In Preparation

In preparation for yet another move.. we've begun "the cleanse".  You know, the now seemingly annual ritual of summer cleaning that involves clearing out closets, file cabinets, the pantry etc etc.  Knock on wood, we're still eating relatively normally -- but there are definitely fewer choices to be had.  We're munching our way though boxes of pasta, random snacks and a few odds and ends in the freezer.  :)  I've collected a box of shoes for donation, a box of clothes and some random electronics too.  The moving company is coming tomorrow morning for our walk through and to help get us some estimates on timing for our departure from NO and our arrival into NYC.

While there are still many things we haven't experienced here in New Orleans, we're ready to go.  Wren hasn't gotten to visit the zoo in Audubon Park and I know the kids would love to go back to the Aquarium.  The kids would also like to go back to City Park and the Storybook Play area inside.  We may still do that if it's not impossibly hot one weekend.... The other option for this weekend is to go by Hansen's Sno-Bliz, which I hear is the best place in town for sno-balls.  And for those curious, apparently sno-balls are COMPLETELY different than the average sno-cone!  :)  Hansen's even has it's own webiste!  That should be an easy one to check off the NOLA to-do list before we head out!

Hey, Hey, Hey... Look who's Four!

Holy moly - our little man turns four years old today.  What a whirlwind.  Atticus continues on a daily basis to impress, inspire, and infuriate me.  An odd combination one would think - but what can I say.  Every now and then a pure gem pops out of his mouth as only a toddler can come up with... A couple of nights ago, he looked at me completely deadpan and asked to see my funky chicken.  :)  Once I gleaned that this was from his Drama class at camp, I got him to dance around and show me HIS funky chicken.

Atticus continues to amaze us all with his non stop energy.  Literally non stop until he passes out.  I was actually wondering how old one needs to be to enroll in track?  I think he may still be too young for track, but I'm definitely looking into some gymnastics classes in New York where he can jump on a trampoline until his heart is content.  I may actually look into getting one of the little trampolines for the house -- something like this ONE perhaps?  Sounds thrilling, no?  I'm sure the kids will love it.

He is smart, engineering, ever curious and constantly hungry.  :)  He loves his sister and and wants nothing to do with her at the same time.  He has decided that thunder is G-d racing cars in heaven.  He has a big heart and feeds the feral cats in the backyard every morning (Toot Toot, Oreo and Doyle?)  He loves Lightening McQueen even though he won't sit through 2 minutes of the Cars movie.  He loves watching roller coaster videos on YouTube.  Here's one of the current favorites.




Atticus is definitely a handful, but I am proud of most of his choices and I know he's growing up to be a good kid.  :)  Happy birthday Boo.

Big Apple, Here We Come

Apartment is secured.  Moving company is coming out next week to do the walk-through and set up dates.  Last piece of the puzzle is to figure out daycare/pre-K for the city.  I know, kind of funny, huh?  We actually thought that part would have been the first solved piece of the move -- guess someone had other plans!  We've talked to the sister facility of the daycare the kids attend now, and they're "pretty confident" that there will be room for Atticus and that if he gets in, it'll bump Wren up on the priority list.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement - but it's the best we've got at the moment.

I've called a few other places in the new neighborhood about pre-K and surprise, surprise - all of their pre-K programs are booked.  What is it with this city?  I was also looking into the public community based pre-K programs that are free (that would be a bonus) but we'll have to wait until we arrive since we have to have two pieces of identification that prove our local "status".  I understand the need to prove you're a local when spots are so hard to come by -- but it makes it REALLY difficult for those of us moving right at the start of the school year!

This site HERE actually has some cool layouts and floor plans of the new building.  There's also a brief description of the neighborhood found HERE.  If you want to read more about the Upper East Side in general - that information is available HERE.

Circus

Our lives have been a bit of a circus lately - travel plans, random 24 hour bugs, a lice "scare" at camp, weddings, apartments, Target.com drama... you know, just the normal three ring circus for the Badens.

I came to the conclusion last night that errant fireworks in our neighborhood sound a LOT like gunshots.  I don't like to think that some of the sounds could have been gunshots.  I'm going to go with the assumption that they were all fireworks set off by the incompetent masses.  (As a side note, did you see the article that someone in San Diego 'accidentally' triggered ALL of their fireworks to go off all at once?  At the start of the evening?  OOOOOPS!)  Atticus was doing alright watching some of the Macy's Day show on tv and trying to peek out the windows of the living room to see if he could see anything here (he couldn't).  All was fine until about midnight when he came racing into our room and climbed literally on top of me and hung on for dear life.  His little heart was racing!  So... I spent last night attempting to sleep next to one very wiggly and squirmy little boy.  Otherwise, we did have a pretty good 4th of July.  We went to our favorite park in the morning and then out for burgers and ice cream before nap.  It was Atticus's first time with an actual ice cream cone.  His face was priceless when we told him that he could actually eat the cone!  He told Greg that he thought it was made from wood!

So... while our life is crazy to say the least, we're all heathy.  I ask any of you reading to keep a family friend in your thoughts.  Sara is having open heart surgery tomorrow to remove some bacteria from the valves in her heart that refuse to clear up with antibiotics.  And... my cousin gave birth early yesterday to a little baby girl who was stuck in the birthing canal for 6 minutes.  She's still in ICU being evaluated.

Love to both of them...