Aaaand, I'm back!

Again. But this time for a while. I think.

Since the last post, we blitz-organized/unpacked the house for Susan & Gerry's arrival the following Tuesday (they've been with us 2 weeks now), we packed up for 5 days in Galveston, Texas for the Braud Beach Vacay 2014 starting (at 3am) on Friday the 13th, drove back to NOLA on Wednesday morning (again at 3am) to catch a flight to Philadelphia, PA later that day for Heather & Connell Carruthers' wedding on the 21st, flew back to NOLA on Monday the 23rd, and here I sit in my living room on Tuesday while both kiddos nap. Exhale.

Which bit do you want to hear about first? Let's go in chronological order, then, and I'll add photos as I upload them; that part might take a couple of days, though, since I didn't use my own camera. Forgot the charger, silly me. I'd like to get this info down, though, before I forget too much of it!

First Days in New Orleans

It's been a full week in our new home down in New Orleans, and I think we'd all give it an A+. House? Good. Weather? Good. Food? Goooood.

Shortly after we arrived last Saturday, Nana & Pappy Braud came on by to help unload the truck; Nana unloaded my arms so that I could help with boxes, but Dad & Dylan did all of the grunt work - big, huge, massive hats-off to them! We ate pizza that night on boxes in the kitchen.

Sunday brought us to Mass at our hopefully regular church of The Most Holy Name of Mary. It's 2 blocks away, so I reeeally hope we like it. (Cute sidenote since then - every time we walk past it, Paul wants to go in! I don't want to deny the boy time with God, but it's always locked. How to change this...) After Mass, we walked across the street to a darlin café for an awesome brunch and real coffee. Real, Italian coffee. Mom ordered a macchiato and did not receive a(n albeit yummy) Starbucks macchiato but a tiny cup of thick brew with a careful little spoonful of froth. I traded her my café au lait, and we both were happy. That night, Mom made the first meal in the house, and we even got to eat it at the table - after a champagne cheers on the porch, of course.

Monday was a quick visit with Aunt Cyndi (Dad's sister) to say "Hi! We're here! Let's play soon!" before beignets in City Park ... next to the ultimate playground. Paul went nuts. And then crashed. (Between being really busy helping us and the heat, he's beat every single naptime and bedtime. It's great.)

Tuesday was our first family trip to the Quarter. We walked the 15 minutes to the ferry that hopped us across that big ol' bayou (PS, Paul now loves boats), and we met family on Mom's side for more beignets. Oh, darn. It was good to catch up with them and meet a new little addition to the family! And then it was a rainy walk through the French Quarter to shop for dinner fixins before taking the ferry back home. Home, funny.

Wednesday was our first grocery shop at Rouse's. Sounds uneventful, I'm sure, but we are very happy to soon get back to normal, healthy, home-cooked food. Eating out is always fun for a while, and then I'm done. Oh, and local grass-fed beef for the same price as our budget store in MN? Rouse's ftw!

Thursday was a little different and altogether familiar, too. Dylan went to a Louisiana Bar Association presentation in the morning, so I was alone with these two little humans in our new place until naptime. What do I do by myself with two kiddos in a small house with tons of "don't touch" things everywhere? I head to the park. The 3-blocks-away fenced-in park. And we run into cousin Rena and baby Francesca. That's what I do, and it was great. Ada's beyond content facing outward in the Björn, and Paul both rode in and pushed his stroller. That evening after nap, we headed to Lowe's because we need more things. We filled the truck, yes, but we didn't quite fill the add-on trailer, so we wanted to make sure that next time it'd be stuffed ... with organization/space-saving things to make use of small square footage but 14' ceilings.

Friday was our morning at the Office of Motor Vehicles getting Vince the VW Jetta registered in Louisiana and ourselves Louisiana drivers' licenses. We're official, y'all. And today has been a low-keyed Saturday. Dylan even made his signature blueberry pancakes for us, and we've lounged, unpacked, and cuddled kiddos since. 

