The Boxes Are Here!

This is it! We're moving in one short week! And the boxes have arrived!

Matt and I are starting to get really excited about this move. Obviously, so are the kids! So, we are totally upgrading with this apartment, so I thought I'd do another list:

Why I'm excited about our new apartment:

• it has a dishwasher!
• it's totally renovated and 'brand new' looking. That doesn't really matter much in reality, but it feels nice. Stainless steel appliances and all that.
• there are 6 outlets at the kitchen countertop - hello crockpots!
• it's not bigger, but at least it's not smaller!
• rent is $350 LESS per month.
• there are 2 Catholic churches, 3 grocery stores, a Goodwill, an express subway station WITH AN ELEVATOR and the post office right around the corner.
• our whole building is stroller friendly - elevators all the way, no more stairs!
• 24-hr security guards and a high iron fence surround the private courtyard.
• the private courtyard has TWO playgrounds and a basketball court.
• we have an excuse to buy a new couch and bed, both of which have been killing my back during this pregnancy, plus our bed is just too small.
• if something is broken, we call the leasing office and they send a porter within 24 hrs - no more living with leaks on account of a crappy super.
• The Bronx Zoo (which we have a membership to) is much closer, as is the Bronx Terminal shopping center which has two of my favorite places - Applebee's and Target (it's like a faux America).

Hopefully I'll find some other stuff to add to this list once we get settled. Now, on to packing. Matt's already packed most of the living room - on to the kitchen for me!

10 Things I hate about New York City

I hate...

1. that decent babysitters start at $20 hr and charge $5/hr more if you have more than 2 kids.
2. that everything costs money. There are no free activities whatsoever.
3. that groceries are twice as expensive.
4. that there are no typical American fast food chains. Taco Bell is at least a 30 minute commute. And then it costs twice as much there, too.
5. that I can't have a car (a.k.a. freedom to get the hell out into America once in a while).
6. that seeing rats and cockroaches is a common occurrence.
7. that there are no elevators in 95% of the subway stations.
8. that family and friends are so far away.
9. that we spend all our vacations working our @$$es off to see family, and spend about $2,000 in travel expense just to do it.
10. that everything below 14th street is impossible to navigate because the street plan is FUBAR. And that's where all the good touristy stuff to see is.

10 Things I Hate about My Apartment

I hate...

1. the leak in my bathroom that started dripping on my head while I was in the shower this morning - which is a rare occurrence in itself.
2. the four flights of stairs I have to climb/haul toddlers up to get to it.
3. the $800 stroller & stroller gear parked in my bedroom, completely blocking my closet and not being used, because the landlord is a $%@# who decided we can't park strollers in the lobby.
4. paying 5 times as much in rent as I would for an equivalently crappy apartment in Indiana.
5. the 2 hour round trip commute to the kids' school I have to make every day.
6. doing the dishes by hand 2-3 times a day because there is no dishwasher and because there's no counter space.
7. the constant noise - traffic, loud music from rude neighbors, children screaming in other apartments and mothers screaming back at them, often very abusively.
8. the 24 inch wide hallway that makes it impossible for two people (especially a pregnant person) to pass.
9. the broken toilet seat that moves whenever you're too far one direction or another.
10. the general tiny-ness, pretty much everywhere except the living room.

Errand-mania

What an insanely 'productive' morning the kids and I had today...we got out of the house at 8:30am. That's 8:30 in the morning. But that's not all, we ran pretty much every hurricane-preparation errand on my list.

First stop: Duane Reade drug store for toiletries and batteries for flashlights (and toys).

Second stop: Michael's Crafts store for crafty activities while we're stuck inside.

Third stop: Playground! There's a pretty nice playground on the way to the grocery, and since I needed the grocery store to be the last stop, I wanted them to get some play time, especially if we aren't going to be able to hit the park for the next couple of days. We'll probably do a nature walk after naptime, too, just to get a little more in.

Fourth stop: Associated Supermarkets to stock up on food. Typical grocery trip: $15-35. This one: $130. To be fair I bought a lot of non-perishables that I just wasn't sure if we had enough of already. The kids were really horrible (by my standards, at least). I don't know how many older folks laughed when I said things like "get out of the rice!" and "Your behavior is horrible, there's no way you kids deserve ice cream" and "stop grabbing things, stop grabbing things, stop grabbing things!"

