Goodbye Old, Hello New!

The move is complete! After renting 35 moving blocks (big plastic totes), not to mention the other totes we already had all stored away in our storage locker, we still didn't have enough boxes. Luckily both my dad and a friend, Jeff lent us their cardboard boxes 'just in case' because we used them all up! After 4 years of living in our place it is quite crazy and ridiculous the amount of stuff we've managed to collect! WOW. I am so glad we hired movers for the day b/c if I took a look at what we had to move, I don't know how long it would've taken us. But with 3 men, 1 huge huge truck and 6 hours later, we were out and all moved in (minus the unpacking of course!).

Not sure if Nora was impressed when I put her in one of the totes... :)

Now it's all a matter of unpacking... which we're getting there, slowly but surely. Every time Nora goes down for a nap, I quickly try to unpack and sort through the stuff. We have a lot more storage / closet space than our old place so I've got a few little projects to tackle soon such as the pantry, walk-in closet and entry closet etc. Sandra was just telling me about the Container Store (a store that just sells containers... stuff to put other stuff in)... so I think I'll have to check it out and make things a little more organized!

Some of the new changes that we're getting used to:

• Moved up from the 5th to the 23rd floor... BIG difference! The views are awesome and just getting used to the height
• Moved from a really quiet apartment (that overlooked the gardens and pond) to a fairly noisy area (can hear way more sirens, motorbikes and general bustling of the city)
• Don't like our parking spot - the old place was way better and roomier. I'll have to get used to parking in a tight spot and then dealing with Nora's car seat and stroller
• Nora's bedroom is way on the other side of our room. She's still in our room (heh heh... her crib hasn't been made up yet and there's a bunch of boxes and stuff in there right now) but when she moves, she'll be so far away from us... just thinking of our middle of the night calls!
• Two balconies! One off our master bedroom and the other off the dining area (much bigger than the old place, so we can sit if we want... but the height, I don't think I will)
• Huge kitchen and pantry - I just LOVE it. I don't even need my sideboard and hutch b/c all the stuff fits in the cupboards... wow.
• Traded Urban Fare (grocery store) for Choices and Starbucks for Blenz - which we actually prefer... love the stuff at Choices and really love the dark chocolate hot chocolate at Blenz!
  

Yesterday Sandra and Aly came by for a visit and it was really cute watching the girls 'play'. I think they're both (well, especially Aly) noticing other babies. So while Nora was sitting in her chair playing with her spider... Aly was standing staring at Nora and getting quite excited. Sometimes she'd catch her hands on Nora's feet and Nora would give little smiles and small kicks. This photo is so cute... I was standing to the side of Aly while she was looking at Nora and so I gave Aly a quick tap on the shoulder and called her name... she then turned her head and noticed the camera... I got this look just before she gave out a big smile for the camera (she loves cameras!)

So there we go... goodbye to our little condo on Marinaside. It was a great find and we just loved living in there for the past 4 exciting years. We got engaged, married and had a baby through all that time! But now onto a new home for Nora and many more exciting and fun memories to make.