Monday Morning Mia--Sunday Night Edition

I'm sitting in the kitchen surrounded by semi-packed boxes and a month's worth of newspapers for packing. Mia is sound asleep, as is the Hound. Ben is over at the new place, still painting. He has tackled, almost entirely by himself, all of the painting. A friend helped him--thank goodness--for two nights, but other than that he's been practically living over there. His efforts have certainly paid off. The place looks incredible. We only made one color error that necessitated buying a new can of paint, but all in all that's not bad for a whole new house. The house is almost entirely muted tones with the exception of Mia's room, which is bright purple.

We've only got a few more nights living here in our treetop apartment. I'm not that sad, really--something about all of the furniture being gone and the weather warming has brought back our mouse friends and I won't miss them. I will miss the bakery down the street, although it's really only a 15 minute walk from the new place, which I should take anyway if I'm going to continue to purchase baked goods there. I thought I'd miss the park where we walk Walter more, but two things have made that less likely. First, whenever we take Walter up to the park, we rarely see more than a dog or two. Walter is most likely perfectly happy to just be free for that 45 minutes, but at this point it's just 45 minutes of sniffing and not much else. Second, Ben has been urging me to take Walter on his new walk at the Arnold Arboretum, which is less than 5 minutes from our new house. He swore that it was really much better. I didn't really believe him until this morning. Walter and I braved the chilly morning air at 7:15 to drive over to the Arboretum. At 7:15 in our old park we'd definitely be the only folks there. At the Arboretum, though, there must have seriously been at least 20 dogs. And we only stayed about 30 minutes because Walter tired himself out running. It was spectacular. I'm really looking forward to the change of scenery. The only problem with the Arboretum is that Walter has to pee on every tree, and that just gets awfully problematic in an arboretum.

Mia is doing fabulously. She's finally recovered from her stomach bug and is eating again, which is a huge relief. She was starting to feel very thin after not eating for close to a week. We all enjoyed a tortelini supper tonight.

Her vocabulary is growing--she knows "star" and "sock" and Ben says she can identify a horse and an airplane in a picture although I haven't seen her do it. She has just started to hug a little, too, although she needs a lot of encouragement to do it. I think she's teething more, as the last few nights have been pretty poor in the sleep department, but teething is going to be par for the course for the next few years, I fear.

Mia is also walking a lot more than she used to. She's getting really sturdy on her feet, and can even turn around and switch directions. She'll be running before we know it.

So, next week's Monday Morning Mia will be brought to you from the new place. Let's hope we weather the move well and that all goes smoothly. See you there!

Insomnia video

Can't sleep. 2:15 in the morning and I'm wide awake. Thought I'd make something of my time so here's a quick bit on our now hirsute girl.

Monday Morning Mia

Poor Mia is sick today. Most likely, she is suffering from the stomach bug that has been going around our fine city. Yesterday she seemed in pretty good spirits, but today she's acting sick. She's back down now after sleeping pretty much through the night, and I think she'll sleep most of the day today.

Mia and Walter are coping pretty well with the impending move to the new house. Walter seems a little uncertain as to what's going on and gets nervous when we leave the house. Mia, though, seems delighted that there is more room in the dining room to drive her car and more boxes to play with and empty. Grandma came up this weekend to help Ben and me pick up some items and move them to the new place. We also had to shovel out the walk of the new house--late season snowstorm left us with 9 inches of snow and slush to remove.

The house is coming along swimmingly. The office and bath/laundry room are painted and just beautiful. Ben painted most of Mia's room and is going to finish the rest tonight--he was called home yesterday to help with the sick baby and didn't get to finish the job.

No new pictures of Mia this week, although Ben did get some great video which I'm sure he'll post later on. We do have pictures of the new baby, though.

Lazy Friday

No reason for this, just felt like posting a routine video. Enjoy.

Spring has sprung

It's a balmy 68 degrees here in Boston. Our windows are open and the night air smells like spring. Ben is over at the new house painting (I've been banned from helping due to my poor skillz) and Walter is sound asleep on the floor of our now-empty dining room. Mia went to bed at 7:30 without much of a fight, as she skipped her afternoon nap to enjoy the warm afternoon. Usually, there is some sort of noise in the house--a radio, a coffee grinder, a baby laughing--but for a change it's quiet. I can hear Walter breathing and the clock ticking on the wall. Outside I hear the constant hum of the cars, which to me is so pervasive as to be barely noticeable. These are the sounds of this apartment. In a few days these sounds will be replaced by new sounds, different sounds. We're used to hearing neighbors upstairs and downstairs, the general din of sharing space with other people. Soon we won't have neighbors, at least not in the same building. Our new house is on a quiet side street instead of a main one--we probably won't get much in the way of traffic sounds. Our current neighborhood has a distinct Latino flair, and we often hear music coming from the cars and shops outside. We won't have those sounds anymore in a few days. In many ways I'm happy that the new place will be a little quieter--sometimes the noise is really too much around here. But in other ways I'll miss the sounds I've become so accustomed to over the last four years.

