break.

It's been crazy around here. Crazy good, crazy busy, crazy crazy. Turning life as you know it upside down within a matter of five days will do that to you. But at least I took pictures!

What oh what have we been up to?

1. Our sweet, wonderful, AMAZINGLY intuitive moms came in town the week after we decided we were moving to New York. Thank. The. Lord. Our minds were fried and we needed help. Carla wanted a week to visit her own grandkids, so Kay came in town Sunday-Wednesday to watch Will--and let's be honest, take care of us too. She cooked red beans and rice, shrimp fajitas, and gumbo for us. Wow. We are so spoiled. But most importantly, Will got to spend more time with his Gramma. We continue to thank God for her visit, for her love, and for the effortless way she understood the demands of our jobs and supported us.

My incredible mother came in town Wednesday-Saturday to do exactly the same thing, Mimi-style. She brought Max (above) and Maggie with her, so all three dogs had the best time together. And Will, who thinks dogs are hilarious, couldn't get enough of all the four-legged creatures roaming around. Like Kay, Mom just intuited what we needed logistically and emotionally and provided us with so much joy. She also texted me pictures from Will throughout the day--gotta love that. We enjoyed fun outings to Greenlife, GPS, and Costco while she was here--and of course went on lots of walks!

Mama, thank you so much for coming and loving on all three (four including Camden!) of us!

2. Will turned 9 mos. old! My oh my where does the time go? It blows my mind that Will is as old as the length of my pregnancy. I couldn't help but think about labor and delivery on his exact 9 month birthday (March 10). What an exciting yet scary day that was for us. I look at him today and thank God over and over again that he is the healthy and vibrant and happy little man that he is.

I took him to see Dr. Dodd last week for his checkup, and she said he looks super healthy. Hooray! No shots at the 9 month checkup, but he did get his finger pricked for an iron test (which he passed--phew!). He weighs 22 lbs, 6 oz (80th percentile), he is 30.5 in. in height (97th percentile), and his head circumference is 18.75 (95th percentile).

He is also eating really well now. It took us a little while to like "solid" (why do people call this mashed, pureed food "solid"?) foods, but I think we are now headed in the right direction. YoBaby yogurt was the turning point for us--he loved it. Especially the vanilla kind. He may look like his daddy, but he already eats like his mama :-).

Love that face!

Taking a break from pushing up and rolling over. Snuggling with Daddy is always a good call.

Here we are post-church one day.

3. And then Blaire arrived! How lucky are WE?? My dear, dear friend and UVA roomie has loved on Will from the start. So when she offered to spend the first weekend of her spring break with US, we jumped at the opportunity. In her characteristically selfless and loving way, she made the effort to fly down here from New Jersey (where she is, ahem, a professor at Kean University--dang, she is SMART) and smother Will with hugs and laughter. It felt like home to have her here. We had so much fun playing on the swingset, going for long walks, having a picnic in the park, eating at Tony's, and seeing The King's Speech (so good!). Her visit was 48 hours of comfort and friendship. We love you, Blaires. Thank you for coming all this way to be with us.

Will loved the swing.

4.Will is super close to crawling, but he hasn't quite gotten the hang of using his legs yet. Instead, he pushes up on his hands (see above)

...then kicks his legs and waves his arms frantically while on his belly...

...and then pushes up again. He's got the push-up motion down.

Crawling? Not so much.

Family Picture!

We love Blaire!

5. We figured out what we are doing this summer. I am going to be on the faculty and we will be living here.

6. I got a job for next year while we are in NYC! I will be teaching online here.

7. I collected and graded 58 research papers.

8. I decided that I am really grateful to not have to grade 58 research papers next year.

9. I taught The Handmaid's Tale and Brave New World at the same time. The tragic events in Japan happened on the day I finished teaching each of them. My classes definitely had some probing, interesting discussions that day.

10. As of 3 pm today, I am officially on Spring Break. Hallelujah. This past month has been a sprint and a marathon at the same time. We're pretty exhausted. A week on the beach with my parents sounds heavenly. Sleeping in past 6 sounds blissful. Reading for fun sounds amazing. And simply being with family without the stress of work or future plans? Priceless.

BIG (apple) NEWS

What is this?

This is Columbia University's Teachers College.

It's also where we are going to be living NEXT YEAR.

Yup, dear friends. WE ARE MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY.

