++Ugh++

Not sure where to start. A lot has transpired since the last post.
++We're in our new house. Yea! So far we're loving it.
++We lived for an entire week without internet or TV. To put it in perspective...I had no idea that Ted Kennedy had died. Now there is isolation. We're back, but with some renewed resolve to make sure that electronics take up less of our lives.
++This has been the hardest move yet as far as putting stuff away. This house is slightly smaller than the last house and we got spoiled. The garage sale pile grows daily.
++Wyatt acts like it's Christmas with every box we open. He is super thrilled to see his toys and stuff for his room but just as thrilled to find the vacuum cleaner parts, the spatulas and some old hangers. He then proceeds to deliver them all over the house. No wonder we never get anything done.
++The help squad (aka Pacyna grandparents) have already come and gone. I think we would have still been swimming in boxes had it not been for them.
++LOVING the neighborhood so far. You can't tell from the photos but our house is on a weird lot that is tucked back from the street. It would be easy to forget we are here. We've had cookies, brownies, wine and Starbucks delivered along with a couple of other introductions. So nice. We also met 3-year-old Cooper who lives two doors down and were invited by his mom to a neighborhood play date tomorrow.
++Wyatt starts preschool officially next week. This week is orientation. Since he got the potty training job done I was able to enroll him in regular 3-year-old preschool. I was really surprised that quite a few places still have openings and I was able to find a spot at a school a mile from our house (sadly I think it's a sign of the economy). Wyatt came along for the tour and was really excited about the blue fire pole at the playground that's "just my size!"
++The other one keeps plugging along. She'll get her own six month wrap-up soon. Here's a short preview: sitting up, tooth, cheerios and almost crawling. She refused the let the fact that we had a lot of other things going on get in the way of checking off the milestones.
++We're still getting acclimated to things but our first impressions confirm that this is going to be a pretty good place for this family to live. As Annie said "I think I'm gonna like it here!"

++Lessons Learned++

Today is our last day in the apartment. I'm working on packing things up and continually wondering "what was I thinking?" as I see all the things we never touched while we were here. In my defense, as I packed I didn't know if we would be here for one month or six. I had to plan for six. A few reflections:

++No matter how many or how few toys you have, your child(ren) will only play with about 10% of them.

++No matter how many or how few clothes you have, you will probably only wear about 10% of those too. (I'm stuck on this one because if I keep paring back my wardrobe...10% leaves me with doing laundry all the time. There has to be a happy medium).

++Even though you think that living in a small condo with no yard to care for and no house "projects" to complete means that you will be able to tackle all those other things that were lingering on your to-do list--it doesn't.

++Even though the grocery store is literally right next door, it really doesn't make grocery shopping any easier when you have two kids. My dreams of walking to the store were quickly dashed when the dilemma of how to carry everything entered into play.

Next time, I'll know better. Oh wait, there better not be a next time!

++Filling our days++

We've been here almost a month now. Getting by in our little apartment. My mom asked me if we had met anyone yet...the answer was "no." You would think it would bother me more than it does. I have these two busybodies to keep me on my toes:

It's surprising. I wouldn't even say we were bored. Mark was gone for three days last week and that got long. The evenings are what get to me. We went to Susan's house one night and that helped. We've been seeing them a lot on weekends which has been fun. Last Sunday we had our first of what we hope will be weekly family dinners.

The kids keep going and growing no matter what is happening in their life around them. We try to keep things normal. We adapt as necessary. Wyatt has had more TV than he should. We go to the park daily though...that offsets it, right?

We spent most of our free time here house hunting and once that was taken care of, we were able to spend our weekends having fun. Playing tourist in your own town, something we like to do, is going to be super fun here. I have to remind Mark to pace himself. Our first stop, the aquarium.

Here's Dad reading the comics to the kids.

We've been playing a lot of the balloon game in our tiny yard. It involves a Chuck E. Cheese baseball bat and a balloon. I am sure all the other condo dwellers love it. This time the game was indoors and required a hat and "glubs" in order to mimic the guys on TV.

The little one is totally on the move these days. The other day she ate the directions I had jotted down on a post-it note. I'm learning. I frequently find her stuck under the coffee table (it's up against the fireplace so we have more play space).
Here's my buddy enjoying a favorite of both of ours: grilled cheese and tomato soup. He even breaks up his crackers to put in his soup. I'm so excited to have a full kitchen back and to start eating like we should be.
Speaking of eating like we should be. Everything is different with kiddo #2, isn't it? Claire LOVED licking the salt off this pretzel. Notice that that hand is not mine. I was too busy photographing the event to stop it though. She also loves ice cream. Lovely.

