The Three Amigos, part deux

Yup, I am now bilingual.

So one day the six of us were heading to Riverside Park when the adults suddenly noticed that the kids had grabbed hands. All three of us grabbed our phones and started snapping away.

Just precious.

Will and Sophia couldn't stop holding hands.

I love the above picture because all three kids insisted that they get up there together. Will had the audacity to go down the slide on his own before this picture was taken, and Sophia (the boss of the group), cried out, "Will! Uh-oh Will!" Sophia has a very clear idea of how things should be. 

Sophia is darling, and my friend is an amazing photographer.

I love the above picture. Will is completely dumbfounded and Mac is confidently clued in.

When I look back on our year in NYC, I will immediately think of these glorious playtimes with new, and now dear, friends. Will and I would have been lost without them!

Playdate in Morningside Park

6 out of 7 mornings a week, I wake up, go for a run in Central Park or along the Hudson, come back and hug my boys, and then either text or hear from Maresa. Thank God for Maresa, my BFF here in the city. Not only is she an angel of friend and a devoted mother to our favorite Mr. Mac, but she is also an English teacher turned professional photographer. You guessed it, I kinda want to be her. At the very least, I thank God for her friendship this year. 

 Lately, since the weather has been so nice, we have been gathering the troops (Will, Mac, and their sweet buddy Sophia) for playdates around our neighborhood. Maresa, Sophia's nanny Erin, and I love hanging out with each other, but the kids ADORE each other. When they first see each other, they squeal, clap their hands, and run towards each other. It is the cutest thing.

 These pictures capture our latest playdate in the city: dancing in the courtyard, a walk to Morningside Park, and then playground time. We take lots of pictures of them every time, but we just can't resist: their expressions and personalities keep evolving!

Isn't Sophia a little diva?

From L to R: Mac, me and Will, Erin and Sophia, Shirit and Agam

(Maresa behind the lens, as usual. Bless her.)

And this is what Will looks like when we have to say goodbye before lunchtime and his afternoon nap.

He loves his NYC buddies.

Family Play Time

JOY.

We're Moving to...

!!!!!!!

After a crazy February involving a trip to Louisville, two trips to Atlanta, a quick trip to Boston, lots of phone interviews and cover letters and application essays and so. many. hypothetical. conversations between me and Clay, we accepted jobs at an awesome PreK-12 private school in Louisville, Kentucky! Clay will be 12th grade dean, teach 4 sections of 12th grade English (two sections of AP Language and two electives), and will help with the school's upcoming accreditation process. I will be the 10th grade dean, teach 4 sections of 10th grade English, advise the school newspaper, and help with a few college counseling events. And before long, Will will be able to go to school there, too! We couldn't be more excited to move to a great city and work at a great school, be close to my family, and be done with interviews! As you can see below, it was an exciting month, but it was also full of uncertainty, hard work, and stress as we were both interviewing on site, traveling with Will around the country, and trying to juggle where we each were in the process with a number of schools in different places--oh, and Clay was also trying to go to class, write paper, and read hundreds of pages every week! Thankfully, we had my friends Katie and Deanna's visit to look forward to, which provided me with a whole weekend of fun and support while Clay was in Atlanta at an interview and two job fairs, and my parents' visit at the end of the month, which allowed us to literally hand off Will after a long day of travel from Huntsville and go tutor, which we both desperately needed to do in order to keep those jobs!

We are so grateful for all of your love and support this month, this year, and always. February 2012 might go down as one of our busiest months ever as a married couple, but we were so encouraged by emails, texts, and prayers from our friends. We can't wait to host you all in Louisville once we get settled this summer!

One final note: we were SO excited to tell my parents in person a couple of weeks ago. We brainstormed all week long about how to tell them, but we ended up blurting it out in our little hallway on the way to a playground and dinner. Still, it was a classic moment: so much joy in such a small space. Will never forget it.

A Walk In Central Park with Mimi and Poppy

When my parents came back through NYC a couple weekends ago, Will wouldn't let them out of his sight. And my parents couldn't have been cuter with him, giving him sips of their milkshakes, giving him a ride on their shoulders, and playing with him in one of the many Central Park playgrounds.

