No more diapers!

 For nearly 10 years I have kept a blog called The Diaper Diaries documenting our life with little ones and we have been a diaper free home for about 4 months now.  Time is a thief.  I can barely remember those diaper days now and I'm so grateful I kept up my blog so faithfully during the cutest years of their life.  Having babies was a magical time. And now we are in the sweet spot of childhood where we mostly sleep through the night and we can send them downstairs to play loudly by themselves without the constant supervision that toddlers and babies require.

I love being a stay at home mom.  I had no idea I would like it so much but I do.  Last year I did a homeschool preschool with Briscoe using course work from a company called the Good and the Beautiful and it was really fun.  Since I wasn't able to get Belle into a preschool this year I am doing the same program with her this year and so far we are enjoying it.  I also signed her up for some online learning preschool programs to help supplement.  

We are finally in our new house yay! After weeks and weeks of waiting we finally got the greenlight to move in.  There was a hold up with the gas company after someone had parked a flatbed trailer over the spot they needed to dig back in May when they came out.  When the builder finally followed up with them a week before we were set to move in and close escrow they found out there would be a 6 week delay.  It was frustrating but it was worth the wait.  We love our new house and neighborhood and the boys love their new school.  The view is breathtaking and it's so peaceful here.  

Right now we have landscaping going on and guys finishing our basement for us so it will be so nice when it's finally all done! Probably still a few more weeks to go.  I'm amazed at how quickly I was able to unpack everything.  All that's left now inside our house either needs to go in the basement or the garage.  

It was nerve wracking picking everything out but I'm really happy with how it all turned out. 

Peter started 4th grade here and so far loves his school and is excited he got a 'boy teacher' as he calls Mr. Ropelis.  I like to remind him that he is a man teacher haha.  Henry started 1st grade and is in the french immersion program.  I think he likes it so far.  I am amazed at how quickly he is picking it up after just a few weeks of school. Briscoe started kindergarten and was super excited to ride the bus with the big boys.  I was picking him from school the first week because I was worried he wouldn't know where to get off and by Thursday he was begging to ride the bus home.  He made it just fine.  I met him at the school the first few days to make sure he could find his class ok and by Friday he was showing Peter where he was supposed to go. I have such little smarties! 

Ben is a little stressed out by his job and a little depressed lately.  His mom and dad have talked to him about times they have gone through similar phases of life and that it's good to talk to someone or take medication if you need it.  Ben was also very upset about the botched withdrawal of our troops in Afghanistan and the humanitarian crisis that was created because of it and then the 13 marines and soldiers that were killed.  I have been in survival mode the past several weeks trying to get settled again and traveling with 4 kids for 6 weeks exhausted me to my core and so I didn't have an extra energy to really think about Afghanistan.  Although I did explain it to my kids and we have been praying for Afghanistan every day and the people now subject to the Taliban.

Ben and I were able to get away for a weekend to NYC to commemorate the 20th anniversary of September 11th. Ben had been wanting to go see the place that started it all and had such an impact on our lives for a long time and we finally made it thanks to my sister Marie coming to watch the kids. We had an amazing time even though there were some emotional moments.  We rode bikes through the city, toured the statue of liberty and ellis island, visited the museum of natural history, took a stroll through Central Park, saw a famous senator Chuck Schumer who waved right at me while Ben was videoing, and so much more packed into just 2 short days there.  It was amazing to feel so free from the kids and just be the two of us.  We stayed out late and ate at delicious restaurants. We got to be part of the action happening all around the memorial on the 20th anniversary.  We noticed a lot of other vets traveling on the plane ride over with us and then again at the memorial and all over the city.  NYPD and FDNY was everywhere we even saw a group of green berets at which point Ben told me to put my eyeballs back in my head.  It kind of made me sad to be turning 40 this year and know that those fun parts of being a young 20 something are long gone.  I have to remind myself that growing older is a gift and of course the fun part of my life now is my family and I wouldn't trade that for anything.  Knowing my 40th birthday is coming up has still been hard though I'm not excited about it but I'm sure that will pass.  I just wish I could be young and hot forever haha. Don't we all but with age comes wisdom and maturity that can't be gained any other way.