And now, two months in (only two?!?), we've made a ton of progress. We've unpacked most of our boxes, done some exploring and like our new place.
Really? That's all? You know it's not. Here's the rundown:
Chapter 1: Exploring (and lack thereof)
Shortly after my last post, both girls contracted some sort of horrid midwestern virus and spent the next week scaring us with high fevers, snotting, coughing and feeling generally miserable. Matt and I avoided the whole thing (the virus, that is, not our kids' snot), most likely due to our own midwestern childhoods that must have rendered us immune from previous experience.
Unfortunately, this was the week we'd earmarked for trips to the zoo and various parks and museums, it being Matt's last free week before beginning his new job. Sometimes we can drag the kids out when they're sick and they do just fine--but not this week. We instead furniture shopped on Craigslist and with very quick trips to furniture stores, completed a few final house projects, and hoped each day they'd be feeling better.
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| We found a new fishing hole! Only 1 sunfish so far, but we will be back! |
Nevertheless, we've managed to discover an amazing kids' museum, a small farm/park/fishing spot, the library, a farmer's market, a craft place akin to the one back in Durham, a wonderful nature center, a top-your-own yogurt place, a bird sanctuary, and much more. What we haven't yet discovered: the zoo, the mall (with the kids, anyway), a coffee shop with a play area (we miss you, Bean Traders!) and anything else more than about 15 minutes away, as there's been no reason to leave our immediate area.
And we haven't done it entirely alone, either!
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| Elise loves the plastic bunnies at the local kids' museum. She often snuggles up to several at once. |
Moving with kids can be incredibly challenging, but they make one thing easy: meeting people. I suppose if I chose to drag them through dress shopping at Nordstroms, or along to a pedicure or out for a late dinner this would not be the case--we'd be more likely to alienate other people than strike up a conversation. However, those pursuits are hardly on my schedule and instead we find ourselves in places where other mommies and small children find it reasonable to congregate, too.
I'm not very outgoing, but I have learned that most other mommies at the park will at least tell you their kids' ages and possibly some random fact about their recent escapades, eating habits or cute outfit. Even if we don't exchange email addresses, it's at least nice to chat.
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| While Elise snuggles bunnies, Kalina is just around the corner serving ice cream. |
And then there are those who take pity on us in our "just moved, know no one" state and invite us out to do things. And for knowing almost no one, we really do have some great friends so far!
And I'd be remiss not to mention the chance meeting of another nice mommy of two girls, aged 6 months and 2 years, who just moved here from Durham and who I actually have a few things in common with. We met randomly at a park, and decided to be friends.
The neighbors are also nice, with two girls a bit older than Kalina who are always happy to include her when they play outside, and occasionally show up at our door wanting to play here. Kalina generally seems to tolerate, and occasionally even enjoy, their presence, and Elise thinks they're pretty entertaining.
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| Elise and her new birthday bean bag chair! She was so excited, she couldn't have it in her bedroom at nap or night time for a while. |
After finding friends, the next most important thing is acquiring food. This has, in fact, proven to be more of a challenge than friendships, as I was decidedly spoiled in Durham by my nearby grocery store that offered a wide variety of good food and all my favorite brands for good prices.
That aside, here's the process of finding a grocery store in a new town with kids:
Step 1: Acquire a list of potential grocery stores, and map them in proximity to your new home. Without internet access. I used our GPS. Choose the one that's closest, because you have to try, right?
Step 2: Write a giant grocery list, since you spent the previous week using up all of what you had, or packing it (and the truck hasn't arrived yet), or giving it away.
Step 3: Load kids into the car. Follow the GPS directions to the store, fiddling with it so it doesn't make you take the interstate (who wants to use the interstate to get groceries? Blech.).
Step 4: Arrive at a peaceful neighborhood exactly where it says the grocery store is supposed to be.
Step 5: Drive around a bit. It's got to be here somewhere! But it's assuredly not.
Step 6: Accidentally turn onto a really busy road that looks like it leads directly onto a fast-moving interstate, that will whisk you off who-knows-where. Freak out a little. Sing to the children and hand back toys to them.
Step 7: Take the first turn off of the really busy road. It's a gas station. Ask directions the old fashioned way. Acquire a few necessities, just in case.
Step 8: Realize you have to give up because you no longer have time for a big grocery run, considering you haven't actually located the store. Stop at McDonald's. Vow to try again soon.
Step 9: Leave kids home with the husband. Find the next-closest grocery store. Marvel at its wide aisles, clean floors, delicious selection and cheerful workers. Spend a fortune. Cross it off the list.
Step 10: Find the next-closest store, which isn't all that close. Drag the kids through it a good 2 1/2 times before finding (almost) everything on the list. Spend a fortune. Cross it off the list.
Step 11: Stumble across a budget grocery store that didn't appear on the GPS but isn't all that far away. Drag kids inside thanks to the promise of a racecar shopping cart. Find lots of things you need, but determine they don't stock several of your favorite products. Darn. Bag all your own groceries while pacifying squirming, impatient kids, because this is, after all, a budget store. Spend almost a fortune, but not quite. Decide that of all the options, this is probably the best bet.
Step 12: Shop at Target in the meantime and decide that it would be your favorite grocery store if it only had a fuller meat/produce section.
Step 13: Miss your old store.
But enough about the grocery store challenge: while it confronts me in a big way at least once a week, it is one of the few we've faced.
