Thursday, November 20, 2014

Boston!

I am a bit back blogged, so I'm writing a few posts at the same time.

We are moving to Boston! Matt got a job with Eaton Vance, an asset management firm, and he started earlier this week. I freaked out a few weeks ago that we didn't have a place to live and decided to go find one. I did, and we'll be living in Newton, on a lovely street in a lovely neighborhood filled with families. It's about a four minute walk to the train, a seven minute walk to Newton Highlands (a mini downtowny area) and about a 15 minute walk to Newton Center (a bigger downtown area with great coffee, ice cream and felafel (and other stuff too)). We are renting the house, and we will look to buy at some point in the next few years.

We are really excited about Boston - we have a couple of good friends, a few excellent cousins, and we know a few other people - but it's very much a new place for us. We haven't lived there, and to be honest, we hadn't really considered living there until it turned out there were loads of jobs that interested Matt there. It seems like a great place to live - smart and interesting people, mountains and ocean all close, a nice city to enjoy, lots of places to travel to in only a few hours...we think we will be happy there. We are aiming to stay for the long run - and we will see how it goes!

One thing I keep trying to remember (and this book, "Homeward Bound" super helped with this) is that Boston isn't "home" yet. While in our heads we were "going back home" - we're now going to be in a place where we don't know where to get things, we don't know whom to call when something breaks, we don't have a posse of friends, we don't know whom to ask for lots of specific things. This is a new place - even though America is still "home." We will have to be patient with settling there, but we're optimistic.

Just in case moving across the world and into a new climate wasn't enough excitement, we're also going to have a baby. Baby is due in early June but will probably be born in May, since I will need another c-section. So far everything seems good.

Big changes coming our way...

Serious FEAR of Winter

I grew
 up in Michigan. I grew up skiing, sledding, playing in the snow. I walked to work when I lived in NY City, throughout the year. I love cold weather. I love winter. But I am terrified of this winter.

We came to the US in Jan of 2012 (super fun trip for me...ok not really...), but that was for five weeks, we had one kid, and I was pretty much inactive with lots of help. I was also in the US in March 2009 when I studied at Wharton and I came during a SUPER cold and snowy time in January of 2013 for a work thing on Cape Cod. Other than that, no winter in seven years and also no winter with kids. And I have seen complaints on Facebook, especially last winter, about how brutal it is with kids.

What am I afraid of? I can't figure out the details of how it all works.
* Kids can't go in car seats in puffy jackets. Puffy jackets are warm. Currently Sam has her warm, winter jacket and her warm-ish fall jacket for the car. If we're running into the house, so can wear the fall one, but otherwise, she wears the warm one, gets into the car, takes it off, puts the other one on and gets buckled into her car seat. This requires her to figure this all out in a small space of a car, and it also requires me to turn around over the back of the front seat to help her - all twisted. Is there an easier way? Unclear. In and out of the car has been a challenge - but we are getting better at it the more we practice. Samara and Elie are totally fine and patient with it - it just seems like such a pain in the ass!

* Elie has been sleeping in a long sleeved onesie and warm pajamas with a warm, armless sleepsack. He seems fine, but my parents' house is warm. What if our house in Boston is not warm? What else can I put on him, since he can't do blankets?

* This is a simple one - but I have basically only worn flip flops and keens for the last seven years. How do you bend down to tie your shoes when you are carrying a baby who takes off the second you put him down?

* What if the kid doesn't keep the winter gear on? Sam didn't keep on gloves when we were here in Jan 2012. Her hands froze and she still didn't keep them on. She didn't get the logic of "I put the gloves on and my hands stay warm." I just got one of those super warm sleeping bag things for Elie's stroller, so hopefully he won't need gloves anyway...

* What is too cold to go outside? I can't imagine keeping my kids inside all day - we have to go do something in the afternoon or Samara is a piece of work in the evening - so shall we go to the library each day? I think we will probably just go outside unless it's below 20 or something. Is that right? Is that too cold? Who knows!

The carrying of all of the stuff plus the kid, holding the other kid's hand, while I myself am in full puffy gear with gloves (or god forbid without gloves)...it's all just a mystery at this point, but we will sort it out. Piece by piece.

On the other hand, Samara is LOVING the snow, and Elie is LOVING watching Sam love the snow. Sam needs to wear her winter boots everywhere (thanks Pam!), because she absolutely cannot handle walking where it's shoveled. She needs to walk where the snow is deepest. And she has the biggest smile on her face. And he watches her smile and cracks up.