Family Tales

I am not sure if Callum has quite figured out what “New York” actually means. When we’re out walking around, he’ll sometimes ask to go to “New York,” or when he gets out of bed, I’ll ask him where he’s going, and he’ll say “New York.” We’re here, baby, I tell him. We’re here….

Our furniture (and tons and tons of boxes) arrived on the Sunday before Christmas, and we’ve been digging our way out, ever since. We set up the tree, and assorted other decorations. We’re managing to cook all right and I even brought my lunch into work today. But we’re still sleeping on the sofabed (and in the pack ‘n’ play) in the living room. Ah, it just takes time…

Christmas morning was a delight. Callum is old enough this year to get an idea of who/what Santa Claus is, and he’s spent the last week or so pointing out, and labelling, images of the old man he’s seen in holiday decorations. When we told him Santa Claus brought presents to good little girls and boys, he adamantly would say “no,” and we couldn’t quite understand what he was objecting to. Ah, such is life with a barely-verbal toddler.

Anyway, he didn’t object too much when, on Christmas morning, he finally registered the extra presents that had magically appeared (after much mid-night bumbling among boxes) under the tree. When he first awoke, he made his usual barely-conscious plea for “Dora,” and had to have his attention drawn to Santa’s leavings. But, once present unwrapping was in full swing, he kept calling for “another one.” His main gift, which also delighted the big boy (er, man) of the household, was a wooden train set. Since that morning, the chorus of “play trains,” rather than “Dora” has been his first thought upon awakening.

So, to our vast readership — which, due to moving-related, and non-moving-related lack-of-organization reasons, has not received Christmas cards from us — we wish a happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year! Drop us a line via e-mail or leave a comment if you’d like our new address and contact info.

On Wednesday, the moving truck drove away with all of our things, and we checked into the motel where we’d be sleeping for our last two nights in California. But then we headed back to the neighborhood for one last hurrah — a laid-back dinner at our wonderful neighbors’ house. They’d ordered from a legendary Berkeley pizza place we were quite fond of, and the conversation and atmosphere was easy and relaxed. As the night crept on, we grew tired and determined to head out. We said our goodbyes and the ever-energetic Callum jumped down the neighbors’ steps, walked over to our driveway, toddled up our front walkway, and stood patiently in front of our hunter-green front door, waiting to be let inside.

“No, honey,” I said, “we don’t live here anymore.”

It may go without saying, but many tears ensued, as it really sunk in that we’d never again sleep under that roof that sheltered a thousand memories. Memories of bringing Callum home from the hospital, full of worry and anticipation (and quite rightly so) of months of wakeful nights. Memories of his first steps, first tumbles, and first words.

Tomorrow we fly to our new home in NYC, where we’ll make many more family memories. Snow is forecast for our first night there, so maybe we’ll kick off the memory-making with a snowman.

Well, it’s been more than a month since we’ve posted an entry on here, but that doesn’t mean things haven’t been happening. We are starting to gear up pretty seriously for a move to the East Coast, so we can all be together as a family day-to-day. That will be nice. Right now we are looking at renting a place in New Jersey, somewhere around 40 minutes or so (by train) outside the city. We like living in a house, and want to keep things that way.

Meanwhile, Callum’s vocabulary has been exploding. (This morning’s new word: driveway.) I took him to be evaluated by a speech therapist and some developmental specialists, after the pediatrician said she thought his speech might be a little delayed. Since the original red flag, he’s really picked up steam. By the time the evaluation rolled around, they said he was doing really well. He passed all of the tests with flying colors — naming animals, matching up pairs, even threading blocks onto a string. I’m just delighted at how many more words he has, and how he’s able to string them together and express himself. That’s my boy…

We went to Colorado and visited my brother and his family (and my dad, who came up to meet us) earlier this month, and we have yet to get the pictures uploaded anywhere. It was a great trip through some really amazing scenery. It’s totally what you think of as the Wild West, with mesas, and cactus and all that.

Also, on a sad note, we said goodbye last week to my animal companion of many years. Our cat Nigel had been ill, and didn’t make it through surgery aimed to address his ailments. We miss him very much.

So, that’s our round up of the past month or so. The upcoming move, and preparations for it, are our biggest news and the most major thing keeping us busy. We’ll keep you updated!

Thanks to Erin, we’ve got more pictures from moving day! The link goes to a slide show, mostly of pics of relaxing after the big work has been accomplished.

P.S. No sign of the baby yet but the countdown continues.

Just a quickie to say we slept in the new house last night for the first time, and complete credit goes to our moving crew — part of which is pictured here hanging out by the chimenea in the back yard after a hard day’s work. Unfortunately, Erin and Debby had to depart before I managed to take out the cameraphone, but they were also critical to the success of the big effort. Many many many thanks to all!!

