gma & gpa visit

I mentioned in my last post that my parents were able to come to NJ at the beginning of this month. The timing coincidentally coincided perfectly with Dexter's all-day exam on Sunday.  Initially, Dexter thought he'd be at the school on Saturday, too, which would mean I'd be carless the whole weekend.  I was not envisioning a good weekend.  He decided to skip the trip to school on Saturday, and my parents rolled in on Thursday night.

We didn't do a whole lot with them, really.  I took zero pictures with my camera, but thankfully my parents now both have iPhones (fancy!) and so we got a few pics to mark the weekend that way.

On Friday we swam at the hotel's over-chlorinated pool and then had lunch. Kyalo insisted he needed meatballs for lunch. 'I love meatballs!' he kept saying, so my dad graciously got a meatball sandwich to share a meatball.  Kyalo proceeded to eat none of it.  Thanks, grandpa.  Dexter and I even got to go out to a movie (12 Years a Slave) and have a little date, which is a rare occurrence for us, so that was a nice treat.

Saturday, the day was nice enough that we ventured into NYC.  Yep, it always takes visitors to get us there.  We hit Central Park where Kyalo enjoyed watching the seals in the zoo (from outside the zoo), and climbing rocks and running around with sticks.  Dexter enjoyed running into an actor from Breaking Bad in the men's room, and we all enjoyed a spring-like day in the city!

We took Kyalo to ride the 'horses' - the big carousel in the park. He loved it.

And snapped a few family photos here and there.

After the park we hit up a burger joint and met up with my friend Becky who lives in the East Village.  So, we didn't do anything remarkable, but I think it was the perfect distraction for Dexter as he anticipated his exam on Sunday (did I mention he was driving one of his patients to the exam, so he left the house at 5, on daylight savings day? lucky guy!).  As always, it was nice to be in the city. Who wants to visit us before we leave so we get there again?

My parents left mid afternoon on Sunday, with a van full of our stuff we no longer need.  The packing has begun. Ugh.

(I am happy to report that snow is all gone!)

Thanks for the visit!  See you back here for graduation!!

the future

Things are moving at a pretty fast clip around here, I can hardly keep up.  My parents were in town at the beginning of the month for a little visit, and to help keep me sane while Dexter was in his 8 hour licensing exam on Sunday.  Working backwards a bit, I'll have a few pictures up from that later.  In the meantime, the good news is that Dexter PASSED his exam, which was a big relief. This was the third part in a three part exam which means he's now good to go license wise.  A big step in the right direction.

Last week was Spring Break for Dexter.  Remember how last year we had an epic road trip to Maryland-Virginia-Tennessee and back?  I had been hoping we might get some place warm and sunny this spring break, but instead we made plans to head north, first to MA and then on up to Maine.

Why Maine, you ask?  Well, because that's where we're heading at the end of school!  In a kind of it-can-only-be-God situation, we got connected to a dentist in Maine in the fall, and made a visit to him in December.  While it seemed likely that a job was going to happen, we didn't want to count on it so early.  But as Dexter had continuing conversations with Dr. Kim, and as he continued passing his exams, it became clear that a job was being offered.  So a few weeks ago we made plans to go up on March 20 and spend the night, meet with Dr Kim and his partner, Dr Aaron Im, and their wives, and to do some house hunting.

March 20th, I'm sure you remember was the first day of spring.  And South Paris, Maine got 14 INCHES of snow.

14 Inches.

On the 1st day of spring!

Is it too late to back out now?

Since the roads were a mess (and Dr Kim was fleeing to Florida) we postponed the trip to Friday.  And we had a great time!  Dexter enjoyed his time with Dr Aaron at the clinic (and checking out his brand new dental chair), and I had a great time with Aaron's wife, Gayle, and their 3 year old son Lucas.  Gayle and I have a lot in common, and I'm already counting on her being my new best friend forever.  I'm sure she won't mind!  I can't wait for Kyalo to meet Lucas.

I thought this post would have pictures of our new house, but alas, we didn't make it into anything.  I talked to a realtor who is now on the hunt for something for us.  We may need to go back up before Easter, so perhaps I'll have pictures then.

I hear amazing things about Maine in the summer so I hope you'll plan to visit.

So between a new state, a new job, and a new baby, the next six moths are looking very busy.  Overall, though, the future is bright and exciting.

And cold.

35 months

Oh, hey.  I've really fallen down when it comes to blogging.  Guess this winter has really done us in.  And then I've been trying to catch up on a little show called Breaking Bad to see what all the fuss was about.  I'm not yet convinced that it is the best show EVER but I'll keep giving it a chance.

I don't have too much to report from this month, really.  Just the usual things - Kyalo's growing in all the right ways.  His talking is really on fire now.  He said something to me the other day that really surprised me because it seemed like a big word and a big concept. "Ohhh! I just noticed something! We have ice cream in the freezer!!"  Maybe that's all normal and on par with where he should be, but still impressed me.  I'll list some other cute things he's saying at the bottom.

Kyalo's really taken an interest in taking pictures - with anything he can get his hands on whether its a real camera or not - lately (or, better, again) and so we let him use our old camera.  He grabbed it one day and was studying it pretty hard on the couch for a long time.

And when it came time to take our monthly pictures, I could barely get him to agree to put it down.

future photographer

Once I did get him to put the camera down, it was still hard to get good pictures. He won't sit still, was making funny faces, etc.  Needless to say, these monthly pictures have run their course!  I figure three years is a pretty good run.

 see? funny faces

that's a little better

What else?  We've turned a corner (finally!) with potty training. One day Kyalo just started pooing in the potty. It hasn't been 100% -- or without its battles -- but we're getting there.  I'm still holding out hope to be done by the time he turns three, but I'm not sure about overnight and long car rides (we go to MA on Monday, and I doubt we'll brave that 5 hour trip diaper-less.)  So, we'll see what happens about that!

He discovered scissors this month, and has been happily cutting everything in sight.  His art table is covered in paper confetti, and I'm trying to be OK with the mess.  Also, there are a few items of clothing and our sheets (?) that have cut marks in them now, but that's ok.  He's having fun, and keeping busy.  

So, some other things he's saying. . .

'I can't do that right now'

'Because I shay (say) so!!'  (Perhaps I've said this one too many times to him?)

Oh, and one other thing:

September 2014