Leaving Boston in our Dust

Mia has already made the post about it but I feel like I should say something too.

We are moving to Austin, TX at the end of next month (I'm sneaking this post in on the last day of May). It's going to be quite the change but we are ready for a change. Boston has been good for us, and we would like to stay, but purchasing a house is next on our "major life decisions" list and we can't check it off while here.

As many of you know, I was looking for jobs down in North Carolina. It looked like a good place, especially the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill triangle area we were focused on. Unfortunately, not that many of the places I applied got back to me. And once I'd done a deep search on the job boards, I kept finding the same positions over and over as I tried news ways of searching.
So, it just didn't seem like the right market for me to head into.

With Austin, I've actually got some professional contacts in the area, as well as some personal friends. And, of course, my Mom's family down in San Antonio. That will make the transition much easier for us and is another reason we are excited about going down that way.
Austin also has a number to tech start-ups and small companies which is the kind of environment that I think I want/need to take the next steps in my career. Marketing is undergoing some significant changes and I want the freedom to keep-up with them. Going to a large company with an entrenched bureaucracy would make that more difficult.

If we haven't mentioned before (though I'm sure we have) we are outgoing our current apartment. It's been 5 months since Edward was born and the place keeps feeling smaller every day. Soon, we will be crushed by the closing in walls, we will be like the skeletons at Pompeii, frozen in the midst of our daily lives.

Ok, that may be a little exaggerated. But we are excited. We'll keep you posted on developments.

Different Kids

The intervening 3 years have dimmed many memories of Ethan's habits as an infant, but one remains clear: His need to be held while falling asleep.

Enter Edward. I've heard stories about how different your children's personalities are, and how you'll see that they're different right from infancy. But honestly, most of the eating, sleeping and pooping as been the same. Until now.

Now that Edward is weaned, he's actually been getting enough to eat. This has made a big difference in his attitude and routine. It's also started to show in his sleeping pattern. We've been putting Edward to bed in his Moses basket and longing for the day to get him into the crib. But he used to wake up too much in the evenings, require too much holding, and occasionally he would just scream for an hour or two. The difference that we are noticing now, is that he doesn't want to be held when he's tired.

Let me say that again, he doesn't want to be held while falling asleep. We put him down in his crib (while Ethan is out with Grandpa Gibson) and put a blanket over him where he can grab it and snuggle it. Even if he's still awake, he just lays there quietly and drifts off.

Mia and I are not fighting it. If that's how Edward wants to express his unique personality, we are not going to fight it.

Missing Ethan

Ethan is out in Albany for the long weekend. While it's a nice relief for Mia and I, apparently it was a bit of a concern for Ethan.

When he and I were talking about it yesterday he got a very sad look on his face and asked me "Daddy, will you miss me?" And to Mia he said "Momma will you miss me when I'm gone?"

This was a bit of a surprise to us because normally he asks it the other way when I go to work. "Daddy, will you miss us when you go to work?" And I always tell him yes I will. And I mostly do ;)

But this time, we could both answer honestly that we will miss Ethan while he's gone. In fact, when I got home from work today I was a little sad that no one ran shouting to meet me at the door.

We have the cutest kids in the world (sorry, everyone else) and I wouldn't give them up for anything. Though I might loan them out for a weekend (and miss them).

Mother's Day Gift

I know that Mother's Day was last Sunday and I've been meaning to write this post since then but I've been busy job searching. Fortunately (?) Edward woke up at 5:30 this morning so I've got some time now.

This year I decided to give Mia something special for Mother's Day. Don't get me wrong, I still got her the Godiva chocolate she asked for, and Ethan helped me pick out some roses, but those were just trappings. The real gift was spending the weekend (while Mia worked) weaning Edward.

Weaning is something we've talked about for a few weeks now because Edward has been eating every 1.5 hours (if not more often) and wasn't able to fall asleep without nursing. We knew he wasn't getting enough to eat, which accounted for the frequency, and assumed that being hungry was also a factor in his incredibly short naps and constant wake-ups at night.

One of the hardest parts of weaning is taking the attitude that your child will take a bottle when he gets hungry enough. The time before that happens can be quite miserable. Especially if he screams when you try to give him the bottle. On the bright side, using sleep as a defense mechanism against eating from a bottle does provide some relief.

But, I stuck to my plan, and even when Mia was home we kept pushing the bottle. At 2AM he wouldn't be comforted back to sleep by nursing but by getting a bottle from Dad. Finally by Monday, we had him doing pretty well with taking a bottle and he was starting to drink more at each feeding. This was a key part of the change so we were glad that it materialized according to plan.

This morning, as I write this post, I'm tired but got a solid night of sleep. Uninterrupted sleep. It's like Nirvana. So while I am still groggy, at least I'm not frustrated.

And it looks like he's just about done with his playmate. He might be getting sleepy again himself. That would be nice.

Best. Purchase. Ever.

Mia just bought the best thing in the world from Ikea this week.

A clock.

Yep, a clock. A simple, digital clock with big red numbers. But, it's not really the clock that is so fantastic. It's the alarm.

While, I really just wanted an alarm, this one has the feature of allowing you to record your own voice as the alarm.

But, it gets better! Ethan had been coming into our room at about 6-6:30 every morning and it was just a little too early for me. So, when we got the clock, we told him that he had to stay in his room until 7:00AM when he heard his alarm.

AND IT WORKED! On the first day, he didn't come in until 7AM. Needless to say, it's the little things that make us happy these days.