Edith Turns 7

 
Edith's birthday was last Thursday, but it's not over yet! She had a birthday party with family on Sunday, but after school today a number of friends are coming to our house for games, crafts and pizza. I think she has been more excited about that than actually getting older!

7-year old Edith's favorite ...
In her own words / [what I guessed]

• Food: Macaroni / [macaroni and cheese, spaghetti]

• Toy:  Chelsea trailer [basically a Barbie accessory] / [Barbies]

• Book: Betsy-Tacy / [anything Henry and Mudge]

• TV Show: Pinkalicious / [Molly of Denali]

• Movie: Cinderella and Frozen / [Frozen]

• Recess activity: Play with friends / [playing games with friends]

• Color: Pink, gold and purple / [pink and purple]

• Animal: Elephant / [cheetah]

• Song: All songs by Laurie Berkner, and Let It Go [from Frozen] / [Honky Cat]

• Game: Dominoes / [dominoes]

• Fruit: Strawberries / [strawberries]

• Vegetable:  Tomatoes / [carrots with ranch dressing]

• Breakfast: Froot Loops [generic kind!] and milk / [Oatmeal with sugar and cinnamon]

• Restaurant: Graeter's [for ice cream] / [Spaghetti Warehouse]

• Thing about school:  Art / [Art class, playing with friends]

• Anything else she wants to add: "I still love unicorns. I love art still, and I love drawing unicorns."

I was pretty proud of the unicorn cake I made, and Edith loved it!

It's Been a While: Living in Columbus

Paul and I hit a milestone earlier this year -- the longest we've ever lived in a single place together. So far:

Clintonville (Columbus, Ohio): 6 years, 3 months
Brooklyn, New York: 5 years, 9 months
Galloway (Columbus suburb): 4 years, 2 months

As sad as I was to leave Brooklyn (truthfully, I was downright hostile to the idea for a while), I'm glad we made the move. Even more specifically, I'm glad we moved at the exact time that we did, down to the day. Paul moved back to Columbus in July 2013 -- on my birthday, believe it or not -- leaving me and 8-month-old Edith to await the moving truck later that week. He drove back to Brooklyn the following weekend to pick us up and that was it -- we officially moved to Columbus.

We had been house hunting on trips back to Ohio and even came close to putting in an offer on a house in Upper Arlington. But the first house we looked at on our first full day as Columbus residents was the one. We moved in a month later, and now our neighbors are such good friends that I can't imagine leaving.

Of course it's wonderful being so close to family, too -- that was the biggest reason we came back to begin with. And I love having a driveway, garage and washer and dryer. I miss the buzz and excitement that is ever present in New York City, and I miss the food (although a few of my favorite restaurants there don't exist anymore anyway). I get pangs in which I wish we still lived there, but overall I think I'm happiest here.

The worst part of being in one place for so long is all of the "stuff" that has accumulated. Since we haven't moved lately and have no plans of doing so anytime soon, there's been no reason to purge! But it's a small price to pay for being so happy in the place we love most.

Photos: August, September & October Highlights

Some favorite photos and some others that never made the blog!

August 21, 2019 - COSI

August 22, 2019 - Edith's first day of first grade.

August 27, 2019 - Atticus's first day of preschool.

September 16, 2019 - Atticus on the Statehouse grounds.

September 16, 2019 - At the Statehouse.

September 17, 2019 - Hanging out at the playground.

September 19, 2019 - Atticus loves the blocks at the library.

September 25, 2019 - Atticus climbs up, up, up!

October 1, 2019 - Bouncing around.

October 12, 2019 - Atticus at Burr Oak.

October 15, 2019 - Being lazy at the playground.

October 16, 2019 - Atticus's Wall-E obsession continues, even with dominoes.

October 22, 2019 - Atticus makes the playground rounds.

October 23, 2019 - COSI's climbing wall.

October 26, 2019 - Atticus bundles up with Daddy's glasses.

Halloween 2019: Princess to Crime Fighters

 
Halloween was more cold than spooky this year, with high winds and falling temperatures. Luckily it had stopped raining earlier in the day, so we could put away the umbrellas and make do with layering up the kids under their costumes.

Edith's costume throughout the Halloween season varied between Belle (at school functions) and Owlette from PJ Masks (for trick or treating, particularly since Atticus was Catboy and a neighbor was Gekko from the same show). In any case, they each brought home enough chocolate to keep us stocked for months!