Day 13

October 7, 2010

Home day. Decided to take it easy and just hang around the house most of today. Jacob took a great 2 1/2 hour nap allowing me to take an hour and a half one myself and then be somewhat productive. Whohoo!

Boxes, man. I tell you. Sometimes I have these spurts of organizing energy where I can just tear through those things. Other times, not so much. Today was in the middle. I did try to organize our bedroom a bit. We have a walk-closet that we couldn't walk into. So, I rearranged that a bit. Wiped down the shelves. 

And in the afternoon, we hit up the grocery store (finally). Getting to know a new grocery store can be a bit... tedious. It just takes longer and when I have a toddler who just wants to get out of the cart (even one of the cool ones he can "drive" himself) it's not very fun. But we managed. In the checkout line, he and I were talking. I was looking absentmindedly at the magazines. 
"Daddy?" Jacob says. He talks about Fraser a lot throughout the day and where he is. "Home?"
"Yea," I say, "Daddy's at home."
"Daddy, work?"
I stop looking at random magazine headlines. I look at Jacob.
"Right," I say, smiling. "You're right. Daddy's work, not home. Mommy wasn't paying attention."
He totally caught me and called me out. Pretty funny.

After the store, Jacob wanted to ride his bike out front. He has this little Radio Flyer bike that actually has four wheels. It's kind of a funny design but he seems to like it. It's gotten more play since we've been here than in Boulder. He likes to ride it in the street - with me, of course. We ended up meeting some more neighbours. Anna and her son, Cole. Cole was riding a bike. He's only four but was riding a two-wheeler. Jacob was very excited. He followed Cole around for awhile. We met Cole's dad, Carl. Nice guy. Into baseball. We played down there for awhile before returning home. It was great. Nice to know more people and to know that there are family people in the neighbourhood.


We made a delicious dinner. Mushroom and sausage ragu with creamy polenta. I had a little spinach salad too. It was really good. Jacob liked the mushrooms and sausage but not the polenta which I thought unreal. It was polenta and cream cheese, what's not to like? He's into helping, though, so he likes to dump things in the bowls and do the mixing. 


After dinner, he and Fraser read, Oh, the Wonderful Sounds Mr. Brown Can Do and Jacob made all the sounds, something I have never heard him do. Very cute.


And Fraser and I got a bit of time together after the boy went to bed. He told me a bit more about his job. He's in the training part and finally getting to some interesting aspects. Sounds like a really good company. Lots of secret stuff, lots more work on his shoulders. But I think more for his brain to do which is always good for him. So we'll find out how it all works and see what ends up working for us. It's the start of an interesting journey. 


Meanwhile, I wonder if my little Shilo kitty is depressed. She was eager to get outside at first and has been out several times. But she also seems a little.... less adventurous that normal. She'll go out for a little while and then come back. Then she just sleeps the rest of the day. Today she didn't even want to go out till late afternoon. I know she's a cat and that cats do sleep a lot. But I wonder if she misses her old territory (in a way that a cat might miss something). I'm probably just putting my human feelings on her. But she has been more into me petting her as well. And she sleeps with us in bed. Who knows. I know she loved it at our old house.


I had some moments of loneliness today. Just fleeting on my way to the grocery store. Who can I just call to hang out with, go to the gym with, break up the all day one-on-one time with? Horrible sentence that was ending with a preposition. We're meeting new people and it's been a pretty good week overall, but I miss my friends. I miss my neighbourhood. It takes longer than 13 days to have a place feel like home and although I don't want to wish my time away, I wish we were already farther into this transition at times. New places have fun aspects and... lonely aspects.