Spencers on the Move

So it's been a month and a half of silence on our family blog... mainly because we were busy prepping, planning, being sick and moving. (If you're wondering about the potty training, it's still going... but of course with more steps backward than forward with all the family upheaval... sigh). Yep, we have moved!

Ian is still finishing his dissertation (although he hasn't worked on it in a couple weeks) and he is still going to be up in Davis at least twice a week (for a class he is teaching next quarter), but our family has moved down to the Bay Area while we wait to hear back from the last of the job openings for the upcoming school year. The economy being what it is and with the opportunities being sparse, we decided to move to aid our finances and be closer to family. We're still hoping to get a position somewhere, but only God knows the plan for the upcoming year(s). Keep praying for us, either for a job or a good transition-stay in the Bay Area as we wait (for how many months long it will be).

This last weekend was the big load the truck, drive down, unload the truck weekend. Then Ian spent two whole days back up in Davis cleaning our really dirty apartment, while I waded through boxes to find all the stuff we needed and sort all the stuff to be left in storage. Now, the end of the week is here and we are basically moved in with our essentials, even if there is still a few boxes in the garage (oh, isn't it lovely to have a garage!) and a few in our closets too that need unpacking. It probably helps that we don't own too much... and the majority of it is (not surprisingly) games and books. And we've also done all the really important stuff like change our addresses for all our bills. But moving is one of those things that the more you do, the more you realize you need to do. Case in point, the list of things to pick up continues to grow no matter how much stuff I buy and cross off the list... and I've visited Target three times already this week. Sigh. No wonder it takes people months and sometimes years to get settled and unpack that momentous last box. No matter how long we live here though, we really want it to feel like "home", especially for the girls. So far E has taken the move the hardest of us all... it's quite sad. She misses our Davis home, her one and only home since she was born. We miss Davis too, but know we'll be back to visit (soon).

And now for pictures. Here's some shots of our old place during the days of packing. Pictures of our new place (where we currently reside with Gilda's sister) will be coming soon.

Diaper Destruction and More Nighttime Adventures

Well the Toddler Nighttime Adventures continue...

Night 2 - E again woke up at 5 asking to be taken to the bathroom. She made her way out of the room and was sitting outside our door making little noises hoping to wake us up. But no mess in her room, so that's an improvement.

Night 3 - We were hoping for no night time wakings... but instead she woke up at about midnight (because I was on the phone and trying to wash dishes at the same time... it was a bit loud - oh, and yes, that is sometimes the only available time for me to talk on the phone or wash dishes... at midnight). Then when Ian went to put her back down, she asked to be put in the crib! So she slept there that night and we didn't have any incidents. Although the night was basically uneventful... during her nap the next day, we found her awake from her nap again playing semi-quietly in her room. More clothes were in a big pile on the floor and she was sitting right behind the closed door with her legs up in the air (on the door). Odd place to wait. :)

Night 4 - I fully expected E to wake up and want us to take her to the bathroom at 5 in the morning. She did and I took her to pee and put her down fairly quickly. Oh and I was already up because I had just finished feeding R. Hopefully this isn't going to be an ongoing "wake up" time for her... sigh.

Night 5 - E woke up several times last night, asking to be taken to the potty, asking for more water. I don't even think I heard the second time she got up (Ian attended to her), again at 5 am. This is starting to become a tiring routine, but at least we weren't greeted with surprises from E ... until this morning. That's when we encountered Diaper Destruction!

I was wondering why E didn't make noises when R and I had woken up... I was thinking "Could E still be asleep at 7:30am .. 8am.. 8:30am?" (we had skipped a nap yesterday and got in a little late, so it could have made her sleepier). Finally after being awake for almost an hour playing with R I hear a small voice coming from E's room "I poopy in my diaper". So, I go to her room, open the door and find diapers everywhere!! She had gotten into her trash can (full of pee filled or poopy disposable diapers) and had taken them all out and opened them. She also had the cloth diaper diaper pail open (and the smell that comes out of that is pretty rancid, especially since we're close to pick-up day which means almost a whole week of dirty unrinsed - because we use a service - diapers).

It looks like E was dumping all the poop in her disposable diapers into her diaper pail. Of course, that means she had to open all her disposable diapers to know which had poop and which had pee. Then in her attempt to put the diaper contents in their "rightful place" (the diaper pail), she ended up dropping a few diapers in there. I think while she was engaged in her dirty diaper adventure, she did end up pooping in the diaper she was wearing and that was when I heard her calling. And that is how I found her... with poop all over her hands, some dried stuff scattered around the trash can and diaper pail... and a little bit of poop on her clothes.

