New word
Last night I came home from the grocery store, and as I walked in the door, Evan yelled, "Blow!" Jerry had just told him to blow on his hot soup.

Evan's finally over his sickness, and for the first time since being in Denver we're all healthy. Evan has regained his spark. He's giggling, climbing on things, tickling the cat, playing with his toys, and talking! He is also arching his back, screaming, and having more tantrums. Ah, the arrival of the terrible two's.

Evan - 19 mos.

New Words
A few nights ago, Evan and I were going around the apartment saying goodnight to all the lights (turning them off), and I said, "night night, daddy" and waved at Jerry. Evan waved at him and said, "night night, da da."
!!!
We were so excited! Evan has said "night night" before, and "dada" many times, but never together in one... sentence.
Yes, his first sentence.

Then tonight, I opened the refrigerator to get something, and he ran toward the food and said, "carrot!" and took a carrot out of the bag and started to eat it.

Later, he was in his high chair, and he saw me washing grapes, and he said, "a-ga! a-ga!" while looking at the grapes, and continued on saying it until I gave him his bowl of grapes.

When he was done eating, I said, "all done?" Usually he shakes his head "no" if the answer is no, or just looks at me if the answer is yes. Today, when I asked if he was all done, he shouted, "a-da!"

His very own potty
We bought him a potty. We actually bought him a bunch of new toys tonight, because he seems to have outgrown everything. So Evan watched Jerry take a pretend kitchen out of the box and put that together, then the vacuum sweeper, and a keyboard, and the Mr. Potato Head, and then the potty. We have never talked to him before about using the potty; we had just decided we'd casually put it in the bathroom, and if he chose to sit on it, then we'd start talking about it. Well, the potty was sitting out and Evan or Jerry hadn't said anything about it, and Evan was playing with his keyboard but having trouble holding it, so Jerry set it on top of the potty so that he could use it as a table. Evan objected to this. He took the keyboard off the potty as if angry at Jerry's decision to do such a thing, and then he sat on the potty. Jerry said, "that's where you go poop." Then Evan got up and ran to the bathroom, and pointed at the bathroom door, and said, "uh! uh!" So we moved the potty into the bathroom, and Evan sat on it (fully clothed), then jumped up and pointed at the toilet paper roll, which I handed to him, then he sat down and wiped himself with toilet paper for about five minutes. He then took the paper that he had tossed into his potty and put it in the big toilet and flushed it... this went on for quite awhile until I worried about it flooding, and stopped him. Overall, I'd say he's ready for the "toilet talk." We're on a mission to buy him a really good potty book.

Getting settled

Off to a Rocky start
The last week has been rough. Because we kept having to delay our move, I had to start work the morning after Evan and I arrived in Denver. On that first morning, Jerry was driving me into work (actually, I was driving, a detail that will be important later), and Evan threw up in the backseat. This was the first time we'd ever seen such an act from our sweet babe, and I freaked out for a few moments. Luckily (for me, I guess), Jerry was the one who "caught" the results, so my clothes were fresh enough to make a good first impression at work. I almost called my boss to delay my start date, but Jerry convinced me that they'd be okay together. Of course, they were.

The second morning, the same thing happened, but this time we hadn't made it to the car yet, so Jerry and Evan stayed home. The weird thing was, Evan would get sick in the morning, but be energetic and happy the rest of the day, so we assumed it was altitude sickness.

Then Friday arrived. In the middle of the night, Jerry and I were attacked by a full-fledged, take-no-prisoners, let's-never-speak-of-this-again stomach flu. We'd never been so sick, and I am still haunted at work by visions of wretching on someone or something valuable. I won't go into details, but the actual sickness part lasted less than 24 hours, so I guess that was good. But when I realized how sick we both were, but how healthy and playful Evan was, I knew we needed help. So I called the nearest corporate childcare center and dropped Evan off for the day. I just couldn't stand the thought of him seeing us like that.

