Moving Day

Today was moving day. After a week of packing and sorting and chaos, the movers came at 8:30 this morning. Man, the professionals work fast. They had the house empty by 12:30 and drove all of our stuff off down the street. In the end we got all of it packed up, but I'm pretty sure that we're going to have a few surprises when we unpack.... like the colander in Erin's dresser drawer.

It's been bittersweet to pack up and move out. We're excited about all of the new stuff coming for us in Seattle and it is really nice to have moving day over, but it's hard to leave the house we've been living in for almost 10 years. It's also hard to leave and know that Erin will have few memories of living there and Nora will have no memories of being there.

It's also been an exhausting week. We've been lucky to have had lots of help from Gramma Beth, Grandma Jan and Grandpa Dean. We could not have done this without them. They've allowed me to sit on the couch nursing and snuggling with Nora and directing the activity. Matt caught me and Nora expressing our feeling about moving the other day...

We celebrated our last morning living in the house by giving both girls baths. Erin enjoyed hers a lot more than Nora did, but Nora now smells a lot sweeter and her hair is even a few shades lighter than we'd thought now that it's clean. Who knew.


We also have a few pictures of the house that we'll be renting in Seattle. We signed all the paperwork on Wednesday and are thrilled to actually have things settled for our housing out there.

The long awaited post

Baby Nora Elizabeth is here! She was born May 16 at 11:45pm. She weighed 8lbs and was 20 inches long. Labor and delivery went very smoothly (although it was NOT easy as Matt likes to tell people).


Erin met her new sister early the next morning and has been thrilled with her sister ever since. All of our activities are now interrupted by Erin asking "can I give the baby a hug?" Erin is doing a little bit more testing limits, but is otherwise handling all of this wonderfully and we are very proud of her.


Nora is a great baby so far. The first few nights were a little tiring with Nora up from 11pm until 3am, but she has now settled into a great routine (ok, for the last 3 nights) where she is only up once or twice overnight and otherwise sleeping great at night. She seems to be a pretty mellow baby so far who is content most of the time if she's held or nursed. Matt also likes to say that she is a champion pooper. We'd forgotten just how much one little girl can poop. Despite the chaos in the house, we've found a few spare moments to marvel at how beautiful she is and how much we adore her already.


Grandma Beth took the train to Minneapolis and arrived here last Thursday to help out. Thank goodness she did, because in addition to Nora's arrival, we are also moving this Friday! We finally found renters who will move in June 1 and so our stuff is all leaving the house on May 27. It shouldn't surprise me, but it is taking a lot of work to move out of a house that we've been in for almost 10 years. We'll be living with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Dean for a few weeks before we make the big trek across country to settle in Seattle.


The move has required endless phone calls and arranging and Matt has taken care of almost everything. This has saved me from making the ever dreaded phone calls, but has also freed me up to focus on Nora and trying to get some rest. Today has been a special day because we think that we FINALLY have secured a place to live in Seattle. It's been a long time coming and has not been without many ups and downs, but we're really excited about our new house. It's a charming 3 bedroom bungalow in a quiet neighborhood just west of Green Lake. The timing of Nora's arrival has prevented us from flying out to look for ourselves, but we were lucky enough to have some friends in Seattle who did video tours of several houses for us to help us check out some properties. Thank you Michelle and Scott!


We'll try to post more stuff as the days go by. I'm sure that after June 1, things will be settling down a lot and we can actually spend a lot more time doting on our beautiful new baby.

Calm Before the Storm

This is going to be a monster blog post! We've finally got a minute to look back on a busy March and April. Looming on the horizon are some big changes for our family-- a baby girl due in about a month followed by a cross-country move to Seattle in June. While Fran and I work on stomach ulcers, Erin has been blissfully happy and healthy as she nears her 3rd birthday.

Fran and I grabbed an opportunity for a quick getaway to the north shore last week. Erin had a couple spend-the-nights with her grandparents. We stayed in a really nice cabin right on the lake near Two Harbors. Sleeping as much as we wanted, getting in some pleasure reading, and going for walks were nice, but didn't hold a candle to the food (and desserts!). We ate like kings.



Fran took some pictures of a roaring Gooseberry Falls (with rainbow) while I went for a run in the park. It rained on our first day up there, but was sunny and warm thereafter. Below is the view from Split Rock Lighthouse.



