Name That Tune

Rowan's First Big Snow

Happy 2011

2010 found us in six different homes, two countries and living out of our suitcases for 5 months of the year. I wouldn't change one second of our experience but I'm ready for a less mobile 2011. As I was telling my father-in-law this at Christmas and telling him how I was looking forward to an uneventful year, he calmly said, "You're having a baby this year." Oh yeah, that's what I've been meaning to write about! Rowan is going to be a big brother to baby girl Mason in May. We have been telling him that I have a baby in my tummy and he now points to his and says, "Baby in there." I guess he understands,if not he will soon enough.

Rowan has turned into a little person these days and will talk your face off; most of which you might understand. He still has some words that he pronounces wrong every time and I love them. My favorite is wok-wee. Broccoli, of course. Water has gone from agua, to ah-wok and is now wok-er. Will he ever get it right again?

By little person, I mean he has an opinion about everything, including his clothes. He made me take him out in public like this.


The shirt was too small and who taught him to tuck his pants in the boots? He is entertaining! I took him to try out a gymnastics class and I watched through a one-way window. 50% of the time he was jumping on the trampoline in the back of the gym, alone. But it was his first experience with another adult giving him instruction and for the first 15 minutes or so he was digging it. I'm still debating whether to sign him up for the class. Here is a video of the very beginning of the class. Excuse the chatting women but I like that you can hear Rowan let out the occasional scream so I didn't want to dub over the voices.

It snowed a few inches here this week and I took him outside to explore the snow. He touched it and told me it was "colt" and then when I finally convinced him to walk in it, he told me it was "crunchy." I think I got an "awesome" out of him too. After that he wanted to come back inside, which is where we've been this entire week. It's been so cold, 5 in the morning when we wake up and warming up to 30 by the afternoon. I checked the weather in NYC and it's warmer there this week than it is here.





Along with my stable 2011, I'm hoping that I'll be able to share more with you all here.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Our birthday boy started his morning with a 7am birthday party before Esten went to work. When you're two and stay up until 11pm and wake up before 7am you feel like this. Actually we all feel this way when we do that.
Singing Happy Birthday.

His first attempt at blowing out his candle.
Got it. And in Rowan fashion he wanted, "Mas."
So we lit it again.
On to the gifts.



He had a fun morning and loved everything his cousins and grandparents sent him. This morning at 2:45am Rowan received another present from his Uncle Tom and Aunt Bunny, a baby cousin, Vaughn. They are exactly two years apart and both share their birthdays with their Uncle Cy. I think November 30th is officially booked in this family!

We've moved into our new house and are still working on unpacking. Once we are finished we'll take some photos and give you all "the tour." This is Rowan in his little room, in his bedroom. The people who owned the home before converted storage spaces into little playrooms in both bedrooms upstairs. They have a light and a door. Rowan loves his room. All of the pink is gone now and the room is so much more inviting.

Bike Ride

Rowan has been riding his tricycle for a few months now, but at this point he has mastered the trike. We're going to move on to a balance bike for his birthday. It's a bike without pedals or training wheels and is supposed to help with the transition to a normal bike. This is video of Rowan cruising around on his bike. And yes, the helmet is necessary because sometimes he freaks out when he goes down hills and bails. He has several notches on the helmet for proof. For the record, he has had just one bloody lip from tricycle accidents to date. Just one and he cried more when I tried to take him off the bike. He rode that day with blood running down his face.

Happy Halloween

We took Rowan trick or treating last night in a really fun neighborhood called Park Place. The houses, huge. The people, welcoming. The kids, plentiful. The neighborhood kicks off the night with a parade of all the kids in their costumes down the main road.



Cheese.



It took Rowan a few houses before he "got it" but after he realized these strangers were giving him candy, he was all over it. He even told one lady, who only gave him one piece, "Mas."



And we cut him off, half a bucket is plenty! This morning when we woke up the first thing he asked for was Dada, followed by, deedee (candy.)

Stateside

Hello out there, where have you been? I've neglected this blog for the past month while we were on the move. So much time has passed and I don't know where to start. Here is my attempt to recapture our last month or so.

- We had to hire two companies in Mexico to move us here because a full move from any one company started at $12,000. We had one company pack and load our belongings from their truck to another truck. The other company just drove our stuff here to Fayetteville. Coordinating this was fun :/

-The packing company was very, let's say, thorough in their service. For example, a plastic tuperware container was wrapped with three pieces of packing paper. When we moved to Mexico we had 49 boxes and we didn't buy anything except large furniture, when we moved back, 135. Like I said, very thorough.

-Our drive from Mexico to the US was uneventful. We waited on the border for an hour or so. The immigration agent asked us about a million questions and then we were on our way.

-The first thing we did after crossing the border- Whataburger. We wanted a "good" fast food burger, STAT. The Cuotas (toll-ways)in Mexico lack food stops. Our first day we didn't eat lunch until 5pm because there wasn't anything. Well, that's not completely true, there was a man who had rice and chicharrón tacos. I ordered a plate of rice for me and Rowan and he gave a metal fork in our to go box.

-We made tons of stops in Texas to visit family and friends. We're waiting for our visitors here, come see us.

-We rented an apartment in a four-plex that has a garage. We've (Esten, really) stored most of our belongings there because we are buying a house and don't want to unpack only to re-pack.

-Of course, all of our boxes are labeled in Spanish. It's a fun treasure hunt to find what you need. We're thankful we learned some Spanish while we were there. See example below.


-Our only piece of adult-sized furniture in our apartment is a love-seat that the legs were removed from during packing (thorough) and is now being propped up by folded cardboard. Classy!

-Our end-tables, shelves, dressers, etc are currently made of cardboard boxes. We've been getting out the jackets and sweaters from our wardrobe boxes on an as needed basis.

-We are under-contract on a house right now and if all goes well, we'll close on the 17th of next month.

-Fayetteville has great farmer's markets, trails, local shopping, food, and we're loving it.

-Oh yeah, my camera cord is in the garage in a box somewhere. I'm hoping that Esten will find it for me tonight, because tomorrow is Halloween on the town square. Believe me, you want me to post some photos of this little man in his costume.