Update

This update won't cover everything that has happened in the last 3 weeks, but I'll try to hit some of the high points.  My last posts came from the car as my mom and I were traveling from Boston to St. Louis to meet up with Kristen, her mom and Davis for the closing of our house and to finalize the move.   Needless to say, a lot of happened since then.

I'm sure I'm missing lots from this post, but something is better than nothing.

House / Move


My mom and I arrived well ahead of the closing and we met up with Kristen and entourage for lunch before heading to the walk-through and closing.  The only interesting discovery in the walk-through was that the fridge we purchased was not going to fit in the space.  Other than that, the house was in great shape and everything was as promised.  The closing went smoothly and easily.  The closing was on a Thursday and the movers were to arrive on a Monday so we camped out in the house for the next few days.  We spent a lot of time cleaning and shopping.  Grandma and Grammie were huge helps; both with cleaning and with Davis.

The movers finally arrived on Monday (5 hours late) and were able to get our stuff unloaded just before dark.  We ended up camping out for another night and spend the next day unpacking.  Since then, it has been a lot of unpacking, shopping, cleaning, unpacking, shopping, cleaning and shopping.  We are all unpacked and mostly settled in now.  However, since we moved from a 900 square foot apartment into 3400 square feet of living space we have a lot of empty rooms and probably will for the foreseeable future. We are enjoying having a place to ourselves and Davis has settled in very well to his new house.


We really like our neighborhood.  It is very different from Arlington as there aren't as many people out walking, but the people here are very very nice.  Our direct neighbors loaned us toys for Davis while the truck was in route (a lifesaver!) and we went to a neighborhood Halloween Party (which is an annual event).  At the party we learned that a pink flamingo in a front yard means there is going to be a neighborhood drinking party there so get a baby sitter :).

Work


Kristen and I are both settling into a work routine.  I'm adjusting to working from home and Kristen is going into her new office a few days a week and working from home the others.  We both have offices upstairs which are nicely isolated spaces and we are taking advantage of having shorter commutes and more time together.

Tomorrow is my last day of work at Varolii.  It will have been almost 7 years since I started there after moving to Boston.  Its been a great job for me; I've learned a lot and been given a lot of great opportunities but it is time to move on.  On Monday, I start work for GoodMeasures, LLC building tools for managing nutrition and health.  I'm looking forward to the change and the new opportunities it brings.  It will still be working from home, but since the entire development team is remote, it will be fairly different than being the only remote employee.

Kristen's work seems to be progressing.  She is working on a paper for publication and the end of the year and should have a draft done in the next month.  She has also been spending some time working our her lab plans and going to weekly seminars as Wash U.

Davis


Davis is adjusting great to being in the new house.  He misses the old house and his buddy Charlie, but he is mentioning them less as time moves on.  He settled in well to his new daycare and seems to really enjoy it there.  Most of the kids there are his age and the operator is able to really tailor the activities to his age more than at his past daycare.  This week, they have been doing a lot of grocery shopping and last week he came home with artwork everyday.

Recently, he has started asking "Why"?  Everything we say is met with "Why?".  At first, it was cute, now it is mostly cute, but quite annoying as well.  But with the "Why" comes other things as well.  He is reading longer books, counting to 10 (I don't think he understands exactly, but he can repeat the numbers and do them on his own).  This weekend, I believe we are going to start potty training in earnest.  His daycare has provided some suggestions and we are going to dive right in.

We've found some good fall activities to do with Davis.  He really enjoys raking leaves and helping out in the yard.  His help is sometimes not entirely with direction, but he enjoys being outside with Dad doing the same things as me.  We also started a gymnastics class with him this last week.  They are doing lots of tumbling and jumping (I mistakenly called it Monkey time at the Y) which has led to him jumping off our couch.

Twins


Kristen is big and uncomfortable and very limited in physical activities.  Two weeks ago, when she was 28 weeks, she was the same size as she was with Davis at 38 weeks.  We had our first appointment with our Doctor down here and really liked him.  He is very different than our past providers (midwives) and he is very upfront that he is an interventionist.  He has 25 years of experience with multiple births and we feel very comfortable in his care.

Growth wise, the twins are doing great.  The ultrasound showed they were both measuring 29 weeks and 3.5 pounds at the 29 week point.  Twins should normally grow the same as singletons up to about 36 weeks at which point their growth will taper off.  Accordingly, the doctor we are with thinks the best time to deliver twins is at 37 weeks which would give us very late December babies.  We have another appointment with him next Thursday and another ultrasound 2 weeks after that.

We took a sibling class with Davis last weekend which might have made some small impression on him.  He knows that mommy has babies "in there" an that he is having brothers, but I'm sure he doesn't understand what that means.  The class had some good tips for us, including having the twins give him some gifts when they are born (a truck and some work tools) and making sure to spend some quality time with just him; even if it is only 5 minutes at a time.  He is in for a very big change and in the long run I know he will be fine, but the short term is going to be very tough for the little one.

Pictures and Videos


Here are some pictures and videos from our recent adventures and play

Feeding goats at Grant's farm

Post snow-cone at Grant's farm

Davis was a firefighter for Halloween

Davis and our pumpkins

Kristen at 28 weeks

In the backyard

Putting leaves in the wagon

Working on the leaves

Leaves go in, then get raked out.  Just like how Dad does it?

