Summah!

And so we begin our last week of summer, in our new house. The summer feels like a blur since we found out we were moving about two weeks after school let out. Seven weeks into our new house and it still doesn't feel like home; I'm trying to figure out what the magic thing is for that? Pictures on the walls? Maybe I'll work on that this week. We are blissing out in the suburbs; last night I said to Pete, I'll be right back, I've got to walk to the neighbor's tree for some lemons to make salad dressing. We've also been taking walks after dinner where the kids ride scooters or scoot-toys. Espen wakes up every morning and says, Mommy walk? He loves loves loves his walks.

In the meanwhile...

Lucia has been up at a camp the past three weeks with her best friend Eddie where she learns a little science, then goes on hikes to the beach every day. She is LOVING it.

Espen has been unhappy at his new daycare, and while it's OK, it's not great, so we are moving him to a Montessori school near our house in October. It's adorable and he can stay there until he starts kindergarten. We're beginning introducing him to the potty, which is pretty cute. 

School starts next week! I'm trying not to lose my mind with the to-do list and nerves over meeting new parents, will we fit in, etc. Lucia will be doing Girl Scouts, and I sincerely hope the troop is not as snotty as the one we tried joining last fall. I've got my first meeting with moms only tomorrow night. Say a prayer they're nice. :) We meet her teacher on Thursday and see her classroom, then go to a new parents orientation Wednesday night, then a picnic Saturday night for the whole school. There are only 200 families in the whole school, so we are super excited to get to know people and hope it's what everyone says it is: a close-knit community. Below Lucia is modeling her new uniform. Why she wanted to wear a cardigan in this heat is beyond me, but I was so happy she wasn't crying about her uniform. 

Pete has hacked our window AC units so we are not melting in the heat wave. Northern California doesn't get very hot, but when it reached 100 yesterday it was pretty uncomfortable. The kids room was around 70 degrees though. Woohooo! Major shout-out and props to him for it.

Happenins.

Here's some recent pics of the kiddos and us. 

Medication

We'll be relieved when Espen is in remission and off prednisone, as it causes weight gain. Behold the tummy.

Big changes

Lucia begged us to get bangs, and so I relented. I watched several YouTube tutorials in preparation, then got out my scissors and took a deep breath. She loves them and was thrilled with how they looked. She looks older but I'm ok with that. :) 

Famous

We knew Annie's shot of Esperdoodle as a wee lad was pretty cute, but we were really excited to see it on the TinyPrints website. Awww! So hilarious to see him with different names. Isabella! AS IF!

Where'd 2014 go?

It blows me away that the end of the year is already here. Pete and I talked about all the things that have happened in the last year, good and bad, and if we'd do the bad ones over again, or if what we learned from them. It's been a tremendous year of growth for all of us, in so many ways.

The kids were home all last week for Thanksgiving break and we ended it on a bang, with head lice. Sad trombone. I was super breezy about it, then I realized (after talking with Mary) just how extensive the treatment is, and then I wasn't so breezy anymore. Lucia's hair is down to her waist when its wet, so imagine trying to comb through that with the nit comb. Good lord.

Otherwise, we had a good break, with a sleepover (ahem, we think that's how she got lice though), a trip to the zoo, a belly-popping Thanksgiving with Mattias and Cindy, which was so wonderful because we basically just let the kids lose their minds for 6 hours, a trip to an awesome museum near our house, and the biggest news of all -- WE NOW HAVE CABLE. We're lowering our IQ daily with TV, but man it's been great. Really great. We have a new Internet service provider and cable was free with it, so I thought why not. Pete was less excited, but I think even he will agree it's been pretty damn awesome.

Here are some recent pics of us.

Clown hair and new dress

Oh hiiiii

It has been an excruciatingly long few months. My company was gearing up for the product launch, which happened last week. Up until then, I was working the most insane hours and feeling ON 24-7. It was exhausting. So when they told me this week that I was being laid off, I was sad for a few hours then mostly hugely relieved. HUGELY. I said goodbye to everyone today and feel pretty great about it. Sure there's that whole uncertain future thing but I'm not too worried about that either. We've handled worse. 

The kids. Espen is now officially a toddler, I thought yesterday as he threw himself on the ground repeatedly in protest of some "injustice." Lucia is getting adjusted to first grade although her teacher is so damn sweet it must be a huge change for her from last year. She's had a little trouble in math, but we are working with her on it. 

Without further ado, here are some pictures. 

Sickly

It's that time of year again, when every other post of ours is about being sick. Good times! This week it was Lucia with strep and Espen and I with a sore throat virus that made us feel generally miserable and super lethargic. Here's a shot of us at the doc on Monday. Pete was with us, but Espen lost his mind when he saw me with Lucia trying to comfort her, as her fever was 102.3 (!). He's back at daycare, I'm back at work and Lucia is back at school today. Rough few days, but we're on the mend. Hooray!

17!

Espen turned 17 months old yesterday and we celebrated by getting hand-foot-mouth disease again, which means no daycare and we're basically quarantined at home. PARTY. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, except for the fact he's climbing and SO destructive. I remember friends of toddler boys telling me that everyday they're basically preventing the kid from injuring himself, ALL DAY. Yep. It's like that.

But he's so cute. This month we've seen a lot more words -- Pete says he said the word UP yesterday, for instance. He sings Let It Go with Lucia (of course), he shakes his head no, but seems to not really understand what that means. He also climbs up on our dining room chairs now, all the livelong day, and up on the kitchen table. Hugely entertaining is also standing on the ottoman and basically falling onto the sofa. And then back to the ottoman. So fun!

We are looking to move as soon as possible. I'm hoping we can make it to next summer, but I'm just not sure, watching how Destructo is. He needs a yard and places to run around.