My parents were able to come up for the move, and even my brother and sister-in-law came into town for the long weekend. The kids were especially appreciative. (Danny had to work that week so it was just me and my parents pulling that weight.) Sometimes you just need a good pillow-fight to work out the tension that comes with trying to evade over-worked grown-ups, and Tio Gio is always game. By the end of the week, our bed was built, the kitchen boxes were unpacked, and we had soap and towels-- the basics were in place. When my parents left, we dove into our first week of homeschooling. No internet, no computer, no TV, no friends, no church, no car... Things were a little rough. But eventually Danny was able to begin setting up the electronics, buying a car, buying a TV, and things continue to fall into place.
When we were looking for a place to live, we were concerned about commute, square footage, bright interiors, and to avoid carpeting. When we found this interior row-house unit with carpeting on every floor but the first, an hour from DC, at the top of our price range, I was worried that we were compromising too many things. But this place has turned out to be a dream come true. The house has an incredible kitchen...how did I not notice it before? Vast counter spaces, a gas range, and all new appliances! We don't lose any square footage to the garage because it's detached (I hadn't thought about that perk) and best of all, the community here is incredibly friendly and lively! Our immediate neighbors are quiet, middle aged people who think my kids are cute. They might be the only people on the block without kids. We are a block away from an elementary school (how did I miss that?!) and there are kids everywhere. All the townhomes on our street are connected by an alleyway that, from the time school gets out till the early evening is full of kids on bikes, on scooters, drawing with sidewalk chalk, and playing tag while the parents hang out. The school's track and field are open to the community and they are packed every evening and on Saturdays. Families everywhere. It's a beautiful thing.
Tovi wants you to pay particular attention to his missing tooth in this photo. (It's his first).
The school's proximity in particular, has been an unexpected blessing. For a few weeks, frustrated with my slowing metabolism and the damage done by eating Cheesecake Factory for a month and getting almost no mobility in our hotel rooms, I decided I was going to start running again. I laced up my running shoes and hit the school running track, patting myself on the back for huffing and puffing through a whole mile. The kids, meanwhile, played on the adjacent playground. After a week or two, I timed myself and found that I was running the mile in eight minutes! There was no way that was right! Apparently, four laps was not a mile. I gave it another go at six laps but after three days of that I decided that it's too hard, I'm too old, and really I just hate running. My tendons hurt, I probably won't be able to keep it up when we go overseas, or when the temperature dips below 70... And after all that effort, my jeans are still too tight? I'll just go back to doing standing tree poses while I brush my teeth.
The kids are taking everything in stride. Gigi has a little stuffed dog she calls Poochie that she carries around in a small Poochie-sized tote. During a brief moment while I was out of sight yesterday, Gigi removed Poochie from her tote, snuck into the pantry, and filled the tote with all the candy and snacks she could find. As I passed her walking nonchalantly up the stairs, I was struck with that instinct that mothers have- the instinct that this child of mine was up to no good. The theft was thwarted. But I am not always so lucky. A few hours after the snack smuggling incident, I came across one of my favorite family photos, defaced! She has a new secret nickname: the criminal element. But that's not really fair, is it? She certainly didn't mean to break my nose when she head-butted me in the face last week. And she could never understand the impact it would have on her slightly obsessive-compulsive mother when she dumped all her seasonally-organized clothes into one pile in the middle of her closet, or when she gathered all the sets of flashcards to make one glorious flashcard-snow storm in the master bedroom.
Gigi certainly feels at home. Noemie has had a harder time. When we first moved in, Noemie tried to make friends with a neighbor but the other girl just walked off, probably feeling shy herself. (It didn't help that Noemie was practically hiding behind me.) With her new glasses, Noemie had decided she wanted to play the part of the shy wallflower. Then she assumed that the reason she had no friends was because her glasses made people think she was weird. Then two wonderful things coincided- one, we had a long conversation explaining that she was acting weird and choosing to be shy, and two- some outgoing, bubbly girls saw Noemie playing outside that afternoon and drew her into the gang of girls that runs around the block. This evening they sat on the front porch playing Monopoly while I made dinner.
And with church and friends now also off the checklist, the rest of us are catching up too. South Florida will always be home, but north Virginia may not be so bad after all!
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