there is life after grad school

We have had many good things to celebrate in our family lately:

- moving into a new home

- Abe finishing his dissertation

- welcoming baby Isis

- being completely and totally finished with the phd program

- enjoying amazing California weather

- Abe having no more dissertation work to do on every evening and weekend known to man

- starting a nanny with the kids so I can work part time, and Genghis starting preschool

- no more dissertation

Did I mention that Abe finished his dissertation? We are free! It took longer to complete the "last stage" of his thesis than it did to grow and birth our baby.  But it's done. Done. Done. Done.

I am just a little bit completely ecstatic.

But if the last 9 months have taught us anything, it is to simplify our lives. In keeping with that, I have decided that it is time to officially announce the scaled-back scope of this blog.*

I love capturing the stories, moments, and absurdities of life in the form of blogging, but it's just not happening right now. At the same time, I humbly recognize a devoted group of readers whose Number One purpose in reading my blog is to see photos of our three fabulous rugrats. So, I am going to try to post photos regularly, maybe with captions and stories as a bonus.

Some day, I want to tell stories again. For now, I will work on just living them instead.

With that said, here are a few photos.

Xena at a great garden in Palo Alto. 

Genghis and Xena at the garden. 

Super smile from Isis! 

Genghis reconstructing the Hong Kong skyline and harbor out of legos, based on photos sent from grandma. 

* Okay, I'm pretty sure no one really cares about the stated purpose of said blog. But writing it down officially will help ease my "A-type" mind.

5 things that made me happy today

1. This morning, while finishing my breakfast, I was treated to this scene: Genghis clad only in his Thomas the Train underwear and Xena's giant brown and turquoise hair bow, jumping spasmodically around the living room (he calls this "dancing") to We Wish You a Merry Christmas being played on an oversized floor piano.

2. I dusted our house from top to bottom for the first time ever (meaning, since moving in over 2 months ago). With hardwood floors, dusting necessitates a lot of sweeping and moving furniture and sneezing. Especially if you have 10 weeks of accumulated dirt. But the house feels so clean and fresh, except by the two diaper pails we have next to the bathroom. Remind me again that we won't have children in diapers for the rest of my existence.

3. I signed a contract to continue some evaluation work for a museum group that I have really enjoyed working with in the past. It's one of those few times when you make recommendations for how a museum should move forward with evaluation, and then they have the means and enthusiasm to actually do it.

4. Homemade chocolate chip cookies. Enough said.

5. The replacement cord to my digital piano arrived in the mail. I lost the cord in the move, and after looking in box after box wondering where I mislaid it, I finally ordered a new one. It felt silly to have the piano looking pretentiously like a normal upright piano but total useless with no power. Sadly, I don't have plans to play the piano even now that we have power. But the kids have loved it. Someday I will play again ... Also, I finally found the original cord later this afternoon while I was dusting. Go figure.

friday photos

One of the many awesome things my mom does is hand craft a special outfit for each of her grandchildren to wear for their blessing day in our church. We did Isis's blessing a few weeks ago. Here are some shots to show off her gown. I love the colors mom chose, almost as much as I love Isis's stubborn ebony mohawk.

this post is really just about the photos

When I venture out with my brood of 3, ages 3 and under, people usually tell me I am either very brave or very busy. More appropriate adjectives might include the following: tired, insane, easily brought to tears, envious, or crazed and possibly dangerous.

Today at the playground I met a grandmother who told me she had 4, ages 3 and under: the 3 year old, a set of 1 year old twins, and a newborn. It was such a relief to realize things actually could be harder. I asked how she got through it. She thought for a moment and then said she had no idea - it was all a blur.

And somewhere between dragging the 3 of them to the doctor's office for Isis's check up, coming home and trying to feed all 3 of them at once, and then wondering at 8:30pm if I should get something to eat myself, I realized that she is 100% right. Later in life I may have no clear memory of this time period. And that may not be a bad thing.

Cynicism aside, each of our three kids is awesome. Here are long overdue photos of each of them.

Isis. Now 1 month.

Xena. Almost 18 months.

Genghis. Just turned 3.

Big brother ...

... is sometimes a good thing.

we had a baby!

Born on Monday, July 15, 2013. She is calm, happy, and easy going. These will be critical personality traits for a 3rd child.

We've decided on Isis as her blog name. Isis is an Egyptian goddess, of motherhood and nature (depending on what sources you look at: I reviewed the wikipedia page and an obscure website on Egyptian goddesses and dance). Anyway, the meaning of Isis connects pretty well with the meaning of her given name.

I don't know if we have any choice about what family we're born into. But if we do, I'm convinced that Isis chose our home as much for her siblings as for us parents. Even at 2 weeks, she is fascinated with them and loves to be in the room with them. In turn, they shower her with kisses, hugs, and "soft touches". Xena throws in a few claws across the face, but I think her intent is mostly to get Isis to do something a bit more interesting than look around with a somewhat vacant expression.

Here she is!

I love her scrunchy face.

Tired and happy.

we bought a house!

This has been in the works for a while, but now that I'm sitting in our new 3rd bedroom-office writing this, I think it's official.

We bought a house!

I could go into the story of the 1 month whirlwind of looking at homes in a frustrating sellers market, the 2 months of craziness that was being "in contract" for the home, the 2 weeks of packing/cleaning/leasing our apartment, and the last 3 days of unpacking and starting to settle in to our new home.

But honestly, it's not something I want to relive in great detail.

Instead I will do a digital victory dance (da da da dooby da da) and enjoy the idea that we now live in a home of our own.

At some point I anticipate posting photos. For now, here's the exterior photo from the real estate listing.