Generally, there's some sort of day's event either in the morning or in the afternoon, filling the rest of the day and evening with unpacking, and we've kept meals & naps at their usual times. Paul, however, has been beat, like I said, so we've even upped nap to 12:30, and he's out til 3! Lil Miss Ada-potada takes it one further and sleeps til 5. Wowza. I don't mind since their night sleep is keeping strong - mostly; they've been waking a little earlier than usual - necessitating daily coffee - but there's a little wiggle-room to work with, so I'll live.

I think life here will be good.

OH! In all this chaos, I forgot to mention that Paul and Ada have both shifted beds! Paul's in his Uncle Pete's childhood loft bed, and Ada's in the big crib (next to our bed still). Paul was a giddy little person when Nana dressed the bed Pappy put together with Thomas sheets, and Ada can have the space she needs to do her nighttime somersaults. I've yet to snap a photo of her in it, though, because I don't want to wake her, but there's this guy:

A Jetta, a truck+trailer, 2 kids, and a cat hit the road...

... sound like a joke? Yeah, let's talk about that.

Friday May 30, 2014, 2:30am, the alarm goes off. Dylan and I pop up, clump together the sheets we’d used as a pallet on the floor, ready ourselves and pack away all of the last-minutes. We ready the car and Penske truck + U-haul trailer, prep the kids’ carseat straps for a quick getaway and turn back to the house for the precious cargo. But first we stopped on the driveway in the backyard and looked at the house, deck, big tree, and hugged one last time in Minnesota.

3:04am, kids are in, and 705 11th St is behind us. Shoot – we forgot the two blankets hanging on Paul’s windows.

sunrise in Iowa

After a quiet ride with a few sips of coffee and a beautiful sunrise, we stopped at a Hy-Vee in Randomville, Iowa for breakfast at 7am. Adeline had been swaddled up and so kept sleeping, and Paul slept the whole way, too, after the initial excitement of getting in the car and watching Papa drive a truck wore off. Mega Road Trip to NOLA with Two Kids: Part I was a huge success! We took a nice long break here, and right before getting back in the car, Paul started asking for Molly & Heidi – with whom we’d eaten at Hy-Vee. Aw, sad, little man.

8:30 got us back on the road, and until 11:30, Paul entertained himself with a rock, and Ada was happy looking around and sleeping … with a 30-min crying fit before giving in to said sleep. St. Louis! And Chick-fil-a! With a playground! (Hindsight observation: we heeded others’ advice about travelling early, early with little ones, but we still couldn’t really have a picture of what it’d look like, of course. Now that we know how well this worked for Paul & Ada, we should’ve called it quits here and done two days of equal length rather than a long Day One to Memphis and a shorter Day Two to NOLA. Also a big thanks to the moms who advised me to give Paul snacks, all of the snacks. We'll mark those $40 under travel expenses well spent.)

After St. Louis, I had Memphis on the brain. We stopped again around 2:30 or so (Ada’s made good, long stretches for nursing so far!) and then again at 5. Both times just at gas stations to fill up the tanks … and Ada. After the 5:30 mark, though, she decided she no longer wanted to go on a road trip and made sure Paul and I knew it. We arrived at the (very nice but unfortunately not-stayed-in-long-enough) hotel around 7. We hodge-podged an odd dinner of veggie purée, meat sticks, and a vegemite sandwich for Paul and got them both ready for bed. 

Considering the unfamiliar surroundings, they both went down great! In fact, I think Paul kinda liked his big ol’ bed to himself. I, too, liked those beds and could’ve slept and slept after such a long day, but just before bed, Dylan and I decided that we’d wake early again. So, the alarm was set for 3:30am.

4:30 saw us pull out of the parking lot and make a very tired journey up and down rolling hills with nothing but beautiful magnolia trees to look at until Jackson. I pulled up next to Dylan a couple of times to make faces through the windows just for something to do on such an empty highway at dawn. After Jackson, no more stops until New Orleans.