Having pudding while sick

Goofing around at the zoo while waiting for the train to take us to the lions

Goofball and Mom

His new chalkboard is a hit

There are lots more pictures and videos on Picasa and YouTube.

 

New Job

Since we were changing everythin (Home, Kristen's job, adding twins, new daycare, states, furniture, etc) I decided that now is a godo time for me change jobs.  That not exactly what happened, but I am changing jobs.  Two weeks ago, I went to a former co-worker's house to play some war/strategy games, have a few beers and catch up.  The night ended with an agreement that I would come in and interview for a job with his startup.  Within a week, I had a new job lined up.

Starting in mid-november, I'll be leaving Varolii where I have been for the last 7 years and moving into a software development position at Good Measures, LLC.  It is a small startup (about 10 people) building an contextual nutrition application.  I'm very excited about the product and the change of tools and skills required.  The appliation is a website and iPhone application for tracking nutrition which is very tailored and targetted for the individual.  Looking beyond calorie counting, it is going to help a lot of people meet weight goals, nutrition goals, exercise goals and lifestyles.  I will be working from home, as I would have been with Varolii, however, the entire development tema for Good Measures is remote which I think will make being remote much easier.

Varolii has been very good for me.  There, I have made the transition from being a pretty green software developer working on installed software to being a team lead and principal software engineer working on scalable web applications.  I've learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence at Varolii, but after 7 years it is time for a fresh challenge.

Move Update

There hasn't been much activity here lately.  I've had some pictures up on picasa and video's on YouTube, but for the most part, I haven't had a lot of free time in the last month.  I've finally found a moment (on the road, 90 minutes east of Syracuse as my Mom drives) to catch up a little bit and get some more content up.

I've been selling junk on Craigslist (TV, Skiis, furniture, CD player, etc), packing as much as I could in advance, and sorting through our stuff to purge and prune the stuff we don't need.  The process culminated yesterday when the packer came and today when the movers came and loaded the truck (my back hurt just from watching them work) and we left town.

I am currently driving withour van full of stuff, two cats and my mom across upstate New York on our way to Syracuse for the night.  Tomorrow, we will head to outside of Indanapolis, then Thursday we need to be in St. Louis by 1:00 pm for our walkthrough and closing at 2.  After that, we are staying in our new house and will have our furniture on Monday.

Kristen, two unborn 27 week old twins, her mom, Davis and no cats are flying down tomorrow morning. They will pick up our CRV from the car moving company and run errands and shop before we meet up on Thursday.

Davis has done very well with the move so far.  Sometimes, I think he understand that we are moving and sometimes I'm not so sure.  Yesterday, he adjusted very well to having our house packed up (there were lots of boxes) and today he said goodbye to his friends and providers at daycare.  He had a few breakdowns, as did we, and we will greatly miss them.  For the last 25 months, they have been a very important part of Davis' life; we hope we have found as great an environment for him in Missouri as he had in Arlington.

The cats are surviving the move so far.  When we had to lock them on the back porch while we worked on another part of the house, they were very upset.  Once they were moved into one of the bed rooms they generally settled down and relaxed slightly.  Yesterday, it seemed as if they did not sleep and were constantly alert for th epacker trying to stuff them in a box.  Today, Domino almost escaped out a window that was left cracked two inches, but other than a few howls, they did well.  After a few hours in the car, they have settled down -- it seems that having it dark outside helps considerably.  Tomorrow, they may travel with a blanket over their carriying case to help reduce the stimulation they receive.

Some things that have dissapeared from our checklists in the last month:
- Settle the contract for the new house
- Secure the loan
- Figure out a move plan
- Find a daycare / childcare for Davis until March, and possibly longer
- Pack / Clean / Purge / Repeat
- Insure the new house / cars in Missouri
- Find a doctor for Kristen in St. Louis
- Figure out where the heck we will have these babies

Whew! Its been a crazy month and we still have a wild few weeks to go.  Hopefully after that, we'll settle back into a little more regular blogging routine; we've missed lots of great Davis stories and tidits as he grows, learns and talks more and more every day.

Transforming Davis

Earlier this month, Kristen and I noticed that Davis was echoing back at us a bad habbit: he was saying "yeah" for everything and it was starting to bother us.  Kristen and I made a serious effort to say "yes" instead of "yeah" and within a few days, Davis had picked up on the change and now says "yes" instead.  It was remarkable to see a change take place so fast.  Kristen and I are still working on saying "yes", but we have changed as well.

September Pictures

While Davis and Kristen are still sleeping, I'm catching up on posting pictures.  These are all available on our picasa albums as well.

Each Thursday and Friday morning, Davis goes into daycare at 9:00 instead of 8:00.  This gives us enough time in the morning to head to the park when the weather is nice.  I took the camera along a few times this month to capture a fun loving boy.

At the park on a Thursday morning

See-Sawing.  Looks like he needs a couple of brothers

More Thursday morning park time with dad.

