New City, New Beginnings

Since my last blog, we have finally re-located to New Mexico.  Here's a quick timeline:

- Tom moved on October 15, 2016 to begin his new job.
- The girls moved on November 4, 2016 to begin their new school
- I moved on November 12, 2016

Tom is currently in the honeymoon phase of his new job.  I think he'll continue to like it as it sounds like it's a mixture of what he did in the Northeast and Texas.  What that entails?  I have no idea.  I'll just take his word for it.

The girls (and kids in general) are resilient.  I was sold when they told me they love their new school and run right in during drop off.  I tried to make the transition as seamless as possible so both are enrolled in swim class and Ania in ballet.  They seem to have fun, but mommy is taking a little bit longer to adjust as I was used to their current teachers and how things are done.  Leave it to Tom to try and calm my nerves with sports analogies.  Needless, I'm still adjusting.  One difference is that the girls have started playing with the neighborhood girls.  I think it's great and happy that they've adjusted to their surroundings but the back of my mind tells me we're renting and could be moving again.  I'll deal with it. 

Mommy (aka me) is adjusting to working from home, small town life and just being here.  I have my good and bad days.  I don't even want to say bad, but maybe home sickness vibes.  There are things that I found in Houston that I really loved and things that I didn't care for so much, which I'm OK to do without.  But the relationships built (new and old), routine, and proximity to stores, I do miss.  All of that seems to go away when I see the girls smiling and laughing. 

• Working from Home has its pros and cons.  I'm finding more pros but it gets quiet and I miss interaction.  I think that's put me in a place of awkwardness that I'm still trying to navigate. 
• Small town Life.  It's just that.  Small.  I've run into the same family everyday last week.  I hope I can establish a relationship with the parents.  Also, Ania started playing with this girl and she told me they were in the same ballet class.  ah, ok! 
• Adjusting.  The cool thing living out here are all the cool things that we're not able to do in Texas like skiing and hiking trails.  I'm pretty pumped about that as most of our family vacations were looking for outdoor activities.  Now, I think we'll be looking for beach vacays.
• Road trip material - we're relatively close to Colorado and Arizona, so until we get the girls used to longer car rides, we'll be planning trips soon.

In a Year...

So I'm going to give this thing a go again.  Hopefully, I can keep up and not blame a 'hectic' schedule.  Let me think, in a year:

- Ania turned 4
- Cameron turned 2
- Cameron is potty trained (except night time).  I would say around July 2016
- Ania is very elaborate in her stories now
- Both have explored Pheonix, Sedona and Page, Arizona
- First time Mommy traveled with just the kiddos to NY in June.
- Ania is reading very, very easy pre-level 1 books
- Ania learned how to tie her shoes in August.
- Both girls are doing well in swim class.  Ania can swim under water about 10 feet.  Cameron can breath a little bit under water and getting comfortable.
- Ania had her first recital in May as Tinkerbell.
- Cameron is still not sleeping through the night.  We've put sleeping mats at the foot of our bed where she can go so she doesn't wake us up.  We still wake up.
- We're working with Ania to not be so sensitive.  meaning, trying not to cry everytime Cameron hurts her feelings.
- We still need to practice the bike


There's so much more and I've captured the moments in pictures, but last but not least, we're moving to New Mexico.  I've been looking for classes to enroll Ania and Cameron (swim only) so that we can have an easy transition.  The girls are excited to move to the 'mountains'.  Tom's excited to start his new opportunity.  I'm excited yet really nervous and scared.  We'll survive and it's not permanent.  Until next post!