We're getting by. What I miss most is the order and routine of our previous life. It will return again...soon! Wyatt tells us often "I want to go home" last night he told his dad that he really missed home. It breaks our heart. Better days are coming little guy, we promise!

++Big News!++

We sure haven't been lacking in that department lately, have we? Well, we've been working on something really important while living in our dungeon and we are proud to announce that Wyatt is potty trained! Excuse the photo...we had to get creative to get the photo.

They said no pets in this place but nowhere did I see anything about not allowing preschoolers with low bladder control to dance around in next to no clothes. I figured I'd rather have accidents in a rental place than in our new house on OUR furniture...is that so bad? We did a modified version of the 3-day method (you basically just stop putting diapers or pull-ups on and take what you get). We only have had about 3 or 4 accidents...not bad! I learned right away that pull-ups are a crutch. Wyatt knew when he had them on and even though he stayed dry all the time at home, he would go in them (and tell me as he was doing it) while we were away from home. I just had to go for it and hope for the best and started taking him out in underwear. We had an interesting evening at at restaurant (thank goodness it was super casual and outdoor), but other than that it has been great. We spend a lot of time in this place pants free. I worry he is getting used to that! Pooping...well that's another story. We have some fear issues in that area. We're working on it. For now he is requesting a diaper to take care of business. He is so going to kill me for this post when he is 16, isn't he?

The main motivation for all of this (besides keeping accidents out of our new house) is preschool. I really want to get him into some program (the poor kid is so starved for peer interaction) and most of them require potty trained kiddos. He is bright enough to run with the three-year-olds, I just didn't want diapers to stand in his way.

Finally, a conversation I had with Wyatt yesterday.
Mom: "What kind of party should we have for your birthday?"
W: "A firetruck party!"
Mom: "That's what we did last year. Let's try something new. How about a rocket ship party?"
W: "But where are we going to get a rocket ship from?"

++Let the countdown begin!++

I was too superstitious to post anything else about our new house earlier. It appears we are full steam ahead now. We officially no longer own the house in Memphis as of yesterday and our closing for our new house will be next Thursday. Exactly one month after we left Memphis. I said we were efficient, didn't I?
Here's a sneak peak of the new place. These were the professional photos from the listing.
Entry (sad that when you have kids you see a space like this and think about how much fun the kids will have on their little bikes...it will never look this pristine again!)

Living Room

Kitchen (in typical Pacyna fashion we have some ideas for changes we're going to make in this area.)
Family roomDining roomMaster bedroomMaster bathroom. I think this was the room that sealed the deal for me.

Girl's room (aka Claire's room)Boy's room (aka Wyatt's room...I'm really hoping he doesn't get attached to the paint color because it is not long for this world.)"Bonus room" or loft. Kind of a cool set-up as this ends up being a little wing for the kids that closes off with a door. Wyatt's favorite part of the house: the lockers with keys. He refers to it as the "key house". Thank goodness they are from Ikea because we may be buying a few of those when he is heartbroken to see they are gone when we move in!

They say when you walk into the house you should buy you will know it right away because it will just feel right. That was the case in our house in Minneapolis and totally the case here. The Memphis house worked but this house is US. We can't wait to call it home!

++Into the fifth month++

Or should I say sixth month? Claire turned five months old right after we arrived. Lots of chaos, and sadly, not a lot of time to reflect on milestones (believe me, I know as my birthday and our anniversary were largely forgotten).
She continues to be her happy self. She loves to just be on the floor exploring things. She prefers Wyatt's toys to her own. EVERYTHING goes in the mouth. And it takes next to nothing to get a smile. We introduced solids at five months as well. With Wyatt it was four months and one day. I waited longer with Claire mainly because I didn't need one more thing to worry about. We're having trouble remembering that if we are going to be gone for the dinner hour we need to bring food for her too as we should keep it consistent from day-to-day.

She likes the Exersaucer but would prefer to be on the floor. Note the varying clothing we have on these days. This has taken some adjusting to. In Memphis it's sleeveless from June-Oct. Here we were HOT and recently it's been cool. Good thing she has drawers full of clothes.

We aren't getting many great photos in this place. We're five steps down from the parking lot. I tried to take her out to the grass for a little photo op but I think it was too sunny for her to look at me...and she was more interested in the grass.
Last weekend she went to her first birthday party---cousin Cora turned one! Cora and Claire we're having some girl talk. Can't wait to see what the years ahead bring for those two! For the rest of the photos go here. Must be nice to have a sister who likes to take pictures...huh?
We're so excited to get Claire into our new house and back into her own room! While the month-long slumber party has been fun, we're regressing rather than progressing in the night wakings and I have no doubt it is due to the fact that smarty pants knows that mom is literally inches away.