Well, that and the spiders.
Chapter 4: The spiders
You may remember from a previous post the fact that we'd discovered brown recluses living in our house. Yikes! Well, we took some measures and they disappeared for some time--until we turned off our air conditioning, that is, and the air vents were there's to roam in again. (cue creepy music)
And then one night, Matt decided to turn in early. He brushed his teeth, donned his pajamas, which live under his pillow during the day, and took out a book for a little bedtime reading. That's when he felt a tickle near his armpit. What was that? Before he could rule it out as being "just my imagination," he felt it again. Pulling off his pajama shirt, he shook it out and sure enough--a spider dropped to the floor. He gently squished it before it could get away (gently for identification purposes--otherwise it would've assuredly gotten a full whack).
Even as he was identifying the spider as a brown recluse, he caught sight of a tell-tale welt on his shoulder. The spider had, indeed, bitten him. And real-life arachnophobia seeped into our household as he faced not one, but two emergency room visits, a couple medications, a systemic reaction, and a full week of hives, not to mention random aches and itches from his scalp on down.
He was given by one doctor a referral to a plastic surgeon, just in case, as brown recluse bites can wreak all kinds of havoc on a person's skin. Fortunately for Matt, his has done little damage beyond the hives.
The next day, a couple exterminators heard from me, and we had one out by Friday of that week. The day he came, I found another large brown recluse sitting out in the open on top of Elise's play blanket, and Matt found another in a sticky trap under Kalina's bed. I spent the rest of the day shaking out clothes, blankets and toys and trying to keep the girls out of the house as much as possible, as I no longer felt we were safe in it. We mentally replayed the list of houses we'd rejected before buying this one, and wondered if they'd have brown recluses, too.
The exterminator has now been out twice, and will be coming monthly until Christmas. The situation is much improved. We've warned all the neighbors, and they all look really surprised and consider calling the exterminator as well. Then talk turns back to the weather, which has been gorgeous.
Chapter 5: The weather
It amuses us that whenever we tell people we moved here in early August, they immediately say, "Thank goodness you missed the heat!" To which we can't help but reply, "You don't understand: we moved from North Carolina," as if they're hard of hearing, or understanding. .Neither of us can believe the fact that temperatures cool down in the evenings, and the humidity left when September began.
Next, people inevitably mention how cold winter was. I do believe we'll be in for a bit of a shock when January and February roll around, considering where we've spent the past eight years. But I'm hoping our entire childhoods spent in more northern areas of the midwest will provide something of a buffer against the chill.
In short, I think St. Louis will be milder all around than what we've both been used to, and so far, we're thrilled with the climate. But since weather is such a hot topic of conversation among new acquaintances, we will likely be discussing it many more times. That's okay: we are happy to discuss weather as we stand in the midst of it with our neighbors, especially when it's so nice and we're looking for any excuse to stay outside.
Chapter 6: Our jobs
While I'm leisurely making smalltalk with the neighbors (and keeping Elise from making a beeline for the street, or toddling into the neighbor's sprinkler, or grazing, all while trying to persuade Kalina not to say out loud, "I don't want to play with those girls," (meaning the neighbor girls, whose names she knows, right in front of them), Matt's hard at work at his brand-new job. And how's it going for him?
All I know is that he comes home challenged, but cheerful every night, trooper that he is. Elise celebrated the occasion of his new job by shifting her wakeup times about an hour earlier, but Matt still heads to work without complaint (possibly relieved at times?). He likes the fact that he does real things, and people try to accomplish work instead of stop others from doing so. And he likes the work itself, and the company, and it's overall a very good fit.
As for me, my job changed little except the location, and you've already heard all about that. I will say that despite the extra cleaning, it's a lot easier to care for young kids when they have space to roam indoors, such as in an actual family room, a basement, or a bedroom that you can do more than turn around in. Not to mention a yard. With a swingset. And nice neighbor girls.
Chapter 7: The kids
In addition to the neighbor girls, in fact, Kalina seems to have acquired a handful of 2- to 4-year-old girl friends, and there are even a few within range of Elise as well. As many of these girls play in the same style as Kalina, or at least have something in common with her, we're slowly learning that other kids can be "funny" and even "nice."
Kalina has mentioned a few times that she can't remember the old house, but I don't believe her. I don't know exactly what she's trying to tell me, but I'll interpret it as, "I'm happy here and am not even looking back." She sometimes gets confused as to which familiar places are here versus Durham, but has not once requested to go back. As always, the girl is content as long as she has her family and animal friends around. Little Sweetie!
Elise has already begun to recognize the word "basement" as being a highly desirable place, and screams with glee and toddles over to be picked up, whenever we say the word.
Both girls enjoy watching the world (or the backyard portion of it, anyway), from our windows, seeing the mail truck arrive, and hanging out by the fireplace. They also seem to enjoy checking out the new sights around town, as many of them are cooler than, or at least equivalent to, what we had in Durham.
So, since we're having such a great time (spiders excluded), what do we miss about Durham? Our friends, for sure. Kalina still thinks of them fondly, but hasn't seemed to put it together that we haven't seen them for a long time, and won't see them for a long time. (Mommy, on the other hand, has.) A few places around town. The "feel" of the area. The ocean and mountains that we would be planning a trip to right about now.
Nevertheless, I think it's safe to say we're settled. Now to get some pictures on the walls. Maybe we'll settle for pictures on the blog for now.
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