We had a great time peach and plum picking with his buddy Charley.  Davis did a great job picking plums off this tree and then had a great time looking at the tractors and playing in the kids area.

On Thursday morning at the park, Davis spent 20+ minutes on the big boy swing.  He had a lot of fun swinging while I took pictures.  He can't make himself go yet.

Our neighbor gave us this small couch for Davis.  Here is Davis practicing being a teenager (before texting) an Domino being a cat.

On Friday, the 16th, the Town of Arlington had their annual town day celebration.  They bring in some ponies, bouncy houses, a tractor-pulled train, food and a few fire trucks and end the night with a fireworks display.  Davis spent a lot of time in the bouncy house and really liked his first fireworks show (watched from mom's lap).  

Apple picking a Shelburne Farms wasn't nearly as much fun without Charley.  Davis enjoyed running around and even picked a few apples.

On the 18th, we went to Burlington Touch a Truck for the second time.  Davis enjoyed getting his hands on some of the trucks and running around.  It wasn't quite as much fun as last year, but he had a good time.

That is the end of pictures for September.  Since then, we've been packing and getting ready for the move and I haven't had the camera out nearly as much.  I do have a lot of videos on YouTube since I almost always have my phone/video camera/mobile computing platform with me.

New Pictures - Move update

We haven't had a lot of time for blogging lately.  Kristen doesn't have a lot of energy in the evenings and I have been spending most nights packing or cleaning after getting Davis to bed. The move to Saint Louis is coming along well.  I've managed to sell quite a few things on craigslist, and we now have about 35 boxes and bins packed.  There is a lot that we won't pack and leave for the movers so we are in pretty good shape for the adventure.  The packers come on the 17th, the truck is loaded on the 18th.  My mom, the cats and I are driving out of town on the 18th and Kristen, her mom and Davis will fly out on the 19th and we will all meet up for the closing on the 20th.

We have a lot to do between now and then.  Today, we dropped our CRV off at an auto-shipper so that it is in Saint Louis in time for Kristen and her mom's arrival.  After the drop off, which was very very difficult for Davis, we headed to Edaville USA for a Day Out with Thomas (really, a couple of hours out with Thomas).  Davis had a lot of fun and was very excited.  Here a few pictures from the day.

A day in the life of 2-year old Davis

Davis is growing very quickly in size and ability.  I just wanted to capture a somewhat typical day in the life of Davis.

Morning:
Davis wakes up and calls for Mommy or Daddy and then whoever comes to the room he snuggles with for a little while while he wakes up.  If it's a particularly rough morning, he'll ask for milk.  We all get to eat breakfast together before heading our separate ways on weekdays.  If Dad has left before Davis wakes up, we usually call him on the phone to say hi.  On a weekend, Davis helps make pancakes or waffles.  He likes chocolate chips in his pancakes, but not blueberries.  He likes to put salt and pepper on his food and his favorite breakfast usually includes eggs.  On a weekday we are off to Sarah's house and if it's raining he puts on his yellow puddle stompers, sometimes when it's not raining as well.

Afternoon:
I can't report much on what happens during the day at daycare, but recently we've been asking Davis what he did that day and the typical answer is "Trucks".  Did you play with trucks all day long? "Yeah".  Sometimes he'll also tell us who he played trucks with.

Evening:
If we are lucky, all of us will be home to enjoy a dinner together.  On unlucky days, Davis will join me when I get home late to have a yogurt pop while I eat my dinner.  Yogurt pops (yogurt sticks that have been frozen) are quite possibly the most coveted item in our household.  Davis is a terrific eater of corn on the cob and we've had a bountiful corn year from the farm.  He would choose to have chicken and yogurt every night for dinner if given the option, but is also quite fond of rice.  He loves broccoli and watermelon as well.  Pasta could go either way with Davis, one night it's fantastic, another it's not.  He loves having bubble water with dinner (carbonated water) on ice.  He takes after his dad and will crunch on his ice.  In fact, John and I think the bottom drawer refrigerator we will get for the new house will be great in all respects but one, Davis will be able to get ice any time he wants it.

Nighttime: 
A typical weeknight includes playing legos with Dad, play-doh with Mom, or building forts in his bedroom.  About once a week we enjoy going to get ice cream, where Davis picks his ice cream based on color.  Purple first, and if there's no purple ice cream, then yellow will do.  Davis' favorite color is purple.  We wind down the night with a BIG bubble bath.  We asked him once what he meant by a BIG bubble bath and he said "Not a little one".  He'll also tell us know that means the bubbles go really high, accompanied by appropriate hand and body gestures.  Davis loves bath time and usually outlasts Mom or Dad in his entertainment.  Next we brush teeth, first Davis and then Mommy or Daddy helps.  Finally, we are dressed in pajamas and ready for milk and stories.  His favorite bedtime stories change occasionally, but have included "100 Trucks", "Goodnight Moon", "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", and "Corduroy".  Many nights it's a peaceful few minutes of tossing and turning before falling asleep.  On restless nights like tonight, it apparently also involves changing the diaper on monkey several times, asking for his nails to be cut, and asking for several big hugs from Dad.  Monkey, by the way, finally had to come and sleep in the living room.