We are so sad to leave New York. Our family has grown up here and we will bring so many memories and long distance friendships back with us. We are also so excited to be back in Toronto.

So what does the road ahead hold for us? Well, we hope to hit the road from Brooklyn for a night with friends in Columbia County (about three hours north of NYC). Then we head to Stowe, VT for a night at the Trapp Family Lodge (the European style inn of the von Trapp family of The Sound of Music fame). Marley can hardly contain herself as it’s quite possibly her favourite movie. We then head for the ferry across Lake Champlain and look forward to a drive through the Adirondack Mountains on the final stretch toward the 1,000 Islands and continuing past the last American exit to our homeland.

We hope to post photos on our Flickr page as we progress along the route. We look forward to seeing our Toronto friends soon. Most of our NYC good-byes have been made, but we’ll be back for many visits.

Today, the new Yankee Stadium opened to the public for the first time. It looks beautiful. I can only imagine how exciting it must have been for my Grandad to contribute to “baseball’s cathedral”. Maybe we’ll make it to the “palace” before we leave NYC in June.

Yes, we are headed back to Toronto at the end of June!

Marley’s response? “Yes, but I’m the smartiest.”

I’ll be calling Mensa in the morning.

I’ve researched online and called several stores and it appears I covet the one thing in the country that’s not currently on sale. The reasons for not buying the shoes are plenty: We’ve recently bought a car, are gearing up for an expensive move back to Toronto and are renovating our house. We cancelled our winter vacation to save money and are looking at other ways to cut our budget. I currently own several more shoes than the average person and don’t have room to store any more.

However, I can also list several reasons why I MUST buy these boots. In light of my previous post, I may be in need of therapy and retail therapy seems the most enjoyable kind. Since I just gave birth, I’m not planning on buying any other clothes this winter. These boots are made by the oldest shoe company in America and would last a lifetime – a nice, stylish memory of our time here.

If I treated myself, at least my feet would look fabulous as I beg the bank for a second car loan and as I try to cook in my unfinished kitchen.

Let me first paint a picture of my current state of mind. Since Dec. 2, I have not had more than 3 hours’ consecutive sleep. I’m full of postpartum hormones. I spend my days with a 4-year-old who loves to find new power struggles to torture me with every day, a 2-year-old who eats only 7 things and has chosen this week to decide to start walking (yay Nicole!) and a 6-week-old who doesn’t like to be alone. EVER. In the past week, I’ve shut an unbelievably heavy door on my finger, fallen on the subway grate and stubbed my toe more times than I can count. Last night, I spilled a whole glass of water on the bed and all I could think was that if I changed the sheets, it would take away from time I could be sleeping, so I threw down a towel and went back to sleep.

In this current state of mind, I have, on several occasions, been “visited” by this stereotypical woman. Certain times, I can contain her. Other times, she’s much stronger than I and I become a lunatic. What I’ve learned is that a simple breath – a very deep one – can usually keep her at bay.

Let me give you a couple of examples. Dave was away for two consecutive days this week, which left me alone taking care of the girls without the 1 hour nap I usually take when he gets home. I was so tired I could barely see straight. His first night back, after a late meeting, Dave called to say his coworkers were going for a drink and would I mind if he went with them. God bless him for asking and God bless me for taking a breath before responding. The breath allowed me to muster, after a prolonged silence, “I’m really tired” instead of what the stereotypical woman was telling me to say.

The breath also comes in very handy with Marley, who doesn’t like not getting her way. She, too, is a woman, after all. Taking a deep breath before responding to her 100th request for chocolate, for example, gives me the strength to find the answer that will keep excessive whining, crying and tantruming (from both of us) at bay.

Life is too short to be grumpy, and we all need to breathe anyway, so we may as well do it wisely.