We Get Out of Falls Church for the Day

Healthwise, 2012 has not been so good to us.  Not that we have chronic illnesses or anything, thank-goodness, just we've been hit with back to back viruses.  We had the cough and congestion crud, then the stomach flu, back to cough and congestion.  Lulu and I never get sick and here we are all sick and stuff.  My all-knowing sister, Meredith, made a good point about being in a new environment and in closer quarters than we're used to (soviet style apartment life) so maybe we are a little more susceptible to new germs.  I don't like it one bit.  I had all these plans to go into the city every weekend and really enjoy our time here, but so far this year we've been kinda  cooped up.  Poor Lulu even missed 3 class sessions of her little toddler programs. This weekend we finally made it out to the Smithsonian.  Lulu really likes to ride the metro and she does a great job letting us be geeky and look at all the museum stuff.

Other things we've gotten to do between illnesses is host a few dinners, celebrate Chinese New Year, discover a couple new great parks (there are more great parks around here than anywhere i've ever known), and hit up the local thrift stores. Especially goodwill - i am seriously thinking i should be a full time shopper for used children's clothes i find the best stuff these days.  I've been out looking for nice clothes for Lulu for Brazil. Darrin discovered that kids clothes there are 3x more expensive so I'm working an inventory.
Anytime I preshop for Lulu I always think that the clothes are so big she'll never fit into them.  But I know better.  She grows and grows.  Child development never ceases to amaze me.  Lulu is making all these huge leaps in cognition, language, and motor skills. When you watch these things happen to your own child, all that teachery knowledge and second hand experience of watching other children grow becomes obsolete. In case you're interested, but you're probably not since this is our kid but whatevs, I'm still going to talk about it (ha!) - new things that Lulu is up to these days:

• Rides her balance bike...youtube balance bikes if you're unfamiliar...best invention ever and has seriously improved Lulu's desire to do physical activities. She tends to prefer literacy activities, make believe, and fine motor things like paint and playdough.  But lots of practice on the balance bike seems to have made her more confident and agile in many gross motor activities.  She has better balance - go figure.
• Draws circles, zigzags, and straight lines when asked to.
• Names basic shapes. 
• Knows some letters - C, O, D, and others depending on day (so random). And pretends to read everything. 
• Asks questions about things - "how it works?"
• Is bossy and controlling - "that bad manners." "that's mine." Pushing and hitting (cringe).  Throws fits to get her way.  Knows about time-out and does not want to have one.
• Is diaper free all day long and rarely has accidents. Old fashioned training pants are the cutest things ever!
• Shows compassion - worries over other kids crying and wants to know that their parents will take care of them.  
• Continues to be our little love.  Obviously.

Enough already, right?!  Here's the picture montage of our day at the Museum of American History.

Waiting for  the "mecho chain."

Our metro line from East Falls Church to the Smithsonian  no transfers.  How lucky is that?!

East Falls Church is the first (or last depending on what way you're going) stop above ground.  The next stop (Ballston ) is underground.

Playing ball waiting for the train.

It was kind of a long wait at the station today.  We had time to kill.

Lulu insists on her own seat.

The D.C. Metro is complex.

At the Smithsonian stop.

Some days when I'm driving in Virginia I can see the Washington Monument. It makes me remember where I live now.

I love the cheesiness of this picture.  I was like "I'm gonna pose for an action shot." And this is what we got!

Check out the garden.  Wow.

I loved these WWII propaganda posters.

Advertisements for WWII VA loans.  So CLICHE!

Jewish boys taking a break.  This I also loved.

Jim Henson's early puppets.  The pop-culture exhibit was disappointing, but they are currently redoing it.  I love pop-culture.

A fabulous metal flag.

This actor was portraying a civil rights era training session for non-violent demonstration.  Timeless.  He was amazing.

From ABQ to D.C./Va in thirteen parts. This being the second post of three.

