Category — Status Updates

As the sun set on our final day in California, we were awash with many different emotions and thoughts.  The radiant reds and oranges were a magnificent good-bye from the West and reminded me of the many beautiful sunsets we were able to enjoy with our beach community.  The plane went out over the Pacific and then banked back toward land, providing a clear view of the illuminated Pacific Wheel at the Santa Monica pier set against the bright lights of LA.  I recalled how we had felt when we touched down there only nine months ago.  We had dreamed about the perfect weather, the beach, surfing, hiking the mountains and the short drive to go snowboarding.  So why are we leaving all of this?  That is the question most people ask with a smirk.  Well, I’m excited about being closer to family and the many friends we have back east, especially those with kids; a career change that will allow me more satisfaction and time to focus on Dan & Reily; and the conveniences of the city that we had missed dearly on many nights.  California does have a lot to offer, but it will still be there on vacations.  So bring on the snow and rain and humid summers, we will make the most of any place…together.

This looks to be the final post from our California home.  We have our individual bags packed, a few boxes with formula and diapers already in transit, and are just sitting patiently waiting for the movers to show up to begin their packing.  (And what has become ‘part of the culture’ – the movers are late and I’m sure that there was ‘traffic;’ a rant that I’ll complete at a later date.)  For now, we have the little guy down for a nap and are just surfing the net before everything gets disconnected.

A myriad of emotions are running through each of us right now but, by and large, the excitement of being back in Chicago, a city we’ve come to love through the separation, is running wild through our bodies.  Reily is oblivious and Belle is suspect – somethings must just come with age!

We’d like to take a quick second and thank all the wonderful people that we met out here – and even those that weren’t so wonderful!  We enjoyed all the time that we had and would love to take a few of you with us but our guess is that you wouldn’t be able to survive the first time you felt the wind circle back off the lake – its nothing like a gentle ocean breeze!  And as expected, over the past few days, moments…moments…brief moments of doubt crept into our heads; wondering if this was the right decision.  And that seems to last only as long a few breaths when we both long for our urban home.

We’ll be taking back a number of ‘lessons learned’ and allowing this experience to really enrich our lives.  Many of which are geared towards simplifying our lives – and maybe it has more to do with the speed at which Reily seems to grow up.  Regardless of the origin, we are looking to drastically simplify our day-to-day life and embrace each moment for what it has to offer.

And the clock continues to tick….33 hours 26 minutes 19 seconds to wheels up…but its LA and nothing seems to leave on time!  But we’ll make it there eventually – with a pen in hand to begin writing the next chapter of our life.  33 hours 25 minutes…

-The California Stummer Family signing off…

We can now ‘officially’ release our news – we are moving back to Chicago!  There are many details to coodinate and all of them will be dealt with accordingly but for the moment, we are embracing our decision to move back.  Christine and I have thoroughly enjoyed our time out here in California.  And as a couple, it has been wonderful and brought us closer together.  But as a family, we need more than just the constant sunshine!

We’ve experienced more in the past 9 months than in the previous 9 years of our relationship (how about that for a thought – 9 years together!  But I do still own baseball hats that are older than our relationship; just throwing that out there.).  We pushed each other to move beyond our comfort zones, to experience new cultures, and to make new friends.  We hiked, bought in bulk, and learned the importance of having a dream and not letting anyone stand in your way of achieving it.  We bought gas north of $5/gallon, experienced a new definition of highway congestion, and traveled the PCH to San Fran leading to some of the most breath-taking views we’ll ever see.  We stretched and breathed our way into being small business owners; expanding our appreciation for a more peaceful and harmonious existance with the world that we are apart of.  We ate and drank with actors, expanded our definition of liberal politics, and learned that sometimes even government can’t print enough money to pay its bills.  We surfed with the dolphins, experienced the instability of the ground below our feet, and the smell of campfires as the annual ‘fire season’ engulfed the surrounding areas.  We ate too little and drank too much at parties, walked countless miles hand-in-hand along the beach gawking as the sun slowly fell off the page, and finally remembered to carry our camera at all times to document what can’t be captured in words alone.  And all of these experiences are a mere drop in the proverbial bucket when we were blessed with becoming parents!

They say everything changes when you have a child.  And while this is true, and words can’t really express this to people who have yet to experience it, its not nearly as monumental as being a father (or mother)! Nothing.  Nothing will prepare you for the shift that you will immediately make the moment your recognize that it is no longer about you.  When it happens is completely up to the individual but, for me, it happened the very second that I held his hand.  Only moments into this world and he had already moved mountains as he plugged a void that I hadn’t even recognized that I had.  He’s reminded me that life is about living and embracing the details – and to do so with passion and commitment.  That failure is a state, the same as success – both of which are always temporary.  That laughing can cure any ailment and is best shared with someone else.  And that you can never hug someone you love too much.

We don’t know where this next stage of our journey will take us but we know that this decision is what feels right.  We traveled 2000 miles in search of something and we found him.  Rather, he found us and allowed us the opportunity to find ourselves.  Now we are going to bring him back to be with a city we love and spent 7 years calling home.

