Guus Bosman

Today was a productive day. We worked all day on the house, unpacking and getting things ready, and the guest room is now ready to use and all the books there are unpacked.

Most of the previous weekends have been like this. It's a lot of work, moving into a house, but very rewarding.

This weekend we made a very nice trip to Montreal, Canada. Sasha was speaking at a conference there and we decided to make it a family weekend.

We left on Friday from Dulles airport. It was Nora's first ever flight. At times she was overwhelmed by all the people and the noises but she was interested in all the things around her and didn't cry very much much. In the plane she kept crawling around on our laps and looking at everything and everybody.

We stayed in a hotel near Old Town, a few minutes from the river and the "Notre Dame", which does look quite a bit like the one in Paris. The city has a distinct European feel to it, and we enjoyed the good food everywhere. Nora liked the local food. She's an adventurous eater and loved the French cheese and duck confit.

Nora was thrilled to see the horses downtown. She even touched one of them, after some encouragement, and whenever she would see one she'd shout: "paard!". She also saw boats for the first time, "boot!".

On the way back we waited outside the plane for the stroller to be unloaded. It took a little longer and Nora and I touched the front of the plane, which she referred to as "boot" as well.

We moved into our new house! It was a very exciting week.

The painters finished up the house on Tuesday evening. That night we were packing until 2.00 am and at 6.00 am the alarm went. I drove Nora to Falls Church where she was staying with Lela Snezha for the day. The movers arrived around 9.30 am, a huge van and 3 strong guys. We had packed everything well using the boxes from our previous moves and the loading went smoothly. It was only a 10 minute drive to the new house.

From 12:00 pm through 3.00 pm the movers placed everything in the house. Ever since our first move from Arlington to Durham I am a little wary about movers, but this team from ACE was pleasant and very careful. It's amazing how much space we have! We've lived in apartments for the past 15 years and it's incredible to see how much room we have now. The majority of our boxes are in our "mudroom" in the basement so nicely out of sight.

In the afternoon the electrician came and put our new light fixture in the dining area, and our contractor stopped by for an inspection as well. When the movers were gone we had lunch together and then went back to the apartment. We made three trips by car, for a few loose items and our plants.

We picked up Nora in the evening. She had a great day with Lela Snezha's two grandchildren and the rest of the family. Once home, I put together her crib and it was time for her to sleep. The next two days we brought her to Lela Snezha as well since the house was not quite ready yet, but now the living room is Nora-proof.

The movers will be here on Wednesday morning, so we're packing and preparing this weekend. Things are nicely on track. We still had all the boxes from our previous move and by now we're pretty experienced.

In the evening we went to several stores, including Home Depot -- probably the 10th visit there in the past few weeks.