Hello, folks, I’m your host, Alan Finchmore, and this is Puppy or Toddler, the game show where you try to guess whether the named behavior is that of a puppy or a toddler. It’s harder than you’d think!

Our three contestants are ready to go, so let’s get started with our first question…

Host: Excellent choice, excellent! Well, that’s all for today, folks! We’ll see you next time on Puppy or Toddler, the game show that doubles as birth control!

Don’t forget to read to your puppies, and have your toddlers spayed or neutered. Have a good night!

Yes, it’s a lot of work, and yes, there are many days when I just want to hide under a blanket until they go to sleep… but moments like this make it totally worth it.

If you’ve listed a property in the last five years, you probably know what we’re experiencing right now. The gut-wrenching reality that we have no hope of making up what we originally spent on what is otherwise a conveniently located, affordable home. And we have exceptional timing in that we bought just before the bubble popped. Of course.

We could rent the property and wait to sell, but given the collective amount of stuff we’re trying to juggle right now, neither of us is excited about the prospect of becoming landlords in a college town. And so, onto the market it goes, and we cross our fingers.

It could be so much worse, and I’m doing my best to count our gains, which are many, rather than our losses, which are manageable.

But moving? Moving, no matter the market, will always suck. In times like this, I’m tempted to say “burn it all” and start fresh, but… I also like my stuff. So much so that I’m willing to cover it in bubble wrap and put it in boxes and transport it from point A to point B, all the while feeling uprooted and overly anxious. That’s just how I roll.

So instead of focusing on the seemingly endless black hole that is packing up this house, I’ll instead talk about our new home! Which is actually my parents’ home, gifted to us for a number of reasons–they’re retired and don’t need a large property to maintain, we need more space for two very active young kids (and a puppy) to run, it makes good financial sense, and one thing we’ve learned over the last four years is it’s harder to raise kids when you live apart from family.

It’s a little strange to be moving “back home” after so many years, but I’m excited for the change, and we’re grateful for the opportunity. I think it will help the kids feel more secure, especially where Tim and I travel semi-regularly now.

The property itself is pretty awesome, too. The main part is an old farm house, rustic post-and-beam construction. My parents built an addition with an office, two bedrooms, and a second bathroom in the early 90′s, and last summer they added a second addition with an apartment for themselves and a new bedroom for us. It’s a bit of a Franken-house in that regard, but the slightly odd layout and exterior is not a concern, since we’re easily doubling the amount of square-footage.

Over the next few months and years we’ll be repairing and updating the place. We have a laundry list of things to work on:

• Upgrade kitchen counters from laminate to soapstone
• Insulate and re-shingle front wall of the house
• Geothermal heating system, to replace the oil furnace
• Replace front and side decks
• Remodel the second floor of the old house as a home office for Tim and I
• Open the wall between two smaller bedrooms to make a shared bedroom/playroom for Ellie and Gwen
• Replace worn linoleum in the girls’ rooms
• Upgrade from linoleum to oak hardwood in the hallways
• Figure out if we’ll need a separate laundry area (right now the only one is in my parents’ apartment) — I suspect we will, especially as the kids get older

There’s probably more I’m forgetting. We’re hiring out most of this to local contractors and talented neighbors who are, thankfully, way more adept with a hammer than me. And my parents have already had a lot of work done to the house in the last six months — the hardwood floors have been refinished, the 20-something-years-old “temporary” staircase has finally been finished, and there’s fresh paint all around.

No longer will we be confined to a bathroom that could barely pass for a closet; we’ll finally have a big ol’ clawfoot tub to soak in:

… and hardwood floors that will actually stand up to my kids’ abuse:

… and a wall-o’-closet in our future bedroom that gives me chills:

All on an acre or two, surrounded by forest and fields:

Very quiet and peaceful, exactly what we need as we move into the otherwise chaotic family-rearing phase of our lives.

Yes, we have a lot of good coming up, we just have to trudge through the next few weeks of packing and sorting to get to it. Lots of work, lots of stress, but in the end I know it will be totally worth it. Onward!

If you couldn’t tell from my Instagram feed, we recently adopted a puppy! Atticus is a five-month-old Husky/Aussie mix (I call him a Hussie, hehe) and he has to be the sweetest, most laid-back pup I’ve ever met.