They didn't get ice cream, which led to Karol crying half the way home, but I did get popsicles (on sale) for future good behavior bribery (in the freezer now, hopefully the power won't go out because then I'd have to give them to them whether they behaved or not, because I can't let them go to waste).

Now we're finally back home, the fridge and freezer and cabinets are totally stocked, and we're ready to weather the storm.

Preschools, Minivans, and Other Mom Trademarks

Today was a crazy day of ups and downs for me personally. I think for the other members of the family (although I haven't heard about Matt's day yet), it was pretty even keel.

Karol was very excited today because Ms. Adria was coming. Ms. Adria is our new babysitter who we found through a somewhat expensive online babysitting service (this is how it's done when you live in NYC and know NO ONE) and she was scheduled to come for the first time today.

I prepped the kids by telling them that we were going to have a new friend come over and play. Karol was very excited about this. She's been missing her DC care takers and especially her home day care best bud.

I spent the morning getting the kids fed and presentable, and trying to make the apartment look less like a tornado hit it. The sitter got there a few minutes late, and that's when the roller coaster started rolling. I foolishly left only half an hour between sitter-arrival and the actual time of my appointment, so I started stressing myself out about it around 8:30 anyway.

So I had to rush out the door, and Patrick, of course, was not cool with me leaving anyway. I had to give him an extra hug and kiss goodbye. Karol, on the other hand was like "Hi! Come play with me, I'll show you my toys!" Totally apathetic to whether or not I was there.

Hailing a cab was more difficult than I anticipated. I had to get the hang of it through out the day. It took about 10 more minutes, but I finally got a cab and zoomed across Central Park to the doc's office. I was only 8 minutes late, so not too bad.

But bad enough, I'm afraid, to have to spend over an hour there. I don't know if that was my penance for my tardiness, or if the office is usually that slow, but I had a lot of time to worry about making my next appointment with the chiropractor.

While at the examining room waiting for the doc to appear, the phone rang. Since I didn't recognize the number, I just let it go. Then I thought "Maybe that was the sitter. Maybe something's wrong." And of course slowly started freaking out inside. I called the number right back, but it was busy.

So I did a reverse look-up on the number, and much to my surprise, it was Nazareth Nursery. You may remember that this is the school that Matt and I simply adored. We've been hoping and praying that Karol would get into the one spot that may or may not exist there, depending on this and that, since our visit in March.

As it turns out, Sister Lucy called Matt right after trying me (hence the busy signal) and so I shortly got a call from him telling me that she wanted me to bring Karol down to enroll at 10am tomorrow!!! "Bring her birth certificate, baptismal certificate, and your checkbook."

I was so thrilled at this news, nothing could ruin my mood, though a lot of things tried. I don't actually have a copy of Karol's baptismal certificate, so I needed to get it faxed to me. But our phone line is messed up. So I can't get a fax. Solution? 30-day free trial e-fax service - you can receive faxes as email attachments. Whew.

But then there's the thing I needed to fax. Here's where it gets complicated.

We bought a minivan. That's right. Minivan. I should say I bought it. It's in my name, and Matt doesn't want to be at all associated with a mom-mobile. It's a 2003 Toyota Sienna. So now we have 2 cars. In Manhattan. No, we're not crazy, we're just way too busy and haven't found time to sell the other one.

So we went to a dealership, very much on a whim, last Saturday to check out this minivan I'd found through USAA's car buying service (really great way to find a car, by the way). And a couple hours later, we're driving it home. The only hiccup was that we're new here, and nothing we have says we live where we live. So I need to fax them a lease. The lease was IN THE CAR when we were there, but we didn't realize that at the time, unfortunately. So now I still need to fax them this thing.

Through the e-fax thing, I can send attachments like a fax. But to do that I need to scan a pic of the lease. And our scanner won't work. After changing a couple of inks and looking up the error message online, I gave up. The car dealership will have to wait another day.

The fax issue took up the first half of naptime, but I was actually able to get a lot of address-changing done (banks, insurance, other random places) and get everything ready with AFLAC for Max's arrival.

After that, I hung out with my babes, played games, read books, and then bedtime arrived sooner than I expected. Matt had a networking event and so I'm home alone for a while. I'm hoping today is an easier day. We'll see.