I guess these next few weeks will determine what can be left in the girls' room after we move. After a thorough cleaning of her room (with Clorox Antibacterial Wipes) and of E (three rounds of hands washing), we moved the trash can and the diaper pail out of her room (she doesn't get her diaper changed in there anymore anyways). We might end up moving other pieces of furniture (her clothes dressers) out of her room and replacing it with other ones.

Sounds like her next room (after we move) might have only beds and a few toys in there. I had a conversation with a veteran mom (of mostly boys) and she gave me some great ideas on how to lock the closet (sliding doors) and maybe we'll have to do a combination of a striped-bare room and locked closet at night.

All in all, though, we're still glad that E mostly likes her new bed and the mess isn't too bad. Even with Diaper Destruction at it's worse - it is still better than finding fresh smeared poop "art" all over the walls and floors -- Ah, the stories parents (mostly of boys) have to tell!

Oh, and here's our promised pictures of E in her new toddler bed:

Midnight Mayhem

Yesterday E got her first toddler bed. She was so excited that as soon as it was cleaned off and set up she wanted to get in, have blankets put on her and told us to turn out the light and leave. It was 6pm. But she didn't go to sleep, she was just excited and wanted to try it out. We thought, "What the heck? If she's interested, might as well give it a try". We were hoping that by introducing a Big Girl Bed, we could graduate her out of the crib (for good) in a couple months so that R could move into our one-and-only crib.

So, after she got out of the bed and got ready for bed (at her normal bedtime)... we laid her peacefully to bed in her new bed. Fingers crossed, we hoped we wouldn't have a nighttime wanderer on our hands. She did great!... or so we thought. By the time we went to bed, several hours after her, she had only gotten up once use the potty (with assistance... she's not potty trained yet, hopefully soon we'll be more successful than we have been) and to get a diaper change. But at 5:30 am in the morning, during one of R's awakenings for nursing - I discovered that E had the light on in her room. It was pretty quite and she had not come to our room for anything... so maybe she just turned the light on and went back to sleep after playing a bit.

Not quite.

I slowly went to her door, opened it and discovered an almighty mess! She had emptied half of her dresser of clothes and scattered them across the room. All her stuffed animals that were on her bed were on the floor. There was a bag of unopened diapers (but probably wouldn't have been for long if I hadn't come in) in the middle of the room. There was also a few books open and lying on the ground. It looks like at some point (probably in the last hour from when I had found her) E had woken up. She had realized she could turn on the lights and get out of bed fairly easily. So she did. I think she started to read a book or two and got bored. Then it looked as if she might have decided to play and clothe her Mr. Bear Bear with clothes from R drawer (and maybe later would have given him a diaper change too). Then it looks like she had raided her drawer for clothes too and tried on a few. She was fully engaged in all this quiet play in her room when I walked in on her. Highly amusing but not quite what I was hoping for. (Sorry, no pictures, I thoughtthat running back to my room, grabbing a camera and snapping pictures might give her the impressiong that this was "acceptable".)

Well, after a quick pile-pick-up and a minute of rocking from Ian, she went back to bed - but this time in her crib. No repeats, please.

Tonight we're trying the toddler bed again. This time, we turned off the light from the ceiling fan fixture, so she can't get the light on. Hopefully this will curb most playing-in-the-middle-of-the-night desires. But I won't be too surprised if I find her tomorrow morning in the middle of her room fast asleep. Will post again on the outcome (oh, and I'll try to get a couple of pictures in her new toddler bed). Goodnight (so we hope)!

Near Future

Many people have been wondering how the dissertation has been going along with the job search. They've also been asking where we're going to move to and when. So here's a quick update on what's been going on in the life of Ian.

The dissertation is coming along pretty well, with one chapter written last month and hopefully one soon by the end of this month or beginning of the next. After that, it's basically one more big chapter, an intro chapter, and the first full draft is complete!

The job search hasn't been going so hot, however. With the economy so bad, the number of job postings has been significantly smaller than usual and the competition is a bit intense - many schools get 200-300 applicants for a single position. Out of over 50 applications sent there have been no interviews, several rejections, and multiple cancellations due to the economy. Out of that pool, there are probably only 9 or 10 that still might call or email. New job postings, however, will come out in February but these will be mostly all for one- or two-year positions rather than real tenure-track jobs (though we'll take what we can get!).

