Sunday, October 6, 2013

“You know it! What? You tell the story! What? You tell the whole d*mn world this is Bear Territory!”

We have returned to our old stomping grounds.

Saturday, October 5:

I mentioned a few posts back that we were moving. Well today was moving day! We decided to move to Berkeley for the sake of our kids and lucky for us, an easier commute to work. Simon and I were spending AT LEAST 40 minutes in the morning and 50 minutes in the evening for commuting. I wouldn’t mind if it was just me but it was starting to wear on him. We plan on keeping him at this mandarin immersion school for a while and sending Iris there as well. We think that knowing Chinese is important for their future and they would lose their skill of speaking if we sent them to a traditional English only school. I think going to a school daily with practice, also will help them to write. Unfortunately, there are no programs like this school in our area.

Berkeley is closer to my work in Oakland and Ron’s new job is in San Francisco so commuting by BART is shorter and hopefully means we will all have more family time. We love Berkeley from our college days so are looking forward to rediscovering the area as a family. We have returned to Bear Territory! 🙂

So the move today involved the Chung grandparents taking Simon out for the day, Iris hanging out with Annie and me, and Delancey Street Moving Company. I highly recommend hiring a moving company for peace of mind and to save your back. We are too old to be moving like college kids where all your belongings fit into a few boxes. Delancey Street Movers did a great job loading the truck and performed some amazing feats. Are you familiar with those IKEA 5×5 shelves? Here is how they moved one from our upstairs to downstairs.

We were lucky they brought extra guys and didn’t charge us extra since they were in training. Only a few plastic bins got broken on the move into our rental house which isn’t bad considering how many boxes we had. They also had two smaller moving trucks instead of a large one so they could navigate the narrow roads of the Berkeley Hills.

Thanks Delancey Street Movers!

Iris surprisingly got a good nap during the move. She slept in her car seat while being strolled around in the backyard.

Then played in the empty family room while curiously watching the movers and listening to them shrink wrap our furniture.

After the movers left, I packed up some more kitchen supplies and Iris essentials before heading out. She also had another nap. Soon Simon and the Chung family came over for dinner. Simon checking out the place.

Super exhausting day!

Sunday, October 6:

Waking up to the first day in our new home.

Kids playing on the bed. Ron went back to WC to finish cleaning up so I had the kids for most of the day.

It was too hard to unpack with the both of them and understandably, Simon was bored so we took a trip out to the Little Farm at Tilden Park. We bought a picnic lunch for us and some lettuce for the animals.

Both knocked out after our trip.

We all helped to unpack some of Simon’s toys. Well except little miss Iris, who was playing with her feet.

Big brother Simon.

Exhausting weekend! Still much more to unpack! And a few more things to clear out from our WC home before the renters move in. Ron’s fish tank is still at the house and so are the cats. They will all be moved in the next few weekends. Busy busy month it will be. I know I’m forgetting some “milestone” to write about but I’m tired from the move and lacking some sleep from staying up unpacking and trying to keep on my pump schedule. Iris has been sleeping on and off all evening. Waking up by crying, drinking 4 ounces of milk, falling asleep, waking up by crying, falling asleep, drinking 4 ounces, waking up by crying, playing, bath, breastfed, then slept again. Either she’s exhausted from the move or else I think she is teething. Simon had his first tooth around 6 months but drooled for at least a month before that so that’s why I think she must be teething. We are on tooth watch!