Slacking

I love to write, and realized last week that it's been a while since I wrote on-line outside of Facebook blurbs and was surprised it's been more than a few months, and not at all since we've moved; so here I am. Not sure how long it will last, but I'm taking advantage of the quiet that only comes when the boys are asleep. I will truly miss naptime once it gets outgrown...

It has been quite the busy year as we've moved into our new house and new town. Other than the commute to work and added distance to Boston, I love everything about it! The people here are freakishly nice, even when driving (I know, weird!). The town has a lot of events that you mostly find out about when you drive through the center and read it on 1 of 2 banners that run across route 16, proudly displaying the news of the week. And even though there is no real supermarket here we live close to the border and have a Shaw's 2 minutes away.

Our 1st 2 major purchases were a dining room table (hooray for no more TV trays at mealtime!) and a nice swingset for the boys. We have a lot more room to stretch our legs inside and a 1/2 an acre backyard that is nice and level for playing sports and riding their new power wheels jeep. Parents not having to share a bedroom with Nicholas is a huge plus, too! Though there is a lot more to clean, the house feels cleaner now that most of the toys are down in the finished basement (joy!). And, speaking of cleaning, I finally have a dishwasher for the first time in my life!! Yup, it only took me three decades to experience this modern luxury, and I will never take it for granted. I still don't understand why people make a big deal about "doing" the dishes when they have a dishwasher doing it for them. All you're doing is loading and unloading it!

We've certainly had our unfair share of problems that started just 3 weeks into owning this house, but there were so many that that shall perhaps be for another day.

Off to go catch up on my reading while I can...

Where the Heart is...

After looking at over 100 houses (not even exaggerating!) we finally found one we can call home.

It wasn't a slam dunk, but there are so many great things about this house that we feel comfortable with the decision, and are excited for our move at the end of the month (though I will miss Dedham!).

One of the things I love about the house is there is so much natural light. The staircase is in the middle of the house and there are 2 ways to get to the deck out back. The day we saw it was unseasonably warm for mid-February and you couldn't script Thomas' reaction to the back yard any better. He ran around and around and had so much fun.

There is a nicely finished walk-out basement that will be a playroom with another room we could use as a guest room or exercise room. The upstairs has an almost-too-big master suite with a sitting room, master bath with his and hers sinks, jacuzzi tub and tile shower, along with a pretty awesome walk-in closet (that has its own window!).

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The yard sits on 1/2 an acre with most of it in the back. We have promised T-Man a swing set as one of the first purchases, which is only second to buying a dining room table.

I'm excited, yet a bit apprehensive to be moving to a town so small. Luckily, we are on the good side of town as far as commuting is concerned and we're not too far from a supermarket in the next town over. I sure will miss Legacy Place and being 15 minutes from Fenway Park though. The school system is top-notch and I've heard great things about the town itself from others who used to live there. So off we go to our next adventure in what we'd like to be our forever house...

Now onto one of the worst activities in the world...packing. I despise it with every fiber of my being.

Commute

Today I found out what an hour commute felt like, and it was not good! I live about 15 minutes from work. Who would have thought with the snow yesterday, that today is the day with lots of accidents, even though it was bright and sunny. Solar glare, I heard.

On a positive note: I am thankful I was not one of those many accidents and (finally) made it to work safe and sound! Also, thankful that I have a job to make it to =)

Underwear and Pizza

Despite the total lack of sleep I've had in the past few nights (Nicholas has been waking pretty consistently and then I have a hard time getting back to sleep; not that he leaves much time for that anyway. He's has a stuffy/runny nose lately so I am going to hope it will pass soon), it was a really good day.

I was super productive at work (at home) and got a good number of responses from clients (in a world where you sometimes get used to no one calling back or returning e-mails); Thomas came home in the same pants I put him in this morning. I figured he didn't want to try underwear today at preschool, as he went through 3 pairs of pants and underwear yesterday, but he came home wearing nice dry ones! All day he asked to pee on the potty! It's funny how exciting this is!!! He's been pooping exclusively on the toilet for months now, but realizing the urge to pee was difficult and sporadic. Hopefully, we'll only have one in diapers soon enough.

Nicholas had a first today, too. I was holding him while eating some leftover pizza from last night (glamorous dinner, I know) and he kept trying to grab it. I would keep it out of his reach since it was probably greasy and he would get upset. So I let him have it and he nibbled a bit, then nibbled a lot. He really liked it, which for him was good because he hasn't been a fan of many table foods, and won't even have the 3rd food baby food with tiny bits of pasta in it. He identifies the pasta balls as something other than mush food and spits only them out one by one.

Chugging it


He liked the pizza so much that I brought him to his high chair and let him gnaw away. He took delight in my delight of him eating real food that he just kept laughing and smiling at me the whole time. It was so cute I had to run and grab the camera.

Speaking of cameras, I got a new Canon Rebel T2i, which was 2 birthdays and push presents in the making, so I'm very excited to relearn the settings again from my manual photography class at BU. Hopefully, in time for Nicholas' 1st birthday party!

Thomas was cute tonight when I put him to bed, he told me he wanted an "Arianna sister like Lisa and Ettore." So proud of both my boys today. Yay, day!