Move to Seattle
It is hard to believe we have lived in San Francisco for over 10 years. There are so many things I will miss– walking the dogs at Fort Funston and Glen Park Canyon, driving across the bridge, day trips up and down the coast, eating at Fish in Sausalito with the kids and the dogs, taquerias (seriously!), our wonderful neighborhood and neighbors, the cozy home we’ve lovingly remodeled over the last 6 years, and of course all of the great friends we’ve met along the way through work relationships, ABADÁ-Capoeira, Slippery Fish and Recess.
It is bittersweet to leave as we are very happy with our decision to move to Seattle. We have some great friends who live there and we’ve always loved the vibe of the city. We are moving to southeast Seattle to a neighborhood called Seward Park. We are renting a cute house with a view of Mt Baker and Lake Washington.
Jacob already has a preschool lined up to start in December. Tom is very excited about his new job at Teague. We’ve got our drive up all planned– stopping in Shasta and Portland on the way there and having Thanksgiving at Dave and Amanda’s while they are visiting family and then moving our stuff in to the house that Friday.
The last month or so we’ve had to wrap our head around the move, which isn’t easy when you are trying to take care of a toddler and an infant. We were happy to have some help from my sister Julie and my brother-in-law Nick who took the trip over from Michigan to meet little Evie. They spent Halloween at our house, which was great fun. They helped coax Jacob into the Halloween costume (Henry the train) that Tom made.
Of course it didn’t take much to persuade Evie into her bee costume.
We had a great time together at the pumpkin patch:
We went up to Point Reyes when Julie and Nick were here for a mini-vacation before the big move:
And before we had the visit from Julie and Nick, Evie had the opportunity to meet her grandma who flew in from England to spend a few weeks with us.
Grandma was a real trooper and spent a lot of time playing trucks with Jacob:
During late summer we had the opportunity to go to Seattle and visit Dave and Amanda, who then flew back to San Francisco and spent a weekend at the Glass House with us for Dave’s birthday. Jacob and Aedan hit it off and we quickly nicknamed them ‘zig’ and ‘zag’. We missed them all so much when they left that we decided to move 3 blocks from them (haha!).
And before our Seattle visit, grandad came to stay from England. He got to meet Evie and build ramps for Jacob’s cars!
Now we are preparing for our move and waiting on the birth of our niece/nephew due in a week. Sam and Emily are due the week we move! Big family changes are on the way.
Summertime
Summer comes late in San Francisco, and I’m still not sure if it hit us at all this year. We did have a few very warm days, but they were eclipsed by thick blankets of fog. Having a new baby sure makes it a bit easier to stay inside and enjoy hanging around the house.
Evie is getting close to 3 months old now and we are so impressed with what a lovely little person she is. She delights everyone with her laughs and smiles, converses with soft coos and she even blesses us with fairly consistent sleep. Jacob couldn’t be a better big brother- already protecting her from little hands (“no touching Evie Aedan!”) and gently patting her head when she cries. He’s taken on the job of teaching her to talk by cooing at her and is very excited when she responds (“Evie said cake mommy”).
Starting out with a visit from my parents and their kids from Detroit, Jacob and Evie got to hang with Grandma and Grandpa for nearly 6 weeks. They arrived just before Evie was born and were a big help around the house and spent a lot of time playing with Jacob.
Next we had a visit from Jacob and Evie’s grandad from England. Evie spent her days amazed by grandad, staring at him as he held her. Jacob got his fill of playing dump truck in the dirt and building ramps with his blocks.
Jacob got his first ‘professional’ hair cut during grandad’s visit.
A week after grandad’s visit, we all got on a plane and headed to Seattle and hung out with Dave, Amanda and Aedan, who moved from San Francisco last year. The boys had the best time playing together- we nicknamed them ‘zig’ and ‘zag’,
Next, the Nelsons followed us back to San Fran and we all drove up to Mendocino and stayed at the Glass House.
We had a lot of fun with all our visits and miss everyone dearly. Next up- grandma’s visit from England!
Welcome Evelyn Rose
We are excited to welcome our beautiful daughter, Evelyn Rose, to our family. She was born June 26 at 10:32 am, weighing 7lbs and 1oz and 19 inches long. Jacob was thrilled to meet and hold his sister and has been a wonderful big brother these first weeks of her life. Everyone is happy, healthy and in love with our little girl.