++Home #2++

Wyatt: "See this sign? it says 'Do you want to buy this house?'" He is learning quickly all about this process.

This wasn't our first home. It wasn't our last. It was where we turned from a family of three into a family of four. It may be the biggest...and probably the cheapest (per square foot) house that we ever own. It was nice. It housed us well for eighteen months. It did a nice job spoiling us as well. Making it all the harder for us to search for home #3. We were the fifth owners of the ten-year-old house. Best wishes house on Napier Woods Drive. We'll miss you! You sure did look snazzy when we got you all dressed up for sale!

The dining room acting like a dining room, not a train table room:

A patio table serving as a makeshift kitchen table. Staging at its best:

The princess in her palace for the last time. The hardest part for me was having her leave her room.

Big giant running room. We will miss you too.

Our first offer came after the house was on the market for less than a week. It took a lot of back-and-forth but we came to terms. We're just glad to be moving on. I had nightmares of still owning this house in 2010.

++Our final days in Memphis++

I'm catching up on things. Now that it has cooled down (and that's no exaggeration, it's been in the low 70s this week) and I don't have to spend all my computer time looking at houses, it's back to blogging!
One of the hardest parts of leaving Memphis was having Wyatt leave his friends. When we left Minnesota he was oblivious to it all (it was his mother who was crying all the time). During our time in Memphis Wyatt grew from a baby into a little boy and developed actual friendships. Here he is with his best buddies.

Next door neighbor Alex and Wyatt plotting out the route from Memphis to Seattle.
And having one crazy wet rumpus in the backyard.

The Wyatt, Sydney, Olly crew took on the Memphis zoo (along with their parents---and Claire).

Olly came down for a final goodbye and to check out a can't miss boy event: shipping the cars.

We were hoping for a car carrier but got a flatbed truck instead. Wyatt and I were treated to the car carrier on this end TEN DAYS LATER (yes, the cars were missed).

I guess you can say we are officially homeless. The contents of our home are en route. Mark is in the air. The Memphis chapter of our lives is officially closed. We'll miss all of our friends. Not so sure we'll miss the city. Although I sure think I took my nice flat yard for granted...

++Bought and Sold++

I think that's the name of a show on HGTV. I honestly feel like my life is just one giant episode of HGTV lately. Although I haven't seen the show called "Family of four sweats it out in a dark basement condo" yet. It could be fascinating viewing! The good news is that I *think* it is all coming to an end and SOON! May I be the first to introduce you to our new digs:

Kind of looks like what you would expect for the pacific northwest, huh? It was a long search. I had some sleepless nights thinking that we may live in this condo forever. I wasn't prepared for the terrain here. We come from the plain states (read: flat yards). It seemed like every house was built on a hill where all I could imagine was Wyatt meeting certain death when his trike started heading down it. We knew it wouldn't be cheap to live here but I hadn't anticipated giving up about half of the things on our wish list. However, this one gave us some great things I hadn't put on the wish list but will be so nice to have. One of which is lots of light! A photographer's dream!

All of this is pending the inspection results. We're working quickly and hope to close on 8/21. That means that in just over a month we listed and sold our Memphis house and will be in a new home here. We said we were efficient! Mark is in Memphis and the house there will be packed up over the next two days. That chapter of our life is coming to an end. Can't wait to see what comes next. Secretly I'm hoping it is so boring that no one would want to read about it!

7 Wonderful Years!

I've hijacked Kate's blog this morning in order to wish her Happy Anniversary!

What an amazing seven years it has been. I enjoy reading her blog, especially the lists she comes up with. In fact, I probably account for most of the page views (at least as much as Taylor and Matt). So here's my attempt at The Seven Reasons I love Kate:

1. We have exactly the same tolerance for museums, travel, and pretty much everything else (except for my wanderlust and habit of trying to find "short cuts").
2. Her quick wit and sense of humor
3. She keeps me "level"
4. Willingness to take on a new adventure, i.e. 7 addresses in seven years and counting (had she known this going in, I'm pretty sure I would not be writing this note)
5. Extreme competence in everything she does. Note to Wyatt and Claire: Don't even try to get anything past her.
6. Our beautiful family...I see a little of Kate in Wyatt & Claire each day. I look forward to walking in the door each night more than anything (I think Kate does as well, but for other reasons)
7. There's no one else I'd rather share the next 60+ years with!

Happy Anniversary!

Love always,

Mark