Moved In

My oh my, it's been a busy week and a half. We've been making the move to NYC, which in a lot of ways took a lot longer than we expected. We're still not completely out of boxes, and Max's room is kind of a temporary catch-all for the stuff we can't deal with at the moment, but for the most part we've turned this little three bedroom into a home for Karol, Pat, Matt and I. I think I'll tell the story in pictures.

Patrick and Karol are playing in the courtyard of our Arlington apartment, waiting for Mimu and Grandpa Plomin to arrive last Friday. Matt & friends spent the whole day loading the U-Haul and I had my last day at work.

We got a late start and some hiccups in the plan for driving up Friday night, so we stayed at a hotel just south of Baltimore and woke up at 5 to drive up to NYC.

Here's our U-Haul and one of the moving guys we hired to help us unload, bright and early at 9:30am.

Here's our new apartment! No, not in the Sushi shop, four floors above it.

Working on unloading...

Matt has gotten a LOT of handyman experience. He built a bunch of new furniture (this is Karol & Pat's new bed), and hung shelving and pictures.

Our new kitchen table! It has leaves to fold out and we found it in the 'As Is' section of Ikea. I think it was a display model. We got lucky, because this table (that I'd already decided was 'the one') was discontinued, so you can't get it new anymore.

Karol and Patrick arrive on Monday! Here they are exploring their new bunk beds.

Patrick's on the bottom and Karol's on the top. Thomas the Tank Engine sheets for Pat and Disney Princess sheets for Karol.

First bath in the new - much smaller - bathroom. Mommy is not a fan of the faucet being in the middle.

Karol helped me unpack some of her clothes.

K & P 'sort' hair clips while I unpack stuff in our bedroom. They made a mess, but it occupied them for quite a while.

Patrick tested the new freedom of his big boy bed for a couple of nights, getting up and sneaking into bed with mom and dad at 3am. We were too tired to put him back! These boys were so adorable I just had to snap a picture.

We've spent quite a lot of time at Ikea and Home Depot. Here's K & P working on their math skills in the children's section of Ikea. Mmm, gotta love the Swedish Meatballs for lunch!

We spent a lot of mornings at a diner a few blocks away because it took us days to get the kitchen set up. Groceries in Manhattan are ridiculous (think $8 for a small box of cereal), luckily the day before Matt started work we were able to drive out to Ft. Hamilton (about 1 hr each way, in Brooklyn) to the commissary and stocked up. The money we saved was WELL worth the drive.

Here's Karol enjoying some eggs and pancakes.

The living room is very kid-centric. Matt built all these little white shelves and all of the kids' toys now have their own special places, which makes clean up MUCH easier. The kids are getting used to putting away Toy A before getting out Toy B.

So now it's time to test out our new system with Matt going to work and me (eek!) staying home. I'm fearful that I will lose my mind, or spend every minute entertaining the kids, or become TV mom and let them watch PBSKids all day. I'm striving to find balance. I guess we'll see how it goes!

This Weekend: The Big Move!

I am really looking forward to getting this weekend over with! It's going to be busy. Here's the plan:
Friday - Work, drop kids with grandparents, Pack U-Haul, drive to NYC, paint bedrooms
Saturday - Movers unload truck, un-box & organize, drive out and buy anything we still need
Sunday - More un-boxing & organizing, drive out and buy anything ELSE we still need

Monday - Any finishing touches, last minute fixes, etc., then drive back to MD to pick up the kids

Tuesday - Find stuff to do in NYC for a week before Matt starts working, yikes!

Saturday with Mommy

Well Matt is getting the keys and moving the first few boxes into the Manhattan apartment today! That means I'm home with the kiddies - of course it's a free-for-all while Daddy's away!

Actually, I've done a fairly good job keeping a schedule, of sorts, today. Karol sneaked into my room a little after 7, and Patrick was just waking up in his crib at the same time, so we started the morning a little earlier than normal. But that was just as well, since the farmer's market starts at 7 and all the best stuff goes early.

The kids were dressed, fed and ready to go by 8am! But they decided they wanted to do a puzzle first. After a scuffle over piggy banks (don't ask) I managed to convince them they wanted to go for a walk to the farmer's market.

Rather than stroll, I strapped on their monkey and doggie backpacks and they walked with me. Luckily it's only one block away. We checked out all the different foods, but they were most entertained just sitting in the grass picking wildflowers and clovers.

We even got to pet a couple of dogs while we were out!

