not dead

yet.

But not exactly thriving either. Surviving? Absolutely! Absolutely.

We are loving la vida caliente y loca down here in Florida ...

In my first hours at the new house ... I was quite taken with the new-to-me vegetation so I snapped quite a few framers. I've since gotten over it. Maybe.

Unpacking is going REALLY well ...

I can't decide if the former owner took the light fixtures in this room OR if it's just some sort of minimalistic situation? I don't hate it and will probably leave it ... forever. Also, the kids are LOVING the doggy door. Unfortunately.

No, I promise things look a lot more settled now. A lot might be a stretch. A little. Simon says he thinks we'll be unpacked by September while I'm thinking it will be more like December.

Of 2016.

Luckily, Julia got to work unpacking all of our Christmas decorations immediately. So, we're on the festive ball bright and early this year. 

The inside of the new house was painted alllllll sorts of delightful colors (bright orange, beige, beige, SO MUCH BEIGE) so we had SOME rooms painted white right when we got here and it made a world of difference. I'm only regretting not biting the bullet and just doing the entire house because ... for the hate of beige with pops of more beige.

She wore that cheeky little romper for more days in a row than I care to admit the first week we were here. Or should I say weeks? I won't.

If I had a couple extra hands that I could dedicate solely to blogging (because the other two are usually happily holding my favorite little 3-week-old divo) I would write a long post praising Simon's heroic drive from St. Louis - > Tampa with the three middle kids (I flew with Julia and Bosco). His brother followed behind in Simon's car and they all stopped at wonderful longtime reader Kris' house in Atlanta to break the ~14 hour drive up into two days. HUGE heartfelt thank you to her and her kind family!!

(irrelevant photo - Simon, his brother Paul, Julia, and Sebastian went to the beach a couple weeks ago before Paul flew home ... let's all appreciate that the easy answer to Sebastian's sunny woes are in his hot little hand .... )

Anyway, I was slightly stressed about the drive because we all know how much fun Phoebe can be in the car even if we're just trotting two miles away to Target but, unless Simon lied (possibility to protect the histrionic she-parent), it was fine. He didn't even use a single screen sitter on the second day of driving. What.

Anyway, on the first morning of his sojourn I sent no fewer than 8 (8ish?) texts tentatively asking how things were going (he is a BIG fan of Siri, lest you think he would ever text and drive, worry not!) ... only to hear absolute silence in return. Until finally I got this little cubic zirconia of a text in return:

"Did you know Kim Kardashian is pregnant?!"

Which alleviated all of my worst fears. Naturally.

Moving right along.

Bosco is settling in nicely ...

He and Phoebe are best frenemies as she can go from demurely petting his head to scratching maniacally at his ear drums in a matter of milliseconds. She is left alone with him um, never.

Because Simon took his boards here in Tampa and started work the next day, he missed the OB-GYN Chief Party that is always held the night after everyone is done with their boards back in St. Louis but was able to FaceTime for some of it ...

I think he e-enjoyed it anyway.

Other notable happenings:

Theo spilling a brand new bottle of mustard (size: Costco) and ketchup (size: same) all over he and Sebastian's room. Carpet color: navy. Fun.

Theo transitioning weirdly well to a big boy bed also known as a toddler bed. He's only fallen out twice. V for victory. Toe touch. Or, maybe just my knees. While standing.

Grace smartly attempting to take the three youngest kids to Target for essentials like dish soap and I forget on the second day we were here. The trip ending four minutes later parked in a potentially sketchy parking lot nursing Bosco for forty minutes. When will she learn? Probably never.

Waking up the other morning (or was it STILL NIGHT TIME, Julia?!) to this ...

... which was not terrifying at all. But obviously not terrifying enough to get my snap on.

So, ever SO slowly, things are coming back together.

Simon volunteered that he doesn't miss our old house at all the other night and while I'm normally a big, fat nostalgia junky ... I don't either. Quite yet.

More to come! I'll be ramming a house tour down your throat and of course, Bosco's birth novel will be coming round the moutain very soon.

Thanks for your patience and I hope you've enjoyed the breather & break from Grace & Co.

platonic X and one-armed O.