We survived. We've been in the house for just over a week and all the boxes that are going to be unpacked have been, all the appliances have been put to the test, the morning walking route is pretty much finalized, and we even have our Virginia driver's licenses. Through it all Jack behaved pretty well for a kid on the verge of 2 - a few meltdowns, lots of "no's", and a few new words like box and house. Of course we did have a secret weapon - Mamie. Dan's mom came out on the 2nd of July and immediately threw herself on the Jack grenade. The movers arrived on the 1st and as they unloaded I put Jack's room and loft in order. When Mamie got here the next day she and Jack were able to play upstairs while Dan and I unpacked boxes and arranged furniture downstairs. It was so nice to hear the sounds of the Monkey and his Mamie upstairs - little laughs, long unintelligible conversations, books being read and toys being played with - while we worked. It seemed to make the work go faster, or at least be slightly more pleasant. Of course we couldn't help but feel like we were taking advantage some of the time, especially when we snuck out to run errands while Mamie and Jack were both napping. We left a note of course, but it still felt naughty. It was also nice to have an excuse to take a break and get to see some of the town. On Sunday morning we went down to Colonial Williamsburg (CW) with Otis in tow and walked through the streets. It was a cool misty morning so it was relatively quite and we had the place mostly to ourselves as we wandered. I bought some herbs for the patio from a colonial vendor - I was assured that the colonists had basil, thyme and chives, even cayenne pepper was grown then - then we got some delicious sandwiches for lunch and headed home. We were all rather sad to see Mamie leave, Jack especially. Thanks to her help the house is actually livable - in fact with the toys strewn about you might even think we had been here much longer than a week!
