Gypsys

We're all packed up. The movers came today and in three hours they had everything loaded onto the truck and driving away. We kept Aiden corralled in one room with the portable DVD player while they traipsed in and out with the furniture and the dishes and his toys. Only once did he seem a little uneasy, and it was when they boxed up his Hot Wheels cars. We assured him that he'd see them again this weekend.

Whenever I think about moving, I always imagine being where ever it is I'm moving to. I imagine sipping sweet tea on a Sunday morning inCharleston, or laying on the beach on a hot afternoon, not directing movers while my two year old watches his racecar bed being disassembled and loaded onto a truck. I forget about having to clean up dusty corners and cobwebs except my mop and vacuum are somewhere else. I neglect to consider finishing my classes while living in a house with no furniture or even silverware, trying to study while I hear Aiden rustling around on an inflatable mattress.



I know we're going to have fun, and I'm lucky that this whole thing is being paid for by a company, and not us, and that we didn't have to lift a finger to pack, but now that the house is empty and it's been pouring rain and the baby and dog are a little confused and disoriented, I'm nervous.

We haven't had a whole lot to be nervous about with this move, and this is really the first day of stress I've felt, but it sure is a doozy. We planned to leave on Tuesday, but now we're heading out on Saturday, which means three less days to study for my final, a barrage of phonecalls and hotel arrangements and emails that had to be done in one afternoon. It's been a long, long day and I know I'm going to remember how exciting this whole thing is and what fun we're going to have when I wake up tomorrow, but tonight it's just a little melancholy.

Refined, but Fierce

Aiden has started doing this hilarious thing where when I say "CLAWS!" he puts up his claws and growls. All morning I was following him around with the camera, trying to get him to show how fierce and scary he can be, and instead I catch him on film with Sean's sister's tea set. Right. Well, James Bond was British, so I'm sure he drank tea, and he's still very manly. And fierce.

Now Aiden would like a turn to film. Listen to how clearly he can say "No. No mom."

Changes Afoot

We are steadily creeping closer to our move to Charleston. Sean started work last Monday, which is providing him with a lot of good challenges and exciting prospects, and I have just two weeks of class left. At first we were really worried about how Sean was going to fare in this training portion of his new job. He has had three 'tests' so far! Turns out, he's really smart and an extremely hard worker and picks up on things pretty quickly. I, on the other hand, was not at all worried about these last two weeks because I am thisclose to being done with all of my work, and I only have one real final to worry about. Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case. I have been butting heads with one professor and it feels like an eternity until I can say goodbye to his class forever.


One exciting step we've made is to finally choose an apartment! YAY! It's a relief to know that the movers aren't just going to drop us and our living room furniture onto the side of the road in Charleston, we'll actually have a place to live. It's a nice place, with a pool, and bear can come which should help keep Aiden comfortable.



I just remember how clingy and agitated Aiden was when we first moved to Brooklyn. I'm hoping to avoid that this time since he'll have the dog, and his super cool bed and all of his favorite stuff, plus a swimming pool. Swimming pools always make change easier.

Treats

Every Sunday I try and do something nice in the kitchen. Usually I end up trying to create some huge banquet (once it was a five pound ham for two and a half people, another time it was a six pound pork roast, yes, I get carried away). Today I tried baking something instead, and if you know me well you know that I can't bake to save my life. I can cook, but I have only mastered chocolate chip cookies so far.
I would really like to be the kind of mom who whips up homemade bread and fresh cake for her kids. I'm not sure it's ever going to happen, but I'm trying. So today I tried out vanilla scones, since it's my favorite treat at Starbucks and scones are supposed to be pretty easy. I even used honest to God, genuine, imported from Madagascar vanilla beans. This will most likely be the first and last time I spend $11 on two measly beans that I have to open and scrape myself.


Regardless of the beans, it took a while for them to come together and this was supposed to be a very easy recipe. They aren't exactly Starbucks ready:


But they sure taste good. Aiden also got treats this week from Sean's mom, who's home for a visit from Austria. She brought enough Girl Scout cookies to feed an army, and both Aiden and Sean tried their best to eat all of them at once. Sugar highs ensued.

You can't eat treats in this house and expect to eat in peace...

He Puts the Color Inside of My World

*photos by Kelyn*

When Sean and I were first starting to register for items on our bridal registry, neither of us really knew what we liked. Sean knew he liked blue...and stripes. I liked pink...but definitely not for housewares.

