juliloquy

the move, settling in; the recap

So. We are here. It has been just under 2 weeks, and some of that time was spent back in Philly for cleaning/closing. We still have quite a bit of clutter at the new place, but we are imposing some order on it. My hair is two shades lighter and my skin two shades darker from all the playground hours I've logged. We call playgrounds "Whee"s, christened by Roo. Once she is resigned to leave the playground after a session, she calls out "byebye, Whee." 

Shmoo has had more time outs than I can count, from attempting, often successfully, to inflict bodily harm on his sister, but it seems to be waning. Roo slept for shit our first week here (and also had a fever for a couple of days), but that seems to be improving, too. I have not won any awards for my parenting techniques lately, but I think we are figuring things out a bit.

We are trying to figure out some routines. HPR's days off are Tues-Wed. We have declared Mondays to be lake days. (Rooie's language explosion included the new word "tadpole" this week.) The awesome library has story time Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Saturday is the Farmers' Market. Am trying to meet other parents but also don't want to come off as the desperate newbie hitting on all the moms at story time.

I wrote several paragraphs about the move, but the details seem so tedious. I'll see if I can get back to it later to try to make it more interesting. Our new house was built in 1964. It is on a cul-de-sac, which I believe is French for "obsession with lawn maintenance." It has a carport. It has no basement, which bothered me at first, but after I spent 5 hours dragging crap out of our Philly basement and sweeping out the whole thing, I have warmed up to the basementless existence. The carport has a small storage unit, which I think we will find sufficient. It will be a good exercise in constantly paring things down rather than just stowing them away.

I haven't really focused on the job hunt as it seems we've been doing triage on the to-do list for the last 2 months. Something part time or freelance would be best, I think, at this point.

Well, time to get some sleep, otherwise I'll be Angry Mommy again tomorrow . . .

Phrederick

We are in Maryland, intact. There is so much to write, but no time. Chaotic as expected. We think we will really like it here.

If I thought we would keep a low profile until we settled in a bit, I was mistaken. Already a friend of a neighbor has said to me: "I've seen you pushing that double stroller past my mom's house on Center Street!" In just a week's time I have the reputation of being that woman who walks everywhere with her two youngins. Oh and then there's this article about HPR from the local paper. (I connected with the journalist via Twitter when we were considering moving to Thurmont rather than Frederick. She saw potential for a fish-out-of-water story.)

Must get sleep. Wish I could keep up here and with all of you . . .

goodbye cobblestone road

HPR has taken his handsome ponytail rangering skills to another park, originally uploaded by juliloquy.

HPR is on day 2 of his new job. We've only been able to communicate a little because he doesn't get much cell phone coverage in the woods. Apparently there is something called "nature" there. Will have to investigate.

pie charts are worth 1000 words

Our house is on the market now. It was quite the push to get it there. It's still not perfect, but it's presentable. We looked for houses in the new place and HPR is going again tomorrow to see some more. Whirlwind!

Do you like pie charts? Well, here ya go (thanks to citydata.com). This is the race breakdown of where we currently live:

Here is the breakdown for the town nearest HPR's new park, where we looked for houses this past Friday:

And here is one for the larger town where we're shifting our housing search:

Hoo boy.

Oh - I just noticed that I could do one for the city proper, not just the cuters historic district zip code. Here it is:

guess HPR will have to rename his blog

HPR has accepted a job here, so we will be moving to Maryland probably sometime in May. We are excited about the move, but sad to leave our Philly community. I told my boss today that May 8 will be my last day, although I want to help in the transition as much as possible and can probably devote some time to my employer after that date, too. I am about as weepy as they come, so I was a mess as I shared the news. Wish I could have kept it together a bit better. I have worked here six years with two consecutive outstanding bosses. I'm not sure what sort/level of work I will do after the move; might wait on that until the dust settles at our new place.

We have asked Shmoo what he'd think of living in a new house and he responded with an unreserved YES! He even started packing up his train set on Saturday. Yesterday as we were driving home from Quaker Meeting, we had the following conversation:

Shmoo: Are we moving now?
Me: No, not for a long time. We have to sell our house, pack up all our stuff, get a moving truck . . .
Shmoo: So, after quiet time?

I'm sure that two days after we've moved, he'll ask when we're going back to our house in Philadelphia. He will not be happy about leaving his school.

We're going to look for houses on Friday - we haven't even been to the area! (The park interviewed HPR by phone.) It turns out they are not going to pay for our move, so we have a lot of work ahead. I keep reminding myself that at least it's not moving to New Orleans with a 1-month-old Roo. That helps me keep it in perspective a bit.