Ada fought sleep again (read: cried for a while long enough before caving in, poor dear), and we pulled up to 437 Belleville around noon on Saturday. It looked just like the pictures. Except that our tiny little 900 sq ft shotgun feels more spacious than expected due to the crazy high ceilings! And porch! And backyard! We started to get a little excited about being here … not to mention having 23 hrs on the road behind us, I with two littles and D with a cat. Thank the Lord for a safe and uneventful arrival! We had a little rain, a little construction, a little crying, and only a very little toddler-fussing. Grateful, grateful! Thank you for your prayers.

Last Days in Minnesota

My, oh, my, was it busy the last 2 weeks in Minnesota! First off, Paul's lip's healed splendidly.

Next up, since last post, we went on a "date" with the Momtime group (a chance for us to meet everyone's husbands and talk as couples, not just moms), we made huge strides with packing (and have obviously finished, as we're now down South), visited a couple of playgrounds for the ever-more-able-to-climb Paul, found a groove for Adeline to enjoy being "worn", namely facing outward in the Björn, dealt with a few more tantrums (but P's done extremely well with packing!), Ada's had more and more nights with 6 or 7 hr sleep stretches, Dylan's interviewed for work in NOLA, Paul had his last Mommy & Me class, he fell again at Heidi's and then the majority of the rest of this post: our last trip up to the Cities for Dylan's graduation from the Catholic Studies Master's program, our last hoorah with friends, and packing.

We drove up to St. Paul on Friday the 23rd, and Ada cried, no, screamed, but she was fed & dry. Just doesn't like car rides ... greeeeat. We stayed with Pete & Denise and thoroughly enjoyed visiting with them - about their little one due in September & their recent trip to Rome. We also attended the baccalaureate Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Saturday morning got going early for D's graduation ceremony. It was wonderful to celebrate his accomplishment together. It was also kind of funny: a big milestone, yes, but he'd finished 6 months earlier, and it was just us. 

I had Pauly in the stroller, and Ada sacked out in the Björn.

After the ceremony in Minneapolis, we drove to St. Paul for a reception at the Catholic Studies building. It was a lovely day out, and Dylan had a nice chance to wrap up and say goodbye to his professors. And, there, Paul sacked out.

Next up was nap time at the Bivers. We just walked into their quiet house - as they were all napping, too - put our kids down, and I laid on the sofa to nap while Dylan made a few last-time errands around St. Paul. We loved visiting with Mike & Colleen - and seeing their 7 golden puppies! - before heading to Minnehaha Falls for a little farewell BBQ.

Pete & Denise came as well as a few others, and we had a great time. As it got later, and folks started having to go home, it saddened us to say goodbye to our dear friends. Got a little teary. On the way out of the park, Dylan said, "Welp, that's the hardest part of leaving Minnesota behind us now. Onward." Indeed.

The next day was our last Mass at St. Augustine's, and we'll hold that place dear, too. We connected with Fr. Jim Steffes, and we'd never felt as much a part of a parish since being married. I hope we'll find something as good in NOLA.

3 days left. Memorial Day was pretty chilled with a bonfire and burgers and an hour or so at the playground. Paul's getting so agile and strong! Tuesday was Dylan's last day of work, and I met him and all of his co-workers for lunch. They all had such lovely things to say about him to me, and I'm proud of him for making such positive connections during his short stint in Austin. Wednesday was packing day! And this is what Ada has to say about it:

We woke early to drive to get the Penske truck, and mid-morning, our truck-packing team showed up. With a notebook. Saying to write any questions or directions down for them. Because they're deaf. The whole team! It was really awesome. And it was so quiet. No arguing (that we could understand, anyway), and, for us, so stress-free. Until the end, that is, when their time was up, our packed things were in the truck ... and there was a lot of stuff not in the truck. What. Ok, I'll wake up at 3am and go ahead anyway because the kids are ready to go, and Dylan'll stay behind to tie the loose ends. He'll catch up at the hotel. No, we'll all stay and just leave later in the day. No, we'll shift everything a day. Yes, that's it. So, Dylan rented an add-on U-haul trailer on Thursday morning, we packed it up by naptime, had a last impromptu playdate with Heidi, Molly, and Baby Drew even though we'd said our goodbyes the night before at their house (They were kind enough to make us dinner on our "last night" as everything was packed up)! And then we took Paul to a last playground in Austin before early to bed.

