First Crawl

Today is Sky's 6 month birthday and the day she officially started to crawl. She is a mover, for sure, exploring and touching everything around her.

Sky 5 1/2 months

Sunny Sky

Sky loves being in her stationary entertainer. She has so much fun bouncing her little legs up and down in it. The seat also spins. She's just now learning to use her hands to explore and play with the different objects around the edge. 

Sky in her Bumbo chair

September Update

Updating this blog has become increasingly difficult with 2 small kids, but I am committed to making updates, even if it is sporadic.

Sawyer started his new preschool the day after Labor Day. He is really enjoying his new school and meeting new friends. Tonight was "Back to School Night" for the parents. It was fun to see what a typical day is like for Sawyer. There is art, music with a special music instructor, show and tell, learning to pack their own school bags in preparation for Kindergarten. Each child is also assigned a "job" they do each day like feed the classroom fish. During snack time the kids practice pouring their own water. Before going out to the playground, the kids also practice how to zip up their own jackets. They do circle time, each child picks out their own book during reading time.

What I really love about Sawyer's new school is the family atmosphere. They strongly encourage parent participation and there are many opportunities to participate. Parent meetups for coffee, potlucks and events are plenty. So far, there have already been 3 and school just started.

Sawyer with his teachers Mrs. Leonberger and Mrs. Render.

Sawyer has been spending lots of time with our neighbors' sons Patrick, Christopher, and Andrew. They live directly across the street from us. The boys love riding their bikes outside! This past Sunday, we all went to Cox Farms Fall Festival. Cox Farms is a popular seasonal event in the D.C. area. There were a ton of giant slides there, one which looked to me like a roller coaster. There were also hayrides, farm animals, a cornfield adventure, rope swings, a village, a kiddie zone, and live music all on 90 acres of land. The boys had a blast!

I have more pictures from the Farm, but they're on my phone. I'll post those later.

Here's Sawyer with his 3rd cousin Morris, 2 weekends ago.

I took Sawyer to get his 1st library card back in May in Florida. He picked out about 15 books that day to check out. We went home read them all that same day. Sawyer loves books!

Sky is growing up fast! She's now using her hands to explore things. She loves to stand up like this and loves to be on her belly.

It's true what they say about little girls....sugar and spice and everything nice. Sky is the sweetest little thing and so happy all the time. She melts my heart in a way that words simply cannot begin to describe.

Here she is blowing bubbles. She does it all the time. I'm going to have to start putting a bib on her because her shirt always ends up soaked.

We're in Virginia!

We are now official residents of Virginia! The kids and I arrived on July 29th by plane and Cliff arrived 2 days after that by car since that was the only way we could transport Enya. We spent the first 2 weeks with his parents before moving into our house. It was over 100 degrees almost the whole time we were there!

Fun at Nanny's (Grandma) and Papa's (Grandpa) house:

We moved into our lovely new house on August 12th. All I can say is, I love it here, the city and our new digs!

We live in Fairfax, a suburb 20 minutes southwest of Washington D.C. It is very scenic, lots of hills and valleys and all of the roads seem to wind through miles of forest. It's surprising how much forest is still left considering how densely populated this area is. It's quite beautiful here, and I'm looking forward to exploring it all. We've met some wonderful neighbors. Our neighbor directly across the street have 4 kids; 1 is a teen, but the other 3 are 6, 4, and 2. Sawyer has had several play dates with them already. The boys love to ride their bikes up and down the neighborhood.

One thing that stood out to me is how much shopping there is. Every major retailer you can think of has a presence here. Groceries alone, there is Wegmans, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Harris Teeter, Costco, Safeway, Giant, etc. all within a few miles of our house. I was also thrilled to discover just how many Asian and international grocery stores there are, something I missed quite a bit while living in Florida. Since this area is approximately 27% Asian, finding delicious Asian food is not hard at all! The demographics here remind me very much of the SF Bay Area.

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. We spent our 2nd weekend here at Cliff's parents lake house in Lake Gaston, North Carolina. It sounds far, but since they live in Southern Virginia, it only takes an hour to get there from their house. Sawyer had a blast! It was his 1st time swimming in a lake, but he was a pro. I think he had the most fun when Nanny (Grandma) took him on the pontoon boat with a bunch of people. He met 2 little boys, Brady (5) and Travis (2) and hit it off with them. Lake Gaston is filled with kids of all ages during the Summer and it feels like you're at Summer Camp. Cliff grew up going there so I got a tour of his old stomping grounds.

One night, we went to eat in a house turned restaurant that was built in 1792. The front of the restaurant is the original house and had a very distinct smell. All I can say is, it smelled like 1792!

Cliff's friends Paul and his wife JJ came over our 2nd day here with a car load of food and cooked us a welcome to VA feast. It's so nice to live near good friends!

My best friend Tomomi also surprised us with a beautiful fruit bouquet from Edible Arrangements!

I've already found a new preschool for Sawyer! School starts right after Labor Day.