It feels like we just uprooted ourselves, oh wait yeah we just did. Honestly, the roots here are not as deep as they were in California. Less time I suppose. Yet, today as I watched my daughter dance and follow the instructions of another, I had a little mistiness in my eyes. Becca has grown so much here. Ethan too, my gosh my baby is big! I have shrunk (34 lbs and counting), and suffered through the weirdness of this place. So leaving is bittersweet. I am very grateful that chances are, we will not be relocating again. Halifax will be home.

Becca, Ethan and I have been making our rounds, saying good bye to the people that so generously welcomed us into their community. It must be a sacrafice to open their world to strangers only to have them leave again. There are a lot of post-docs here so it happens often.

This place is such an anomaly.  How often are people placed on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere? Top that with 90% of these people are hard core physicists, computer gurus and other intense science types. I had never met a “nuclear physicist” till we lived here. Now I have met six! Nerds are at every corner, and I am talking NERDS. Not geeks. I am a geek. Nerds that cannot make eye contact without getting nervous and sweaty. Thick glasses, heavy on the sunscreen, pants pulled up past their belly buttons, sun hats with the flaps to provide full protection. I kid you not. Then there are the grey haired, bearded, bumper sticker on their Subaru’s hippy like folks, intellects from the 60′ & 70’s, saving the planet one recycled can at a time. This is the birth place of the atomic bomb.  Many wives before me, sent their husbands off to “The Lab” becoming completely cut off from them. That is something I was not ready for. Universities are open by nature. I could pop by and see J anytime I wanted. Here. I have never seen his lab. I am a foreign national, never to have clearance to step foot there. This is something I will not miss.

Alas for now I will say my good byes. Three more sleeps in this country. It seems so surreal.

Well the movers are here as I type this, scooping up our boxes and loading them up in the truck.

J & I worked our butts off packing and finalizing it all. Last night we were up late, Ethan along with us, since he could not sleep. My body aches from moving boxes and packing. It is finally coming to a close. The next few days we will be camping out in our empty house. Becca and I will be cleaning then saying our good byes to the friends we have made here.

I uploaded a bunch of pictures on Flickr and now that most of the “work” is done I should be able to catch up with blogging. I really miss living each day “normally”.

Becca has had some anxiety. A few accidents and worries, along with nightmares, but besides all that she is awesome. She is rocking the imagination, building towers, cranes and playing a lot on her own. It is bitter sweet. I love that she is so independent, but my heart breaks as she grows up.

Ethan now has six teeth, his top ones finally broke through. He is still only able to propel himself backwards, forward motion alluding him for the moment.

J took this morning off to relieve some of the pressure on me to handle everything. All this moving and change has been hard, but we are finally on the last leg of the journey. Not long now until we are on the road again.

So J has been home the past couple days due to Thanksgiving down here. He is going in today to work, however. No rest for the chemist. We have been working our tail feathers off trying to get all our stuff ready for the big move. My goal is to have everything ready by Tuesday so I am not stressing out right before the movers show up. J is working all next week, so it is me and the kids directing traffic.

So super pissy news. We have had issues with the company that will be transporting our car not contacting us and letting us know what the gig is. Yeah that is because they plan on having our car for THREE weeks. Nice. Yup our little American car is going to see Vancouver then all the Canadian countryside by train. I have the worst luck with moving companies.

So we will becoming intimate with Halifax’s Metro system. Becca is really excited about riding on a bus and since we will be doing a lot of walking and metroing it will be nice to check it out.

So for Thanksgiving we ordered a meal through our supermarket. After Ethan’s birth Holly had brought us a similar meal. Seriously people these meals, although not as good as Grandma’s (like anything really could compete) are awesome. I will not have to cook like till Tuesday! w00t!

Oh and because we do not have enough stuff *sigh* we went out on Black Friday to score some more! Since it snowed here like two inches we did not make it down the Hill until 9:30 Am. The sleeping bag I wanted to score was gone from Target, but we found a pretty cool alternative. So that covers beds for all of us until we have furniture again!

Becca has enjoyed the snow. I was getting Ethan down for a nap, but J was saying she was having issues with snow being … cold. Poor girl. I knit her a toque and mittens, but I fear the mittens are not ideal. Need more cuff. It was my first pair, live, knit, learn.

It would be awesome to share some pictures, however I am lucky to have time to read emails, much less take and upload, pictures. Sorry. Hope to catch up once we are there. We will be without much so I figure I will have time.

3 days till the movers come.

7 days till we fly home.

wow.

Crowded as always we found a table next to a uniformed soldier working on his laptop. We had settled in, enjoying our little treat. I balance Ethan on my lap trying to prevent him from grabbing my hot tea as Becca mumbles …

Mommy: Sweetie if you want me to hear you, you need to speak louder and towards me please …

Becca: [loudly as requested] So I came out of your VAGINA …

Mommy: [quietly] Yes, yes you sure did …

Soldier turns bright red and tries hard not to snicker ….

With Christmas quickly approaching and our move forcing me to be uber organized, I wanted to share some thoughts. Open ended play has become very important to me and we have moved further and further away from “character” licensed products.

In fact all the recalls, we sat and watched. I searched for toys that Becca (and Ethan in theory) may have that were affected. None. Believe me Becca has her fair share of toys, so why? Then one of the last recalls we had two items. Cats that we purchased to help Becca through the transition when the movers did not arrive with our stuff. Purchases made on a whim at Walmart *shudders*. Unfortunately Becca was very fond of the cats, so we sent them back for replacements.

Mattel was amazing. Not only was the turn around much less than they had estimated but they sent not only 2 cats (different but Becca was pleased) but a variety of cats, dogs and accessories. I realize it was HORRIFIC that lead was included in the paint used for children’s toys and the customer service now does not erase that, however my child is happy to have her cats back.

Will I be purchasing plastic toys from Mattel in the future? I cannot say for sure. Since we are not really into character toys the chances are slim. I found the Schleich has cats and other animals that are plastic, without the lead.

There are so many amazing shops online for open ended toys, funky parenting gear and the like. While searching for Christmas presents for the kids I came across Baby Oliver. The customer service is great, and I have a long wish list of items I would love to have. One thing on our wish list is the Haba Doctor kit, since Holly informed me the Fisher Price Doctor kit has been listed in Consumer Reports to have lead. The Eeboo Growth Charts are so cute! Baby Oliver also carries the funkiest diaper bags, cool art and much more. So many alternatives for parents that are concerned this holiday season.Are you worried?

Have you changed how you are shopping for your kids?