One thing I’ve observed, and I think I’ve even written about it already, is that everything I have is now suddenly new! and exciting! for my children. Well, not the oldest, he’s too cool to be excited about anything to do with his old man, but the other two cannot get enough.

I live upstairs, now. This gives endless possibilities – they can climb the stairs two or three steps at a time, or go halfway down and try and jump the rest of the way (concrete, OUCH). They can throw things down to someone below.

“Your refrigerator has an icemaker in it!” OK, please, the one we’ve had at home for years gives you ice and/or water right through the door. But because this fridge has a little icemaker in the freezer it’s new! and exciting!

One thing I certainly didn’t expect is their reaction to my old record collection. A box of records that have been gathering dust in a closet for many years, since we switched to CDs and ultimately to using mp3 players for just about everything. My kids are better at finding songs on youtube than I am. It’s what they know. And yet they are fascinated looking at the albums.

I have a record player and taught the kids how to work it. No, there isn’t a pause button. 😛 Now every visit they want to sort through the albums, pick one, and put it on to listen to it. Of course, the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon is also going at the same time, they are masters of attention deficit multitasking.

Here we dance to the Clash. With backing vocals by Big Time Rush. They are learning something else about living upstairs – if you dance too hard, the record skips.