Settling in

D: When will it start to feel like home here?
W: (Knowing that she wants to see a date on the calendar) Well, honey, it's hard to say. It's really something that happens slowly over some time, not really like one thing happens that suddenly makes it home. Does it still not feel like home here to you?
D: No. I miss our old house and I miss my friends in New Hampshire.

Me too. Well, not really the house, just the trees. I told her it takes me about a year to feel settled in a new place. Of course, she doesn't know how long that is and it probably won't take her that long. We're getting there, making friends, learning our way around. But the excitement of newness is wearing off for her, so the difficulty of starting all over is starting to hit.

How fun!

Concord grapes, picked from our yard-


Fruit leather- my first attempt, ever!


It's like grape jelly in your hand mmmmmm.....

Pictures

Corryn, almost 20 months, in the front yard:

Dillon shucking corn. Mmmm...yummy Midwest sweet corn:

Our back yard-
Just kidding- it's really a local park :)

Up and Down

That's where we are- good and bad, up and down. Dillon has made a couple of friends, but is still definitely missing her friends in NH. She spent a good bit of time with one of her new friends-one of our neighbors this weekend. Unfortunately, the fun ended when the little girl- M- got in Peaches face & Peaches responded by snapping at her, leaving red marks on M's face. No broken skin, but scared M quite a bit. I just knew that would be the last time M would be able to come over to our house.

I talked with M's mom last night after the excitement all settled. She was very understanding and assures me that M will still be able to come over. Her husband was more upset by it, but says he'll be OK with it. I assured her that Peaches will be kept out of kids' access from now on. Peaches has always been so good with my kids, I just never imagined she'd snap at another kid. In any case, lesson learned.

I'm enjoying having Dave around more, though it's lonelier now that he's gone back to work. I liked the moms at the homeschool group last week and have made friends with M's mom, though she works full time. I have to admit that I don't really enjoy this process of starting all over again. Certainly I like making new friends, but enjoy it much more in the setting of having an established set of friends rather than having to do it from scratch.

It's still good overall, really. I know that it takes time and we've not been here that long. We're checking out the parks in the area, doing our best get out and do things. Corryn's unpredictable napping makes it hard to participate in things since I know if I take her somewhere when she's tired or likely to be tired on the way home, there will be screaming in the car seat the entire way home. I hate having her scream in the car seat, but I don't really think it benefits us mentally to be home all day waiting for her to nap. It's all about the balance and I'm struggling some with establishing a new rhythm and routine for us.

Here are a couple of recent pictures. Notice the new bike-

Must wear big sister's helmet even though I have my own that also belonged to big sister...