It's been a LONG week of discussions, prayer, and reflection that all began last Tuesday night when Clay got the call from Klingenstein (the Institute within Teacher's College that focuses on private school leadership). "We've got good news and we've got bad news," the representative said.

Bad News: Clay wasn't accepted to the two-summers, 18-month master's degree program to which he had applied.

Good News: Clay was accepted to the exact same degree program--just the 9-month, full academic year session.

Oh boy.

So last Tuesday night we cried, thinking that the door to this opportunity had closed, that there was no way we could sell our stuff and quit our jobs and leave our friends and pay for this degree and move to NYC with a baby for 9 months having no idea what the future held beyond that.

But we couldn't stop thinking about it.

This might just be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Clay to grow professionally. Will is young enough that we wouldn't be uprooting him from his school. I could spend the year focusing on nurturing and investing in my own child's development. Our savings turned out to be the exact amount we estimated we would need to make this work. It could be an adventure. Right?

Are we crazy?

We might just be. But after talking with family, dear mentors, and our heads of school, we realized that this might be exactly the right thing at exactly the right time. Sure, it isn't all what we expected, and we only had 5 days to make the decision (it was a looooong five days), but it amazed me how quickly I went from totally anxious about the decision to insanely confused and overwhelmed to convicted that this was what we should do, what we must do.

We love our schools, and I pray that one day our paths bring us back here (and there is still a chance that could be sooner rather than later) because our friends are so, so dear to us. But Clay's desire to grow as an educator and nurture and apply his abilities has been growing for some time now. He is ready for this. And I thought about the "Love" blog post I wrote the night before we got the call and I knew that if I believed in anything, I believed in him. He doesn't just want to do this; he needs to do this.

On Monday morning, Clay called Klingenstein and accepted the offer to join the Class of 2012.

We are SO excited, but I will be honest: we are also scared. Scared this could be a tough year for our family emotionally and financially, scared to leave wonderful jobs not knowing what future jobs await us, scared to sell most of our stuff and move hundreds of miles away and live in a city where we literally have zero friends.

But we also feel total peace. We made the right decision. We are taking a big leap of faith, sure, but we are also investing in the field both of us have dedicated our professional lives to. And at the end of the day, we want to know that when we tell our students to believe in themselves and pursue their dreams, we are practicing what we preach.

NYC, here we come.

Prayer Requests (thank you!):

1. That we would indeed get Columbia TC family housing for next year.

2. That we would secure summer jobs that provide both compensation and housing (we will move out of McC in late June but we won't move to NYC until Sept.)

3. That Sara will secure some online teaching posts she is exploring for the next school year.

4. That we can sell a lot of our stuff.

5. That this situation will benefit Will and enrich his life.

6. That we will be able to financially support this year.

7. That this program will be meaningful and challenging and life-giving for Clay.

You better believe I'll be blogging about our year in the city. This is going to be quite the adventure.

Love.

I have never told anyone this, but there was a moment on the day we married when I stole away to a quiet place in the church. I closed my eyes and I prayed, I mean really prayed, that what was about to happen would be a good thing, a Godly thing, a joyful thing, a forever thing, a holy thing. I knew I loved Clay. But I was also so very aware that our love was constantly evolving and growing and taking on new meanings, and I prayed that I would continue to understand what love really encompasses through the experience of being married to this great, great man.

Here's some of what I have learned thus far.

Love is the instinct of reaching for each other upon the moment of your first child's birth when suddenly all of your hopes and dreams freeze and you feel completely helpless and all you want is for your son to cry out and be placed in your arms.

Love is seeing that son finally join you in your hospital room only to fall asleep next to your tireless, encouraging partner.

Love is seeing your dog wanting to be around your husband all the time.

Love is your husband letting him be his shadow.

Love is looking at your son and feeling so proud that he looks like a mini-version of your husband :-)

Love is laughter.

Love is thinking about the other person more than you think about yourself.

Love is sitting together in Church and watching your son fall asleep in your husband's arms.

Love is being really, really, really tired...and realizing that someone else is just as tired...and then smiling at each other.

Love is all the little moments. It's taking your son to see Santa and then deciding not to wait in the long line and pay the ridiculous fee so instead you go outside and find a small rose garden with really poor lighting and then you look over and your baby is smiling and everything else suddenly doesn't matter. Love is not caring where you are as long as you are with each other.