What lies ahead is digging ourselves out of the masses of boxes and figuring out where to put everything. Of course we have way more stuff than we remembered. It’s so great to be in the new place, though, so we can begin the process of settling in.

New life is burgeoning in the Caird universe. The picture is our little bio-dome, with tomato seedlings front and center, and other little sprouts coming up all around them. We’ll keep tending this little hatchery, then transplant to our new garden once they build up a little strength.

Meanwhile, the little human baby is still growing inside and squirming away (and hiccupping) on a regular basis. On Sunday it’ll be 38 weeks — 2 weeks from the due date. What with all the swelling and itching, I’ll be glad when he’s on the outside, but it would be nice to get moved first. We are planning to do the big stuff on Sunday. We’ll probably pick up the crib on Saturday.

The house is starting to come alive with our things. We’ve put Pamela’s favorite “New Yorker” lithograph on the mantelpiece and it’s already made it feel more like home. We’ve been tending to the plants’ needs — weeding, trimming the lemon tree, watering, etc. Our lovely new neighbors (on one side) have already introduced themselves and brought over a housewarming box of chocolates. Wonder how little Nigel (the cat) willl adjust to his new surroundings. Hard to believe, but it’s all happening.

The day we’ve been waiting for has nearly arrived. We got the loan approved Monday, signed papers Wednesday, and — we’re told by our agent — will get the keys to the new house tomorrow, Friday. Yippee!! On Wednesday after work, we drove by the place and snuck into the back yard.

Since we got the accepted offer, there’s apparently been no attention paid to the yard or garden, and things are looking quite overgrown. The “lawn” is 6 inch high in weeds, and some of the garden plants are fading fast. On the positive side, a mystery tree, which was flowering when we last looked at the place, has revealed itself to be some sort of apple. So we’ve got a lemon and an apple tree in the back yard. And we’ve got lots of work ahead! Luckily we’re very excited about it.

Last weekend, we placed an online order for some seeds and a little seed incubator “bio dome,” so we’re looking forward to starting to cultivate our own new stuff. This California climate is so amazing for flowers and fruit, and we expect to spend as much time as possible out in the garden. Hopefully the little one will enjoy it, too.

We are still waiting by the phone to hear news from our mortgage broker about whether the loan for the house will come through. Seems the slow pace of our immigration service, which has failed to get Michael a green card after 2.5 years of marriage to an American citizen, is a bad match for the bureaucracy of a mortgage lending firm. Alas.

Anyway, just waiting on pins and needles for that. Otherwise, all’s going well. We had a glorious Memorial Day long weekend. We hung out in Golden Gate Park on Saturday and went to Tilden Park in Berkeley on Sunday. Generally, it was very relaxing — just what we’ve needed with all of the house and baby stuff keeping us busy most other times.

Here are the exciting happenings in the Caird household for the past week.

I think my last house-related entry was pretty negative so I’d better update. It turns out we ARE getting the house! (A call from Michael’s brother, Ian, this morning reminded me that we haven’t really spread the news that widely.)

The sellers came back to us with a reasonable offer with regard to repairs. The price will be the same, but, at the closing, we’ll get checks written out to the repair people of our choice, so we can get most of the major things fixed. Then we’ll have to repair other things ourselves, or get them done after we move in.

We actually found this out on Michael’s birthday, so his fancy birthday dinner was not only a celebration of Michael — it was also a celebration of our future family house together. Since then, we’ve been very positive but still disbelieving that it’s actually happening. It’s hard to believe that we’re on track to buy our little house. (I added a couple more pictures to the album today.)

We’ve set a date of Tueday May 24 to sign the final paperwork (and write lots of checks) on our end. Then the official close is on Friday the 27th. That’s when we’ll get the keys. It’s right before Memorial Day weekend, so I think Michael will have both the Friday and the Monday off work. I believe I just get the Monday. Also that weekend, is a sidewalk chalk art and chocolate tasting festival along Solano Avenue — so we’ll have a nice opportunity to get to know the ‘hood. (Picture above is chalk art example from the event Web site.)

Then, the repairs can commence! Of course, then we get to move.

So less than a month before the baby is due, we’ll be moving. It’s great, though, because now we have a room for him and we can be preparing it for his arrival. We’re holding off buying the crib — which my dad has generously offered to pay for — until we get into the new place. We’re going for a safari theme — not too boyish — so it would hold up if we eventually have another child.

And speaking of children, I’ll use this opportunity to say everything is looking fine. I have been going in for twice-weekly monitoring (non-stress tests and ultrasounds). Every time, my blood pressure is just fine (way down from the high reading that was cause for concern before), and the baby seems to be doing well. One added benefit, I guess, is that I’m getting quite comfortable with the hospital where I’ll be giving birth. On the way to the monitoring area, I get to pass the nursery and see the newborns.