So Monday morning's drop off was a fluke. When I met her with her babysitter that afternoon she was chatty and happy as a clam. Her babysitter has Rapunzel hair in a thick braid down to her waist and Edie had decorated it with flowers. Then her babysitter had returned the favor by french braiding her hair and decorating it with tons of clovers and buttercups. Edie was VERY PROUD of her fancy hair.
She was excited to be dropped off at camp yesterday and sad that today is her last day with her afternoon babysitter, who tells her old timey folk tales that I've never heard and helps her identify different plants and flowers all over the Western campus.
We played at the Lowell playground after dinner last night again and met about 6 kids who go to Lowell, one was a boy starting Kindergarten this year. His older sister told me all about the 2 kindergarten teachers and how nice they are. 2 older sisters in 3rd and 5th grade showed her tricks on the bars. It was adorable.
The sunset views from our house every night are an amazing reminder that our lifestyle has changed dramatically. This move feels more right every day. Now if we can just get our Seattle house finished and ready to sell!
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Highs and Lows
Last night Edie and Jeff went to the Lowell playground down the street and made a new friend. They are both monkey bar obsessed and she was also there with her Dad, who happened to be cool AND be good friends with one of Jeff's high school friends. They needed to use the bathroom, so Jeff invited them back to our place and they stayed for like 3 hours with the girls playing in the basement with Legos the whole time.
Then this morning it rained and I dropped Edie off at a new camp in the woods of Western's campus called Farm Camp. She hated it, clung to my leg and asked me to stay with her. This has NEVER happened with Edie. She loves new things and is so outgoing that it made me feel terrible. I had to kiss her goodbye, tell her it would be fun and walk away. She sat on a bench next to two other girls, looking sadly at the ground. One of the counselors at this camp is supposed to babysit her all afternoon, so I won't pick her up until 4pm on Western's campus. Cross your fingers the rain lets up and they get to do fun things and Edie has a change of heart.
Then this morning it rained and I dropped Edie off at a new camp in the woods of Western's campus called Farm Camp. She hated it, clung to my leg and asked me to stay with her. This has NEVER happened with Edie. She loves new things and is so outgoing that it made me feel terrible. I had to kiss her goodbye, tell her it would be fun and walk away. She sat on a bench next to two other girls, looking sadly at the ground. One of the counselors at this camp is supposed to babysit her all afternoon, so I won't pick her up until 4pm on Western's campus. Cross your fingers the rain lets up and they get to do fun things and Edie has a change of heart.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Transition
Our first round of moving (note Edie on the left in the back):
Empty house (after official moving day):
Last day of school at Perkins. Triple sniff. Here she is with her favorite teacher Libby:
And her favorite babysitter/assistant teacher, Gabrielle:
Our first sunset in the new house:
Living room evening view:
Pool time with cousin Luna:
The dreamy view from my bed:
Edie's first day at "Art Camp" in Bellingham was successful. She got her face painted like a kitty and she has told me 100 times this week that one of her teachers is a "REAL LIFE FAIRY" (oh Bellingham).
Mort is DYING to get outside.
Edie's empty room. Sniff.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Moving Day
Tomorrow is the big moving day. It's bananas. We are mostly totally unprepared. And then I dropped something heavy and awkward while trying to load it in my car for Goodwill and it slid down my leg and sliced my ankle open last night. It's not cute. And thank god we hired legit movers because I'm not sure I'm able to do much of anything to help tomorrow. And there is also the fact that I am washing dishes in my upstairs bathroom sink and eating take out for all meals basically because we have NO kitchen in Seattle right now. Combine that with an injured ankle and a canceled gym session = tight pants city. Things are a bit chaotic. But tomorrow is moving day! Moving day! Crazy, stressful and exciting moving day!
Thursday, July 16, 2015
This Old House
According to Blogger, I wrote this post on December 14th, 2014. I never posted it because it felt too revelatory. Like it needed to preceed some kind of announcement that we didn't have. Which isn't true anymore, so I feel like I can share it with you. Because it will perhaps explain why our decision to buy a house and live in Bellingham isn't so sudden after all.
December 2014:
We are fast approaching our 10 year anniversary in this house. In the spring it will be 10 years since we walked in the front door of an open house and decided this was "the one", we would make an offer on this 98 year old house and it would become ours. This is the house we acquired our first pet in, the house I whispered the words, "I think my water just broke" into, the house we brought Edie home to, and the house we've slaved over, fought over, and generally spent all our money on. Sometimes it almost feels like this house is a member of our family - after all, we have had more tense discussions about how to restore this house than about raising our own daughter. If you had told me 10 years ago that we would STILL be fixing up this house, I would not have believed you. I was 25 and stupid, but also - this house was a real doozy hiding behind pretty tulips and a whole lot of "potential".
