Thursday, June 26, 2008

Swimming with the floaties



CJ is loving the pool in our apartment complex. The lifeguards have become quite taken with CJ, giving her "VIP status," and she has made fast friends with a three-year-old boy in our building. They go swimming every afternoon together, and even do a little drag racing on occasion.



The exciting news is that we put a bid down on a house that we liked. One of the sellers was an architect who did such a great job redesigning the kitchen that we overlooked the wall-to-wall carpeting in the basement. Our offer was too low and we lost the house, unfortunately, but it was good to get our feet wet in the real estate market down here. We're all determined not to let the next house get away.

But it's not all bad. If we had bought the house, we would have had to move out and lose access to the pool before the summer was done...

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Photo ops and non photo ops


Nice holiday, father's day. There's always a good excuse for a photo-op.

In the non-photo-op category, we've been shopping for cars lately and had the perfect test drive. Our car, you see, flunked the Maryland inspection and we've been exploring whether to buy a new car instead of fixing the old one.

Yesterday we made it over to the Mini dealership in Annapolis to test drive their "clubman," a station wagon of sorts that gets respectable gas mileage. Meg in particular has been wanting a Mini ever since BMW reintroduced the brand a few years back. But leaving the apartment yesterday was a bit chaotic, and Meg ended up leaving her license at home. Much to her chagrin Meg spent the test drive in the back seat.

But that calamity was nothing; ten minutes into the test drive CJ threw up! It was only the third time she threw up that we know of. The first time was a few hours before we met, when the orphanage drove her to meet us. The second time was two months ago, five minutes from our old home. The third time, yesterday, was a bit more complicated. But we're happy to report that the mini clubman is big enough to be able to clean up a mess without bumping your head. Actually, CJ was kind enough to keep the mess confined to her and her car seat, much to the salesman's relief.

CJ is fine today, as you can see from the photo above. Maybe she was just test driving herself...

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Catching up and moving in

My apologies for not writing for so long. As we learned firsthand, an interstate move is quite the learning experience. And starting a new job can also be quite intensive.

First things first -- everybody's doing well, the new place is great, the new job is fine. Lots of nice people abound. The only truly negative part of the past month was when I tried to get phone service (Verizon is such a horrible company). But we're getting phone service when our cable and internet gets hooked up, hopefully this Wednesday, so we'll be more in touch and posting more entries.

Before we left, we had a great going away party at An Beal Bocht, the local Irish pub in Riverdale (highly recommended). Family, friends, and a few of CJ's playground buddies came over to give us a proper send us off. Here's CJ with Emma having a good frolic.



The moving company packed most of our stuff -- CJ did most of the supervising. When she wasn't reliving Halloween, that is.



Under CJ's watchful eye, the movers packed everything with the greatest of care.



Our old apartment was loaded onto the truck on a Friday, and our stuff was delivered to the new apartment on the following Monday. In between, we spent the weekend with Uncle Frank, Aunt Susan, and cousins Jay and Grace. Here's Jay leading everyone through some impromptu martial arts exercises.



Jay is quite the skateboard fiend these days.



While I was busy wrapping up loose ends at the old place, everyone else went out to Long Island to celebrate cousin Bobby's graduation. Here's a gaggle of cousins posing for the camera.



We drove down to Maryland on Sunday with Nai Nai, and stayed at a bed a nearby bed and breakfast. At the B&B, the innkeeper looked after her granddaughter in the mornings, and CJ happily pitched in.



On Monday morning, we went to our new home when our stuff was delivered. Here's CJ and Nai Nai, supervising as the movers unload the truck.



CJ really likes the new apartment, although she was a little lost among the boxes at first.



But now we're mostly unpacked, and celebrating Mommy's birthday today.