september to remember

Here we are, closing out the first month of my life as a New Yorker with another relatively great week. Everyone is adjusting to their new roles and circumstances fairly well, I think. All the wonderful goodness of working for a benefits consulting firm kicks in tomorrow (that is, excellent medical and dental and all that other stuff) for employee + family, so we can start getting out teeth cleaned, fillings and prescriptions filled, Felix can get his 15 month checkup during his 15th month (assuming we can pick out a pediatrician in that short amount of time), and life can resume without that "without a net" feeling we've been having ever since I quit my last job, the prescriptions ran out, and Felix developed a runny nose.

Felix is walking, if you hadn't heard or seen the video. Actually, he's running now too. He still prefers to knee-walk or crawl depending on the terrain, but he is quickly shifting from crawling to knee walking to walk walking quite easily. Now it appears that he chooses his ambulatory style based on the intended altitude of his hands and face. If he's in the sand or grass, he stays on his knees to move fast and quickly goes ot crawling so he can see whatever is on the ground up close. If he's coving lots of territory he will stick to his knees, drop to all fours for sudden bursts of cheetah-like speed, or rise to his feet if he wants to get or grab on to something that is above his shoulder-level or above his head. I think he still finds walking completely upright to be something of a trick or a hobby; not something that you do all the time and not when you mean business. But that is slowly changing, too. He's also become a much more avid climber, if you can imagine that. His major development today was that he rose from kneeling to standing without pushing up with his hands at all. It was all leg. Kneeling to one-leg up to crouching to standing in a relatively (I expect unconscious) fluid motion. He wobbled a little at the top but then ran off in zig-zag fashion. When this kid learns how to lean into his turns we'll need to install speed bumps and edge-guards.

I had a good work week, accomplishing a relatively major task in the time allotted and also laying the groundwork for some pretty major future changes. I still really like my job and I like the people there a lot too. I'm quickly learning the pros and cons of working in a smaller company, but luckily not a tiny company. As far as size goes, we've got a pretty sophisticated operation going, IT wise.

Andrea comes home most nights glowing with what I can only describe as job satisfaction. It is something of an alien experience for her to really like, no, love her job. She often speaks of her job as a double-whammy, "Like getting paid to get a masters, that's how much I'm learning. I get master-level critiques almost every day!!!" And this whole weekend, a gorgeous indian-summer weekend in Brooklyn, Andrea keeps falling into a mystified mantra of, "Oh my god I love our neighborhood, I don't ever want to leave here." And I agree, it is very nice. One of my little refreshers after a day of work is to take Felix for a walk up and down 7th Avenue and just window shop ro pick up some odds and ends, and just be in the neighborhood. This area absolutely teems with life, with activity, but, I don't know how to describe it so much as just "the good kind." We are all very happy to be here. I know we've made some tremendous leaps and landed on some pretty amazing (and incredibly stable) ledges on the far side, so I don't expect that our story is anything but the exception to the rule. But you know, I really doubt there's a real rule. For our set of circumstances, we probably did exactly what should have been done and had exactly what should have happened happen. Life is good.

My 32nd birthday was a non-event, and as such was probably one of my most enjoyable birthdays of late. In a way, it's nice to not have a bunch of people get together or go through so much effort because then I don't feel like anyone was put out by it and also that no one felt pressure to attend, etc. It is just another way in which the distance between here and Minnesota is more than a little freeing. I don't have to worry about organizing any events and I don't have to even consider motives for people not being able to attend. Its win-win all around.

One of these days Andrea will be emailing or posting or maybe just describing, pictures of our apartment post-unpacking.

And the odd ting is, it feels like we just got here and as if we've been here forever, all at the same time, all after 30 days.

We're all liking, if not loving, our new jobs, we're collecting paychecks, we're paying bills, and Felix finally made it through a whole night in his own bed. Here's hoping for two in a row.

And now something from home:

Brooklyn's in the house!