Also, as a warning, I’m likely going to shut down this blog soon.  I figure I have a pretty limited readership at this point and most of you I can connect to via Facebook or other means.

• Yes, my house is now worth less then I owe on my mortgage, but that won’t really matter for a few more years until we try to move into a new school district in anticipation of kindergarden;
• Yes, my husband would like a new job, but can’t really risk leaving the relative security of a University job which still has a good (relatively) health insurance plan, and still double matches his retirement savings, but (as bad as this sounds) I don’t go to work with him everyday so while I sympathize, it doesn’t affect me everyday the way it affects him and were so busy otherwise we don’t harp on it;
• Yes, our retirement/college investment accounts are down, way down, but again this doesn’t really matter for another 17 years;
• Yes I’ve heard of a few friends of friends who have lost their jobs, but again this is a bit in the abstract not having met these people;
• Yes I have a family member who thought she would lose her job and another in the auto industry, but to date (knocking on wood) they are still working;

The reality is I don’t feel the recession in my day to day life.  In fact, we have been on a bit of a spending spree - new carpet, a vacation, planning for a new bathroom….

So why am I writing this post?  Because today the recession hit a little closer to home?  I posted some baby toys for sale on Craigslist and I got a response from a woman asking me to sell them to her at a reduced price, because she has 4 children and is now layed off.  I just met the woman and her husband, when they picked up the toys, which I sold to them at a discount, and the recession has now hit home!

(Addie) - i,,m,m

Friday night Grammie slept over on an air mattress in Addie’s room, while Mommy and Daddy got to have adult time - woohoo!  Addie thought the sleep over was pretty cool!

Sunday, Addie had a playdate with a little girl who is 2 1/2, the daughter of one of our friends from hockey.  It was the first time the girls had met and they had a great time playing at the children’s museum.

Before I put Addie to bed last night I reminded her that today was a school day (she goes to daycare twice a week) and she would get to play with her friends - she proceeded to insist that Ellie (her playdate buddy) was going to be at school with her.  I explained that that was not the case and inquired if she wanted to have playdates with her friends from school.  She then proceeded to give the playdate thumbs up or down to each of her classmates.  Now, I have to go make nice with the selected kid’s mommies and set up playdates for my little social butterfly!

I have new pictures, just haven’t posted them yet - I promise I’ll do it this week…

Check out our recent activity in photos on our shutterfly site and check out some funny Addie movies here and here.

See here for more details.

To celebrate, we’ve launched our own scientific experiment testing whether our 19 month old can successfully master the toddler bed.  So far we have one night under our belt in which she 1) did not end up on the floor or 2) end up stumbling around the house.  Let’s hope it is more than beginners’ luck and we have equal success tonight and beyond.

I took some photos of the crib to toddler bed conversion process and will post them on shutterfly some time soon (i.e. in the next week or so).

Also, to celebrate the kick off to the year of Science (being held in Boston tomorrow), we are headed down to the New England Aquarium.  Addie is most excited to ride the Coo - Coo Tain (the subway) and show Curious George (the stuffed animal) the penguins (she has the book “Curious George at the Aquarium”).  Now if only we had a yellow seer-sucker suit and broad brimmed hat for Daddy to wear….