Year: 2015

Two weeks down in our new house and there is so much that has made me happy so far! In no particular order:

1) The neighborhood. We have gone for some good walks and met so many families! There is a good number of them who are several years ahead of us but Ashton already has a new friend in Caleb who is 5. It’s also fun to watch Ashton marvel at the bigger boys playing basketball – there are a LOT of hoops set up on the sidewalks and the kids just shoot from the street! There is zero traffic and it’s awesome. There’s also a beautiful pond you can walk down to and toss rocks into the water.

I wish there was a nature trail around it but for now, kerplunking the stones works fine.

2) The Hannah Williams playground. Technically, you have to drive to it and technically, it’s in Wayland, But I am very much a “leave the house as much as possible” mom and this is the best destination I’ve found so far. The boys and I spent our entire morning there this past Sunday. The sandbox area had one of those diggers where kids can pull the handles to make it scoop – Ashton didn’t get off that thing except when I made him because others were waiting for a turn.

Ashton is a great climber and can do the monkey bars and big structures all on his own and I don’t even worry about him anymore! What??

This park had all the cozy coupes and push toys for Alex as well and in general was just a great spot! They both took 3 hour naps that afternoon.

3) My commute. I officially have my route(s) down – it depends whether or not I have Ashton with me, but when I don’t, I can make it from my front door to my desk in 30 minutes. And the roads are beautiful right now. I avoid all the major highways because the traffic lines are red a lot of the time. So I take the back roads through Weston and Wayland from the lower left hand corner to the upper right hand corner (sorry for the small map, I guess you can’t really see anything):

It looks far, but there are really no big stops and the roads look like this right now:

So it’s beautiful and I’m happy.

4) Bargain finds!! This house needs furniture in a bad way. The boys have outgrown their gliders, we have more space, and the general filling-up process has begun. As it turns out, there is a place called ReStore in Dedham. There’s a lot of these in fact – they are like thrift stores for furniture, appliances, etc. As it happens, Jen’s boyfriend Mike has an uncle and his uncle works there. Occasionally, there is an “inside scoop” to be had. For example, if a movie is being shot in Boston, the furniture used on the sets might be donated to ReStore after filming. They get factory seconds, estate sale stuff, cabinets from kitchen renovations…it’s generally a mish mash and you never know what you will find.

Enter relevance. Mike told me that Wayfair (the home decor site) was having a big clearance sale in downtown Boston on Friday night, October 2. Wayfair had told ReStore that anything that didn’t go, ReStore was welcome to come get when the event was over. Boy do I wish I had been at ReStore on Saturday morning, October 3, when they opened. Apparently they had SO much gorgeous brand new furniture (and we are talking steep, steep discounts because whatever they make goes to Habitat for Humanity). Alas, we showed up at 11 am or so and a lot was sold. BUT, I spied these chairs:

They are big oversized comfy armchairs and I LOVED them. I bought two for $150 each!! And put one in each boy’s room for their new reading chairs. They are huge and I am obsessed. Naturally I got right on Wayfair to rate my find and similar chairs by this designer are in the $700’s. Yessssss.

I also scored a really sweet Land of Nod bookcase for Alex’s room on Craigslist for $20. I love Craigslist.

5) THIS.

THIS is my new vacuum. It’s cordless. And does a 360 spin. It’s lightweight. And FUCHSIA.

You won’t watch this, but it’s the Dyson V6 Motorhead Plus Cordless Vacuum product video. No more sweeping, no more vacuuming on my knees. I zip around with this, take corners by storm, go under stools, over the rug, and I’m done. It’s, say it with me, AH-mazing. Gosh, you know what, if you have hardwood floors, just get one. You will thank yourself.

