on cue

In yet another example of how Ally understands more than we realize, today she smiled upon request for the first time. When she was younger, I would coax smiles by making funny faces or singing songs or doing other things I am glad no one captured on film. These methods haven't been working for months, though, which is why I don't have many smiley pictures of Ally. Today she began playing with some puzzles she received for Christmas (these are great! Thanks, Katy, Olivia, and Ryan!) and I asked her to smile, and she did. Wow.

So then I said, "Ally, would you like to take your picture in front of the Christmas tree?" And she said, "yes," and went to stand by the tree and then she posed. Doesn't she look proud?

just like mommy

Ally and I spent much of Christmas day in the kitchen-- I in mine, Ally in hers. Ally loves her new kitchen set. Most popular is the way the little burners sizzle when a pot is placed on them, followed closely by pretending to wash her hands in the sink. When it was nap time yesterday, she pitched quite a fit as I dragged her away from Santa's bounty.

The holiday was quite lovely this year. A simple menu meant less work than usual preparing the meal and a bit more space in the new house meant that we didn't bump into each other during the present-opening extravaganza. Rob surprised me with Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii, which we are now playing with great gusto as part of our promise to accomplish pretty much nothing today.

paper

"Ally, what's in the newspaper?"
"TV!!!"
(Looking at the Best Buy ad) "Yes, that's right. There are TVs."
"I like it!"
"They are nice TVs."
"I like it TOO!!"

commencing

Today marks the end of an era for Rob and I. Our entire life together has been structured by school, with no breaks longer than a few months before the return to the grind of working during the day and studying in the evenings. We feel exhausted and giddy at the prospect of spending nights together at home, finding hobbies and interests like normal people, and never again driving the circuit of Hilltop Circle in search of parking. The thought of being nothing more than working parents seems to promise more free time than we could ever imagine. I think that means we don't have an excuse to not exercise any longer, but for the next few weeks we plan to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to video games, excellent microbrews, and afternoon naps. Bliss!

not so redi

After two weeks of living in a fish bowl every night, we broke down and bought 13 redi shades to gain a bit more privacy as we wait for our real blinds to arrive in early January. They were very easy to install, though they aren't quite long enough for our very tall windows. Unfortunately they keep falling down. Some extra tape seems to be holding them in place now, but this past week each morning we would wake to find more shades on the floor collapsed in a defeated heap.

Their failures inspired great interest in Matilda, who crawled into them and slept.

Meanwhile Ally really likes the little clips used to raise and lower the shades. I gave her a half dozen to see and she pulled them around in her wagon, arranged them in lines on the kitchen floor, and then dragged them around the room on a blanket. Here she is lying down with them. I'm not sure why these overalls won't stay snapped... pretty annoying.

mr. toolman

With school rapidly becoming a distant memory (let's ignore my final next week for the sake of argument), the past two nights have been spent doing house projects and once again enjoying each other's company by eating birthday cake and watching a rather bad mini-series on the sci fi chanel. Last night we carefully installed the baby gate at the top of the stairs. The last time we installed this gate we made a number of mistakes and spent almost two hours feeling more and more frustrated as we broke screws into our old banisters. This time we measured many, many times and completed the job in about an hour.

Tonight we (o.k., Rob... I was moving bathroom rugs around) turned to installing a cat door in the basement door. This project was anticipated greatly as for the past week we've had the door open with a baby gate that we must open and close again and again as the cats meow to come upstairs (for our company) or go downstairs (for their food and litter). The project went really well.

Here's Rob cutting a hole in our door. The saw was really loud.

Next, he installed the little door pieces around the hole.

The finished product.

Leela checks it out. The door comes with a personalized label. Very cute.

signatures

I know that somewhere today a signature was probably doing something very important... like signing a peace treaty or a new law or a marriage or birth certificate. But the most important signature to us is the one on Rob's graduate research project penned by his adviser at noon today and delivered on time to the graduate school. Though his adviser wishes him to do some revisions and add some more material for submission to a conference, we'd like to shout into cyberspace that Rob is graduating this December! Huzzah. Congratulations, sweetheart.

why we need a new camera

I have some mediocre to bad pictures of the house... I think we need a new camera! Or I need to learn a bit more about photography.

Dining room

Kitchen

Breakfast nook

Family room

where are the scissors?

It's the first Sunday after the move and there are still boxes in the basement. Our storage facility remains full. Our first-floor windows are uncovered and we haven't even ordered blinds yet except a "test blind" to see if we like a particular style... estimated delivery? 2-3 weeks. The garage door opener isn't installed, so our cars remain parked outside. There are 8 messages blinking on our answering machine from various contractors who wish to schedule appointments for work to be done-- humidifier adjustments, fireplace switch replacement, garage door replacement, etc. Rob's graduate project is due tomorrow, so he has spent the majority of his time in the new home squirreled away in a second story bedroom with the door closed, working frantically. So we haven't quite settled yet. All these issues said, though, a few things we love about our new home, and a promise that pictures are forthcoming tomorrow when I find the darn camera.

• On our moving day, our next door neighbor brought us homemade chai tea, cookies, and snack mix.
• We can make as much noise as we want without worrying about the neighbors. In celebration, Ally threw her sippy cup and we didn't reprimand her. Bang!
• High-powered kitchen burner seems to boil water twice as fast. All the better to make mac and cheese with, my dear.
• Quiet quiet quiet heating, cooling, dishwasher, washing machine.
• I love my vinyl kitchen floor. Seriously. Best decision I made.