Apparently I should own a Lexus

We've been back in Atlanta for 2 weeks now and are getting adjusted to city living again. Aside from the traffic, the only other major difference I've noticed is that literally EVERYONE drives some type of luxury car! That could be because we're living in Buckhead, but it's really funny to look around our parking garage and be the only Toyota and Volvo around! Even though we lived here for 4 years, the part of the city we're in now is completely different so I still don't know where anything is! Thankfully our friends haven't changed, and we've had a great time catching up. Between time at the pool, cookouts, trips to the park and aquarium, we've managed to unpack everything and get settled in our new home. While our condo is only 2 bedrooms, we feel like we have plenty of space and it's great to have a pool and workout room here as well.

Brian is loving his fellowship so far. He was able to do a surgery on the first day, and has done several since then. It's also been awesome that he can walk next door to the office. Because he's so close he's been able to come home for lunch a few times, and when he's done with work at 4:30 or 5:00 he's home 5 minutes later without having to deal with traffic!

I'm adjusting to life as a stay-at-home mom. I've been trying to keep myself busy by taking Matthew on an outing every day, but some days I feel a little stir crazy. I'm hoping to connect with some other SAHMs soon so I have someone to talk to besides a 13-month-old!

It has been so much fun to watch Matthew learn new things every day. He is now walking more than he crawls, and is so pleased with himself when he reaches his destination without falling! I've started to let him feed himself with a spoon, which is always entertaining and also quite messy. By far his favorite thing to do is climb on, play with, and throw the ball for Cajun. He gets a ball in his hand and literally starts shrieking with excitement. Sometimes he gets so excited that he can't even throw the ball and just falls over! We have also been losing a lot of things lately, because one of his other favorite things to do is take objects and put them inside things. This week I found the remote in the basket of hand weights, a tootbrush in the dresser drawer, his plastic coins in the remote holder, and one of Cajun's balls in the toilet! There are about 4 pacifiers missing too, and I don't even know where to begin looking for them!

Here are some pictures from our recent adventures

Fun at a nearby park

Enjoying some yogurt

Looking at the whales at the Georgia Aquarium

Celebrating our 7th anniversary with a picnic on the Chattahoochee

Matthew helping us unpack

Matthew's first haircut!

Renters and Moving

Our lives have been incredibly busy lately, but we've been enjoying our last days here in North Carolina. At the beginning of May we decided that since our house hadn't sold we would try to rent it so that we wouldn't be paying rent and a mortgage next year. About a week ago we were headed out for a walk and saw a car sitting in front of our house. The couple inside got out, and were interested in renting the house. They were planning on coming back later in the week to see the inside, but we went ahead and invited them in and gave them a tour. After an hour of conversation, they were convinced and the next day we found out they wanted to rent it! They will be renting it for 2 years, but the only problem is they are moving in June 16th and our condo won't be ready until June 28th! Thankfully we have wonderful friends who have offered their homes to us, we just have to figure out what to do with all of our stuff in the meantime. Now we have 2 weeks to figure out movers, storage units, and temporary housing, and to pack all our stuff! I can't believe our time here is coming to an end, and I know the next few weeks will be filled with ups and downs and lots of sadness and excitement. Here's to hoping we can keep it all together!

Visit to Boston

Whoever said that when you have a baby you stop doing things like traveling has never met us! A few weeks ago we were able to take a wonderful trip to Boston. Brian was going to attend ASCRS, which is a cornea conference, and since we have several family members that live nearby Matthew and I decided to join him! It also helped that Brian won an award that paid for the entire trip. We flew in Friday night, and after a somewhat interesting flight we arrived safely in Boston. Brian had other obligations on Saturday, so I dropped him off at the conference around 10:30 and then headed to Rhode Island to see Aunt Sandy, Uncle Barry, Lauren and Grammy. My mom flew up for the weekend as well, and it was great getting to spend time with her too. Matthew got to meet his Great Grammy, and LOVED her! He kept smiling and pointing at her, and loved grabbing her necklace. We had wonderful family time, and then headed back into Boston with mom. Sunday afternoon we ventured out again, this time with Brian too, and headed to Westborough to visit the Goodliffe family and Matthew's other Great Grandparents. He was quite the celebrity! Matthew had a great time crawling around and playing with Brendan, and charmed all of the adults. Aunt Sandy and Lauren were able to come and join us for dinner as well. The next two days we spent exploring in Boston. On Monday Brian and I took Matthew on the T and spent some time in Boston Common and walked part of the Freedom Trail. When he had to go back to conference that afternoon Matthew and I ventured out on our own and visited the New England Aquarium. Then we met Brian, Jeremy, Kevin and Patrick for dinner at Atlantic Fish Company. Let me tell you, carrying a 22 pound baby halfway across Boston is tiring! (Not all of the T-stations have elevators so bringing the stroller when I was by myself wasn't an option!) Tuesday morning Matthew visited Fenway Park for the first time! We took a tour and got to sit in the press box, go to the top of the Green Monster, and see all the different parts of the stadium. Then it was time to head back to the airport for our flight home. Thankfully the return flight was very uneventful, except for seeing Ben Stiller's parents in the airport!

