It's been a fairly exhausting couple of weeks and (as perhaps evidenced by my last post) I've gone a bit nutty. I now start every morning with a 1.25 mile walk to the Naperville train station and then have another 1.25 mile walk to work once I get into Chicago. Then I get to do it all in reverse at 5:00. I like that I now have some level of forced exercise but my body is not yet used to walking 5 miles a day. Also doesn't make it any easier that it's been 90 the last couple days. There are some bus options both in Naperville and (obviously) in the Loop, but I'm going to try and save those for when it's -20 with a foot of snow on the ground.

So the move happened and everything went pretty well, all things considered. We got the place in pretty decent shape fairly quickly and now Christy is busy doing all the little decorating touches to make it feel like home again. Already there are things I really like and things I really miss. I miss our automatic ice maker, our garbage disposal, and the fact that our garage is not attached. But I love having a yard, all the extra space, and (most importantly) I love how when we aren't making noise - it's actually quiet! No clomp clomp clomp from the upstairs neighbors' high heels or giggling and/or thumping bass music at 2:00 A.M. from the girls downstairs. I'd actually like to know if there is something chemical that happens in your brain as you get older that just makes you completely intolerant of ambient noise. 5 years ago hearing my neighbors wouldn't (and didn't) bother me at all, but the last 2 years or so it became intolerable. It's really scary that I can already see myself in 10 years going up to Anabelle's room and telling her to "turn down that racket!" You know, I don't think it's the actually growing older that is disturbing; it's the acting older (and in particular, acting more like your parents).

In any case, Anabelle seems to be enjoying the new place. That's important because if baby isn't happy then nobody's happy. I am constantly amazed at the level of energy she has, but then again she sleeps 16 hours a day. If I did that maybe I'd have a lot of energy the other 8 hours too (probably not). She can really cruise now with the crawling, but she's at the point where she really really wants to walk. She can pull herself up on things but she doesn't really like doing that; she just keeps trying to stand up in the middle of the room but still doesn't have the balance for it and if you try and help her she gets mad. On Saturday she'll officially be 10 months old and I'm predicting that she'll take her first steps on her own sometime in the next 4-6 weeks and be toddling around pretty good by her first birthday.

Think that's all I got for now. I'll try to get back to some weightier subjects now that the moving chaos is done and my vacation has come and gone.