So with all of that, we might try to get out of our lease here in Davis by the end of this quarter and move to the Bay Area. We hope to find some rent cheap (or rent free) living option with Gilda's parents as we wait to hear about post-doctoral and visiting positions and also save as much money as we can. Ian will drive up to Davis as necessary and Gilda will continue to work from home as much as possible. If no jobs are to be had this year because of the slowed economy, graduation might be delayed until the next school year. If so, Ian will just stop working on his dissertation for a short bit and work on getting some stuff accepted for publication in order to beef up his CV (a resume for academia) for another round of applications in the Fall. As of now, though, things are still kind of up in the air.

Please keep our uncertain job situation in your prayers along with all the moving/transitioning for our whole family - especially the girls.

Traveling near and far

For Christmas we did quite a bit of traveling. While going to see both sides of our family in Stockton and the Bay Area, Ian also flew to Philadelphia for a conference. By the time we came home on New Years Day we were exhausted. Here's what our time away looked like:

The Monday morning before Christmas, we packed the rest of our gear (honestly, most of it being clothes and things for the girls) into our car. We weren't sure what we were going to do once we had presents from Christmas, because we thought that our car was seriously full. Then we drove to Stockton. We hit a bunch of traffic because of horrible mis-communication and a lot of assuming on my part. Then we had to unpack most of the car along with our overtired kids.

Tuesday was a very low key day as we basically just hung out at G&G's (Grandma LaVeda and Grandpa Jim's) place. Ian did some work and we tried to keep the girls on their routine. That night we went over to Ian's mom's house for dinner.

Wednesday, we had some running to the store and a lot of napping, diaper changing and feeding before Christmas Eve dinner (where we celebrated with Ian's family as everyone was going to be in different places Christmas Day). The dinner was late and poor E, although excited about opening presents and seeing all the family, ended up crashing in tears (when I wouldn't let her fully open all her presents - taking them out of their packaging). We left at about 10 or 10:30pm.

Thursday, it was Christmas! We had a quick breakfast, opened a few more presents (well, E did) and then repacked our car to head to the Bay Area. We had planned to leave a few of the bigger gifts at G&G's house, but E had a fit when we tried to leave her new trike. So we had to put it in the front seat, resting partially on the airbag. Not something we'd want to repeat. Then when we got to the Yee (my family) house, we again did more presents (yes, that's three times so far). E got by far more gifts than anyone else. We (Ian and I) instead got some very useful stuff, like new tires for our car (very much needed) and money (also very much needed). This day was pretty low key and nice, because we were already feeling stretched thin from the traveling. The girls had slept basically okay up to this night.

Friday, Ian was going to fly out to Philadelphia. My sister took him to the airport on her way home. I don't remember doing anything of importance this day other than finish getting Ian packed up and maybe running to the store for something we had left at G&G's house.

Saturday until New Year's Eve, the girls and I just stayed at my mom's. E often was taken out by my mom to the park, to go shopping or to go for a walk. I basically tried to keep R on a good schedule and get lots of sleep. Keeping the girls taking good naps and night time routines was the hardest thing about being at my mom's house and having Ian gone. As much help as my family was in watching the girls, the naps and night was something I did all by myself. Oh, and did I mention that E learned how to climb out of her pack and play... yep, always an adventure.

The only other thing I did when at my parents was that I tackled cleaning out boxes from when my mom had moved and basically thrown all the random stuff from my sister's and my room (none of us were living there at the time) into boxes. I think I had at least a garbage bag full of trash, another huge pile to recycle and a box and a half of empty picture frames. My mom was amazed at what I found in the closest, including random wedding gifts we had gotten that we were never going to use - that were given to my mom to be regifted. Now, we know how much we have stored at their house (for when we eventually move).

And then New Years Day, after Ian had gotten back from his conference (no interviews... but more on that in another post), we repacked our car... full to the brim again (even after we had my brother take several big boxes and a huge bag of laundry up to Davis on his way up to the snow earlier in the week) and came home. We got home in the afternoon and after only unloading half our car... we then had to make a trip to the store - uh, because we had no food in our house. And then the day was done and we were super kaput.

We were glad to be home and glad to have been able to see both sides of our family, especially since we don't know where we'll be in the future. We just hope not to have to repeat this whirlwind traveling often and instead be able to have just our family time and share with E the true meaning of Jesus - not just presents, eating and family hanging out time.