We started heading back home around 9, and Patrick demanded we stop at the courtyard for some rock pile action. Of course, they ended up completely soaked, but they had a blast.

I let them pick a flower from the landscaping in exchange for going inside and changing. Since they were already wet, I decided it was a fantastic time to brush teeth (forgot to do it this morning). Then they stripped off the wet clothes and decided to do puzzles again.

Snack time rolled around and they actually wanted cold oatmeal as their snack. My kids are weird.

After snacks, we threw in another load of laundry together.

I knew I needed to burn some time and some energy for a successful nap time, so I took the kids up to the pool all by myself. Until now, there's no way I would ever feel comfortable taking more than one kid to a pool without some back up. But I devised a strategy and I felt pretty confident I could do it. It helps that there's always a lifeguard on duty, and it's a 4-foot pool, so I can just stand.

We suited up - Coast Guard approved life jackets, sunblock and all - in the apartment. I didn't want to be stuck snapping Karol's jacket while Pat wondered off to the pool. After a pep talk about staying right next to Mommy all the time, we headed up to the pool deck. And I couldn't be more thankful we did. The water was perfect, and the kids both did a great job of holding onto Mommy, the wall, or a combination of the two. The jackets give the kids a lot of buoyancy and Karol was able to keep herself upright really well. Her big thing at the pool is propelling herself around the edge, so we did that a lot while I bounced Patrick on my hip.

The only real issue was actually the other children at the pool. There was a group of three sisters - two 8 year olds and a 5 year old - that took an interest in Karol and therefore were in my way a bit. And they were annoying. The 5 year old would take Karol's hand and inevitably she'd get a mouthful of water from losing her balance. Meanwhile, Patrick was already tired and cranky, so we needed to leave. This was simple enough, because I told Karol that we could go inside and watch Caillou. She was ready to go instantly.

Getting out of the pool was easier than I anticipated, but still no picnic. The kids were easy - I just sat them up on the edge and they walked over to our pool bag. I didn't want to be more than arms-length away for very long though, so I 'hopped' out of the pool up onto the side instead of taking the ladder, as best a 7 month pregnant lady can. I was shocked at my own ability to do it, but it couldn't have been pretty to watch.

Karol and Patrick sunbathed for a couple of minutes while I loaded up all the swimming supplies, and then we headed back to the apartment.

Caillou gave me enough time to make lunch - mac & cheese and peas - and then those kids just sat and ate. They must have been hungry because they both had two helpings of mac & cheese and most of their peas, and they didn't even talk or goof around, they were so intent on eating.

Next we caught Grandpa Shaw on Skype and then an episode of Wonderpets before stories and naps.

They are both sleeping like rocks now. Matt's already on the road back, so I'm hoping he makes it home in time to play with the kids before bedtime!

Good Times in the Bath

Karol and I wrapped up the evening (a terrible, nothing goes right type of day today) with a mommy-daughter bath, complete with facial masques, tea-tree oil foot scrubs, and an intense game of 'Spuh-LASH!' which is a lot like catch, but without the catching.

Luckily the rest of the night went smoothly with no tears from either toddler at bedtime. Unfortunately, Matt will be up late tonight working on one of two final papers that is due tomorrow at noon. I will be SO glad when he is done with all of this on WEDNESDAY.

As for me, I've been done with class for a week or two now (yay!). Now I'm going nuts about packing, going through the kids' clothes and weeding the outgrown and winter weather gear from their drawers for storage, and making big piles of random stuff to be donated. We are going to be losing a lot of space with the move to NYC (oh yeah, and adding a kid) and the extra stuff just isn't getting out of my apartment fast enough for my taste.

It's 9pm, and I think I'm going to go to bed. That's actually a little early for me. I'm hoping tomorrow starts off a little smoother than today did, but I'm not looking forward to Matt being MIA while he crams on final projects the next three days!

Stream of Consciousness Post about Montessori, The Kid's Development, And Moving

Saturday was a crazy day. We went everywhere. We were in and out of the car like crazy. All in anticipation of a rain storm that never happened. But we were able to pick up a lot of new tools and supplies for our Montessori-fying the apartment quest. Between a 'liquidation sale' on the edge of DC's bad side, Ikea and Home Depot, we were able to get some serious deals on some makeshift Montessori stuff.

The most important thing we purchased this weekend was by far the kid-sized table and chairs from Ikea. The kids are loving it so far. Saturday and Sunday were both full of test driving some of the new stuff. I'm starting to feel more confident that this idea is going to work.

