4 1/2 weeks in Cincinnati

Four weeks in, and I finally found something that I am truly excited about in Cincinnati.....two things actually.......Kids First AND the Cincinnati Children's Museum! It was a HUGE weekend. If Northern Virginia has anything like these, I don't want to know because I'm really excited about my "find."

During Sophia's nap on Saturday, Emily and I went to the Kids First Open House. Emily wore her ballet leotard, tutu, ballet socks AND slippers (very chic).....she was pumped! She tried a 15 minute ballet class, and was a natural! She absolutely loved it and beamed the entire time. She watched everything that Miss Laura did, and she copied it. I laughed the entire 15 minutes, and snapped a ton of pictures because it was the cutest thing that I had seen in a long time.

After the 15 minute ballet sampler class, Emily tried TumbleBees and Cheer(ios). She was extremely cautious about them, but with enough 1-on-1 attention, she made it over a balance beam, tumbling obstacle course and did a pom pom routine! Too cute! The facility was awe-inspiring. It was like watching the Olympics in person -- it was an enormous building with an Olympic Gymnastics program of at least 30 gymnastics stations set up (vault, uneven bars, balance beam, parallel bars, rings), and students performing on each one. I sent in my registration and am waiting to hear back as to whether Em got the ballet time slot that I requested and whether both Em and Sophia got the TumbleBees timeslots I requested for them.

On Sunday, the four of us went to the Cincinnati Children's Museum, and were truly impressed. We spent at least an hour exploring all of the great hands-on things to do, and had barely covered 1/3 of the children's portion of the museum. I'm looking forward to giving our membership a work-out. We all had a great time.

The prettiest area that I have found so far is the Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, Ault Park area. There's a picture of Emily standing in the middle of the gardens at Ault Park. We went there to look at the flowers and have a picnic with our next door neighbors, Deanna, Victoria (6 months older than Emily), Ally (3 months older than Sophia), and Joshua (1 month old). They have been a God-send, literally. I don't know what we'd do without next-door neighbors who have girls that are compatible with my two girls. All 4 girls peacefully coexist and enjoy playing with each other -- it feels like a miracle to have them next door.

I have enrolled Emily in W,F preschool , and Sophia in a Music class while Em is in preschool on Friday. Yes, we'll definitely stay busy enough, which is the key to me not getting depressed.

The house is fairly unpacked. We still need to organize the basement better, get rid of all of the empty boxes in the garage, and have a garage sale for all the stuff that I've been piling in the garage before Matt's car will fit in the garage. We have our projects -- I'm still working on the bulletin boards, art wall and ABC wall in the playroom. Matt needs to hang chairrail in Emily's bedroom. I need to figure out window treatments, find a corner cabinet for the kitchen, find a narrow table for the foyer, and get the rest of the pictures hung up. We still need dining room chairs, a new kitchen table and a rug for the kitchen.

Cosmo is fairing the worst of us. He has been in 3 fights in 3 weeks. I can tell that he's depressed, and he doesn't want to go outside. Poor guy. I really feel for him.

Our first week in Cincinnati

After Mrs. Bean brought Emily's imaginary friend, Stickory, to life this evening, I decided that it was time to stop unpacking, and journal our unprecedented initation to this neighborhood.

We have lived here for one week, and I know without reservation that we will greatly miss the culture, diversity, unending list of things to experience, and the largesse and beauty of Northern Virginia, not to mention our group of friends. However, that being said, I have NEVER moved into a more welcoming community. I'm curious to see how our relationships here develop.

On move-in day, July 25th, I met Ann Smith as I walked to my car to run to Kroger for basic groceries. She and her husband George are original owners, as I have learned many, many people still are in this 30-40 year old neighborhood. Sophia loves Ann's dog, Rosie, and we walk across the street every time we see Ann and Rosie in the front yard.

Then, Tricia, Kendall and Ryan Cox stopped by to welcome us to the neighborhood (they were the previous owners of our home). They left us a bottle of wine, sidewalk chalk, and promised to host a party to introduce us to all of their neighborhood friends. "Ed," another original owner, stopped in to introduce himself.

