calling all visitors.

in case you haven't heard, we're gearing up for the next in a growing list of huge, life-altering changes, our cross country move to davis, california, where we plan to live at least until we retire.  word from the west coast is that the new abode is on schedule to finish in mid july, meaning we have roughly ten weeks left of windy city living before we convert to norcalism for good.  our house has walls.  this is really happening.


































some of you have thus wised up and made it a priority to see us and/or chicago before we relocate, making this past week the new record-holder for number of visitors.  we kicked things off with a long weekend with uncle wilkes who crashed at our place between opthamology lectures.  i came home from work his first night here to find he'd tucked the two kids into bed himself.  bean in particular really bonded with uncle wilkes and enjoyed having conversations with him at 7am while he futilely tried to sleep on our living room floor.

higgs cousins keith and ruth from ohio also did some serious legwork, taking chicago by storm for a few days this week.  i got an email from a childhood camp friend of mine, erika, stating she'd be passing through chicago, and we had a nice, long catch up chat between putting the kids to bed.  we topped off the week with brunch hosting some friends from david's program as well as aunt emmy and uncle eric.  so, if you don't mind early wake up calls and tiny helpers in all your tasks, we're keeping our aero mattress out of storage for the time being in case anyone else decides to drop in.

other than this herculean task lurking in the foreground, life proceeds as normal.  i'm slowly working my way toward some notable career goals before my extended hiatus; within the next few weeks i should hopefully have some new points to mention here and enhance my resume.

i'm increasing my mileage in preparation for the big race in two weeks...so far my body seems to think 10 miles is a glass ceiling and begins rebelling loudly a step after that.  i'm not sure where the last 3.1 miles will come from, but i guess i'll find out soon enough.  honestly, the only reason running has worked for me is my totally lax approach to it.  having to devote more time to the task is no problem, but i'm not a big fan of planning meal times and components and hydration--my current lifestyle doesn't invite much planning.  so, here's hoping for an ultra-casual half marathon.

david too is training in most of his spare time for his upcoming 10k when he's not prepping for oral boards or working what seems to be an undue amount of overnight shifts to polish off his career as a resident.

the kids, free for awhile now from severe illness or injury, are again overlapping in a joyous way.  reese is coming up fast on his first birthday, shocking both because the year has escaped so quickly, and because i suppose for the next year or two he will seem so small compared to his big sister.  we can't believe she was such a baby when we brought reese home last year!  and it feels very strange not to be starting all over with another newborn around this time, and finally to be moving forward.

i have noticed reese becoming more precise in his diction.  he has no words, but seems to be making more effort to communicate.  perhaps this is my impression because he's also taken to pointing and talking at everything, which makes it appear as though he's very interested in understanding his surroundings.  this is the first time i've made a real effort to name things over, and over, and over again. it's a big developmental step.

bean, as her dad said this week, is an absolute treasure.  she's cuddly, curious and communicative.  she gets a little smarter every day.  this morning when david got out of bed, she said "did you sleep well, daddy?"  we had another one year old over today and her parents were truly impressed with how nurturing and gentle bean was with her, showering her with kisses and back rubs and toys.  maybe it's just her nature or her general lack of exposure to other children, or her little brother shadow, but bean is pretty mellow as toddlers go--she's very good about sharing, and while she does have occasional tantrums, she's generally very obedient and mild mannered.

she's also becoming more interested in our opinions and is starting to solicit praise.  she will do something funny, or put on a bow or her tutu, and come out of her room saying "mommy?  daddy?" until we both commend her, and she gets this enormous grin and flexes her arms.  it's pretty cute.

i'm happy to report that one very big knitting project is finally complete, bean's birthday sweater, and in spite of taking several months to finish, she still has room to grow into it.  now i'm singularly focused on my other big project so that i can finally get around to my own sweater!



we have really been slacking on our weekly recipes from our cookbook, but have been enjoying many variations on miso soup.  full of vegetables, it's a great soup for spring.  now we're just waiting for it to warm up again to seasonal temperatures...