Mark it: August 11th, 2018 is the day he first rode a bicycle.

If this can’t get me to make sure an update happened, I might as well give up on this blog. While I was inside with Papaya for a nap, Mama was out taking off Nashi’s training wheels. Evidently he was off and riding within a few tries! Granted, he’s spent over a year on training wheels and has lots of experience with his scooter as well, but I expected it to still be a tougher jump to going two wheels on a pedaled bike. I’m a proud Papa.

Papaya is now having thoughts of when it’ll be her turn:

It’s late at night and this is now the only actual time I have to blog. I had always relied on my solo time at a coffee shop to update this thing, and looks like the last time I had that was in May. We moved into our new house in the beginning of July and all free time has been spent on house stuff. There’s still tons of “little” things but we’ve made good progress over the past six weeks.

The big stuff:

Nashi starts Kindergarten in less than a month and I’m half freaking out and half in denial – a seemingly impossible combo. Papaya starts preschool at just about the same time and I’m less concerned about this transition but more emotional. We will have spent two years together. At one year, I was ready for a change. That didn’t happen. At two years, I’m not sure she and I are ever supposed to part. She’s only known the constant companionship of her Papa and probably thinks we’re just always going to be a pair. I’ve loved being with her too – the first year was like taking care of a baby, but the second year was like spending time with my little kid. Maybe especially because of all the talking she’s done at such an early age, it really has felt like constant interaction with her.

But now we have a much bigger mortgage and it’s time to work towards getting back to work. The new house is amazing and worth the cost and hassle, both for the house itself but even more so for the improved location. The significantly quieter street combined with many neighboring kids has resulted in a night-and-day change immediately after moving in. Our kids now have the experience of constant random playtime with the other kids that almost never happened before. It’s also much safer and more peaceful to be off the main road.

I hope to make more time to document the glorious minutiae of kiddo development. Until then, here’s some photos: