juliloquy

It's crazy, but it just might work

I signed up for NaBloPoMo, which requires me to post every day in November. I believe that means more posts in November than I've put up so far in 2009. I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes me.

Also crazy: we invited all of Shmoo's Pre-K classmates to his birthday party next weekend. Nineteen 4- and 5-year olds.

Shmoo wanted to be the Easter Bunny for Halloween (?!). Easy costume! I bought a second pair of bunny ears and tail for Roo, but she wouldn't wear them.

And Roo just woke up from her nap. More . . . tomorrow!

to bump "grueling and thankless and monotonous" down a notch

Shmoo, today, on observing a nearly-empty sippy cup:
"My juice is at low tide."

Unexpected things Roo has labeled "tyoot" (cute):
a worm
a cicada
a spider (well it was itsy bitsy)

week 11 or so

Hi there.

So, yeah, we're in Frederick. We are adjusting. Things are OK.

Diving right in. We miss Philly, but try not to dwell on it. One afternoon in June while Rooie was napping, Shmoo wanted to know how arrowheads were made, so I found some YouTube demonstrations. That led to a video about making fake arrowheads by those folks who use homemade foam swords and axes etc. to recreate battles, which led me to search for a video about Clark Park. I found this:

It has everything: trolleys, the drum circle, the dog park, the playground, the market, the Dickens statue, the niche sport gatherings, the trees . . . bookended by that iconic turtle. Shmoo and I watched with tears rolling down our cheeks. We clutched at each other and wailed.

Shmoo really misses his routine and his daycare friends. He has been acting out a lot, which reached its climax during our trip to Minnesota to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary (still a great trip and celebration). As I believe I mentioned earlier, I am not winning any awards for parenting skills. It's pretty pathetic how frequently Shmoo and I have locked horns. I'm 40, he's 4. I need to take steps back when it happens and see how ridiculous it is.

When I first told people we'd be moving for HPR's work and that I'd be home with the kids for a while, nearly everyone's reaction was "oh, how nice for you!" Honestly, I might have the same reaction if one of my friends had similar news. I don't want to be ungrateful, but nice it's not. It's grueling and thankless and monotonous. I love my kids, but don't need to be with them all day to appreciate them. (ala "How Can I Miss You if You Won't Go Away?") The upside is the great summer weather and activities that get us out of the house and out of each others' hair.

But truly, don't worry about me. I'm able to talk about this so candidly because I feel the worst is behind me. We enrolled Shmoo in a summer day camp at the city rec center and we just found out that he can be in the pre-K program at our public elementary school (only 2.5 hours each day, but something, and free). Roo has been just a delight, even as she nears age 2. (The tantrums seem so silly and mild compared with what Shmoo has been dealing me.)

I have already met some friends; kids are fantastic icebreakers. I am looking for work, although it's a challenge to find the time to search, much less apply and follow up leads.

Frederick is truly a great city, and the perfect place for us to be at this point in our lives. I have a feeling that 5-10 years down the line, I'll be sitting with my kids in the living room of some other house, watching videos of Frederick's Baker Park with tears streaming down our cheeks.

still no time for a proper post . . .

new digs, originally uploaded by juliloquy.

but my brother requested photos of our new environs, so head on over to my Flickr account to see.

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.