One man's creepy is another man's comfort.

This is baby Eli.

This is how Eli looked any time Myka tried to hold him.

This is how Eli looked any time anyone other than Mom or Dad tried to hold him.

This is how Eli looked any time he was uncomfortable. Which was most of the time.

This is how Eli looked in a dress.

And this is how pretty much ANY one year old looks while being held by a human dressed as a giant, egg-laying bunny so mom and dad can take a picture.

But THIS? This is how far we've come in 21 months.

365 Things to do in Joliet

We are getting used to our new surroundings.

We have a library card, a fitness pass, Park District info for swim lesson sign ups, and thanks to a major road closure this week - a knowledge of a variety of ways to get from one place to another.

Everyday items are all put away. Paint swatches are scattered about waiting for decisions to be made and paint sales to be offered, and wall decorations are waiting to be the last step for this place to actually feel like "home."

So we have had a few days lately that were actually a little boring. And that was OK.

There is a book I've had for a number of years in my teacher collection called 365 things to do on a Saturday. With this move its final resting place is on a shelf in the toy room with all of Myka's other crafty stuff. She found it and asked if we could do something from that book, so last Saturday I found an activity I thought would work. We went fishing!

I drew the fish and Myka cut them, gave them faces, and gave them all a point value. Meanwhile I constructed two poles and found enough paper clips for each fish to participate. We had a good time fishing in the kitchen and seeing who earned the most points. Since then we have added seaweed, starfish, sea horses and an octopus to the "ocean". The poles have only been used as weapons a couple of times and I don't have to worry about storing dead fish in my freezer, so I count it as a success.

We have arrived!

Well, this officially marks the longest period between posts as when I logged in I see it has been exactly a month since I have been to this site.

I would like to point out that for almost 2 weeks of that time we were without our main computer. And for about a total of a week worth of that time I got less than 4 hours of sleep a night. And for 5 days of that time we were technically homeless. So really it has only been like 3 days since my last post. (OK, some of those things may have overlapped a little, but I'm happy to report we should be back to regular updates now that we are settled.)

We have successfully moved from Cedar Falls to Joliet, IL. It has been a whirlwind of a month but we love our new house and are starting to fall into a routine and find our way around our new city. We have moved within an hour of extended family and within 2 minutes of a wonderful college friend and her family that have been more than helpful with our transition. Myka has started preschool and other than an overwhelming moment when we arrived the first day has already started bossing the other kids around made some friends. Eli still just goes with the flow and is enjoying the new toy room, easy access kitchen pantry, and some alone time in the street in front of the house.

We miss the familiarity of our small Iowa town as well as the wonderful people we know there. We had one last goodbye with Myka's SAHM's Club friends and their families before we left. She asks about them often and we are excited to get back and visit them as much as we can.

Thank you Cedar Falls friends for a wonderful 3.5 years! We look forward to all of you visiting sometime very soon!