Before this house, we lived in a one-bedroom apartment for 5 years, and before that I spent 3 years living with various roommates in college. Growing up, we moved just once, when I was 8. This means that as we approach 10 years in this house, we also approach the longest period of time in which I've lived in one place. I don't think this is the only reason that my body is itching to move on, find something new. I find myself dinking around on Zillow, looking up random houses in random places just to play pretend and picture myself living there. This is us… living in a modern house with an open floor plan, and this is us living in a city loft with industrial warehouse windows, here's us leaving the city behind and living in a house by the water in LaConner…
Perhaps it's just the latest flurry of random repairs that we've had to throw money at, but I feel like breaking up with this house and finding something new. We didn't buy this house with kids in mind. I wasn't thinking about sharing a bathroom with my daughter for 18 years, or how nice it would be to have kids watching a movie in a basement playroom while the adults enjoy a dinner party upstairs. In fact I specifically remember scorning finished basements when I was 25 and stupid. And don't get me wrong - this is a sweet house. I still look at this house every single day and the potential it holds practically screams at me. I can perfectly envision this house with new siding and a classy coat of paint and I'm 100% that it will be the most charming house on the street, maybe the whole neighborhood. I can see myself relaxing on a new deck out back with my new kitchen door open to my fancy pants kitchen. But we are still some steps away from that and even then, we have started to ask ourselves a bigger question - "Do we want to keep living in the city?" And if not, where do we want to live? Finding the answer to that question is potentially more difficult than finding an affordable remodel contractor.
December 2014:
We are fast approaching our 10 year anniversary in this house. In the spring it will be 10 years since we walked in the front door of an open house and decided this was "the one", we would make an offer on this 98 year old house and it would become ours. This is the house we acquired our first pet in, the house I whispered the words, "I think my water just broke" into, the house we brought Edie home to, and the house we've slaved over, fought over, and generally spent all our money on. Sometimes it almost feels like this house is a member of our family - after all, we have had more tense discussions about how to restore this house than about raising our own daughter. If you had told me 10 years ago that we would STILL be fixing up this house, I would not have believed you. I was 25 and stupid, but also - this house was a real doozy hiding behind pretty tulips and a whole lot of "potential".
Before this house, we lived in a one-bedroom apartment for 5 years, and before that I spent 3 years living with various roommates in college. Growing up, we moved just once, when I was 8. This means that as we approach 10 years in this house, we also approach the longest period of time in which I've lived in one place. I don't think this is the only reason that my body is itching to move on, find something new. I find myself dinking around on Zillow, looking up random houses in random places just to play pretend and picture myself living there. This is us… living in a modern house with an open floor plan, and this is us living in a city loft with industrial warehouse windows, here's us leaving the city behind and living in a house by the water in LaConner…
Perhaps it's just the latest flurry of random repairs that we've had to throw money at, but I feel like breaking up with this house and finding something new. We didn't buy this house with kids in mind. I wasn't thinking about sharing a bathroom with my daughter for 18 years, or how nice it would be to have kids watching a movie in a basement playroom while the adults enjoy a dinner party upstairs. In fact I specifically remember scorning finished basements when I was 25 and stupid. And don't get me wrong - this is a sweet house. I still look at this house every single day and the potential it holds practically screams at me. I can perfectly envision this house with new siding and a classy coat of paint and I'm 100% that it will be the most charming house on the street, maybe the whole neighborhood. I can see myself relaxing on a new deck out back with my new kitchen door open to my fancy pants kitchen. But we are still some steps away from that and even then, we have started to ask ourselves a bigger question - "Do we want to keep living in the city?" And if not, where do we want to live? Finding the answer to that question is potentially more difficult than finding an affordable remodel contractor.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Moving on
Photos from Edie's preschool "moving on" ceremony below. Apologies for the lack of posts lately - big changes are afoot with the Culver family and things have been a bit busy as a result. More on that to come soon.
First up was a celebratory dinner at Vios:
With her teacher Annette:
With French teacher Catherine (pronounced Katrine) with her signature snail puppet named Zhou Zhou L'Escargot.
All the kids moving on to Kindergarten next year:
Edie getting her badge of completion and shaking her teacher's hand:
With fellow classmate and bestie:
Also with their third amigo, close friend Eliza (pronounced Eleesa - her family is Dutch):
First up was a celebratory dinner at Vios:
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