Goal Celebration

You’ve no doubt seen the “going fishing” move on the dance floor…but how about to celebrate a goal on the soccer pitch…

New Town To Do’s

When we moved to NYC, we often shared over our first few months the many “firsts” we experienced in the city.  Every daily task seemed new and exciting. 

Now that we’re back in the land of convenience known as NC, we’re finding that we grew so accustomed to doing things the difficult way in NYC that we’re equally as mesmerized by the differences down South. 

On Sunday afternoon we made family trips to both Lowe’s and Harris Teeter - hardly cause for celebration except for the fact that we were basking in the HUGE aisles, bountiful selection, and awesome prices. 

And Miller LOVED riding in the cart. 

First at Lowe’s…

Then at Harris Teeter where he got a race car cart…

Dude is owning Durham.  

Sleep Study

Miller’s always been a great sleeper.  And for that we are VERY grateful.  In NYC, he’d often fall asleep right away at night and for naps.  Since our apartment was so small and he slept in the closet attached to our bedroom, we never invested in a monitor - we simply heard him if he was upset, and were right there if needed.

Now that we’re in NC, we found that a monitor was a must have.  We shelled out a few extra bones for the video monitor and it’s totally been worth it.  Not only can we hear the little man if he’s in distress, we also get to watch him as he falls asleep.  The monitor can be mesmerizing, as Miller tends to roll around and make a variety of noises prior to konking out.  There’s also many times when he’s totally silent (and when we would have assumed in NYC he’s asleep) - yet he’s just playing with his feet or messing with the crib.

Yet there’s one favorite position for Miller - we call it his sleep position.  Once he’s halfway on one side and has one leg crossed over the other, chances are he’s well on his way to REM sleep.  In the monitor, the sleep position is a beautiful sight.

We got Wheels!

As you can probably tell from the dearth of posts recently, it’s been a bit crazy as we’re settling down in Durham.  We’ve been asked a lot lately “are you settled yet”.  And the answer is the same - yes, and no.  

We are indeed fully moved into the house in the sense that we’re completely functional.  But we haven’t even begun putting stuff on the walls or getting certain small items completely unpacked.  We were able to successfully put together a proper crib for Miller, but still are without a kitchen table.  In short, we’re here, and living, but not yet in any sort of regular schedule. 

One of the biggest challenges during the first few weeks was the fact that we only had 1 car (the 1997 Honda which Tracy has driven since college).  So our first couple weeks were full of carpooling and “do you need a ride home from work” emails and calls.  With no mass transit as an option anymore, it became abundantly clear that we needed a 2nd vehicle.  So we began a search online for a car - predictably, we were looking mainly for Hondas, as their reliability has treated us so well in the past.  After several conversations with dealers and daily searches of Craigslist and AutoTrader, we finally found a great option on Friday afternoon at Carmax. 

As it turns out, the vehicle we found was at Carmax in Winston-Salem.  But that’s no problem - the great folks at Carmax transferred the car for free to the Raleigh store.  So when we called on Sunday after church, the car was already to the lot and we were able to take it for a test drive.  About an hour and a half later, we were signing our final signature block and driving off the lot with our “new” (1 year old) Honda Accord. 

We can’t say enough about how great the Carmax process was - it truly is “the way car buying should be.”  Painless, no haggling, and we got a great car. 

On our way home we got a great surprise phone call from my sister Kelly, who was a couple hours early for a flight at RDU back to Nashville after a fun weekend trip with her old college roommates.  We were able to zip over to a coffee shop to meet her in our new car so Miller could have some quality time with Aunt Kelly.  It was wonderful to have the spontaneous hour or so with her before her flight.  And the great part is we will get even more time in a few weeks at the beach. 

Hopefully we will find the motivation to put some things on the walls between now and then.  But, if not, at least we got wheels! 

Vamos Espana!

