Gwa Gwa & Gwamma Visit

My parents came to visit last week. Matthew calls my mom "Gwa Gwa" and my dad "Gwamma". We had a wonderful time with them here! Dad played and played with Matthew and Mom helped so much with Anna.

We did some fun things in Staten Island and Manhattan, but mostly just enjoyed our time all together at home. We are so glad they could come visit us for a while and we miss them a lot!

Ode to Brooklyn

our friendly neighborhood subway stop at franklin ave, taken by Robin

The good, the bad, and the curious - what we learned in Brooklyn while living there for a year:

• Parallel parking is like a competitive sport. I had probably parallel parked about five times in my whole life before we moved to Brooklyn. But, not only can it not be avoided in NYC, you must also learn how to fit into a space this big. Seriously, I don't know how some people (including Joseph) got into spaces with less than 2 inches on either end of the car. Amazing. And yes, the good spots are coveted and you think of reasons to not use your car for 2 days just so you don't lose your spot.
  
• Street cleaning regulations are a necessary evil. The street where we lived had street cleaning 4 times a week. This meant that we had to be parked on the opposite side of the street during the cleaning time frame, or we had to go out and move our car and search, in vain, for 1.5 hours for a parking spot somewhere close to our apartment that was not going to have to be moved again in an hour for street cleaning. What a bother. But, I admit that if street cleaning was no more, the roads and gutters would be buried in garbage and litter. Joseph and I were floored by the lazy people we saw littering. There are garbage cans on every corner but people would still throw their garbage on the ground 2 feet away from the trash can. I saw people open their car door and put banana peels, wrappers, and cups on the road when they were stopped at a red light. So disrespectful.
  
• People talk to them selves a lot. I think this is hilarious. I've never seen so many people singing, talking, mumbling, yelling, etc. to themselves as they walk down the street. And a lot of times they are normal looking people. I guess you aren't labeled as crazy in Brooklyn if you talk to yourself every once in a while.
  
• Convenience isn't always convenient (for me). NYC is a city for walking and taking public transportation. It is not a car friendly place. So, there are little markets, specialty stores, restaurants, laundromats, etc. on every block and corner so that they are convenient for the people that live close by. But my definition of convenient is a one-stop shopping store with a large parking lot. Reality and my ideals often clashed as I tried to live like I was in Utah while I was living in Brooklyn. I finally started using the copy/fax services in the nearby beauty salon, walking to the post office to buy stamps, and stopping at 2 or 3 different stores on my way home from the subway to get all the ingredients I needed for dinner. Once I stopped resisting the lifestyle things went more smoothly.
  
• Fire truck and police sirens were our bedtime lullaby and morning alarm clock. We lived on the ground floor with our windows facing the road. There was a bus stop right in front of our window. There was a stop light on the corner. There was a lot of traffic. And there were constant sirens. Matthew loved it and would stop what he was doing and look at me every time he heard one. But I soon learned to ignore it and I almost didn't notice them anymore by the time we had lived there for a while. Except for the blasting loud sirens that jolted me out of sleep at 4:00 in the morning and had my heart racing for at least 15 minutes. I never got used to that.
  
• Unsolicited advice is always offered. I should have counted the number of times I was told to put shoes/hat/coat on Matthew. Or told to not let him suck on something. Or told the reason he was crying (did they really think they knew better than his own mom???). It really bothered me at first. And I guess it still bothered me at the end, but I like to think that I didn't let myself get offended. At least for long. Because they were only trying to be helpful, right?
  
• Honking is an automatic response. The light turns green and .012 seconds later three people are honking at you. People drive with their hands on the horn. And even if there is no way you could possibly move forward until the 25 cars in front of you start moving, the people behind you will honk and honk, thinking it will somehow make things move along. Not so. All it does is drive people like me crazy! How impatient can you be??
  
• Walking is good exercise. Obviously. Since I was pretty scared of driving in Brooklyn (absolute madness) I walked almost everywhere I went. The library, the grocery store, the bank, the post office, the park, etc. Time/babysitting permitting, I even walked 45 minutes to my doctor appointments at the hospital over 2 miles away. In my opinion it was so much better than driving in the crazy traffic and trying to find a parking spot. I always felt better after a nice long walk.
  
• Public transportation isn't scary. I actually really enjoy riding the subway. At least, I do when Joseph is with me and can carry the stroller up and down the stairs. But I was more hesitant about taking the bus. I think I had something against buses, and I have always thought they were a little sketchy. But it turns out there was something fun about riding the bus to church and having it fill up with other ward members at every stop, and then all of us piling off at the stop around the corner from our church building. So, when walking was out of the question because of weather or distance, you could find us on the train or the bus. Again, the $2.25 per ride was definitely worth it to me to not have to drive the car!
• People put anything and everything out on the curb for garbage day. Things that you would normally have to take to DI or the dump and dispose of yourself were always sitting out on the curb on garbage day. Furniture, clothes, shoes, appliances, you name it. And you can take whatever you want that is sitting on the curb. I found a nice tupperware container once, but that is the only treasure I ever took home with me.
  

These are just some of my thoughts and observations, and I could be terribly wrong. And of course these things are not limited just to Brooklyn, nor do they always occur in Brooklyn. Everyone's experiences are probably different, and these are just some of mine. Please don't think that I am complaining, either. We really enjoyed our time there, and I came to appreciate and enjoy {most} of these things

We have been in Staten Island for a month now, and we are loving learning the ins and outs of our new home.

Robin

We had to take Robin to the airport tonight and say our goodbyes, after having her with us for over two months! We are so glad she could stay with us this summer while she did her internship. We are all going to miss her so much!