Before we forget the real reason our friends and family visit this blog, here are a bunch of photos of what Erin's been up to as she gets closer to becoming a big sister (she just informed us that "I'm going to teach baby to jump off the couch", hmmm...).

The smile in the picture below came soon after we discovered my stash of medals from old races as we began packing up the house. The entire collection was shiny, irresistible, and weighed about 7 pounds! We affectionately call these new accessories her "bling".



Erin's picked up a few quirky mannerisms recently. One happens to be always asking what to expect (in the negative sense) based on the current topic of conversation. This leads to many awkward questions such as "Daddy, where is not downtown?" and the tricky double negative "Mommy, what will not happen if I'm not a good listener?" The other new mannerism must have been picked up at daycare, and goes with the pose shown below. She'll spin to look at you with her fingers out and whisper "Spiderman!" We're pretty sure she has no idea who Spiderman is, which makes it even more funny.




We've enjoyed a few warm spring days before it snowed again last night. Erin has a liking for colorful spring dresses with bright pants, as below. Fran thinks that the older she gets she looks more and more like me, but I've noticed that her goofy smiles (above) remind me of pictures of Fran as a kid.



I reached the big 3-3 earlier this month and we celebrated with dinner at grandma and grandpas. Erin looked forward to this party for awhile and actually led my family in singing Happy Birthday (she also blew out the candles). Fran made a delicious carrot cake (by request) that Erin and I both enjoyed.






This was the morning of "silly hair day" at Erin's school.



Erin amazes us with how quickly she picks up new skills. We've moved way beyond letters, numbers, and song lyrics. Erin loves going to the library so Fran extended the offer that Erin can get her own library card when she can write both her first and last name on it. By the looks of it, she's halfway there!




I've had some weekends off lately. Erin and I get a kick out of our waffle or chocolate chip cookie making adventures while sporting matching aprons.

Last but not least, Fran has been on a roll lately! She got offered the first peds job she applied for in Seattle. She'll start work as a pediatric hospitalist with a couple UW-affiliated hospitals in September. This first job as a board-certified pediatrician (in an unfamiliar community) is both a source of pride and stress for Frances. I know she'll do great, we're very proud of her. Fran has about 5 weeks until the due date and has been feeling ready to be done being pregnant. She looks fantastic and we're both excited at the prospect of a new baby around, but at the same time wary of all we have left to do before the big move.

Erin and Grandpa's Recital

Erin has definitely hit an inquisitive phase lately. As soon as she wakes up in the morning, we hear "Why?" and "What happens if...?" and this continues unabated until bedtime. A couple weeks ago her attention focused on the trombone kept in the closet at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Couple funny things about this video: 1) Erin "plays" the trombone by shouting into it, and 2) Grandpa throws caution to the wind and launches into an original interpretation of "When the Saints Go Marching In". Safe to say, the trombone went back in the closet.

Arriving in May...

Erin will have a baby sister this spring! Fran is now over halfway there and doing great. We had a formal ultrasound this week confirming that it's a girl. Here are some fun video clips from a couple weeks ago (we had a couple extra minutes and a spare ultrasound machine at work). The first one shows her foot, the second is her hand, and finally her profile.

Happy New Year!

We had a great time over the holidays, and now it's time to get caught up on the blog. Fran and Erin took a trip to Portland in mid-December to spend time with family. You know we're getting old when Fran and her friends are outnumbered by kids in the picture above! Erin had fun playing with her nieces and nephews and still talks about it. Their return flight was the same day as our pre-holiday blizzard, so after an extra night at Grandma Beth's house they were lucky to make it home the next day.



Here's Erin hamming it up with her friend Anna. It will be nice for her to be closer to Portland for the next several years, and be able to make weekend trips down to visit.



After returning home, Erin got a second chance to enjoy all the Christmas preparations. She was really into decorating the tree. Much like Beth's house in Portland, our ornaments ended up in clumps around the bottom 2 feet of the tree requiring parental redistribution after she had gone to bed.



Here's the finished product, and Erin all dressed up to go out for Christmas eve at Jim & Lucia's house.



Grandma Jan and mom found a fun activity for Erin's event calendar, an afternoon at a local park with holiday activities. Her interaction with this Santa appeared "tolerant" at best! There were puppets, crafts, marshmallow-toasting, and best of all horse-drawn sleigh rides.

