Big changes, they are afoot.

First, my baby turned a year old on 20-June. It freaks me out to think about how much has changed in the last year. It seems like everyday there is a change in him – he does something a little different than the day before or he looks a little older. I can’t think about it or it will make me sad. I don’t know why it makes me sad as he is growing into this awesome little person, but it makes me a little sad anyway.

Less than one hour old.

364 days old.

Another change – which is possibly the world’s worst kept secret at this point – we are moving to Denver this summer. I’ve been reluctant to write about it here for fear of jinxing it, but David starts his new job on 4-August. There is so much to do that I fear my head will pop off, or my hand will die of writer’s cramp, if I start making lists.

I can hardly wait to be back in Denver. We’ve been searching for houses on the internet for several weeks now and I love looking around the town, even if it is only on Google Earth. My Jessika and her family are there. We’ll have Sunday dinner. And we can trade babysitting. And we can have family vacations. I have a hard time sleeping if I start thinking about the fun we’re going to have!

We’d like to sell the house in the Bay Area in order to have a next to nothing mortgage in Denver. If we can’t then we’ll rent it out until the market improves. With an eye towards selling, we met with a real estate agent who looked us both in the eyes and asked if we were willing to rent a storage space because about half of our stuff needs to leave the house before it goes on the market. We spent a good portion of today packing up boxes – which seems unfair since the new company is paying for our move that includes someone to come pack up our crap. Ten book boxes and six clothing boxes later the books in the master bedroom are packed up and the closet is way clearer than before I moved in. Eight trash bags of my too big clothes went to charity. We have a little more work to do in the bedroom, but we’re off to a good start. Only two more bedrooms to go! And the whole downstairs.

After packing up stuff to help our little home appear bigger we did what any American family does. We went book shopping. We thought Nathan might be getting bored with his books. He only has a few dozen board books. Now he has another dozen or so. When we got home I packed up all the “big boy” books with the real paper pages, save Mo Willems, and I’m pleased as punch that my kid probably has six or seven book boxes of books. I love that he loves books! He sits quietly, muttering syllables under his breath, turning pages and “reading” to himself.

One bright side to putting the house on the market – aside from having next to nothing in the house and it ultimately meaning we’re heading off to Denver – is that we’ll get our cleaning people every week. That idea makes me woosier – in a good way – than the mountain of chores we have.