Halloween in a Hotel

7. Now we get to the actual relocating part. We left from ABQ on November 1.  On Halloween we stayed in a hotel b.c. we had nothing left in our house.  I was super bummed that Lulu didn't get to dress up and go trick-or-treating, but she had fun swimming in the pool at our hotel instead. Lulu and I flew to Michigan. She learned to climb out of her pack and play there and spent every night crowding me out of bed.  Oh well...it's always worth it to reconnect with our family and that is all we did.  Lulu was great on all the plane trips and she sat in her own seat for the first time which made a huge difference on my sanity. I lugged her car seat through the airport but it was worth it to have her contained, comfortable, and asleep for much of the flights.  Oh yes, and we left our beloved dog, Pippa, with Darrin's mom and dad.  She's an old dog and we didn't think apartment living and world traveling would be right for her....BOOHOO, WAAAA.  I love that dog!

Lulu loves baby Mihren.

My dream come true...
Lulu behaves on the plane.

8. We joined Darrin in Falls Church, VA.  Falls Church is about 10 minutes from D.C. just west of Arlington.  It seems like any suburb with plenty to do.  It's pretty diverse and not too exciting, but it seems fine. One thing I am seriously disappointed in is the quality of community children's programs it offers more on that later.  We live in furnished short term apartments which seems to house mostly foreign service people and others somehow associated with the foreign service.  It has a shuttle that takes Darrin to the Foreign Service Institute everyday (and brings him home too, of course).  
9.  Lulu learned to climb out of her crib in the apartment.  We've had a one bedroom apartment b/c they had a waiting list for two bedrooms and Lulu had a crib in the bedroom.  Second night here she let herself out.  We said goodbye to the crib and put the mattress on the floor for her.
10. We've been getting around and keeping ourselves BUSY!  We've gone into D.C. a few times on the metro which is easy and convenient to use.  We've gone to some fabulous farmer's market where I am happy to find humanely raised meat products and other fine food.  I've been Christmas shopping and finding my way around Falls Church.  

Lulu and her new friend Solveig

As I said earlier, I've been looking for quality children's programs for Lulu and this has been my biggest complaint so far.  I think part of it has to do with my teacher's eye.  We have a little activity center at the apt. complex here and there are programs for toddlers three mornings a week.  Two of them are called Kiddy Korner.  Basically, the activity director of the complex sets out bins of toys and the kids have a free for all.  This drives me nuts!  It is utter CHAOS.  The toys are disorganized and you have to search through the buckets to find pieces.  There are so many toys that kids are tripping over them constantly.  I am appalled that this is even an acceptable activity.  Do the other mothers find it appropriate?  I wish I were brave enough to complain or even make a suggestion to organize the toys and designate parts of the room for different activities (blocks, dolls, puzzles, etc.)  On a positive note I did meet another mom whose husband is in Darrin's class.  She has a daughter just two months older than Lulu and we have gotten together several times.  The other activity here at the  complex is a 'music' group.  Here the activity director puts in a Raffi cd and has a sing along while all the other mothers sit around and talk.  I cannot stand this!!!  No wonder kids come to school and talk while their teachers are talking.  GRRR!  
So I started looking outside the complex for activities.  I started with the library since we loved going to the main library in ABQ for the music class and story hours each week.  Falls Church has a beautiful library housed in a lovely old brick building and an open children's room with big bright windows and amphitheater like seating.  When I first arrived, I thought 'this is going to be great!'  I was wrong.  The librarian read seven books and did three 30 second finger plays.  This class was specifically for 18 - 36 months.  After the second book most of the kids were acting up, but the librarian didn't seem to mind and just went on reading only to take a break after the third to do some fingerplays.  At that point, I was thinking it might be o.k. but as I said she only did three and then went back to reading.  Honestly, I was bored.  Lulu was a champ and held up pretty well, but jeesh, come on.  Again wishing I could be brave enough to make a comment to someone.  Of course, we had a good time checking out books after and the library has a great selection of wooden puzzles to play with.  I haven't been back for another story hour, but I'm hoping that there is another librarian who conducts some of the other ones.
Next I went to the county rec center which advertised music and gym classes.  The music class was first and in the teacher's defense it was better than the other activities we'd been to, but not much. The teacher was a little on the crazy side.  I ended up asking for a refund on the gymnastics class because it was taught by the same teacher. We went to the second class today and it was better.  Maybe I'm just too critical. I'm not giving up though and I have a few other classes to try that start in January at the Arlington Rec Center.  Keeping my fingers crossed! I am also going to start taking Lulu to the Smithsonian once a week.  I hear the Natural History Museum is a hit with the toddlers.  