The other good news (again, if such horrors can produce any good news) is that the daycare center we randomly picked was awesome! I didn't think I would like a center... they usually seem so sterile and depressing and staffed by people who can barely speak sentences. But this was wonderful! The adults who worked there were smart, articulate, kind, clean cut, normal looking in every way, even cultured! They had great activities, including a "sensory center," where the tots can run sand through their fingers and rub feathers on their cheeks and experience other such pleasures. And they have a dress-up area with costumes and hats and props! And of course they sing songs and read books. Also, there are only 5 kids in the toddler room with one adult. I know a 1:5 ratio is pretty standard, but in the past I've seen 2 adults and 10 kids, still the same ratio, but it feels more hectic.

So, we accidentally found ourselves a daycare center to use when Jerry goes back to work. One huge thing to check off the list.

We are overwhelmed in our realization that moving is one of the most stressful life events. Our to-do list is ridiculously long with asterisks and end notes attached. Tasks like finding doctors for me and Evan, getting new license plates, finding important local businesses like Kinko's, and paying bills were not easily achieved considering we didn't have a land line for six days, my cell phone hasn't been working, we had no internet connection, and we ran out of checks.

I'll stop now.

On a positive note, my work is going well. The people are really friendly. I've been spending my first days at work reading proposals and learning how to write one. On breaks, I've identified all the cafes within a three-block radius and am satisfied -- one has internet access with private nooks, fat couches, and walls of books. There are numerous brewpubs (for dealing with above-said issues), and good restaurants. I'm still in search of the perfect mocha to match Sacramento's Naked Coffee, but I may have to settle for the perfect cup of tea, which I think I've found. Overall, LoDo (Lower Downtown, where I work) is going to work fine. I'll be even happier when the family is fully functioning and healthy, and we can venture out this weekend and get to know our new city.

We're moving to Denver!

We're moving to Denver!
We are currently between homes... Jerry is on the road right now, driving a Penske truck to Denver, and Evan and I are staying with my parents, as our old apartment is empty. Evan and I will fly to Denver on Tuesday, February 8, meet Jerry there, and move into our new apartment. I was offered a job a few weeks ago with Policy Studies, Inc. (www.policy-studies.com) as a Proposals Writer. I interviewed with the company on January 5 and it was my first choice. The people were great and the writing will be focused on health and social services... perfect for me!

Jerry and I visited Denver in January. Our goal was to check out the city and celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary (8 years as a couple). We loved the city. The downtown has excellent restaurants, lots of microbrews, cute cafes, and so many used bookstores, Jerry was giddy. We love the idea of having mountain views to the west, and four seasons. Housing is also within our price range.

I tried for almost a year to get a job in Olympia, WA, where we have dear old friends and some of Jerry's family. Olympia was not meant to be. After accepting the Denver job, I received three calls from Olympia -- two of the calls were to notify me that they lost funding for a position I'd applied for, and the third to ask me to interview for a job I'd applied for eight months ago! If I'd kept pursuing Olympia, we'd be in the same place in 2006... Shore Park apartments in Sacramento!

We feel like we're going to a city that is good for both our careers. Denver is big enough that there are tech jobs for Jerry (he won't have to commute to a larger city) and it's the capital city of CO, so there are plenty of policy-type jobs for me. And it's a destination city, so we won't feel bored on weekends, but it's not such a large city like San Francisco that we can't afford housing. It's a win-win situation for us. We'll start looking at houses about a month after we get there (first we gotta visit all the parks and hot spots, make ourselves feel at home!)

Evan, the toddler
18 months
His babyhood is just barely hanging on by a string. Our boy has developed a defiant expression, a naughty Price eyebrow, a fake "I want my way" cry, and even an Evan-style tantrum, where he lies on the floor when he doesn't want to come with me. He doesn't use his fists to pound on the floor, but he lies on his back and then looks at me to see what I'll do. I've tried, "Ok, mommy's leaving now..." which seems to work with other toddlers, but he just lies there. He could lie there all day. So I end up having to carry him off. He also insists on climbing on everything.