Reading Together

It has been a source of consternation that Ian will not sit still long enough to let me read to him or he would continually take the book away and randomly flip through pages and 'read' the book himself. I had this bucolic image of us sitting quietly together with him snuggled in my lap while I read to him and we look together at the pictures. One thing I have learned is that parenting doesn't look anything like I thought it would!! And of course there has been no reading with Ian. Until two days ago... when for the first time Ian sat in my lap long enough to let me read a book to him and he enjoyed it. Since then he has been bringing books to me and to Aaron and wanting us to read to him. The same book... over and over - which I am really ok with. In fact I love it! So I am happy to say that all of our efforts have payed off, or they made no difference whatsoever and he has just naturally developed to the stage where he can sit and pay attention for a couple of minutes. Either way we are reading!

Where is Oak Park?

View Larger Map

For those who have asked me where Oak Park is, I have embedded this handy map. What's fun is you can actually walk the neighborhood by clicking on 'view larger map' then click on the 'street view' button and then double clicking on any of the blue highlighted streets. You can't actually 'walk' down our street because it isn't one of the blue highlighted ones but you can look towards our block by positioning yourself at the corner of Chicago and Cuyler and then look north. You can see where we are in relationship to Chicago by clicking on the minus sign on the left to zoom out or you can check out Oak Park by zooming in by clicking the minus sign or just double clicking on the position you would like to zoom in on. Mom and Dad, if you haven't navigated online maps before - they're fun. It's especially interesting to do the whole street view thing. You can actually do a virtual tour of Oak Park. You can also see the building I will be working in by doing the street view option at the corner of Dearborn and Madison right downtown. The building that Halcrow Yolles is in is the glass cladded one on the SE corner. Enjoy!

This is a test.

Ok I've had to change my google account, gmail, calendar, blog... so my name is now Elizabeth Stek. This has been much harder than going to the Secretary of State and changing my name in the legal way. I am so electronically documented!! Anyway I just want to make sure I can post with the new account to my old blog before I remove my oldself as an administrator. Argh! Aaron better be grateful! :-)

The reason I had a child...

img_1738, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Windsor.

I'm sure it is the same reason my parents had children... to do the dishes. He actually loves to do this - I'm sure it won't last for very long and he makes a much bigger mess than he cleans up. He just likes to be 'helpful'.

So I haven't blogged in awhile and there has been a bit of news. Most of you know that I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict and if you didn't, well you do now. The good news is that on Friday the 14th, I celebrated 8 years of continuous sobriety. I think that is noteworthy, or blog worthy! I'm very grateful, it's been a hell of a ride and my life is so great these days... it's hard to imagine that I was ever the person I used to be. The ironic part is that a couple of years ago someone pointed out that 3.14 is pi day! Sorta portentous that a future engineer would choose to get sober on pi day. If you aren't a geek, and have no idea what I am talking about, don't worry, your social standing is not in jeopardy for not knowing what pi day is! More likely the opposite is true.

The other news of note is that a couple of months from now, Aaron and I will be celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary. My gift to him is that I changed my name to Elizabeth Anne Stek - officially, and I should probably add, finally. I don't know, I guess his probationary period is up and I decided to stick around and make a commitment to the relationship... With the upcoming move to Chicago it seemed like a good time to make the change, it saves having to explain to everyone that I just wasn't quite ready to jump in with both feet on our wedding day. This way, I can just start going by Elizabeth Stek when we make the move. It was a big surprise to Aaron - I stunned him. I had previously told him that I had no intention of ever changing my name. I didn't tell him I was going to do it . I think I made him very happy and that made my day.

I think that's all the news. Life is continuing on. I have four more weeks of classes left and then one (should be) pretty easy exam to take and I am a free woman!! That feels good.

If I don't see you in GR - have a happy Easter!!

An early anniversary gift!

Elizabeth gave me a wonderful and utterly unexpected anniversary gift this year. She has officially changed her name to Elizabeth Anne Stek!

Curls

There were some Grandmothers out there who were concerned with the status of Ian's curls once I got his haircut. I want to reassure you that Ian will in fact continue to have curly hair and it appears that his hair is continuing to get more and more curly. I will go out on a limb here and predict that he will have my curls. Probably much to his dismay. :-)

Life here is good. We are both counting down the weeks until we are done with our school/job. Seven more weeks!! I was counting days but decided to back up a little until I was down to the last two weeks. Aaron and I sat down the other day and made a tentative plan for the move. Aaron has decided that his last day of work will be April 25 - my last exam is April 24th, so those are the days we are desperately looking forward to! Anyway, the idea is that we then have a solid week of packing together. On Friday May 2nd we will pick up the truck in the morning. Anyone who is available and willing I would love to have come down (or over) and help us with the packing of the truck that day. Friday night we will be taking everyone out for dinner who pitched in (or who would like to join us) for a celebrating of my graduation and also a good-bye to Ann Arbor party. Saturday morning will drive the truck and jeep over to Chicago. We can then unpack Saturday and Sunday. We will be returning the truck in Chicago on Sunday. It actually costs less than returning it to A^2 because of gas mileage and keeping it to Sunday is the same as a Saturday drop off so that works well. We then have a week in Oak Park to unpack and settle in a bit before I start work. I think Aaron is taking an extra week (or whatever it takes) so that we have a couple of weeks to find daycare. So that's the plan for now!

Success!

Good News! We will not be homeless in May! Aaron, Ian and I are back from our adventures in Chicago. We found a great apartment in Oak Park. It's a two bedroom Victorian with a nice modern kitchen and bath. It also has a little study that if necessary could be put to use as a nursery. We are a 5-10 minute walk from the el, near a library, and just one block from a school with a playground. It's in a block of mostly single family homes and on a quiet residential street. We were very pleased with Oak Park. It seems to be a kid friendly, vibrant community. There are lots of parks, a good library, a lot of families with young children, a Unitarian Universalist Church, good restaurants and cute little shops downtown. Oak Park is the birthplace of Earnest Hemingway and was the location of the home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright. The Unity Temple we will attend was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is the only public space that he designed that is still being used for its original purpose. We didn't get a chance to take a tour but are looking forward to attending services there - it looks beautiful (and I might add is a cast in place concrete structure).

I went and saw my new workplace. It's small, but that was to be expected since as of right now there are just three of us in the office. By May, they expect to have hired four more - two mid level engineers, another grad and an intern. That will make a good office. I will have a desk and the office is located at One South Dearborn in a newer high rise. What's nice is that on the seventh floor is a gym for all the people that work in the building. This may help me in my resolution to lose some weight and get back in shape in Chicago.

Oak Park also has a cheese shop! Aaron stopped by there and the shop is expanding into a new space as well as opening up a butcher in the old space. The owners are going to be at Zingerman's tomorrow attending a ZingTrain seminar so they will be stopping by the cheese counter to meet Aaron. I'm sure Aaron will have a job there. They would be dumb not to hire him especially since we assume they will be hiring since they are expanding. I don't know anyone that knows cheese better than Aaron and if they are looking to model after Zingerman's... well that's just such a good fit. We would both feel good if Aaron was working in Oak Park because then if Ian is in daycare there, Aaron would be close. He did interview with a shop in downtown Chicago but didn't get a good vibe. I think the place was a little too trendy and snooty for Aaron. And really - why commute if you don't have to! He could ride his bike to work or even walk!

So I think our trip to Chicago was a grand success. It is good to be home though. Ian slept in his own crib and only woke up once at 9:30 pm. It is now after 8 and Aaron and Ian are still sleeping. This is bliss. It feels good to have things mostly sorted for the move. Just need to find daycare now!