Bubble Wrap and Spray Tan

The other night I had a dream that we were moving to San Francisco.  In my dream, it was the day before the move and not a thing was packed and a moving van hadn’t even been arranged to take our belongings to the West Coast.  I woke up relieved that is was only a dream. Sort of.

We’re going to San Francisco Memorial Day weekend to visit family and friends and we are moving the weekend after we return.   Just to make this month a little bit more crazy, we’re going to Connecticut this weekend for Mother’s Day, I’m going to Las Vegas next weekend to throw my friend Kelly’s bachelorette party, and the weekend of our move we are going back to the nutmeg state for a Sunday night wedding.  I’m excited, surprisingly calm and just taking it day by day.  For example, when I have a spare moment at home, I’m either packing a box to prep for the move, applying spray tan for Vegas, or trying on dresses to wear to the wedding.

We hired professional movers for our June 1^st move, and thankfully not some “man with a van” off Craigslist.  We used crap movers (aka Chip & Nick) when we moved from Williamsburg to Prospect Heights four years ago, and I would never use their service or anything similar to it again.  Oh no, this time we are using Super Movers, and they will re-assemble any furniture, such as our bed and our media cabinet, that they disassemble in order to get it out and down the stairs.  I’m hoping that they live up to their name and that the move will be over by 5PM so we can go pick up Colette at daycare and take her to her new home.

Living Room/Dining Room looking
into what will be our Office/Guest Room

At first, when I found out we had to move, I was really bummed about it. But I don’t feel that way anymore.   We found a great apartment and it's just around the corner from our current place.  It’s on the ground floor, has three bedrooms, a dishwasher, washer and dryer and it’s newly renovated. Check it out.

Kitchen - Dishwasher, bar, refridgerater
are on the opposite side

Our bedroom

OMG!  I ain't even gonna try to play it cool.
I'm so excited about this.

Stay tuned…there’s a lot to write about over the next few weeks and I will make the time to post!

Baggage

Last night I came home from work feeling overwhelmed.  I didn’t have a bad day or anything, I just felt like the day had passed and I hadn’t accomplished nearly what I had wanted.  I’m constantly playing catch up both at work and home.  I don’t think this feeling is unique to me, but since it’s my life and my blog, I can pretend like it is.  However, pretty much every person I speak with, especially working moms, feels the exact same way.

Instead of attacking my mounting to-do list, I avoided it completely.  Jeff made us cocktails, we danced to Usher with Colette, and played with her favorite new toy; foam letters for the tub.  Some whiskey, the letter L, some solid R & B beats and it’s any ol’ Monday night in the Rigby house.   Obviously, we had fun.

After we put Colette to bed, we ate dinner, watched Girls on HBO, my new favorite show, and made out.   Yep, we were still having fun.

There was a scene in the episode of Girls where they are talking about the baggage that everyone brings into a relationship.  According to them, we all have baggage….small, medium and large. 

I didn’t want the fun to end, so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about our relationship baggage.   I was eager to tell Jeff what I thought his was.  Oddly, he didn’t want anything to do with this game.  He said it was a trap. 

It didn’t turn ugly, but it if you are looking to have fun, I would suggest Taboo instead.  I won’t go into the details, but I said his small baggage was that he couldn’t cook a meal.  He said that my small baggage was that I couldn’t season a meal.  Touché.

My unseasoned scallop failure. Don't make this.

As the day came to an end, I accomplished nothing I had set out to do, not only at work, but now also at home.  However, I did have a great day and that’s just as important getting things done.   I’m going to take Jeff's suggestion and add fun things to my “to do” list so I feel accomplished when I eat ice cream while I watch T.V.   

Births, Birthdays, Visits and Visitors

Every passing day over the past month, I thought, today is the day I’m writing a blog. But, as you can see, it never happened.  I had so much to material about which to write, but never made the time to do so.  This is a quick rundown of the things that kept me from blogging over the past 5 weeks:

Our friends Kacey and Charlie had a cutie-pie baby boy, Charlie Anthony D’elia III on March 7^th

I completed my Stroller Strides, Body Back, class.

Our friends Liza and Mike had a beautiful baby girl, Lanie Elizabeth Erario on March 21^st

I started my 10K running group and bought a jogging stroller

The Kitzmans visited

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Vermont with friends

We celebrated Jeff’s 31st birthday

We had Colette’s 6^th month doctor’s appointment (18lbs now!)

We visited the Kitzmans

We had four open houses

My parents, Uncle Kevin and his girlfriend, Janice visited

We searched for and found an apartment (lease not yet signed, but anticipate moving June 1^st)

We celebrated Passover and Easter with family in West Hartford

Colette (accompanied by me) started swimming lessons

And lastly, we are in the midst of planning for a handful of summer trips and three weddings

It goes without saying; we had the most fun hanging with Colette, and with our friends and family:

Charlie chillin' with his two babylady friends, Colette and Lanie

New dads swapping parenting advice (Dad + Baby in Baby Bjorn = Chick Magnet)

Kitzmans in Brooklyn post park run (Shawna) and donut run (Dave)

Brooklyn is only great, because every month, we get to leave it and go here/home!

We had and will continue to have the least fun getting kicked out of and cleaning our apartment for our landlord’s weekly Sunday afternoon Open Houses. Cleaning is a loose term, considering we just throw every thing possible under our bed and any other place, we hope potential buyers won’t look.

I never thought I would say this, but I’m really looking forward to moving.

