Packing for our lives

For those who have never seen the house (16 acres, like living in a park!)...

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What a hectic time. Let's just say from the get-go, Amelia is doing great! Her site is healing really nicely. Her eyes are getting straighter as the swelling is going down. We took her to the ENT and she passed her hearing exams with flying colors! And happily, Amelia is breathing out of her nose a lot more now and sleeping much more comfortably these days.

The biggest challenge recently, for us, is getting our house upstate packed up for our new tenants moving in on July 1st. We have 20 years of Nestor's stuff to pack up, 10 years worth of my stuff -- not to mention the stuff that belonged to the woman who sold Nestor the house -- WITH EVERYTHING IN IT! So now I'm sifting thru a lot of her leftover stuff which is sooooo cool. The house is from the 50's and the couple who lived there built it as their summer home. They traveled the world and brought back lots and lots of stuff. Not sure if anything is worth anything, but it's so cute and kitschy -- I just can't part with much of it. There are sheets from the 50's and 60's still in their wrapping along with dish towel sets, aprons, oven mits, dishes (china and depression glass sets) and table cloths from that era. The colors and patterns are outrageous. I just love it all. So we're packing it up with the rest of the junk we have.

We didn't get nearly the amount of packing done this weekend as I had hoped to, but we have family and friends coming up next weekend to pitch in and help get our POD packed up. I did, however, weed through lots of stuff and throw out a ton of stuff. It's just a never ending pit!!!!! Nestor keeps assuring me that it will all get done...I'm not so sure I'm buying it.

We've also been cleaning house here in the apt to fit the stuff we're bringing from upstate into our tiny apt. It's so hard for us girls to get rid things because, unlike the boys, we need our fat clothes! I wear a size 6 right now...but I might get fat again one day and I'm gonna need that awesome size 10 dress. You know what I'm talking about!!! So frustrating. We have a Housing Works literally, downstairs from us and Nestor can't get my reject piles out of here fast enough -- so I don't change my mind!

Nestor is going back to Miami on the 22nd to finish a movie he worked on earlier in the month. He was supposed to go to Costa Rica from there to work on another project, but thankfully it looks like that was pushed to August, so we can get back up to the house when he comes home on the 26th for another few days to finish up the last of the packing.

Amelia finishes school on the 24th for a couple of weeks and then summer session starts on July 6th until mid August.

And me? Well, I'm just trying not to loose my mind in all of this and keep on the treadmill for my 7 miles a day. Oh and we drink wine...or rum...or...

Back to school baby -- oh yeah!

So Tuesday was Amelia's first day back at school. We drove her as I was too afraid to put her on the bus. The woman on the bus who handles the kids is lovely -- but it's such a hectic couple of seconds as you pass off your non-ambulatory child to this hefty woman who puts them into their car seats, before the bus driver closes his STOP sign to oncoming traffic and I scurry across the street to catch a glimpse of my girl in the window, who laughs at me as I make a fool of myself on the street waving goodbye to her and blowing kisses. But Tuesday we drove her. She did so well that we decided to send Amelia on the bus on Wednesday. I told the bus driver and woman who places the children in their seats that Amelia had surgery on her belly and has stitches there -- and I could see she really placed her gently. THANK GOODNESS! So that's back to normal -- sort of.

Amelia has a new nurse at school, Luiza. She is a sturdy Russian woman who is very sweet, but clearly overwhelmed by the crazy school schedule. Amelia needs a lot of care and Luiza has another little boy who she needs to tend to here and there. But she seems to be getting the hang of it -- as reported to me today. I was afraid she wasn't going to last the week. I'm not sure how Amelia has taken to her, it's hard for me to tell because whenever I see the two of them, Luiza is talking to me about "how hard today" was. On the other hand, she must be bonding with Amelia in some way because Amelia doesn't cry when she sees her -- crying is usually the first sign to me that whoever it is taking care of Amelia isn't making the grade. So we'll just have to see about this one.

All in all, I know Amelia is so happy to be back at school with all her friends. They were so happy to see her too. Amelia's teacher, Patty sends updates daily in her "communication book" (it's a composition book). Yesterday Amelia came home with glitter everywhere...I mean EVERYWHERE! Her diapers were sparkly!!!! So fun!!! Her therapists report that she's doing really well too. I know she's seeing and hearing better and it's really something to see how remarkable her eye contact is since the strabismus surgery. Amazing! She responds more vocally and is into everything. Lots of playing with two hands and incredible sitting up. Amelia's belly is still sore. Her norm is to lie on the playmat on her belly -- can't do that -- so she's sitting up so incredibly, for an hour or so, just playing with her toys. We're also noticing a lot more mouth breathing and she's much quieter than she was.

Next week we go for our follow up appts and to get the stitches out of her site. That should make her more comfortable.

Also, we rented out our house upstate so we're in the process of emptying out 20 years of stuff. Sooooo much stuff. An overwhelming task to say the least. Gotta be out by July 1st. OY! Well, wish us luck -- we're gonna need it.