This was the first year Fran set up the event calendar (called 'December calendar') for Erin, where she gets to take off a tag each day that leads her to a small present/treat/activity. Grandma Jan did the same thing for me for years, and it's fun to see the needlepoint calendar now hanging on our wall. In fact, I remember Fran's anticipation all December 1999(?) when she would open a little package every afternoon down at Grinnell. Thanks, Grandma!




Grandma and Grandpa got Erin this pink hat earlier this winter and she loves it. I'm also a fan, but Fran remains lukewarm. Here's Erin and Grandma on a very cold sleigh ride thru the park.



This is our living room after Erin went to bed on Christmas Eve. The stockings were hung with care... and Erin got an easel and indoor trampoline from Santa. Dad got to eat the cookies she left for Santa, but the carrots for his reindeer went back in the fridge.



The next morning was a blast! Duncan was envious.



We spent a very relaxing Christmas Day at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We made a snow house in one of the big drifts in the backyard that included a snow chair and snow bed. Erin also did a nice job on snowshoes when we went on a walk on the lake that evening. Our next project is to get her on some ice skates this winter, before we move to the pacific NW. Erin will definitely miss time at G&G's house. Each morning we hear "is Grandpa going to pick me up from school today?" and on the days she hears 'yes' we immediately get "and can I have a sleepover?"




Last weekend we took a trip to a local pool. Erin took some swimming lessons with me earlier this winter and enjoyed it. She accidentally dunked her head underwater for the first time right after we took this picture. She was surprised but handled it well.

On the homefront, we're making progress again on the bathroom remodel (yes, still showering down in our 55 degree basement) and I've begun to help get the basement cleaned out in preparation to put our house on the market in a couple months. With it now being 2011, our move west is certainly seeming more real. It's going to be a busy spring.

So it begins!

This morning Erin was thrilled to wake up to big wet snowflakes! It's still coming down steadily at our house now. Erin had dragged her snowboots out of the closet even before breakfast. Even Fran's blueberry muffins could not keep her inside for long.

Our first attempt at a snowman was in the backyard, but didn't realize Oscar and Duncan missed their calling as officers in the K9 unit (Duncan bit off the "arms", and Oscar took out the torso with his front legs while chewing on the head). Erin laughed. We moved to the peace and quiet of the front yard to collaborate on the masterpiece above.

Fran always groans, but I really like the first snow of the year. Wait until Seattle, she'll miss the start of Minnesota winter (maybe?).



Before going outside, Erin and I talked about snow angels. This is her interpretation!



We had a really nice Halloween this year. I happened to be on a consult service at the hospital with weekends off. We took advantage by heading to the western edge of town to go pumpkin picking a few weeks ago. Erin seemed excited in the car, but was lukewarm when we starting picking out great big pumpkins to carve. When we asked, she quietly said "I want a smaller one". She started to smile when we came across the one below, but...



She spotted an even smaller one nearby and that was that! Here she is reassuring mom that, yes, you can actually carve a pumpkin that small.
She carried this tiny pumpkin by the stem all the way to the barn where you weigh them and pay. Not surprisingly, she got to take it home for free.



Grandpa and Grandma came over the evening before the big day to help us carve them.




Erin told us several weeks back that she wanted to be Spiderman, but seemed puzzled when we asked her who Spiderman actually was. Pretty sure she heard about that one at daycare. Her second choice was a pumpkin. Fran found a pattern online, went to the fabric store, and spent a couple evenings making Erin this great jack-o-lantern costume complete with stem and leaf hat. As you can see below, she promptly rejected the final product and ended up with some facepaint and ears as a cat.



I think this last picture is funny. One of the dogs favorite afternoon activities is to find a sunny patch of rug and take a nap. After her own nap, Erin came out and decided to be a human blanket for Oscar. He didn't seem to mind.



Erin's becoming more interested in potty training, and has graduated to sitting on a booster seat thing that fits on the real toilet when she wants to "try". I was in the bathroom a few days ago (with the door closed) emptying my bladder, when I hear little footsteps outside. She flings open the door and a split second later has a completely dumbstruck look on her face. She looks up at me and says "Daddy! WHAT is coming out of your BODY?!" I didn't know what to say...