20/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013."

eleanor: chasing bubbles in the backyard
felix: 12 weeks old and such a joy

adventurers

for my 30th birthday stijn made me a book of 30 adventures for us to share. a visual travel wish list of foreign countries mixed with a few simple adventures, such as camping in the backyard. a few years have passed and we haven't tackled nearly as much of that list as we had thought we would. the nature of our adventures have changed. we've been busy making babies and renovating a house. 

the last two weeks, as we have been preparing to move, have been filled with compiling to do lists and crossing things off. a friend mentioned that it seems as though we've been doing that since we fell in love. she's right. first we were making lists to prepare for my move to switzerland and then the lists were relative to swiss bureaucracy and our desire to get married. shortly thereafter we were making lists to get a greencard and then a job. only to be followed by lists for another transcontinental move and the purchase of a house. 

throw in a couple kids and you could say that the last few years have been eventful. and here we are in the week before my 33rd birthday and i am realizing that we are still adventurers. this life, this family is my adventure. and i will take making lists and crossing things off as we walk through life together any day over crossing destinations off of that travel wish list. (of course i won't be upset if someday we cross some of those off too) 

19/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013."

eleanor: skinned dirty knees and grass stains
felix: taking in his world

"side" (outside)

this age, eleanor's, is proving to be one of my very favorites. daily she asks me to go "side" (her way of saying outside) and we head into the yard for her to explore. she runs around kicking or throwing her ball, picking up pine cones and sticks, watering her plant, asking me to blow bubbles, and chasing kenya. she runs to every plant, squats down and points, saying, "fower." i love watching her enthusiasm for nature. i have never been into gardening and nearly killed all of my plants last year (who knew i had to water them and my lawn everyday?) but having a toddler who is so interested in them has given me a new appreciation. i walk through the yard and marvel with her at the perennials that managed to survive my neglect and are poking up out of the ground. it was a long winter but this reward was well worth the wait.

the road ahead

the number one driving force that influenced our decision to move our family from switzerland to the u.s. was a desire to be close to family so we began the job search focusing on cincinnati. but as the months wore on, with a move date set and with no job in sight, we began to sweat. and then herman miller showed interest and we knew that the opportunity to work for such an iconic company was one that we couldn't turn down. so we moved to holland, michigan (sight unseen i might add). "at least we were closer to family," we told ourselves. in the last year we completely renovated a 120 year old house, learning all sorts of things along the way, and in the process we have turned our house into a home. we have put roots down, we've met some lovely people and developed a few great relationships. eleanor has developed her own little community and we brought a son into our world here. but in truth something has been missing. we have learned in this last year just how important it is to us to be near family. and friends, soon we will be.

recent circumstances have forced us to look at where we are and where we want to be and we have decided that that is cincinnati. we will be spending the next month getting the house completed and ready to sell and then we will be packing it up and heading to ohio.

it's bittersweet but we feel strongly that this is what is best for our family and we are so grateful for the loving support of our friends and family.

18/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

eleanor: pretending to be asleep after a picnic lunch on the porch and my declaration that it was nap time
felix: playing under his play gym