On Sunday (7/27), Laura, Greg and Lilly Nocito (who live next door) brought a loaf of homemade Friendship Bread and the prettiest housewarming card I've ever seen. I was ecstatic! The FIRST time out of all of my moves that anyone has ever brought us a homebaked anything!

On Sunday afternoon, Deanna, Mike, Victoria, Ali and Joshua (who live on the other side of us), hurried outside to introduce themselves when they saw us outside. Deanna printed me a map othat she made of her favorite spots to bring the kids, and called me the next night with preschool information.

On Tuesday afternoon, Emily and I went for a walk to find Stickory's house. Stickory is Emily's imaginary friend. She is a mouse who makes clocks (think of "Hickory Dickory Dock"), she drives a sea green car that was always in Harris Teeter's parking lot and she lived in a house in Great Falls Crossing with a blue door and a basketball hoop in the driveway. I told Emily that Stickory probably moved to Montgomery, too, and we should look for her home. Well, all we had to do was walk across the street, and down one house. Emily was transfixed by the home with the blue door, so we walked up and knocked on the door. After a few minutes, Mrs. Bean (another original owner, who is widowed) came to the door, and we introduced ourselves. I told her that Emily's "lovie" is a mouse named Carrie, and that she loves all mice: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Angelina Ballerina, and Stickory. I told her all about Stickory, and Emily was beside herself to meet the woman who lives in Stickory's house. I whispered to her that if she happened to have anything in her home with a mouse on it, then sometime she'd have to show it to Emily and tell her that it is Stickory. And I told her about Sophia's infatuation with Rosie the dog.

On Wednesday afternoon, Melissa, Connor and Nathan stopped by with an incredible lunch, and clued us into Buskin Bakery (I had already bought their yummy smiley face cookies at Kroger, but didn't know that they are a locally-owned premium bakery). We had such a great time, and Emily beamed as she held Aunt Mel's hand and showed her the entire house. And she laughed and laughed as she played rough and tumble with her cousins.

After Mel and the kids left, I met Jencie and Mya Ferraro who were playing with Laura and Lilly next door. Before I knew what was happening, we ended up with a full-blown playgroup in the house....it is difficult to walk outside without ending up talking to a neighbor....this feels crazy after living in Reston for two years!

On Thursday evening, Sarah, Nick and Vince Palermo from across the street came over to introduce themselves, and brought a plate full of warm, fresh-from-the-oven turtle brownies and a housewarming card. My SECOND homebaked housewarming gift!!! Are you kidding me?!

Today (Friday) Greg, the pharmacist next door, stopped by with a photocopied list of the neighborhood directory for us, as he was bringing homemade "butt paste" to another neighbor. Then, I played with Lilly as Greg and Matt hauled our sleeper sofa over to their home. It's all very suburbia. Makes me think of Stacy Bueno, and her Alabama roots.

This evening, all four of us went outside to take a little stroll. Emily was pushing their shopping cart with Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog. Sophia was pushing their baby stroller with Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog. Mrs. Bean saw us walking in her direction, and she walked over to us with two wrapped gifts that she was bringing over for Em and Soph. She volunteers one day per week as a buyer for the baby section of a gift shop at a hospital. She thought of Emily when she saw an adorable grey and pink mouse stuffed animal, and she wrapped it up for her (since she now knows that she cohabitates with a mouse named Stickory). It was one of the kindest gestures that I have ever witnessed, a woman that I met three days ago literally brought Emily's imaginary friend to life, and Emily was speechless. She kept asking me, "Can I bring the gift home with me?" AND, Mrs. Bean remembered that Sophia loves Rosie the dog, so she wrapped up an adorable dalmation puppy with pink hearts (instead of black spots) for her. Every time Emily and Sophia gave Mrs. Bean a hug, she would kiss the top of their heads, and Sophia blew kisses to her. It was all very sweet. So, although we are definitely not be in the most exciting or beautiful place to live, it definitely appears to be one of the most welcoming.

The move is approaching...

Well I decided to set up a new blog to document the big move coming up.  My wife Gina, our two daughters Emily and Sophia, and I are moving from Reston Virginia, to Cincinnati, OH next week!  I can't believe it's almost time to leave this area.  We've made a lot of close friends, and really feel at home here, but I'm sure Cincinnati will be great too.

I hope to use this blog to document things and as a way to keep in touch with everyone.