2:30am would come around awfully quickly.

May 28, 2014: Madeline Therese Biver was born at 5:08am weighing 7lbs 9oz. I hugged and kissed all the Bivers in spirit and am looking forward to meeting sweet little Bit-o-Honey the next time we get together.

Cute things

I'm going to tell you about all of the cute things both Paul & Adeline did this week...

...whilst rolling my eyes because Paul won't stay in bed at naptime and is shouting "open the doooor", hence waking Ada. Sheesh.

Paul tried to tell Ada "Guten Morgen" but doesn't say g, yet, so it came out "oot Mornin, Baby!" Evidently, English is just toddler German.

Ada smiled big, big at funny noises and then switched to pursed lips and an eyebrow raised at the same funny noise that was slightly louder. 

While I was away for a minute from Paul, he dragged his little, white rocking chair over to the sliding glass door, and I came back to find him watching the birds & squirrels, rocking.

Ada laughed! Big, silly grin laugh that meant true amusement - and we caught it on camera!

Paul started kissing whatever he hurts on me, Papa, or Baby but instead of a kiss noise, he says out loud "Muaaah".

Ada rolled! So, less cute, but still very exciting =) And right on the same schedule as Paul - neat!

While speaking of "on schedule", it was this week last year that Paul fell and knocked his tooth out. This year? He falls down Heidi's front stoop and busts his lip. The swelling's gone down a ton since then, but it still looks uncomfortable. This is smiling:

Oh, and he spelled! Sort of. He recognized which letter's we were saying, anyway, pointed to them and told us their colors. Neat! Also caught on camera.

Ada found her fingers and, instead of choosing one, tries to stuff the whole fist in her mouth.

Shy little Paul said "Buh-bye" to my whole catechism class of 7th graders, ha. They got a kick outta that. 

Ada woke early from nap (man!), and when I went in to her, one arm was free from the swaddle just flinging around, and she smiled at me. Stinker.

And I think that might be it for this week. In other news, we are exactly 2 weeks from sleeping in our new (to us) house in New Orleans. We have exactly 7% of the house packed up, and instead of packing more last weekend, we had friends over for a big pancake breakfast and went out to dinner with other friends on Saturday and then just relaxed on Mother's Day with Minnesota's Biggest Donut like we've got all the time in the world. Should probably do a little more this weekend... Oh, and since we have so much time on our hands, Ginny's been ever so kind as to online dress shop for me (a combo of two things I'm terrible at: online shopping and dress shopping) for Heather's wedding. I get a package in the mail next week, woo!

Also, can you handle all of this cute? (I know it's an Ada-heavy post, but others have more Paul, so it's ok.)

Here comes the sun!

And it certainly has been a long, cold, lonely winter, so bring it on!

We've eaten outside for lunch and/or dinner 4 different days this week, Adeline's shown that she does indeed approve of babywearing (only in the Björn, though), and we've taken walks both into town and to a friend's house. This week gets a thumbs-up!

