Apartment 101, You Will Be Missed

Dear Apartment,

Thank you for the many memories you have shared with us over the past nine years. It may sound strange because, after all, you are just an apartment, but you really taught us a lot about life.

First, you watched me become a wife. We filled you with hand-me-down furniture that many generous people gave us when we married. We filled your spacious living room with probably more than it should reasonably hold. But more furniture is welcoming for loved ones to sit and enjoy. I learned how to cook in your kitchen and gained weight while doing so. Then later I lost the weight in your kitchen while discovering the even greater joy of learning how to eat.

Many times we tried to replace you, feeling that we somehow needed more space or a better location, only to find that more space didn't really exist for a reasonable price. And eventually we grew to love the location and our neighborhood and our neighbors. You were not in the heart of Los Angeles, but where else can you pass so many friendly faces while jogging or taking an evening walk? Where else can you run into friends and church members on the street? How sweet it is to have your loved ones near you. Having you in our lives also taught us to live within our means-- both financially and spacially. Why would a family of two or even three really need more than one bedroom? Not right away at least. You taught us the difference between wants and needs. Thanks for that.

Then, you watched me become a mother. You housed my growing belly as my belly housed my growing baby. I moaned and labored within your walls as the walls of my womb contracted and labored to birth my child. I stayed in this place during the most vulnerable moments of my labor-- really of my life-- and you made me feel secure, comfortable, and at peace.

After mother and child were born that day, we returned home from the sterile, chaotic hospital to the peace and warmth of your walls. I sat and nursed my baby while listening to the quiet creak of the rocker and the soft thumps of the neighbors upstairs. Your single bedroom forced us to keep our child in the room with us-- a blessing that I never imagined could be so rewarding. We had no choice but to be responsive parents. Thank you for keeping the love of our life close to us. Although we are moving to a bigger place, we will continue in this practice and keep our toddler in our room and our bed.

Over the years you've seen our lives unfold and develop. Andy moving from an assistant, to a freelancer, to a church worker, to a newspaper biz guy. All the while in the peace of your quietness you watched him write screenplay after screenplay, film shorts in our living room, and watch countless movies on our what grew to be rather elaborate home theater system. You saw me coming and going constantly to audition after audition, rehearsals, performances, workshops and classes. You must have thought it strange with all the different faces I arrived home with-- heavy theatre make-up, spiderwebs on my face, hair piled high.

Thank you for all the Christmases we shared in here. Thank you for the amazingly sublime sound of the raingutter outside our bedroom window to which I fell asleep so many nights.

Thank you for the dinner parties. Thank you for the nights with friends, sipping wine, watching movies, playing games. Thank you for ice cream and popcorn. Thank you for the debates, the arguments, the door-slamming, the tears, for the apologizing and the forgiving.

Thank you for bible studies and hot showers and baths and much-needed Sunday afternoon naps.

Thank you mostly for being the place of joy for my child. He has spent so many hours of playtime within your walls. Hiding behind closet doors to play hide-and-seek with Daddy, playing "night-night" on the bed or just wrestling and throwing the baby around. Dancing and throwing balls in the living room. Building with blocks and dancing with Elmo and pushing that old stroller around while he was learning to walk. I'm sorry for all the food he threw on your carpet. But please know he only did it to see how good you would look in it! Thank you for being small enough to contain my rambunctious child while I was still learning how to be a mother. I will miss that.

Of all these things I am grateful to you for, I thank you most for keeping our family together, keeping our life simple within your little walls, and keeping us close to one another. Now we begin a new chapter in our life. Our little busy bee has outgrown this jar and longs to explore the world beyond the security you offer. We were so lucky to have you for this long and thank you for all you gave us. You will truly be missed.

Goodbye.

In Just Two Short Years

I can't believe it was two years ago that I began this beautiful journey into motherhood.

...that two years and one day ago we were just a family of two.

It's so incredible how much can change in such a short amount of time: to go from such a tiny, helpless baby to this beautiful, bouncy, unstoppable little boy.

Thank you for changing my life, sweet child.

Thus we bring your second year to a close. Tomorrow we begin your third. There are many more adventures to come and so much life to be discovered. Happy Birthday, mein Liebling.

Santa Barbara!

This week Andy took a couple days off and we headed up to Santa Barbara for a quick pre-weekend getaway and last trip as a family before we move into the new place. Andy's brother Tom lives up there, so it's always nice to see him.

Both PJ and I were getting carsick and anxious by the end of the long car ride. He was very glad to be out!

The very first thing we did was hunt for nice little cafe to grab a sandwich. Andy saw this sign and said, "done."

It was awesome. It had the best vegetarian menu I've ever seen. I put one of them in my purse. Andy says I stole it. I maintain they are paper and meant to be taken home. I want to try to recreate some of the recipes.

Next we checked into our bed & breakfast The Bath Street Inn. We've stayed here before and really liked it. They are a little pricey, which is one reason why we went during the week so we could get the weekday rate. We also wanted to still have the weekend to work on the new house. The room at the Inn was a little un-baby friendly, so we had to watch PJ very closely. But it did have a bathroom in the room and a balcony. Andy and I sat out on the balcony with coffee and tea after Peer went to bed that night. It was quite heavenly.

After checking into our hotel, we split off and I got us some real-fruit smoothies from the Natural Cafe while Andy and Peer went to find a parking spot by the beach and near where the concert Thursday night would be. Turned out to be quite a walk. I just couldn't bear to stand around and wait for the trolley, though. It was too beautiful of a day!

They finally found a spot and started walking back in my direction.

Here comes Mommy with the smoothies!

We had to stop by for a carousel ride on our way to the beach. Peer is developing quite the horsey-skill.

And, of course, we cannot pass a playground without stopping for just a minute to check it out.

Next we headed over to the beach. Peer was very excited to see the big waves, the endless horizon and the incredible amount of boats that were floating around that day!

For a kid who loves the outdoors but doesn't like to get dirty, this was quite an adventure. He'd play in the sand and then constantly return to me to get his hands wiped.

Andy started skipping rocks in the ocean (didn't know that was possible) and Peer got on the bandwagon by throwing the biggest rocks he could find. Thank God he never clunked any innocent swim-byers.

He was actually quite timid about the water. This made it nice, actually. He would do something in the water with Daddy, then run back to me for comfort. He just went back and forth like that for the longest time. He did get semi-clobbered by a wave once or twice, though, so you can't blame his apprehension.

Oh, and btw, I didn't post any photos of it, but there were a couple people flying gigantic kites that day. Really cool. Then one of them was in the water with it and he kind of lost it and it went down. Another guy started helping him bring it to shore and almost clobbered me were I was sitting. It was awesome. Now I can say I've almost been clobbered by a gigantic kite.

Thursday night we joined Tom for one of Santa Barbara's Concerts in the Park. We enjoyed meeting a few of his friends and enjoying a nice picnic with a really fun live band.

...but first I had to get some nursing photos for World Breastfeeding Week!

Friday morning we did our shopping, mostly at Paseo Nuevo. While Mommy browsed the shops, Peer & Daddy also found some fun stuff to do....

such as play in fountains

play in the toy store with toys we can't afford

find cool benches

and walk on exciting cement structures

Friday we finished up the morning with lunch at The Elephant Bar with Uncle Tom

That Thomas the Train book came to the rescue yet again, keeping PJ occupied during the meal.

Our next stop was supposed to be the butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum, but PJ fell asleep before we got there. So we just started home! Little did we know that it would take us a full 4 hours to get home! Should've stayed in SB and waited out the traffic!