6) My weekend starting tomorrow. Jason and I are heading to Long Island for one of his best friend’s weddings. We will be gone two nights. Without the boys. Poppy and Mema are staying at our house for a night and then Jen and Mike are staying for a night and we will be home on Sunday. To say I’m excited is an understatement. I’ve been away from Ashton for a handful of nights in his past 4.2 years, but never Alex, and certainly never three days where we are out of town! I am so looking forward to the wedding, my sparkly dress, the mini-break with my husband, all of it. I can’t wait.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for the past week. We did get some bedroom furniture delivered today – due to the master closet in Watertown, we never needed any! I have a new bed picked out as well but for now our mattress and box spring are just sitting on the floor until I order it. After that, window treatments and then I should be able to do my first Craft Road before and after post. Happy things!! 🙂

Well I can sum up our weekend in three words: “packing and moving”. In a previous post I did note that we have a big 16 foot pod that will be picked up on Wednesday, but Jason (and Uncle Berg) have taken several trips over the house in advance with bins, boxes, etc. We were granted access to the house on September 20^th, and it has been beyond amazing to get a head start with moving everything. Ashton of course has been right there in the mix.

My sweetie pie Alexander has hit another age-related milestone…18 months! It’s hard to even describe this little character. I can tell you he’s incredibly determined and strong, so if he doesn’t want to do something, that’s pretty much that. This kid can whine with the best of them too. For long, long periods. And I’ve never seen anyone shake their head with quite as much vigor. The harder he shakes it, the bigger his NO. Words are a pretty big issue. He’s been seeing Fran with Early Intervention for about 6 weeks now, but of course, we’re moving, so I need to get him transferred to the Natick Criterion group. Sometimes I swear he has phrases: all done, I did it, I want down, etc. but you’d have to be either me, Jason or Jen to decipher them. We’re really working on pronouncing actual sounds instead of just babbling. It IS cute that he sticks his tongue out and pants when he sees a dog, but I think we should set our sights a bit higher 😉

Alex has two moods: happy and really not happy. He’s either toddling around laughing and smiling or crying and whining. There’s honestly very little in between. Here are his stats after his pediatrician appointment this morning:

Height: 34 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 28.14 pounds (90th percentile)
Head: 19 inches (75th percentile)
Shots: Just the flu shot
Diapers: Size 5
Clothes: Some 18-24 or 24 months, but they are getting tight. I’ve broken into the 2T bin for him.
Teeth: He’s consistently had four on the top, four on the bottom, and all his first molars, but now there are definitely teeth coming in to fill the gaps and he is CRANKY.
Hair and eyes: still blond and blue. I think I will stop including this category because there are never any changes. But while we are on hair, here’s a behind-the-scenes at the salon Alex goes to.

Loves to: use me as a segway. He’ll lift his arms to be picked up, and then once comfortably on my hip, leans forward in the direction he’d like me to walk in. It’s almost like he wants to get back down, but no. He leans and waits for me to move. Also loves to ride in his blue car, go down the big slide all by himself, and give kisses and hugs.

Naps: he’s down to 1 long one – hooray! Which means mornings can actually be used for something. It’s a struggle to get him past lunch and he is not above trying to fall asleep in his highchair. He’s a great sleeper generally, up around 7:15 am, naps from 2-2.5 hours in the afternoon, bed by 7:30 pm and usually he doesn’t make any peeps about going down or in the middle of the night.

Favorite toy: anything Ashton has. Also chalk.

Foods: Just like his brother, basically carbs and fruit. He’s more of a dipper than Ashton was, so I can get him to eat cucumbers with ranch or chicken with some BBQ sauce for dunking, but basically things aren’t pretty. I don’t get it! I try to offer different things but I get so sick of scooping uneaten food off the floor that most days I say forget it.

Alex has gone international: His passport arrived this week, complete with this mug shot:

We’re going to Aruba in November so he has to be legit.

Up next for my favorite 18 month old: getting a new room and deciding on a Halloween costume. I also signed him up for a home daycare for just Mondays starting after we move, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to pull the trigger and send him.

Overall, Alex is very aware that he choices now and loves to exert control over anything he can. He wants to do a lot of things himself, like brush his teeth (his top front row is VERY clean), hold an open cup (disaster every time) and put his shoes on (he can’t). He tries so hard to keep up with his older brother and gets frustrated when I don’t let him do the same things as Ashton. But he definitely has his own adventures. Here are some of my recent favorite pictures. Happy 18 months Alexander Michael!

