neighborhood scouting moon

Last week Simon, Phoebe, and I took a little 'area scouting trip' down to Tampa to get a good feel for neighborhoods and the housing market and a nice big gulp of some vitamin d. I have a deep and irrational love for staying in hotel rooms (so clean! the little toiletries! so many channels! I need a life!) and a few days alone with Simon and our more docile non-verbal was a very welcome break after his January hours and the January weather.

Don't tell the older three but I might still be mourning the trip's end.

Phoebe might be too. As soon as Theo crawled in my lap when we got back home ... she very adamantly shoved him right on out of her newly marked territory. He reacted as sweetly as you might imagine.

A tangible foreshadowing of our first interminable leg to Houston (half of which was spent inexplicably on the runway in St. Louis ... why do they do that?) ...

Phoebe like, "oh! you think you're going on a relaxing honeymoon #2 with 'just one child'?!"

ha.

Julia saw this photo Simon snapped and asked, "why are you so angry?!"

I don't know, J. Maybe my subconscious had access to a crystal ball and knew that that cup of caffeine was the last food or drink I would see for hours upon hours upon hours thanks to a crazy delay and a sprint through the Houston airport to make our connecting flight to Tampa. Simon is a crazy fast walker + he does not like to risk missing a flight and so .... sprint with nary a second to spare to stop for a caloric respite it was. I feel 100% fine almost 100% of the time pregnancy-wise right now unless I go hours and hours and hours without food and then baby Grace comes out to play. And she doesn't play nice. RIP courtesy in-flight peanuts and/or pretzels ... those do not seem to be on United's agenda anymore.

But it was worth it.

Phoebe's effortless frown agreed.

Seriously. Worst view ever according to our little happy clamlet.

Why did I snap a photo of this beauty?

Unsolved mysteries, folks.

Trip highlights and lowlights included:

+ our seat neighbor plugging his ears with his hands while Phoebe got her very angry and audible wiggles and notgiggles out before she finally (!!!!!) fell asleep en route to Houston. I didn't blame him one bit but I might advise that he invest in a pair of new fangled headphones for his next flight or ten.

+ waking up on Friday morning and looking at the clock to see that it was 8:15. My eyes are still making their way back to their shocked sockets three days later. Even if it was just 7:15 in St. Louis ... Theo has me on a strict 5am waking time and 8am felt downright sinful.

+ seeing my old college roommate, Marya, and her husband and a few of her five (!!) daughters. It's some bizarre twist of happy fate that we'll end up back in the same town ten years after college and ten kids between us later ... bizarre and wonderful fate indeed. Also! getting to see a fellow FUS alum, Kristin and meeting her husband and fun kids who happily and generously kept Phoebe entertained late at night while we talked and talked .... and talked. Two of the best highlights.

+ narrowing down our area search to a specific neighborhood closeish to the hospital and the parish/school we'd like to attend which will help as we e-stalk Craigslist and Zillow and our realtor for the best (rent? or buy? still deciding!) and realizing that the market in St. Louis is slightly more buyer friendly. The sticker shock is wearing off but I'm still saying my daily prayers that we find something relatively affordable with more than one bedroom by June. Maybe hourly.

+ meeting some of the kind folks Simon will be working with and getting a little tour of his new hospital. Did we hit up the cafeteria? Is the Pope Catholic?

+ the weather. It wasn't crazy warm but it was warm enough to thaw my winter-hating soul for several consecutive hours. It felt weird and too good to be true.

+ and last but NOT least ... Yogurtology.

Grace be like ...

... only our second visit in two days. One of the employees greeted us with, "long time, no see!" no shame in my froyo game.

none.

They have these wonderfully terrible things called "bottomings" (although ... I have all the confidence in the world that we can come up with a better name for them) to put in your cup before you start the yogurt + topping debauchery.

dangerously genius.

I set a record for most ounces ever purchased by a Patton (formerly held by - myself and in utero Phoebe) ...

... so let's fervently hope they go out of business LONG before we move or else. Or else nothing but post-baby body might live very happily ever after never to die ever. Really.

Our trip would not not not have been possible without the generosity of my mom and youngest sister flying up from New Mexico to watch the older three kids ...

... we know their "vacation" was just as relaxing as ours. 

Ahem.

"They" (who is "they" and why are they so annoying sometimes?) say that you fall out of shape four (or more?) times faster than it takes you to get in shape. Por ejemplo: 12 weeks of training for a long race can easily be undone with three weeks of lazy workouts ... or something, I'm not "they", I don't know. But I think they are right because I am feeling very out of parenting shape today. Endurance is not my strong suit, apparently.

And because I love you and care deeply about your happiness and overall quality of blog reading life ... I'll be sure to keep you abreast of every painful house hunting d'tail over these next few months. Every single one.

You've been warned.

Smiles for miles,

your resident open book