First Week in California

Clearly I am very behind on the blog!  For obvious reasons.  I want to get back into the swing of things, especially since we're now across the country and I'd like to keep our friends and family up-to-date.  I'm still pretty busy with work and don't have time to post much now, but here is an update on our first week that I emailed to some friends.  I will try to upload photos and post a newer update soon!  (Backdating this post to match when I wrote it.)

Our first week in California was pretty stressful.  Lola did great on her first day at school, saying goodbye to me and then running off to play.  But Tuesday and Wednesday she was awful.  Crying, screaming, practically hyperventilating saying she didn't want me to go.  We got our cars on Tuesday, so Joseph was able to drop off on Thursday and Friday and said she did better.  She did seem happy when I picked her up and said goodbye to some friends, so hopefully she's adjusting.  The school seems nice - nothing special, but friendly teachers.  It's not very convenient to our temp housing, but it will work for now, and we may have to change depending on where we find a house.

Thomas is doing very well, as expected :)  His teachers say he is such a great baby.  Now I just need him to sleep!  He has been waking every hour or two at night.  He doesn't necessarily want to eat, but I usually end up nursing him just to try to get him back to sleep.  Temp housing only provided a pack-n-play, so we went to Ikea on Saturday and bought a cheap crib.  We are hoping that will help him sleep better since he's familiar with cribs.  Last night was his first night in it, and he did somewhat better - went down at 8 and woke at 11, 1, 4, and 6. I'm going to Wichita on Sunday for a conference, so I really want him to be doing better by then.  I feel bad leaving him, and I don't want my mom and Joseph to have to console him all night long. Although maybe that will force him to stop his middle-of-the-night nursing habit!

Joseph seems to really like his job.  He unfortunately got sick on Tuesday with a really high fever - I think it was due to stress and not enough sleep.  He rested a lot the past few days and seems to be better. But it was hard on us because we really needed to spend our evenings planning and looking at houses.  His team at Netflix planned a barbecue to welcome him this coming Saturday, so I'm looking forward to meeting his team and their families.

My job is going well so far remotely.  I had a hard time focusing the first few days since I was trying to settle us into the apartment, but I got into the swing of things at the end of the week.  I'm still trying to catch up from two weeks off.

Our main priority is finding a house right now.  Our temp housing is really nice, but it's still an apartment, so not ideal for family living (at least in my opinion).  It's a fun place for a short time - Lola likes pressing the elevator buttons, there is a playground on site, and we can walk to several restaurants.  But Joseph and I are both eager to find a house and settle in.  I didn't realize how much of our stuff I needed!  We've had to buy random things like a booster for Thomas, a stool for Lola, feeding supplies for Thomas since we're starting to introduce food, etc.  So I'd love to have all my stuff back.