Raleigh Rocks Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran my first half marathon! I know after completing it that I will never, ever run a full marathon. 13.1 miles is a long way, and my legs and feet are reminding me of that every time I move! It was a great goal to set, and I'm glad that I did it. Will there be another one in the future? Not sure.... but for now I feel very proud of myself for accomplishing a half marathon.

Sunshine Escape

This past weekend we took a trip to Florida so Matthew could visit his grandparents and Brian could take a look at a practice nearby. We had a wonderful time celebrating Dad's birthday (his 44th according to him) and spending time with family. Brian, Scott and my dad went golfing on Saturday while my mom, Catie and I went shopping at the outlet mall. We all bought Coach purses for 70% off! Then on Sunday we went to Robinson Preserve and walked around while Brian went kayaking. Matthew loved crawling around on the tile and pulled up to standing for the first time while we were there! Here are some pictures from our trip.Just stood up alone!
Dad opening his birthday present
Crawling around is so fun!
The kayaker!
About to eat sand... didn't like it so much.
Hanging out with Uncle Scott
Hanging out with Mommy in the morning
Giving a big boy hug to Daideo
Our Coach purses!
See you soon!

Crawling Baby!

I really thought that Matthew was going to be one of those babies that just didn't crawl. He had already moved on to skills like pulling up and going from his belly to a sitting position, so I thought that I'd be able to enjoy an immobile baby until he started walking. Well, as it turns out, I was wrong! He started crawling last night and is very proud of himself! I'm sure that I won't be sitting down for the next few years of my life, but that's ok. He loves being able to move and is so cute when he's crawling! Here is some video footage of his new accomplishment.

So far in 2010

So far our new year has been off to a wonderful but incredibly busy start! Since 2010 started, we have been working hard getting our house ready to put on the market. We have cleaned, organized, given things away, put stuff in storage, painted, pressure washed, cleaned the carpets, and had our creaky floors fixed. The house has been officially on the market for a week and a half now, and I must admit that putting the for sale sign in our yard was really painful. I am so excited about moving back to Atlanta, I just wish I could take my house with me! We are still waiting on our first showing and in the meantime have to keep the house picked up and spotless at all times. While this seemed like it was going to be very difficult to do, it's actually kind of nice because I never have to spend all day Saturday cleaning anymore! Here is a photo as a tribute to our cute house!

This winter has also been one of the coldest in recent years, and has the most snowfall! While I can't compare our snow to places north of us, it's a lot for us. So far we have missed 4 student days and had several delayed openings. And then, in case I couldn't get enough snow here, we went to Atlanta last weekend and it snowed 4 inches there! Apparently I can't get away from it. Matthew seemed to enjoy himself in the snow though, and we got lots of cute pictures!

Speaking of cute pictures, while we were in Atlanta we stayed with our friends Michael and Jennifer and their son Caleb. Michael is a wonderful photographer and he took some pictures of Matthew. You'll see a couple of them below. Matthew and Caleb had a great time together, and while we were unsuccessful in getting Matthew to crawl, Caleb enjoyed bringing Matthew whatever toy we had placed just out of his reach. We are really looking forward to this summer when the boys can play together a lot more often! (And so can their mommies!)

We can't believe how much Matthew has grown in the past few months. He now has 6 teeth and is working on two more. Thankfully teething hasn't been especially terrible for him, so we are still getting to sleep all night! He has learned to feed himself both a bottle and finger foods. He especially loves bananas and we just started feeding him mandarin oranges a few days ago which he is a big fan of! Yesterday morning I went in his room to find up sitting up in his crib, and he repeated this at the end of his naps so we decided it was time to lower the crib. He has yet to crawl forward, and I feel like I am partially to blame for this since I never crawled as a child. However, he is quite good at going from all fours to sitting up and back down to his stomach again. If he could only figure out how to make his backward movements work for him he'd be much less frustrated! He is still as happy as can be though, and every time we go somewhere people comment on what a happy baby he is. We are so blessed!

8 months old!


Exploring Linville Caverns

Having fun dumping out all my toys!