Yet Another Home

I think I mentioned awhile back that we were moving again. We've moved countries, so of course that means a new apartment, a new language, new language teachers, and so on. Forgive me if it takes me awhile to get back in the swing of updating...our internet connection is choppy at best.

We've been here three weeks now and have mostly been focusing on trying to get our apartment livable. That has meant buying furniture (some of it, anyways), learning how to grocery shop so I can cook here (so we can eat here...), buying basic things for our apartment (towels and washcloths, glasses and cups, printer paper, brooms and mops, and so on), getting cell phones, fixing things that don't work (like our washing machine, the light fixture in one room, an outlet in another room), trying to get a better internet connection, and so on and so forth. We've dabbled a bit in public transportation and other adventures, but mostly we're just trying to get our place livable. And any of you who have ever lived in a foreign country know that things just move more slowly over here than they do in America. So, lest I keep you waiting any longer, pictures of our new place, the morning after we got here.

    The kitchen.

    More of the kitchen.

    Living room. Everything in this room belongs to the landlady (and unfortunately must stay in the apartment! Nice we don't have to buy furniture...don't love the style of it all, though!). The mat on the floor is the "mattress" out of the pullout couch, which was just so uncomfortable that we couldn't stand sleeping on it so moved to the floor.

    The girls' room.

    Shannon's office by day, Noel's room by night. Pullout couch (incredibly uncomfortable) that Lane slept on until we got her bed. Couch and chairs come with the apartment.

    Bathroom.

    Entry way with all our bags.

So there you have it. What we woke up to our first morning here.

I think that as rooms get "finished" I'll post a series of photos for each room. Rest assured, we now have mattresses and our apartment in general looks better...but it's still got a bit to go. Hopefully soon we'll get some things finished up!

11 Months Old

Dear Noel,

Yesterday you turned 11 months old. I still can hardly believe that's it been that long. It seems like you've always been with us. And I like it that way.

This month has been a pretty big one for you. You took your first steps and now are up to 10 or 15 steps before you lose your balance and plop on your bottom. You're a little bit more reserved in your walking than Lane was...a little bit more calculated, but nevertheless, you're walking and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. You particularly love to walk to me or daddy and dive into us instead of taking the last three or four steps to get to us.

You also got two more teeth, putting your total up to eight. You have twice as many teeth as Lane did when she was 11 months old. These last two teeth were awful, too, and you didn't sleep well and were very clingy and grumpy. I think it might have something to do with the fact that you got three other teeth right before these two, and you got five teeth in six weeks, I think. I'm very glad that it appears you might get a small break before the molars start popping through!



We finally transitioned you into a crib, so you sleep in the crib at night in the office and in the pack-n-play in our room during the day. Eventually we'll put you in the bedroom with Lane, but I'll confess I'm waiting until your molars come through...I don't want to just get you girls settled into being together and then you start teething again and not sleep well. So, a few more months of this arrangement and then you'll start sharing a room with your sister.

You say a few words now, which is really fun. Of course you say "mama" and "dada," but this month you started saying "nite nite" and "bot bot" (bye bye). You kind of say "nana" (banana), too, but that one's still iffy. You are a jabber-jaws, though, and I bet you start talking soon.

Noel, you love to eat. I mean, seriously, you love food. You act like we starve you, too, screaming and screeching at us if we're not shoveling it in fast enough. Your favorite foods are toast with peanut butter, scrambled eggs, and grapes. You love, love, love those things. This month you also tried various beans, pumpkin, applesauce, store-bought buckwheat cereal (what can I say, we moved and buying cereal just was so much easier!), soft cheese, noodles, and rice (not ground-up). You're a big fan of almost everything. Actually, you like it all and will eat it all, but you're starting to express preferences as to what you want to eat and when you want to eat it. For example, you will no longer eat bananas if they are cut into small pieces. You want to hold it and bite it yourself and will just throw the pieces on the floor if it's not given to you as a large piece. Stuff like that shows us a bit of your personality and it's fun to see you becoming a little person with likes and dislikes and preferences.



You really enjoy knocking over block towers now. In fact, you enjoy it so much that you rarely let us get a second tower more than two blocks high before you're knocking it over again. You also love balloons. You will shriek in joy playing with them, and have figured out to hold onto the balloon at the knot so that you can crawl around with it. You're really funny. Also, you finally like bath time again. There were a couple of months where you didn't really like the bath...I think due to where we were living and how loud the water coming out of the faucet was. But you are over it and enjoy playing in the tub again, for which I am grateful.

Noel, you are such a gift and such a joy. You are easygoing and laid-back and are very content with life as long as you are fed and rested. I love having you as part of our family and am so excited to see you grow and find your place in our little family. We just wouldn't be complete without you.

I love you,
Mommy

*Sorry there aren't many photos, baby girl. We moved and taking photos has just not been a big priority these days!*