News

I shared this blog with someone new today and spent some time fondly rereading old posts. Oh, blog, how I've missed you. I kind of doubt anyone actually reads this blog anymore, since I never post on it, but I really haven't had time to breathe, much less write. I am hoping once we get settled in Denver things will be calmer.

Oh yeah--so we are moving to Denver. !!! We have know for about a month but as I typed that last sentence I realized I hadn't posted about it. Dean will be leaving the DC Public Defender to be a Federal Public Defender. I will be leaving UMD to be a Mother And Homemaker. I am very excited about this career change. Actually I will most likely look for a teaching job for next year, as in fall of 2011, but when Dean and I discussed this move I did not want to try to move AND look for a job AND wrap up this semester AND be a mother. I would feel scared to try to set up child care for A so soon after we moved anyway, and I didn't think I should try to talk our mothers into traveling to CO once a month. As much as I would love it if they wanted to... hint hint.

My feeling about the move are complex. I am very happy in many ways, including because of how happy Dean is. While he loves his current job, he is excited to try something new, and it is no secret that he loves The West, Colorado, and Mountains. We are both happy because we can actually afford to buy a house in Denver, and we have found a beautiful one, although I will save posting about it for later since things are not completely finalized yet. And I love Denver as a city. It has one zillion parks and those crazy, funny mountains as a backdrop. They make me giggle every time I see them because they just don't look real. Denver has a lot of the features we love about DC, such as fun things for kids to do. It is pretty walkable, especially where we will live (we hope), and there are so many great restaurants! So I am excited to move to such a neat new place. As an old friend of mine noted, it seems like what Dean and I do is move every couple of years, and we are ready to go.

But, it is also no secret that I had hoped to be able to raise Amelia closer to our families, particularly my mother. So moving so far away is also a Great Sadness. It is something I am trying to sit with for now. We do plan to visit often. My new job will be pretty flexible as far as travel. In fact we are going to NC less than two weeks after we move. And I am partly sad to leave DC as well, particularly the very few close friends I have here.

On the other hand, one of the duties of my new job will be visiting the previously mentioned one zillion parks, where I plan to stalk other mothers with babies until I find some to be my friends. And in fact we ARE moving closer to family: we will be only about two and a half hours from Dean's brother Jes, his partner Kim (turns out Kim is a great name for Luli's sons' partners) and their new baby-to-be Ezekial, who is Coming To Theaters Near Us in early August! So baby Dixie will get to be around her new cousin a lot, which is super exciting.

Overall, though, I feel good and hopeful about the move.

In any case, this is not what I sat down to write about.

Amelia has two teeth, the two bottom middle ones. Teething has been difficult, but nothing too terrible. She became much more interested in solids almost the exact day her first tooth came in. Since then, she has been practicing her pincer grasp, so I am going to TRY to post a video that shows off her new skill. It also features her Excited Yell and her Marge Simpson Grunt. Sorry for the shakiness; I was the Filmmaker and the Banana Puff Dispenser.

I'm enjoying the use of unconventional capitalization in this post.

And now, off to use the rest of A's nap to get dressed; it's 11:30 am and I still have on my pajamas.