Strange Days

It is never a good idea to try to blog when you are tired, but I was thinking about this blog tonight, and thinking about how I really need to sit down and add an entry.  Partly because it is almost the end of November, and partly because this is how I document our life.

We are moving on Thursday to our new house.  I have been ready to get out of this condo since around the time we got married, so it is about time we are moving on.  But at the same time, thinking about leaving here is really kind of bittersweet.

I had this grand plan of going around and trying to take photos of these places, but the way the house looks now, it wouldn't be the same.  Bear with me as I take my trip around this house.

The first time I saw my husband was at that front door.  He came in for our date, came back later that week to help us hang our blinds, and spent a good part of our first couple of months helping me paint this place.  We've gone through different colors, we've gone through different blinds, but this house has been our home base for our entire relationship.

There was an awkward first kiss in that foyer, the same place that my little ones like to wait for us and wave and grin like fools when we come home from being away.  Where they pile up pillows and blankets and have forts and picnics and cars.

This living room used to be arranged differently, but this was the room that we brought Lily our puppy into.  I remember sleeping with her on the couch when she was a puppy and was spayed.  The room used to be have dog toys scattered around and now we have dollhouse stuff everywhere.  The dog, coincidentally, is still sleeping on the couch.  Different couch, both of us older and wiser I guess.

Ben took his first steps across the room in front of a large audience on Easter.

I nursed and pumped in that bed upstairs.  We brought our babies home to their bedrooms upstairs that we painted and decorated just for them.  Thursday we move them into new bedrooms, bigger, grander, but covered in someone else's wallpaper.  No fun stripes that Daddy painted and was so proud of, no pretty tree in the corner.

I was thinking about their rooms the other day.  We hung butterflies above Mia's glider so she could watch them while we rocked.  I think it was two weeks ago that she noticed them for the first time.  She smiled and reached for them and pointed with her little questioning finger, wanting to know the word.

I know we will repaint.  I know we will redecorate and pick out their new bedspreads to go in their new big rooms (well, Mia's not changing yet).  I know that in reality, we would probably want to redecorate at some point anyway.  But the point is, when you decorate for a baby before they are born, before you even know them, you are decorating for the promise of the baby.  And there is something special about that.

The kids are so excited for the new house.  But tonight, Ben looked at me and told me he was sad and that he was going to miss this house.  That he didn't want to move.

(He also wished upon a star tonight with me when he should have been sleeping.  His wish was that we could have fishsticks everyday for dinner and lunch and breakfast.  Um. . .okay?")

I have more to say, but I need to sleep.  Tomorrow is another long and crazy day, packing, signing paper and more packing.  The kids are home sick from school, 4 out of the 5 of us currently have ear infections and we are all on antibiotics.  Mia is growing up so fast I can't believe it.  Talking and running, and asking for the potty of all things.  There are so many things I want to say, so many things I think I should be writing down and taking pictures of.  Recently I looked at my camera and it had been two WEEKS since I took a photo.  Crazy.

Occasionally I get a good one.  I've been guilty of just shooting in Auto a lot lately, and it makes for some crappily lit photos, but at least I'm taking them.  I wanted to post a couple from Thanksgiving just to have some photographic evidence that they are all still alive, but I am apparently out of space again and have no desire to upgrade right this minute!  So, I guess, stay tuned for updates from our new house.  The years how they fly.