Sadly, the World Cup is over, with Spain reigning as deserving champions.  For the grand finale yesterday we dressed Miller up in his “Spain shirt”, a cute little shirt he received before moving from NYC from our wonderful next door neighbors Ellen and Jake.  In case you can’t tell, the shirt features a bull who, fittingly, has a pacifier.  I have no idea what the Spanish phrases say on the shirt but I’m pretty sure it’s something like, “cutest kid imaginable”

Miller Crawls!

July 4th was our country’s 234th birthday.  And it marked 7 months since Miller was born.  

On this momentous day, Miller celebrated by doing his very first crawling.  Or scooting.  Or whatever you call it.  The little man is enjoying his first tastes of mobility, as you can see in this little video. 

Miller Crawls from Zack Mansfield on Vimeo.

Moving Beard

Longtime blog readers will remember 2 years ago when I was pretty excited to unveil a photographic spectacle which could only be known as “Beach Beard.”

Beach Beard, circa 2008

Since I’d always been a little late to the facial hair party, the novelty of letting the little hairs grow out for a few days during vacation was too, well, a fun little novelty.  I subsequently intro’d the blogaudience to “moving beard” and “Beach Beard 2009”. 

Alas, I present to you Moving Beard 2010 - the greatest “beard” to date.

I knew I’d made it when Moving Beard 2010 started to get extremely itchy, to the point that I had to shave to maintain my sanity.  A landmark moment indeed.  

Independence Weekend

Well, the long awaited and much dreaded physical act of moving has come and gone and by virtue of these words brought to you via the world wide web, it’s safe to say we somehow lived to tell of it.

I will spare all the gory details - of not beginning to pack boxes until Sunday afternoon for a Tuesday move, the sale of air conditioners on Craigslist leading to an almost 90 degree apartment for our final night, and the comedy of errors that was the Budget truck office and hired labor for moving our stuff.  And that’s not even mentioning Tracy’s public transportation wrangling to get MIller to JFK for his flight to NC with my dad (his Big Pappa).

Suffice it to say we hoped to get out of NYC by mid afternoon on Tuesday but found ourselves not yet at the Lincoln Tunnel at 7pm.  And the only reason we even made it at that point was due to the immense help of (Saint) Stephen Wright who sweated alongside me for hours as we loaded up the truck.  We literally couldn’t have done it without Stephen.

By the time we found ourselves in the human Tetris game that is entering the Lincoln Tunnel we were at our wits end and simply ready to be on the road.  A few close calls with the side view mirrors later, we were through the tunnel and looking back on NYC.

We spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening in Delaware on Tuesday night - kidless for a night for the first time since Miller’s birth.  We rested easily knowing that Miller and Big Pappa had made its safely to NC, allowing us to (finally) take a deep breath and rest after days of relentless “always on” moving.  Delaware is a delightful little state, worthy of its “Small Wonder” moniker and we found ourselves recharged for the road trip on Wednesday. 

We were greeted in NC by my family and Miller and spent the next day and a half unpacking into our new (old) house.  Both sets of parents came up to help out and it was fun to re-acquaint ourselves with the neighborhood and house.  As expected, North Carolina is almost eerily quiet to us right now and we’ve more than a few times found ourselves asking, “where is everyone?”

The good news is that we were able to get away for a couple days from the unpacking and spend some much needed quality time with family.  First we went to Greensboro and spent the night with the Huitsings.  We can already envision all the fun the cousins will have over the years and the giggles between the three of them were priceless on Friday night. 

On Saturday, we made our way to my parents lake house and spent July 3rd with them, Jacob/Jensen and Tracy’s parents.  All of it - the sun, the sound of waves crashing on the rocks, and the many smiles and fun times shared with family - reminded us of why it’s so sweet to be back home. 

Now we’re back in Durham and back to moving boxes and getting the house in shape.  It’s sure to be a process, a marathon not a sprint.  And, oh yeah, there is the little matter of buying a 2nd car (and a crib, and a kitchen table, and a…) 

Alas, this Independence Weekend was a good one, back in the Old North State.