Cape Cod summers

My childhood is full of Cape Cod memories.  Playing mini golf and riding bumper cars. Building sandcastles and jumping waves. Catching fireflies outside when the sun finally set.  My parents took us down the Cape almost every summer growing up. Sometimes it was a day trip in the car, other times a week long stay in a cottage. Since I'm a summer baby, I celebrated many birthdays on the Cape - jumping on trampolines, riding the merry go round, making my own ice cream sundae. I have so many wonderful memories of family vacations here. A week straight of "family time", playing cards and board games instead of watching TV and staying out way past our normal bedtime.

This week Nathan and I joined my parents in Harwich. In just a few short days, Nathan had some classic Cape Cod experiences. The beach in Chatham. An outdoor concert in Hyannis. The aquarium in Woods Hole. And an ice cream sundae in Dennis. Although I know Nathan won't remember these first few days, I will forever think back to them as Nathan's first Cape Cod summer, and look forward to making many more family memories here throughout the years.

Marginal Way

After years of taking public transportation anywhere and everywhere, Will and I did something very surreal this weekend.... we bought a car. I haven't had a car since 2002 and it was a 1986 Honda Accord named Sammy. Before that was a 1979 Buick Regal, aka The Zipster. So having a car after all this time is exciting enough but getting a brand new car is even more exciting. This thing has working AC. A CD player!!! And the seats are not held together by duct tape!

We have yet to name the car, we'll have to get to know each other first and see what feels right. So in an effort to bond with our new wheels, we drove up to Maine on Sunday and took Nathan on his first walk down Marginal Way. My parents took us here many times when we were kids and I know there's a not so flattering photo of me and my siblings there floating around somewhere.

The awful humidity had finally broken so the weather was gorgeous.  I can think of no better summer combination than warm sunshine and a cool ocean breeze.

We walked about a mile from one end to the other, did a little poking around the adorable downtown, introduced Nathan to his very first ice cream cone (he's a big fan) and then walked a mile back to where we started. One thing Will and I really miss about living in New York is walking so it felt good to spend the afternoon on our feet. We all came home tired and tan, proof of a successful Sunday  :)

Love/Hate

I love having a washer and dryer right in my unit so I can get laundry done when Nathan is sleeping.

I hate the insanely loud BUZZ my dryer makes to apparently let the entire world know it's done. I hold my breath every time hoping it doesn't wake the sleeping bambino.

The poolboy

In some ways we feel like we're settling into our new home quite well. We have lots of family nearby, we have a bigger apartment and we pay cheaper rent.   But in other ways, we still feel like we're in limbo. We are hoping to buy a home within the next year or two so we moved into this apartment knowing it would be temporary. While I dread the idea of having to pack up and move again.... this place does have its selling points.

And this week, when the horrible, mean old weatherman is telling me it will reach 100 degrees... the best selling feature is the pool! Nathan has been out there almost every day perfecting both his doggy paddle and his tan.

Start em young

After seeing a picture of my friend Tricia's adorable daughter Amelia swiffering the kitchen floor, I started to notice Nathan's love of household cleaning too.

For example, he loves to take every pair of socks out of the dresser, then put them all back in. He loves to take all my books off the bookshelves, then put them back. And just today he helped me clean the bathroom. He loves to pull off pieces of toilet paper and while I usually discourage this, today he started to use them to clean the shower so I let him go to town.

I'll never turn away someone offering to help clean the bathroom.

Some wear their heart on their sleeve

Nathan wears his on his t-shirt. And according to this t-shirt, he loves NY but he really loves strawberries!

Beach Bum

Last summer we didn't make it to the beach even once. Nathan was too young back then to be in the sun anyway so this summer we were so excited to take him for the first time. We packed up the car with our beach essentials (magazines and books now replaced with buckets and shovels) and headed out.

We weren't sure how he would respond to the hot sand and cold water but we were pleasantly surprised to see that he loved it!

He even learned a lifelong lesson... don't throw sand, it might get in someone's eyes!

Love is...

- Carrying someone's pee soaked pants in your purse

- Letting someone poke you in the face, jab you in the eye, and stick their dirty fingers in your mouth, just so they'll learn the names of their body parts

- Sharing your cranberry muffin with someone, even though you're starving and have been looking forward to this muffin all morning, and you know this person just inhaled their own huge breakfast 5 minutes ago and can not possibly still be hungry.

Just another day at the office

Today Nathan and I stopped by my mom's office to help her with something she had on her to do list. While I ran the errand, Nathan hung out with Nana at work. Lucky for us Nana has a baby friendly job!!

Nice wheels

I took Nathan to a playground in our new neighborhood the other day and when we got there, we found tons and tons of toys. When I asked one of the other moms who they belonged to she let me know people in the area donate their used toys to the park and they are there for anyone to use. Nathan did a walk through examining all the different types of cars, bikes and scooters. After thorough examination, he decided on a cherry red convertible. I thought that was a good choice, you can't go wrong with a classic.

Getting adjusted

We've spent so many long weekends up here with my parents and it's always been a nice escape from the city for a few days. But at the end of our visits, I've always looked forward to returning to the fast pace and convenience of city life. We've been here for four days now and it's starting to sink in that this time we're not heading back to the city. But we're adjusting pretty well so far and we're quickly realizing the suburbs has its own conveniences to offer.

After nearly 10 years of only being able to buy as many groceries as I can carry with 2 hands, or more recently as many as I can hang on my stroller without tipping it over, I drove to Target this week and filled up an entire shopping cart. I LOVE Target so this was a very enjoyable experience for me. Point for the suburbs.

And then on the way home when I was craving a coffee, I went through the drive thru. The drive thru!!! I didn't have to hold the door open with one arm and awkwardly push the stroller in with the other, all while people walked right past me not offering to help. Another point for the suburbs!

But then last night at 11:30 I realized we didn't have any milk for Nathan in the morning. And in that moment we really missed having a 24 pharmacy across the street, and flipped a coin to see who had to go down to the car and drive to the store. Point for NYC. You win some, you lose some I guess.