Birthdays: Trey Thomas Nitza turned 3 yesterday - just don't tell him that. Some of you will remember the phase he went through in which he completely rejected the idea of the letter "W", and screamed "no, M!" every time someone got to the letter W while saying or singing the alphabet... Well, this is similar. He accepted that it was his birthday, and seemed to enjoy himself and his party. However, when anyone mentions that he is 3 now, he yells "No, I am 2!" with the same intensity he did about the whole W versus M thing.
Nevertheless, we had a nice day. The girls were VERY excited about his birthday, moreso than he was. I think this just gave them something new to focus on. We invited the little girl Harley that we met at the hotel over for a little party, which the kids were also all very excited about. Harley and her parents are staying at the Sun Hotel while her dad is filming the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, which is based on the book series by the same name. If you have not read them, they are by Alexander McCall Smith and are set in Botswana. All the settings in the books are real places, and the books give a neat look at the culture here. The TV series will appear on HBO.
Back to the party... Trey and I made cupcakes (cooking with me has become one of his favorite things - he will tell you that he can cook hamburgers, rice and broccoli with cheese). The girls decorated the front gate with clothespins to look like streamers. When Harley arrived we had cupcakes and ice cream, presents, and then the kids and Harley played outside. We got him gifts that we were able to find around here: a ball, a book, a Noah's Ark set, a little kitchen set, and a couple scary wrestler action figures which, sadly, have become his favorites. We then went and got some pizza for dinner, and he played with his various toys for the rest of the day.
I am back to being unable to get pictures to upload this evening despite my success earlier today, so stay tuned for birthday pictures in a future post.
Sadness: The newness is wearing off, and I think it is starting to drag us all down a bit. At various times in various ways we are all missing the people and comforts of home. The girls are talking more about missing specific people. When Trey sees them get sad, he immediately says either "I miss Angie" (sorry Scott, I know he misses you, too), or "I miss Grandma and PoPo and Tulip". After we were able to talk to Scott's family tonight, Eden got very tearful, she misses Lyra so much. After I put her to bed this evening I saw she was still up, so I went up there to find that she was basically making a shrine to Lyra - a pile of all the things she brought with her that she knows Lyra loves. Sigh...
The kids have made a few friends - Harley, mentioned above, plus the son and daughter of my new friend Kanana, (who is the sister of my department chair here). Kanana lives quite close to us, and her kids go to Westwood also; I think they will really be able to enjoy each other. Kanana was raised here, but has spent the past several years in the Phillipines, so her kids are away from their home as well. School starting will be very good for all of them. I am trying to think of things for the girls to do during the day to keep them busy, but as I said, the newness is wearing off and you can only beat the dust out of the rugs so many times a day before it loses its excitement...
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5 comments:
Nothing wrong with Trey holding on to 2. I know a number of women who are clinging to 29 and become quite snippy if one suggests otherwise. ;)
If you haven't already done it, Eden and Lyra should become pen pals. How exciting for Lyra to get stamps from Africa and for Eden to get a letter from home. And on those days when there's nothing to write about, let the other know what they were doing at a specific time: at 8pm I was doing .... What were you doing? or I saw the full moon today, did you see it?
You have definitely met some interesting people. I'll have to look out for the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Hopefully I'll pay attention to the plot and not just look at the background! Will you be able to go on the set and watch them film?
I read your post last night and went to bed thinking, thinking, thinking about you guys.
This emotional 'place' you're in is so hard - after the excitement has worn off, before you've really owned your new location.
I have SO many childhood memories of that ambiguous, grievous emotional space and I have to say that those moments are probably the most memorable family-bonding moments of my childhood.
Everytime we moved there was an exciting buzz about the adventure. Everytime we moved that wore off within a couple of weeks. So, every time we moved, we became each other's only familiar. It was profoundly bonding. We had to lean toward each other or we would have felt very lost.
I hope that your family experiences this same warmth and connectedness as a result of this current sadness struggle. You know that this has followed my brothers and I into our adult relationships. We are still each other's familiar and we deeply appreciate each other for it.
Of course, none of our moves were temporary like this one and none of our moves were cross-cultural. However, Southern Indiana might qualify as cross-most-cultural! :) I hope that entering school and carving out a social identity will help your kiddos settle in a bit more.
I'll wrap up my little tome here, but I wanted to send a little hope in the midst of your family sadness. Give Eden, Hope & 2-year-old Trey a big hug from us. We really love you guys - and we miss you, too!
cm
By the way, Theo - well done on the laundry and the landscaping! I think you are quite a handy guy to have around. Thanks for posting the pictures! Make Amy post a picture of herself one of these days!
We've been missing you guys so much too! I was teary after I saw Eden, Hope and Trey's beautiful faces on the web the other day. Lyra was a moody mess. We've had several tearful bedtimes since you guys left. She does things all day because she's thinking about Eden. The most recent one is hoping she gets the orange elephant vitamin in the mornings because it reminds her of Eden.
Scott and I are prone to crankiness (more than usual anyway;)) and sigh a lot. Chet is preoccupied with ninja moves and such, but occasionally gets real quiet and then says, "Mommy I miss them". As you have, I've been trying to keep the lot of us busy...
I really agree with Carla. I think this is probably a natural part of moving. If there wasn't some missing going on, I'd be worried. I'm sure once school begins all will settle into a more comfortable daily routine and you'll feel more at home.
We will most certainly get on the penpal thing. Lyra already has a picture or two drawn for Eden that's ready to send.
On a different note, I go get the keys to the new store today! That'll keep us preoccupied for the next ten weeks and then right after that we'll get to see Uncle Ted!!! Yeah. Yeah.
Love you all lots. Thinking of each of you everyday and Amy, my "phone time" just ain't the same. I've resorted to reading even more than usual which is a good thing, but I'd rather be chatting it up with you. Typing is tooooo slow. I can't even keep up with my thoughts when I'm talking. :)
P.S. I really miss my buddy too! Tell him I love him lots please.
Hello to the Nitza family. Had a chance to look at your blog and I am so impressed with how much you have added in such a short time. Life if Fort Wayne is busy as usual, less exciting with you not here, and not nearly as interesting as your current home! None of my legal issues at work are quite as fun (or scary) without Ted. Maggie broke up with her Muncie boyfriend and wants to leave Muncie - thrilling news from my persepctive. Sad about the boy but cool about moving on. One son got funded for his doctorate and got engaged. Another son broke off his engagement (must be in the air about leaving mates). Other daughter is seeking new work and new school and new boyfriend. Doug is still working at GM, playing golf and trying to each me to play - I am really good (NOT)! I am teaching hardanger (swedish form of embroidery) to some city employees after work - fun for me and maybe for them, too. Today is the city utilities party - not sure I can go because I have out of town company but I would just eat bad food anyway. Check out my blog at www.stash-queen.blogspot.com
Cici Case
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