Lulu turns 2...aka Christmas

December 22nd is Lulu's birthday.  It fell on the solstice this year which I absolutely love.  The winter solstice is my favorite.  While it marks the shortest day of the year, it also means a return of light, a promise that winter will not hang on forever and that we will begin again to have longer days. Christmas fare at our house - a bright tree, shining metallic ornaments, strings of lights and shimmery garland, and plants that bloom in winter - symbolizes this desire to have more light, to remind the sun to keep shining again through the new year.  Her name, AnaLucia, means grace and light, a name chosen so carefully more than two years ago.  Of course she has graced us with her own little shining light. Her birthday provides us a special moment to be grateful for the changing of seasons, to be graced again with the return of the sunlight, to remember things that are bright and new even as the world seems dark and old.  
Here are some pictures from our brightest of holidays.

Making our tree Merry and Bright.

Mmmm...cookie dough.

Decorating Sugar Cookies for Santa

Party Girls.

I made cupcakes...not pretty but delish if i do say so myself.

This is Lulu's 'Smile' face.  We visited the Natural History Museum on her birthday.

Darrin took her on her first carousel ride - on the mall in d.c.

Sleeping on the Metro on the ride home from Smithsonian.

Santa visited Oakwood on a fire truck.  Little bit scary for Lulu.

I've started a tradition of taking Lulu's picture each Christmas in her stocking.  It's hard to believe this was her third Christmas!  Look how she's grown!

Flag Day and Swearing In

Darrin in good spirits at the start of flag day.

My life goes by in the blink of an eye.  Does that happen to you too?  Jeesh.  Now then.  On December 9th we attended a very special event called Flag Day at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI).  Lulu and I met Darrin there since he had a tour of the CIA that morning (but since the CIA doesn't exist I'm not sure what he was really doing.  He did bring home some presents from the gift shop though.)  Flag Day is the ceremony where the new hires get to find out where their first post will be.  In November, Darrin received the bid list of open posts and submitted his preferences to his career adviser.  There were 52 open posts and he had to rank each of them as high, medium, or low.  He ranked all the posts in Latin America as high and medium and all the posts in Asia and Africa as low.  I was a bit of a wreck up to the day of the ceremony.  I was waking up almost every night thinking about Ciudad Juarez.  That was a very real possibility for us.  I was sort of sure that we were going there.  I mean I was waking up thinking about what I would do if we got posted there.  I had an apartment in Albuquerque in my plans.  Darrin was one of the last names called.  I had the list printed out with me and kept checking off the posts as they were called.  Juarez was still on the list when they called him but phew we got Sao Paulo, Brazil instead.  HOLY COW!  We are going to Brazil.  Sao Paulo is the biggest city in the southern hemisphere. It is 21 million people!  Talk about culture shock!  We are super excited and feel like we got one of the best posts available.  Woot!

Just received the Brazil flag.

Our friends with their China flag.  They are going to Shanghai.  Shin is Malaysian and won't need language training.  Lucky!

Our Family.  Lulu held that flag tight for the rest of the day.

Another friend going to China.  Ariel's family is going to Beijing. 

Lulu is ready for Brazil.  She thought we were leaving right away.

The next week, on December 16, Darrin had his swearing in ceremony which means he is officially a foreign service officer.  This ceremony was at Main State which is State Department headquarters in D.C. - where Ms. Clinton herself has a very fancy office - I actually got to see it.  It was all very official and nowhere near as fun as Flag Day where everyone was whooping it up.  Darrin's parents came for the swearing in and thank god they did because Grammie is a god-send for Lulu and knows just how to keep her occupied...with candy.  We took the metro in and a taxi back and I impressed everyone with my taxi hailing skills, just like in Laverne and Shirley.  

Even double fisting the licorice, Lulu wants no part of the swearing in ceremony.

164th A-100 Class.  52 members taking their oath to office.  

Do I see a future diplomat?

From ABQ to D.C./Va. in thirteen parts. This being the final post.

11. We went to see Santa! (aka. We spent a day with some other families from Darrin's class).  We drove over to Reston to see Santa come in on a pontoon boat.  Lulu was excited about Santa and even sat next to him.  O.k. she clung to me the whole time, but she didn't scream so I count that as a success!  There was a little corral with animals and Lulu love love loved the baby bunnies.  After the Santa event we went to one of Darrin's colleagues house and ate chili and watched the all the kids play.  It was really a nice beautiful day.  Everyone was very friendly and excited to be part of this new adventure.  That evening we went and got some little trees at Michael's and came back and decorated for Christmas.  

