We did venture out for a bit yesterday; Ellie needed her annual heartworm test, and then we went to the dog park. Sort of fun, sort of dull. That's also what playing with the baby is like right now. Kavi's getting more interesting, with new facial expressions and sounds added every few days, but it's still a slow process.
We're starting to get ready to go out west. It's a big move -- somehow, when Kevin first mentioned a semester in Berkeley, it didn't sound like that big a deal. But now it's coming home to us that it's packing up the whole family and moving for five months, and that there's an awful lot of stuff we have here that we won't have there, and an awful lot we have to have, which we have to pack and get there somehow. It's not really like we're moving, exactly -- the vast majority of our stuff will be left here with our sublettor, who will hopefully take good care of it. But we do need furniture and clothes and kitchen things there. Do we take our favorite knives and pots and teakettle, for example? If we don't, we'll be cooking on inferior products for five months, which will start to get irritating. But if we do, that's more stuff to fit in the car somehow. Oh, it's complicated...
Maybe not an appropriate comment to this entry, but I just noticed that Kavya’s birth was announced in the June issue of Locus.
“Kavi’s getting more interesting” made me laugh aloud! But i think i know exactly what you mean. Although i adored my son and watched him with besotted mother-love while he slept instead of napping myself, he seemed like a real *person* only with the onset of his ‘speech’ and some independence. You don’t have far to go–just a few more months :).
I’ve done the semester away thing a few times and the best thing *for me* is to take as little as possible with. When in lack i tend to improvise (and that’s excellent brain exercise) or borrow (if poss) or hit the thrift stores. I couldn’t do it all the time, but the transience of the the experience makes it bearable.