Two weeks until move day. I’m happy to report, the dining room is just about all packed up. I realized last night as I tucked the last of the wine glasses in their boxes that I never did get around to posting the updates we did in there. And now it’s gone forever. [Twinge of regret/moment of silence.]

Anyway, our move out process, as far as I’m concerned, has three phases. I’ve completed Phase I: Sell anything worth selling. Back at Trapelo Road, we had a yard sale and raked in over $700 for stuff we have never even missed. But physical, location-based yard sales are sooo over. Most of the towns in my area have online Facebook groups that serve the same purpose. I am a member of the Belmont, Waltham and Watertown sites and here is how it works.

Take a picture of your item and post it, noting the condition, price, and any other relevant details. Then wait for people to comment! I’ll say, it’s been very interesting to see what sells. And when you have something that is a good price, the comments pop up almost immediately. Here’s an example of what it looks like:

Jason would not even consider letting me hire movers because the ones I picked last time were the slowest, scrimpiest guys you’ve ever seen. So we have this big pod, and actually are allowed to start moving stuff on the 20th, so between random trips over there and the pod going on the 30th, we’ll make it. We have to.

But gosh, things have been such a mess. I just think it’s so funny. We patted ourselves on the back when we sold Trapelo Road, knowing we were getting out *just* in time for the massive roadway reconstruction that had been approved. I thought, we are going to move to this house on this little quiet side street and it’s going to be nice and peaceful. Little did we know. Oh, just how little did we know.

Last year they ripped up the entire road to replace the gas main. THEN, they knocked down the house across the street in January and it is STILL not finished. For the last nine months we have looked at construction vehicles of varying sizes and shapes out our front window building a massive front-back two-family house.

Fun fact: the little bungalow on the right side of those pictures? We just found out that’s being knocked down too (by the same contractor) and a similar structure will be going up.

As if the dirt and noise from this project wasn’t enough, last month they started in with the water main replacement.

A lot of the time our street is blocked off. I picked up Ashton from school last week and we had to park around the corner and walk up.

Notice the phone pole on the right hand side. That’s been a “temporary fix” for like a year. It’s all just a huge mess with the vibrating, the drilling, the beeping, the pounding, etc. We are told that next year the entire road is going to be repaved and new sidewalks and granite curbs put in. It will be gleaming and brand new but fortunately/unfortunately, we will not be around to enjoy it.

My mantra for the next few weeks is “embrace the chaos”. The house will be a mess and the street will be a mess and that’s just how it is. In the end, it’s all for the better. And one of the great things about being forced to go through your stuff is finding things you forgot you had. Like a massage gift certificate. Like maybe it would be a good time to use that, if I could figure out when to go. Until then…

As I watch Ashton and Alex grow, I honestly do try and live in the moment, cherishing their ages and knowing that I will someday look back on all the messy chaos with a fondness for days gone by. Their little happy faces, Alex’s chubby legs and electric blond hair. These are my babies.

They will never be any smaller than they are at this minute. It’s enough to bring tears to my eyes.

I have already had a taste of the nostalgia: there are several bins in the basement that house teeny tiny clothes that the boys wore about a hundred years ago. Teeny tiny clothes that will not be worn by any more babies of mine. Officially.

It’s been a crazy month for us on many levels. Our buyers got the clear to close and we signed the P&S on our new house. We have a big day coming on September 30, which means it’s time to start getting ready to go. In preparation for packing, I have been in complete clear out mode for the past couple of weeks. I look at a particular item and ask myself, “Do we need it? Have we used it? Will we ever use it again?” If the answer is no to any of these questions, it’s gone and therefore we don’t have to move it. I am a member of several Facebook buy/sell groups and I can’t believe how much I have sold! And…a lot of the stuff is…baby stuff (sniffle). This move has really forced me to answer that “Will we ever use it again?” question when it comes to this category of belongings. I am confident now that the answer is no – Ashton and Alex are it for us (insert a dizzily happy face and also a sobbing mess face). So, the toys, swings, jumpers, swaddle blankets and anything having to do with babies? All gone to new homes. I even sold my breastpump and all the bottles and spare parts.