And in order to facilitate the New World Order in our family routine, I've kicked off a mad Ebay/Craigslist sell-athon. With the move to NYC fast approaching, we've been meaning to downsize anyway, and the sooner it happens, the better, I think, because this belly isn't getting easier to deal with.

Speaking of which, I have got the worst heartburn in the history of the world. It is bad. It starts around 4 o'clock and doesn't let up. Doesn't matter what I eat. Doesn't matter how I sit or sleep. There's nothing I can do but deal with it and pop the Tums like candy.

Mission 1 with Karol is going to be teaching her some preliminary skills - basically teaching her the Montessori Method procedure for approaching (school) work. This is stuff like, how to get out and unroll your mat before you start an activity, putting an activity away before taking out a new one, carrying trays properly so things don't topple, etc, etc. She's very quickly picking up on practical life skills like pouring water or milk from a pitcher into a cup. She and Patrick are both drinking out of a regular cup at dinner time (teeny tiny ones). They are also obsessed with tasks like handwashing and teethbrushing because it means they get to stand at the sink and 'play' with water.

Patrick's big lessons are going to be things like stacking blocks, nesting blocks, and beginning to learn to count. He's in an amazing language boom right now, picking up words faster than I can keep track. Just this weekend he probably said five or six words we hadn't heard him say before, completely out of the blue.

He's starting to show an interest in the potty too, although it'll be a while before he is even tall enough to sit on the training potty. He totally gets that the word 'pee' is associated with it (that's one of his new words!) and likes to pretend-pee by sitting on the edge of the potty and bouncing.

Speaking of bouncing - Patrick has a hilarious morning ritual. Typically Karol will wake up and be talking to herself or calling for Mommy or Daddy in the morning when Matt and I walk in. Inevitably we hear a bright "Good morning, Mommy/Daddy!" from Karol and Patrick starts jumping/bouncing on his bed, with a smile from ear to ear like he's so thrilled to be starting a new day. It really is a great way to start the day and puts a smile on my face every time.

Meanwhile, on the apartment hunting front, Matt is scouring the market for the (probably impossible) perfect apartment. It's almost hilarious that he's trying to find an apartment that would be cheap even here in the most expensive neighborhood in Manhattan. I have a feeling we'll be living in a shoe box at this rate. Which brings me back to the need for downsizing our stuff.

So far I haven't had a whole lot of success, but this is just the end of Day 1, really. Still, when I posted like 8 things on Craigslist this morning, I was hoping to have at least 1 less thing by the end of the day. Although there have been a couple of bites, nothing solid yet.

And books! We've got more books than the closest branch of the public library, I think. I looked into donating them to the library today, and - it figures - they just had one of their bi-annual book sales and therefore aren't taking new donations until May 10 or so, so I have to stare at these boxes that much longer, I guess.

My next downsizing task - which I plan to attack as soon as I'm done with this post, since Matt's at school until late tonight - is the White Thing. Really it's a white Rubbermaid rolling 3-drawer filing tower that I've had since college. But we've always just called it the White Thing. And now it's in our bathroom. Pretty soon it will be empty. It's already for sale on Craigslist, although Matt thinks it'll probably have to be given away (guess I'm okay with that), but it's worth at least a shot at selling it. I'm checking my email like mad, just to see if there are any new takers on our unwanted stuff...ugh.

Montessori Mommy?

I'm back to reading Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three and back on a Montessori kick again.  I think I wrote in an earlier post that we found exactly the right school for our kids - it's a Catholic Montessori preschool - and last month we were finally able to go there for observation.

I'm even more convinced that this is where I want Karol to be next year, but alas, there's no space available.  Well, Sister Lucy, the lady that runs the place, said they may have an opening depending on if one family moves...so we're keeping our fingers crossed, but won't be surprised if it doesn't happen until the 2011-12 school year.

So what do we do until then?  I really don't see the point in sticking her in a different preschool for a year and then switching.  That just seems like it would cause undue stress for all of us.  So I'm seriously considering teaching her (as best I can) from home, in the Montessori Method.

Of course, it doesn't seem fair at all to put that kind of time and effort into Karol and not Patrick, who's nipping at Karol's heels right now, developmentally speaking.  But he's in a totally different sensitive period, so the work he should be doing is totally different from what Karol is on.

