Hellobee

My apologies for my very long absence from Hellobee, but things have been absolute craziness in the Dolphin household! I’m finally back and hope to return to a somewhat regular posting schedule.

I don’t care if this photo is out of focus, this picture perfectly captures the way Lion and Panda interact and I love it!

Here’s a quick update of all that has happened beginning around the holidays:

• I got a job offer in another country, we started making plans to accept and move three months from that date, and then ended up turning it down. Applying for jobs, interviewing for jobs and networking all take up so much time and energy. I ended up being offered what was really the perfect job in another country, which we were excited about because we always wanted to move internationally. For a number of reasons, including the final location (there ended up being less flexibility about which country I could move to than it appeared at the start of the interview process), we ended up turning it down. While I think it was the right decision for our family, I feel like the whole process zapped a lot of my energy. I’m trying to get up the energy to start up the job search process again, but after a months-long process at the last place I interviewed (we’re talking 3+ months) plus all the other things that have been going on, it’s been tough.

• At work, an interim Executive Director came in, and now our permanent Executive Director has been hired and recently started. This item doesn’t have anything to do with parenting or our children, but one more bit of change thrown my way in the last few months. It has changed my schedule slightly, too, as I try to determine whether my usual split schedule (leaving work early, then getting back online after the kids go to bed) is acceptable to our new ED. I’m also trying to figure out what makes most sense for me career-wise, where the Dolphin family wants to go next, what my future would look like if I stay at my current employer.
• Lots of other writing commitments. Yesterday, a colleague and I finally completed a book chapter we had committed to writing some months ago. I have another book chapter on a different topic in the works and I also blog weekly on another website on legal issues. With so much writing on my plate, working on blog posts here fell by the wayside.
• I fell down the stairs in early January and fractured my tailbone, which was excruciating. I actually fell down the stairs twice in the span of 10 days, the second time fracturing my tailbone. I was wearing the same socks both times, which Mr. Dolphin insisted I stop wearing after the second fall. I was in excruciating pain for several weeks afterward and it was really hard to run around with the kids during this time. I actually fractured my tailbone during labor with Lion (which apparently is not uncommon, but I didn’t even know it was a possibility until it happened), but this injury was much worse.
• Panda turned 2 and transitioned from the toddler room to the 2s room at his daycare. Ah, a bright spot in the craziness! We celebrated Panda’s second birthday, taking Lion and Panda to Medieval Times and now both kids are obsessed with knights. Although the first few days of transition to the two-year-old room were a bit rough, he adapted and seems to be thriving in his new environment.
• We sold our condo, packed and moved, downsizing from almost 1300 square feet to just over 700 square feet. I’ll go into more details later, but this was really what made life super crazy and busy for us over the last couple of months. We met with our realtor in January, worked on finishing up all our home improvement projects over the next month or so, then put our home on the market at the end of February/beginning of March. We got an offer very quickly and closed last week. Because of the nature of our loan (we used a VA loan) and the low inventory of homes in our area right now, we knew we would have to move into an apartment temporarily as we look for a new home. I know people sell their homes and move all the time with children, but it was a stressful experience for me and I seriously underestimated the extra time it would take with two additional human beings in our household. Mr. Dolphin and I used to be expert movers, going through 10 moves together (we’ve been a couple for 13 years), including a crazy period of time where we moved 5 times in 2 years. This was the hardest move to date.

Checking out the battleships in Philadelphia.

In that time, we also took a mini-vacation when the kids’ daycare closed for a few days (teacher in-service days), visiting Philadelphia again. We went to the Legoland Discovery Center this time and also participated in March for Our Lives in Philadelphia. Fun story: a week after the March for Our Lives, Panda woke us up at 5:00 a.m. shouting/chanting, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! The NRA has got to go!” repeatedly.

The kids LOVE Ninjago and Panda was thrilled to see Sensei Wu.

We also had visitors on two separate occasions in the two weeks before our move, with Mr. Dolphin’s aunt and uncle visiting, then a week later my dad and stepmother. Of course, because we had sold much of our furniture in preparation for showing our condo and downsizing. Luckily, our family was very understanding even though we could only offer an air mattress to them.

I’m finally returning to blogging here after a long break and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things!

Bouncing around at Bunnyland.