While our move is the impetus for this blog post, I have been thinking for a long time now that I am done having babies and for many reasons.

1. We are blessed with two healthy boys. What if we had a third and weren’t so lucky? I don’t worry about having enough love for another baby, no matter what the case, but I’m afraid of the immense challenges and heartache it could bring. I am much more scared of this than I was when we had Ashton and Alex, I’m not sure why. Perhaps because I feel like asking for another perfect baby would be tempting the fates.
2. We’d be outnumbered. I know, I know. Kids are little for a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but I barely manage with two. I cannot see past trying to get three kids to the grocery store, or to the beach, or to bed every night for that matter!
3. In the same vein, even though it’s only for the first year, it’s 365 straight days of breastfeeding, pumping, and exhaustion from all the middle-of-the-night wakeups. But that’s 365 days AFTER you’ve been pregnant for 266! Been there, done that. Twice. “Body for one, please.”
4. There’s enough people in this world already.
5. What if it’s a girl? I’d need ALL new stuff. What if it’s a boy? Because, three boys! It’s a no win situation that’s what.

So, no more babies. I’m excited to look ahead now. The days where our schedules are not ruled by naptime(s), tantrums, diapers, sleep-training, messy highchairs, baby-proofing etc. are much closer than if we were planning to start all over again for a third time.

The boys and I meander around the neighborhood and down to the playground every day. They walk beside me, one to my left and one to my right, and I have a hand for each. My two little peas, my perfect number.

Today Ashton starts in the 4 year old class at his preschool! While it’s certainly another milestone, it’s not as big a deal as last year when it was his first day of school, like, ever. At this point, it is looking like he will have another year after this in transitional kindergarten – he is an August birthday and we are almost positive we’ll hold him back. But, where that school will be, who knows. We have a lot of transitions coming up with our move at the end of the month. My thoughts right now are that, come October, he’ll go down to three full days at Belmont Nursery School and will commute in with me (Bentley is only about a mile from BNS). I just don’t have time to tour new schools in Natick/Weston/Wayland at the moment. Anyway that is the end of this very brief post 🙂

Just a little house update for everyone. I can’t remember where we left off with the sale of our house, but we’ve had the inspection and appraisal done and things are moving forward. Our close date is (fast!) approaching and Jason and I have been all over the place with the question of “where are we going to go next?” We have had a pretty wide search area that was basically all of Boston’s metrowest: Belmont, Lexington, or Newton ideally, but extended to include Weston, Wayland, Needham, Wellesley and Natick. Sundays have been spent at open houses and we even checked out the Watertown Mews in case we couldn’t find a new home. Spending the winter in a luxury apartment with no shoveling and a free indoor gym with free yoga didn’t sound too bad to me.

My main sticking point with moving has been facing the loss of my current commute. It is 2.1 miles, I drop Ashton off at preschool on the way, I then get to pick him up at 12, bring him home and have lunch, see Alex etc. When I leave work at 4:30 pm, I am home by 4:40. This aspect of my life as a mom has been one of the single greatest things. Plus our nanny Jen lives two streets away and she has single-handedly kept me sane by always being there when I need her, even if it’s for 30 minutes.

So you can understand that every time Jason wanted to go see a house in Natick (where he was convinced our next home would be), I would trudge along, arms crossed and remind him, “But I’m not moving to Natick.”

Yes, Natick has great schools. Yes, and tons of shopping. Yes, it is super family friendly. Yes, there is Memorial Beach and Lake Cochituate and farms and everyone who lives there loves it. But it’s, like, far! That monstrous fact, plus that there were no houses that even remotely spoke to me, meant I was simply not moving there. In my heart I truly thought we would be renting, because there isn’t really a lot on the market right now in any of the towns we had targeted (unless our budget was a million dollars, which it wasn’t).

Until. UNTIL…last Thursday, another house in Natick came on the market. In typical fashion, I sighed and agreed to go see it. But I wasn’t moving there!