 12. We moved. Again.  Remember before I said we were on a waiting list for a two bedroom apartment.  Well we got it.  Yay! (mostly). So we got all our Christmas stuff up over the weekend and on Monday I got a call from Darrin at work asking me if I'd forgotten something. No, I hadn't.  Well he had gotten a call from some lady in the leasing  department saying that she'd called and talked to me two weeks ago and scheduled our move for the weekend (the weekend where we'd just put up all our Christmas junk).  You would think that I would remember that phone call!  Yeah, I never talked to that lady which makes me wonder who exactly did she talk to??  So we started packing up all our stuff on Monday and hauling it over from 1st floor building D to 3rd floor building B.  We moved one load on Monday night and then on Tuesday I moved two loads on my own.  Then Tuesday night we moved a bunch more.  Of course it rained the whole time and over the weekend when we could have moved it was sunny and warm.  We got most of it done but as I write this it is Wednesday and I have about two more carloads to move but it's pouring down rain all day again today and I am just going to go ahead and wait for Darrin to come home to do it together.  I am just glad to be in the two bedroom.  It has a lot more room - more than just a bedroom.  It has an extra walk in closet, full bathroom, and extra kitchen and living room space.  Now I just have to transition Lulu into her own room again and a real bed.
13. Looking forward.  This Friday (two days from today) is Flag Day.  We will be finding out where Darrin's first post will be.  It will be a big festive day and I am really looking forward to it.  Of course, I am a bit nervous to that we will not get a post that we want, but that's life and we'll make do.  It's only for two years.  After that, next Friday, Darrin will have his swearing-in ceremony and then he will be done with his initial training.  His parents are coming and staying until Lulu's second birthday which we are really looking forward to as they are are first visitors and it's just such a special time of year especially with Darrin's job and all.  


That's it, nothing more...phew...I will really be trying to update this blog thing more often.  Talk about information OVERLOAD.  

From ABQ to D.C./Va. in thirteen parts. This being the first post of three.

Oh wow how things have progressed.  I have had no time to sit down and try to record what's happened in our lives since October.  It has been fast and furious that's for sure.  I'm gonna break it down here in a series of steps and add some pictures that I've taken if they pertain.
1. We put our house on the market and it SOLD to the very first person who looked at it.  How great is that?!  Made us feel pretty good about ourselves as home owners.  We lost a little because of the market but whatevs.  It was worth it to have the peace of mind and not have to worry about it anymore.

Unassisted Baggage - 590lbs o' fun.

2. We packed up all our schiznit in to two separate loads.  One was unassisted baggage (UAB) - this up to but not over 600lbs of living stuff we'd need in our new apartment which is furnished.  We packed up 590lbs.  The second load was everything else in our house (household effects) which is currently being stored somewhere north of D.C. and which is not easily accessible (basically we can't get to it until we're ready to leave for our first post). It was a little difficult to decide what we would need and what we wouldn't.  We definitely could have used some more kitchen items, hangers for clothes, and we could have done without our own towels and maybe our bikes b/c Falls Church is not uber bike friendly and it's cold and rainy here. But other than that we did pretty good on packing. I guess packing is the wrong way to put it since we really didn't 'pack' anything. What a relief it was to have someone else do that for us!  

When someone else packs your stuff it ends up in nice pretty boxes.

3. I resigned from my job.  Sob...it was really hard to say goodbye to all my colleagues!  I was also truly loving my part-time job sharing first grade classroom this year.  
4. I said goodbye to my friends and to Albuquerque.  Sob...I made some really GREAT friends in Albuquerque.  I'm also going to miss the climate there.  I am not used to all the clouds and rain we've been getting here in Falls Church.
5. We said good-bye to Lulu's babysitter, Frances.  If I'd known how great having Lulu in daycare part-time was going to be for her I would have done it a year ago.  What a blessing Frances was to our family!  She truly made a difference in Lulu's little life in just 3 months (and ours too).

Lulu helping out at garage sale.
 "What you're selling this?"

6. We had a garage sale and sold a ton o stuff on craig's list.  Including my car which we sold on the day before we moved.  Crazy how things work out!