Oh, and let's not forget little Max (that's Fetus Plomin's new name, now that we know he's a boy for sure)!  I have the chance to start from the very beginning with him.  But just taking care of the basic needs of an infant is enough work for one mom.  I'm already depriving the poor little guy of much needed sleep (for mommy) most nights in order to research Montessori homeschooling, apartments in NYC and preschool options.  Do I really think I'm going to be able to teach all my kids at the same time all by myself?

Well, yes.  I guess I do.  My plan?  Be prepared well in advance.  I'm going to have to tackle this 'stay at home mom' thing (makes me cringe to type that) with a strategic campaign plan.  That's why I'm so glad I discovered this awesome blog, Wanting What You Have.  It's written by a professional 'housewife' (cringe) who's come up with what she calls a Home Management Guide.  It is the greatest idea ever.  Not that its a new one.  Basically, it's a business plan for the home.  I've already started building mine.  I've got two whole sections done, and I'm totally stoked about it.

I'm doing mine a little differently, though, since, well, every household is a little different, and in our case, a lot different.  I'm planning for all my Montessori tools and research to be a huge section of this binder.  I think I'm going to come up with a different name for mine though.  Something like, 'Jillian's World Domination Strategic Campaign Plan.'  So far I've got all my work schedules done, pretty similar to how Heather does it, and a cleaning section.  I'm going to add a food section, but I still don't really know enough about cooking yet to put it together, and Matt's in charge of the groceries right now, so I'm at a loss for a price book (I'm just going to take over his).  The Montessori section I'm going to start building tonight right after I write this post.  As for the World Domination-specific sections, that's classified, sorry.

Happy and Healthy Babies - All of Them!

Today was a 'big' day for the DC Plomins.  Bright and early this morning the whole family trekked up to our old stomping grounds, Silver Spring, for a round of doctor's appointments.

Karol - not surprisingly, Karol got a gold star for verbal ability.  The doctor was floored that she was answering questions like "how old are you?" and "are you a boy or a girl?"  I guess those are questions a 3 year old may be able to answer.  She was also impressed with the 6-word sentences she was uttering -but Matt and I know she can easily do 15-word sentences and more!
She's an expert at jumping, but hasn't mastered walking backwards yet - although that's another 3 year old task.

Patrick - Patrick is right on track developmentally, and doing especially well in the walking/climbing arena.  He's off the charts for both height and weight and a very healthy growing boy.  Patrick's language is seemingly ahead of schedule, too, but of course he was too shy to talk to Dr. Fishman at all.  He did manage a 'high five' though.
Patrick got a whopping 3 shots, one of which being the chicken pox vaccine.  The good news is that he won't need any at all at the 18 month check up.  I'm hoping we can squeeze that one in before we have to leave for NYC in July.

Baby #3 - Mommy and baby got a check up today, too.  I'm doing fine, of course, and New Baby Plomin has all the major organs and limbs and whatnot that they check for in the 20 week ultrasound.  And of course we got the opportunity to find out what we're having.  And, as I've been predicting since day 1 - the ultrasound confirmed we're having a boy!  Karol and Patrick are excited to have a baby brother and Matt and I are excited to use pronouns like "he" instead of "it" when referring to "him."

Measurement-wise he is still on track with his original due date of Aug 10, give or take a couple days.  I'm betting he'll be quite an average size, weighing more than Karol did (7 lbs 9 oz) and less than Patrick (9 lbs 3 oz).  It'll be 'fun' to get to know all new doctors just a month before he's born to deliver him in NYC, but we're getting closer to figuring out who that will be now.  Or I should say, Matt is.  I've put him in charge of finding the doc, the hospital and an apartment in NYC.  We'll see how that goes.

The apartment search is still pretty passive - it's still early - but we've got some feelers out.  We're still pretty focused on the West side, hopefully somewhere in our between the West Village and Upper West Side.  I'm not really thinking about that now, though.  For right now I'm just looking forward to tying my shoes without straining and meeting my new little boy, and thanking God we are so very lucky to have such beautiful and healthy children.

So that's the update for now!

NYC, I Give You Fair Warning

Well a lot has happened since I last wrote. Matt and I are officially taking the plunge and moving to the Big Apple, the Empire State. Yep, good ole NYC. I'm not talking about living in New Jersey or the boroughs either. We are moving to FRICKIN MANHATTAN. Or at the very least, Queens.