Will sure is blessed with four super loving and generous grandparents!

Thanks for coming to visit us, Mom and Dad!

So glad we were able to tell you our good news in person!

Happy Birthday to our new friends!

Right after we moved here, Clay and I visited Redeemer Church. When we walked into the toddler room to drop Will off (and then cross our fingers and hope hope hope he didn't cry so much it would make ME cry), lo and behold the parent volunteer for the day was a guy I immediately recognized from my days in Christian fellowships at UVA. Meant to be.

His wife, also a UVA wahoo two years ahead of me, contacted me that week, invited me to mom's group (focus of a future blog post), and thoughtfully and sweetly introduced me to her friends and included me in playdates and holiday parties. I will forever be grateful to Jennifer. In my mind, she is an angel. And two of HER angels turned 1 last week!

"Woah!"

"The birthday party is real, Mom, but the real fun happens at the play kitchen."

His excitement over the kiddie kitchen makes me so happy. Future chef's assistant right here?

Can you tell he's eaten a few treats?

I don't want to think about what will happen when Clay realizes I posted this picture.

But I love it.

Jennifer with her twin girls! So much sweetness in this picture, I can't take it!

Library Time

Clay began his spring break in the library. He's that dedicated.

Will and I decided to play outside and thus try to tempt him back out...

SUCCESS!!

Will saw Daddy and immediately started running towards him.

WARMS. MY. HEART.

The Intrepid

It's Clay's spring break (woohoo!) and since we now have jobs (woohoo!), we suddenly had lots of time and NO interviews (holla!). So we decided to have some fun seeing some of the insanely cool stuff there is do here in NYC.

One day, we headed down to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum.

Even more amazing to me than the grand scale of the Intrepid aircraft carrier is the fact that planes actually landed on this thing in the middle of the sea. Dang, those pilots are SKILLED.

My Top Gun. Way cuter than Tom Cruise.

We took a subway downtown, walked the four long blocks over to the harbor, waited in line for tickets, and then climbed aboard the ship to discover plane after awesome plane.

What was Will most interested in? Yup, the puddles.

I feel like I am going to hold onto the above picture for a long time.

What a special time in our lives this is.

Once again, my world in front of a huge world.

Here we are inside!

The sailors' sleeping quarters made our apartment look and feel like a palace.

God bless them!

And then Clay and I went on a date! YES! We saw "Friends with Kids" and then ate at this totally legit Thai restaurant really close to Washington Square Park, yet another one of the places on our to-see-in-NYC list.

It was beautiful. Even better was the company :-).

"Woah"

So Will's favorite new words are "woah!" and "yay!" and he says them all. the. time.

It makes us so adorably happy.

And he said them over and over again when we took him to the top (ahem, 86th floor) of the Empire State Building on Thursday afternoon, yet another one of our NYC "must-do's" before we head south come May.

Clay had never been to the top either, so all three of us marveled at the fact that we somehow became a family who lived in this majestic city. I say "majestic" because I have found myself lately loving what this city is all about: the subway, the cabs, the little markets, the endless line of playgrounds in the parks, Zabar's (why it took me so long to discover this GEM of a market on the UWS, I don't know), the constant activity and energy and talent that is New York. Perhaps it is because of the GORGEOUS weather we have been enjoying (we picked the right winter to be here!) or the knowledge that we are only going to live here for 2 more months or the sense of familiarity I now feel after living in this city for a little while...I don't know. I feel like I "get" NYC now, and thus I love NYC now, and while it might be hard to live here longterm, I am grateful for the opportunity to experience it for enough time that my morning runs and my Trader Joe's on W. 72nd and my subway stop on the 1 line really do feel familiar.

East Side

Hey! Look at those cuties!

This is just a tiny piece of the NYC puzzle. Imagine this x1000 and you'll get a sense of just how endless this city is.

love the gold roof

North (see Central Park in the middle there?)

Woah.

The cool Flatiron building. Supposedly the wind gushes are so powerful there that police once had to crack down on people trying to see a woman's skirt fly up as she rounded the corner. Also, the famous Shake Shack often seen in movies is in that park there.

Looking south (Financial district).

We are enjoying our Spring Break in the city!