Good-fry Austin

 

On our last day in Austin, we had an hour to kill and needed to go so place dog friendly. So, we hit up our favorite sausage place at Uncle Billy's.  It was so hot that I was worried that Aria wpould overheat .  I took her shirt off.  Will we come to miss this kind of heat, I wonder.

Best husband

I write this post as the best husband ever tries to sleep on a bed much too short for him. His feet are literally hanging off the bed.

My amazing husband has supported me not once, but twice through career relocations.  He gave up jobs that he loved to do this.  Granted, he's been nagging me for 10+ years to move to the Pacific  Northwest.  So, I would say this recent move to Seattle is rather win-win.

During our trip to Seattle, he was amazing.  We would not have made  it without him.  We knew that flying with two dogs, two kids, 4 checked bags, and carryons was going to be challenging, but we did not anticipate me getting a raging sinus infection right before the trip.  Dolphin had to do a lot more kid entertainment on his own because I was  wiped out.  He let me sleep for a good hour on the plan and a good half of a day the next day.  With this recovery, I might just make it to my first day of work on time.

For a 4 year old

I recently took a house hunting trip to Seattle.  While I was there, I tried to take photos of things that Xander would like.  What simple things can mean so much to him.  At a breakfast diner, they had a full basket of fruit jellies that I could just imagine Xander drooling over.  I showed him the picture, and he immediately said "I want to go there.  Can we go there in Seattle?"  So, we keep telling him all the good things about Seattle to help with the transition, but we have to remember to think like our 4 year old.

Please

Whoever invested the sign for please, surely was not envisioning the average toddler.  Aria is a messy eater like most toddlers.  When she asks for more of some food, she says "peez" (please) and then swipes her hand across her chest to sign "please".  This results in whatever food she's been eating being plastered all over her shirt.  Stains galore!  I remember Xander did the exact same thing.

What I'll miss about Austin the most

I think this may be one of the things that I will miss about Austin the most.  Austin has a plethora of days where it's so hot that nothing beats cooling off with a sprinkler.  More over, most homes, like ours, have a high privacy fence so when the kids strip down to nothing, no one cares.  Xander and Aria had an absolutely blast after dinner on Friday playing with the garden hose.  It was certainly more entertaining then giving them a boring old bath, and they came out just as clean.

Microsoft Land

An update on our move.  I have found a 3bed/2bath townhome in Bellevue right next to about a 1,000 Microsoft buildings.  It's amazing is that there is a little fenced yard for our dogs, and the 3 bedrooms will really work out well for our family.  I'm still quite unclear how we will fit everything in our texas sized home in this townhome, but I'm working to get rid of things left and right.

I had been looking at 2 bedroom apartments where the kids would share a room.  I thought it would be kind of cool for them to share a room.  Maybe make them feel more safe in a new place to have someone right next to them.  We can still do that with this new place but we have the option to keep them separated also.

I searched through 9 properties in person and countless others online before finding this place.   Let's home we don't drive eachother crazy living in a smaller space.

Moving West

So, if I am not blogging much over the next few months, I'll apologize in advance.  We are moving to Seattle, which involves a great deal of work and not a lot of time for blogging.  The Pacific NW is a place that Dolphin has wanted to live for a very long time.  He very much dislikes the heat in Austin so Seattle will be a great improvement in terms of climate.

I am very nervous about the move.  New day care, new day care germs, new jobs, new home....all of these news things will be challenging for the kids to deal with.  I'm super excited about the new and I hope that my children have the same appreciation for change that I do.

The job change is going to be huge for me personally.  I have worked at my current company, IBM, for 13 years.  I met Dolphin at IBM, met wonderful friends, had first international trip (to Israel) with IBM, had my two children, and so much more.  I even shot a real gun for the first time with some IBMers out in the AZ desert, and I probably won't do that again, but it was one of many, many firsts in my life.  My new job is super exciting, but there will be more to come on that later.

We've lived in Austin for 7 years, which I think is the longest I have ever lived in one place.  I have met wonderful friends here.  To be honest, I don't think I will find as nice as a neighborhood as I have hear in Austin anywhere else on the planet.  That said, I know there are other benefits to living in a metropolitan area so I hope that helps with some of the loss.

Dolphin has already received 3 immediate interviews for jobs in Seattle so I'm excited for him as well.  I know he is really talented and I hope he enjoys one of these many new opportunities.

I'll try to take time to keep you posted on the move, but no guarantees!  

Language

Aria is growing in leaps and bounds in communication.  She's a great non-vocal communicator.  Today, her teacher told me that she was flipping through a book and doing signs for all the pages in the book (mommy, daddy, puppy,etc).  Dolphin's favorite sign that she does is doggy, which looks like a dog panting.

On the vocal side of the house, she's also quite the fan of animal sounds.  In fact, I'd say she knows the animals more by the sound they make than their name.  If we point to the farm animals, she will say "baa" (sheep), "moo" (cow), "neigh" (horse), and so on.

Her favorite words (used most frequently) are "no", "yeah", "booboo" (for nursing), "more", "bin" (bink/pacifier), and "mine".  Oh the life of a toddler...simple needs!

Messy little munchkins

Grandma Jo brought finger paints for the kids on her most recent visit. I took the kids out to the driveway for an all out finger paint-a-thon.  Unfortunately, Xander wouldn't let me take a picture, but Aria didn't mind.  She was pretty much a full body painter.  The garden hose was generally employed after this picture.

Happy Birthday to Xander

Xander is turning 4, and I can hardly believe it.  We celebrated this year with a treasure hunt.  I made little clues and left them around the house for Xander to use to find his birthday presents.  He was so excited when he figured out the clues by himself.  At the end of the hunt was a real treasure box that I found on Etsy and stuffed with various treasures.

His cake this year was a Minecraft cake. Dolphin had the idea of using rice crispe treats.  I'm not particularly found of the rice crispe treats and making this cake made me even less so.  The cake is made of chocolate rice crispe squares for dirt, green frosting for grass, vanilla rice crispe squares for sand, cake dipped in grey colored white chocolate ganache for stone, butterscotch candy for gold, red sprinkles for red stone, rock candy for coal, chocolate truffles and icing for spiders, and blue jello for water. Ugh, too much sugar!  I'm glad Xander liked it though.