Evie came quite quickly- much faster than Jacob’s 25 hour labor. In fact, we got to the hospital a bit later than we should have and she arrived only an hour and a half later. My labor began at 3am Saturday morning and progressed slowly until around breakfast at 7am. I didn’t even call my parents, who are visiting from Michigan, as I was sure it would be a while until I needed to get to the hospital. I told Tom to take the dogs and Jacob for a walk and then we could call the midwife and see where we were at. At 8:15 I knew things were progressing much faster than I thought and I called my mom between contractions and told her to come so they could watch Jacob. Tom had a run-in with the coyotes at the canyon and didn’t make it back until 8:30- where he found me packing our bags and sweating him to LEAVE NOW- forget calling the midwife or the hospital- it is TIME TO GO!
Once we arrived at the hospital everything happened pretty quickly. At one point I asked the midwife if I was in transition yet (the part in labor right before you push) and she said, “honey, you’ve been in transition pretty much since you got here”. It was then I realized this baby was coming soon! The midwife had me change position a few times and then I was able to push (which only took about 15 minutes- with Jacob it was 2 1/2 hours!) and there was our baby girl! Of course I had them make sure it was a girl right away and then she was able to lay on my chest for some time and nurse. She didn’t even cry when she was born and has been a pretty quiet baby since. It took us a day to finalize her name- she just didn’t look like any of the names on our list- and we are so happy to have our little Evie.
We have had a lot of loving wishes, gifts, visits, food and presents from our wonderful friends. I want to thanks everyone so much for all their warm thoughts and gifts. It means so much to us to have you think of us. And of course if anyone wants to visit they are more than welcome- just let me know!
T – 7
Our due date for baby girl is one week away. It is hard to say if we are ‘ready’. Are you ever really ready for something this big? Jacob has shown increased interest in babies lately, most likely as it has been part of our daily household discussions. He has been spending more time with the young siblings at his preschool, and thankfully, he has been sweet and gentle in his interest. Another way he satisfies his baby curiosity is by asking to watch videos of babies on YouTube. More specifically- ‘babies with diggers’. Yep- it used to be so easy to find little video clips to amuse Jacob- shots of Fire Trucks, garbage trucks, excavators, cars, but now he has specific search parameters. There actually ARE videos on YouTube of babies playing with diggers (isn’t there videos of EVERYTHING on YouTube?), but they last about 10 seconds and then he expects us to find MORE of the same. He’s getting pretty hard to please!
baby playing with digger
Amazing news (ok, if you are NOT a parent, you may want to skip to the next paragraph)- Jacob has started potty training on his own. I think some of this is from his new preschool where he watches the older kids and sits on the potty, but just earlier this week he decided that he too was going to go on the potty. We are certainly not pushing him since he just turned 2, but I have to say- it would be AWESOME if he were transitioning out of diapers at the time the new baby comes.
In preparation for the new baby, my parents and the lower half of my family have arrived to help out from Detroit. Jacob was a bit overwhelmed by the brood, but since there are 3 young kids and a 15 yr old, there are plenty of playmates to go around. They are staying through the first week of August which will give Jacob a chance to get to know my parents as the last time he saw them he was just a year old.
Kauai
Ahhhh Kauai, how we loved you. On the last week I was able to fly, we took a trip to Kauai and stayed in a house a block from Poipu Beach. Being pregnant, I wasn’t able to enjoy surfing or diving, so we opted for a super chill holiday instead. Lazy mornings over breakfast, followed by flip-flops on as we head to the beach with the pop-up chair, bucket and shovel.
This beach was full of toddlers and parents around our age, and there was a tide-pool for the little ones to wade in. Even though Jacob lives near the ocean, this is a new experience for him as the water in Northern California is too cold for this kind of fun. This didn’t stop Jacob from exploring and splashing in the water. And Jacob loved getting thrown in the water by daddy!
All this fun would tire Jacob out- not to mention the jet lag (which often resulted in Jacob waking at 4am!).
We did venture out from the south shore a bit to see the sites. Everywhere we went there were wild chickens. This amused Jacob to no end. He would chase them around and tell them to ‘come’ and ‘sit’!
We also went on a boat tour of Wailua River and Fern Grotto. There were Hawaiian singers and dancers on the boat and we got to walk through the gardens to the grotto.
We also toured the Plantation Gardens – some of the cactuses were planted in the 30s!
We also saw Waimea Canyon and the waterfalls.
The weather cooperated nicely and we only had short stints of rain. Because of this we were able to take a lot of walks through the area, and sit out for beautiful sunsets.
We watched Jacob’s vocabulary blossom while on the trip, and he was often eager to express himself to strangers. He also had an enormous appetite- eating from morning until night time. We cooked a lot of meals at home, but went out for a few meals and Jacob kept everyone entertained, whether they wanted it or not! Jacob even ordered his daddy a beer at one restaurant (the waiter asked if Jacob wanted a beer and he said, ‘nooooo, but daddy wants a beer!’.
We are hoping to return again in a few years when Jacob can REALLY enjoy the water, and little sister can start making her own sand castles.