Are You Happy?

This is the final post in my weeklong challenge.  It was definitely a challenge and kept me from getting to bed before 12AM on most nights, but it was doable and somewhat enjoyable.   I’m not going to continue to write everyday, but it proves that it’s certainly is feasible to write once a week, at the very least.  The more frequently I write, the less pressure I put on myself to make it an epic post that takes two hours to write, edit and for which to find relevant pictures.  I ain’t got time fo that no mo  (note time saving grammatical shortcuts I’m now implementing).

This weekend Jeff’s 18-year-old sister, Julie is visiting.  She doesn’t know this yet (unless she reads this, which she will), but Jeff and I, in addition to doing really fun things, would like to help her create a 5-year plan.  Like, most high school students, she’s undecided about her plans after graduation and having been in her shoes not too long ago, we’d like to listen to her, and help her outline her goals, and the pathway to achieve them.  As you all know, I’m very big on goal setting.

I think this decision-making map is a good starting place for anyone, at any age.

Blogged Out

The two weeks before Colette arrived, when I was taking it easy and had very few social commitements,  I was the most on top of news and pop culture that I had ever been in my life.  I was the girl of Jeff's dreams. I knew which celebrity was getting a divorced (Gawker), what restaurant was opening up down the street (Brownstoner), and how to throw a Lego-themed party (Apartment Therapy Ohdeedoh). Now, when I look at my Google Reader, unread posts on blogs I followed for a fleeting moment, date back to early October.  It's overwhelming, so I just avoid it altogether.

Oh well.  I tried to be cool, to keep pace with Jeff's general knowledge of EVERYTHING, and failed miserably.

The only blog I continue to follow regularly, in addition to a few of my friends and my sister Shawna's, is Humans of New York.  There is very little text and I love the pictures. I thought you might enjoy it.

You might like this too:


A Year in New York from Andrew Clancy on Vimeo.

The Overdone Egg

As I previously mentioned, when I was on maternity leave I did Stroller Strides (fitness class with stroller-bound baby).  When I returned to work, that came to an end, and I joined Winter Warriors, a running club for working moms in Park Slope.  A few weeks ago I joined Body Back, a more challenging fitness program headed up by the same women who organizes the other two programs. A small group of us, meet twice a week at the park and get our butts kicked.  In addition to the fitness portion of the program we are also encouraged to follow an eating program.  Due to lack of interest and willpower, I have not followed the eating portion.  I intended to, but it’s just not happening.  Each week our instructor, AC, gives us a homework assignment; for example, share a picture of what inspires you to get through the program.  This week she asked us to send her a bad-habit breakup letter.

Here’s what I wrote:

Cadbury Creme Egg, you and I are over.  You make me fat and my fingers sticky.  I used to have a hard time finding you, with your milk chocolate shell and gooey center, only to be found a few weeks before Easter.  Oh no, not anymore.  Ridiculously, you flaunt your many shapes and flavors year-round.  What was once a seasonal treat is now, just a constant annoyance. Like a crow, I'm attracted to your shiny foil wrapper, and like a snake, I eat you in a few quick bites.  Then, all spring, I do it again. And again.

But, starting today, that's going to change.

I'm going to reunite with you once a year, every year, on Easter Day. I'll even eat your cousin, Cadbury Mini Eggs, too. Two treats, one day, once a year.  Our time together will be short, but it will make it that much more special.

I'll miss you, but we're better apart.  You'll see.

I'll have the mouse, well done, please!

A few posts ago I mentioned that we had to be out of our apartment April 1^st, which is just around the corner.  Luckily, for us, things have changed.

We asked Rosie, the women from whom we rent the unit, if we could stay through the summer, while the apartment is up for sale.  She agreed and we’re staying put for a little bit longer, given the apartment doesn’t sell and close before August.

The 5-month extension gives us the opportunity to save more money and think about what our small, but growing, family needs in terms of apartment amenities, size, and location.  Originally, I thought that having a baby in the city would be hard and encourage us to relocate to the ‘burbs.  However, to my surprise and Jeff’s relief it’s actually, really enjoyable.  

We feed her veggies....

We briefly considered buying in Brooklyn.  I spoke with a mortgage broker and met with a great real estate agent.   She showed me a few listings online that were within our price range and we talked about the costs associated with buying property.  She also said that we should be willing and able to stay in the property for five or more years.

That’s the deal breaker.  We can afford a small 2-bedroom apartment, such as the one we are currently in, but not one that will work for us five years from now.   Five years from now, Colette will be in kindergarten and I’m sure she’ll have a sibling or two.   At the very least we’ll need 3 bedrooms and at the most, we’ll need an in-ground pool and two-car garage (the latter two don’t exist in Brooklyn, and if they did, we seriously couldn’t afford them).  We’re okay with renting, so long as we continue to put away money so that we can buy a home when the time is right.

but she prefers to eat a stuffed mouse

Speaking of small, but growing, we have begun feeding Colette solid foods.  This morning I mashed up a little avocado and breast milk.  She ate it, kind of.  She pushed it out with her tongue, but then opened her mouth for more.  Every baby-related website, book and parenting magazine encourages making your own baby food.  Eh, I feel bad saying this, but I don’t want to.  I have no problem mashing up bananas or a sweet potato, but I’m not about to turn my kitchen into a scene from Baby Boom.  I’m confident Earth’s Best does a better job at pureeing prunes than I would.