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 Love About My Kids

I love...

1. that Patrick is quick to say 'please,' 'thank you,' 'sorry,' and the like.
2. that Karol is becoming as obsessed about following schedules as I am. I hope that sticks.
3. Max's general constant cuteness. He's totally aware of it, and uses it to it's fullest potential.
4. that they don't often make me feel compelled to beat the poo out of them (not that I would, of course).
5. that Patrick loves to bake. We've discovered lots of new things to eat already and he only just turned 3.
6. that they are all amazingly smart. Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since they have genius parents, obviously.
7. that I miss K & P when they are gone at school. If I didn't I think I'd worry about that.
8. that people stop us all the time to say how cute/well-behaved our kids are.
9. Karol's funny dancing.
10. Patrick's love of singing.
11. Patrick's amazing ability to put together gazillion-piece puzzles.
12. the way Max says "OVER!!!" whenever pretty much anything is over.
13. how Max jabbers into the phone pretending to talk.
14. how they can sometimes play together nicely for as much as 30 minutes without a push, scream or debate.
15. how Max dances whenever music is playing.
16. that Karol is old and smart enough to carry on a very intelligent conversation, but still young enough to believe pretty much everything I say.
17. that Karol and Patrick will still cuddle with me.
18. that for the most part my kids aren't that picky about food.
19. that they command Matt to stay at the front door after work everyday so that they can all run down our skinny hallway to throw themselves at him together in one giant hug.
20. that they jump up and yell "Mommy!" with big smiles on their faces every single time I pick them up from school.

Where does the time go?

Oh. My. God. My third child is nearly one year old. Karol is on the verge of turning four. Four. Can someone tell me where the time went please?

The Princess's New Clothes

It's that time of year again - the winter/summer closet clean out.

I'm in the midst of this project now, and have made some disturbing discoveries, such as:

• None of my clothes from any season really fit (thanks a lot, Max). I have no intention of buying anything new, either, since I'm still not back to post-Patrick/pre-Maximilian shape, which is my goal. Therefore, I may not be leaving the house much.
• Karol has no summer clothes. Literally. She has one dress that 'works' for now from the fall. Since Karol turned 3 in September and she's pretty svelte anyway, she wore 2T clothes all last year. So we need to do a shopping spree for summer gear for K like NOW as it's 80 degrees and rising! We're skipping 3T altogether and going to 4T. Hopefully some of it will still fit next summer.
• Patrick has more clothes than anyone else in the house. I'm not sure how this happened. I think it's partially due to my constant anxiety that Karol, being the girl, naturally has why more clothes (although in reality that's not the case). Thanks to Pat's poochy belly, he's been in 3T since last summer, and it still fits perfectly fine - yay!
• Max will never, ever need new clothes, and soon Pat & Max's clothes will be interchangeable. He's already into 18m and he's only 10 months old!
• I may as well put a permanent line for Matt's shoes in the budget, because he goes through them like water and they are frickin' expensive! I hate, hate, hate shoe shopping for/with Matt. It's impossible to get something he likes or that fits without him there.

So, I just wanted to share these wonderful new developments. Now I'll go back to boxing sweaters.

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!

Missing the Baby Gear

I'm getting way too attached to the kid's baby gear.

It's not that I'm afraid I'll miss it. I'm afraid the kids will. Do they really have an attachment to these things? Or am I projecting that on them? Being too attached to 'stuff' is the opposite of what I want to instill in them, but I don't want to inadvertently rip something away from them that they feel emotional about, either. With the move coming up, a lot of things are going to change.

It's really getting hard for me to come to terms with giving up our lovely apartment, but only because of the convenience it affords. I know I'll be fine emotionally. But are the kids going to miss it? I remember growing up in two houses - and the second one was my grandparents' house before we moved there, so it was already 'home' to me. I can't imagine what it would be like to up and move to a whole new city.

On the other hand, Karol and Patrick are still very young - Karol's not even 3 yet. Will she even remember? I have no idea. And who knows how much we'll end up switching apartments in NYC, as the family (and hopefully the income) grows.

So why am I feeling this way today? Well, it doesn't help that it's a gloomy, crappy day overall, but I'm thinking about selling our double stroller. It's a monster of a stroller, and has served us very well. But now I'm looking to trade it for something smaller and more maneuverable for the city. And with Patrick walking really well already, we probably won't need a stroller for every trip in New York. Plus I don't really like the idea of having them locked up and lazing in a stroller for extended periods of time while I wheel their butts around. So I want something light-weight, easy to fold and easy to get around on skinny sidewalks.

But that means I'll need to sell ol' reliable. It's been like a second home for all the lovely long walks we take in Arlington...but am I the only person who's really getting sentimental about it?

We might go stroller test-driving at Buy Buy Baby this afternoon after work (I'll probably actually buy it used) to see what brand/model works best. I figure I'll be wearing Max for the first 6 months or so. I'm looking at the Jeep Wranglerthe Combi Twin Sportand the City Minibut who am I kidding? Should I just skip straight to the Triple Threat?

My Son's Amazing Motor Skills

So for a little distraction/treat, we went out to eat tonight at the Cheesecake Factory. Since I didn't think to bring sippy cups, the kids got milk in cups with lids. Karol rocked the cup with a straw, but Patrick practically poured it down his shirt. It's hard to mentally switch from sippy cup - where you tilt the cup up - to straw - where you keep the cup down.

So Matt asked the waiter for a small glass or plastic glass, like a shot glass. You see, Patrick has pretty much mastered drinking from a cup - taught Montessori style. Check it out:

Yes, I was totally paranoid he would drop the glass and break it. But I think he does this very well. In fact, he's better at it than Karol is right now, I think because 1) we started teaching him the skill at the right time, when he was mentally prepared to learn it, and 2) he's generally a rock star at gross and fine motor skills.

When it comes to climbing, using a spoon and fork, etc. he's doing the same things as Karol. Since Patrick apparently didn't get the super-cautious gene that Karol did, he usually is doing more running, jumping and climbing than Princess Karol is.

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.

Taking A Trip Without The Kids

So I'm leaving my entire family for the first time. I'll be flying home to Indiana to pick up my TA-50 (loads of Army gear that was issued to me years ago) and returning it to my old unit in Darien, IL, just south of Chicago. I leave tomorrow afternoon, and come back Monday afternoon, if all goes well, and I'm already stressed out about being so far away.

It's not that I don't trust Matt to take care of the kids for a couple of days, but that I'm going to miss them like CRAZY. Hopefully this time will pass quickly, and I won't lose my mind in the process. Maybe I can even take a book or something for the plane ride, wouldn't that be something? I can't remember the last time I read a book for fun. Maybe I can spend some time writing for my other ("professional") blogs. Who knows...

The up-side is that this will be a great opportunity to hopefully see some people I haven't seen in a while and hang out with my family. Maybe I'll even get to see my niece and nephew a little bit!

I'll let you know how it all turns out, I guess.