Today marks three months since the girls and I moved to Colorado. Considering that Adam's living arrangements were in flux, to say the least, at that point in time, we'll just say that our family has now lived here for three months. So, I thought I'd do a quick health assessment of our family and situation and report to you all.
Adam -- After a month of pounding the pavement (or rather, rolling on the pavement for about 300 - 500 miles a week), he procured a brewing job at the Yak & Yeti Restaurant and Brewery in Arvada. Adam has been working hard, brewing about once a week (or every other week), and learning all sorts of things about the brewpub business that he wouldn't have learned at a big brewery. (Knowledge for the future, maybe?) He's been a busy bee since early June and has been working hard for his paycheck. He recently brewed a wheat and is releasing "infusions" weekly... last week was strawberry and this week is cherry. You can follow his blog here.
Besides his jobby (job & hobby), Adam has been busy making contacts in the brewing world and in Denver in general. Nightly I get to hear about his daily experiences, the new people that he meets, and the friends he is making. Suffice to say, Adam has been adjusting to the new community very well and seems to be thriving.
Julia -- Be it a new classroom setting or her age, Julia is becoming more confident in her surroundings, but she is also becoming more defiant, and is quick to tell us when she gets her way. (Ack, why do kids learn to say "no" when you tell them to go to time out? Boo hiss.) While it's been a new learning experience with her and her attitude, other areas of her life are amazing and a blessing to watch blossom. She loves to sing and dance, and regularly she delights me with a new song that she's learned. Tonight I finally figured out what song "three dollars" comes from -- it's apparently from "Part of your World" from "The Little Mermaid". Coulda fooled me, and I need to pull up the lyrics to figure out what she's really trying to say there. Heh.
In the pool (since we have a free one at our apartment complex -- we go often!), she is becoming more confident and is willingly letting me teach her how to swim (it's not going great, but I can get her to try to swim out to me from a good four feet away or so... it involves a lot of pushing herself off the side or steps and then a lot of flailing while she sinks underneath the water until I pull her up, but she's always giggling and ready for more when I do. Some weeks back Daddy was able to get her to jump off the side and every since then, she's been a fool for the water.
We still have issues with the letters "L" and "R" (though when she tries hard, she can get them), she still has picky eating tendencies (payback for me as a kid, I guess), and Ariel is still The Bomb in our house. I would say though that Julia has been adjusting well to her new surroundings, and I only hope that continues to prove true as we move to a new house in a few weeks and the girls start a new daycare yet again a few weeks after that... *sigh*... change.
Raven -- She seems to be changing daily, and it's hard to capture anymore what her new words are (there are SO many) and how quickly she's becoming a small kid and not a baby anymore. Lately she's been saying 3 - 5 new words a day, and while she often drops the consonant at the beginning ("rock" is "ock" and "bug" is "ug"), she knows so much and is really showing that by saying new words. She is also becoming an Ariel fan and wants badly to have Ariel pajamas and swimsuit like her big sister, carries around her Ariel doll a bunch, and even says the world "Ariel" - I daresay, she says it almost better than Julia.
And, not to jinx it or otherwise make a big deal about it, but Raven has grown increasingly interested in the potty and began a potty chart at daycare today (again with the UGH regarding moving to a new house and new daycare... pending setbacks, I tell you what). She will sit on the potty whenever you mention it to her and often she will suggest it herself, and occasionally she'll even do something on it... awesome!
Raven is the love of daycare, and daily her papers come home with reports about how much they love Raven, how cuddly she is, how they wish they had a whole classroom of kids like her... heart breaking right now. Add to that, she was voted by the teachers (as told me by the owner) as having the Best Ponytail in School (Daddy wins the prize here, because daily she gets a whalespout and it does nothing but garner smiles). All of the teachers and aides know her name and she walks down the hall with a big smile and waving "hi" and "bye" to everyone. Too. Cute.
Raven is a little stinker at home like her big sister, though, and she also has become defiant when being asked to perform simple tasks. It is on her terms or no terms. It's hard to know who has the louder scream - J or R.
And, Raven LOVES the pool too... maybe a little too much. It has become increasingly difficult to take both kids to the pool by myself, as Raven's whole goal is seemingly to drown herself. At least, the way she flings herself off the stairs, flings herself off the side, flings herself off her parents... that one is going to be a waterbug.
Erin... that'd be me -- I am almost three months into my new position at Raytheon, and while somedays it feels old hat, there is a lot of work to be done on my part to really and truly be a human factors engineer -- if it ever happens. There has been some frustration as late on my part, and it's nothing I want to talk about here, but suffice to say that I am learning how to deal with my new surroundings and I hope that my transition smooths out sooner rather than later.
In the evenings I enjoy spending time with the girls and cooking dinner and readying things for the next day. While in my past few places we've lived I've been right there to go out and find something to do with myself to get out of the house occasionally, right now I can hardly be budged to go out and do something for myself, because it means that I won't be home and with my family. Although, I realize that I need something extracurricular that I can spend my time on that doesn't involve small child screams, dirty dishes, and a small apartment. Soon we'll have our new house and I have plans for things there and I'm guessing that'll keep me busy for a while... but Adam suggested today that it might be a good idea to find a group of people with whom I can form a common bond or friendship.
Otherwise, this last weekend I finally pulled out my desire to cook and bake that I've been squashing since moving here because of our lack of large kitchen, etc. It couldn't be contained any longer.
And, last night I finally dusted off my sewing machine and took in Adam's Munich shorts, and today I started a dress for Raven's 2-year pictures (I plan to make a few dresses; not sure which one I'll like best for her pictures).
House(s) -- Our house is still for sale in Pella, as many of you know, and it will be for one more month. At that point we'll pull it off the market and are planning to rent it, if we are able to make that happen. Thankfully Adam has a connection in Pella, and it sounds like we'll have a property manager who we can trust (this time around). And, as many know, the basement flooded at least twice in June, and so right now the basement is barren of carpet and we are having a professional waterproofing company come in and fixing the basement to prevent the flooding in the future.
We close on our house here next Tuesday, the 26th, and we take possession on the 29th. I am taking a day of PTO and will spend my day surrounded in beautiful paint -- I can't wait! Adam is driving back to Iowa late next week to be there when the movers come to move our household goods, and we should finally have the remainder of our possessions by August 5th.
It will be interesting to see where our family is and how we're doing in another three months. By then, I'll be 33, Raven will be 2, Julia will almost be 4, and we'll be well into fall. We're looking forward to seeing what is ahead of us in the near future as we continue our journey along this new path in our lives here in Colorado.
Hugs and love,
erin