Our Automattic co-worker, Michael, and his girlfriend, Meredith, fostered this adorable guy, so we’d seen lots of pictures and heard many good things prior to adopting him. Tim has been hinting at wanting a dog for a while now, I just never thought we’d have enough space in our small condo. But it just so happens we’re moving to a large home in a rural area with plenty of space for a pup and two kids to run… so in another month, that won’t even be a concern.

Initially, I was skeptical — my response to “we should get a puppy” has always been, “we have a puppy, her name is Gwen! She eats, sleeps, poops, and requires regular exercise and training. It’s basically the same thing.” But now that Gwen is well into toddler-dom, I’ve been feeling that sad no-more-babies pang. (Two kids is more than enough for our family, but tell that to my biological clock.) Let’s just say Tim may have caught me in a moment of weakness.

And… just look at that face:

Yeah, I didn’t stand a chance.

Atticus has completely taken to our family since we picked him up on Sunday, particularly to Tim. I’m impressed with how well-behaved and smart he is. We’ve been working on training commands like “down” and “stay”, and he’s pretty cooperative on a leash, if not curious. Tim and I take him for frequent walks, and since we both work from home, he rarely has the opportunity to get into puppy mischief. It turns out we’re in the perfect situation for a puppy.

Most importantly, he’s gentle with the kids, and Gwen is especially excited about her new “gogga” (she calls him “Acca”). Ellie is more cautious and timid (as she is with most dogs), but she already loves to help walk him, so we think she’ll come around soon.

The cats are the only ones who are understandably unimpressed with the new addition, but they’re slowly coming out of hiding, complete with looks of total and utter disgust. I have a feeling by this time next week, they’ll do the standard, stately cat thing and just ignore him.

I think we’re all going to get along fine.

So, in January I hopped (or, in my given condition, sluggishly oozed) back on the wagon, and now I’m feeling confident enough to tell you how things have been going.

January

• Started Weight Watchers on a whim, after seeing one too many TV commercials. Was suspicious, but their “points” system makes it much easier to keep track of food, and the iPhone app is handy when we’re grocery shopping.
• Also started playing Health Month again, because I noticed a lot of the habits I tracked last year have stuck — which is great! I regularly take my vitamins and floss my teeth. Maybe tracking some other healthy habits will help them stick, too. My rules involve drinking more water, hitting my target step goal, and remembering to track food.
• Resumed a near-daily exercise routine, mostly Just Dance, and felt out of shape and silly, bouncing around like a monkey in my living room.
• Went to Hawaii and put WW on hold (so much eating out) but did not come back fatter. Win/win.

February

• Lost some weight. Did not feel too deprived while doing so.
• Continued working out.
• Added a new rule to Health Month — make an effort to get more quality alone time. I’m terrible about taking time for myself.

March

• Lost more weight. Was warned I was losing too fast, so I started keeping closer track of Activity points, and eating them. I like eating.
• Bought a food scale to more accurately measure portions.
• 45-minute Just Dance workouts no longer made me want to die.

Now

• I’ve lost 30 pounds since mid-January, over 35 total from after Gwen was born.
• Fashion bonus: My jeans fit comfortably again.
• Started Couch-to-5K. Just Dance is now easy, I need a physical challenge. It’s pretty hard to imagine me, jogging, but I’m sure stranger things have happened. I just can’t think of what…

Next 3 Months

• I’d like to be able to jog a mile in less than 12 minutes, fairly comfortably, without needing to walk.
• I need to set a new goal weight. I hope to lose between 12 & 24 pounds by the end of June.
• Keep on keepin’ on.

Ellie: “Gwen! Don’t shake your brains! Your seat buckle will come undone and you’ll fall out of your chair and bang your head on the floor! Then the oven door will fall open and you’ll fly into the oven and get all fried up! You don’t want to get all fried up, do you, Gwen?”

More of this deliciousness in 2013

This year started out a bit rough, but ultimately turned into one of the best yet.

Some of my favorite things:

• Watching my kids grow. Gwen is running away from babyhood so fast we can barely keep up, and Ellie has grown six inches in the two days it took me to write this. Even more exciting is watching their relationship unfold. Two kids definitely present more challenges, but seeing them play and laugh together makes it all worthwhile.
• My new job. I felt a little weird leaving the university after so many years, but it was definitely time for a change, and I’ve found a second home at Automattic. It’s humbling, exciting, and some days I even think I kick ass a little (others, not so much, but you can’t win ‘em all).
• I’ve visited more new places in the last six months than I have in my entire life. Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego, Winnipeg, plus our family trip to New York… and there will be more in the coming months. As hard as it is to leave my family, travel is one of my favorite things.
• Creatively, I’ve felt inspired and happy with the work I’ve produced, both in quantity and quality. Most of it was WordPress themes, but there’s been some illustration, too. I always feel happiest when I’m making things, no matter the medium. More of that in 2013, please!
• It probably qualifies as one of my healthiest years to date, with particular focus on improving on and creating good habits. I floss daily, exercise frequently, and take my vitamins!
• Celebrating five years of marriage, twelve years of general together-ness, and four years of parenthood with this fella.
• I discovered the wonder and light that is coffee! This tweet pretty much sums it up.

