Moving!

We are putting our house up for sale in the next few weeks. I just took a new professor job in a new city--within minutes of my parents, Marci's parents, and her sister's family. The Peanut (soon to have a fake blog name) will finally have cousins to play with (Marci's sister has 3 kids). My job starts mid August, so we have to get painting, landscape fine-tuning, and--yet again--packing. We are likely going to rent a place for a year or so; that way, we can check out various neighborhoods before we settle on one.

Our 17-month old Peanut is amazing. Every parent says that but it's true. He says: Mom, Dada, clown, balloon, fan, hi, bye, more, milk, cat, shoe, sock, , nose, Aw Oh! (when he drops or throws something) moo, baa, "buh" (for button--Grandma and Grandpa's clock plays music when you press a button), "da" when he wants to see a cartoon on BabyFirstTV (another cartoon he used to like was called "Dougie in Disguise--thus the "da"), car, and does a great monkey impersonation. Also, "No no no no no!" and some thing that sounds close to "I did it." He recently said "No, I don't want that," which was a complete sentence that freaked us out and he hasn't said it since.

He: runs, plays peek-a-boo, dances (he's really into Amy Winehouse lately), throws and kicks a ball, looks at books, plays with his wooden Anamalz and his cars, works on jumping, makes great spit bubbles (saying Mmmwwaaa....), pushes (real) grocery carts around, and blows kisses.

He: likes lox on sesame bagels, peanut butter, Green Plant juice from Trader Joe's, chocolate (soy pudding, fondue), soy breakfast sausage and pancakes, scrambled eggs and cheese (sometimes), lots of fruit (banana, melon, grapes, pineapple, and mango).

Classes have ended for the term. Other than an online course I'm teaching for my current University late summer, I'm done with the place. This August, I will have been working there ten years, so it's a bit strange knowing I won't be teaching in any of those rooms again. We celebrated the birthday of an author we're reading in my final graduate seminar, so that felt like a bit of a farewell, though none of my students and virtually none of the faculty know I'm leaving.

Other than the stress of waiting, the job search went smoothly over the last few months (I may post a more detailed version of the process). I essentially applied to one place and got it.

We're looking forward to a big change!