If you want to see some great pictures check out her daily photo journal of her time here.

Girly

Robin took some pictures of little Anna when she was 8 days old. She is a very happy and sleepy baby. She just might have my chin, a Gedge nose, and eyes like Matthew. We are enjoying this transition to a family of four.

Baby Anna

Anna Adelina Gedge

August 1st, 2009
11:00 am
5 pounds 15 ounces
18 3/4 inches

Little sister is here! My water broke at 1:45 am on Saturday morning. Nine hours and only a few pushes later, Anna joined our family. She is so sweet and tiny. Matthew has been great with her. Everything went really well and we are so happy that she is here!

New Place

Only one box left to unpack! Really!

The move went as smooth as it could have, thanks to a lot of help. Things are not decorated or put away in all the correct places, but we are pretty much settled. We love our new home, neighbors, and neighborhood. Can't beat walking outside and hearing lawn mowers and birds chirping!

Up next: getting ready for little sister to come in less than 3 weeks! We have much to do.

Looks Like

Our apartment looks like this:

{ saturday is moving day! }

Joseph looks like this:

{ into his second week of the summer semester of his
second year of dental school. yeah! }

I look like this:

{ at 36 weeks. one month to go! }

and Matthew looks like this:

{ yankees fan all the way! }

Happy 4th!

We went on a ferry ride past the Statue of Liberty early this morning.

Happy 4th of July!

I never wanted to live on an island...

...because I'm kind of scared of bridges.

But, here we are, moving to Staten Island in a few weeks!

In a kind of whirlwind weekend we talked about moving, looked at an apartment, and decided to move. Our current apartment lease is almost up, and we thought that if we found something better - shorter commute, bigger, closer to a park, cheaper, etc. - we would think about moving. Well, this place had everything we wanted, plus more. We couldn't pass it up!

We feel like it was meant to be, since it kind of just fell into our laps. It is a beautiful, newly renovated home with a yard and a driveway! Staten Island is a lot more residential and suburban than the other boroughs, which (I have come to discover in the last year) is a lot more in my comfort zone. Boy do I miss driveways and parking lots.

We are very sad to leave our ward. We are kind of sad to leave our apartment. We are maybe a teensy bit sad to leave Brooklyn. It has been an interesting year, and we have really enjoyed our time here. But I think Staten Island might suit us better, and I'm excited to start fresh with a new home, new baby, and new school year.

P.S. The Verrazano Bridge is obviously not a rickety-old bridge that will fall into the water anytime soon. That makes me feel better. :) And, I know Brooklyn is technically on an island, too, but somehow it seems different.

No Place Like Home

• We loved celebrating Megan & Kyle's wedding. Meg was a beautiful and gracious bride, and they are so happy together! All the planning and preparation came together and it was a wonderful day.
• My cousin's wife, Bethany, took the wedding pictures and they turned out very good. She did a great job, and I'll try to post more of them once they are ready.
  
• I was sick with a cold and flu for the first 5 days we were there! That was definitely not fun, but it was nice to be around family so that Matthew was well taken care of.
• Then, Matthew got a bad fever the last 3 days we were there. It is even less fun to have your child get sick!
  

• We got to go to the zoo, play outside A LOT, and enjoy lots of quality time with our families. It is hard to have a limited amount of time to spend with the people you love so much. Matthew enjoyed all the new sights, toys, and attention.
  
• Matthew did pretty well on the plane rides. He slept for a couple hours, and was happy to have his own seat instead of having to sit on our laps.
• All too soon we had to leave and come back to our own home... which will soon be our old home since we are moving next month! We will still be in NYC, but it just might feel like a whole new world. I'll share more details later!

25

We are back in Brooklyn. Robin came back to New York with us and is living with us for the next two months while she does an internship at the Whitney Museum Library. Joseph has two more weeks off before school starts up again. We are having lots of fun!

I turned 25 this week! We went to lunch at the famous Grimaldi's Pizza at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. It was the best pizza we have had here so far! Then we went back home for homemade apple pie and vanilla ice cream. Joseph gave me Broadway tickets for Mother's Day/my birthday, so we left Matthew with Robin and headed into the city. We saw "Jersey Boys" and had a wonderful time. The music was incredible! We strolled through the crowds in Times Square and enjoyed the evening out. It was a great birthday!

p.s. Only 8 more weeks until little sister comes!

Travel

M at the airport --- the cute couple

We are heading out this week to spend some time in Utah. Joseph is done with school for a little while (yeah!) and we are looking forward to lots of fun and family. We have a long list of things to do and people to visit and wedding preparations to complete and memories to make.

I'm sure Brooklyn will continue on it's crazy pace without us here for a bit.

Beach & Zoo

We've really been enjoying the nice weather (when it's not raining...) and the winding down of Joseph's semester. We've been to the BBG a few more times, Prospect Park Zoo, and yesterday we took our first trip of the summer to Coney Island beach. I love being able to get out of our normal daily routine and do something different.

Some of my sewing projects are featured here as well. I made Matthew's shorts (both pictures) and my skirt.

And, I'm just over 27 weeks along with the girl. I feel great and can't believe she will be here in 3 months!

2

Matthew is 2! We had some friends over on Sunday night for cake and ice cream. On Monday we opened presents and played with his new toys.

He is a great little boy and we love being his parents.
Happy Birthday Matthew! We love you!

one, two, three, go!

Matthew can count to two. Well, he skips one and goes right to two. He counts things by pointing at them and saying "two, two, two". And he can say go. Here he is riding his truck and helping Joseph count.