Well, we went on Friday and let me say, despite it’s geographic location, this was our home. There was simply no question about it. It has almost everything I could ever list in “wants” for a house. We had an offer in on Saturday and by that night, it was accepted. September 30 close date for both our current house and our new one. That won’t be stressful at all! (Ha.) Before that though, we still have a lot to get through: inspection, appraisal, P&S, finalizing Edenfield Ave, etc. Things are always busy around here! But I feel really good about this decision. The house is in a great neighborhood, the boys can ride their bikes in the street, it’s perfect for trick-or-treating, and the bus stop is a 5 minute walk (they will go to Bennett-Hemenway, or Ben-Hem, 1 of 5 elementary schools in Natick). Our neighborhood is the second to last stop on the route. Ashton has two more years of preschool but the thought of him on a school bus is enough to turn me into a puddle of tears. Pushing that out of my mind right this instant.

I don’t know what I am going to do about Ashton’s preschool situation. He could technically stay where he is and drive with me a few days a week (his preschool is a mile from Bentley). Or I could find him a new one, along with a new pediatrician, new dentists, new grocery store, new everything. There are a lot of things to be figured out. Luckily, Jen is not one of them; she said she will make the trip and stay with us.

So that leaves just one more thing: my commute. The way I look at it is, this house is worth another 20 minutes of driving to get to. Sometimes I actually wish my drive to Bentley were longer so I could call my mom, finish a radio program, or just relax in the quiet time of being in between home and work. This house will give me that so for now, I’m staying positive about it.

Inspection is Friday. Crossing my fingers it all goes well and if it does, our hearts are going where the home is: Natick MA. Can’t believe it. Stay tuned!

This a true account of my evening yesterday. Before we get started, please note that I am replacing the word “poop” with the word “dirt” throughout what follows. So if I use the word “dirt”, I really mean “poop”, although if you are a pet owner or a parent you are likely immune to it anyway.

I think I mentioned awhile ago I started running again. I’ve been in a pretty regular routine for the past couple of months and I usually get home from work, change, and go out for a few miles before meeting the boys at the playground around 5:15 pm. Jen leaves and we stay and play until 6 pm when we head home for dinner.

So there we were next to the slide around 5:30 pm and I realize Ashton’s shorts are not only wet but his underwear is filled with dirt. Like, a lot of it. We’ll call this Mess #1. He is often guilty of being too busy playing to notice he has to go to the bathroom but this was ridiculous. Luckily I had spare underwear and wipes, so after asking another parent to watch Alex, we camped out behind a tree so I could clean up all the dirt. So. gross. I threw it all away, bye bye underwear. But I was mad too – Ashton knows better than to have accidents like that and lately he seems to have some potty-training regression going on. It gets worse.

We got home at 6:05 pm for dinner. The boys played for about ten minutes while I put their meal together. I plucked Alex away from the toys, washed his hands and dropped him in his highchair. I went back in to get Ashton and he was cowering in the corner. Guess what. MORE dirt in his underwear!! GRRRRR!! Time out while I clean Ashton up AGAIN and throw the dirty underwear into the basement for scrubbing later. Mess #2.

I made Alex an egg, and he had some chicken and fruit along with Ashton. I steamed some fresh cauliflower and melted cheese on it, thinking maybe I could get each boy to take one bite before they threw it in one direction or another. Alex did precisely that with one big swipe across his tray. To show extra dissatisfaction, he then spiked his milk cup on the floor, which popped open and spilled. Mess #3. Now, Ashton had been asking me incessantly about going to get ice cream after dinner so I bribed him with one bite. You know what is exhausting? Constantly trying to make a deal at dinnertime. “If you eat a carrot, I’ll give you a cookie.” “If you eat a carrot, I won’t wash your hair tonight.” And then further negotiations start – he’ll eat a sliver of that carrot, but only after I’ve cut it with the red knife, on his plate, while singing a song that I have to repeat twice and then twirl. Honestly, I’m so sick of it that I’ve stopped trying. I follow Ellyn Satters’ Division of Responsibility in Feeding and it’s been quite freeing. But last night I made him take a bite of the cauliflower in order to get ice cream and he just sat and cried. So there I was, all the dishes from dinner piled up in the sink with a sticky toddler and sobbing preschooler. We’ll call the general scene Mess #4.

