Here's to PB & J in 2011

This year is starting out with a lot of excitement; less than a week after we found a Berkeley house that we loved, we made an offer to buy it and the sellers accepted. I just told Leeor (as we slurped a vegetable soup that was decent, but could have been better had I made an extra grocery trip for a few key ingredients) that we'd be eating a lot of PB & J this year. And I can't wait. I love peanut butter.
Lilit and I went for a stroll together this afternoon while Avi napped. Leeor has been trying to catch up on work but he still had love for his favorite baby girl, aka, his doppelganger.
We celebrated together on Friday night and headed across the bridge on Saturday--it feels really good in that house. Even though I was googly-eyed and reeling with low blood sugar from a coffee-and-pancakes morning at home.
Escrow officially begins tomorrow . . .

I love this picture of Safta and Lilit in the family room of the Berkeley house; they are sitting the same Ikea couch we have in our current home--and after two hours signing disclosures, changing diapers, nursing and letting Avi run rampant around "our new house," it felt like we were already settling in. But I don't want to jinx anything. Anything can happen in the next 35 days . . .
Avi in our city apartment before we headed to Berkeley, "surfing" on the clean laundry that accumulates on the dining table. He picked out his motorcycle shirt, "The one Grandpa gave me" with the specificity that defines his age . . . Leeor really gets a kick out of all of Avi's directions--he thinks he could make a great lawyer. I noted that he wore the same shirt the last time we ate at Picante--a great Berkeley restaurant not far from the new place--back in the ancient times when I was pregnant with Lilit.
I am enjoying the wacky creativity of almost-3-year-old Avi; he was riding his trike super fast around the couch after he donned Leeor's bike helmet and strapped his Scout doggy safely to his jammied body. He is so present in his body and self--I love bearing witness. Tonight we snuggled on the couch while we watched a negotiated 10 minutes of Wall-E and then read 3 books before bath time. At one point he wound his fingers with mine and we held hands for a couple of minutes. His hand was warm and ridiculously soft. As I often do, I mused about how this lanky, shaggy haired boy used to fit inside my body. I think age 3 brings regression for the toddler (Avi said to me the other day, "No, Mommy, I want to be a baby for real") as well as a wistful reminiscence of his infancy. There were days when I did nothing but sit around and nurse him from morning to night.

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Buying a house feels big and scary to me in a way that marriage and bearing children didn't. I had a feeling our offer would be accepted. This house just felt so much like us, right from the moment we saw it-- before the holidays when we casually looked one day and discovered it was in contract with other buyers. I also keep chanting this garbled mantra to myself about how just-because-we-get-what-we-want-doesn't-mean-there-won't-be-more-challenges kind of thing. As if being aware of this prevents any difficulty.

I am anxious about the change, the move, the commute, the mortgage, the settling-down factor. But these are problems of fortune--I mean, I should be so lucky to buy a house in the Bay Area during one of the worst economic crises of this country, right?

And it's a great house. It has been completely remodeled; let me just say that Leeor and I couldn't be less handy. There's absolutely no way we could buy a charming fixer upper and have at it.

The best part about spending a couple of hours there was Avi's reaction; he was so excited. How to explain it to him? I just keep answering his questions as succinctly as possible. He wanted to make sure we didn't forget any of his toys when we move; he asked Saturday if we'd be sleeping there. I love his sensitivity, the way he accutely tunes in to his surroundings.

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While I will miss much about San Francisco, I am excited to move across the Bay . . . and Berkeley feels so lovely to me. There's a lot I anticipate, but for the moment, I sit with my back to an unbelievable city scape. Time to power down and turn around. Bob Dylan serenades me and the kids are asleep . . . and I don't work on Mondays anymore. It's been a good weekend.