So, we're relocating from our posh Arlington apartment right next door to the greatest job I've ever had, down the street from the best child care provider you could ever hope to have for your kids, in a neighborhood just minutes away from Costco, Pentagon City Mall, the national monuments, historic Georgetown and my beloved cupcakes, to a place where we are going to be starting all over, the taxes are highest in the country, in an undoubtably much smaller apartment. I'm getting used to the idea.



Matt's job is going to be great for him. He'll be an Associate in Institutional Asset Management for Deutsche Bank. He loves the group he's working with; they're the same one he worked with over the summer. It's what he's always wanted to do and he's gonna go far, I just know it.


As for me, it's up in the air. There's a very good chance I'll go back to political consulting (2010 is shaping up to be excellent for real Republicans), and maybe start a new thing consulting small business. The job market is rich in NYC for ad/pr, so I could always do a 9-5 again, too. After the baby is born, that is.



What? A baby? Another baby? Didn't you just have one?


Yeah, I did. And we're going to have number three sometime mid-August, probably at the Eli and Abby Manning Birthing Center in the Village (thank God we still have a Manning!).

My belly right now.

My belly 8 months after Patrick. *sigh* C'est la vie.

Once we made the decision that we are indeed moving, all the other decisions had to be made. Luckily, my search for the perfect pre-school (for Karol only, for now) was a quick one. There's actually a Catholic Montessori (exactly what I wanted) right smack in the West Village that is quite affordable. We haven't visited or anything yet, but I did make a call. Hopefully we can run up there sometime in March to check the place out and get Karol enrolled. I've heard how awful New York private school admissions can be, but I think this school is an exception.



That decision led to the next one: Where to live? West Village is pretty 'up and coming' we've heard, and the subway right by the pre-school goes straight to Matt's office. It's also a little more neighborhood-ish than living in East Midtown where Matt will be working. There will be (a little) more access to shops, restaurants, and other necessary places. We're hoping to find something close to Washington Park.

Another option is Astoria (part of Queens). It's more affordable, and if we stay close to the subway line it'd be just as easy a commute as West Village for Matt, but a little further down the line for Karol's school.

It's way too early to know anything though.



The giant elephant problem with moving to NYC is that it's NOT a kid-friendly place to live. And it's not a parent-friendly place to live. Everything I see online about living in New York talks about the 'awesome night-life' and great places for grown ups to go by themselves. We don't HAVE a night-life. I'm lucky to get a day-life with 2 kids 2 and under. Oh wait, make that 3 under 3! I swear if I read another article or post about how great it is to be single and responsibility-free in New York I will scream.



Oh well. Maybe Matt will get a huge bonus and we'll be able to afford a babysitter once in a while. Until then, nose to the grindstone.

The Home Stretch

We're officially in the final stretch of this summer's New York internship for Matt. Thank goodness! We've actually learned to cope quite well, but ALL of us miss him SO MUCH.

This weekend Karol showered Matt with kisses and hugs saying "I love you too Daddy!" and "Big kiss!" and "Big hug!" It was a tear-jerkingly adorable game to play. When Matt and I had to walk out the door to take him to the bus pick-up, Matt said "Bye-bye, Karol, Daddy's going back to New York," Karol backed away and tossed herself on the couch. "I think she knows what that means." Matt said. I think she does too. The good news is, that's the last time he'll have to say it. Next weekend we are visiting him in the Big Apple - family road trip! And the weekend after that we are meeting up in Indiana for Aunt Abby's big day!

Patrick is funny and always the upbeat, optimistic, happy-go-lucky baby boy. About a month ago, Patrick started saying dada (well it sounds like 'dar dar dar dar,' really) when Matt was home one weekend. He pretty much stopped saying it until Friday. On Fridays I start to make a big deal that "Daddy's coming home!" So when the phone rang and it was Matt, Pat started saying his 'dar dar dar dar!' He was ecstatic to get his fill of active play over the weekend; plenty of upside down, topsy turvy, nerve-racking for Mommy stuff. If you don't believe me, take a look at this video:

Sunday nights are the worst for me. Even though he's only here for two nights (one and a half, really) I get used to having Matt to talk to and fall asleep listening to ELR with. After Matt leaves and the children go to bed on Sunday, there's an erie quiet in the apartment. I find myself turning on televisions and doing chores to drown it out.