Some challenges:

• With a lot of new changes (even good ones!) comes stress, which for me translates to anxiety and minor dysphoria. Some of this is seasonal, though, and will probably pass by spring.
• I’m still not where I want to be, health-wise, despite my progress. Not sure where to go from here, but I’m learning that the result is the process. More doing, less thinking about the doing. I’m starting up Health Month again in January, we’ll see where it leads.
• Balancing work life and family life is more difficult without clear boundaries between office and home. We’ve made a few changes to cope with that — hiring someone to help clean the house every couple weeks (she’s a lifesaver!), instituting a no-work policy in the evening hours so we can focus on the kids — but I still feel like my attention is in a constant tug-of-war, which creates feelings of guilt on both sides. I can’t be everything to everyone, and I have to learn to accept good enough.

Some favorite photos:

So, what’s next in 2013? I’ve never been much for setting big goals — I don’t fare well under that pressure. But the new year has a number of things in store for us, and given last year’s challenges, I have a general idea of what I’d like to do differently.

• We’re moving back to northern Maine, in an effort to stay closer to family, save money for travel, and get away from the “city.” This is a biggie, and I’ve been meaning to write about it more, but you know, *insert excuse here*
• I’d like to take more time for books. I miss reading, and the kids are getting better at entertaining themselves (!) so I think I might be able to pick up the occasional book this year. I have a stack of stuff from Swaptree on the shelf of my bed’s headboard, plus a bunch of ebooks on my iPhone.
• In an effort to balance myself and my life, I need to be better about living in the present, not trying to live in the future.
• I’d love to start taking photos again, maybe?
• In less than a month I’ll celebrate my 30th birthday. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about the big three-oh, but I think it’s going to be positive.

Happy new year, all!

All but three months of Gwen’s first year were stored not in an album or keepsake box, but on Flickr and Instagram. I thought about this a few weeks ago — I haven’t printed a single snapshot since Gwen was three months old. And I thought about how strange and uncomfortable that felt. Ellie has a thick baby album full of 4×6′s, Gwen has… an Instagram account.

I love digital photography, but there’s something satisfying about holding a photograph in my hands, the tactile richness of a stack of freshly-printed images, the thrill of receiving a new packet of photos in the mail. So I decided to do something about it! I went back through my archives, beginning with this photo, taken last Christmas when I first got my iPhone:

And the latest photo of my little mischief-maker:

… and everything in between, which, when I sorted through it all, came out to about 300 photos.

That was almost enough to make me throw up my hands and add a few dollars to Gwen’s therapy jar (I have a few years to come up with an excuse as to why her sister has an album and she doesn’t, anyway) but after some research, I settled on PostalPix, which lets you order prints (and other products) directly from your iPhone. A few weeks later, I have a handful of envelopes full of beautiful prints, and I’ve assuaged my guilt (at least temporarily — I still haven’t worked up the ambition to put them in an album). Plus, new photos never have to touch my computer — I take them on the phone and have prints in my cart with just a few clicks. So easy.

My only complaint is you can only print in batches of 40 (when I started this process it was 60) so having a large backlog of photos meant I had to be methodical about what I’d already printed and what I hadn’t. Now that I’m caught up it’s better, but it would be much easier to purchase unlimited prints in one go. All the more reason to keep my standard printing company (iPrintFromHome — have to plug them because I love them) for large orders, and use PostalPix for snapshots.

Another iPhoneography-related service I tried recently was StickyGram, which turns your Instagram photos into magnets (I’m kind of a magnet addict). Sure, I could just use an ordinary magnet to stick my kid’s photo to the fridge, but what would be the fun in that? Photo magnets up the cute-factor. While I won’t be using StickyGram as often, it has nothing to do with their quality or service — it’s just my bank account might get mad at me, and my fridge can only hold so many magnets.