A Great School

As some of you know, we had a pretty great childcare situation in Austin. Our good friend, Amy G, watched Henry at our house while Kelsey worked from home. It was pretty much the next best thing to being able to stay home with Henry.

So, it was with some trepidation that we moved up to Boulder, knowing that we'd have to put Henry in child care. Obviously, we were a little bit spoiled, and we liked our arrangement.

Things couldn't have worked out better for us. For the past year, Henry attended a wonderful childcare facility named Commerce Childrens' Center, located on the campus of the Boulder Department of Commerce research labs.

CCC was set up to primarily serve the on-site employees, but we somehow managed our way into an open slot. Looking back, I'm not quite sure how we did, but it's a good thing we did, our only other last-minute option was about 40 minutes away.

I think the best compliment young, slightly stressed-out parents could pay a person or organization is that they feel totally comfortable placing their child in their care. We feel so lucky for Henry to have had the experience that he did at CCC, and instead of feeling guilty for having him away from us every day, we feel like he's been enriched for having done so. What was a potentially troubling situation for us turned out to be positive, times ten.

Below are pictures from Henry's going away party last Friday. Particularly tear-jerking moments: when his teachers gave him a book of pictures of his classmates (can you imagine what THAT'S going to look like in 20 years?), and when, one by one, each 2-3 year old in his class gave him a goodbye hug, unprompted. The whole thing was just a sweet, sweet moment that will be forever burned into our memories.

Sometimes I wonder why, exactly, we had this 1 year detour; but if it was only (it wasn't) for his experience there, it was worth it. Very thankful, indeed.

Cousin Buds

We've been very lucky to have Henry's cousin, Josh (and his Mommy and Daddy), move up to the Denver area for our last couple of months here. Obviously, we're very sad to be leaving them, but have greatly enjoyed spending time with them. Especially watching Henry and Josh bring out the two-year old boy maniac in each other.

Last night, Henry asked to go sit on the front porch to wait for Josh. At 8:00 at night.

H&M fun

Wildman

best friends

Vincenzo has wild curly blond hair. He is from Denmark, but speaks mostly Italian. He is a total daredevil, and always has some sort of major facial bruising. When He and Henry see each other, they give high fives. They have been best friends since they met at school last September. These snaps of them are from the annual school picnic last week.

Real life fire truck

Henry's wildest dreams came true three weeks ago when he and cousin Josh saw a real fire truck in the parking lot of our grocery store. Below is also an example of Henry's love of the hug. He's a big time hugger these days.

Got any more life-changing events up my sleeve?

I suppose now's as good a time as any to formally announce that I am accepting a position with Landor Associates in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Landor is a company that I've admired for a long time now, and is a definite leader in brand development. They have offices worldwide. I don't think it would be particularly outlandish to say that, for what they do (large-scale brand identity campaigns), they're top five in their class. A lot of the brands that you see on a day to day basis came through their offices (FedEx, P&G, BP, etc)

And you know what? They really like me. They're really excited to have me join their team, and think that I can be a leader and do good things there, which is tremendously flattering. I've really been looking for an opportunity like this for a long time now. Instead of wondering how I'm going to make it to retirement in this field bouncing from job to job, I'm starting to see a career roadmap unfold in front of me.

My M.O. in life is to be a good father, husband and provider, and I feel like this helps me get there.

The bad: A few months ago (or more), I think we realized that living in Colorado, away from our family/friends centers didn't make a ton of sense for us.

So, we looked at it like, we've got this hub in Texas and we've got this hub in Cincinnati (I'm from Cincinnati, she's from Austin), and it would probably be best for our family to end up closer to one of the two.

Unfortunately (and this is where the bad comes in), that means we had to pick. And pick is probably not the right word, since you take the opportunity that is in front of you. And this is the opportunity that happened, and made the most sense. We make this decision knowing that there will be some disappointed friends and family (that we care about very much), and, well, what can I say, it's just a hard thing to do. This is twice now that we've had to say goodbyes to people that we care about very much.

The ugly: I was telling Kelsey yesterday that it just feels weird and wrong that we haven't had access to Chuy's on a semi-regular basis for over a year now. Sure, there's Skyline Chili, but still...

We'll be loading up the moving trucks at the end of the month, and I'll start work November 3rd. We're going to take our time and find a good house, and will embrace stability. Wish us luck.

Big Boy Room

Henry is way into robots. He LOVES sleeping in his big boy bed. He also very much enjoys throwing an absolute tantrum before going to sleep. "I need more books, daddy. Need to see my baby, daddy. Time to wake up, daddy", followed by the most dramatic fit of fake crying and screaming that lasts upwards to an hour. Party.