watching papa work

Someone was very excited to be able to reach the window and watch his papa garden (by garden, I mean collect worms for a worm compost and clean up our previous yard!)

moving away

Moving out of a house has never been so difficult. I actually used to really love moving away and before I fell in love on an island, I'd fairly often pack up and go whenever the urge struck. Now, the furthest I can move is about 14 miles away to the opposite side of the island, which really isn't much. This time though.. I've been excited to move for months. When we started to move our things out I was a little sad about not living with our friends any more. When our room was completely empty and our friends started to move their things out too, I caught myself thinking a lot about the day Odin was born. The air's the same as when we moved in, that fresh spring air. Spring air and Fall air have such a specific smell and taste, they both really stand out to me. We moved in exactly one year ago tomorrow. I was eight and a half months pregnant. Our lease at our place before still had a few months before it ended, but we sort of realized it'd be easier to move while I was really pregnant rather than with a newborn. Last year's spring was really warm and I remember the windows being open the entire time we moved in. This year's a little colder but the air still has the same weight to it. The day Odin was born, we had all the windows in the bedroom open.

 A couple days ago, as I sat alone with Odin in the empty bedroom that he was born in, it really hit me. I started to cry. Odin seemed to completely understand. He crawled over to the exact spot that he had been born in, sat right down, turned, and flashed me a cheeky smile. It was like he knew how much this room meant. He's always been a home-body which I entirely blame on the fact that he was born there. I'm sad to leave such a beautiful house but I am excited to move onto new things. Odin will feel at home wherever his mama and papa take him as long as we fill his life with love, I hope. He's already seemed to have adjusted well to our new place. As much as I wish I could physically take this room with me,  the bedroom in my memory will have to do. 

places and spaces

I love that Zak is so supportive of hanging my art everywhere. He keeps all of the things I think are trash-worthy and it really makes me feel good. One of the differences between our new and old place is the amount of space we have to give Odin. Living communally with many friends is hard when you have a baby and no one else does. I would've had my living room one way, but mine is only a sixth of the vote (it wouldn't have been fair- I'd have reserved all of the space for O!). So, in our new place Odin has more than triple the space to play, even though we now have a studio apartment. I set up a little learning corner with some antique reprinted posters from a local bookshop. We're hoping to eventually get a little wooden table and chairs for him and then when he starts to draw we'll build a shelf to store his paper, markers, crayons, and paints. He's not quite a year old yet, but we've often discussed our route for school. We're both working hard now to build a fairly big nest egg- we'll invest in some land so that we can build our house on it and Z can start a permaculture farm. We really would love to homeschool as we both have doubts about the American school system, but it's so far off I feel it isn't quite worth discussing just yet!

Time Inside

Our second week in our new home. It's been quiet and a little lonely. Paloma was sick and couldn't come for a few days and then Odin was sick and we were pretty home bound. I haven't been able to find the time to make it out to the Sconset house to collect the rest of our things but this weekend will be our last opportunity to do so. Moving into a place is so much more fun than moving away, don't you think? Nesting and decorating is something I have a lot more interest in and I feel most people do. In our new place, I have my own art studio space rather than a shared space. I'm pretty excited! 

I am forever grateful for both of Odin's young Aunties. Grace and Marin are always eager to come over and help out with Odin. I've even been able to shower regularly since moving, which as most mamas know- isn't easy. Life is still in transition but I'm starting to settle. It'll be strange not to see our friends every day, it already is. I think we'll definitely live communally again one day, hopefully when a few more of our friends start to have babies! I'd love to live with another small family one day.

first week at the shanty

A few shots from our first few days at our new house. We still have some things at our old house but we've been sleeping at our new studio apartment all week. We're a very short walk to the Lily Ponds, the Oldest House, town, and Steps beach. Lots of nearby beautiful scenery for this summer! I'm pretty thrilled. Since moving into our new place, my days keep getting better and more beautiful!

little man

I couldn't decide between the top two photos even though I know they're almost identical. He looks like such a little boy in both of them and I'm terribly in love with it! It's so strange to watch him grow up so quickly. As a breastfeeding mama, I see him every day and spend my entire day with him. It's funny how days can go by without the slightest change and then all of a sudden it seems as if he's grown inches overnight. I can see him start to grow taller and leaner and I've noticed his weight's plateaued. Eleven months old now, and it's all happened so quickly. It's almost his first birthday and every now and then the air smells like it did on the day he was born.

We're currently moving out of our house in Sconset. I'm excited to be moving into a place for just our small family. It's bittersweet though. Odin was born in Sconset. His placenta is buried under a fig tree in the front yard. I'll miss our frequent bluff walks. As I've been packing and emptying out our room I've been having ridiculously vivid flashbacks. Odin was born less than 2 weeks after we initially moved in. The third bedroom was still empty and hadn't been rented to Max and Rachel just yet. Our room was still a little bare and hadn't quite acquired the layer of soil that comes with my gardening/landscaping love. Having emptied the room out in the same season we moved into it, it's hard not to remember that day that Odin was born. I won't be leaving that house without crying, I'm pretty sure. As sad as I am about leaving, I'm already having a brilliant time in our new place and I'm realizing more and more each day how beautiful my life is. I'm so very lucky!

new garden

Our garden at our new house is gigantic. It's so big that it's magical. Zak has just started working on the fence and Odin and I spent the day rolling around in the grass at the field while Z worked. He's just ordered a ton of fruit trees and we're very eager to get them into the ground. I think we'll be starting a lot of our vegetable this week in seed trays and I'm pretty giddy about it. As much as I love living communally, I'm very excited for Z, Odin, and I to have our own space. We have a swimming pool and a huge garden in our new digs and I'm so happy. I'll miss our quiet Sconset walks but I'm happy to be living closer to town. I think we'll be able to start moving in this weekend!