Abby loves to swim

Melissa had always said that once Abby was born and we moved, that she planned on getting Abby and her enrolled in a Mommy/Baby swim class. Living this close to the ocean, Abby was going to learn to swim at some point anyway, and you hear good things about starting them young.

About a year ago, they started a weekly class in town. Abby was 9-10 months old, and wasn't the youngest. The "class" tries to get kids used to the water and starts to teach basic safety skills (like crawling along the edge of the pool and climbing out). Last Fall she graduated to the next level where she gets to wear a small flotation pack and explore being out of the grasp of Mom (or Dad). Last week she started to put together the motions of kicking and paddling. When she got into the pool this week, she was motoring around pretty well.

A long absense

Do not think that we are unaware that it has been nearly a year since we posted something. We have just been so busy with so many things. But, we vow to improve. And it starts today!

Settling into a new home, new lifesytle

Well, it happened. The week before Thanksgiving we moved from Rochester, NY to the new house in Falmouth, MA. Yes, we know it has been months since we posted anything. Life has been so crazy and we are finally settling into our new rhythm. So (hopefully) we will get back to regular posts. For now, just a quick update and we will go back and fill in the blanks from the past few months at a later time.

The new house is great. It is still hard to believe that all our years of talking, saving money, designing, etc. eventually resulted in this place we now live. We are 90% settled in, and we will post some pictures soon. Melissa and I are settled into our offices and the working from home thing is ... working! We have a very regular routine of taking Abby to and from day care that marks the beginning and end of the work day. If anything, without the distractions of the workplace we get a bunch more work done. If anything, you get very tired because you work so intensely without the welcomed (and sometime unwelcomed) distractions of your colleagues. Of course, we are both in the midst of very intense projects right now, so that doesn't help. We both have webcams and talk with our colleagues throughout the day. But, not as much of the social distractions. We both miss that a bit. We just need to work on bothering our colleagues with things like theories on Lost, the bad weather in Rochester (worst year in a while), etc. I'm sure they will love that.

Abigail is now nearly 10 months old. She figured out how to crawl this week, which is great and a point of no return (we can't put that genie back in the bottle now). She is still a gabber and loves to "play rough" which means lots of bouncing and flying. We took her to the park last weekend when it was in the 50s so she could try out the swings. We figured she would like it, but the giggling that ensued ... well, just watch.



Recent cool things include a visit from our friend Sue (see Sue, I mentioned you!) and the awesome news that our friends Joe and Diane who moved to Tucson in the spring now have a baby girl!

We will post pictures and news about the busy holidays we had soon, I promise.

Someone loves her soccer ball

Abby was practicing sitting up tonight and was really having a blast with her little soccer ball. Of course, all that comes to a halt when the camera comes out. But instead of just stopping and staring at the camera (the usual) she stopped playing but hammed it up a bit. I think I see some potential goalkeeper skills floating to the surface ... did you see that dive?

Packing the Rochester house, Halloween and Election Day

Last weekend, Melissa's mom came up to watch Abby so that we could do some packing. We have most of the house ready to go. We need to do some packing in the office, but otherwise most rooms are down to just the essentials. The moving truck will come on the 14th or 15th (just over a week). We will then leave in the two cars with Abby and Melissa in one and me and Neko (our cat) in the other. Between the two cars we need to bring our clothes, Abby's Pack'n'Play and the remaining food. The movers should drop off our stuff early the following week and we will stay with my folks until that time. There is a slim chance that the house won't have it's certificate of occupancy when the stuff arrives. We are slightly concerned about fitting the last minute bits in the cars, so in an apparent fit of efficiency, Melissa explored the option of packing Abby in a box.

If you haven't seen our niece Sarah dressed up for Halloween, you should check it out because she is adorable. We didn't plan on dressing up Abby until Melissa found a bandanna in a box of clothes from our friends Chris and Laurie. So Pirate Abby wore it out to dinner on Friday night. We promise, she actually liked wearing it ... for a while at least.

Lastly, I was in D.C. for work on Monday and most of Tuesday. I got back in the afternoon in time to vote. It was a gorgeous night here (71 was the high for the day), so Melissa, Abby and I walked down to our polling place so I could vote (Melissa waited in line at 7 AM before work). I hear about people taking pictures each year on their kid's birthday, or the 4th of July, or some other repeating day. I thought it might be cool to take a picture of Abby each Election Day when we vote. Is that nuts? Can you tell we have been running ourselves ragged between work and moving? Anyway, here is Abby on Election Day 2008 (note, she has her "I Voted Today" sticker).

Yummy! I think....

Well Miss Abigail had her first taste of solid foods this weekend and seemed to like it overall. We've started with the basic rice cereal and so far so good. Of course we did get a bit of a shock when we went to the market to buy it and found out that the Gerber cereal contains soy products - which Abby is allergic to (along with Dairy - much to Melissa's sadness as eliminating dairy and soy from your diet is difficult to say the least!!). But we found that Beech Nut is soy free and so our passage into solid foods has begun. Later in the week will come something new - probably sweet potato, but with her allergies we are taking things slow. Our first few feedings have gone well and she got to try out her spiffy high chair (Thanks to Sean and Lucy for the hand-me-down!) and vinyl bibs (easy clean up is a must). Should be an interesting journey to be a part of.


On other news it is COLD here in Rochester with possible snow forecast for tonight - shouldn't have any accumulation at our house, but still not quite ready for the white stuff. Here is another picture of Abby in her pretty sweater that Debbie Tate made for her - keeps her snuggly warm.

The Big Move ... it's coming soon

I was on the Cape this past weekend to work on the house with my Dad. I was in New Jersey for work and on Friday night I drove to Falmouth. That was a miserable experience. It took me almost 3 hours to go 40 miles thanks to NYC traffic. Anyway, I got to my best friend Crissy's house (in Woods Hole) around 11 PM, we talked for a bit and then I crashed on the pull out. This saved me driving up to my folks house (40 miles away) just to drive back in the AM. In the morning, Crissy, her husband, their kids and I walked over to the coffee shop in Woods Hole. We had some morning beverages and snacks before I headed over to the house. It will be so nice to be living close to them.

At the house, things are really starting to come together and we will move there sometime in the next month. All the exterior work is done except for the stone needs to be delivered and spread for the driveway. Inside the house, more painting needs to be done. My Mom plans on spending a lot of time painting the rooms we didn't get done last month when Melissa, Abby and I were there. I will never be able to repay her for all that painting. I don't mind a day or two of painting, but this will be a solid week. Super-Mom status for sure. A picture of Abby's room is below (currently lacking a little boarder between the two colors) which we were able to paint last month.
This weekend, my Dad and I worked on installing kitchen cabinets and other projects that are "fussy" in nature. You plod along on them to get something to fit just right and before you know it the day is half gone. But when I left on Monday afternoon, all the appliances had arrived and it was really starting to look like a house.
Most of the finish electrical work is done and the finish plumbing will start any day now. The carpeted areas will get installed in the next week or so, and that is one of the last items. I promise, many more pictures when we get in.

As for the Rochester house, we have been slaving away to get it ready for sale. We currently have it on the Rochester Craig's List site and I made up a snazzy brochure that we will post over at U of R and some other places. If we don't get any bites soon, we will bring in a Realtor. But, we thought we would take a stab at it on our own at first.