No one said life was easy – nor should it be!  But we are going back to the start – to rebuild.  Utilizing the lessons that we have learned and having faith in ourselves and each other that we are capable of so much more.  To have the strength to follow our heart and trust in our decisions.  To remember that decisions are as permanent as we want them to be.  And to recognize that the situation that we are in is a direct result of the actions that we took.  This experience has been the best decision that we have ever made and we are eternally grateful for having the courage to have lived it.

Stay tuned for all the details!

As we usher in a new year, it seems as though a healthy dose of ‘change’ is running afoot. From a macro-level, we are about to see history made with the swearing in of the ‘Buddy Christ’ President and the ‘America Wow’ campaign. (Reference Check – Dogma) And while that may be impressive and certainly deserves the media’s attention, its most important to remember that words have meaning and, when it comes to leadership (also read as ‘parenting’), are not meant merely to be structured poetically. All that aside, we are much more focused on the little things.

Things that we could very easily look over as just yet another moment but when evaluated as a collective piece in the ‘History of Reily’ are so much more. Admittedly, it has been some time since our last post. And in that time, we’ve seen him grow so much and want to share a few of those moments with all of you.

• Reily met his baby cousin, Jonah William, who blessed the family with an early arrival – born 3 weeks ahead of schedule but healthy as can be. Jonah and family are doing great and we wish them the best as they too are figuring out all the joys of parenting!
• Reily received the ‘greatest Christmas gift ever’ – The ‘Exersaucer’ which has been renamed in our household to the ‘Neglect-o-Center’. This damn gift from G-ma and Poohbah came in about 500 different pieces complete with springs and million tiny screws that needed to go into locations that Reily’s hand couldn’t even fit in. After a long battle, I was finally victorious and Reily was able to really get this thing going.
• Our New Year’s was incredibly uneventful; which seems to be a reoccurring theme that we are actually welcoming as of late! We hung out as a family, watching movies, and anxiously awaited for the ball in New York to drop. When the magical moment was quickly approaching, we flipped the channel only to be flabbergasted that the west coast apparently doesn’t televise the event live given that it occurs at 9pm here. In utter disbelief, we quickly scoured the internet to find a web-broadcast of the event. And with 35 seconds until Reily ushered in his first New Year, we realized that we needed to wake him up for the event. So with a drowsy baby and a laptop in hand, we ushered in 2009!
• We did quite a bit of traveling over the past month. The first trip was a long drive from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, NM – an 800 mile drive lasting 15 hours that brought us through a few deserts and even more indian reservations. Those two details are important as it indicates that there is virtually no radio stations and even few opportunities for cellphone reception! So we listened to what was given to us and enjoyed the view nonetheless. The second trip was Reily’s first trip to Chicago. For this one, we flew, another first for Reily – LAX to ORD. The trip was laden with firsts for Reily – first time meeting his Godfather (which Reily screamed every time he picked him up – apparently he’s not a fan of Marquette soccer!), first time seeing snow (and I mean snow – 12 inches in total feel during our brief trip there), first trip to O’Leary’s Public House to meet the old gang, first time riding in a cab, first time riding the ‘L’. Reily proved again to be a fantastic traveler – on the flight, we fed him for the first 15 minutes during take off and the last 15 minutes landing. The rest of the time he slept!
• Reily was also cleared for solid foods by his doctor. And this represented a whole new chapter in his life. So last night was the first experience for Reily with real food – I am not sure how rice cereal is classified as either a solid or real food but it was certainly entertaining nevertheless:

Change – its more than just a word! For us, its constant and we are learning to really embrace it. We can only capture the moments and cherish them for what they are and not for what they aren’t. We are embracing 2009 and back to running with scissors! Hope all is well in your lives and that you can take a few moments out of each day and embrace them for tomorrow it will be different. And if your a parent, you realize how quickly things happen and in flash those moments are gone. So burn them into your memory and share them often! God bless!

We have some other information that we are extremely excited about as well but that will have to wait for another post. Until that time, please enjoy the photos and check back soon as we are starting to get back into a groove which will allow for some more frequent posts and photos to be shared.

Well we survived week one of Christine being at work! It was much more challenging than I had originally anticipated. On the otherside, it was also far more rewarding than I thought it would have been. Not that there were any major moments or milestones but the rewarding was in my own personal growth in learning how to not be in total control. See, I had a schedule every day. And I had tasks planned every day. I had calls to make and emails to send and training to complete. So all of those are scheduled now for this week!

We really did miss having Christine around though. We walked her to the bus and then immediately began the clock waiting for her return. I think that she’ll tell you its pretty tough for us all but we’ll continue to make this work. Much of that will come in cherishing every moment that we have with each other and individually with Reily – its not about quantity but quality!

Looking forward to Christmas though – we one large extended family in New Mexico. We anticipate this to be an exciting week so we’ll continue to keep you all posted. Till then, please enjoy some of the videos that I took from this week!

This first video was on a day when he just wouldn’t go to sleep for me. In a very un-Reily way, all he did was cry and fuss all day…that was until I suggested that he need to take a nap. This was how he responded: And this video is from when I forgot that I just fed him and quickly followed it up with some ‘Tummy Time.’ A total mind-lapse from Dad on this one given that I forgot that he gets a little to excited when he is in this position – all though, his ability to rally after throwing up is a Stummer trait!