One of the great things about living in Boston is the joy of early spring. Even though without fail it's cold until late May, everyone's hopes get up in March as the temperatures begin to creep upwards. Once it gets above 50 degrees people begin to wear shorts and flip flops and put away their coats and winter hats. Even though it's guaranteed to get cold again, Bostonians become cavalier with the hope of warmth. Today, for example, was close to 70, yet they are saying that tomorrow night there will be snow. Bearing this in mind, Mia and I spent a good chunk of the day outside. We went over to the playground, a trip we haven't made since the fall. Last time we went to the playground Mia was just able to sit up by herself. I had to be careful not to let her tip over, even though the ground is rubberized. Today, though, was a whole different story. Now that Mia is walking and climbing the playground was totally different. We met up with several of our local mom-and-baby friends at the playground, taking turns talking to each other and watching each others' kids. Mia pretty much attached herself to the slide. Not to the slide, actually, but to the stairs leading to the slide. If I tried to redirect her to a different area she would keep finding her way back to the stairs. She has become a champion climber, but she is still working on getting back down. Hopefully in the new house, which has stairs, she will hone this critical skill. In the meantime, though, constant vigilance is required.

The moms got to talking about how different parenting is around here. One mom was talking about an article she read about European parents and how they are much more hands-off than American parents. At a European playground, parents will let their kids explore and fall. Here, though, we're all right behind our kids just in case they tumble. While logically I know that Mia will be totally fine if she takes a spill, I can't help but hover behind her. Talking about these different parenting styles got me thinking about my own childhood. In our yard in Dallas there was no fence. There was no fence in our Atlanta yard, either. But in Dallas, I was much younger. I suppose my mother must have told me not to go past the sidewalk, and I listened. I don't remember her being outside with me all the time when I was little, either--if I remember correctly, I was allowed to play outside by myself. That would never happen anymore, at least not in our neck of the woods. I wonder what happened to make things so different. It's not even about the possibility of a kid being snatched up or anything like that--it's about needing physical boundaries for safety instead of verbal ones. I can't imagine letting Mia play outside without some kind of supervision. Then again, we live in a city and not the suburbs, and perhaps this has something to do with my concern. But maybe I could stand to be a bit more European--or perhaps just more mid-1970s--in my approach.

That's about it for the evening. We'll post pictures of the new place, soon. The office is done now--brown and green. It looks incredible--I will definitely write the world's greatest dissertation there.
Mia has been helping us pick paint colors. Here's her suggestion:

Well, that's done

Well we are now the proud owners of two houses, for the time being. We just really, really need the buyers of our condo to not back out now and well be alright.


(of course somebody still wants to double check our budget)

So for the time being, we're going to celebrate, and get to work painting, cleaning, packing, etc. Next few weeks should be a hoot.

Standing at the edge

So tomorrow we close on the new house. Somewhat terrified, somewhat excited, feeling very close to the surface of things this week. Bit of a live wire to tell the truth. I suppose like all momentous decisions this could very easily turn into the best decision we've made, or just as easily the worst.

At the very least Mia seems to really enjoy the house when it's empty. Tomorrow we start the long process of painting, minor spot repair, and a installing a handful of built in bookshelves. For all intents and purposes, we still have the option of turning back tonight. This one last chance.



Then of course it also feels like we've already been launched from this particular cannon, and right now we're just waiting to hit the net. Next few weeks should be interesting.

Anniversary Party

For those that didn't know, Mia's granparents celebrated their 40th anniversary this weekend. We were able to sneak up a good bunch of the Deleware contingent as well as a number of friends from NY and CT for a two day blow-out. A number of you couldn't make it, and you were missed, but we understand that weather, work, and school sometimes take over.

Most importantly however, Mia had a blast. From getting to meet cousins Sammy & Greer, to being captivated by Aunt Rachel's oddly shy tongue, it was hugely fun. We'll see everybody again soon at Hank's wedding this summer. Until then, here's a quick medley of the weekend from a 1-year old girls perspective.