Timo? Timo? Timo!

You cannot tear this one away from his new library books!! (And just wait until he starts actually reading...)

Saturday morning

At Timo's initiative and Mattias's willing participation, the boys set up a cars vs dinosaurs battle scene after breakfast. Hawkins was very happy to observe. Timo has been narrating stories for many months (basically for the last 2 years already) but in recent months has started telling them to us more often throughout the day. This weekend he told us several chapters of a story featuring four characters: Card, Jacob, Sally and Nina, who found themselves transported to Jurassic Island, where they met Tom, a camo-wearing helicopter pilot, and had to battle dinosaurs while traveling around the island on various vehicles.

Timo was setting the stage before the battle began

Catching up on the last month... first visitors!

Amidst the craziness of our first month in the 'new' house, we joyfully welcomed some visitors! (Sidenote: we did NOT joyfully welcome the mouse visiting the kitchen and flying squirrels in the attic. However, they have now departed for other "places".) One Saturday it was Joanna who drove up from a couple hours south in SC. Timo was elated to show her all the bushes and forts in our yard, and all three boys piled on her to read books. It was wonderful to reconnect since we had seen each other 1 1/2 years ago. So easy to pick up where we had left off in conversation and compare experiences of working in higher education.

Such a cheerful guy!

Another weekend we had a day and one night with Uncle Chuck and Auntie Jo! (during their week-long visits to friends in several towns of western NC and SC) Timo put Uncle Chuck to work right away building a cardboard shield, and we had a relaxing spring afternoon together, talking and eating copious chocolates from Baxley's on Main St.

We love you two! Thank you for coming to see us!

Ten months old for Hawk

We've had a long, tiring, busy, stressful few weeks since our move (and hence no time for blog posts and photos) - but here we are at the beginning of March and glorious spring days, and this little boy is 10 months old! The daffodils are blooming and trees are blossoming, and Hawk too seems to be learning and doing new things almost daily. Just this week he started...

• banging toys (we've been working on this in therapy)
• scooching himself in a circle
• rubbing food in his hair
• making more jibberish sounds
• waving bye-bye! For a boy who has stiff shoulders and wrists, waving is no small achievement! (I admit it, I teared up.)

eating melon at the dining hall (becoming a regular Friday night feature for us)

Favorites:

• Food: apple/banana/pear-sauce; orange slices; homemade baby rusks; sliced strawberries or melon; sliced cucumber; the crunchy part of romaine lettuce
• Smiling at people! Yesterday a woman followed us down the aisle at the store to say, "Excuse me, I just want to say what a friendly, cute baby he is." And he just grinned and grinned. A few minutes later the cashier said, "Oh, you're so cute, I just want to pinch you!" (and then she did...) He really does make eye contact and smile at almost everyone.
• Being around people and playing. He especially likes going to the church nursery.
• Going for walks in the stroller, although he isn't quite sure about the swings at the park yet.
• Learning to bang toys, and pick them up and drop them, and wave them around. Right now he is particularly excited about his tiny, squishy soccer ball.
• Being tickled on his chest.
• Getting tackles and kisses and funny faces from Timo and Mattias.

See how his fingers are opening up!

And split pea soup is a favorite, too!

Moving time - again - and now we are in!

Yes, I counted - this change-of-address makes 13 times that Jim and I have moved in our 16 years of marriage. Yes, we are exhausted. Yes, we still have too much 'stuff' (even though we keep trying to get rid of things!). And Yes, we are really happy about the new house and location!! It was an incredible, last-minute provision to find this place after months of looking (we knew our lease on the Hooper St house was finishing and the landlord was planning to sell the house, so we needed to find something else). It is just a mile from our previous house, and still next to sidewalks (very unusual to find around here) and close to downtown Sylva and all our favorite daily life spots, like church, parks, pre-school, and some neighbors. In the end, it was a friend of a friend of Hawk's social worker at Social Services who heard about this house (and it wasn't even listed for rent yet), and the first house we saw that was still in Sylva and at nearly the same price. Plus the house has been taken good care of, and is clean, spacious, and with a safe yard for the boys. We have signed a month-to-month lease. Since that is open-ended, it gives us the flexibility and freedom to be able to move out when we are ready without having to be locked into a year lease. And hopefully the owner won't end our lease before we are ready to go...

So - here's to the hope and uncertainty of being ready to move to the next phase of life after Sylva, whenever that may come about! Unknowns and hope go together, don't they? As do unknowns and fear. But we are slowly learning to lean into the hope, and not get gripped by the fear.

a view of the back door which leads into the kitchen

The house is about 100 years old, and was originally built by a family who owned a car dealership on their property, which is just below the house and on Main St. The house sits above that building and parking lot, though after the dealership closed, other businesses have rented the space. It's currently vacant as the brewery/restaurant that has been there is just closing.

Here are some shots from walking around the Crescent (the house is on a crescent road which curves around from Main St). There are only 4-5 houses on our street, and then the Masonic Lodge and a large warehouse/business.

at one end of the Crescent; the white building beyond is the old car dealership

view along the street; our house is at the bottom of the hill but you can't see it from this angle

the view directly across from us is the cement factory - perfect for boys' entertainment!

Going back... the craziness of the week before the move! Phew!!! Jim had just returned from Cape Town, so we were spending our evenings organizing and packing, but there was simply too much to do - and since we were just moving down the road, we didn't pack as thoroughly and as 'cleanly'. For example, I took this photo of the boys on Friday morning (we moved on Saturday) and you can see that I still had work to do in the bedroom. When moving day arrived, people were helping us pack up the kitchen and the laundry room and the bathroom, just putting things in boxes and crates as best we could. It was a bit crazy and I was honestly glad to take the boys and get away for most of the day.

Timo said, "Let's sit on the bed and read books and listen to Spiderwick."

When moving day arrived, we weren't really sure how many people would show up; we had sent out an email to people at church and told a few friends. We ended up having 8 cars and about 10 people, and got everything packed up and transported in 2 1/2 hours. "These people from church are so nice," Timo remarked. It really was incredible and we felt so supported and cared for! Phil and Gayle Woody went above and beyond to help us on numerous days, too. The boys and I packed up one car load (Timo thought it was the greatest and was really helpful and excited), and then we spent the rest of the day at the Woodys to get away from the chaos. Meanwhile after everything was moved Gayle went over with Jim and put together the beds and got everything ready for us to sleep there that night. Wow.

Let's get going!

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