Love is taking care of Will in the mornings so your partner can go workout.

Love is moving into a new house together with a 2 week-old and not being able to find anything for days.

Love can be instant.

Love is being a team in everything.

Love is coming home on Valentine's Day and seeing your husband, son, and dog playing together and laughing--and then handing you a present even though you agreed there wouldn't be presents. Love is the eloquent card attached. Love is poetry.

Love is the gift that Clay gives me every single day.

I prayed on our wedding day that marrying Clay was the right decision.

Little did I know that it would be the best decision I ever made.

I love you, babe.

8 Months.

Dear Will,

You are the light of our lives.

Your curiosity of the world makes us see things in new and beautiful ways.

You make us want to be better people, you make us want to leave this world better than we inherited it, you make us want to help others try to enjoy life as much as we do with you.

You love the little things, the simple things. You love eating paper, especially Mama's grocery lists. She has gotten better at memorizing things thanks to you! You love Camden and find him endlessly entertaining. You love rolling over and pushing up. You love smiling at other people. You love other babies, and when we come close to your friends Wylie and Ryan, you reach out to hug them.

It it is moments like that that I melt.

You are just so loving already.

You love the Johnny Jump-Up, especially because it means that you are on the same level as Camden. You jump and jump--and then suddenly you want out!

You also love the camera. You mostly want to eat it, and sometimes the light of the flash confuses you, but the minute Mama puts it down, you smile again and then she is able to quickly capture your sweetness.

From day one, you loved sticking out that tongue. Now your favorite face is one of a big, open mouth, probably because that is the face we often make when we see you. Ours is one of awe and pure joy. We loved you before we ever met you, yes, but you are so much better than we could have ever even imagined.

I asked Clay last night, "Do you just love being a dad?"

He said, "Yes. Yes. But I LOVE being Will's dad."

Great answer.

We LOVE being your parents.

Your expressions are, one after the other, so adorable.

And you finally love food! Hooray! Today you had sweet potatoes & apple and YoBaby peach yogurt. It makes Mama so happy when you open your mouth wide and get excited about eating. You wear half of it, but that is more our fault than yours :-).

Be still my heart.

Solid food success!

You are sitting up like a champ these days, but we stick close by because eventually you timber over. It doesn't faze you, though--you are so laid back and tough that you just hang out until we scoop you back up into our arms and smother you with kisses.

You still love your pacifier, and you are adept at putting in your mouth, turning it all around, and spitting it out when you see a bottle (you still LOVE your bottles).

Thoughtful Will.

You love your Daddy.

Mama loves him too :-)

My new favorite picture.

Today, your 8 month birthday, we were lucky enough to spend the day together as a family. It was the first day of our Winter Break, and Daddy leaves tomorrow for a Church convention in Knoxville, but today was all play. We were supposed to observe a Montessori toddler classroom as part of the application process, but the brief snow fall last night caused the school to open two hours late--and thus our observation was postponed until tomorrow. What did we do instead? We played as a family--and laughed and laughed.

And then we went to Target!

We tried out the shopping cart cover that Mimi and Poppy gave us for Christmas, and you loved it!

Next stop: lunch at EarthFare

Next stop: nap time (for all three of us).

You are such a great sleeper, sweet Will. I took this picture five seconds after laying you down for your nap. You sleep from 8 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., and you nap from 10-11 and from 1-3.

We also love going for walks, and even though it was super cold today, we bundled up and took a family walk around campus.

Here you are ready to walk Camden.

The cold walk led to a warm bath, another one of your favorite activities.

We love the soft books (thank you, Sally!). Why? Because when it comes to books, you love...EATING them. Hilarious.

You aren't quite sure about getting out of the bathtub, though :-)

Oh, wait...

...there's that smile!

(Wish I could get it to rotate but it doesn't seem to want to cooperate)

We tried to get the "8 month" shot but I think we waited too long...

Here you are in your sleep sack. You are about to grow out of this one and I am searching all over for a bigger one because you love it so much!

It's been a good day.

But then again, each day of the past 8 months has been a good day. A GREAT day. You make us so, so happy, little man. You are fun, loving, patient, curious, smart, and sweet. From the moment you wake up smiling to the moment you go to bed smiling, you fill our every moment with joy and meaning.

We already can't wait for tomorrow with you.