he could have a party with friends! What a blessing it is to have these women as friends and neighbors!





Earlville Story Time Gang





• Sarah (David's sister) and Aaron got married! We left NY on Nov. 21 to head south for the festivities. It was such a lovely wedding and I'm so glad we got to be apart of it, even if George's babbling forced us to step out early from the ceremony.

George was perfect on the plane. He's definitely prefers window seats!

George and Dada at Sarah and Aaron's rehearsal dinner. 

• We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in Chattanooga with David's family. First, let me say that George and I were away from home Nov. 21-Jan. 21. That's TWO MONTHS away from home! It was so great to spend time with our families and for George to get to know his grandparents, aunts, and uncles a little better. I don't think I cooked a single meal for 2 months! Since Sarah's wedding was the weekend before Thanksgiving, it only made sense to stay there until then. After Thanksgiving, David returned to NY to finish teaching his class and drove to rejoin us in mid-December. We decided not to go back with him to spare George the trauma of two long car rides. Below find gratuitous photos from Christmas and our general visit to Chattanooga:

Well, that wraps up 2011!