Roo, of course, is oblivious to the news. She is too busy pretending to tuck in "beebee" strawberries beneath dish cloths, holding her finger to her mouth and saying "shhhhh." At age 18 months, she has become a complete mother hen.

So wish us luck in the next 6+ weeks! And visit us in Maryland! (Really.)

nerdy laugh

nerdy laugh
Originally uploaded by juliloquy

Sick days aren't all whiny clingyness. OK, well yesterday was. But she's clearly on the mend today.

hey look, it's my parents!

I am realizing that my work busy time is Jan-May each year, so I will probably be here less and less. But I found this cute page that my dad wrote and had to share it. My mom did one, too. My parents' 50th anniversary is this summer, awwww. I found the page by Googling Shmoo's real name.

I've also dipped my toe into that twitter thing.

xoxo J

PS: Yes, my dad was one of the guys in The Proclaimers.

Dear _Ms. Roo_

We are writing to you to confirm receipt of your proposal _3 a.m.READ BOOKS PARTY!PARTY!_. We regret to inform you that we are unable to fulfill your request at this time. While intriguing, the project does not meet our current needs. Please feel free to contact us again. We may have such an opening at a later time, perhaps 7 or 7:30.

All best wishes,

The Management

a story

My Peace Corps training was held over 11 weeks during the summer of 2000. The 65-odd trainees* all lived with host families in a town in western Bulgaria named Dupnitsa.** The Jerman River*** flows through Dupnitsa and I would cross it every morning on my way to our training classes.

Bulgaria, to my knowledge, does not have anti-littering laws, and although it is not a "disposable society" to the extent of the United States, you will find trash strewn about any open space in Bulgaria.**** The Jerman River was always choked with trash, most of it plastic bottles.

We idealist and energetic Peace Corps trainees took note and decided to do a big river cleanup. About 20 of us, along with some host-sisters and -brothers, worked hard throughout one clear Saturday morning. When we finished, the 3-block section of the river was completely void of trash. It was lovely.

As we sat back, weary yet satisfied from our efforts, a friend said "Crap, we forgot to take a 'before' picture."

Without missing a beat, another volunteer quipped "Just wait a week or two. Then we can take the 'before' shot." And verily it came to pass.

This is now the story of the state of my house. Although replace "a week or two" with "an hour or two."

The End.

*Some odder than others, oh-ho-ho.
**Dupnitsa means "little hole" in Bulgarian. Fitting name. But I have no complaints about my training or host family experiences. Oh! I see the letter I wrote back in 2001 is still part of the Welcome Book [unattributed, pages 89-90 of this pdf. But I just noticed that they took out part of the last sentence on page 89. It was supposed to read ""If you’re a teacher, be prepared to wrestle with tough educational issues: how to teach to multilevel classes, what to do about students without textbooks, and whether to teach the 'smell like a monkey' version of the Happy Birthday song."]
***I totally had to look up the river's name. 
****Bulgaria could stand to run the Indian crying commercial.

kid vignettes

We went to the Museum of Art on Friday, our first visit there since Rooie started walking. Gone are the days when we could buy a drink and listen to the jazz performance from the stairs in the great hall. The best part was when we got to the ramp near the gift shop (which has always been a favorite spot for da Shmoo). Roo started to walk up, then paused and you could just see "mind=blown" in her face. Descending was also very amusing, when fat little legs could no longer keep up with the body's inertia. There was much "uh-oh"-ing and dusting off of the chubby hands.
_____

This morning.
Shmoo [looking all around]: Where's the trash can in [Roo's] room?
Me [nursing Roo, therefore unable to gesture]: It's between the changing table and the crib.
Shmoo locates it and discards his used wipe.
Me: Shmoo, that was good listening.
Shmoo: Yep, my ears are up.

_____

Roo has begun using a version of "May I please" when she wants something. It comes out a bit like "bay'p-EEZ" in a whimpering, panicked tone, accompanied by leaning toward the desired object and fingers waving. HPR pointed out that all the work we've done to try to instill manners in da Shmoo are paying back now that the second child is imitating the first. For once, one facet of parenting is easy.

_____

Shmoo has been pretty exact in language from the start. It seems to be part of his personality. So his flubs are that much more amusing to us. Some recent examples are "I'm be-carefulling" and "I'm make-suring there are no ghostes." He also mixes up "braid" and "shave." Out of the blue yesterday, Shmoo said "[female relative] has whiskers. She has to braid them."