Let's just not think too long or hard about the 2yo tantrums for giving him the pineapple that he requested, having to leave the construction site after an already 15min visit, or any number of other (to me) little things that don't quite fit into his idea of the-way-things-should-be. But he does like a good snack and spying on the neighbors:

Just to get a little glimpse into our routine ... Lately, our day's begun with Paul around 7am and Ada somewhere between 8:30-9:30. She takes 2 little 20-min catnaps before naptime at 1pm. (Yes, it's regularly been at the same time for both of them, yuussssss!) Paul gets up at 2:30, and she'll stay down til 4. Then there's dinner at 6 and bed at 8. Ada's been in bed within a few minutes of Paul, but he gets out of bed at least 3 times before calling it quits somewhere between 8:30-9pm. Mama & Papa are just having too much fun without him - doing dishes, folding clothes, internetting, or otherwise catching up on stuff. He did catch us having a glass of wine and ice cream one night, though, and that was pretty fun.

Dylan: It's duck-face and a selfie. Perfect.

Not too much on the moving front. Not too much on any front, really. Things are just winding down - Paul's Mama&Me class has just another day or two as well as my Wednesday 7th grade catechism class, and I already mentioned that Momtime is almost done, too. Seems a pretty appropriate time to have a shift, then, really. Except that summer in MN is beautiful ... this year made us wonder if it fully makes up for the 6-month winter, though; we concluded no, no it does not. The next wonder-ment, then, is if we're ready for the heat & humidity!

*Dear Lord, help me to not complain about the heat & humidity. At least this year.*

Oh! And again with the beans. Apparently I didn't read the last post, and we had red beans & rice for dinner on Thursday. Thursday night, you ask? Yeah, not good.

And now for the postpartum new 'do:

May already!

The weather. C'mon! The last days of April brought us a light dusting of snow as well as a couple of rough nights with Adeline, poor little gassy dear. (Note: no more beans for lunch.) The second of the rough nights was followed by a doozy of a day for me. Dylan and I were both so tired, he scooted out the door for work before we could have coffee ... and therefore I had no coffee. And learned that I may have a slight addiction. Headache. Foul mood. Paul suddenly became annoying, and Ada wouldn't eat (she must really dislike beans!). I had a pep-talk from good friend, Heidi, about all of us having "those days" every now and again and welcomed the freely-given "You're a great mom - you just need some sleep" spiel from Dylan when he got home.

Next day? Great! Same stinkin' ol' weather, but we got out of the house even earlier than on time (what what!), and both kiddos were in good spirits. Apparently Ada prefers tacos to beans on toast. I do, too, Ada. Atta girl.

Yes, I had a cuppa coffee that day.

Anyway, I was reminiscing about the days of "just 1", as I do when I feel overwhelmed by 2, and I noticed that I very closely watched Paul grow to 2 yrs. Everyone says, gosh it goes so fast. Or, where did the time go? Or, and then - bam - they're in high school. But I feel like I could give you a thousand specifics about any given thing regarding Paul's first 2 years. They were relatively slow-paced with, clearly, tons of 1-on-1 time. These last three months Gosh, it's gone so fast! Where did the time go? Bam - he's already in high school! Well, practically! All of a sudden, he's a little boy. With little boy mannerisms, preferences, opinions, and thoughts, however concisely voiced. It saddens me a little but is also exciting. What a strange thing.

Things are getting pretty real with the move, too. Dylan's been collecting boxes from the liquor store, and I think we have 2, maybe?, boxes of books packed. Woo! At this rate, we'll be in NOLA around Thanksgiving. I'm expecting that one of these days will put enough fire under me to just. get. going. and, like my Momma says, take things off the walls. Then it'll look like we're moving, and it'll be a constant in my mind ... rather than an "oh yeah, we're moving."

I've only got 3 Friday Momtimes left. I've enjoyed that and will miss it.

Cute, huh?

He is risen! He is risen, indeed, alleluia! Happy 3rd week of Easter! To celebrate, instead of going out, we're cooking a fancier than usual meal at home with ingredients we usually can't afford. We'll even break out the fine china again =). We may also have some especially delicious cookies. Paul and I decorated some more eggs this week, too. I realized that dyeing boiled eggs is great, but then you eat 'em. This time, I blew out raw eggs, and we dyed the empty shells to last the rest of the season.