6:50 pm – 7:15 pm. The ice cream store. Nothing bad happened until I took Alex out of his carseat when we got back home. I was corraling Ashton up the stairs into the house with Alex on my hip and announced it was bathtime. As I was opening the door, Alex bit me on the shoulder. HARD. I actually almost started to cry! What a mean little devil!

The next hour passed as it usually does – tons of bathwater on the floor (Mess #5), pajamas, stories and the wrestling matches that result whenever I get out their toothbrushes. Alex went to sleep and Ashton and I headed back downstairs. I started to clean up the kitchen while Ashton played and then after awhile he came running in: “I have dirt in my pants”. WHAT?! I checked and yep, soiled pants for the third time in as many hours. At this point I was, I’m not proud to say, livid. We marched upstairs, I changed him into new ones and he said “But these are wet.” I said, “No, they are not, I just pulled them out of your dresser! TIME FOR BED!”

I gave him his requested number of hugs and kisses and turned off the lights. Good night.

Three minutes later I heard his door pop open. His nightlight/clock was missing. It is always on the his bookshelf but nope, gone. I searched the entire upstairs and finally asked Ashton if he knew where it was. He told me he threw it into the big hole. What? The big hole ended up being the back of his closet. I fished it out, plugged it in, and turned around to see it: the puddle of pee on the floor. Alex roams diaper-free just before bathtime and he must have been the culprit. And I must have skimmed Ashton’s pajama pants in it without realizing, hence his claim that they were wet. Mess #6.

All was finally quiet, I went downstairs and Jason had just gotten home. I started to cry. I’ve had a bad cold so I didn’t feel good, was exhausted, sick of cleaning dirt out of Ashton’s underwear and in general, the two boys had beat me that night.

I said, “Well, I’ll be down in the basement scrubbing you-know-what…” and moved towards the door.

I have a real live actual KID. A kid who is about to start his second year of preschool, a kid who has boundless energy and enthusiam, a kid who is FOUR. He is growing pickles (really cucumbers) in the garden, his teeth get stinky if he doesn’t brush them, and if the answer to a question ever grants him permission to do something, he says “Yesssssssss.” I could propose any activity, any activity at all, and Ashton would jump up and down and say “Yeah! Let’s DO it!” Generally he is the most positive little person I know, except when he doesn’t get the snack he was expecting. Then he cries an absurd amount and it can be a little trying.

We had his 4 year pediatrician appointment last week and here are his stats:

Height: 43.25 inches. That’s 3.6 feet tall!
Weight: 43 pounds
Hair: blond and very straw-like. Crewcut by Jason.
Eyes: blue
Lucky underwear: the white ones with the airplanes
Shoe size: 10.5W
Clothes size: 5T (I swear I will really cry when his clothes no longer have a T after the number)
Shots: 2. Can’t remember exactly which ones, I think one was a MMR booster
Reward for the shots: Vanilla fro-yo with gummy bears
Favorite food: Anything resembling a complex carbohydrate
Preferred toy: Cars, cars, and more cars
Naps: 1 (Still! Shhh don’t jinx it)
Heading to preschool with the 4 year old class: Sept 2, 5 days a week until 12

Anyway with so much going on in life, the vacation on BI, the house stuff (update to come on that shortly), I did not put together anything remotely resembling a fancy party. There was no theme, no cake, and the day of, JASON was the one who asked me if I had favors for the kids. Uh, I didn’t. And when you throw a kid’s birthday party, all the kids are so into presents that they sure as heck better go home with something. I did a lot of errands on Saturday morning.

I had originally invited 7 of Ashton’s friends and only 4 ended up coming. But it turns out, when you add the siblings and parents that come with those 4 kids, it’s a lot! We had the perfect number and perfect weather. Add in a bounce house and a BBQ = perfect party 🙂

 Thanks to Holden, Emerson, Adrian and Jackson for helping us celebrate!