Plowmans on the Move

I held Quentin a little longer tonight when I put him to sleep.  Tomorrow is his first birthday, and while there isn't necessarily a hard line at the end of babyhood, this feels like one.  Why is watching your children grow up so sad?  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that my son is healthy and growing.  I'm just also sad that every day, I see less and less of my little baby.  He ate cake for the first time yesterday.  I think it's safe to say he likes cake.  It was adorable and disgusting all at once.  I loved it.  Happy birthday, my little love. (don't worry, that is an unused plunger.  i am a (slightly) better mom than that.)

Well, it happened.  We've become people that say things like, "wow, it's only going to hit 100 degrees today!" I know, we're gross. But I digress.  Hi, everyone!  We're pretty much all settled in our new house with a few projects left.  I can't tell you how nice it is to have so much space, and for a lot less money per month than our Seattle apartment.  (Seattle, I love you, but you're ridiculous.) Quentin is 10 months old now and crawling around EVERYWHERE.  He's cruising around the furniture and is going to be walking in no time.  Much to Brian's dismay, Quentin started saying "mama" this week. He adores his dada but what can I say, I must have a special charm. Brian is enjoying his job and feels really comfortable there.  He's studying away for his CFP and is (not surprisingly) doing so well!  He's set to finish up next summer, so we might make a celebratory trip to Washington then.  More on that in the future. I...

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted.  Time just got away from me, especially because shortly after my last post we started looking for a house.  I think we looked at 15 or so houses within just a couple weeks.  We put in a full price offer only to have it rejected (the seller thought they could get more $$ from a cash offer), but jokes on them because their buyer backed out and that place is still on the market.  And they had to drop the price.  Hashtag sorry not sorry.  That's what the kids say these days, right? Anyway, a few days later we found another house that we absolutely loved so we put in an offer. Long story short, we get the keys on Monday!  We are so excited our offer was accepted (and that we got a screamin' deal) and can't wait to move in.  It's within walking distance of a Starbucks, so you can imagine my enthusiasm for the place is pretty high. We need to buy a few appliances and paint a couple walls before we get...

A little over two weeks into our move and it still feels like we're on vacation.  I still have to remind myself that it's okay to get settled in, this is our home now.  It's very strange.  Even Brian, who is working full-time, feels like it's a vacation.  We're not homesick yet but I'm definitely not looking forward to that feeling when it inevitably arrives. So, how is everything else lately? Well, it seems the cats have finally settled in.  Granted, Felix was fine from the beginning but Steve no longer hides away in the bathroom when the ceiling fan is on.  So that's a huge improvement.  I think he saw it as a predator or something?  I'm not sure, he's weird.  All three kitties have explored the backyard a little bit and naturally, Purrl ventures out the farthest.  Quentin has now slept all the way through the night 3 times, so hopefully that is a permanent thing, soon.  He's a bit under the weather right now and naps have b...

Well, we're Arizonans now.  So far it's pretty hot but it's only May so we'll be burned alive by July. Our AirBnb is amazing!  We are very happy to be staying here for the next few months, especially because we live right across the street from Brian's sister and brother-in-law.  We've already discovered that our baby monitor works in their kitchen. We arrived on Friday night but I haven't had a chance to sit down and write since then.  There have been a lot of things to do around the house (unpacking clothes is THE WORST) and it's been a big adjustment for Q and the cats. Steve has spent our time in Arizona hiding first under the bed, and now in the bathroom.  We set up a litter box, eating and sleeping areas for him and I'm pretty sure he plans to live in there forever now.  Brian had to battle him (no really, Steve tore up his shirt and scratched the shit out of him) just to get him out from under the bed in the first place.  The only way...

Hello again, writing to you from our hotel room in Yreka, CA.  What. A. Whirlwind. Yesterday we were frantically clearing out our apartment and tetris-packing our cars, today we're nearly 500 miles from Seattle.  Needless to say, we're tired.  Our cats, however, are probably going to be chalk-full of energy all night long as they slept like, 10 hours straight today.  They're so lazy.  We didn't leave Seattle until 10:00am today.  Not that we slept in, we were up before 6:30.  That's just how long it took us to get ready.  As you might guess, we're still working on being efficient parents (is that a real thing?).  We missed Seattle traffic but hit a little in Tacoma and then Portland really slowed down.  The rest of the drive was fairly easy. Quentin did surprisingly well in the car today, he's such a little trooper!  He only had two big crying fits while we were driving, and otherwise he slept or was trying to mak...

Hello family and friends! Our impending move to Arizona got me thinking; how do we keep everyone updated without an endless onslaught of vague Facebook posts?  Why, a blog of course! So, here we are, barely over a week until we take off on a new adventure in the Southwest... Okay I know, I know.  Before we delve into this first blog post, you want baby updates and you want them now!  Well, my absolutely unbiased opinion as the woman who birthed him is that he is the most adorable, funny, and smart baby that ever lived.  I'm pretty certain those are irrefutable facts. He is almost 7 months old now! He is working on rolling over but is generally too lazy to try (NO idea where he gets that from).  He loves all solid food except for auntie Anna's spring salad.  His favorite game is Peek-a-Boo and he thinks Dada's glasses are really fun to grab and Mama's hair is really fun to pull.  I should mention he has a bizarrely strong grip for a baby.  I...