We reached an odd little milestone on Wednesday: seven months in this house that already feels like home. On the surface it’s just a calendar mark—seven months of unpacking, painting, arranging, and settling in—but it also quietly signaled something bigger. This week Clara has now spent more of her life in this house than she did in our first home.
That fact felt surprisingly poignant. We always knew that our first house would become a hazy memory for her, a background in family photos rather than a place she could describe. Still, the realization lands with a little tug. The first house meant so much to Sherry and me: it was where we renovated and learned together for more than four years, where we hosted our backyard wedding, where we experimented with countless DIY projects and discovered what we loved, and the place we brought Clara home from the hospital. It was the launchpad for this blog, too—a hub of creativity and trial and error that shaped so many of our early projects and stories.
Now, having lived here for seven months, that first house is already becoming “the place I lived when I was a baby” in Clara’s timeline—one of those early, unfocused chapters that survive mostly in pictures and family stories. It’s a bittersweet shift. On one hand, it’s exciting that she’s making new memories here; on the other, it’s a gentle reminder of how fast these early years move and how quickly places that once meant everything become a fond, distant backdrop.
We’ve loved watching Clara adjust to this new space. She had just turned seven months when we moved in, and on moving day she spent a lot of time exploring her new room—peering at the windows, tracking light and shadows, and testing new textures with curious hands. The photos from that day capture a tiny person who was both cautious and intrigued, an almost-seven-month-old taking in a lot of change with surprising composure.
Fast-forward to now, and she’s grown so much. In the last seven months she’s become more alert, more expressive, and more mobile. She still has that soft, slow-to-fill-in baby hair, but her personality is filling in fast. It’s amazing to see how a child adapts: the new room became familiar, the new corners became favorite napping spots, and even Burger adapted easily to the new routine and routes around the house. We’re grateful that both Clara and our dog made the transition so smoothly; their comfort helps make this place feel like home quicker than we expected.
It’s also interesting to think about how memories form. Do most of us remember childhood homes vividly, or do we mostly recall them through photos and the stories our parents tell? I was lucky to grow up in the same house throughout my childhood, so many of my own memories feel grounded and continuous. Sherry, by contrast, moved several times and retains only a few distinct impressions from the earliest places she lived—like a drop ceiling in a basement that her brothers and she would “accidentally” break on purpose. Those kinds of quirky details become the hooks on which memory hangs.
For Clara, her memory of our first house will likely be built from snapshots, short video clips, and the anecdotes we tell. That’s okay—photos and stories are powerful. They can keep a place alive in surprising ways long after we’ve moved on. Besides, she got to observe an awful lot of DIY work while she was tiny: paint swatches, sample trim, and the occasional power tool in the background. If that counts as part of her early education, she’s already well on her way to appreciating home projects—whether she remembers them or not.
Update—We just finished Clara’s monthly photo and posted the latest shot. We’ve got a walker now!