However, taking one look around our apartment made it pretty clear that Aiden's toys were going to have to factor into the equation. They were, and still are, and will be, EVERYWHERE. Not only are they everywhere, even when I carefully put them all away they're still peeking out from corners and bins and drawers, and they're bright and colorful and impossible to miss. Trying to reconcile that with any semblance of 'mature' decor would be impossible, so I embraced them in all there neon glory and have since designed the house around them.

Let's just say, we LOVE color over here.

Birdsong Blue in the guest bedroom

New Willow in the little room
(You and I know this color is yellow, but Sean HATES yellow, and I found this in the 'green' category and it was the only reason Sean let me pick it, so if he asks: it's green)

The front section of the master bedroom, since Kelyn didn't know it was blue.



Red living room...and Sean!

Fooling Around With Sean's Camera

In an attempt to master Sean's fancy camera, I took some pictures of our typical after dinner activities. Yeah, I definitely need to brush up on all of my aperture/shutter speed/light and framing knowledge, but I think some of them turned out pretty good, others were surprisingly tricky.

Spring plants, which turned out pretty good:

Aiden digging in the dirt, some of which were okay:

Bear, protecting the livestock, er, the humans:



My beautiful husband, who is difficult to photograph because he avoids the camera:

Eek! Whats that? Oh, just a practice shot in our very dusty mirror. Yikes:

Eggs-cellent

Easter was a total success! Aiden loved his surprise from the Easter Bunny, and had Easter eggs, cookies and candy eggs for breakfast, followed by ham and jellybeans for lunch. By bedtime he was like some kind of drug addict, and we had to drag him screaming from the basket. This morning he woke up, opened his eyes up wide and yelled "BEANS! BEANS! BEANS!". No, he didn't get any more jellybeans today.

This week Sean is off, and I'm off until Wednesday, so he's loving having everyone home to play with. The weather is supposed to stay warm for most of the week so we'll probably be at the park every morning.

Mmmm, eggs

Other than that, we're just enjoying our time before the big move. I can't believe it, but I've only got three weeks of school before I'm the proud owner of a B.S. in Psychology, and officially qualified to do.....um.....well not a whole lot but we'll figure that out later.

Easter Sun Day

I have been on spring break since last Friday, although you wouldn't have known it by the weather. Up until Thursday it had been raining for about five days straight, complete with bitter temperatures. Then the weather report said it would be nearly eighty on Friday and Saturday, and I kept telling Sean that I couldn't believe it would ever be sunny again.

But here it is, Saturday, and we've spent the past three days chasing Aiden around on the playground. Yesterday we came home and I told Sean that my hands and the tops of my feet (I'd been wearing sandals! As in, bare toes! It really is that warm!) were sort of pink and tender. He mentioned that the tip of his nose felt and looked the same way. We realized we both gotten a little sunburned, which was surprising and kind of enjoyable since it meant we'd spent a decent amount of time in the sun.

We've also been coming home feeling so so so worn out, which is another magical side effect of fresh air and sunshine. Aiden has very willingly climbed into bed for naps, and Sean and I sit outside relaxing, totally forgetting all of those urgent tasks we're supposed to be tackling. I did manage to write a couple of big papers earlier this week. I also, along with the help of my wonderful friend Ashley, finished painting two bedrooms. (I would've put before and after pictures up, but we haven't really put any of the furniture back since we have to move it down to S.C. anyway, so they're in disarray but with lovely paint colors).

Tomorrow is Easter, which is exciting because the pastor who married us is coming back to church after a sabbatical, and because we'll be having Easter dinner with my mom and family. Mostly though, it's because I plan on decorating eggs and putting together Aiden's first Easter basket. My friends were asking if I planned on hiding it, which is what the bunny always did at my house when I was younger, but I think we'll leave it in plain sight this year.

In other big news, Aiden got his spring haircut on Thursday night. He was very patient while both mommy and daddy took turns buzzing and clipping and evening it out. It ended up being shorter than we wanted, which was sort of inevitable because every time he wriggled we'd have to even it out again, but it's still so cute. It took him awhile to be able to look in the mirror and smile rather than hide shyly in Sean's shirt, but he seems to enjoy not having hair in his eyes and I enjoy him NOT looking like he has a 70's perm every time he gets sweaty.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!