Family Tales

It’s rare that Michael and I get to pick up Callum from day care together. Usually, we play tag-team while one or another of us works late or goes grocery shopping for essentials. But Tuesday night, we met on the train platform at West 4th Street so we could emerge from the subway in Brooklyn as a unit. Why the uncharacteristic togetherness? It was snowing. Yes, we’ve had a few flurries this year, but nothing resembling the picture-postcard snow underfoot that comes to mind when you think snow.

Tuesday was different — it was real substantial snow that crunches with every step — and we were both eager to see Callum’s reaction to the spectacle. After all, we’d dragged him away from sunny California to this big, mostly-frozen city, where he couldn’t go outside without multiple layers. He found it generally unpleasant, but this winter thing, we promised him, had an upside — snow! We talked of snowmen and sledding, but I’m sure he was beginning to doubt our veracity. He’d seen nothing of the sort, and we’ve been here since mid-December.

After we trudged together, smiling with anticipation, we arrived at the day care and began to coax Callum outside. (Promises of snow didn’t mean much to him.) But when we finally got him out into the falling snow, he found plenty to keep him occupied. He felt the crispness of the snow underfoot; he gave snowball-making a shot; he kicked up loose snow. When we got home, Michael took him out on our newly-purchased thrift-store sled. (Due to global warming, this might be our one big chance this winter.) What was most exciting for us parents was the look of wonder in his eye as he experienced this new weather sensation. “Raining?” he kept saying. “No, honey, snowing,” we said.

Note: our camera shutter seems to have not opened completely, so our pictures are kind of screwed up.

I am pregnant. It’s funny how, with news like this, you want to wait a little while before you broadcast the word to all and sundry. And then, after you’ve waited a while, you’re not quite as bursting to tell the news as you were initially. So, once a decent interval has passed, you tell your family, and you tell people at work. But when do you tell good friends that you don’t interact with regularly? When is the right time to put it on a blog post? When is the right time to put it on your Facebook profile?

I just hadn’t gotten around to any of it, until now. This morning, Michael and I went for the big 20-week, anatomy-scan ultrasound. In the last week or so, I’ve begun feeling little kicks. Suddenly, it’s feeling a lot more real. We’re going to HAVE A BABY! (Everything is looking good, testing-wise, thank goodness.)

It’s like all of a sudden, there’s a presence with us, a little 14 oz growing little boy (yep, we have a Y chromosome), who kicks and will, come June, be a lot more present. Difficult to believe, but true!

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.

is our 5 year wedding anniversary. Hard to believe.

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!